Weddingbee Blog

A while back, I mentioned briefly the types of flowers and colors I might like to have at our wedding. In this post, I will show you the flowers we actually had. I love flowers in general (in fact, even as a single girl I’d regularly come home from the store with my own flowers, just because they brightened up the place so much), and the floral design was very close to my heart.

The flowers I loved most were the ones for the ceremony. The florist did an amazing job here, and I think every single person who saw the ceremony space said, “wow” out loud. They were that great.

The thing I liked about our florist is that he does a “floral + decor” type of setup, so I never had to buy a single decorative element. So, all the candles, vases, and decorative elements you see (except for those personal items we mentioned, like the table photos) were provided by him. We were surprised to find that it was actually cheaper this way!

Our photographers took a ton of great shots, which I’ll show you in a minute, but I also love this one taken by my husband’s iPhone, taken as he was walking around getting ready. It’s fuzzy and a bit underexposed, but it captures the ceremony room kind of dark and chandelier-y, just like I remember it.

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In between describing our ceremony and reception, I took a little break to show you some of our favorite wedding details.

Unintentionally (or subconsciously?) we ended up with a music and photography-themed wedding. We definitely did not set out to do this, but there it is. In putting together all my wedding details to show you, I figured that I would group the photography-related ones into one post.

Heritage Photo table:

This is something I’d seen in several weddings—the idea of a table with older family photos on it. I decided to do this several months before the wedding, but didn’t really get into it until about two weeks prior. I started out shopping at Marshall’s and TJMaxx, and bought a bunch of pretty frames that I knew would go with the venue’s decor.

My husband really got into the act, and we ended up getting a bunch of photos of both sides of the family and a few guests, who were surprised to see themselves on the table. Then, I went to my hard drives, grabbed any photo I had of “couples” that would be attending the wedding, and printed and framed them. Actually, my husband framed them. Thanks, Husband!

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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:

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The vision for our wedding ceremony changed many times while planning. I’ve written before about my inability to envision the wedding for a while after being engaged, and I also wrote about how I feel that the ceremony is the most important element of the day.

I described how I wanted our ceremony to be, and the emotional elements that I felt should be present:

It is so important to me that our ceremony reflect us in a way nothing else that day does. Falling for Mr. Oyster, and being with him every day, is one of the simplest things in the world to me. Marrying him is such a natural step for us to take, and we are so happy to do so. I hope our guests can understand what this means for us and share our happiness, and I especially look forward to feeling the encouragement and love of all those who have taken this step before us.

I think we were pretty successful. Despite a few hiccups, the ceremony was lovely, personal, and so meaningful.

Our wedding was in a long, narrow, mirrored room. The room seems perfectly designed for a ceremony, with its chandeliers on the ceiling outlining the aisle. The ceremony room was one of my favorite decorative things about the wedding day, and the florist really did a great job here.

(from Mr. Oyster’s iPhone)

A major thunderstorm struck just as people were supposed to be arriving. There was flooding, snarled traffic, and apparently, a spectacular lightning show that our early-arriving guests watched through the windows of the ceremony room. Our photographers captured the rain:

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While I didn’t want them to be the focus of the wedding day, like most people, I believe portraits are important. There is something historical and timeless about seeing your family, dressed formally, arranged just so, looking right into the camera. And of course, the sentimental part of me imagines going through them many years from now with my kids, saying, “And this is your aunt so & so, and this is your cousin, and this person and this person, etc. etc…”

We didn’t have a long list of portraits. We requested bridal party shots, some creative portraits of my husband and I, and of course, family. My husband and I also took photos with each set of parents. After the ceremony, we only had two large family portraits: one with my family, one with his.

For the few family portraits required in advance, we just asked our immediate family members to be there a few minutes early (if they’re your immediate family, they were probably planning to be there early anyway). This worked out well, especially for my grandmother, who wasn’t up to being around for the entire wedding day (helping with my dress, early photos, etc.). All she would have to do was take a photo or two, and then wait a few minutes for the ceremony.

We got around to the family photos, and Grandmother hadn’t been feeling well.
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After our couples’ portraits it was time for bridal party photos, which I’ll show you in a minute. But I couldn’t do that without briefly introducing you to my two closest and dearest friends.

When I thought about the people I’d like standing by me on my wedding day, I knew that it would likely be a very short list. I don’t have any sisters, but I’m the oldest of 7 girl-cousins! However, they all live far away and are in various stages of college/early career (in fact, only one would make it to the wedding) and I was thinking it would have been a hassle for them to deal with being bridesmaids. Also, our wedding was pretty small, and if I’d had my family up there with me, no one would have been left to be in the audience!

So I immediately thought of my two best friends: My friend E, whom I’ve known since graduate school (the one whose bridal shower I showed you a while back):

Young friends in 2007

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You may have noticed a little detail in my preview post from a few weeks ago:

Mr. Oyster and I met in a photography class, and we’re both photographers (I shoot portraits sometimes; my talented husband is a lifelong artist with a history of working with film; he also takes catalog-worthy photos of artwork). So for our “couples’ portraits,” we thought it might be fun to take some portraits with our cameras.

I brought my Nikon, and Mr. Oyster brought his brand new (but really old) Mamiya. This was probably the most fun part of the portrait session.
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We planned for our portraits to be right after the “getting ready” time, both because we really liked the idea of the “first look,” and because, well at least for me, I thought it would be nice to have portraits right after having my hair and makeup done, as opposed to several hours later.

We also decided to do the “unveiling.” Since I was not being given away, and I was wearing a veil, I was either going to have to have Mr. Oyster unveil me at the altar (an idea that made me feel weird) or just have it open all the time. So at the last minute, we decided it would be nice for Mr. Oyster to get to do it during our first look. He loved this idea and was looking forward to it. I know this from the many veil-related jokes he made the entire week before the wedding.

When I selected our venue, I took one look at the restaurant and knew that’s where I wanted our portraits to be. I love the backgrounds (you’ll see more of them in our portraits), and it gets great light!

I let the photographers arrange us and set up the first look however they wanted. I was standing in the window, and Mr. Oyster was to come over to me, and then we would, well, look at each other.

In the category of “weird memories from your wedding day,” I remember that the restaurant was supposed to be closed and empty at that time of day, which it was, except for two people sitting behind me having a weird business-y, gossip-y conversation.
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One of the benefits of having a well-padded schedule is that you have built in room for things like solving crises and “emergency hug” visits to your family. So when I arrived at the venue an hour later than I’d originally planned, it was no big deal.

I remember having a tremendous difficulty trying to park the van in the garage and carry all my things up to the venue. The Tower Club is on the 48th floor of an office building, and since it was a Friday afternoon, there were still some business-y people around. Several of them didn’t even try to hide their amusement at the sight of this “live bride walking.” It was fun. In one hand, I wheeled my suitcase, and in the other, I held my wedding dress high over my head. I was frazzled, but also feeling very peaceful and happy. I must have been quite a sight!

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The morning of the wedding, I woke up early.

Anxious and worried and a little nervous, I was mad at myself for being so susceptible to a melt-down, and for losing the shaper. (For those not initiated, I’m talking about something like this). It was pretty clear at this point that my anxiety about the shaper wasn’t really about the shaper, if you know what I mean.

That’s when I started thinking, the way I usually do when my mind is running away from me, that I could choose the kind of wedding day we’d have. I mean, yes, the little things matter, but at some point you have to decide how much they matter. Here we’d just had our lovely rehearsal and dinner, and our family had flown in from all over the place just to celebrate with us. We’d planned this wedding as best we could and there was really nothing to worry about anymore.

And if I was worried about being beautiful on my wedding day, well, beauty comes mostly from self-confidence and inner peace, anyway (yes, I know how it sounds, but it’s true!). Isn’t that what I’d been trying to teach myself for the past eighteen months?
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Almost from the moment we were engaged, we knew we wanted to have our rehearsal dinner at Cafe Veracrúz. It’s one of the first places we had dinner when we were dating, and it’s some of the best Southern Mexican food around. We love it, and we wanted to take an opportunity to share something of ourselves with our families and friends.

The restaurant has an “intimate” atmosphere (read: small), so it was perfect for our little group. Once we got there and settled down, I spent several minutes sitting with my mom and grandmother.
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After my little meltdown, I tried calling a couple of stores, which had already closed. Mr. Oyster, feeling quite helpless, offered to order me a new shaper via overnight mail. I made my own efforts to “suck it up” and got dressed to go to the rehearsal.

By now it was beginning to rain, and I remember putting on my lovely purple dress and new necklace. I also remember playfully asking Mr. Oyster to help me walk around, because I was absolutely planning to wear my cute dress heels, rain or not. He promised, and we were off.

I scheduled our rehearsal at the same time as our wedding the next day, to help with scheduling and also to get a feel for what everything would be like at that exact time. Of course, when I did that, many months prior, I was anticipating some evening sunshine and sunsets and interesting light. There was nothing of the kind. Little did I know how much the conditions at the rehearsal dinner would become familiar to us.
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Early in the day, The Day Before Our Wedding, it was bright and sunny, shiny, and hot. I’d finally finished my to-do list. It was the end of what I call the Crazy Wedding Week. Mr. Oyster and I had picked up our families from the airport, and we were caught in the whirlwind. You know what I’m talking about. No matter how low-key your wedding (or especially if it isn’t), there’s a bunch of activity, a lot of nervous energy, and family members and friends fluttering about.

But the day before the wedding, I was at home, relaxing by myself, packing up our “wedding things” (decorations and things) to be given to the coordinator that night. It was incredibly quiet. There was music playing somewhere, and the cats were all asleep. I was preternaturally calm. And then I decided to pack my wedding suitcase.

The suitcase was to include almost everything—since I was leaving directly from home to the venue on the wedding day, and we’d be coming home after the wedding, I didn’t need any overnight stuff, just everything on my “wedding list” for the next day. This included things like my jewelry, shoes, cosmetics, my “getting ready” robe, emergency papers, my purse, and of course, my wedding day undergarments, which included my trusty body shaper.

The shaper!
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I may or may not have jumped for joy upon receiving our digital files, because it means one thing: I can finally begin recaps!

Before I begin to re-experience of the wedding on your behalf, let me show you just a few of the wonderful works of art given to us by our photographers:

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While I was planning, I spent so much time describing to you my process with the dress, that I never really shared the rest of my bridal look with you! I figured I’d let you know how I came about my bridal “look.” It’s interesting how, in the planning of this wedding, I drew my inspirations from soooo many different places.

In general, my look evolved quite a bit. Originally, I was thinking to have an outdoor wedding, with a form-fitting lace dress and my hair down with a flower in it. This look is captured pretty well by America Ferrera’s character in Our Family Wedding, actually (well, at least on the cover—savvy readers know that in the actual movie, her hair is up):

photo property of 20th Century Fox

photo from VivirLatino.com (which has a pretty good & insightful review of the film)

But you know what happened to those plans. We shifted to a formal, black tie wedding, so I changed my look to fit that—and I’m so happy I did!

Hair:
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