Today I’m delighted to share with you the first of two detail-oriented recap posts. These are sort of like recaps of the recap – focused on all the outfits, accessories, DIY projects, decorations, and edible/drinkable pieces of our wedding. Many of you have asked me questions about specific things that we wore, made, or did. Well, these detail posts are the best place to look for all that information, and to see new photos of all the little things that made our wedding day special.
Check it out!
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Filed under: Accessories, Ambiance, Attire, Dresses, Flowers, Hair Styles, Handmade, Here Comes the Bride, Here Comes the Groom, Paper Goods & Favors, Photos, Recap, Rings, Wedding Party on March 25th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Before the dinner bell rang, we had just one more set of portraits to take with our wedding party. I won’t call these pics “formal,” because as you can see, they’re also very much in the spirit of our casual, rustic, Montana wedding.
Justin and his groomsmen were the first to organize, mason jars full of beer or “purple stuff” in hand, on the porch of the Northern Lights Saloon…
Because we didn’t want any tuxes at our wedding, and renting suits didn’t seem to be feasible, Justin asked his dudetourage to purchase suits that complimented his own custom-made suit. We found them charcoal grey Pronto Uomo suits at Men’s Wearhouse, which were on sale for $250 each. While this isn’t the most affordable amount for some people, the groomsmen were happy to oblige, particularly when they heard how much bridesmaids have to spend (on dresses, hair, shoes, etc) at many weddings. And I hear they’ve gotten lots of mileage out of their suits since then!
Notice in the photo below that groomsman Mark (bottom left) is wearing black cowboy boots under his suit instead of black dress shoes. Awesome, subtle, and creative!
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Filed under: Photos, Recap, Wedding Party on March 2nd, 2009 | No Comments »
September, in the remote, Northwest reaches of Montana, our wedding was about to start.
While I waited in the wings for the processional to play, dramatic clouds boiled and broke overhead, throwing the mountains into sun and shadows, sprinkling us with the lightest of showers…
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Filed under: Cake, Music, Recap, Wedding Party on February 17th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
After all this time, I’ve neglected to introduce you to our wedding party. Well, let’s say our hellos!
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I’m the oldest of four girls. My sisters, of course, make up three of my bridal party.
Can you tell who’s who? I’ll help you out…
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Filed under: Wedding Party on September 1st, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We’re leaving. Leaving for Montana. And, believe it or not, my goal is not to think about our wedding until September 5th, when we rehearse. It will be hard, but not as hard as the last two weeks have been.
I’ve shouldered my burden and kept pushing on through. I’ve put on a happy face, especially when talking to others or blogging, where things tend to be fun fun happy wedding-landia. The truth is that the last two weeks have been absolute hell, and I have wanted, very badly, not to be dealing with this wedding any more.
I’m lucky because nothing has “gone wrong.” No major vendor disaster or family drama has befallen us. I simply cannot cope with the stress of planning any more. I no longer feel like I can balance my my career, appease my family, and tie together a plethora of details with businesses in another state. I am tired of unreturned phone calls and email, missing critical details, and misinformation. I am ready to break up with my wedding.
Thank God I planned for this in advance.
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Filed under: Wedding Party on August 29th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Kat here with another quick and easy project for you!
This time, the idea is to make life a little easier for your wedding party. They’ll probably be carrying around big bouquets of live flowers for most of the day and will want to set them down somewhere. Why not give them a special place to put their bouquet aside?
These mason jars will keep the bouquet upright, to prevent damage to the flowers, and make it easy for them to find their own bouquet when they want it again. They can also keep the flowers alive a little bit longer by putting a little bit of water in the bottom of the jar.
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Filed under: Handmade, Wedding Party on August 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
Hot on the heels of Justin’s post about his groomsmen gifts, I present my gifts for my bridesmaids!
That means no peeking, ladies!
Not unless you want to ruin the surprise. Err, surpriSES.. I have several things in store for my bridesmaids. Some are more traditional and others are definitely different.
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Filed under: Accessories, Handmade, Wedding Party on August 6th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
If you’re one of Justin’s groomsmen you probably should stop reading. That means you Jason, Karl, Tom, Mark and Micah.
Right. Like there’s any chance they’re reading this right now…nevertheless! I (Justin, that is) got started on finding gifts for my groomsmen relatively late in the game. By late I mean that Kat had several projects in the works at least a month or more before I even considered what to get my groomsmen.
I suppose I could have just gotten them ties, but I think that matching ties would be a pretty mild “Thank You” in exchange for driving out to Montana and buying suits on my behalf, don’t you?
As Kat posted some time ago, I have been very taken with assorted high end shaving products ever since my birthday. I considered buying my groomsmen their own safety razors, or badger brushes or sets. Sadly two things are wrong with that. They aren’t nearly as likely as me to take an extra 20 minutes in the bathroom for something as novel as shaving and I wasn’t quite ready to spend $200+ per person on my groomsmen. But I was on the right track… I wanted something that spoke to our essential masculine nature of the days of yore.
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Filed under: Accomodations, Here Comes the Groom, Wedding Party on August 5th, 2008 | 6 Comments »
We recently had a bit of a wedding attire dilemma. As he wrote earlier, Justin isn’t terribly fond of renting tuxedos. As a result, Justin opted to have a custom suit made for the wedding. It’s a much bigger investment than renting, but he’ll get more satisfaction and much better mileage out of it.
With Justin in a suit, we certainly couldn’t have our groomsmen in tuxes. Aside from upsetting the balance, tuxes would just look out of place in rural Montana. Suits aren’t quite the status quo either, but at least they’re one step closer (and as close as Justin wanted to get to casual).
The problem with suits is that they’re nearly impossible to rent. I know some establishments DO rent suits, but they don’t seem to be reputable national chains. Unfortunately for us, our groomsmen are spread across the country (Seattle, California, Oregon, & New York) and none of the rental places we found had the locations or availability that we needed.
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Filed under: Here Comes the Groom, Wedding Party on July 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A few weeks before Christmas, I sent out invitations to our wedding party. They were printed on vellum and backed by a slightly larger-cut piece of handmade paper. The designs and paper differed for those standing on the groom’s side and those on the bride’s side (we each invited 5 people to stand with us).
I let Justin pick the paper and envelopes for the groomsmen. He selected a dark brown fibrous paper with swathes of tan grasses cutting through it. This is what I designed for the vellum overlay (click for larger):
The paper for my bridesmaids was a warm gray embossed with a “rococo” floral design, so I made something complementary for the vellum overlay (click for large):
The ladies’ invites were sent in navy blue envelopes and the gentlemens’ in cream colored. We still have more paper and vellum for sending out the rest of the wedding party invitations– ushers, flower girl, ring bearer, et cetera. We’ve just got to decide who they are!
Filed under: Handmade, Paper Goods & Favors, Wedding Party on January 21st, 2008 | No Comments »
