26 February 2013
As we drove up the hill from the beach, we could see our guests transitioning from the cocktail hour area to the reception tent in the Sunken Garden of the O’Neill. As guests approached the tent from the side, they could take a favor, peruse the menu, and/or leave some of their belongings inside the cubbies we had set up, and just inside the tent was a table with our guest book, marriage certificate, and family wedding photos. Let’s take a closer look at all that, shall we? We opted to spend the majority of our “favor money” on a charitable donation to the shelter from which we adopted our beloved kitties. We did set out homemade popper favors filled with Snickers and Starbursts (two of our favorite candies!) as a small token along with a sign explaining our donation. Yes, those are actual watercolor paintings of our cats — we had them made through this Etsy shop a few years ago, and I scanned them for this special card! Since our reception set-up was a little unusual — what I termed a “strolling small plates” reception — I wanted to give guests an idea of what to expect right off the bat. Our oversize menu did the trick. To make it, I purchased an old frame at the flea market for $5, popped the “art” out and wrapped it in a textured silk fabric to match our linens, painted the frame, popped the backing back in and secured it with my staple gun, then added the hand-lettered menu cards and bow. Not sure why it was positioned behind the tent strapping, but oh well :) You’ve already heard a bit about our “Quaker” marriage certificate, but I’m happy to say it worked out great! A quick tip: Definitely plan
21 February 2013
I planned the time between our ceremony and reception very carefully, because I knew we didn’t have much with which to work. First, we sped off as soon as possible from the church. Philip and Tanja rode in the car with us (John driving!), and MacKenzie and Tia followed in their own cars. Second, we took a slight shortcut to our venue while directing guests to the slightly longer route to buy us a little extra time. The goal was for Tanja and Inkspot to have time to record the cocktail hour and reception details in daylight, before they were enjoyed by our guests. While they worked on that, John and I headed down the hill to our pre-selected tree. Our caterer, A Thyme to Cook, assigned us a special friend for the night, Dina, and if we’re being honest, I’m pretty sure that was one of John’s favorite parts of the wedding! He thought it was the coolest thing. Anyway, Dina brought us a picnic basket of goodies and two glasses of something to drink, and we enjoyed the next twenty minutes or so chatting about the day and sampling our cocktail hour snacks. Perfection! It was so fun looking up the hill and watching our guests arrive for cocktail hour, too! By the way, this was their view out to the ocean. Glorious! I could stare at that every day. Our guests were greeted with raspberry lemonade and prosecco with blackberries as they arrived. We offered a limited bar on the porch, and then opened it up to a full bar once under the tent. We paid our bar tab on consumption, and I think this was something that helped us keep our costs down! Aside from passed pigs in a blanket with violet mustard (trying to class
18 February 2013
This is what the Chapel looked like when we pulled up. What a gorgeous, gorgeous sky! I think we arrived around 4pm for our 4:30 ceremony, and there were already guests outside – yikes! I would have liked to arrive a few minutes earlier (per our schedule!), but we were able to sneak in through a side door, so it was okay. While we waited downstairs (everyone together), guests were treated to a few surprises upstairs. Ladies were invited to take a bell to ring at the end of the ceremony… …and gents, a boutonniere to pin on for extra festiveness. I made all of the boutonnieres out of velvet ribbon and hand wrote the tags – DIY instructions coming soon! I designed our two-sided, single sheet ceremony programs in Illustrator and had them printed through UPrinting. We had five helpers at the front of the Chapel — my brother in law, John’s brother in law, our friend, and two of my cousins — and between them, they handed out programs, facilitated the bells and bows, and helped guests to their seats. Soon enough it was time for us to line up. When I was standing next to my Dad in the narthex, I felt the first flip in my stomach. I got another one when the string trio began to play the first song of the processional (more about our music here). After the last bridesmaid had begun her walk down the aisle, the doors to the sanctuary closed, and my Dad and I moved into position. I had specifically asked that the doors not be opened until about fifteen seconds into my song, so that we would hit the top of the aisle at the right point in the music. My emotions started to build, and I couldn’t
14 February 2013
As we rounded the corner to the straightaway to the house, we could see the gents milling about on the lawn. Butterflies! They gathered in the back as we pulled into the driveway. (Since some of y’all were wondering in the comments on my last post, Tanja did not spend any time with the guys while they got ready — John’s preference and time/distance constraints — so she headed over to the house early to do portraits with them while the girls finished up makeup!) Handsome man! Apparently Seth was crucial for both bow tie tying and boutonniere pinning. All are best friends from high school or earlier — our friends are a truly marvelous blessing! Love this one – our handsome dads! A few minutes later MacKenzie came to retrieve me, and I headed around the corner for our first look. I just did a quick search and apparently I never shared my thoughts on first looks on EFM (??), but basically, I strongly dislike contrived situations where people tap each other on the shoulder — just a personal preference. So, I simply rounded the corner of the porch to where John was waiting, both of us grinning like fools. For us, the first look wasn’t the overwhelmingly emotional part of the day that it is for some people — more joyful — but we were glad we did it and it worked well with our timeline. Going through these photos again just makes me appreciate Tanja’s genius even more. She is amazing, y’all! And these are all film – just beautiful. My beautiful sisters. More beautiful sisters! You may recall my struggles with bridesmaid dresses, but everything worked out in the end! We were running a bit behind to head out for the church, but just before we