ceremony and reception

If there’s one thing that can cast a spell over our wedding-crazy hearts, it’s the thoughtful details sprinkled across a couple’s big day, which is probably why we have a big, sugar-sweet crush on Celadon & Celery. Celadon & Celery is a wedding planning and design team that combines shapes, materials, textures and innovative ideas to create beautiful events, and …

Most of the energy in wedding planning goes into the reception, don’t you think? Between the table settings, flowers, and food, sometimes ceremony decor is overlooked or an afterthought. We’ve all seen beautiful aisles decorated with rose petals, hanging mason jars filled with wildflowers on shepherd’s hooks, and fluffy poms and hydrangeas hanging from pews, but today we’re going to …

Theatre in-the-round was common in Ancient Greece and Rome but with its intimate feel and unique design, it’s no wonder couples have been choosing this setup for their wedding ceremonies! Each guest has an excellent vantage point, getting rid of that who-sits-where hierarchy and allowing everyone to feel more involved in the wedding. It seems to me that getting married in …

So excited today to show off the last two Inspired Creations Contest submissions from this year’s Indie Wed!  First up, a beautiful “salvage chic” ceremony with whimsical ribbon details and gorgeous florals from Kio Kreations and Hazelton Photography!  The ladies used repurposed architectural posts, ribbons and lush floral to create an unforgettable arch focal point. To accompany this lush salvaged …

View all of Stephanie’s previous wedding recaps here

So before we get into the awesomeness that was our reception…let’s take a look at the set-up!  And by ‘set-up’ I mean all the beautiful flowers and details of course!!

All I really told our florist is that I wanted the randomly-thrown-together-country-wildflowers-in-a-jar look…and boy oh boy did she deliver!  I mean seriously the pictures …

After we exchanged our vows…it was time to ‘put a ring on it’.

Our pastor started by saying:

Let these rings be a sign that love has a past, a present, and a future
Through you and within you.

Then Lance recited these simple yet beautiful words while slipping the ring onto my finger.

Stephanie I give you this ring as a sign of my …

View the start of Stephanie’s recaps here

I loved every single part of our ceremony.

Our pastor was very laid back and easy to work with.  We were given the freedom to piece together our ceremony which made it so much more meaningful to us.

After our pastor welcomed everyone, my cute cousin read our first reading.

‘Love’ by Roy Croft

Catch up on Juel’s previous recaps here

A line that was not uttered at our ceremony, thank goodness. Not like anyone would have spoken up, unless they were trying to be a smarty-pants, but still it was nice that the split second of nervousness that might have caused did not happen. Here’s what DID happen though.

We got to the church late …

{View all of Stephanie’s previous recaps here}

Now that our parents were seated, and Lance was patiently waiting at the front of the aisle, it was our wedding party’s turn to make their trek down!

To the tune of Married Life from the movie Up… played ever so wonderfully by our string quartet… our friends/siblings made their way to the front of …

This bride almost didn’t make it to the church! Our car was in an accident the day before the wedding and there was no way for me to get to my wedding ceremony. The general manager at The Cliff House Hotel saved the day and offered to chauffeur us in his car. Talk about service!  As we pulled up to …

The tent at night? Absolutely gorgeous. Perfect backdrop for our toasts to start off the party.

[My sister and cousin introduce us and the family members, in English and Cantonese!]

It was really important to me that people close to us did the introductions. I thought it would be much more personal, more familial, and I’m thankful that my sister and cousin …

As we were finishing up our portraits some of our guests were already starting to arrive!  Before they found their seats they were greeted by our thumbprint-tree guest book.

Going with the thumbprint tree was sort of a last-minute decision.  After seeing them all over the blogosphere I sorta fell in love with it!  Not to mention it went perfectly with …