Wedding... News
Okay! It has been crazy around here... trying to wrap up projects to take some time off for the wedding. Also being in two other weddings within a few weeks after my wedding makes everything extra busy with triple showers and triple bachelorettes. But I am super excited about our wedding since it is a little different so I am taking a moment to give you guys a few details about the wedding.
I know that traditional wedding might be the right choice for many couples getting married, however we wanted to do something that represented us as a couple. Our wedding might be a complete flop because we are trying something completely different and taking a risk. But ultimately the wedding is about two people in love and no matter how you want to celebrate that day it has to represent you as a couple. Zach and I, wanted good food, good people and a good party with lots of dancing!
OK... So our plans for the big day.... here are details on how we are changing it up.
CEREMONY
We are getting married in a small little country chapel at Noon, yes that is 12:00 pm... you pay so much for your wedding day you might as well start it early... right? Here is a picture of the chapel here, where we will be saying "I Do"
Our ceremony will likely be over by 1pm and we have told our guest to go check into their hotel, check out local attractions such as the local St. Jacobs market right by the hotel we blocked off rooms at so it makes for a easy afternoon activity. Or our guests could go home to take a power nap, this works for us because 95 percent of our family lives around where we are getting married.
Then Zach and I, the wedding party and our family will take our time getting the perfect photos with no rush at all. Simply enjoying our time and Zach and I will be able to relax for a little bit and enjoy our wedding day... instead of the rush rush rush.
RECEPTION
Then at 5:30pm we are starting the reception in my parents backyard, the bride and groom will be there to greet the guest as they come to the reception as very quick receiving line. We want to do this so we can say hi to all our guests instead of feeling like we need to track them down all evening to say hi, instead of enjoying our evening on the dance floor. There is no seating chart, people are free to mingle as much as they like... and grab as much food and drinks as they like, when they want it. We are having 3 food trucks and 2 other portable food vendors that will be staying open for 3 hours while people eat and mingle and try all the different foods. We will stop and say a few speeches, but they will be very short and no one needs to be stuck at a table during them. The DJ will be playing music and will be able to start playing the dance music when he feels like everyone is ready. We want our wedding to feel like a giant backyard party, not a formal sit down dinner where you don't get to enjoy time with all your guests.
In terms of the venue for the reception, we lucked out with my parents' backyard. They have a large corner lot with a pretty big backyard so we were able to fit a tent in the backyard and have the food trucks park on the road. Here is a detailed map below of the floor plan of the event... to give you an idea of how it will hopefully all go down.
FOOD VENDORS (aka one of the most important parts of a wedding)
Mega Cone - Ice Cream Truck
Breakfast Blues BBQ - pull pork, pilly cheese steak, poutine, chicken fingers and fries
Fo'Cheezy - Grill Cheese and Tomato Soup
Taco Farm - Tacos, glacmoley, salsa and chips
Those Pizza Guys - Wood fire personalize pizza, garden and Caesar salad
THE DECOR AND THEME
Please stop with the mason jars and twine and rustic chic themes... we have seen it all and I am personally so over it.... Can we not think of something else or does Pinterest do all the thinking for us these days. Every wedding I see has the same colouring... I get it, the blush pink is pretty, but I really want to do something original that makes our wedding unique to us.
So, Zach and I agreed to do a preppy, fun garden party vibe. We want it to feel fresh and not so romantic and formal... because it is a backyard after all.
I also knew I didn't want a solid colour bridesmaid dresses, I either wanted a floral or some type of pattern. In my search I fell in love with these striped bridesmaid dresses from Nordstrom, which really served as the jumping off point for the theme. So I started to do some photoshop to visualize these striped dresses and I ended up with this picture. I fell in love because I loved how bright and cheerful it is with an original colour scheme of blues with a pop of corals and oranges.
INVITES
For the invites, Zach and I are sooo tired of the one piece of paper that come in an envelope. So, we decided to go old school and traditional with the invites... since we are having a unique wedding we needed to be able to describe it to our potential guests. So, we chose to go with a pocket invite, with separate cards with the description of the directions, reception, accomodations and then a RSVP card. They turned out beautiful, we got them custom made through Invitations by Caitlin. She is based out of Michigan so we were able to go through everything through email and she sent us physical proofs in the mail. It worked out perfectly and she did an amazing job... here is a sample picture here :)
PLANNING
So, of course there is a lot of planning that goes in to planning a wedding that isn't a standard wedding at a venue, so we hired a wedding planner. A lot of people were surprised because they thought I would have it all organized, but honestly I didn't want to deal with all the little details so I hired Catherine, the owners of The Creative Details and it worked out great. She has done quite a few outdoor weddings so she knows all the particular things that need to be booked, bought and rented to make our day go off without a hitch.
THE DRESS
Last but not least, a lot of questions about the dress. I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted, even though there was a bunch of beautiful dresses out there. I could not find anything that was similar to what I had in my mind. So, I decided to go custom made and I worked with Paige. She owns her own business making bridal gowns called Emma Paige Designs, the whole experience has been amazing. She completely gets your vision and design and makes you the perfect dress. I can't wait to show you all the dress! It is very pretty and just what I pictured!
That is it for now, honestly I have been going like crazy with my wedding and friend and family weddings. Then keeping up with work, but it is all worth it in the end. If you have any questions about the wedding feel free to ask and I will be sure to write a post after the wedding with lots of amazing photos. Oh yes, I almost forgot the give the name of the photographers we hired for the big day. They are also amazing you can find them here 3Photography.
Cheers,
Kendra