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Our first anniversary (one year married, 7 years together) is less than two weeks away. I can’t believe the wedding was almost as year ago. Jared and I really like the idea of using the traditional anniversary themes for gifts and I think we are going to try to stick with them. That would make year 1 our paper anniversary.
Yesterday Jared asked “for anniversary gifts, do we get the other person something or get “us” something?… I think it is a more romantic gesture to celebrate our being together than your being with me… what do you think?” First of all, I love my husband to pieces. He’s so sweet. Secondly, now we’re trying to think of a paper gift for the two of us. We were hoping to have a house deed in hand, but it’s unlikely we’ll find something and purchase it in time.
Other ideas he proposed were an art piece of some kind (maybe a portrait… anyone have a wonderful artist who does custom work?), a spur of the moment trip (any ideas where?), receipt for something fun (cop-out if we can’t think of anything) or a rainy day savings account (practical and boring).
So what did you do for your paper anniversary? Anyone else sticking to traditional anniversary gifts?
Well, I finally got around to taking some photos of the issue of Portland Bride & Groom (which came out in May) that our wedding was featured in. Sorry, it took so long. Jared and have been so busy and time just seems to fly these days. Anyways, the issue is available on newsstands in Oregon (and apparently some parts of Washington and California) until the winter issue comes out.
Open up to the table of contents and hey! Check that out! Real weddings on page 25!
The first 2 pages have our bio (which is so corny and pretty outdated since we wrote it for the application back in October). Big photo of the ceremony. One of Jared’s poor brothers ended up in the gutter of the magazine and disappears completely unless you really open the magazine up wide.
Second page with one of our Holga shots and some more detail photos.
And a selection of our amazing vendors! I wish they could have featured more vendors, but I know they are limited on space.
Overall, I’m very pleased. Naturally being the person I am, I wish I could have edited it myself and selected which photographs would be featured, but at least Jared or I don’t look like a goober. HUGE congrats to Christina, our amazing photographer! You totally deserve it!
I can’t help it. Raspberries are my favorite. Beautiful for a summer wedding or for your kitchen table.
Photos via Elseachelsea via flickr.
Today I want to share some of the lovely little details that made our day so special. All of the centerpieces and decor flowers were purchased from the local flower market and arranged in a variety of milk glass containers by my very talented grandmother and aunt. The bouquets we had done at Basketcase. I made the “F” charm for my bouquet.
The reception needed some pattern and texture, so spent a weekend scooping up Amy Butler fabrics on sale a yard at a time, cut them and with the help of my mother-in-law hemmed them all. I also put together the bunting for the breeze-way with the leftover napkin fabric and some patchwork runners for various tables.
I loved our cake. It was 2 tiers of lemon poppy seed with lemon and raspberry cream cheese filling and 1 tier of rich chocolate with chocolate ganache and fresh raspberry preserves. It was all covered in ivory buttercream with white fondant eyelet lace trim. My aunt and uncle purchased a custom cake topper from Ann Wood for us which topped the simple cake beautifully.
We used a vintage aqua suitcase to serve as a card box on the guest book table and tucked out of our beautiful invitations in the pocket.
We had a limited bar with local beers and wines, a fresh fruit sangria, Oregon strawberry lemonaid and citrus water. Everyone managed to find something they liked.
We decorated the staircase to the beach with leftover centerpieces from the rehearsal picnic (canning jars from the grocery store with “popcorn hydrangea”).
All photos by Christina Gilchrist out of Portland, OR.
Vendors Featured:
Invitations: My Ugly Kitty, Ring Bowl: Paloma’s Nest, Bouquet Initial Charm: Lost & Fawned, Cake: The Dessert Tray (Beaverton, OR), Cake Topper: Ann Wood Handmade, Food: Claeys CateringBeer: Rogue Brewery (Portland, OR),
I took a little break from posting yesterday to tend to a sick husband. Jared has the flu and was miserable yesterday. He’s feeling a bit better today and is back at work so I’m back to posting.
Our ceremony was only 13 minutes. Yea, only 13 minutes. We really stripped it down to the basics and a beautiful little homily by my step-dad who is a wonderful speaker. My dad and brother built the crooked aisle the morning of the wedding and both ended up with awesome sunburns. Since we knew the ceremony would be short we skipped chairs and alters and everyone just closed in around us. We did have some random beach-goers stop and watch the ceremony, which was fine. They were quiet and courteous.
You’d be surprised how many photos can be taken by 2 photographers in just 13 minutes. The sun started setting during the ceremony and the weather was beautiful. My awesome brother Jimmy sang and played harmonica with guitar for the recessional (‘All I Want is You’ by Barry Louis Polisar). We made sure our photographer got a photo of all our guests right after the wedding. I’m so glad we did this. The pictures are so cute and we know no one go left out.
More coming tomorrow. Details, reception photos and my favorite portraits coming up.
We went ahead and met before the ceremony to take some photos and take some of the pressure off to get photos taken between the ceremony and reception. Jared was a real sport about taking pictures. He absolutely hates having his picture taken. Somehow we managed to get some pictures without any people in the background. The tide was high enough that the tide pools weren’t exposed (which draws TONS of beach combers to the rock) which really helped. But even at high tide there are lots of walkers on the beach.
We had a very lopsided bridal party. Jared had 6 guys on his side and I had 2 ladies and 2 guys on my side. Pictures were never going to look even and symmetrical, so we just mixed everyone up. I think the sweaters brought a lot of color into and otherwise neutral bridal party. In some of these you can see some scary clouds that blew in. I had no idea the sky was dark until weeks later when I saw these pictures.
All photos by Christina Gilchrist out of Portland, OR.
A few more photos today. This time covering the other side of the bridal party getting ready. Jared, his best man, my brother and all his brothers got ready in the guest house. We asked them to bring khakis, a white button down and whatever shoes and belts they wanted and we provided them with a green v-neck sweater and a tie. Dealing with rentals was just going to be a hassle but we didn’t want to ask them to buy a whole suit. Jared bought a beautiful Irish Linen 3-piece suit from JCrew on mega clearance and paid about as much as we spent on the actual suit to have it beautifully tailored.
I had a pirates vs. ninja checker set made for him by Goose Grease and surprised him with it while he was getting ready.
I also had a special moment before slipping my dress on. About a week before the wedding we discovered my Grandma’s wedding gown in pristine condition. Of course I already had a dress I loved but we decided to try it on for her the morning of the wedding. She loved seeing her gorgeous dress come to life again.
All photos by Christina Gilchrist out of Portland, OR.
Vendors Featured:
Suit: JCrew, Tie: Cyberoptix Tie Lab, Checker Set: Goose Grease, Sweaters: Gap, Tailoring: D.O. Summers Cleaners
So now that the magazine has officially hit news stands (scans coming soon!) I feel comfortable doing an official wedding recap. I know it’s been almost a year, but here they finally are. I’m going to post them in segments starting today and I’ll try to include as much info as I can. If you have any questions though, please ask away.
Today we’ll start with the getting ready pictures. The wedding was in the evening but we started getting everything ready pretty early. We had Alice from Tiger Tiger Salon come out to the beach and she spent the whole morning doing our hair and my makeup. It was nice to stay put all day and hide out in the master bedroom.
There was another wedding on the beach that morning and we watched it from the window while we ate lunch. I panicked a tiny bit the day before when I saw someone set up rocks on the beach for another wedding, but it ended up being a memory from the day that I’ll always laugh about. In a way we went to two weddings that day.
I wore my Grandma’s garter from her wedding. My mom and I hunted for a vintage hanger from Portland for my dress. Julia and Kaireese got their dresses from Anthropologie. They were super soft jersey and crinkled cotton in soft brown. My bouquet was white hydrangea, freesia, lisianthus and astilbe. The girls carried green and blue-green hydrangea with light blue ribbon.
All photos by Christina Gilchrist out of Portland, OR.
Vendors Featured:
Bridesmaid Dresses: Anthropologie, Hair Flowers: Twigs & Honey, Gown: San Patrick, Shoes: Urban Outfitters, Bouquets: Basket Case (Cannon Beach, OR), Ring Bowl: Paloma’s Nest, Hair & Make-up: Alice Johnson
I have to stop looking at wedding dresses. I have those “if I could go back and do it all over again” moments. This morning in my feed I swooned when I saw this two piece wedding dress by Elizabeth Dye. The silk satin top is worn with a beautiful pink ball gown length tutu and then for the reception with this two tiered mint silk organza skirt. Two completely different looks with the same style and flavor. The perfect summer wedding ensemble for a garden wedding. Check out Elizabeth’s blog for more photos.
Alright ladies and gents! I mentioned awhile back I had some exciting news. Well I’m happy to let you all know in the upcoming June issue of Portland Bride & Groom Magazine our wedding will be featured in a spread! We are so honored and excited and I couldn’t be more happy for all of our amazing vendors (especially our photographer Christina). I can’t wait to see how the spread turns out and curious to see what photos they selected.
I’ll be sure to post pictures of the spread here for you once my mom sends me a copy. The issue will be on newsstands in the Portland and Seattle area at the beginning of June. After it is published on the website I’ll finally do a full post here with photos from the big day.