Wedding Recap: Cocktail Hour & Ceremony

We decided to have a cocktail hour before the ceremony, both for our own benefit and that of our guests. We figured it would help out with our nerves a little to have a drink before the ceremony, and it would give us time to mingle with guests so that we weren't stuck running around throughout the reception (we wanted to dance a bunch...duh). Since we were running so late, we didn't get to have the cocktail hour we wanted, but it was still nice to mingle a bit before the big event. I skipped my cocktail dress altogether and stuck with the wedding dress throughout what was left of our cocktail hour.

Our ceremony was short, only lasting around 30 minutes. We had a friend marry us, which was awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to have a non-denominational ceremony. It felt so intimate knowing that the person marrying us and joining us together knew us so well. I wrote most of the ceremony myself, and what I couldn't write on my own I borrowed from Judith Johnson's The Wedding Ceremony Planner, which was a life saver! We had a beautiful moment of silence for those who could not be with us, and those who had passed away, especially A.P.'s mother. We also had three readings, e.e. cummings's "i carry your heart," "Our Union" by Hafiz, and a stanza from a French poem called "The Eternal Song" by Rosemonde Gerard. My childhood French teacher translated the stanza for us. While the other two poems were chosen for a reason, this poem in particular held the most meaning, as on our first Valentine's Day, A.P. gave me a necklace that features a line from this poem. The line reads, "Je t'aime plus qu'hier moins que demain," which translates to, "I love you more today than yesterday." I have three brothers and A.P. has two, so we kind of split readings and toasts between our family members, and the other friend who gave a reading was the Half-breed Swede, aka my wedding life saver!

Here's some more photos of our big day! Again, all photos were taken by our amazing photographer, Theresa Scarbrough. Enjoy!

View from Lovely across the street

Besides all the invitations' address labels, my mother also wrote ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that had writing on it, including all the wood veneer escort cards, all the signage, and she wrote and designed our program (seen above) and menu, which we posted on a double-sided antique chalkboard I found on eBay

One of the many beautiful chalkboards that Lovely designed and had posted around the bakery

Detail of Lovely's chalkboard, we loved that they even managed to give the groom a mustache on a stick, which were some of the props we made for the photo booth!

One of the centerpieces - Each centerpiece was completely unique and featured vintage objects, (all thrifted, found on eBay, and purchased on etsy) on vintage trays with some type of unique vessel for flowers. We also had antique salt and pepper shakers at every table.

One of the place settings - I handmade each place card using a DIY project I found on Scissor Variations. They turned out wonderful and everyone loved them! We also thrifted all of the dinner plates for the wedding. The only commonality that the plates had were the approximate diameter and the fact that they featured a floral pattern of some kind. They looked so beautiful on the tables with the centerpieces!

Some additional place settings

Inspired by a past post, we created a photo display of various family members' wedding photos and photos of us as children and as adults, together. While some photos were framed and displayed nicely on the shelves of this lovely antique armoire, the rest of the photos were hung with gold paperclips on beautiful yarn. Interspersed between the photos were various sized hearts cut from lovely floral craft paper that we used throughout the wedding.

Another centerpiece - In addition to vintage trays, we used a lot of vintage cake and apothecary jars to hold what I kept calling "small worlds," which were little moss filled worlds with vintage objects carefully displayed. They were all fun to make, and I tried very hard to only purchase things I knew I would reuse in our own house afterward. So now, we have a house adorned with beautiful vintage objects that remind us of our special day.

One of our tinier guests checks out Lovely's vintage typewriter

That's me with my mother (in the middle) and C-Blonde, the woman who helped us design our invitations

Another set table/centerpiece

Centerpiece Detail

A.P. greets the guests as the enter the tent for the ceremony

Lovely ladies in pashminas

Cuties!

A.P.'s vows and our ring pillow, which I handmade to look like the image on our RSVP cards

Closeup, A.P.'s vows

My father walking me down the aisle

A.P. sees me as I walk down the aisle

We're all laughing because my father just told A.P. "She's all yours now!"

My brother, who read e.e. cummings's "i carry your heart"

Our good friend (and my friend since high school) who married us

A.P.'s older brother who read "Our Union" by Hafiz, which we told the audience that A.P. chose because he liked that it had the word potatoes in it (a joke he cracked when we were going over readings)

The Half-breed Swede! She read the stanza from Rosemonde Gerard poem

After A.P. read his vows, he turned to the audience and apologized for forgetting his pants, which made everyone laugh (and was the moment that 99.9% makes up for the fact the he forgot his pants to begin with...the .1% is reserved because I'm a woman, and we don't forget)

I love the look on my face as I hand back my vows, which screams "Get these things away from me!" I couldn't help it...they made me cry!

Ring time!

A.P. kept wiggling his finger for the ring, but I wouldn't give it to him until I had recited the vows.

After our friend pronounced us husband and wife, I squealed, "We're married!"