The time has come. I must write about all of the fabulous details that made our big day so incredibly "us". Why this sudden urge? Because a very good thing happened a few days ago...we received our wedding pictures. Eeeeeeeek!!!!! I was (and still am!) floating on cloud nine. Our photographer, Amber Raeder Photography, captured our love and funky vintage-inspired DIY wedding perfectly. So, where to start? Because I'm so proud of it, I'm going to go with my bouquet. My antique brooch and earring bouquet, accented with hot pink and black wood roses to be specific. It was a labor of love, an occasional pain in the neck and above all, the most asked-about item related to our day. And not always asked about in a good way. I received some strange looks, rather sarcastic-sounding "Ohhh, that's nice." and several, "so what is that anyway?"'s along my path to The Perfect Bouquet. And of course, there were a lot of truly interested, supportive people that encouraged my quest to sparkly, shiny, funky gorgeous-ness. To start with, I had to find a lot of vintage and vintage-inspired broochs and earrings. Insert my mom, grandma, great-grandma, grandpa, aunt and a few cousins. They searched along with me and even gave me pieces from their collections. It gave my bouquet so much more meaning to look at it and think of all of the people that gave me a little something to hold as I strolled down the aisle. So, after I had all of these lovely things in my possession I had to figure out exactly how I was going to do this. I consulted several websites and finally caved and decided that I was going to do it my own way. I managed to give everything a "stem" that held up, so I called it a win. The next problem was what to put with something so funky that didn't involve fresh flowers. I wanted a keepsake, not something that would fall to pieces during post-ceremony pictures. While I used faux flowers for everything else I needed, I knew I had to find something a little different to go with my new love child. And that's when I found them. Or rather, my mom, Bill and I found them. At a small, practically unheard of little festival called Onion Days we stumbled upon hand-made and painted wood roses. They were perfect. Simple, small, and above all, off-beat. They fit so well with my jewelry heap-turned-bouquet that I almost forgot the final detail. How on Earth was I going to make all of these heavy things hold together and look amazing?! Answer: 3 trips to Hobby Lobby and 3 different bouquet holders later, I found a simple round model that did the trick. Add in black tulle and a pearl wrap and my sparkly piece of artwork was complete. To give it just a little more jazz I found two simple, flat silver rings that said "soulmate" and "one love, one life" to dangle from the front along with my mom's cameo ring (my something borrowed!). I was like a kid in a candy store once it was completed. I now have it displayed in our house, in all of it's glory, to bring back fond memories and add some glam to our living room. I smile every time I glance at it. And my bouquet leads me into my bridesmaids bouquets.... Now, I should mention, from the beginning I knew that I did not want my bridesmaids to carry fresh flowers. Or bouquets. I wanted something fun. Something easy to carry that didn't have to be held directly below the navel and that wouldn't require my lovely ladies to stand straight and hold them in place with two hands rather uncomfortably throughout our ceremony. This is when I found pomanders. Or kissing balls. Whatever. They were something I could envision dangling from the wrist, lightweight and pretty. And so I dove headfirst into another DIY project. Although since all of my projects were going on at the same time it should be more like, "stuck my arm out while diving headfirst into several things and grabbed the materials for this idea..." I tried several different examples and countless varieties of flowers before deciding what I liked. Simple ivory roses for the bridesmaids, plum roses for the junior bridesmaids and huge, pink flowers that I still don't know the name of for our "groom's girl". I wrapped the roses in tulle and loved the look. It took a few tries, but in the end I had pomanders that looked great, held together and added to our abnormal wedding. Which leads me to the next "normal wedding thing" that we nixed. Boutonnieres. I don't care for them, and neither did Bill. So we used pocket handkerchiefs that matched the groomsman's pink ties. With the exception of my "bride's boy". I wanted him to stand out against the groomsman. So we started with his tux (pink vest, black tie while the groomsman wore black vests and pink ties) and then decided to give him a little floral flair. He had a fresh floral boutonniere made up of hot pink sweetheart roses. And it worked well, in my opinion. The mother's also had fresh floral pieces, in the form of wrist corsages that coordinated with all of the flowers. In the end, we stuck to what we wanted, we kept traditions but ditched traditional.
Which leads me to our venue and officiant. We were married in beautiful, cathedral-style church reminiscent of an 1800's English church. There was stained glass everywhere, tall arched ceilings, stone pillars and a massive organ. It was amazing. And as an added bonus, it was the church that my father-in-law and mother-in-law were married in, the sanctuary that Bill's grandmother attended worship at, and a place Bill can remember attending as a child. Stunning and family-history? Right up our alley. We booked the church immediately upon finding out it was available. Next on the list of important things is the person who would be uniting us in front of our family and friends. This is where things got tricky. Not for us, but for our guests who may have been slightly confused. We didn't want a long religious ceremony. We wanted a blessing and wedding. So, we hired a judge. And my father said a prayer (even asking for a grandson at one point...oh, dad.). It was the combination we were looking for. We lit a unity candle and my new sister-in-law read a story for us. Not a verse, not a poem, not even the lyrics from a love song. A story. A children's story. A not-so-famous book. "A Lovely Love Story" by Edward Monkton. It's a great read, if you like dinosaurs that talk about their love of shopping and their peculiarity. It's quirky and has a deeper meaning to it than it may seem. It suited us so well, there was no discussion. That was the story we wanted read as we pledged our love and faith. And that was the story our guests heard. Add in the Beatle's quotes hidden randomly in the programs and on our cake plates at the reception and you can imagine our love for all things obscure.
And speaking of obscure, I've got to talk music. Our soundtrack was all Vitamin String Quartet, with the exception of what we left the church to. Guests were greeted with their renditions of "I'm Yours" (Jason Mraz), "Hey Jude" (The Beatles) "Let's Fall in Love" (Nat King Cole) and "Wonderful Tonight" (Eric Clapton) and I entered to "Never Think" (Robert Pattinson). After we were pronounced man and wife, the first few chords of "Here Comes the Sun" began to play. I think there were some shocked faces once the realization hit that we had switched from instrumental music to the full vocal Beatle's track, but hey, it was our song. Complete with Bill twirling me around halfway down the aisle. By the way, if you have lined the aisle with candles and have any type of train, you might want to think about using that move. We didn't have a disaster, but in hindsight, that could have been dangerous. Especially since I had already not taken into account the fact that my dress did not twirl with me as well as planned. I got a little twisted, but managed to continue walking without falling or catching on fire. It was so fun that I probably wouldn't have minded though. Well, I think that's enough for now, but I have plenty more to tell about soon. I may have to stop myself from blogging again right now. I have to get a little sleep....or do I?
