First, I want to thank all of you lovely and supportive ladies for sharing this experience with me. I appreciate your advice and sweet comments, and I hope you’ve enjoyed following along in our wedding preparation and celebration.

My advice to the soon to be hitched is this: Savor. Every. Single. Moment. I know invitation construction can seem tedious and table assignments can get frustrating. I know you can feel overwhelmed by registries and cake flavors and playlists. But before you know it the “I dos” will be said and the first dance will end. You’ll look back on the months of planning and only remember the overwhelming love that surrounded you on your wedding day.

Now before I sign off, I want to share with you one more project and one more unexpected and memorable moment.

The Favors: It took 2,500 sheets of paper, 20 ink cartridges, eight sets of hands, and ten days to make our favors.

The idea took shape during a conversation with my sister-in-law. She suggested we incorporate our passion for food and cooking into our wedding day. And since we’ve been blogging about our culinary adventures since 2007, we had a plethora of recipes to choose from. Thus the Family Cooking cookbook was born.

We organized our recipes into the following categories: Hers (my family favorites), His (Nick’s family favorites), and Ours (recipes we’ve made together). We ended up with close to 60 recipes, and that was after thorough editing! Once we had collected and organized the recipes and photos (all taken by us), I laid out the pages in Adobe Illustrator.

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When we first considered desserts, we envisioned a rustic assortment of cakes and pies. And then I tasted a cupcake from Providence Divine Cakes and Pastries in York, PA. “Divine” is the perfect adjective to describe the moist, flavorful cake and the swirl of sweet buttercream on top. Naturally, our plans changed.

There’s a reason why cupcake towers are a wedding trend. They enable the bride and groom to select a variety of flavor combinations, there’s no additional cost to “cut the cake,” and the display is just so darn cute.

We served the following:

• Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting
• Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting
• Vanilla cake with buttercream frosting
• Vanilla cake with coconut frosting
• Red velvet with buttercream frosting

(Yes, I’m craving one right now.)

The cupcakes tumbled down the three-tier display (provided by the bakery) and onto the round table alongside our Gocco’d napkins.

For our 6-inch round cake topper, we chose a white cake brushed with Chambord and layered with raspberry Champbord preserves and mousse. Yum!

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Where has the time gone? It’s been nearly five months since we said “I do” and one month since my last post. (Unfortunately, I didn’t meet my goal of finishing our wedding recaps before the calendar turned to 2010. I apologize!)

Since August, my husband left a good job in northern New Jersey and accepted an even better job in central Pennsylvania. We combined our kitchen gadgets, hardcover books, and camping equipment into a one bedroom apartment with no storage space. And we started the search for a more permanent — and larger — place to live.

But let’s move on. You came to hear about the wedding, right?

Last time we talked, I told you about our playlists and our dance moves. We chose traditional songs for our parental dances and threw in a few party favorites (YMCA, Twist and Shout, You Shook Me All Night Long).

About an hour into the dance party, Nick and I took center stage to thank our families and friends for traveling from California, Utah, Michigan, North Carolina, and Germany to share the day with us. If you’re comfortable with a microphone, I highly recommend doing this. Our guests really appreciated the acknowledgment. (And Nick made me laugh, as usual.)

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(Alright, my friends, I’m making it my mission to finish these recaps — and maybe even tell you about our fab honeymoon in Mexico — before the end of the year. Onward we go!)

My father and my mother-in-law had no choice but to join us on the dance floor following dinner. The parental dances were one tradition we definitely did not want to forgo. Both my father and Nick’s mother have faced — and conquered! — serious health conditions, and those few moments together were especially meaningful to us.

My dad chose “My Girl” by The Temptations for our father/daughter dance, and it was so fitting. It’s upbeat and not too sappy. I taught him a simple box step just four days before the wedding, and I must say I was pretty impressed with his moves. Sure, he stepped on my dress a few times, and yes, our feet got tangled more than once. But, oh, did we laugh! And we performed at least three successful turns! Our smiles couldn’t have been bigger.

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While Nick and I were taking photos, our guests headed to the reception tent for the cocktail hour. They were supposed to gather around the rectangular pool — amidst round high top tables and mason jars of candles tied with red and orange ribbon — but the wet weather prevented that from happening. However, I heard they still had a pretty excellent time.

The space was decorated with red and orange Chinese lanterns, strings of white lights, baskets of greens, and fichus trees (all expertly arranged by our day of coordinator, Betsy, I must add).

Susan Savia provided the entertainment, and drinks were served alongside a European cheese spread with fresh bread, fruits, dips, and mustards (provided by The Festive Board of York).

We offered two signature drinks: Arnold Palmers from the groom and Peach Sangria from the bride. The Arnold Palmer is a blend of iced tea, lemonade, and vodka. And we mixed the Sangria the morning before the wedding. (Get the recipe.)

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No wedding photography package is complete without a few posed portraits with the most important people in your lives.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for crafting and constructing and helping to bring all of our wedding day dreams to life.

Thank you, ladies! For being beverage coordinators, for arranging our flowers, for remembering an emergency kit, for bringing extra bobby pins and makeup, and for printing over 2,000 pages for our favors (details still to come!).

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Following our ceremony, we greeted every guest with a hug, and then we climbed the stairs and walked through the pool house to the lawn where everyone had gathered.

There were lots of hoots and hollers as we walked by our family and friends, and I didn’t hesitate dragging my dress through the mud. As we reached the bridesmaids and groomsmen, they popped open their red and tan umbrellas and waved them above us, forming the most fantastic arch. Again, it was a moment we couldn’t have planned, and it was one we won’t forget.

{photo credit to a guest}

Here is my most favorite photo of the day. The smiles on our faces reveal our pure happiness. (And Nick is pumping his fist!)

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We designed a ceremony that addressed what is most important to us in a successful marriage. It’s a union of ourselves and our families. It’s a promise to passionately and considerately love one another. It’s about sacrifice and compromise. And it’s finding comfort and completion in one another.

And to make it even more personal, we asked Aunt V to officiate. She’s a former District Judge and the very first member of Nick’s family that I had the pleasure of meeting. Unfortunately, she no longer holds the credentials to “pronounce us husband and wife,” and so we called upon another Judge (who also has a loose connection to our family) to oversee the formalities.

Susan Savia provided the acoustic accompaniment to our procession. Nick and the groomsmen walked down the stairs to “Here Comes the Sun” (unfortunately, the sun didn’t cooperate), and the bridesmaids entered to “Twas a Day” (a Susan Savia original). My dad and I walked down the slippery stairs (with just one small stumble) to “Pachelbel Canon in D,” and I saw saw my groom for the first time (an indescribable and memorable moment).

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Before our guests reached the Sunken Garden and its storybook setting, they were greeted by attendants on horseback. Lauxmont Farms is a horse farm, after all.

Our out of town family and friends took a bus from the hotel to the venue. And, yes, it was raining when they arrived.

{photo credit to wedding guests}

After they climbed off of the bus, they followed the barn wood sign that said “Wedding.” They walked the (muddy) trail and reached the stairs to the pool house. And this is where our plans changed.

Rather than taking a bottle of water and a ceremony program fan and sitting in a white wooden chair around the fountain as the sun set behind them, guests sought shelter from the rain under the reception tent. Yes, this means they saw the decor before they were supposed to, but I heard they had a pretty good time under the warm white canopy.

Our ceremony guitarist, Susan Savia, played a selection of rain songs, like Bobbie’s Song by John Denver — “I’ll walk in the rain by your side.” A few guests even took the unexpected opportunity to get a drink from the bar. And then they waited. Patiently.

Meanwhile, I had returned indoors after taking formal photos with my bridesmaids and parents. As I said in my previous post, the girls blocked my view of the raindrops hitting the window and poured me another glass of champagne.

{photo credit to bridesmaids}

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Yes, I woke up to rain on my wedding day. Every bride’s worst fear. I laid in bed for 20 minutes, listening to the raindrops hit my window, but I felt surprisingly serene.

Then it was off to Escape Salon, where all of my best girls met me for primping and pampering. The salon staff couldn’t stop talking about the weather. Three women said it rained on their wedding days, and they’re happily married. Two women said it did not rain on their wedding days, and they’re divorced. Of course everyone said it’s good luck. I always figured that was just to console the brides facing wet weather, but maybe there’s some truth to the statement after all!

Despite the many attempts to turn the weather into a positive circumstance, I could not help but pray. “Please stop raining. Please stop raining. Please stop raining.”

{photo credit to bridesmaid}

As much as I wanted to believe the rain would stop, I also knew I had to be prepared. And so I asked my bridesmaids to stop at Boscov’s on the way to Lauxmont Farms and pick up as many tan colored umbrellas as they could get their hands on. I thought these would nicely compliment the red ones we had purchased earlier that week.

And then we were off to the wedding venue! The third floor of the stone house was reserved for us, and once we reached it, the mothers and bridesmaids got to work arranging the dresses and accessories.

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