Sam's Photo Booth

Sam Morgan (pictured above, alongside Mary Cavett*) not only looks good in a seersucker suit, but is an architectural photographer, a talented drummer and an all around great guy! Other than being one of Nick's friends from the old days he also has an incredible gift for portrait photography. Sam has taken the majority of our holiday card photos, which have all been straight up fantastic. So when he offered a couple of weeks ago to set up a photo booth at the wedding, how could we say no?!

Here are just a few from the night:

(From top to bottom: Bride & Groom. Sascha, Joanna, Adam, Geoff, Nick, Lars, Analise, Bonnie, Emily, Claire, Jasmin, Milan, Derya, Cheryl. Brad & Dad. Adam, Derya, Geoff, Cheryl. Bobby. Reshmi. Emily, Stephen, Alena, Hillary, Jed, Sarah. Analise & Milan. Tommy, Claire, Milan. Leticia & Pope.)

*Mary Cavett made us her famous pecan pies for the wedding. They were delicious!!! (As usual.) She also helped SO MUCH with the wedding, we are eternally grateful. It is also impossible to mention Mary and not mention that she's also a Rockette. (Nick and I watched her do some promotional dance number outside of radio city hall this one time and we both cried.)

Pre and Post Pics

The days before the wedding were ridiculous. Nick and I felt like we were at the end of an 80s movie: "MY PARENTS ARE COMING HOME EARLY!!! We have FIVE minutes to get this house clean!"

That's Nick and I at IKEA, gathering the last bits of wedding necessities. (In truth I think we didn't need that much from there, it's more likely that we went for the food.) But we did end up splurging on these adorable dish towels that we used as cloth napkins for the wedding!

Here they are AFTER the wedding:

And those are just SOME of our wedding dishes being washed. It was a long Monday afternoon. Washing those 60s Pyrex milk glass plates in the dirt felt so cavewoman!

This is Alena at our Pre-wedding fashion show! We got together 4 days before "THE day" to check out what everyone was wearing and to pick out some accessories etc. Seeing our bridal party all dressed up gave us such confidence about the wedding, they were all so gorgeous!

Here's another pre-wed pic. This is right after Milan and his dad Paul helped put up the altar. Nick and I are practicing!

Monday afternoon, now a "wife", I took a moment to enjoy our land and our lake and reflect on how beautiful our ceremony was and how great Don made that window look with just a few sets of curtains from IKEA. (It all comes back to IKEA.)

Nick's wedding shoes broke on the way home and he suggested he throw them out (which is unlike him) and he said "It'll be like your dress and how you only wear it once!".

Before The Photographs

The moment I walked down the aisle to the moment I threw the bouquet (which felt like only minutes apart) was like a drive-by of emotion and color and joy.

Analise suggested, in her infinite wisdom, that I write down my memory of the event before I see any pictures. So...

I remember the gorgeous impromptu bouquets and boutonnieres that our friend Randy made just hours before the ceremony. When I saw them my eyes welled up, they were just so perfect! Wildflowers and old gingham ribbon? YES!

I remember looking at the time, while the girls and I were getting ready, pre wedding, and seeing that it was 4:30pm, which was the time the ceremony was supposed to start and we were still A HALF HOUR DRIVE AWAY and SOME of us, no names, were NOT EVEN DRESSED!!!

I remember my dad being late to pick us up and when we got in the car he said he couldn't drive before finishing his cigarette and I nearly had a heart attack. Needless to say he let it go.

I also remember my father in the middle of our arduous, s l o w journey toward our farm said the reason for his sluggishness was to avoid being pulled over by "the fuzz". I reminded him that if there were any occasion to speed it would be now, with me as his get-out-of-jail-free bride in his back seat, rushing to a wedding, where the guests have been there for an hour, on the hottest day of the year.

When we arrived I looked at the long tables under the tent that I had so desperately wanted to help set up, but was unable to as I was... you know, prepping to get married. I had such vision for the tables and I wasn't sure I could articulate what I wanted. But when I saw what our friends had accomplished my eyes yet again welled up! It was just beautiful!

I remember/am traumatized by my father (again), who didn't understand that I didn't want Nick to see me before the ceremony and that if we kept driving down our driveway he was most definitely going to! I had to scream at him to stop! He said "But I see a parking spot!" I said "Dad, this is MY land, any spot I want is a parking spot! PLEASE STOP NOW!"

He turned off the car. "I don't wanna waste gas.", He says. "Dad, they're saying today is like 105 degrees, please keep it running for the last minute we are in the car.", I say as I'm curled up in the back seat as to remain hidden from the bridal party, lining up to process.

Once they began their walk down the aisle. I said "Okay dad, it's time, drive up a little closer and we'll get out". He began to drive, but didn't stop! "Dad, STOP!"

"But I see a parking spot!"

"We have to go NOW! PLEASE!!! Stop the car and get out!"

"I have to park the car!"

"THEY ARE WAITING FOR US!"

At this point I openned the door of the moving car like I was trying to escape a kidnapping and pleaded with him. "PLEASE, dad, get out of the car, you can move it later!"

He drove onward as I heard Canon in D come to a close and there was silence. I was starring in disbelief at his now parked car that he was just SITTING in (!!!) when he finally came out, his tie was not tied, his suit jacket barely on. When he got to me I straightened out his tie, grabbed his arm and ran towards the aisle. Our entrance music began and he started to CHIT CHAT WITH ME! I think I must have gone into shock, because the next thing I remember is seeing Nick at the end of a sea of people, I smiled without knowing I was, but found it difficult and strange as my mouth was completely dry.

Nick's face was completely red from standing outside all day, drenched with sweat and tears. He kept looking at me in my dress and then sweeping his eyes back up to mine with a grin.

It was hot and the ceremony, conducted by our incredible friend and indispensable officiant Karsten, was short and sweet. In what seemed like seconds we were running back up the aisle, my new husband's hand tightly in mine. We didn't stop running for some time.

The next thing I remember was my mother telling the photographer exactly how she should be photographed during the portrait session. (sigh).

Then before long our guests, about 100 of our dearest friends and fam, were gathered under the tent and we ate! I barely remember what I ate, I know I did though, because I thought I should.

The speeches that were given were beautiful and sincere (and very often hysterical!)

I remember dancing to Ke$ha's "Your Love Is My Drug" which was a surprise hit!

I remember tasting our friend Mary Cavett's pecan pie, that she made for the wedding and thinking "How is she so consistent with the deliciousness of these pies!?"

I remember it beginning to drizzle toward the end of the night and being so happy to be able to cool off. I was not alone in feeling that.

I remember climbing up a very tall rickety wood latter to throw my bouquet, while the song SHOOP played, which was a coincidence, but seemed entirely appropriate.

The day was fantastic and the love was tangible. I can't wait to look at pictures and remember in a whole other way.

I am wife today! This is so exciting!

The Final Lap

This past weekend was GREAT. Aside from a few waves of panic and occasional minor/major stress induced confrontations, we worked hard and it felt fantastic.

Nick, with the help of his buddy-best man, Milan, BUILT OUR DANCE FLOOR!!! They made it out of highway signs that were left in the barn when we bought the place. (Could that be considered UPcycling?!) The finished floor looks amazing.

That's us painting the last bit of trim, which I started like, what seems like, months ago!

We all scribbled to-do lists to keep us focused and organized. Analise is the MASTER of lists.

Analise, BTW, planned my bridal shower (which I still have to write a post about!) and that's where that "Best Wishes" bunting comes from! She made it! I liked the flags so much I thought "Why not use them again!?"

I painted signs for the property and the neighboring roads to help people navigate. You know, you just can't look at wedding blogs for more than 5 minutes without seeing these ubiquitous adorable wooden signs with white paint that say things like:"Wedding, this way!" They are very appropriate for our modest farm wedding, so it was something that had to happen. (I'll post pics of the signs at a later date).

Nick likes me to take pictures of him in front of our truck, looking surly. What a treasure!

Saturday night we went out for Thai. It was delicious! (But sort of stressful when Milan decided that we needed programs for the wedding and we told him that we had decided against them a year ago and he said "Okay." in that horrible you-wait-and-see tone. We were like, why didn't you bring this up months ago when we could have discussed it and then maybe had some time to print something!? He suggested typing something up on the computer and and making copies. I was like no no no no, our wedding and "xeroxes" will have nothing to do with each other.) But like I said, the food was outstanding.

AAaaaaahhhh! Weddings!

Invitations

When a friend of ours offered to do our invitations, we were VERY excited. He is a professional design wizard and we trust him (and like him!) a lot. He asked us to go to Paper Presentation and to do a little texture shopping. Find out what kind of paper we were attracted to, etc. While we were there we fell in love with this envelope with an exaggerated wood grain texture. Campy? Corny? Or perhaps FARMY/outdoor wedding-y?! Perfect!

We had seen in our dealings with our friend, at his stationery store, this double sided card stock, one side red and one side white. He wanted to use it because it reminded him of the red barns on our land! We agreed! In printing the cards he suggested (insisted) on letterpress. We agreed! Then he asked us what we might want to say... you know, wedding wording. And we thought about and thought about it and when we brought him our thoughts he said "Oh well, I sort of wrote something too."

And we read it and when we looked up with tears in our eyes we said "It's perfect. Thank you."

Around the same time our friend said to us "Go take a picture of grass on your land." So I did. One shot. One try. I said "I hope it works." He said "It's perfect."

RSVP cards:

The ingredients were all coming together. But WAIT! We needed to pick out stamps!

Well look at that! It's our barn!!! The stamps are great, they arrived quickly, although they are a tad larger than expected, but they did the job!

Next thing was how to tie all of this together. LITERALLY! We used a white hemp string tied in a bow to continue to use the image of my engagement ring.

Everything was in place: Labels, stamps, envelopes, info, RSVP cards, charm. check. Now all we needed was an assembly line of love. So Nick and I labored away for hours, stuffing and tying and stamping.

(Hooray!)

The paper took much longer than expected to get to the printer so the invites were DELAYED!!! But what's strange that in all of our anxiety about the wedding we didn't panic about this. We knew people would have them eventually and that everyone knows when the wedding is and it would all work out. Which it seems to be...

The 5 Stages of Wedding

Nick proposed to me on November 21st, 2008. Since that day, while planning our upcoming union, we have observed that there are several stages involved in getting married, which incidentally are surprisingly similar to the classic stages of crisis. (Hahaha)

Utter Joy. When we first got engaged we were full of tangible bliss, giggling and holding hands all over town. We had something to say at parties when people asked us what we were "up to". It was great. Looking at my engagement ring gave me serious jubilant agita of the tummy. This stage has not completely dissolved, but sometimes goes on vacation while we are occupied with other stages, such as...

Resentment. Why should we get married? Can't people obviously tell that we are like OBSESSED with each other? Do we have to have a party to prove that to people? Must we spend all the money we've been saving up for the last 8 years on some party!?! What is marriage all about anyway, what was so bad about how we were before? ETC ETC etc. In general we don't feel this way a lot, but these are questions we have asked ourselves more than once.

Denial. What wedding? Thinking about planning a wedding is stressful! Let's just not think about it. BESIDES, we have TONS of time! Fast forward to "tons of time" later and you enter the next stage:

Panic. What are we going to do?! Every bed and breakfast in the tri-state area is booked for the 24th! They don't have any 20 x 40 tents available?! We need how many more forks and knifes?!!! We don't have an officiant!!!! What about food?! What about our bank account?!!! What about NAPKINS!!! Who is gonna move the chairs from the ceremony to the tables for dinner?!! The letterpress printer hasn't got the paper yet!!! Invitations are weeks late! We only have 20 items on our registry!!!

And now we have moved on to what is probably the best stage:

Acceptance and hope. Wow. Lists have really been helping! We can just talk this whole event out minute by minute. Detail by detail. We LOVE each other! It is going to be a beautiful day and things are getting done and will be awesome. At the end of the day its just a party with people you love who are all there to celebrate the ever evolving life of two young (not so young) kids that have been NUTS for each other for 8 (billion) years.

18 days till we are wed. (!)