the ceremony (getting situated)

This is what our ceremony area looked like before people started to sit down:


Some benches and chairs, a couple of tables up front, our musician hanging out in the corner, all calm and peaceful like.

This is what our ceremony area looked like after our coordinator had everyone find a seat:

It looks so small to me now! It is hard for me to believe there are about 100 people crammed in there. At the time, the size of the crowd seemed huge and overwhelming, but looking back it is small and intimate and perfect.

Just minutes before this, the venue was buzzing with noise, chatter, music, cooking. I was hidden away in the back room when suddenly everything was still, and someone was telling me IT'S TIME! GET IN LINE! At this point I wasn't exactly ready. I didn't realize it was already 6:15, which was go-time. (I found out later it was actually only 6:05, but for some reason we got started 10 minutes early? I still don't know why!)

My mom was trying to put on her earrings, my stylist was still attaching my veil, and then poof, someone hands me a bouquet and I hear the song cue and its go time, people!


While I had a 30 second panic and snapped into place, the following happened:

Our officiant walked out and took her spot in front of the vertical garden.



The music started.

(OK, I am blatantly stealing this idea from my Bee friends... But when, and if, you choose to listen to these embedded songs from our ceremony, please imagine them being played by an awesome solo guitar player. If you want. Or just rock out to some of our favorite bands, that's cool too.)



Right, soooo the music started, and then...

B walked out and took his spot in front of said vertical garden!




C walked out and took her spot as well.


While G waited patiently.


Until it was her time in the spotlight , too.


Z waited quietly for his turn.



And did a superb job of walking down the aisle all by himself!



All the while, B was watching for yours truly to emerge from beyond the dark curtain!


And then, wonder of wonders, the songs changed. To my all time favorite song ever written, EVER. I had no choice but to walk out to this song, it called to me.



And so I appear!



At the last second, our flower girly got nervous, so we held hands and she walked down the aisle with me and my mom :)


To say I walked fast would be an understatement! Our musician didn't even have time to play the whole song. Sorry, guests, I wish you could have heard that Kinks song the way it was meant to be heard. I am just a naturally fast walker, and having everyone standing up and watching made me walk even faster than normal. I totally forgot about the "all guests will stand up when the bride comes out" part until it happened.


The approach.

The hugs.

Then I took my spot in front of the vertical garden, and handed off my bouquet.


I resisted the urge to give B a quick kiss, and we grabbed each others' hands (and held on for the entire ceremony, except when we were holding microphones!)


And this is what our ceremony area looked like during the (you guessed it!) ceremony :)



All photos in this post: Hazelnut Photography

sharing is caring.

Fellow LA blogger ladies (and friends and readers!). I have the following items for lending/borrowing etc. Please let me know if you are interested. Items will be available as soon as I clean out the room they are stored in (within a month).

1. 60+ 5" candle vase type things.


They are all the same height, but have different base shapes (a few are more square, some rounded etc.) Most still have stickers on the bottom cause we are classy like that. One or two have wax spills in them, but for the most part they are fairly clean. See how fancy they look on the brick ledge?!

(photo: Hazelnut Photography)

2. Two flat bowl vase things from Ikea:


3. A Gocoo cardprinting machine thingy. I barely use it but can't make myself actually sell it, so if anyone needs to use one to make paper goodies, I am totally down with that. You would need to buy screens and bulbs and inks though since I am out.

I am also selling a bunch of junk on weddingbee (shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes).

I hope this ends up helping someone, somewhere!

!

I loved my wedding day shoes, but if I had seen these, I would have worn them.

Check out this vegan wedding shoe guide via Offbeat Bride!

white knot

Marriage equality is something that B and I feel very, very strongly about. It is hard for me to even comprehend the fact that adults of legal age are not able to marry and receive the same rights as everyone else, just because of their sexual orientation.

We knew that we had to find some way to acknowledge this in our wedding ceremony. Originally, we were just going to have a small paragraph in our program explaining our beliefs. However, after some discussion with our officiant, and this wonderful post, we decided we needed to take it up a notch. B did some additional research and found out about the White Knot for Equality non-profit organization. We knew it was the perfect foundation for us to promote.

First, we made a donation to the foundation in honor of our guests. Then, I spent a few hours cutting up some silky white ribbon and making the sign shown above. We encouraged our guests to wear a ribbon at the wedding, and to take some home to share or wear again.

During the ceremony (which will be covered in more detail soon!) our officiant said a few words about how important marriage equality was to her, and to us, and that she was showing her support by wearing a white ribbon as well. It really meant a lot to us, and hopefully to our guests as well.

Our intention was to promote something we feel strongly about, not alienate guests. As far as we know, no one was offended. I would say that about half of our guests chose to wear a ribbon at the wedding. I was not upset, or insulted, or disgusted by anyone who chose not to wear one. I am tolerant and open-minded enough to know that there were many, many different kinds of people at our wedding, with different belief systems and opinions. I respect all of them, and I was thrilled to have them all there, whether or not they chose to wear a white ribbon.

All photos in this post: Hazelnut Photography

guest action

If I could pick one word to describe my wedding day, it would be f'ing awesome. Ok, maybe that's two words. So if I could pick three words to describe it, they would be relaxing and f'ing awesome. Cause I spent a big part of the day just sitting and watching and enjoying. I could even describe it as a little too relaxing. But I don't, cause that would be silly. Final proof of relaxation before the good stuff happened:



Finally, FINALLY, the action was about to begin. Guests were scheduled to get there any minute, so someone told me it was time to get into my hidey-hole. I made my way on over to the bridal suite, but not before checking out the seating at the kids table. I just needed to make sure that all the kids were sitting by their friends, and after a quick switcheroo, everything was good. The preschool teacher in me was just trying to prevent tears and small-scale, child-sized fights over toys and seating arrangements!


I then assumed position in aforementioned hole. With a drink!


And friends came! And family! And they talked. And smiled, and hugged, and kissed. And B got to hang out with them, but I was stuck in my hole. Listening to the room beyond get louder and louder.





While all these people were walking in and settling in and looking around, the waiters and chefs and cooks and such were busy making appetizers for the upcoming cocktail hour.

Olives, I love you.

All of my little kidlets were gathering in front of the ceremony area, and I heard that much dancing, swinging and princess play was happening. I wish I had seen this!




We decided to keep things simple by only serving one drink before the ceremony, and not opening the bar up until the cocktail hour after the ceremony. From what I hear, the passed Gin Fizzes were a hit.



All the while, our amazing, best ever musician was warming up the crowd with some tunes. He played a great mix of his original songs, and some of our favorites (Kinks, Johnny Cash, Beatles, Pixies...), while everyone mingled and got ready to find seats for the big event.




Were you hidden away while your guests arrived, so that your "walking down the aisle" moment would be super special? I was kinda jealous of everyone starting the party without me, but now I'm over it. Mostly.

All photos in this post: Hazelnut Photography