First can I complain at how annoyed I am at the presence of this hideous tent. We arrived at the Oceanside Community Center the morning of the wedding to find this random ugly beige tent on the patio. There had been a birthday party there the night before so I figured maybe their rental company hadn't come by to pick it up yet and would be there shortly. I figured it would be out of our hair soon enough so there was no point in decorating it to try and make look half way decent. But no one ever came to pick it up. When our bartender finally arrived he told Nate that it was his and that he had used it for the birthday party the night before that he bar-tended and figured "why take it down, I'm sure the bride and groom will love having a ugly beige tent that they weren't planning on having when they designed the layout of the patio for their wedding". My uncle managed to get some lights strung up in there so it at least provided a place to hang some outdoor lights. Anyway, that is one of the things I was most bridezillay about.
Back to the table obscured by the ugly tent. The escort cards are arranged on a cork board we found in the trash covered in a sheet from the Salvation Army with twill tape strung on it. At thrift stores I found a unused vintage photo album somewhat in our wedding colors to use as a guest book, several polaroid cameras a bunch of this weird sticker polaroid film. It was very expired but I figured it might work and I found the right kind of camera for it for really cheep on ebay. I also bought some slightly less expired polaroid film on ebay that was not cheep. The sicker film did not work at all and the expensive polaroid film had quite a few pictures with odd blob monsters attacking our guests. They were interesting pictures though.
Recommendations for future brides and grooms.
1.) Don't buy expired polaroid film on ebay. Just wait until the new stuff they just started making again is more widely available or don't worry about polariods. It is a cute idea but definitely not a wedding necessity.
2.) If you are having a ketubah or wedding certificate and you want people to all sign it in the same black ink don't have sharpies for writing on polaroids on the same table. People will not read your nicely worded sign that says to please sign the thing in BLACK INK and you will have teal signatures on a document you spent either a lot of time or a lot of money on hanging in your house for the rest of your life.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wedding Odds and Ends Table
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
One More Sign and Flip Flops
Here is one more sign I made from scrap wood. We set it up directly in front of the entrance to the beach to direct guests to our ceremony site.
I guess our permit actually said that we weren't allowed to erect any signs on state property, but I figured since it wasn't stapled to anything it was probably ok. There was another wedding going on earlier in the day on the same beach. We kept getting random guests wandering into the community center while we were setting up asking where they were supposed to go for the wedding. I would look at them and realize I didn't recognize them so they must be there for the other wedding. Maybe they were so lost because there was no signage for that wedding.
We also had the ubiquitous wedding flip flops. I figured since it was a beach wedding and people would be dancing later they would prove doubly useful. Only a couple of people took them though. I think we had warned people sufficiently about wearing comfortable shoes that people didn't need them. I also wrote a cheesy flip flop poem for the basket: "Flip Flops for walking in the sand and getting down to the band (I mean DJ)". We tried to get flip flops at the Old Navy $1 flip flop sale, but the check out line was wrapped completely around the store and we had to pick up my friend at the airport so we gave up. I ended up finding them for $1.50 at Michael's. The extra 50 cents a pair was definitely worth not waiting in that line. I found the basket at the Salvation Army. I thought it was the perfect shape to display the shoes.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Our Huppah
Our huppah was built from branches Nate, my mom and I collected from the backyard of my childhood home in Portland when we were visiting last December, random batik fabric from the thrift store I fashioned into a square and hammered grommets into, wood boxes Nate and I built from wood the kid at Home Depot cut into not quite the right sizes, and cement Nate's brother and sister-in-law (I guess my brother-in-law and sister-in-law now) helped us pour on our wedding day. You may also notice a drill bit sticking out of one of the branches that Nate was unable to remove after trying to drill holes for the hooks for the canopy.
I think it turned out pretty great. Too bad my mom hauled off the branches and boxes to the dump after the wedding. I still have the canopy though and I'm sure I will come up with some project to use it for at some point. I also enjoy the random sun bathers in the background.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Ketubah/Quaker Wedding Certificate
Though any talk of god was intentionally absent from out wedding (since I am an atheist and Nate is a fairly agnostic Jew), we still wanted to include some relgious traditions. We built a huppah, Nate broke a glass after the ceremony and we danced the horra. One of the other things we wanted to include was a wedding certificate. In Judaism, before the ceremony, the bride and groom sign a ketubah or wedding contract which is read out under the huppah during the ceremony. My mom and her aunts were raised quaker. In the quaker church, since there is no minister, the bride and groom marry themselves. At the end of the ceremony they sign a quaker wedding certificate which is then signed by the congregation as witnesses. We decided to kind of combine our family's religious traditions and make our own ketubah/quaker wedding certificate. It is really more like a quaker wedding certificate because of the wording and all of our friends and family who attended signed the certificate. But we like to pretend it is a combo.
Wedding Preview
We are married. It all went by in a flash. It is amazing how much time and energy went into all the planning and crafting for something that went by so quickly. We don't have the professional pictures yet but lots of friends and family took some great pictures during the wedding and reception and during the set up process. I'm so thankful that my family and Nate's family helped us so much setting up the day of and the days leading up to the wedding. We couldn't have done it with out all of their help.
My mom made all of the deserts, my mom's cousins arranged flowers and made beautiful bouquets and boutonnieres from the flowers Nate, my mom and I picked on Sauvie Island two days before the wedding, my brother and sister-in-law helped us build our huppah and their kids laid the path of rocks for the aisle. And my aunts, uncle and cousin, Nate's mom and step-dad all the rest of the family helped set up everything for the reception and cocktail hour.
Everything turned out really beautiful and I think everyone had a great time. I am both happy and sad that it is over. It will nice to have a little more free time in the evenings now.