snapshots of our wedding, part one

This blog is supposed to be about my life as a newlywed and I realized that I skipped over a pretty important part of the story - namely, our wedding. Because I haven't really recorded the story of our special day anywhere else, and because it was the official happily ever after kick-off, I thought it would be appropriate to share it here.

First, let me just confess that I actually hated wedding planning. It was so stressful and overwhelming! There's so much pressure out there to have the "perfect" day and I think it got the best of me. I remember the pastor greeting me when I arrived at the church minutes before the ceremony started and me saying something along the lines of "okay okay, let's just do this. Let's just get this over!" I think my fists were even clenched like a boxer's. I would've run down that aisle if they'd let me, I was so eager for the whole shebang to be over and done with. 

Despite all the stress, our wedding day was beautiful. Once the music started and I began that slow stroll down the aisle toward my groom, all the chaos began to fade away and it was just us again. But I'll get to that part in another post. First, let's start at the beginning, with the stationary - 

We got engaged in early January and set our wedding date for early July. We decided to have a medium-size wedding with about 75 guests and, in addition to our home city of Vancouver, our guest list included friends and family from Montreal, Taiwan, Japan, England and California. With only six months before the big day, we had to hurry and get invites out as early as possible so people could make necessary travel plans. 

I found all of our wedding stationary, and even a calligrapher, online through Etsy. We went with cursive fonts and a simple damask design. Our wedding colors with gray, yellow and purple ... there was no purple on the stationary, but it was the color we chose for my bridesmaids' dresses - 

I decided not to go with matching bridesmaids dresses. Instead, I gave all the girls a color swatch and let them find and choose a dress that they liked. It worked out perfectly! Each lady picked out a gorgeous dress and, without planning it, they all ended up with knee-length dresses with some ruching around the bodice. If you aren't married yet I highly recommend you consider doing this with your bridesmaids. The girls loved being able to pick a dress that reflected their personality and that they will be able to wear again and again. As you can see, they looked great ...

To save money, we decided to do most of the floral arrangements ourselves. The only arrangements that were made a professional florist were my bouquet and my maid of honor's (my sister) bouquet. Everything else ... the bridesmaids bouquets, the reception centerpieces ... were made with love by my mom and bridesmaid Jessica the day before the wedding! The florist wanted $45 per bridesmaid bouquet and about $300 for the centerpieces; we ended up making all four bouquets AND all ten centerpieces for about $150.

The bridesmaids' bouquets had yellow lilies, pink orchids and baby's breath. They were wrapped in silver sparkly ribbon that I got for a buck at the dollar store. We saved a lot of money but it was VERY time consuming ... to future brides: if you're doing your own flowers, go with something super simple and make sure you have a team of people who can tackle the project for you the day before. 

As for my bouquet, I went with yellow & purple orchids and stephanotis with rhinestones in the center. I'd made a binder of wedding inspiration back in high school and, amazingly, the only thing from that binder that I still really, really wanted was this bouquet. 

My Dad passed away three months before we got engaged. I decided to put some of his ashes in a little vial and attach that to my bouquet ... that way, he still walked me down the aisle. Of all the personal touches we included on our big day, that one was definitely my favorite. I wish he could have been there in person, but I know for a fact he was in spirit. 

Alrighty, that's it for today! I'll post part two next week with a special focus on my dress :)

Happy Sunday!