All Things Wedding From Wedding Stationery to Bridal Wear

I seriously can’t image how we could have planned our wedding without the ’bee. So, it was less than a month before the wedding and we didn’t have a first dance song picked out, let alone have a game plan for the dance. It was Weddingbee to the rescue! Mrs. Canary posted about an emergency dance lesson she had just had, and I contacted Erin of Start Dancing right away! She was such a sweetheart on the phone and quickly scheduled to meet us at my parents’ house the same week.

Let me tell you, with our busy schedules, it was a godsend that she could come to us. All we had to do was let her know what we wanted for our first song so she could personalize a routine for us. We originally wanted “No One” by Alicia Keys but we weren’t a fan of the style of dance that went with the song. (I forget what Erin said it was, cha-cha maybe?) Anyhow, at the last minute we chose Alicia’s “If I Ain’t Got You” since we thought a Viennese Waltz was a better idea. Erin was so patient with us and all our hard work paid off! Mr. Lovebird and I both agree, it was most worthwhile investment we made towards the wedding. And here it is, it all its glory (video to follow later since I’m too lazy to splice and encode).

Mr. Lovebird was supposed to kiss my hand before he raised it but he was so nervous he forgot. Afterward, I was like, “You forgot to kiss my hand.” And he’s like, “Oh my god, I totally forgot, I was wondering why you were trying to stuff your hand in my face.”

Here I am, smiling at him…

Meanwhile, in my head, I was thinking, ‘Holy crap the dance floor is slippery. Stupid Lovebird for not realizing there might be sand on the dance floor. Man, I wish I took off my heels. Please don’t fall, please don’t fall, please don’t fall…’ Now we were the ones in the Danger Zone!

Here he is, smiling at me. I’m pretty sure that’s his nervous smile.

Here’s one of the turns in our routine.

You can tell that’s he’s saying something to me. Erin tried to teach him how to “lead” and me how to “follow” but eventually caved by allowing him to just “tell” me what he was going to do next. During the lesson, he kept saying, “Stop trying to lead!” Hehe~ I couldn’t help it, okay!

(guest photo-check out that sand)

The beginning of the big finale started off with me spinning out.

And then me spinning back into his arms while he catches me in the air. We added this move after our lesson by watching “Dancing with the Stars” footage, cuz we wanted to spice it up a little more.

And of course, it ended with a dip.

And the crowd went wild! Actually, I didn’t pay too much attention to the crowd, I was too busy focusing on the steps and was relieved when it was finally over. We would have been fine with just doing the sixth grade “rock and sway” for our first dance, but we hoped our efforts made our dance a bit more enjoyable for our guests to watch. Plus it was a great bonding experience for us to learn/practice the routine.

What are you doing for your first dance? Are you planning on going with the flow or is there a routine lined up?

Wedding Day Part I: The Girls Getting Ready
Wedding Day Part II: The Boys Getting Ready
Wedding Day Part III: The Guests Getting Ready
Wedding Day Part IV: Bridal Portraits
Wedding Day Part V: Moments Away
Wedding Day Part VI: The Processional 1.0
Wedding Day Part VII: The Processional 2.0
Wedding Day Part VIII: Here Comes The Bride
Wedding Day Part IX: The Ceremony
Wedding Day Part X: “You Have Them, Right?”
Wedding Day Part XI: Wrapping Up the Ceremony
Wedding Day Part XII: Friends and Family Portrait Time!
Wedding Day Part XIII: Bride and Groom Portraits
Wedding Day Part XIV: Highway to the Danger Zone

*unless otherwise noted, please credit all photos to Del Sol Photography

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I have been waiting ‘with bated breath’ to see the photos from Candice’s own wedding. So yesterday’s front page SMP feature was a huge delight for me!  Not only was it all that I knew it would be … it was one of those Little Black Book name-dropping affairs … loaded with LBB celebreties with Candice in the leading role. Her supporting cast, though, are all superstars in their own right.

First up in this cast of super-stars are Robert & Kathleen Photographers. Fairly new members to our LBB family, we honestly couldn’t be happier to introduce them to you! My first peek at their work was back in May when Abby did a three-part feature of one of their weddings at the Oxford Airport in Connecticut. Really, really, really super. Here’s a link to their blog post of Dagney & Michael’s wedding. You will LOVE it. 

And of course there was Beth Chapman of White Dress By The Shore. Beth’s brides come from far and wide to savor the experience of selecting their gowns in her boutique salon.  Candice wore a custom creation from Modern Trousseau …

Jessica Robinson of Jessica’s Country Flowers ~ a frequent contributor to SMP & the LBB blog is an ultra-talented floral designer in Connecticut.  All you have to do is type in “Jessica’s Country Flowers” on the front page search box of SMP and you’ll see a rainbow of lovely creations from Jessica! Perhaps the highest praise that a wedding vendor can get is to have a fellow wedding vendor ask you to help create the wedding of her dreams!

And then there’s Candice’s hair and make-up. If you’re a comment reader … it was a pretty close race yesterday on Abby’s post which you guys loved most ~ Candice’s hairstyle or her shoes!  Dana Bartone’s brides are always gracing the pages of the wedding world.  One look (or three or four) will make it obvious as to why.

And Lilah Paper … well, you’ll see in the following photos why Candice selected them for her invitations and paper pieces! It’s the details, such as these, that will really make your wedding personally yours!

Perhaps I should have started this post with an introduction of Candice! Candice Dowling Coppola is the creative force behind Jubilee Events.  Her talents at planning and designing weddings is absolutely and positively a testimonial here ~ today ~ on her own wedding. 

A few more shots from Robert & Kathleen of the beautiful details of the day …

But of course, we would be remiss without showing you a few more photos of THE SHOES …

Congratulations Candice & Michael! You and Jubilee Events planned one knock-it-out-of-the-park- wedding!

A huge congratulations to all of the wedding vendors who helped make this day such a smashing success!!!

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Post tags: Connecticut, Dana Bartone & Co., Jessica’s Country Flowers, Jubilee Events, Lilah Paper, Modern Trousseau, Robert and Kathleen Photographers, White Dress By The Shore
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog, Real Weddings, Shoes, Traditional Elegance, Vintage Chic, Wedding Details, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Photography, Wedding Planners & Designers

This article was originally posted onStyle Me Pretty.

Today, a gorgeous wedding sent to me by photographer Raquel Reis. One of the things I love to hear from a bride is what inspired them while thinking about their wedding. Clelia and Blake pulled from a number of sources for inspiration, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to early 20th-century Orientalist paintings, to Blake’s love of nature and botany. But above all of that, says Clelia:

“We wanted our wedding to be a celebration with the many people who we love and who have loved and cared for us. It was really important to us that every one of our guests felt
comfortable and appreciated and that they had an amazing time. We tried in all of our decisions to be honest – to make decisions that reflected who we are, what our values are and how we live. We wanted to avoid a wedding that felt canned in favor of something that was personal and real.”

In addition to several incredibly talented vendors, friends and family helped to pull this event together by helping to set everything up the day before the wedding. And what an amazing job they did!

Clelia’s bridesmaids wore the same Butter by Nadia dresses, just wrapped in a different way, and each chose her own whimsical headpiece to wear, like this one by Which Goose.

Clelia wore this amazing heirloom veil, made in Belgium for her great-great grandmother’s wedding. Her great-grandmother, grandmother, and many cousins have also worn it.

I love this idea – Wilma curtains from IKEA hung on the sides of the tent.

Each table was set with vintage lace tablecloths, as well as a number of old candelabras, coffee sets, and other decorative silver plate items purchased on eBay, for $10 (or less) apiece.

Oh that bouquet! Ariella Chezar gets me every time!

With over 30 guests under the age of 10, it was important to Clelia and Blake that they provide lots of fun for the kids. A petting zoo and bubbles station kept the littlest guests entertained, and several baby-sitters supervised dinner, sleeping and movie-watching so that parents could enjoy the wedding, too.

Some guests, aware of the “enchanted” inspiration behind the wedding, wore wonderfully whimsical ensembles. A few of Clelia’s parents’ friends even dressed as frogs and princesses (with suits and dresses to change into later) – if the couple and their parents have a sense of humor, what a hilarious surprise this would be!

With 300 guests, Clelia and Blake were worried that the wedding would feel impersonal. In order to counter this, the couple wrote a personal note to each guest, which doubled as seating cards. Blake and Clelia “switched” families, so she wrote to each member of his family, and he wrote to hers. Says Clelia, “Even though this was a massive undertaking and took a lot of time in the days leading up to the wedding, I feel it was well worth it. I think it really did achieve its goal of making every guest feel welcomed and cherished.”

Clelia’s father is, as she puts it, “baking-obsessed.” So it was only fitting that he make the wedding cake: chocolate with caramel frosting and raspberry filling, a favorite of the bride. He also decorated it himself with sugared flowers.

How amazing is this cookie spread?! I think the word I’m looking for is smörgåsbord.

Venue: bride’s parents’ home, Connecticut

Bride’s dress: Carolina Herrera from Mark Ingram’s Bridal Atelier

Bridesmaid dresses: Butter by Nadia

Groom’s suit: J.Crew

Petting zoo / pony rides: Pied Piper Pony Rides

Flowers (bouquets, boutonnieres, floral crowns, head table): Ariella Chezar

Flowers (guest table centerpieces): Kamilla’s Floral Boutique

Catering: family friend, Joan Embree

Cake: bride’s father

Best wishes and happiest regards to Clelia and Blake! Thank you so much for letting me share your beautiful wedding here on Snippet & Ink. And thank you to Raquel Reis for sending over these lovely photos – such a treat for our last real wedding feature of 2009!

This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

Now that you’ve seen documentation of our ginormous challah and crazy hora, how about a few details that are less “holy crap” and (hopefully) a little more “ooh la la”?

Remember the papercut table numbers we commissioned from Etsy seller papercutdiecut? They stood out beautifully in the $1 acrylic frames I purchased from the Christmas Tree Store.

I loved the shadows cast by the pinspots and the votives. The latter were ordered from Candles4less.com for $4.91 a dozen. And on the left is a close-up of our goccoed menus. I’m happy I decided at the last minute to bling them up with a gem; it added a little somethin’ somethin’, you know?

The menus were tucked into napkins and garnished with orchids. The purple pouches contained our his-and-her keychain favors. The tags, which say “thanks” in English, Chinese, and Hebrew, were printed on my home printer.

Here’s the guests’ eye view of the place settings. As you can see, we decided to forego fancy chivaris and use the hotel’s regular ballroom chairs. Angel recommended our getting pinspotting on all of the tables and amber and purple uplights. I loved the romantic and warm glow they cast over the room.

Kate Baker created some seriously gorgeous tall centerpieces for the three long family tables. The glass hurricane vases were filled with miniature plums and pears. “Capping” each urn was a collar of the chinoiserie fabric I got in China and some pink hydrangeas, which served as a base for a generous spray of cherry blossoms.

I told Kate that I wanted each of the tables to look lavish, but a bit wild… sort of like a lazy afternoon garden luncheon in a crumbling Italian villa, where the lady of the house has gambled away most of the family fortune and is forced to make do with tarnished antiques and fallen fruits found on the grounds. She did a spectacular job translating my whimsical musings into reality by creating table vignettes with trailing vines, miniature fruits, and loose blooms.

For an extra dash of whimsy, she also embedded lilacs into the hurricanes and attached amethyst and clear crystals to the cherry blossom sprays.

The rest of the tables featured short centerpieces in bronze urns. Kate created loose, organic arrangements in bronze urns of varying shapes, for an Anthropologie-esque “found object” look.

To tie the short centerpieces together with the tall ones, Kate created similar vignettes with vines and miniature fruits on all the round tables.

If you’re like me, flowers are nice, but food is better! Since I’m all about choice, we opted to have a dessert buffet and cupcakes in lieu of a plated dessert or wedding cake.

The buffet included cheesecakes on skewers (those ugly but oh-so-delicious purple discs on sticks!), s’mores shooters, mango with sticky rice, lemon meringue tarts, purple macarons, and miniature bread puddings. [I’m sorry, I just drooled on my keyboard.]

Our cupcakes were from Vanilla Bake Shop, and they came in an array of delectable favors, including red velvet and meyer lemon raspberry. I thought they were awesome at the tasting, and I can only imagine how delicious they would have been at our wedding…

Alas, Mr. HC and I were so busy toasting and dancing and schmoozing that we didn’t get to the dessert table in time for the cupcakes. We fed each other lemon meringue tarts for our “cake cutting photo” instead!

** Tip: Chinese ladies love to pile dozens of desserts on huge plates “for the table”. At the end of the night, after the dessert buffet was depleted, the tables with our Chinese friends and family still had platters full of dessert. If you’re ever in a buffet situation with little Asian ladies, run, jostle, elbow, do what you gotta do to get to the buffet table in front of them or else your little tummy will be very empty and very sad!

This was such a fun post to write, since I got to pull together creations I had discussed in previous posts and show you how they turned out! Sadly, this also means that my recaps are almost over. I’ll discuss fashion details in my next post, but after that I might be d.o.n.e. Sniffles.

Photos by Leigh Miller Photography, Luna Photography, and Della Chen Photography.

In previous episodes of the Hot Cocoa Chewish Wedding Recap Extravaganza:

- We had a welcome dinner.
- Hilarity ensued.
- I got prettified.
- We played games.
- Mr. HC got accessorized.
- We had a tea party… I mean, ceremony.
- I got haute.
- He smelled my cheek.
- I had a meltdown.
- We bedecken’d each other.
- Our guests arrived.
- We processed to Mr. HC’s music.
- We signed our ketubah.
- We got married!
- I showed you my bloomies.
- We celebrated yihud.
- We hora’d our hearts out.
- We got toasty.

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

I knew you guys would go bananas over this wedding. The wedding itself is gorgeous…but really, with this one, it’s all about the bride. She is insanely gorgeous and will no doubt inspire a ton of you to add a little bit of vintage beauty to your wedding style! And there is no one better to have photographed her than Justin and Mary Marantz. They captured that sweet, demure fierceness that I have fallen totally in love with.

And if you love them as much as I do, make sure to vote for the Marantz’s to with Top Knots on PDN Mag’s current contest!

From the bride…

For our escort cards, I purchased various peacock, 1950s and complementary themed postcards from the Etsy sellers listed above. I then used my home printer to print the name of the guest and table number onto labels by Martha Stewart. The labels were fixed to the postcards and framed in simple frames purchased from a chain store. I asked Colleen of rockabillybebe (Etsy seller) to design the table numbers to match some of the escort cards. I loved the 1950s vibe and the contrasting colors of the card against the rest of the reception decor. She was a pleasure to work with!

The bride took a relatively simple, traditional invitation design and added a single peacock feature to each tied together with a white ribbon. SUCH an incredible way to add a bit of glamour to your paper suite without spending a fortune!

Here are the vendors that helped to make this day so beautiful…

Photography: Justin & Mary Marantz / Ceremony Venue: Fisher Chapel United Methodist Church, Romance, West Virginia / Reception Venue: Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences,  / Ceremony Music: Montani Music Ensemble / Reception Music: Dr. Sean Parson’s Jazz Quartet / Floral Design & Decor: Winter Floral & Antiques / Wedding Cake: Frans Cakes / Make Up: Nina Nolfi Pewdo, Dermatology Center for Skin Health / Hair and Bride’s Manicure: Head To Toe Salon, Kelly Fisher / Catering: Embassy Suites / Officiant: Pastor David Peters / Ceremony Invitations/Programs: Dudley’s Hallmark, Parkersburg, West Virginia / Rehearsal Dinner Invitations: ShopPaperWhite / Bridal Shower Invitations: Siouxsane / Wedding Signs: CatsDogsandDesigns,  / Table Numbers: rockabillybebe / Escort Cards: Peacock Postcards: mynameissmith & AFancifulTwist / Happy Housewife Flashcards: rockabillybebe

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Post tags: Audrey Hepburn, Justin and Mary Marantz, Marant, Vintage
Post categories: Vintage Chic

This article was originally posted onStyle Me Pretty.

Since there was so much talk this week about intimate weddings with a keep-it-simple mentality, this really felt like the perfect time to share Julie and Dan’s wedding with you. As soon as I read Julie’s account of the day and their wedding choices – even before I saw the beautiful photos from You Look Nice Today – I knew this was a wedding after my own heart. In Julie’s own words:

Julie got ready at the very cool Ace Hotel (okay, I’ve never been there, but I hear it’s pretty cool, and it looks way cool…). Julie, her mom and her sister did all of the flower arrangements in the hotel a couple of hours before the ceremony, with flowers purchased at the grocery store.

From Julie – “I did not spend a lot of money on décor. I brought things from our home, like an old typewriter, some old books, framed posters of Paris, an old globe, wedding pictures of family members. I used tall glass vases and white willow branches for our ‘altar. I added tissue paper flowers to add some color. I also bought crepe paper streamers and paper wedding bells from our local party store. Modern geometric fabric from IKEA was used as table cloths.”

If you’re worried about a cocktail party not being special enough in the food department, listen to this menu: Dungeness crab cakes, prosciutto & basil with peaches and melon, pulled pork silver dollar sandwiches, antipasti, gazpacho shots, and duck confit quesadillas. Yes, please.

Mini cupcakes in red velvet, carrot, and chocolate.

Says Julie, “I’m a big fan of design blogs and used some of them for inspiration along with indie wedding blogs. I’m drawn to the style of the 1960’s and knew that I wanted to incorporate those elements with a modern/natural edge. An idea we borrowed from a blog was the Wedding Tree. Our graphic designer friend Matt created an image of a barren tree. We asked all of our guests to use various shades of green stamp ink to stamp their thumbprints on the tree as leaves. This, along with our typewriter, was used as our guest book.“

40 fabulous guests joined Julie and Dan for their celebration.

{Left} “I have so many favorite moments from the whole weekend. Our families and friends really stepped in and helped us in so many ways. One of my absolute favorites was dancing with my brother and sister to the B-52’s Rock Lobster. I’m not sure how many folks are familiar with the dance that accompanies that song but let’s just say that we were on our backs, kicking our legs up like lobsters while everyone stared in disbelief!”
{Right} “The biggest DIY element was our photo booth. I saw the idea on one of the wedding blogs and thought that it would both highlight our love of photo booth pictures (we have a ton and used one for our Save-The-Date) and it would create an activity for our guests to take part in. Weddings can sometimes be so awkward for your guests, especially if they haven’t met before.”

Venue: Center for Architecture, Portland, Oregon

Bride’s Dress / Veil / Red Shoes: Lena Medoyeff / Coco’s Masquerade / John Fluevog

Groom’s custom Suit, Shirt, Tie: Duchess Clothier, Portland, Oregon

Ceremony music: Friend of the couple, Christopher Corbell

Reception music: iPod playlist made by the groom

Catering / Cupcakes: Phresh / Cupcake Jones

Thank you so much Julie and Dan for sharing your beautiful and inspiring wedding with us, and thank you to Ryan from You Look Nice Today for sending over these awesome photos. I leave you with this bit of advice from the bride: “Take a deep breath and know that you cannot control everything. From our gas BBQ falling out of the truck on the way to the reception, to the large glass vase that broke the day of the wedding, our day was filled with Murphy’s Law. And you know what, it didn’t make any difference. The other bit of advice I have, and I know you’ve all heard this before, but really try to step back and take a mental picture of the day. It all goes by so very quickly!“ Amen, sister.

And in case you missed it earlier today, check out Julie and Dan’s engagement shoot here.
This article was originally posted onSnippet & Ink.

Our cocktail hour, after our ceremony, was supposed to be outside on the reception barn’s beautiful deck. It was even dotted with heaters should it be cold. But there was nothing out there to protect from the howling winds and driving rain that started immediately after we said, “I do.” Instead, all of our guests made their way into our reception barn, margarita in-hand. Here are the details they saw.

Our centerpieces:

Each table had three jars of different heights with flowers in them. They also had three more jars with candles in them, plus one ceramic candle holder. I collected the jars and candle holders from garage sales in the year before our wedding.

Here are a couple of my favorite little vintage bottles I found:

Our table cards were purchased from Etsy seller Seasonal Delights. She was fabulous to work with and had really quick turnaround—which I needed, between getting our head count (to know how many tables we had) and our wedding. The wrought iron holders are from Pottery Barn and the wooden stumps were made by my dad from trees in his yard in California.

Instead of table numbers, we used 10 different pictures of horses—each table had one of the images.

As guests walked in, they found the table full of horseshoes, which also held their escort cards. The horseshoes were given to me by a co-worker (but didn’t make it to the wedding without a good scrubbing, as they were used!).

The escort cards were gift tags that had each guest’s name on one side and the image of his or her table’s horse on the other. They were tied to the horseshoes with organza ribbon. Seasonal Delights, from Etsy, made these for us as well.

Next to the horseshoes was our birdcage which was our card holder. It was also where guests were instructed to put their postcard–which we used in lieu of a guestbook–once they were done signing well wishes to us.

The birdcage was purchased at a garage sale. And the horse postcards were bought from eBay.

Each seat had a napkin made from vintage fabric. I bought the fabric at local thrift stores (the fabric actually came from bed sheets and pillow cases) and then washed it. After washing, I used pinking sheers to cut very rough rectangles. Believe me, these were no masterpieces but they added a cute amount of color to otherwise ivory tablecloths (which came with our venue). You can see them laid out in the first picture. The napkins were actually set up opposite of the picture below, meaning colorful laid out on the bottom with a rolled up ivory napkin on top.

Here’s one of my favorite things we decided to add to our reception at the last minute. A photo booth! I can’t show you the actual booth yet (because it deserves its own post!), but here’s a sign we made on a chalkboard (from Hobby Lobby) to accompany the booth. The chalkboard was actually pretty low quality and was hard to write on, so I would recommend going with one that’s already broken in. That said, people got really creative with it and we could read all of their messages so I guess it wasn’t so bad.

And the chalk:

Drool worthy! Our pie bar was a huge hit! Such a huge hit that it also deserves its own post. But here’s a preview:

Photo by Amanda Wilson

One of my bridesmaids happens to have adorable writing. She chalked our drink menu (below) and even got crafty recycling some fake flowers from an earlier gift. This sign sat on the bar.

The last project I pulled together was a clothesline of pictures. While most couples use pictures from their relationship, we decided to do something a little different. We put up pictures of us with our guests throughout the years. People loved looking at their little piece of history with us.

The cocktail hour was a great way to ease into dinner, with a few drinks in hand to celebrate. We spent half of it taking family pictures in the ceremony barn. When we were done, there was a funny effort to make a receiving line for us, but it didn’t quite work. People had picked up a few of the scattered rose petals from the ceremony site but that totaled about 10 rose petals, so as you can imagine it was fairly anticlimactic. But still cute.

Photo by Amanda Wilson

After that, our friends found their way to the roaring fireplace to keep warm, cocktail in hand, until dinner started.

How did we get here?

Mr. CB and I road-tripped it to Colorado.
I spent a peaceful morning with my girls.
Followed by a rowdy bachelorette party.
Two days before the wedding, we fought.
Then, we made up.
On Saturday, Mr. CB recuperated while I hiked with friends.
We celebrated our rehearsal dinner.
Sunday Morning: The girls got ready.
And the guys got ready.
Mr. CB and I had our First Look.
Budget Breakdown: Bouquets and Bouts.
Portraits of the bride and groom.
Our wedding party braved the cold for photos.
We all lined up for the ceremony.
The wedding party walked (and performed hand shakes).
Papa CB walked Ms (soon to be Mrs.) CB down the aisle.
Our ceremony began with a song from Grandma Cowboy Boot.
And ended with a kiss.
We hugged and took some family portraits.

**All images above by the ridiculously talented and awesome Tec Petaja, unless otherwise noted. Head to his blog for some serious eye candy.**

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

There is something so sweet about this little wedding. Photographer, Natalie Watson, sent it our way and I have to say…it completely charmed me. From the adorable couple to the pretty, understated details, I heart everything about this adorable affair.

Tosha & Will’s soft, intimate hometown wedding took place in Greeneville, Tennessee. The couple had a traditional service followed by an intimate dessert reception all done at the church. Every aspect of the wedding was made personal — the grooms pie made by Will’s grandmother, an acoustic guitar was played during ceremony by Will’s uncle, the table numbers were created from a cedar tree in their backyard, the get away 46 Ford Coupe was provided by Tosha’s great uncle, the couple was married on Will’s grandparents 61st wedding anniversary.

As for the details, the couple used their old love letters as ringbearer pillows and held the letters they read right before the ceremony, they hung old photographs of couples in their lives (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.) For the dessert reception, Tosha & Will took a huge piece of plywood and painted it with chalk board paint and used it as a seating chart. You can see more of the wedding right here.

Vendors: Location at First Presbyterian Church, Greeneville, TN / Photography by Dan & Natalie Watson, Watson-Studios http://www.watson-studios.com / Flowers and Catering: Beverly at Main Street Catering (Jonesborough, TN) / Wedding Cake: Embree House Wedding cakes (Jonesborough, TN) / Groom’s Pies were made by Will’s grandmother / Programs were made by Jessica Miller from JessLehry Designs and thebudgetsavvybride.com

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This article was originally posted onStyle Me Pretty.

A lot of things about our reception will be very “us” centered. We plan to take full liberty with our playlists, we’ll decided on the foods we like best, and we will probably get a lot of attention (hey it’s one day of our lives!). Because of these things, I knew I really wanted to do some things to let the guests know we were really thankful that they chose to spend their day (weekend, in most cases) with us!

I know, I know, you might be thinking,  ‘isn’t this what favors are for?’ Yes it is, in fact. But from day one we knew that we were deferring traditional wedding favors in lieu of donations to our favorite charity. So the ideas below have become what I like to think of as “Guest Amenities”. Our guests may not even notice them, but if even a few guests feel wowed, then, mission accomplished!

During the cocktail hour there will be non-alcoholic beverages, including water bottles that have been customized with these labels that I cooked up from someone’s lovely template:

Close up on the adorable Nutritional Information (I wish I could find the template source! Does anyone know where it’s from? I love the “Fear – 0 mg” part:

Once inside the reception there will be a special table – one that is present at most Pittsburgh and Italian weddings (and this is both!) – The. Cookie. Table.

I have one picture saved from MSW, and I love the look of how organized this table is. We will have lots of Cheeseburger Mom’s cookies, some from my aunts, maybe some from Burger’s family, and hopefully some red velvet cupcakes from Burger’s Grummom (who makes his favorite red velvet cake traditionally every Christmas.).

We will be spicing up The Cookie Table with something that’s become pretty trendy at weddings lately, a candy buffet:

(source)

The candy buffet pictured above is pretty intense, and the thought of attempting to replicate it makes me nervous. I’m sure whatever we come up with that day will be wonderful. In my head I’m picturing tiers of cookies and cupcakes intermingled (is that a word?) with jars of purple and green candies.

Once people get on the dance floor, we want their feet to be as happy as they are! We will be providing these flip flops (from Old Navy) so that everyone can have some comfy dancing shoes.

Last, and (in my opinion) THE BEST surprise OF ALL is one that I am SO, SO excited about (it’s actually embarrassing).

(beware, there are lots of commas ahead)

OK, so, you know when they play the last song at a really fun wedding, and you’re bummed that it’s over, but you’re already thinking about what bar you’re gonna go to to keep the party going… and then you realize – wait, YOU’RE HUNGRY. Like, really hungry, because you’ve just been dancing like crazy for three hours, and oh (!) you haven’t eaten in about 4 (plus you’ve been drinking, which always makes me hungry. WELL, have no fear, because at our wedding, when you walk out the doors of the ballroom, you will be greeted by hot, steamy, deliciousness:

CANYON PIZZA.

This is My. Favorite. Pizza. Ever. It’s the best pizza at Penn State, hands down, and every time I’m back “home” I have to have a slice.

We’re not planning to dress this up either. I’m literally picturing a long table stacked with 20 pizza boxes, some paper plates and some napkins (kind of like the college kids below).

Everyone can grab a slice to go before we head out to some local hot spots for the pseudo-after party! I’m sure that this will seem unorthodox and less-than-classy to some of our guests, but you know what? I think that more people will think it’s awesome.

It might be one of the things I am most excited for (can you tell???)!

Are you adding any creative or meaningful (to you) snacks to your wedding?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.