Set Up + Decorations

Generally speaking our goal was to be fun, colorful, and creative (cheap, too). We are so lucky to have thoughtful and creative people in our lives. Without them, we would not have had the great details that made our wedding feel so...us.

We set out the cards Nick had his first graders write to me about why I should marry him (when he proposed) as well as the save the date madlibs we used.


Our extremely thoughtful friend made this frame for us from our proposal!

A bridesmaid set up the guest book which was a blank canvas, directions to "draw a line that represents you" and a digital camera. It was really fun and now we have a great painting above our bed!


My mom made hundreds of feet of garland. She even sewed buttons on some of them. We saved it to use in the future for parties and I'll put some up in my classroom this year. It made our reception really feel like a party.



We didn't go too cheap on the dishes and glasses. We kept that classy. The turquoise tablecloths were a last minute decision that I really loved. I had already made everything reds and oranges, so the contrast was perfect.

My mom made over 200 birds for decorations/party favors. Here's where the bird idea began and here's where she got the template. Don't call it a bird themed wedding-Nick hates that. Shoot, like he really reads the blog, call it what you want :)

We had catering from Baha Fresh. It was such a money savor and it really was wonderful! They even gave us hibiscus flowers to make it look nice. It helped that we had friends help set up.
At first we wanted to have a margarita toast, then we realized that it'd have to be cheap margaritas, then we vetoed it and stuck with beer/wine/lemonade/water. More importantly, Nick's mom and friend made these awesome buckets for ice. There were a few on each table.

Ceremony

The week before the wedding we painted some quick pieces of wood.

Our good friend Mike played guitar while we all walked down the isle. I think he played a Damien Rice song as I walked.

We put down blankets for out guests. We set up about 15 chairs for our grandparents and older guests. Don't worry, the ceremony wasn't too long.

Our friend and photographer Diana's daughters were our very beautiful flower girls. We picked some flower petals out of a tree at the hotel guests were staying at the morning of. That was one of a few last second things.

My nephew was the ring bearer. The rings are on a ribbon around his neck. He was hot and tired, so we left off his pants. He was so happy when he finally got to his mom at the front!

The boys wore any shade of blue/green shirt they wanted. Nick let them pick out a tie from 2002ties. Nick wore a tie with art by Seurat called Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Grande Jatte...we got married on Sunday afternoon in a similar setting; smooth, right.

Our friend James performed the ceremony. We stood near the trunk of an oak tree. The flowers were "happyolas" (gladiolas) that we found at the grocery store as well as the flower in my hair. The girls wore saches that my mom made out of fabric that we died.