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Mr. and Mrs. Turtle
Okay, I know you’re probably wondering if I’m ever going to leave this place, but there is just one more wedding related item I want to share with you! Just one… I promise! When planning our wedding, Mr. Turtle and I wanted everything to look classy and elegant, but we really didn’t want any of the elements to seem extravagant or showy. I felt like we accomplished this pretty well with our wedding itself, but one over-the-top item we just couldn’t pass up was a quality album from our photographer. Mike Larson, Inc. works with KISS Wedding Books for their albums. In my opinion, KISS books manage to achieve the perfect balance between luxury and simplicity. Rather than gushing about the lusciousness of the 12″x12″ leather cover, the adorable cloth dust-cover it comes in, and the vibrancy of the images on Fuji Crystal Archival paper, I’ll let our album speak for itself:
There’s one thing in particular that I have in common with a lot of other brides. Here’s a hint:
Its name is Casablanca 1900.
Illustration by Flickr user The Fabled Needle
I’ve found that a year into our marriage, the question I get asked most often, with the exception of “How’s married life?” and “When are you guys going to have kids?” is “Do you have any wedding regrets?”
Pondering this has got me thinking not only about wedding regrets, but also about the concept of regret in general.
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One thing I’ve seen other brides do, and felt curious to try myself, is taking a look at how the actual wedding compares to the original inspiration board. Our goal for our wedding style was part Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and part Father of the Bride. We wanted the whole evening to feel more like an elegant backyard dinner party than a wedding. Here’s our inspiration board, or what I liked to call our “reality check board,” at the time:
Photo credits: (Left to right, top to bottom) 1. Personal photo, 2. Personal photo, 3. Domino Magazine, 4. Style Me Pretty, 5. The Photo booth Experience, 6. Watters, 7. Style Me Pretty, 8. Classic Party Rentals, 9. Style Me Pretty, 10. Style Me Pretty, 11. A Boxed Event, 12. Style Me Pretty, 13. Jose Villa, 14. Evrim Icoz Photography, 15. Martha Stewart Weddings, 16. Style Me Pretty, 17. Martha Stewart Weddings, 18. Style Me Pretty, 19. Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, 20. Personal photo of backyard, 21. Martha Stewart Weddings, 22. Style Me Pretty, 23. Personal photo of veil
And here’s how it all came together in real life:
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It’s been a while, but some of you may remember reading about my wedding planning journey. You followed along as I learned to make French macarons, designed our invitations, and had a lace shrug made from my mother’s wedding dress. When our wedding day finally arrived, I couldn’t wait to share everything with you; from the way all of the reception details came together to changing into a ’50s prom dress for our first dance as a married couple. And now, as July 10th approaches once again, I can hardly believe it’s been a year!
Photo by Chloe Murdoch, of Mike Larson Photography, Inc.
Wondering what we’ve been up to? Well, our first year of marriage has certainly been a whirlwind of both fun adventures and challenging new experiences. Immediately following our European honeymoon, we packed up all of our belongings (and wedding gifts), and left our beloved home state of California behind for the opposite coast. I can tell you from experience that a cross-country road trip is definitely an interesting way to spend your first weeks of marriage…
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Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Photos by Mario Testino, People Magazine
With the royal wedding only days away, did you really think I’d miss this chance to re-enter wedding blogland? Definitely not! I’ve missed you guys! And honestly, the only reason I haven’t been obsessively caught up in the royal wedding buzz until now is that deep down, there’s still a part of me that’s mourning the loss of my girlhood dream. Prince William was supposed to be mine. 
However, I guess if it wasn’t meant to be, I couldn’t have lost him to a classier queen-to-be than Catherine Middleton. (I mean, the fact that we both studied Art History in college does make us kindred spirits, doesn’t it?) And now that I’ve found my very own “prince,” Mr. Turtle, it’s time to move on with my life. But don’t think that means I will ever stop envying her stylish hat collection…or the palaces…or the jewels. Sigh. 
It’s a difficult task to predict the details of a 21st century royal wedding, but I hope you enjoy my vision of the occasion…
Let’s talk about Kate.
The dress: The two designers who have been at the center of the bridal gown rumor mill are Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and Bruce Oldfield.
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When I looked back through my many posts as a bee, I realized that a lot of them were pretty light-hearted, even borderline shallow. I was very tempted to choose either my Facebook awkwardness post or my macaron post as my favorite, because I had the most fun writing them, but instead, I choose this one! As shallow as being a bride can appear from the outside, planning your wedding is such a thought-provoking, personally challenging, profound experience. After our wedding, I found myself to be a changed person in so many ways. This stage of my life definitely forced me to establish a stronger sense of self. This post, “Struggles with Wedding Planning and a Search for Authenticity,” really captures the inner struggle I experienced during the journey of our engagement. Looking back, nearly a year later, I am thankful that rather than becoming weaker, marrying young has made me so much stronger! I feel proud that our wedding turned out to be such an authentic representation of who Mr. Turtle and I are and what we stand for as a couple.
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Around the time we hit the six-months-before-the-wedding mark, I hit a total stumbling block with wedding planning. Wedding related tasks turned from a joy to a burden, from a happy distraction to a tiresome chore. All of the items on my to-do list suddenly seemed totally trivial, unnecessary, and even selfish. Whenever I started working on wedding stuff, I found myself thinking about all of the people in the world who don’t have food to eat or a roof over their heads, all of the people in my own town who have recently lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. And then I would look at my to-do list and see things like: “Choose chairs and linen colors. Find cute shoes. Look for veil/hairpiece. Book bakery. etc., etc., etc.” These things just seemed so frivolous to me all of a sudden.
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As the evening wound down, and the music from our “first and last dance” began to fade away, I remember looking around at the faces of the people who were still there and thinking that it was an absolutely perfect moment in time. Some people were still dancing in the gazebo, some were taking one last turn in the photobooth, and others were wrapped up in conversation with people they hadn’t seen in years. I knew that it was time for our “farewell,” but I still found myself asking our wedding coordinator if we could just hang out for another hour. She laughed, and pointed out that the candles had all melted down. The vendors were coming to clean up soon and most of the guests had already left. I looked around and although I understood her valid points, I just didn’t want the night to end. (Isn’t that how every bride should feel at her wedding?)
The remaining guests gathered along the driveway holding the getaway flags. (Which may look like a super cute DIY project, but I have to be honest with you: they were a serendipitous find at T.J. Maxx!)
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As my wedding recaps draw to a close, have you noticed anything missing? Dancing, maybe? Well believe it or not, Mr. Turtle and I chose not to have dancing at our reception. No, we didn’t have any deep religious or philosophical reason behind this decision. Mr. Turtle specifically does not like to dance, so naturally, dancing hasn’t held any real significance in our relationship. And I figured, why make him do something he doesn’t like to do on what’s supposed to be the “best day of our lives?”
Also, the deeper I got into planning our wedding, the less I envisioned dancing fitting into the our reception vibe. I wanted the evening to feel more elegant dinner party in the garden than crazy dance party. But the closer our wedding day became, the more I started to wonder if I’d regret not having a traditional “first dance.” So Mr. Turtle and I made a sort of last minute decision to end the evening with our first dance as husband and wife.
Obviously I’m not wearing my wedding dress in that picture. Maybe I should explain!
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Okay, so remember how in my last post, I promised a couple of funny stories? Well, here you are!
After cutting the cake, I started to hurry upstairs to toss my bouquet! (That was the correct order of things… right?) Well, before I made it inside the house, our pastor approached me to remind me that if Mr. Turtle and I truly wanted to be married, we’d left out a very important part. I seriously remember having no idea what he was talking about. I really felt like I’d planned everything so well. Can any of you guys think of what our pastor could have been referring to? Here’s a clue:
Ummm… duh???
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I remember being super excited when it was finally time for dessert! Our favorite baker ever, Jeremy at Eclair Bakery in Arroyo Grande, made our cake and cupcakes, so their deliciousness was pretty much guaranteed.
We did have a little mix up though. Remember how my mom found the vintage pink cake stands I wanted on eBay? And how we were going to have a little 6″ cake on the top tier, and cupcakes on the bottom two? Well, when the cake arrived, the cardboard circle that the 6″ cake came on was too big to fit on the top tier, so it ended up going on the middle tier. So our cake tower ended up being a variety of cake stands scattered around the cake table.
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After dinner, we transitioned straight into the toasts! Up until this moment, I honestly hadn’t given much thought to the toasts, (probably since I didn’t have to give one), but listening to these ended up being among the most beautiful, memorable moments of the night!
My dad went first. I have to admit, I was a little nervous for him, (sorry to embarrass you, Dad!) But he’s admittedly not a public speaker…he did such a wonderful job though, and gave the most classic, touching father-of-the-bride toast ever! Everyone loved it! 
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Our wedding party, Mr. Turtle, and I lined up on the side of the house, ready to enter our reception! Even though we had so much fun taking pictures with Chloe, we were all ready to eat dinner and join in on the reception fun! Since we didn’t have a deejay and our “emcee” for the night was Mr. Turtle’s best man, Mr. Turtle’s Uncle Jeff announced us. I remember hearing his voice from the side of the house and thinking, “Weird, why is he announcing us?” Then I realized it was a detail I’d neglected to plan. I was so thankful to have our trusty wedding coordinator there to take care of all the little issues that came up that night! (And by the way, Uncle Jeff nailed it with the announcing!)
Sooo… first up: Best Man R and MOH Camo (left)
Second: Groomsman M and Bridesmaid J-me (right)
I have a ridiculous amount of photos that I love from our reception. And as much as I love the photos of our guests, I’ve decided to start with the details. I believe that the “details,” meaning the linens, the flowers, and all of the little projects that I poured my heart and soul into during our engagement, are truly the foundation of the event. I had the most wonderful time at our wedding, as did our family and friends; and the warmth of the love that we experienced on that July day will forever fill my heart with joy. But nothing delights a bride like seeing all of her wedding details finally come together.
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Mrs. Turtle, Central California Age and Occupation: 21, Art Student/Teacher Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, English Student Engagement Date: August 16, 2008 Wedding Date: July 2010 Venue: Mr. Turtle's Grandparents' backyard, Arroyo Grande, CA About Me: I am a California girl who loves the beach and the mountains, but is quite satisfied living right in the middle where I can enjoy the best of both worlds. I am happiest when traveling to faraway places, wandering through museums, watching old movies, or baking up a storm. Mr. Turtle and I are high school sweethearts and fellow book nerds who both drive Mini Coopers and are most likely to be found browsing in antique stores. We're having so much fun planning our European garden wedding with a vintage twist and can't wait to share more of life's adventures together!
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