Entries tagged with “recap” from Prom to Altar

Since I won't be updating Prom to Altar much anymore, here are some links to past posts and websites that might be of interest to someone at some point:

• Professional photos of our wedding day by Paul Grupp and Brenda Topkins, as well as our engagement photos, are here. These aren't the final versions of the photos (we received the final high res versions of these as well as additional photos on DVD), but the majority of our proofs are there. Paul and Brenda also blogged our wedding here.
  

• Photos from our wonderful guests are here and here and here (photo to the right by Rich).

• You can also go to this set on Flickr to see my photos from the planning process as well as some video snippets from the wedding.
  

And here are some other wedding planning and marriage prep posts, as well as some wedding day posts:

• Our proposal story
• A little about my antique engagement ring
  
• Our save the dates
• Our invitations
• Some of my favorite wedding blogs
  
• Getting ready photos
  
• Pre-ceremony photos
• Riding around in the trolley
• Our Catholic Ceremony photos, and a bit about our decision to have a full Catholic mass
  
• The ins and outs of our homemade photo booth (a few more details here)
  
• Little things Part 1: Things we wore, things we carried
  
• Little things Part 2: Details at the ceremony and a bit at the reception
  
• Little things Part 3 -- our Craigslist centerpieces, our favors, etc
• The rundown of our ceremony and reception music selections
  

I never quite got to recapping the reception, so maybe I'll do that at some point. But for now, that's that-- we planned a wedding and prepared for a marriage, our wedding was fun and lovely, and married life is swell! Thanks for following along, I've met some great people through this blog. I hope to see you (well, hear from you) over at It's Loverly!

The last of the little details and the last post about "stuff": our centerpieces, favors, and a few other bits from around the reception.

Our centerpieces were one of my favorite details, and one of the best budget finds. Someone who had used them in her wedding a year earlier was selling them on Craigslist, and we bought 15 of these trees from her for $15 each. We had 17 tables, so I bought two more similar centerpieces off Ebay for under $5 a piece. We sold 12 centerpieces the day after the wedding (we kept one and each set of parents kept one).

Our wedding was the third wedding these centerpieces were used at, they'll be used at another wedding next fall, and probably more after that. It's the ultimate in reusing!

We had big plans for our table numbers when we started planning-- we were going to use photos of places that were important to us and name the tables after those significant places in our relationship. We were going to make escort cards using photos that matched the table names... yeah, nice idea, didn't happen. This is one of those projects that kept getting pushed back until the very last minute, and we ended up going simple. We used the swirl design from our invitations (I still haven't shared those here, eh?) and put each number in a different gold-toned frame. Not as cutesy as we'd originally planned, but they did the job.

Our "Head Table" was a family table consisting of us, our parents, Pat's grandmother, and our siblings.
Our wedding party sat with their guests and our friends at tables on either side of us.

Our favors were photo coasters. We've been using coasters like these on our own coffee table since we moved in together. The favor tags are Moo cards that we had made from our favorite engagement photos, with our names and wedding date on the back. We found these coasters at Christmas Tree Shops-- cheaper and better quality than the specific "wedding favor" coasters on The Knot Shop and the like.

The photo inside was one of the four "photo booth" photos that we used on our save the date postcards. The overall design was a reference to our save the dates.

My Italian mom wouldn't let me get away with not having jordan almonds (although I can't say I like them). These were entirely her project, and they came out very cute. The back of the tag explained the tradition of the five almonds.


We framed some of our engagement photos and put them around the reception room. Yeah, we used these photos in a few places, but that's the thing with engagement photos-- you end up with a whole bunch of great photos of the two of you and you really only have use for a couple. We figured we may as well display a handful of them while we could, because we certainly aren't going to plaster the walls of our apartment with pictures of us.
 We also put out the book we made of our engagement photos. I don't know if anyone noticed it or looked at it, but it was there. The flower arrangement is the same one from the memorial area at the church- we reused both church arrangements at the reception. That card box was the emergency back up when the cage we were going to use didn't work out. Wouldn't be my top pick, but no one seemed to judge us for it.

Here we are trying to figure out how to cut that infamous cake without causing a confectionery disaster... 

If you've found your way here via A Practical Wedding, welcome! The design of this blog is lacking, but you can read more about our wedding (and see the photos) by following these links:

• Professional photos of our wedding day, as well as our engagement photos, are here.
  
• Our photographers blogged our wedding here.
• Photos from our wonderful guests are here and here.
  

I've slowly begun to recap our wedding day-- if you're interested in that, you can see those posts by following these links:

• Getting ready
• Pre-ceremony photos
• Ceremony
• Our homemade photo booth
• Little things Part 1 and Part 2
• A bit about our music selections.

Thanks for coming by!

Alright, here are some more photos of a few more details and budget friendly ideas.

Church
The church is beautiful, so we didn't worry about too many additional decorations. My mom made the pew wreathes, which we hung on every other pew up the center aisle. There were two flower arrangements at the church, and that was it.

We created a memorial area in the baptistery of the church-- each guest passed through here on the way in. We had a candle for each of our grandparents who have passed away, and a flower arrangement. We weren't originally planning on having flowers here, but rather than cancel entirely the two corsages that we had already ordered for our grandmothers, we had the flowers made into a small arrangement of roses and hydrangea.

There were some things about our "traditional church wedding" that weren't all that traditional.

Rather than having another family member escort his mom into the church, Patrick and his dad walked her down the aisle and she and his father were seated. (My mom was escorted by my uncle--her oldest brother, who walked her down the aisle on her wedding day.)

Patrick then returned to the back of the church to meet his brother/Best Man and they walked in together, down the center aisle (I was hiding in another room until he was at the front of the church). I really liked this-- it made clear the fact that this was our day-- not just mine. He wasn't standing on the sidelines waiting while I was at the center, he was at the center, too. This way of doing things is more common in other religions, but I was really happy to learn that our parish has started doing things this way, too.

Our bridesmaids and groomsmen walked in together. This isn't all that uncommon, but up until recently it hasn't been done very often in Catholic weddings.

I walked in with my dad-- we stuck with tradition there. I know he's always wanted to walk me down the aisle, and it was a really special moment for us. We both thought we'd be a teary mess, but we were enjoying it all so much-- we were both all smiles. I'm really glad I got to spend those few minutes before going down the aisle (and those moments walking down the aisle, of course) with my Daddy-o.

It turns out both the groom and the best man were the criers! I love this photo.

I'll leave out the commentary on the rest of the ceremony photos-- they tell the story themselves.

Ok, so here's how we'll do. I'm going to go in order, but not minute by minute--more by broad chunk of the day, with lots of pictures.  I'll start tonight with getting ready. And maybe later I'll go back to write a bit about the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

(I didn't want to put giant photos in--I hate when blog posts take forever to load-- but you can click on each photo to see a larger version.)

We each got ready at our respective parents' homes (our childhood homes), surrounded by our parents and our wedding party. It was a really nice way to start such a big day. I woke up early-- my mom was already up and puttering around the house. We shared the first moments of the day together. I was happy and excited from the moment I woke up-- nerves crept in for a minute or two here and there, but mostly I just felt a kind of happiness I've never felt before.

We girls (my mom and Pat's mom included) began by getting dolled up at a salon just a couple minutes from the house. Everyone had their hair done, and some of us had our make up done. The salon had mimosas, coffee, bagels, and pastries out for us-- I actually managed to have a few bites (and a few sips). It was calm and laid back- a good way to begin.

From the salon, we went back to Mom and Dad's, where we had time to get ready at a relaxed pace. There was a lot of laughter and activity, but we managed to avoid much frenzy.

The mirrored vanity in the photo below was my grandmother's-- my mom and both of her sisters all had their photos taken in front of it on their wedding days.

Once it was time for my buds to put their dresses on things started feeling more and more real (as if walking around in a veil and jeans wasn't enough).

And then, of course, it was time for me to put my dress on. It was so fun--I mean, I really only needed one person to help me into it, but I felt so supported having 6 of the most important women in my life surrounding me.

My mom was a little disappointed that we didn't get a posed photo of just the two of us, but I think the moment Brenda captured here trumps any posed photo we could have taken. I love everything about this-- the look on her face, the look on my face, the reflection- everything:

Of course, while all this was going on, Patrick was getting ready with the guys a couple miles down the road at his parents' house. The scene there was basically the same as the scene at my parents' house, obviously.

I got to work today and realized that yesterday was Grace and Dave's one year anniversary! Happy Anniversary (a little late), you two crazy kids!

Grace and David's wedding was one of the best I've ever witnessed. It was also one of the most simple. They planned it in six months, had no wedding party (although I did get to be honorary bridesmaid for all the primping and prepping), and there were only 70 people there (mostly Grace's brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews, and Dave's aunts, uncles, and cousins). Grace didn't stress about a thing, everything was kept simple, there was no DJ, her mom did all the centerpieces, it was at her parents' home, and it was just gorgeous.

Most importantly, Grace and Dave were so happy.  Their happiness was contagious. Everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves, and the setting at the lake house was perfect. There was no 'event design', and every event of the weekend was a group effort on behalf of the family, neighbors, and friends. Grace's sisters and nieces provided the ceremony music, her nephews provided the cocktail hour music, and the neighbors brought all the food for the day after brunch. Everything about it was heartfelt and genuine, just like Grace and Dave. Grace is one of my favorite people in the world, and I am so happy that she found such a great person to share her life with. I only wish our lives were playing out in the same state!

A few more photos from 8.11.07:

 
 
You can see more of our photos from their lovely day here.