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 »

Gather ’round, gals & guys, because I have a feeling you’re gonna love this recap.

Today’s post is chock-full of gorgeous, close-up portrait photography taken by Nicole Tavenner of Piknik Studios. I’ve peppered some of my previous recaps with a few of these photos (particularly getting ready, the bus ride, and pre-ceremony shenanigans), but there are just so many amazing individual portraits that I have to dedicate not one, but TWO posts entirely to them.

This first post will showcase some of our portraits of me and the mister (individually, versus the portraits we took together), and my next post will feature portraits of our guests.

Fabulous portraiture was one of the many benefits of hiring Nicole. She has an impressive online portrait portfolio of families, kids, brides, and seniors, and we were wowed by what she delivered during our 2007 engagement shoot in Glacier National Park. Good portraits are excellent photos for framing, particularly in a series of two or three, and having flattering close-up pictures just makes you feel so glamorous!

I hope these pictures can help convince you to consider a wedding photographer with a talent for portraits, or to add portraiture to your wedding day photo-list. Anyway, enough chatter… let me now allow the pictures to speak for themselves.

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Filed under: Here Comes the Bride, Here Comes the Groom, Photos, Recap on March 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

During dessert, we invited our guests to witness our license signing. So, as they sipped on french-pressed coffee and savored the baked goods, we called them to gather round, and then we took one of the final steps toward making our marriage official.

There was no real ceremony to it – we simply set our Flathead County marriage license on the now-empty buffet table, brought over our official witnesses and officiant, and got out a fancy pen. Then, after Cathy filled in the blanks with her lovely, legible printing, we all signed on the dotted line!

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Filed under: Here Comes the Bride, Here Comes the Groom, Photos, Recap on March 10th, 2009 | No Comments »

In one of my recent posts, I mentioned that we were taking photos with our wedding party during cocktail hour. Well, we did, but not before we took some formal portraits together. Nicole took a TON of photos that I absolutely love, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Of course it’s hard to edit them all down, so I’ve broken these portraits up into two categories: pictures of us together and individual “profile” shots.

First things first, I’ll present you with thirty of my favorite bride and groom pictures. Then, tomorrow, I’ll share thirty of our best profile photos. After that, we’ll move on to photos with our families and the wedding party before finally visiting the reception, cutting the cake, dancing, and detailing the little things. There’s lots more to look forward to!

Right after the ceremony, Justin and I sneaked a kiss behind the Half-Moon House (an authentic outhouse, for those just joining us). Then, after canoodling with our guests, we took off with photographer Nicole for some privacy.

Before heading off into the brush by the Polebridge creek, we took this picture next to our ceremony site. We’re in front of a second semi-permanent stage that’s used during Polebridge’s annual Aurorafest. We considered using it to have our band play directly into a large tent, but that would have meant more generators and equipment to rent, when the other stage was already fully loaded.

After escaping the crowds, we took a few pictures in Polebridge’s tiny wedding circle. It’s a beautiful place, tucked away from the town behind some trees and next to the creek. It was far too small and inaccessible for our guests, unfortunately…

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Filed under: Here Comes the Bride, Here Comes the Groom, Photos, Recap on February 25th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

While the ladies started primping and preening as only girls can do before a wedding, the guys took their sweet time savoring their breakfast, lounging in their pajamas, and shooting the breeze in the Lodge lobby.

Justin, on the other hand, had been convinced by his cousin Alexander to give himself a wedding-day “wakeup” in a different way.

Years ago, Alexander spent a good number of summers working in Glacier National Park at Lake McDonald Lodge. One of his favorite morning pastimes was diving off the boat dock into the lake. A good way, he said, to wake up and enjoy the beauty that’s before you. So that’s what they did!

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Filed under: Here Comes the Groom, Photos, Recap on February 11th, 2009 | No 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 »

As some might remember, when I last wrote here, it was because I was trying to decide what to wear for the Big Day. I wanted a suit. That left me with a few choices… I could buy a suit and have it altered or have one made.

Now, we have many fine stores here in Seattle. There’s Nordstrom’s and Brooks Brothers as well as any number of high end men’s boutiques that would be happy to sell me a suit that I could have tailored at a later date. Which one to pick, right?

The obvious choice, at least to those who know me, was none of the above. I decided that I wanted a custom-made suit. A bit of research turned up outstanding reviews for a local store named Kuhlman’s. This Kuhlman’s is different from the chain store of the same name – it’s a small boutique in Belltown. They sell trendy clothes and bags, but out of the back of the store the owner, Scott Kuhlman draws up individual patterns and hand tailors suits to order. They’re wonderful, but not cheap. Let’s just say that they easily rival the cost of some high-end wedding dresses.

But I could have my own suit! To my exact measurements! Not only for my wedding, but for all sorts of occasions in the future! It had to be done.

So, Monday, I went down to Kuhlman’s with an appointment to meet with Scott and his measurement man. Yes, he has a gentleman who he calls in just to take measurements. I like to think of him as the tailor equivalent of “The Cleaner” from Point of No Return. Measurements are his thing and he does them well.

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Filed under: Handmade, Here Comes the Groom on May 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

On the 7th of this month, Justin and I celebrated eight years together. Eight! EIGHT IS GRRREAT!

Ahem. Sorry ’bout that.

For a gift, I had planned to take him to a very special restaurant near our apartment, but it was closed on Monday evening. I didn’t want to come home empty-handed even though we could just reschedule. So I went hunting about Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood to see what I could find on my lunch break.

Justin is kind of a fashionista, so at first I thought I’d see what I could find him at his favorite boutique. But I already suspected he was getting me something to wear as an anniversary gift and I didn’t want to make it into a clothes swap.

As you ladies know, it can be hard to shop for men, especially when looking for something “timeless” and “classy.” I mean, my dude’s hobbies are listening to girly pop music, playing MMORPGs, and rock climbing, and he’s got those bases pretty thoroughly covered on his own. So what’s a well-intentioned lady like me to do?

I stumbled into the neighborhood perfumerie, Essenza, thinking that I would just look at their men’s colognes and soaps, even though I know that Justin hates fragrances. It was kind of a last resort. And there I saw it, the holy grail of man-gifts…

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Filed under: Hair Styles, Here Comes the Groom on April 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

Kat spends a decent amount of time thinking about what she’s going to wear to the wedding. Dress, hair, make-up, shoes, etc. Until this weekend I’d considered it pretty much straightforward that I’d wear a rented tuxedo. This weekend though I started entertaining the idea of getting a suit instead.

Now I think we can all agree that buying a tux would be silly (unless I’d bought it years ago before going to five proms… oh the rental savings!) especially since I’m unlikely to get much wear out of it. But I don’t own a suit. I don’t even own a good suit jacket! A suit is something I could get some future wear out of, and as such I’d entertain the idea of getting a good one that I could wear for the wedding and beyond.

Wearing a suit instead of a tux does present some problems… there’s less to color-coordinate with groomsmen, bridesmaids and bride; no cummerbund or vest to be had, but I do get a tie instead of a bow tie. Do I put the groomsmen in tuxes or in suits to match?

What do other people think? Is a nice suit just as worthy of a wedding compared to a tuxedo?

Filed under: Attire, Here Comes the Groom on March 24th, 2008 | 5 Comments »