Posted byRemember these rad crocheted dessert table toppers? We've got that backstory and the whole wedding to share!
The Offbeat Bride: Nicole, Crafter
Her offbeat partner: Adam, Blues musician
Date and location of wedding: Bride's parent's mountain home in Blue Ridge, GA — May 11, 2013
Our offbeat wedding at a glance: Adam and I both have large families, and not all of them live near us, so our first hurdle (which would decide how the rest of our wedding day would go) was to choose whether we would invite All Ze Family or not. We picked to have only our closest friends, keep it small, not stress about the extended family, and generally just not stress at all! We're not high-strung people, so it just made sense that we would try and make this day reflect that. We invited 45 people (35 were able to come), and just had a lovely, relaxing day!
When we first got engaged, we both chose a food that must be at the wedding. For me, it was a fajita bar, with a very specific meat from San Antonio (where I grew up), as it's the tastiest ever. For Adam, it was cheesy pigs-in-a-blanket. We made all the food ourselves (minus the fajita meat, and two types of cookies, which we got from our favorite local baker), and just filled the menu with our favorite things. When it came to desserts, I wanted a lemon cake, and Adam wanted an angel food cake.
I made dessert table toppers that watched over all the goodies.
Neither of us like dancing, but we both love and live music, so we nixed the dances, and just had an awesome eclectic playlist going throughout the day (from Frank Sinatra to Brian Setzer to Tom Waits).
Tell us about the ceremony: We both walked in with our parents, to show that we love including them in this next step of life, but we gave ourselves to each other (because that's what we do every day)! We're not really religious, but we had a minister perform the wedding, but it's because she's my amazing friend from theater who just happens to also be a minister. But we made the ceremony ours, and left out any text that didn't mean anything to us.
My brother and our friend Lisa did our readings, and they were fun and sweet, and very us (especially Lisa's, because we have five cats). Paul's reading was from Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. Lisa's was the poem “Everything I Learned About Love, I Learned From My Pets.”
Our biggest challenge:
It was raining all week leading up to the wedding, then up until about 45 minutes before the wedding. My awesome day-of commander Sara made the call to move it all outside. I found out afterwards that while I was doing my hair, they had completely re-decorated the living room to hold the ceremony should we need it. But I really am glad that we were able to have it outside. Related: we were hoping to borrow chairs so we wouldn't have to rent them, because most places have a 50-chair minimum, and we only needed about 25. The local funeral parlor let us borrow theirs, which was so sweet of them.
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My favorite moment: My daddy used to play saxophone back in the day, and he hasn't played in a while. Unbeknownst to me, he and Adam started scheming a couple months before the wedding. We weren't going to do a daddy/daughter dance (he doesn't like dancing either), but he still wanted to do something special. So he learned how to play “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler On the Roof (one of my favorite shows), gave the lyrics to everyone there, and they all serenaded me!
Adam is a musician and a songwriter. He also had a rule that he wouldn't write a song for the person he's with. Well, he broke his rule. He played a beautiful song that he wrote for me, sang, and I was a weepy mess.
My funniest moment:
During the ceremony, the funniest moment was when we were enjoying our first kiss and… well, I guess we were taking too long, because our minister Peggy said, “All Right! Break it up! That's enough for now! Let's just finish this up!” To which Adam replied, “But that's my favorite part!”
And funny to me now, but less funny on the day: I was a weepy, weepy, ugly tears mess for a good portion of the day. I almost couldn't get through my vows, lost it during Adam's (which he made up on the spot), and couldn't control myself during the music at the reception. Weepy. Mess.
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?
- Bride's jewelry and “ladies in the wedding” necklaces: Brittany Francis (note: She was AWESOME because she made me some custom flower plugs)
- Amazing photographer: Mishaun Arrington
- Cookies: L&L Beanery
Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!
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LOVE everything about this! The knitted dessert guardians, the hair, the dress, the laid-backness of it all. Looks like a wonderful time. Congratulations and best wishes!
Thank you so much!! It really was a blast (once I stopped crying)! We had a wonderful day surrounded by our loved ones. We couldn’t have asked for more!
despite all the wonderful weddings i’ve seen on OB, this is the first i felt like i HAD to comment.
i just wanted to say that i don’t blame you for being a “weepy mess”, because the idea of your father playing ‘sunrise, sunset’ (which is like, one of the BEST and one of the most HEART WRENCHING SONGS!) AAAAAND your groom wrote and sang a song for you?!
i think your photographer caught the immense love they have for you. i am a weepy mess myself!
congratulations, and i wish for more love and music in your marriage!
Aww! Thank you so much! My photographer (& her assistant) were both so great about letting us be ourselves, then really capturing all of it! Though they kept crying too.. It was pretty hilarious!
Aw girl, I KNOW I’m going to be a weepy mess too! 🙂 Your wedding looked AMAZING! I’m sure you weren’t the only one bawling happy tears!
I think the number of people who didn’t at least shed one tear is a much smaller number than those who did! & I know I was super happy, because even though my face was pretty red & splotchy, I didn’t even care!
No surprise you were a weepy mess when I had to cry just by reading (!) about your father playing “Sunrise, Sunset” for you and your lovely husband singing a song to you!
What a wonderful bunch of people you know and how adorable and amazing they are – and so must you.
wow!!!! your wedding looked amazing…. so beautiful, I had tears just reading about it, im not suprised you were ( as you described it) a weeping mess Although you certainly didnt look it. you were a really beautiful bride, there’s a lesson here for all bride to be’s … do stuff thats important to YOU and dont get caught up in following traditon for tradtion’s sake. Congratulations to you and your handsome husband Xxx
Your dad is amazing! Your ceremony made me a weepy mess, too. So beautiful.
I’m so glad to hear you say you were an ugly cry weepy and mess and your pictures are still SO FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Because I am also totally going to be a weepy mess.
“My favorite moment: My daddy used to play saxophone back in the day, and he hasn’t played in a while. Unbeknownst to me, he and Adam started scheming a couple months before the wedding. We weren’t going to do a daddy/daughter dance (he doesn’t like dancing either), but he still wanted to do something special. So he learned how to play “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler On the Roof (one of my favorite shows), gave the lyrics to everyone there, and they all serenaded me!”
:’3 That is too precious.
Those table toppers are adorbs!
Thank you! They were a bit time-consuming, but lots of fun to make!
I’m in love with her hair! I’m doing a lot of origami for my wedding, too, but never thought about using origami cranes as hairpieces. I wonder how she got them to stay in her hair?
I actually made that too! (& made a coordinating one for my mom.) I just used jewelry wire, & one of those plastic hair combs. My hair is *really* fine, so i used a small, clear rubber hair band to help secure the comb.