Wedding Post: Ceremony, Part One
Things that we knew we wanted: for our Ceremony and Reception venues to be close to each other travel wise, or, ideally, at the same location. For Rigby to be included. For something short and sweet. For it to be personal, to feel sentimental.
It took us a while, but eventually it worked out that we were getting married in the The Secret Garden at the Cottesloe Civic Centre. I guess we didn't really know what kind of venue we wanted for our Ceremony, as long as it was 'different' so to speak. We didn't want a beach Ceremony, or a Pavilion Ceremony, or the same park that everyone uses. I'd actually suggested the CCC to a friend who was getting married, but wound up checking it out for ourselves instead a few months later. Seeing this garden helped us decide on our Reception venue. It was perfect and I knew it as soon as I saw it.
By the time the Wedding was coming together - I had this, story book, fairy tale, Princess Bride, forest kind of... theme/vibe going on. And with the help of Jess, the amazing stylist from The Butcher, The Baker, The Stylist & Creator, it felt like we were getting married in a beautiful Castles garden.
We had custom made tassel garlands as the backdrop above our signing table. The garlands hung from a wooden branch, each a different colour, peach, coral or cream (and two were ombre and made me cry with happiness) and hung at different lengths. It was one of my favourite looks at the Ceremony.
We hired old rustic furniture from Jess, that we used for our signing table and chairs, and to display the key tags that would show guests where they were sitting at the Reception, which began shortly after the Ceremony. I loved the keys because they had a Harry Potter/Alice in Wonderland kind of feel to them.
I wore a veil during our Ceremony, as soon as I knew I was becoming a Bride I knew I was going to wear one. I was never going to change my dress, but I'd always wanted to look slightly different for the Reception after everyone'd seen me for the Ceremony. My first plan was to have my hair up with a birdcage veil at the Ceremony and down with my headpiece at the Reception. After my first hair trial, I knew that wasn't going to work out how I'd hoped in my head. So then I was going to wear my hair down, with the veil and headpiece to be the change between. The birdcage veil I bought could not have suited me less. It was a disaster. On one of my final dress fittings, I made a comment about how I loved long cathedral veils. Suddenly I had one on, had fallen in-love and was having my own custom made to match my dress material. I never thought it'd work with the style of my dress, that it would have been too much tulle going on... But it worked, to me.
It made me feel like a Bride.
Walking down that aisle towards Rick I looked different to how I had looked at the First Look and would look at the Reception (which I mention here), my face was slightly covered - there was the moment where my Dad lifted my veil over my face - it was all just very 'I am a BRIDE right now'. The First Look didn't feel like that, that was more about becoming a Husband and Wife... wait that's for another day and blog post. WHERE WAS I? Basically it made the Ceremony feel very different to what we'd felt earlier, so it was still a very special moment, walking down that aisle and seeing each other again.
Instead of trying to decide on one flower girl, and one ring boy, when we had TEN nieces and nephews between us, we wanted Rigby to be apart of our big day. In my head, he happily strolled around the venue sniffing and saying hello to people, before coming up to where Rick and I were standing and sitting between us. In reality, he would have to be kept on the lead because he would more likely than not be very excited and overwhelmed by what was happening.
We were wrong though! He was quite stressed when he first arrived with Sam, our cousin, and once he spotted me and realised I was standing with his Dad, he made it known he wasn't impressed hanging back with the Groomsmen. When a moment presented itself, Rick went and took his lead from Scott, and suddenly Rigby was sitting and laying happily across our feet, and then sitting happily next to me during the signing, and then happily playing with family! I could barely contain myself. (And couldn't, when we saw the photos of him from Samm.)
I feel like this is long enough. I'm going to post Part Two shortly :)
Vendors// Brides Veil Pallas Couture Branch Garlands Etsy Store Copper Vintage Keys Etsy Store Vintage Name Tags + Custom Calligraphy Names Etsy Store Wedding Package Custom Illustration (framed print) Santiago Sunbird// Other: flowers and Rigbys boutonniere by family, collected and used old coffee jars to display flowers in, jar decoration + other Ceremony DIY decorations Etsy Store Etsy Store Etsy Store Etsy Store, DIY frame.
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