Since today is R and my 2nd wedding anniversary, I feel it is fitting that I (finally!) blog about our actual wedding day! Happy Anniversary, honey, I love you bunches! xoxo
I honestly don’t know why I haven’t posted this – possibly because the number of photos involved is a little intimidating. I have some scattered throughout the post but the bulk of them are in a slideshow at the end. I hope you enjoy them – I love looking at our wedding photos, which means Carole and my uncle did an awesome job!
Now, on to the wedding recap!
The last time we visited the Bride and Groom, they were rehearsing and bowling – and a fun time was had by all!
The morning of October 10 dawned clear and bright. It was the perfect day for an outdoor wedding (thank goodness since my alternate plan was this: I told guests to bring an umbrella.)
We had a beautiful venue -one of the prettiest spots in our town. Under an Elm tree that managed to survive the Dutch Elm Disease that killed 90% of the Elm trees in our county. I couldn’t wait to get everything started! Since I had no wedding planner (I did have awesome minions!) I had the whole day planned out in a spreadsheet – it was 9 pages and color coded. This is the Spreadsheet That Will Live in Infamy. I had two good friends who were ‘Head Minions’ (and many ‘Lesser Minions’) and I put my trust in them that day – and they pulled through with flying colors. I can think of only a few glitches and none of them were due to the Minions!
My bridesmaids began showing up mid-morning so we could go to our nail appointments together – and I kept hoping my curls wouldn’t decide that day would be ‘frizzy day’. After nail appointments, we all went back to my house so my friend, Brett (She Who Tames The Curls) could do everyone’s hair – and try to pin the Epic (and Gorgeous) shawl (knit by Our Cookie and also known as The Reason I Owe Cookie A Kidney) to my head in a flattering manner. She’s not a knitter and was VERY intimidated and terrified that she was going to ruin the knitting but she did a wonderful job!
After we were all ready, it was time for me to go meet R for our ‘first look’ and photos with Carole – one of the highlights of the day was the ride with Carole and Dale to go meet my soon-to-be-husband. Carole and Dale are wonderful friends and I was very happy that they were there to share our moment (they’re also very good at keeping a nervous bride calm – especially when the groom is 30 minutes late. Clearly, he did not read the spreadsheet!)
Once all the ‘just us’ photos were done, it was time for friends and family photos – we didn’t want all the guests to have to wait after the ceremony for all the photo nonsense so we did it prior to the ceremony. Plus, the ceremony was due to finish at sunset-ish which would have made group shots, etc. very challenging!
Once we were done taking ALL THE PHOTOS, it was time for me to hide in my little tent while the guests arrived and were seated (and given ‘Yay’ flags – we were married in a hay field so we couldn’t do confetti or anything that would be left behind for the cows to ingest so my fix for the situation was little flags that everyone could wave). Then, it was time!
R waited…
The neighbors waited…(they had been promised fireworks)
Everyone walked…
(that shawl ^^ was knit by Carole – also known as The Reason I Owe Carole My Other Kidney. I wanted the ‘maids to have shawls but the MOH isn’t a knitter so Carole stepped in and saved the day)
I walked…
We got married!
YAY! ;o)
If you noticed the tartans, you might be wondering why I’m wearing one and then a different one. My family is descended from the Stewart clan of Scotland and R’s maternal family is from Ireland (I know, it’s amazing we get along so well lol). Since Irish clan affiliation is passed on the maternal side, I was very happy to be able to include the ‘Pinning of the Tartan’ in our ceremony (scroll down to ‘Pinning of the Tartan‘ to read about this custom). So, right after Dave declared us husband and wife but before the kissing started, R’s dad came up and swapped my tartan for the American Irish tartan. It was a very touching portion of the ceremony – though I did fear that there may be bloodletting during the pinning part…
After the ceremony was over and the hay bales were put back into the barn, it was time to party!
It was an awesome party, if I do say so myself. Good food, good friends, a wonderful man – everything a girl could ask for on her wedding day!
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was helpful in making our wedding the wonderful day it was – I can’t list everyone individually because this post is long enough already, but you guys know who you are ;o)
Our wedding was DIY from start to finish – the only thing we didn’t do was the food. An old friend (a member of my Confirmation Class from church!) who is now the head baker for a local bakery made the cupcakes and the cake, another friend did the meat portion of the menu and two of the restaurants in Egremont – The Old Mill and John Andrews – did the sides and salad. My dress was a gift – a GIFT! – from Dave’s mom. She did all the altering as a gift, too. The flowers were done by me and about 9 women in my kitchen the Friday before the wedding and the whole setup of the Epic Pom Poms (1,000 pom poms made from 10,000 coffee filters. Yes, really. I even had my sister and her 4 kids working on pom poms in Pennsylvania. EPIC Pom Poms.) the tables, etc. were done by a group of friends and family the day before the wedding while I ran around getting food for them, cupcakes, last minute EVERYTHING. (that guy in the photo up there ^^ his name is Jody and he is married to my friend, Wendy aka Head Minion #1. He spent about 12 hours on a ladder making sure the pom poms were hung correctly, and both of them came to my house once a week for six months to help do ALL THE CRAFTING. If I had more kidneys I would promise them to those two)
All the table settings, flowers, etc. were wrangled by the Head Minions and Lesser Minions the day of the wedding and The Best Nephew Ever did all the music and lighting (he works for a DJ company in Long Island, I like to think it was so he could have lots of practice for our big day ;op). The Fire Department made sure we had enough chairs (the Chief said they needed new ones anyway and well, he was kinda right) and let us use the venue. The Chief owns the land where the ceremony was held – and he delivered and the whole FD pitched in and removed all the hay bales we used for seating. Even the rental company contributed – when the owner called to find out where to drop off the dance floor and talked to R, he recognized R from the car club and gave us a (pretty sizeable) discount! (yay for small towns!)
The woman standing next to Jody in the photo up there ^^ is my friend Diane – she knit me a purse for my day so I had something that matched my Wedding Whisper. I wish I had a photo to share!
I know I’m forgetting something. There was so much and it all made the day very special! I seriously cannot thank everyone enough for all their help. :o)
My biggest disappointment? The FD chief wouldn’t let me light the pile the pom poms on fire after we took them down. Something about it being ‘not burning season’ or some crap. ;o)
I leave you with one of my favorite photos of the day:
<3
All the photos (lots more!) can be seen here:
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Don’t forget to click the full screen icon in the bottom right corner of the slideshow to see embiggened photos – and in case the flash isn’t working in your browser, you can follow this link to see the slideshow
Thank you for virtually sharing my wedding day!
