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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Always on the lookout for what to hang from the ceiling of our venue, a friend sent along a link to Frazier and Wing. How beautiful are these!! I can see them hanging above and around the bride and groom during the cermony, and then scattered around the reception venue.

{all images via Frazier and Wing}

What do you think? How else could you see these used?

I always thought I wanted to get married in a church. When I was little, my mom “dragged me out of bed by the big toe” every Sunday to go to church knowing that somewhere along the way it would become something I did all by myself. I thought she was crazy – who would want to get up that early on a Sunday unprovoked? Then at some point, 10am seemed really late and somehow found myself wanting to go to church on Sunday mornings (more evidence that I might be a grown up…).

So, when I got engaged, getting married in a church seemed like where I was headed. Then we visited High Hampton and right across the street was the cutest little Episcopal church – this had to be a sign, right?

After deciding on High Hampton as our venue, I excitedly called the church. Here comes the bad news: the person I spoke with told me that, despite the fact that I was a practicing Episcopalian in the same diocese, they were unwilling to turn their church into a “Las Vegas-style wedding chapel” by having non-members marry there. After being rebuffed in a very (what I deemed) un-Christian-like manner, I determined that this was the sign. I knew there was something better out there for my wedding.

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(this one is by me, all the rest by Matt)

After our Blackberry Nuptials, Garrett didn’t really feel married. I don’t blame him at all, it’s hard to feel married when no one would recognize you as such, except for the room service guy who referred to me as “Mrs. Cummings”, which was delightful and made me quite giddy.

The morning of the 14th, we waited around for our overnight package with Garrett’s passport in it and got ready for the day. I ditched the long dress for the short Jessica Simpson number I purchased the day before we left for San Francisco, with the intention of changing into it after our ceremony to go to lunch on the 13th. I left my hair down, straightened it with my new straightener (apparently appliances go bad right before you get married, because my hairdryer passed on about a week before the reception), and opted for the same makeup with subtler lips. I was a little more incognito, and Garrett dropped the tie and jacket.

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Our grandparents and parents were seated to Ave Maria and Canon in D. The Trumpet Voluntary played as I walked down the aisle.  Although I was calm all morning, I got very nervous when I saw all of the people in the church.  My dad and I talked the entire way down the aisle and I will never forget the look on Matt’s face when he saw me.

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(Snapshot from my camera, probably taken by a bridesmaid.)

We’re married! (To each other, as DJ likes to clarify.) It was absolutely wonderful, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’ll be back soon to tell you all about it!

Well, EAD, we’ve come to this…my last wedding recap!

What a wonderful, beautiful, joyful, and emotional journey this has been, blogging and sharing with you lovely readers.

The final images I wanted to leave you with were from our exciting exit from the reception!  Originally we had wanted sparklers, but due to Colorado fire dangers, they aren’t allowed….

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Really though, what’s the story?

Birdseed, flower petals, confetti to send off from the church. Got it.

{ image from Seasons of Life }

But what about the getaway from the reception? Sparklers, bubbles, etc…

{ image from Seasons of Life }

Are you supposed to do two send-offs?

I like the idea of doing a ribbon wand send off from the church, but I also like the idea of a sparkler send-off from the reception.

{ photo by Birdsong Photography via polka dot bride }

Is it normal to do two send-offs? What’s the deal? I feel like making people line up and cheer for us more than once would be a lot…

What did you/are you going to do?

As expected…while I was back home over the Labor Day weekend I was bombarded with wedding questions.  Most of them were typical, where’s the wedding gonna be, what does your dress look like, what type of flowers will you have…and then there’s my mom.

She tends to ask the most detailed questions and when I stare at her funny she says, “well people are asking!”…to which I reply…”really mom…people are asking you if we’re going to have programs for the ceremony?”  Not that this isn’t a legit question…in say 8 months when we are actually thinking about ceremony programs!!!  How am I supposed to think about programs when we don’t even know what our ceremony is going to be like?!

Truth be told…I actually have thought about what I want to include in our ceremony.  Along with the traditional stuff…music, vows, readings…there are a couple other “things” that have caught my eye recently…

Tree Planting:

Similar to the unity candle and the “sand mixing” alternative….in the Tree Planting Ceremony the bride and groom plant a tree together!

source

The general idea is to have a small tree in a pot, and then have the bride and groom both add soil.

found here

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Friends! It’s been so long, and I have so many stories to share! August 28th was the most perfect day of my life — rain and all. There was spontaneous singing during the ceremony. There were bridesmaids with red umbrellas and groomsmen with mugs of microbrews. There were proud parents. There were family cookbooks for every guest. And there was an unlimited supply of love and laughter.

{credit Robert Winton}

Our honeymoon at El Dorado Maroma in the Riviera Maya was equally as memorable. We ate gourmet every meal and drank fruity cocktails every day. We kayaked, snorkeled, climbed Mayan ruins, and did a whole lot of relaxing. We were pampered from the moment we arrived until the time we left.

Stay tuned for all of the joyful details!

As we oh so quickly approach two full months since the wedding, I wanted to share the few photos we’ve gotten to date with many promises for so much more to come in upcoming weeks. (I also have a ton of DIY projects to share and I swear I’m working on getting those together. Newlywed life has turned out to be quite busy so far!) Without further ado, here’s a little glimpse inside our wedding weekend…

Fastening my sister’s necklace, the one I made for all my lovely ladies. This photo looks so posed, but it really wasn’t - is that a good photographer or what?

My dear dear friend, Brian, made for a very handsome bridesman. He wore the same classic black tux and champagne tie as M and the groomsmen.

I love this series…even though I hate the hair pin that managed to ruin these photos. (Luckily, we apprehended this little rebel of a hairpin so it could ruin no more photos shortly after these were snapped.)

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(We were just at the point in our saga when it was discovered that Garrett’s driver’s license was expired)

When someone finally came out to talk to us it was to tell us no. Nothing they could do, this kind of thing had happened before, they couldn’t make exceptions, blah blah blah. Our only option was to make an appointment for the following day, have Garrett’s passport overnighted, and try again. Garrett’s parents were out of town and the passport was at their house so they had a neighbor get it for us and ship it off. I wasn’t really satisfied, I’d put on a full-length wedding dress, Garrett’s aunt had flown in from LA, Olivia was heading back to Chicago, Garrett’s uncle and his best friend had taken off work and this wasn’t repeatable for tomorrow.

I still wanted a ceremony. That day. Not to mention, my wedding invitations included an announcement that we would be getting married on August 13th! We weren’t going to have them reprinted. Garrett had a tie on that said 13! I wasn’t going to spend the rest of that day single, no way.

We had plans for lunch at 12:30 so we decided to head that way. I’d intended to change before lunch but we only had so much time after sitting in the City Hall for so long. So we made do and headed towards the piers where the restaurant was. We stopped in a wine shop and split a bottle of champagne between all of us, which definitely made the morning more bearable. I’m a lightweight, and two glasses was plenty enough to give me rose colored glasses.

(photography by olivia leigh photographie)

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