So, until now I haven't had the time or energy to sit down and recap the wedding, but overall it went great. There was serious inlaw drama the week of (long story super short, we decided not to invite FILs alcoholic/schizophrenic cousin who DH never sees anyway; ILs try to tell us we need to keep crazy cousin happy or he could show up at their house or our house someday and hurt us; I finally get to go off on MIL on how she has constantly tried to manipulate her son and they need to be parents and deal with their own problems instead of shovin them off on DH the week of his wedding, etc. etc. The finally saw our side and "agreed to let us not invite him" (?!?) but of course this showed that FIL really WAS DH's "best man" (guilt trip!)).........so that set a wonderful tone for me to look forward to dealing with his family!
Day of the wedding, the girls got to the venue to do hair/makup/prelim set up at 11; guys got there at 1:30 to do most of the set up after the caterers got linens on table; minor crisis when guestbook was lost and I couldn't go down to look for it myself because I was getting my hair done but it wasfound; then all was good after that. Ceremony was amazing (I sobbed from the second I started walking down the aisle, could barely get any words out!); we had Jill with ATRG do the ceremony music, and we had VSQ music played at the beginning while people were being seated, including an instrumental version of "Another One Bites the Dust" because we wanted to see if anyone would notice. Everyone did and thought it was hilarious
The reception was a blast. It took the caterers a lot longer to get people through their line than they had estimated so that went over almost an hour, significantly limiting dancing time which sucked, but oh well. Only bad spot during reception was (surprise!) when FIL gave an impromptu toast (after we were running late already) and started with a completely inapproproate joke that went something like this: Beth told Chris to take off her dress, shoes, underwear, bra, etc.... (trust me, the pictures show the look on my face during this and I look
PI#$@ED) the punchline being "and don't ever wear my clothes again" but it was SOOOO inappropriate for a family gathering with grandparents, conservative relatives and KIDS. My family was also P*#&SED. Then he talked for 5 minutes about his relationship with his own dad, and threw in one sentence about Chris and I...another guilt trip on not being asked to be the best man!
Anyway, thought I'd include some pics on the details, since you ladies have given me opinions and input on these things over the past year!
invitations
shepherd hooks lining the aisle, with flowers in tin pails hanging on them
the aisle:
the sweetheart table, with one of the candle holders we made out of the bottom halvesof the wine bottles we cut for the centerpieces, and frosted spraypaint:
the sign and costumes for the photo wall:
the photowall:
the centerpieces! and table names :
the full table:
I scrapped the candy buffet at the last second, and instead just filled the takeout boxes with candy, and ordered the stickers from Vistaprint:
better shot of the centerpieces (we loved how they turned out!):
and the escort cards turned out great too:
All the above pics are by McCardell Photography, and if you haven't already seen them on FB, more of the professional shots can be seen
here and
here (clicky).
I'll do vendor reviews soon (other than our travel agent, and a few minor issues with the florist and cake baker, they were all great anyway!). Thanks so much to everyone who helped me out and gave ideas and opinions during the planning!