post-wedding post
Me, pre-ceremony:
My boss and her daughter during the ring warming (this is one of my favorite photos)
During the ceremony:
Sealing the deal:
Me and my husband (I'm sure at some point I'll be able to type/say that without snickering):
The photo booth was popular:
exterior of the reception:
Origami light decorations worked wonderfully!
Some disjointed thoughts:
It was an amazing day - that picture where I have my head back, laughing? There are a lot like that. :) Walking into the ceremony, and feeling the love radiating from everyone there - that has to be one of the most incredible feelings I've ever had. Knowing that they were there to love Reid and me, and to celebrate with us - wow!
We wrote the ceremony from scratch with Reid's sister, who officiated, and there were a lot of comments about how it really reflected us, and people who knew all of us could see things in the ceremony that we each had contributed. Each of our parents did a reading, as well as one friend. Our moms shared a reading, I Like You, and got a lot of laughs. There were goats right next to the ceremony, who were well behaved and bleated once towards the end.
It was a very DIY venue (the provided the building and grounds, we did everything else)- we got in to set up that morning, and had several helpers (although fewer than I expected). One of my coworkers was our day-of coordinator, and I can't say enough good about her. I think in a venue where they do more of the set-up one wouldn't be necessary, but she was indispensable.
I had hoped that the rushed feeling other people talk about at their weddings wouldn't apply to me, but it did. During the ceremony we had a spot where Anna asked us to stop and look around, and I'm really glad we did. The ceremony is probably when I felt calmest - there was only one thing to do. The rest of the day I spent wishing I could be in at least a dozen places at once. I had hoped to get to spend some real time with everyone at the wedding (there were only 70 of them!) but somehow that didn't happen. I did see everyone, but didn't chat much with quite a few people.
We had other options to spend time with people, and that made me feel better about being rushed at the reception - Thursday night we had a BBQ so our families that were in town could meet each other. Friday after the rehearsal dinner we went out for drinks across from the hotel and saw a lot of people. Sunday we had an open house at our place (which was almost as busy as the reception, somehow, because we'd invited local friends we didn't have room for at the wedding!). 4 solid days of entertaining was overwhelming, but I think it was nice to have more time with people.
One of the things that we'd really been hoping for was a sense of community, and I think we achieved it. Looking at the photos, I'm having as much fun looking in the background, to see who's chatting - my local friend and Reid's uncle from CO? My aunt and my college roommate? Cool. :) There have been a few people who've asked me for email addresses for other people they met at the wedding, and I think that's pretty great, too.
xposted to weddingplans