Wedding Wednesday Archives

Wedding Wednesday: Candid photos from the Kentucky Derby wedding

Y’all, the wedding is finally over! I can sleep at night! No one has sent me an email about table dimensions! I have 30 mini bourbon pecan pies in my freezer!

The professional photos aren’t ready yet, but I thought I’d share a few candid shots taken by various guests.

Hats were embraced by all.

Seersucker suits made an appearance.

Even Baby Henry had a good hat.

Bowties were a popular option.

I got tired of smiling for photos.

No one got tired of petting ponies.

Gina was totally cool with a crowd.

I got to see some of my oldest and dearest friends.

Including my very best friend, who went riding with me
the day before the wedding, because she’s awesome.

It was a long day with some minor hiccups that ultimately didn’t matter. I have a huge sense of relief now that it’s over- I can go back to normal life!

Wedding Wednesday: Rehearsal Dinner

I felt like we were pretty solid on the wedding planning front: venue, DJ, photographer, officiant all nailed down. Meeting with printer for stationery is set up. Meeting with venue about food is happening in January. Everything’s pretty much done, right?

Not if you ask my mother or Johnny’s mother.

Currently, the crisis is our plan for the rehearsal dinner. The venue gives us something like two hours for rehearsal after 5 PM, so we weren’t planning to have the dinner at the venue. We decided we’d like to have it at one of our favorite Tulsa restaurants, Siegi’s Sausage Factory. Siegi’s is a German restaurant with delicious food and a great beer selection. They have a private room that seats about 40 people. We’re figuring on about 35 people attending the rehearsal dinner. Perfect!

After taking our mothers to eat at Siegi’s while they were visiting, both had problems with our plan. Johnny’s mother likes the food, but feels like the room will be too small for “visiting”. My mother was ambivalent about the food; she thought it was okay, but wouldn’t appeal to many guests. She also thought the private room was too small.

So here’s my question for y’all: married people, at your rehearsal dinner, was there a ton of mingling? Did people want to get up and chit chat? Did everyone mostly stay put? Did anyone really care about the menu?

(Note: Siegi’s caters, but we’d rather have it in the restaurant because of the beer selection.)

Wedding Wednesday: Dress shopping

As I mentioned last week, my mother came to visit me. Aside from spending time with me, her only child, she wanted to visit the wedding venue and take me dress shopping.

Now y’all may not be able to tell from reading the blog, but I am not ultra-jazzed about the wedding. Of course, I’m excited to marry Johnny. I’m excited to get on Johnny’s health insurance. I’m excited to throw a good party.

And that’s how I see this event: a really big, really fun Kentucky Derby party. I want good food, good drinks, a great race, big hats, and fun time. I don’t care who sits at what table. I don’t particularly care what music is playing. I definitely don’t care about weird traditions like a garter toss.

And I certainly don’t care about having a big, elaborate, expensive dress. My mother, on the other hand…

Saturday afternoon we went to four dress shops. Some highlights:

Wearing only my uncomfortable, Spanx-like special occasion undergarment while a total stranger buttoned, zipped, and stuffed me into gowns.
Getting into a minor spat with my mother over what kind of dress I should wear. (Her opinion: the longer and frillier the better. Mine: opposite of that.)
Reluctantly trying on a birdcage veil just to humor my mother. (Ridic.)
Having a dress sales lady assure me that they could just ‘chop off’ the approximately 4 feet of excess length if I wanted it to be short. (Not reassuring.)
Feeling completely silly standing on a little platform while sales ladies “oooh”ed and “aaah”ed over me. (I was definitely not looking THAT good.)
Going to Macy’s to look at cocktail dresses when my mother had a mini meltdown because I thought spending $900 + alteration fees was dumb.

It was maybe the least fun afternoon of my life.

Married readers, how did you find your dress? Was it a Big Deal? Did anyone cry? Did you feel completely ridiculous trying on these things?

Wedding Wednesday: Engagement photo ideas

Johnny and I have booked a wedding photographer (for the curious, it’s Montag Photography in Tulsa), and the package we’ve chosen includes engagement photos.

Now the last couple of times Johnny and I have had pictures taken of ourselves, it’s been part of various family photo sessions. Three (or four) years ago, we had photos at Thanksgiving, which included Johnny uncomfortably posing with me next to a tree. Last year at Christmas, we had family photos on the beach and the photographer had to tell us more than once to stop touching the other’s butt. (Where else would you rest your hand?!)

Clearly, we don’t have a great track record when it comes to photography.

The photographer suggested having engagement photos done in October or November at a local landmark, Camp Loughridge. I know we definitely want to include Moe and Gina. But there are so many questions to answer:

What should I wear?
Should I get my hair did??
Can we possibly get through this with pictures that don’t look totally corny???
Should Moe and Gina wear bridles or halters?

I am open to suggestions! You all have been so helpful with tips, ideas, suggestions, and feedback on previous Wedding Wednesday posts. I really, really appreciate all of you- you’re the best blog friends a girl could ask for!

Wedding Wednesday: Decor

Johnny and I have made a lot of progress since my last Wedding Wednesday post: we’ve settled on a photographer and DJ, decided to rent a venue instead of having it at the horses’ boarding barn (the logistics of getting tables, chairs, tents, food, etc. out there was a nightmare), and have decided where to have the rehearsal dinner.

Now I feel like it’s on to the fun stuff, like decorating for the wedding! There are so many great ideas out there (I’m looking at you, Pinterest). I definitely want an equestrian flair to the decorations; it’d be nice to incorporate the Derby’s classic roses, but I don’t want to go overboard on them because they’re expensive.

Source: Rustic Wedding Chic

I really love the ribbons on the backs of these chairs. I have a lot of ribbons I could use for this, although ordering some custom ribbons from Hodges Badge is also an option. (Then I wouldn’t have to worry about any of my precious satin getting ruined or going missing.)

Source: Erica Ann Photography

For table centerpieces, I’m totally into these vintage trophy cups filled with flowers. However, finding them is sort of tricky- not to mention expensive! Ideas, anyone?

Source: Hostess With The Mostess Blog

We aren’t having assigned seating at the reception (because no one wants to get stuck next to Great Uncle Everett who will advise you to steal the silverware), so we don’t need a whole lot in the way of signage. These free printables from Hostess With The Mostess are cute, though- we could use them in the food and bar areas. I love that they aren’t just red and white!

Source: Ice Magic

Remember when I mentioned something about an ice sculpture? Totally going for it. Since the reception will be mostly indoors, we don’t have to worry about it melting super quickly. Plus, it’s a freaking ice sculpture!! How could I not?!

Do y’all have any ideas about decor? The venue we’ve chosen is The Silo Event Center, which is sort of rustic without being overwhelmingly kitschy. (And it’s horse-friendly, obvs.)