looking back – my wedding

i was going to save a wedding post for my anniversary in august. But Tara Gentile at Scoutie Girl challenged me today with her We Scout Wednesdays and so i’m posting all my wedding-y goodness a little early.

August 23, 2003~ i chose the date because i love the way “august” looks in print, and because 23 is a number with family sentimental value. We knew we wanted to be outside at dusk, and everyone was nervous because the entire month had been a festival of rain, and muggy, oppressive heat. But the night before our wedding, the sky went pink, a rain shower breezed through and cooled things off, and we enjoyed temps in the 70s on the big day day even as we danced the night away. My Mona (mah-nah), my late paternal grandmother, with whom i had a special bond, must’ve sent us that gift from heaven.

SO here’s our deal. At this point in my life i was designing custom wedding gowns and sewing them in my own studio. It’s a business i had about 6 years before i gave it up to have my son. Dealing with brides all the time gave me great perspective. They were often quite upset about small details of their weddings and super stressed. They were IN it. They lost the forest for the trees. i was lucky to have learned what i did from them. When the time came to plan MY wedding, my husband and i knew we wanted to lose as many of the trappings as we could that weren’t important to us. We didn’t have a wedding cake. My mom made several of her famous cheesecakes and i made homemade fruit sorbet instead. We didn’t have limos because we got married right on-site at a beautiful, 50-acre B&B that also accommodated our entire bridal party/family for the whole weekend. (We searched a long time to find the venue. i wanted a canopy of trees and lots of guest rooms!) We didn’t have a rehearsal dinner, just hoagies and a magician out back at the B&B the night before.

The boys didn’t rent tuxes and the girls chose whatever chocolate, mocha, khaki dress they liked. We skipped flowers….mostly. My friends tied a loose bouquet right before i walked down the aisle, and i carried it casually. i asked all the little girls in attendance to wear a white dress and we had a babysitter on-hand to help them get all dolled up from a big dress-up trunk i placed in the yard. i had head wreaths, fairy wings, stretchy bracelets and tiny tin pails for them to fill with rose petals. My friends made an aisle with luminary bags across the yard. In the tent, my electrician husband strung a kazillion white lights and paper lanterns. i made cloth covers for huge old wire spool “tables” and picnic benches so we could create little carpeted seating areas. Each of those also had a canvas ikea armchair. We had TONS of hors d’ouvres + pasta and salad stations. i didn’t want to fret over a seating chart! We had a DJ instead of a band, because i wanted lots of old school rap and R&B! We rocked it out to some Fresh Prince, Sugarhill Gang (my siblings and i are all saying “Apache! Jam on it! in the pic way below) and Jackson 5!

But i think our best decision was to have cocktail hour BEFORE the ceremony. Nick and i barely had a drink each, we were so busy saying hello to everone, but it eased our nerves and freed us of the need to make the rounds at the reception. Everyone chatted on the sunny back lawn and waited for the sun to go down for the ceremony. i had made myself some sparkly, vintage lace pants and a silk halter, and nick wore black pants and a dress shirt(no tie). When it was time, we went inside to change into our wedding gear. i re-emerged in my gown on the back porch after all 8 flowergirls had paraded down the aisle. Of course i made my gown. But i hadn’t started to even cut the fabric til 2 weeks before the wedding. i had so many summer clients to please! But those 2 weeks before the wedding, i shut my studio doors and just set about making “the dress.”  Many shreds of chiffon, vintage sequins, lace and silk later, it was done. Nick never saw it. HE wanted to be surprised. Isn’t that adorable? We got married under the most gorgeous old tree and nick could barely get the vows out. We then headed back up the aisle to Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and egged our guests on to follow us in true party fashion over to the tent. It was like a warped wedding congaa line and it was awesome! I remember it like it was yesterday.

So that was our wedding. We did it our way and we still say we wouldn’t change a thing.