Here are a few more details from our wedding.
This is our Tears of Joy basket. The idea was to give everyone something to dry their tears and also keep as a memento of our wedding. I originally saw this on blog somewhere and have yet to be able to locate it since, but I thought it was the cutest idea. I purchased the basket at a thrift store for cheap and collected the hankies on eBay. After thoroughly washing and ironing each one, I displayed them in the basket with a sign that read: “As a memento of the day and for tears of joy (if any), you may take (and keep!) a vintage hankie.”
Instead of a traditional guest book, we decide to do ‘Recipes for Love’. I purchased a vintage recipe box along with vintage recipe dividers (in the original packaging!) on Etsy. I painted the box white and gave it a distressed treatment and added a blue knob to the lid from Anthropologie. I also added the silver label holder and slipped a little piece of paper in that said ‘recipes for love’.
The hand made sign next to the guest book read: “In lieu of a traditional guest book, we ask that you leave us a note, thought, drawing or recipe (for food or love) on an index card for us to file in our recipe box. Next to the guest book was a mason jar full of pencils that I covered in coordinating scrapbooking paper.
A copy of Edward Monkton’s A Lovely Love Story (which was read in the closing of our ceremony), was placed on a table inside the barn for people to look at if they chose to. It now has an honored place on our bookshelf. I just love this story – so simple and touching!
I cut the escort cards out of Kraft paper and glued the ivory nameplates on top. They were then attached to the frames I made (details here) using tiny clothespins. The cool thing about this project is that I am now using one of these in our bedroom as a decorative jewelry organizer, and it looks awesome!
Here are all three of the boards together in front of the barn, untouched.
For the card box, I borrowed my mother-in-law’s vintage milk crate from White’s Dairy Farm. I covered a piece of foamboard with leftover fabric from the escort boards to cover the wire milk compartments. I punched holes in the sign and attached it with grey satin ribbon.
I knew all along that I wanted table names instead of numbers, I just couldn’t decide on a theme. We went back and forth between classic Hollywood romance films and Beatles songs. Although we both (especially Tory) love movies, we settled on Beatles songs because in all honesty, we hadn’t actually seen many of the classic romances. I added a little info about each song for the guests to read if they chose.
I made little tents out of Kraft cardstock, and glued the names to both sides. I added some ribbon because, well, I just love ribbon. You can also see the votive holders in this photo – for those we used small jelly jars purchased at WalMart, added split peas in the bottom for some color, and tied some twine around the opening. p.s. Oh! Darling is my all-time favorite Beatles song 
I made menus for the buffet (so everyone knew what they were getting) and the bar. The venue put them in frames that they had.
I wanted a variety of vases for our centerpieces, so my mom and I spent the months leading up to the wedding scouring flea markets, garage sales, thrift stores and our family’s storage spaces for unique and colorful vessels. We gave all of the vases to Martha and she made magic!
I cut the burlap runners to size from a few giant sheets that I purchased in Home Depot’s garden department for next to nothing. I had no idea you could even buy burlap at Home Depot, and this saved us a ton of money we would have spent at the fabric store. I love the juxtaposition of rough fabric against the shimmery pewter linens. We had chocolate chip cookies from Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates as favors. We picked them up the day before to ensure freshness, and spent the evening before the wedding packaging them. Here’s a better look at the labels. This was the “Here, There And Everywhere” table.
This is a look into the reception area from the entrance of the barn. We covered a board with fabric that matched the escort boards and plastered it with photos of us throughout the course of our relationship, including our engagement pics taken by my friend Andrew Nixon.
All photos in this post by Rochelle Mort.
I believe that it’s the little details that bring everything together in a wedding, so for ours, nothing was overlooked. A lot of people will tell you to forget about small stuff – that no one will notice or remember. This may be true for some, but definitely not for me – I would notice! And I believe that, consciously or not, others will be affected by the overall design and cohesiveness of the event. So we made a point to infuse small, meaningful and personal touches throughout our wedding.
First up in the details is our Ceremony Programs (first blogged here), which I decided to make into a booklet. They were incredibly labor intensive, but definitely worth the trouble. The covers were cut from sheets of Kraft cardstock and hand stamped with our names and wedding date using a rotary letter stamp. The spines were sewn in a zig-zag pattern using contrasting thread colors. I love all of the little imperfections that the stamping and sewing brought to the design!
There were a total of 8 interior pages. Page one was a simple welcome. Pages 2-5 were meant to keep the guests entertained with a light-hearted idea I stole borrowed from the Martha. ‘What Tree Did You Fall From‘ is a Celtic version of astrology. I changed the size, colors and fonts to match our wedding stationery. I don’t have pro pics of this – so these will have to do:
The next two pages had our Ceremony and Wedding Party details:
And last, but certainly not least was the Memoriam and Thank You at the end. The Memoriam was especially important for us to include because we were married on the one year anniversary of the death of Tory’s Aunt Nancy.
Here’s the text we used:
In Memoriam
On this day of happiness, we would like to remember those who have gone before us. Although they are not here to share in our special day, they will be in our hearts today and always.
Thank You
Thank you for coming together, from near and far, to share in the joy of our marriage! Each one of you has touched our lives in some significant way, shaping us as individuals. As we celebrate the joining of our hearts and souls, we are grateful for your love, support, and friendship. A special thank you to our parents for giving us life, love, and opportunity, and for always supporting our dreams.
All photos unless otherwise specified by Rochelle Mort
Our invitations were featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper yesterday. Check out the post right here.
Well, here it is, kids! THE ACTUAL WEDDING! Since this was the most important part of the day, please excuse for the gratuitous amount of photos (by Rochelle Mort, obviously!). After we had our first look, we took photos with our families, and then I went back to the bridal suite and took some pics with just us girls. We then sat around, chatted, and drank champagne. Tory’s dad stopped by to give me a hug. We tried to console Jocelyn with peppermints after she took a face plant.
This is what the guests saw when they entered. The ceremony area:
The ceremony programs that we labored over:
And then…..it was time! Please note, I have no idea what time it actually was. I have asked several people after that day: “did we start on time?” Seriously you will probably lose your inner clock (not that I ever had one) on your wedding day. I still don’t know what time the wedding started.
Here we are walking up toward the Ceremony Gardens at Newcastle Wedding Gardens (a gorgeous wedding venue if you’re looking in the Sacramento area!).
The guys, including Tory came out to ‘The Long and Winding Road‘ by the Beatles.
His parents were seated…
Next it was the ladies, who walked to ‘Something‘. We had a bit of a Beatles theme throughout the day, in case you were wondering. Tory and I actually bonded over the Beatles back in the day, way before we started dating, when we both worked at Safeway. He was amazed that I knew the lyrics to Don’t Pass Me By from The White Album.
First came Tory’s sister Jessica, and her daughter, Jocelyn (this photo was taken by family friend, Jennifer Bishop):
You can really see poor Jocelyn’s banged up chin (she tripped on a paver and fell face first onto another) in this photo:
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All photos in this post by Rochelle Mort: www.rochellemortphotography.com
We arrived at Newcastle Wedding Gardens a little behind schedule, but more or less on time. We were whisked into the bridal suite where my gown (and our flowers!) awaited me.
A lovely shot of my gown in the gardens.
Our gorgeous bouquets, by Martha of Blooms by Martha Andrews
More dress pics!
The lace on my fancy pants!
Helping mom with her earrings
Mama zipping me up.
My facial expression cracks me up in this one:
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