#sammblake

An Intimate Wedding At Gramercy Park Hotel  

Allie + Jarrad’s Mexico Wedding

We decided we wouldn't write our own vows, then discussed maybe we would write some, then both decided ultimately we didn't want to, that we would prefer those kind of words kept between us. We wanted to use traditional vows, and we wanted to keep the Ceremony short. But we still wanted it to represent us. I've mentioned this before I'm sure of it, but RIck and I love The Princess Bride. One of our favourite scenes, and something we often said to one another while we were engaged, was this scene. Something I do know I've mentioned, our Harry Potter love/my obsession. These were only small changes, but changes that made our vows more meaningful to us:

"I Rick Lavers call upon our family and friends and all here present to witness that I, Rick take you, Jessica to be my lawful wedded wife in mawwiage.

I solemnly swear to take you Jessica, To be my Wife. To have and to hold From this day forward For better or for worse For richer, for poorer In sickness and in health To love and to cherish From this day forward Till death do us part.

Always." 

"I Jessica Bell call upon our family and friends and all here present to witness that I, Jessica take you, Rick to be my lawful wedded husband in mawwiage. I solemnly swear to take you Rick, To be my Husband. To have and to hold From this day forward For better or for worse For richer, for poorer In sickness and in health To love and to cherish From this day forward Till death do us part.

Always." 

My niece Jaimi did a reading for us. I wanted to pick something for her that suited her age, but that was still appropriate for a Wedding, that still represented love, or the love that Rick and I had together. We eventually found a version of the Dr Seuss quote 'Oh, the places you'll go!' that was tweaked to suit a couple getting married. Ricks sister Isobelle loves Dr Seuss, so it made all the more perfect. 

We had a custom Wedding Certificate designed for the Ceremony. It matched our invites and was apart of our paper goods Wedding Package by the Hankinson sisters. I absolutely love it. It looks so pretty framed hanging on our wall at home. As witnesses, Rick had his best friend and best man, Corey. I had my bridesmaid Raquel. I wanted all of my girls to have a role on the Wedding day, Brigitte was the Maid of Honor and made a speech, Raquel was my witness and Nicole was my go to girl, who also held our rings because she is the jewelry Queen. Besides our custom Certificate, I also loved that Corey signed his signature with his classic '#10' next to it.

These are the kind of memories I want to remember when I look back on our Wedding photos. A rush of sentimental moments, reminders of our friends and loved ones and our lives together throughout the years.

After vows, and readings, and signing of certificates, came our first kiss as Husband and Wife. To be honest, when I think back on the Ceremony, it all feels like a blur. It seems to have been so long ago, and something that went so fast, that I can only clearly remember certain moments. Suddenly we were nearing the end of the Ceremony and we were going to be married. It was such a strange but humbling feeling, knowing that. 

A lot of our friends told me this was the moment they cried, and it's funny how much that can mean to you. Knowing how happy our family and friends were to be there, celebrating this decision with us. And to be genuinely happy, and to know that. I know Weddings are about two people making a commitment together, but one of the things I will always remember about our Wedding day was how the people surrounding us made us feel, and how without their presence there our day might not have been shaped the way it was. We really are so lucky.

And then we were Mr and Mrs Lavers... :)

Vendors// Wedding Package Custom Illustration Wedding Certificate Santiago Sunbird Styling + Furniture hire The Butcher The Baker The Stylist + Creator Wedding Celebrant Shannon Fleming Ceremony Venue Cottesloe Civic Centre. 

Our Ceremony.

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.

It was incredibly easy for Rick and I to decide on who would be apart of our Bridal Party. We've had the same group of friends forever. We've pretty much all known each other since High School, some have known each other since Primary School. Our Bridal Party consisted of our closest, best friends. We all consider each other to be important people in our lives. It was wonderful having our favourite people surrounding us for such an important day. 

Rick's Best Man was Corey, and these two have been best mates since forever. Once upon a time we lived with Corey, just the three of us. The Groomsmen consisted of Chris, Lee and Scott. Rick, Corey, Chris and Lee were all in the same year at School and have been friends for 10 years or so. They're close in their own ways and then close as a whole. Scott we've known for around 5 years now and he is a little younger than us but he was basically the missing piece of the puzzle when it came to the group. He instantly fit in with everyone. I've known the boys for a few years less than Rick, besides Scott who I met first, but am very close with them as well. They're like those annoying big brothers that come to visit and mess up the house and eat all our food. Scott is my bestfriend. (Rick would argue that he's 'our' bestfriend but I called dibs.)

My Maid of Honour was Brigitte, who I've known since High School as well. My Bridesmaids, Nicole and Raquel, I met through Brigitte a few months after first becoming close with her. We've basically been inseparable since. 10 years plus we've been in each others lives. They're my girls. My go to's for advice and shoulders to lean and cry on. We've been friends for so long now that my future wouldn't make sense without them. There was no doubt in my mind that those three would be my choices. What makes it even better, is Rick adores them too. He's actually known them longer than I have. He 'married' Brigitte in Kindy. He was in the same year at School as Nicole and Raquel.

When I say our Bridal Party were our best friends, I mean it.

For the girls, Rick and I bought their dresses, which they were allowed to choose, their jewellery for the day which acted as their gifts, and paid for hair and make-up. They each picked their own shoes and bought them themselves. I lucked out, because the girls all picked a dress or shoes that I loved. They matched without matching. They all looked beautiful and suited what they had on. I wanted the girls to feel comfortable in what they wore, not be stuck wearing a dress that suited one but not the others etc. Because I had them in different dresses and shoes, I decided their hair should be different as well so it suited their outfits better. I kind of loved that they were all wearing different outfits. The colours all worked together and were apart of the Wedding colours, the shades of shoes and style all worked together - each pair of shoes had something silver on them which matched the grey of my shoes. Each hairstyle while different matched in the sense they were 'up' style do's. We had manicures and pedicures the day before the Wedding so we were all wearing the same colour on our nails. And our make-up was done very similarly as well. I loved how everything turned out and thought my girls were beautiful.

It was a similar deal for the guys, we bought their suit pants and shirts, suspenders and ties. They decided what belts and shoes they wanted to wear (they had to be black, but the styles were up to them). As their gifts, we bought them customised tie pins with their initials engraved on the ends. I also requested they wore black sunglasses for the day... haha. They looked like they were apart of a Bridal Party, but their outfits matched our age, they didn't look older, or awkward wearing something they've never worn before. The style we opted for suited them all and they pulled it off well (but I could be bias...). 

L-R; Nicole, Lee, Brigitte, Scott, Rick, me, Corey, Raquel and Chris.

"There are friends, there is family and then there are friends that become family."

Vendors// Groomsmen Suspenders, Shirts + Pants ASOS Groomsmen Custom Ties Fox and Brie Groomsmen Tie Pins Etsy Store //Other: boutonnieres by Grooms family, misc black belts + shoes Groomsmen own choice.

Vendors// Bridesmaids Dresses ASOS + Keepsake the Label Bridesmaids Jewelry BHLDN + Samantha Wills Bridesmaids Hair + Makeup Living Dolls //Other: bouquets by Grooms family, misc shoes Bridesmaids own choice.