Our 2014 Fall wedding

The Photobooth. Doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars out of the budget.  I found a stick from the woods at my parents, attached the scarp tulle, and extra paper flower garlands.  I bought 2 frames from the fleamarket. Done. DIY photobooth. 

Cocktail hour.  The longest, most boring hour ever. NOT AT OUR WEDDING!! Lawn games- DIY style. My husband constructed the bean bag toss boards, and all the pallet signs.  I painted them with chalkboard paint and did the lettering. I hand sewed the bean bags and stamped them with our wedding stamp. After the sun went down we put out 6 blankets in the field and had 6 lanterns one for each blanket so you would know if all the blankets were occupied for some star gazing for the guests. 

The handsome kid behind us…That’s my brother.  The Reverend Ryan.  Getting married is a deeply personal thing.  Why would I want some random person we met a few months ago and probably would never speak to again to marry us? I did a crazy thing.  I asked my brother to be our officiant.  And for some crazy reason he agreed. He did an amazing job. I couldn’t have been happier with my decision to have him do it for us. 

I had finished all of my DIY projects ahead of schedule and my husband was off to the Patriots game for his bachelor party. How would I use all this extra time you ask? Leaf Confetti of course! I used my heart paper hole punch and punched thousands of little hearts out of colorful fallen leaves I had collected. The paper flower garlands or the leaf confetti which was more painful and tedious I couldn’t tell ya. It did give us a couple of cool pictures, and gave my first and oldest friend something to throw at my dad. 

Place cards for the seating arrangements.  I used a paper punch to cut out all the leaves, a heart hole punch, and some twine.  My mother and Aunt made the felted acorn ornaments.  I borrowed the two Restoration Hardware light up birch trees from my Aunt. 

As part of the wedding weekend festivities we had everybody over again the afternoon before heading to the rehearsal dinner. It was pumpkin carving time! It was raining so we had to shift gears and do the carving in the living room. It was another nice way to extend the fun and spend more quality time with some of the important people in our lives. 

I  have some of the greatest friends.  The type of friends that despite being spread out all over the world, and at times I don’t get to see for years on end that are just as loyal, awesome, and comfortable when we finally get together or need one another. 

Our First Dance. This part of the wedding is something I was not sure would ever be possible.  For this reason it is one of my favorite moments of the day. My husband drove over an IED in Afghanistan in late November 2010. His R leg was significantly damaged and it took 2 years of limb salvage and dozens of surgeries to save it.  In addition, he broke his back in 3 places. It took a lot of therapy and a miraculous new invention called the IDEO to allow us to dance on our wedding night. A friend of mine from work who used to teach ballroom dancing worked for many nights to help us look as good as we did.  Mostly, it was me not allowing myself to be lead that was the hardest part. It was a perfect few minutes and I am proud of all the work Matt put into getting to this point. 

A collection of some of my favorite photos of us from the most wonderful day.  Amanda of Photography by Amanda Morgan is full of unlimited talent.  I have used her for several occasions and her finished work is so beautiful. 

After months of deliberation, I decided to do a first look with Matt. I had a few requests of him on our wedding day. 1. When you first see me you have to cry or I will turn around and the wedding is off. 2. You have to write your own vows. 3. Please don’t drink so much that you don’t remember the day/night. As you can see I did not get the tears I was hoping for. The face he is making in this picture makes me laugh every time though. I will also tell you that he did write his own vows (they caused a few tears in the crowd), and he was so busy enjoying the day that he didn’t even have more than the equivalent of one drink. 

“Its my wedding I’ll be Indian if I want to.” We had all the bridesmaids over the Friday before the wedding so that my friend from work (and her friend) could come and do henna on all of our feet. I have always had a love of henna and decided it had to be part of the wedding fun even though Indian is one of the few nationalities that is not a part of me. 

I picked fresh cider donuts from the farm right down the street from our wedding venue as our favor for our guests.  I spent a very long time paper punching tags stamping them with our wedding stamp and putting a hand written note on the back of all of the tags.  I delivered the tags the week of the wedding and I was assured that they would be tied on the individual donut bags for the wedding.  I bet you can guess from the photos that this did not happen.  Oh well, one of the minor things that did not go exactly as I had planned on the big day. 

I bought a very larger quantity of tulle and my helpful father and uncle had to drape it all over the rafters. My florist made these babies breath poms

This is our Ceremony Tree. I handmade paper flower garlands that almost ended in divorce before we even got married.  So labor intensive and so worth it. 

Our card table.  My husband and I knew each other as children.  Our parents were friends. While going through a lovely gift from my grandmother (she had lovingly copied hundreds of photographs written the date and who each person was in the picture and placed it in envelopes in chronological order in a box) I came across what is most likely a picture of the very first time my husband and I met. In the second photo you can see me (the baby) yelling at him causing him to make the goofy face. Obviously, this silly moment captured needed to have a place of honor at the wedding. 

My DIY cake stand, and pies on the dessert table :)

Sample of the centerpieces.  Moss numbers handmade by me. Hundreds of felted acorns by my mother. Used a tea light sized apple corer for the candles. Customized toast glasses found on Etsy.