wedding recap part one
/Chris + I got engaged in Charleston, SC in February of 2007. We were visiting Charleston for our 4yr dating anniversary and he popped the question when we were walking around the gardens at The Inn at Middleton Place, where we stayed. :)
The huuuge 900yr old tree he proposed under.
Hugging my engagement tree, hehe. I was in my first year of grad school and wanted to wait to have the wedding after graduation. So we set the date for 1yr and 4 months later. The time flew!
The finished ring with wedding band before the wedding. Chris picked out the ring all on his own, and I love how unique it is. He got it from an amazing company in San Fran called Brilliant Earth, who specialized in conflict free diamond jewelry. Their rings are amazing!
I’m including a few wedding prep photos because we did so much on our own. For instance, instead of renting a chuppah [traditional jewish wedding canopy], we made one. I’m not sure if this was a good idea or bad, seeing as how long it took :) We made this…oh, about 4 days before the wedding!!
It was a full family effort!
I was designing on the fly….and not very well. Structures was not my strong suite during architecture school, hehe.
We even had spectators…
All finished…now I just had to paint the whole thing white, so you couldn’t see the wood under the fabric. This is one of those projects that turned into….”what did I get myself into???” But in the end it was worth it!!
We also made all of the centerpieces, Friday, before the wedding. My Aunt, Jenna, and bridesmaids all came to help. We ordered the roses [coral + cream] from Fifty Flowers and they arrived 3 days before the wedding. We bought all of the vases and stones and saved a TON of money making them ourselves. All 20 centerpieces took a total of 4 hours, which really wasn’t too bad!
I was a little tired here. The bachelorette party was the night before [Thursday of wedding week]. I got to bed late and SHOT out of bed at 6am too excited to sleep any longer. There was too much to do!
All ready to go! The cream roses with the coral center were for the head table.
Rehearsal time! I made t-shirts for the 4 kids in the wedding party.
I remember getting nervous seeing everyone there realizing it was all for Chris + me!!
My mom + uncle [who married us].
Rehearsal dinner
Chris + I broke the rules and stayed together the night before the wedding. I just couldn’t be apart, hehe. I even saw him that morning when they loaded up the chuppah onto this flat bed!
I don’t think seeing him the morning of the wedding made things any less exciting!
Good thing our wedding was only .5 miles away!
Getting my hair done and trying to eat a bagel. I was getting nervous and couldn’t eat much!
After running around, getting the material draped on the chuppah and delivering everything to StoneWater it was time to make my way into the dressing room. Things were a bit chaotic because we did so much ourselves. There were so many last minute things to remember. Luckily my mom, and a few friends + relatives worked their magic to set everything up perfectly.
My cousin Jenna, was my flower girl.
My Aunt Sherie’s niece, Renee, was my maid of honor. We always say we’re cousins, even though it’s cousins by marriage. She had fun driving me around in the golf cart to take photos. I think it was her first time driving one and she was in heels…it was pretty hysterical!
The weather was pretty iffy that day. It rained a little in the morning and then got really nice out. The forecast however, was not looking promising. We wanted the ceremony to be outside but were going to have to play it by ear as the day went on.
Love this one, bunching up my dress!
Renee LOVED fluffing my dress :)
Loved having the golf course as a backdrop for our photos.
The boyz.
All of the ladies I love the most stood up with my on my wedding day…except for my mom…she was sitting in the front row ;) I had 6 bridesmaids + 2 jr. bridesmaids. I found their dresses at Filene’s basement for about $30!!!! Can’t beat that, right??
Matron + Maid of honor
Too cute :) Chris, with my little cousin Cole.
I bought Chris a handheld Garmin GPS for all of our backpacking and to use on our honeymoon in Ireland. Having a handheld GPS really comes in handy!
I loooooved the dress we found for Jenna.
We said “no gifts” for each other but I knew I was going to get him something. Well, apparently he was thinking the same.
Chris had Renee deliver me a gorgeous and very simple bracelet, that I completely love. He must of known I didn’t have a bracelet to wear that day :)
Don’t let the sunny skies fool you. The weather was about to get cArazy!
Since we were having our ceremony + reception all at one location, we didn’t have the gap in between to take photos. We wanted to be at our cocktail hour too, so we decided to see each other before the ceremony. I went back forth on this decision but after talking to enough people that said it was the best decision they made, we decided to go for it.
It was amazing! I cried on the long walk to where he was waiting.
It was so exciting and special. We didn’t even notice the photos being snapped.
I loved that we were able to be a part of cocktail hour, instead of taking photos. I still got extremely nervous + excited when it came time to walk down the aisle. Seeing Chris beforehand didn’t take away from the moment at all!
Hi dad!! Things were already starting to get a bit windy. The chairs were set up but the staff was still contemplating moving everything inside.
One of my FAVorite photos! Our guest favor was a pretzel rod rolled in chocolate/caramel/nut, called a “pig stick.” I am all about edible favors! The tables only sat 6-8 which is why we kept the centerpieces nice and small.
4 tier vanilla cake with lemon, chocolate, or raspberry frosting on the inside. We had a family friend bake our cake and it was some of the best cake I’ve ever had. The frosting was rich + creamy and not overly sweet.
This is another favorite photo. I just love that we’re surrounded by all of the green. My mom had a bit of a panic when she saw that I was bending down to sit on a dirty bridge :) All she could picture was me standing up with a brown butt, before the ceremony!
Such a ham my little cousin is! I was not a fan of how my bouquet turned out unfortunately. I even gave the florist photos..oh well!
My fam :)
I miss the huz!!!! <3
We’re standing in a sand trap here!
Oh yah!! We had a bag piper playing outside when people arrived at the golf club. I remember getting SO exciting when he started playing!
The sun vanished.
We decided to have 3 different food stations for dinner:
- beef tenderloin carving
- italian station with pasta, chicken parm, veggies, couscous, and a bunch of other things
- sushi station!! tons of sushi and asian noodle dishes
The stations were such a fun idea! I’m always a fan of sampling a lot of little things, which is why I wanted all of this variety!
Goofin’ around
The main area of the reception room. To the left was the bar and in front + on the sides were the food station tables. The long table by the fireplace was the head table. Everyone sat in the open rooms to the left + right of the food tables. Later this was the dance floor.
And this concludes recap ONE. Yes, there is more!!
I just arrived back in Colorado, picked up the dogs at Pat + Nat’s house, ate a bowl of cereal and some anniversary cheesecake from Ann and now I’m off to bed!
Chris left me an awesome surprise on the kitchen table when I arrived home…I was very excited, hehe :)
Ashley
