Posts Tagged ‘wedding’

We didn’t assign seats for our reception but, in order to get 200 people through the buffet in some semblance of order, we had to call them up by tables. Instead of the traditional table numbers, we gave each table a song title and instructed them to listen carefully to what the deejay played, because when they heard their song, it was their turn to get dinner.

Everyone had to really be on their toes because the songs weren’t in any particular order, they bounced from one corner of the tents to the middle, to the front, and so on. Some people sang along when they heard “their songs,” but when “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” started playing, nearly everyone joined in!

{Photo copyright Caroline Ghetes Photography.}

The Sunday List is back! Here’s what I’ve discovered in the first week since we’ve had internet access again:

• Whoopie Pies. An entire book devoted to them. And a yummy post at Bakerella (accompanied with pictures, of course) detailing her first batch. Mmmm.
• While we’re talking food, I’ll go ahead and mention Canelle et Vanille, a stunning food blog I stumbled across this week. Former Ritz-Carlton chef Aran Goyoaga is now a stay-at-home mom, but still nurtures her love for cooking. Her recipes look tasty and her photography will make you drool. I think I want to be a food stylist/photographer now, thank you.
• Every Friday, Julia of Hooked on Houses posts about houses from movies and tv. My favorites are Meg Ryan’s dwellings as Annie in “Sleepless in Seattle” and Kathleen Kelly in “You’ve Got Mail,” as well as Barton Cottage in “Sense and Sensibility.” The bad real estate photos are also great entertainment!
• I didn’t just find this dress this week, but I absolutely love it. I bought it at JCPenney just in time to wear to my bridal shower – and then to our rehearsal dinner. (Okay, and I’m wearing it now.)

The photo of the week is from our wedding. Thank you, Caroline!

{Photo copyright Caroline Ghetes Photography.}

The morning of the wedding, I got up early to head to Wal-Mart with a couple of my bridesmaids. We bought whatever flowers we could find that were in the basic color palette I was looking for, then took them by the hotel we were staying at and left them in ice buckets and trashcans in one of our rooms. Then off to another grocery store for the second batch. When we arrived back at the hotel we discovered that all the corsage pins and floral tape had gotten left at the wedding site, so one more Wal-Mart run was in order.

With just over an hour left before our (already late) check-out, we started in on the 11 bouquets, 4 corsages, 2 boutonnieres, and 1 flower girl basket. All the bridesmaids made their own bouquets, and I made my bouquet as well as bouquets for the junior bridesmaid and the flower-girl-who-decided-in-the-midst-of-all-this-that-she-wanted-a-bouquet. The mother of one of my bridesmaids took on the task of making all the corsages and boutonnieres.

{My bouquet}{Photo copyright Caroline Ghetes Photography.}

We had a grand time working together, 13 of us all smashed into one hotel room, working around and with each other. The bouquets were finished in time for checkout, but we still hadn’t cleaned up the terrible mess we’d made.

My mom called down to the front desk and asked if we could get just another half an hour – and if we could purchase one ice bucket and one trashcan. They gave us the extra 30 minutes and probably wondered what our living room decor must look like if we wanted a hotel trashcan. But sell them to us they did and the flowers made it safely to the wedding venue, fiercely hydrated against the 107-degree weather outside.

Our DIY bouquets really weren’t that difficult, and we were able to keep the cost for all the wedding flowers very low. Our After Breakfast Bouquet-Making Session was probably my favorite part of the wedding prep. I love how each bouquet turned out so differently, and yet still looked like they went together.

{The bridesmaids’ bouquets}{Photo copyright Caroline Ghetes Photography.}

I borrowed my grandma’s pearls for my wedding and Caroline Ghetes captured this beautiful memory of Grandma fastening them around my neck.

{Photo copyright Caroline Ghetes Photography.}

Well, the wedding is over. It seems strange not to be constantly updating the RSVP list, browsing bouquet images online, and scouring thrift stores for dishes and tablecloths. Despite the 107-degree temperature, the wedding was beautiful. Perfect even.

Now the wedding is over and we’ve returned from our honeymoon. We have a stove now, and a refrigerator, though the kitchen cabinets and sink won’t be installed until late September. And, happily, we have internet access as of this weekend. So this little blog can be updated again. And what fabulous timing – our wedding photographer just posted a bunch of our wedding photos! I’ll share them here later this week!

The Sunday List will be returning this weekend and I’ll also start posting featured Etsy shops on Wednesdays beginning next week. Welcome back, internet!

Sadly, we had to make the decision that having the wedding at our new house just wasn’t going to work. Perhaps if were an established home, things would be different but we currently don’t even have a kitchen. The work involved in getting everything ready not just for us to move in, but for us to have a massive wedding, would be far too much for us to get done by the end of July and the stress it would create would be even worse. So it was decided that the wedding would have to be elsewhere and I turned over the logistics of the wedding planning to my parents. I’m now just handling the creative aspects, which is more my cup of tea. We’ve gone from a year-long engagement to having just four weeks left and because so many of our plans were hinged upon the location, we’re pretty much starting from scratch. Thankfully I have very loving and capable parents.

They’re also very generous. We started out with a very small budget, but since my mom has recently started working full time, she’s been able to contribute more. It took me awhile to accept this, as I know how many other things she could be using the money for, but Michael told me that I just needed to “let her love” me. And so the budget has grown. Because of this, Mom and Daddy were able to secure a gorgeous location for the wedding. I declined going with them to look at venues, since I knew that if I still had options I would compare, but that once they chose a place I’d just adjust. They kept my preferences in mind of course, and they ended up reserving one of the locations I originally looked at (several times), but had dismissed because it didn’t fit within our budget. This particular venue is booked solid all the way through next year, but they had the week of our wedding available. God is so amazing!

So now we’re in wedding overdrive. All those things that couldn’t be done before, because so much rested on the location, is finally being started. Invitations are first on the list. We’ll see how quickly I can pull off printing and packaging 125 invitations – from scratch. I know, I’m crazy.

Needless to say, the last week or so has been incredibly busy. I’ve hardly had a chance to check my e-mail, much less blog. Posting may be light over the next month, but I’ll update as I can.

In all of this planning and changing, I’ve continued to tell myself that even if nothing wedding-related happens as I had hoped, at the end of the day I’ll still be marrying my best friend and, hopefully, God will have been glorified. Your prayers are, as always, much appreciated.

Engagement photos are all starting to look the same. They’re beautiful, but they so often lack originality. Bride-to-be sees a shoot she likes on a wedding blog and asks her photographer for the same look. Her photos go up and someone else sees them and the process is repeated. One vintage shoot after the next finds its place of glory in the wedding world and then . . . POP! Suddenly something comes out of the blue that is so different and so amazing, that everyone sits up and takes notice.

This engagement shoot is that POP!

{photos copyright You Can’t Be Serious}

Aren’t they stunning! And it looks like sooo much fun! If you love these pictures as much as I do, be sure to “pop” on over to Hailey’s blog and let her know.