Weddingbee Blog

Prior to the wedding, I wrote a few times about how the details of things just aren’t as important to me as the substance of the wedding, the marriage, the gathering of friends and family. But they are still pretty important! Our photographers took more detail shots than I anticipated they would, especially since I shared my philosophy with them.

But in retrospect, it’s nice to have these photos to remember the little things. Seeing the things that I wore, that I handled, that I smelled, on my wedding day, help bring it back to life for me. Before jumping into the rest of the recaps, I thought it might be nice to show you how all these little things came together on our day. I’ll also show you my few DIY projects, which were barely completed the week of the wedding (which is why my only photos of them are the professional ones!).

The rings:

We ended up with several beautiful photos of the rings. Unfortunately, I forgot to give the photographer my engagement ring—it stayed on my hand the entire day! It does show up in my bouquet close-up (below), and I’m happy with that.

My hair flower and accessories:

I showed you my hair flower already, but here it is in its fluffed out glory, next to my little purse.

I didn’t actually use the purse. Just before the ceremony, I threw in some lip gloss and blotting tissues. I was too busy laughing at my wedding to use it, see it there hanging out all alone on the table?

The ring pillow:

I loved, loved my little ring pillow. I shared with you before how I sewed the pillow myself. For the flower on top, I used my same DIY flower steps that I used for my hairpiece, but I just used two really large pieces of silk. I stitched them together in the center, sewed it to the pillow cover, and stitched an organza ribbon on. I love the way it came out.

You’ve already seen my little brother as our ring bearer. He is adorable!

I meant to pick up some fake rings to attach to the pillow, but ran out of time. My mom told me later that this was not unnoticed by my brother. He said to her, “How come there are no rings on this ring pillow?” Later, during the ceremony, the minister asked for the rings and he said, “Is it my turn?” My mom had to explain that he was just holding the symbol of the rings.

My locket:
This was truly a last-minute project. A few days before the wedding, I ran into Francesca’s Collections to get a necklace for the rehearsal dinner, and came across this locket that promised to be an easy-to-put-together project. I thought, “Hm. I did want to have a locket on my bouquet.” Luckily, whoever makes these lockets has made things very easy. You just go to the website, resize the photo to their template, cut it out, and stick it in the adhesive. Even the “glass top” is just a plastic stick-on bubble. I didn’t know they made these things! Amazing. Took me 20 minutes.

I replaced the chain with some more organza ribbon, so it would be adjustable. I also tied a knot with enough room to pull the top of the locket back for a photo. I was so, so happy to have this. Inside the locket is a photo of my father.

Escort cards:

We didn’t have place cards (too exhausting!), but I was so happy we could have escort cards. Our calligrapher did them for us about two weeks before the wedding. I gave her a list of names and their table numbers, and she wrote the cards out for us and had them ready for me to pick up quickly. Of course, this means you can’t change your seating chart for the two weeks before the wedding, but that was actually a relief—I didn’t need anything else added to my to-do list!

Our Cake:

We love, LOVED our cake. If you remember, we chose this simple beauty from a 2005 Martha Stewart magazine:

photo from Martha Stewart Weddings, fall 2005, “Liezel and Christopher”

Here’s our version. Our baker changed the shape slightly to be more skyscraper-like, which fits with our wedding pretty well. Every time I see a photo of it, I want to eat it.

Here’s the reason we remember the cake so much: when we chose and ordered our cake, we’d invited 120 people, so we got a cake that serves that many (it included one fake tier—I think the one second from the bottom.). A few weeks before the wedding, when our guest list shrunk, it was too late to change the order. So we had this huge giant cake at our little wedding.

Even with the fake tier, we had plenty of cake leftover—enough to bring to our day-after party the next day, and enough to put in the fridge to snack on after the honeymoon, and of course, that top tier is hanging out in the freezer.

As much as I wanted to condense all of these into one post, this one’s getting a little long. Next up, I’ll show you the details that made up the unintentional theme of our wedding.

*Photos, unless otherwise noted, by David Wittig Photography.

Previously:

• A dark and stormy night
• Our Wedding Rehearsal
• The rehearsal dinner
• The Wedding Morning
• Getting Ready
• The Unveiling
• Fun With Cameras
• More than a Bridal Party
• Wedding Portraits and the Scary Moment
• The Oysters Get Married