Something Old, Something New

So we weren't particularly concerned with having something old, something new, something borrowed or something blue until the 9th or 10th person asked us if were going to. Which means we had no plans for this.

But I think we still managed to sort of meet the requirements.

Something old: Catie's undershirt.

Something new: Practically everything else we were wearing.

Something borrowed: The ceremony. We aren't Quakers. But we basically took all our ideas for our wedding, from those that are used in a Friends wedding. The type of ceremony and the signing of the certifcate. All borrowed from them. I hope they don't mind. But after talking to a friend one day about what I wanted, she told me to check out Friends' ceremonies. And what do you know, it was exactly the type of thing I had in mind.

Although, after exploring in preparation for the big day, I told Catie that if I wasn't far too lazy and uncommitted to be a part of a religious structure, I would definitely consider being a Quaker. They are pretty awesome. That's my mom in the picture signing our certificate. There will be more about the certificate later, in the "Things that went wrong" blog entry.

And of course, Something blue: Catie's underwear. I know she will be thrilled that I shared that with all of you.

The Big Day: Part 1 of ?

I think I will do this in several short entries because it seems impossible to capture everything at once. And before you ask, don't worry, there will be pictures...eventually.

First a rundown of what we did and didn't do/have and how I feel about it now.

Rehearsal Dinner

Small affair with just our parents, siblings and their spouses, 2 friends who are immediate family to me by choice, and 1 other friend who was the only person technically in the wedding. This was PERFECT. At 16 people the group was small enough for everyone to get to talk to each other and get to know one another. And it didn't feel like anyone who really should have been there was excluded. It was also at a casual mexican restaurant which meant it was very easy going and relaxed. It also wasn't overwhelming for Catie and I.

There was another gathering after dinner at the hotel with dessert and drinks that my parents hosted for my many friends and family from out of town. Catie and I did not attend this. I feel a little bad that we didn't spend the extra time with these people, but no regrets about it since we had too much to do the night before and also took some time to relax by ourselves.

I wouldn't change a thing about the Rehearsal Dinner.

Photographer

We didn't have one. The jury is still out on whether or not I think this was wise. I think it will end up being just fine. Catie's sister Cally and my cousin Jessica were both snapping away. I feel very confident that between the two of them there will be at least a few wonderful photos worthy of framing and plenty of others to go in the album. I am also extremely grateful that they both spent so much of their time doing this. And owe them both a big THANK YOU.

There also seemed to be plenty of other people taking pictures and we asked all of them to upload them to a snapfish account. There are a couple of shots that I would have liked that we didn't get. So that is a bit of a bummer. But on the whole, I don't think I'll regret foregoing the photographer. It saved A LOT of money, and I think we will have plenty of photos to cherish.

DJ

We didn't have one. We just rented the sound equipment. I have NO REGRETS about this. I feel a bit bad that Catie's brother, Matt. had to spend a some time hanging out taking care of the music. And that Catie kept obsessing about things being to loud or quiet. And I did have a moment of panic when it came to getting someone to announce the first dance, but our brother-in-law, Bob, took care of that for us. And in the end it all went pretty smooth. Plus, running everything off our computer gave our friends the chance to go set up a play-list later in the evening called, "Taking Over". Which was fine by us. Our goal with the music was to get the people who wanted to dance out there dancing, and for the most part they were. A couple of lulls on the dance floor but never for long. And being able to have complete control and choice of songs was well worth any disadvantage of not having a DJ. If I were doing it again, I wouldn't do anything differently.

For the ceremony, we had a disc of music we ran from a boom box. It was 30 minutes long. We had a friend hit play at 4:00. Pause it for a moment at the second to last song. We walked down the aisle during the last song. And it wasn't in repeat, so no one had to turn it off. Cheap, easy, and for us worked out just fine. We had exactly the music we wanted. And I don't think anyone present cared that it wasn't some professional set up. NO REGRETS

Decorations

With the help of family and friends we did everything ourselves. It was time consuming, and in the end possible didn't save all that much. But it was so worth it. Everything looked exactly how I wanted it to. And to me, fresh beautiful flowers don't need much other fanfare to go with them. We bought all our flowers from wherever the day before, and sisters, friends and cousins formed an assembly line of cutting and vase stuffing. We did have to go to about 8 different area stores to find all the specific flowers I wanted. So maybe just ordering them would have been better. BUT the flower budget is the only budget that we actually came in UNDER budget at. And we had more than we needed. And it just looked fantastic. So in the end, I wouldn't do this differently either. Also, I just tried out a few cost calculators and wholesalers online. I'd say we cut costs by over 50% by doing everything ourselves.

We also skipped any and all flowers for ourselves and family. We had no attendants, so we didn't need flowers for them. This saved a fortune. And didn't seem to be missed by anyone. Catie and I never wanted to carry bouquets, so this was an easy decision. We actually had meant to get corsages for our moms, but forgot. They didn't seem to be missing having them. Certainly the day was made no more or less wonderful for anyone because they didn't get a boutineer.

And we had 0 decorations for the ceremony. Well, this isn't true. We paid for 0 decorations for the ceremony except for 1 table cloth. It was outdoors. In a beautiful setting. Why would we need to decorate??? And, in a stroke of unbelievable luck, the people who had gotten married there the day before had left behind this beautiful archway thingy made of branches. So this part of our budget cost 20 dollars for the table cloth. And I definitely have NO REGRETS here.

Cake

Done by friend. Tasted FANTASTIC. And looked AWESOME. I'll admit, no matter how confident you are in a friend, there is some trepidation that comes with going this route rather than with someone who does this for a living. But It was perfect for us. And I'm not sure I'll be able to thank Becca enough for this. The only cost to us was cost of ingredients. So our savings was tremendous and this was an unbelievable wedding gift to receive from someone. Definitely no regrets here.

Ok, that is it for this post!