Our Wedding: What They Wore!

On the ladies:

On Jen: Dress via TjMaxx & shoes via ModCloth

On Amber: Dress via ModCloth, shoes via Jellypop

On Emily: Dress via ModCloth, shoes via Target

On Bea: Dress via ModCloth, shoes via ?

On Adria: Dress via friend, shoes via thrift

Necklaces: Gwen Delicious via Etsy

On the gents:

Shirts, Pants via Lands End Canvas

Suspenders via suspenderstore.com

Sneakers via Vans Authentics

Ties via DiBi Ties

I've been a bridesmaid before, so when planning for my bridesmaids, I made a point to think back to what made being a bridesmaid great when I was one (helping a friend plan one of the best days of her life), and not so great (an expensive dress that still hangs in my closet). Since our wedding was going to be more garden party casual than black tie, I chose a color (pink) and then let my bridesmaids choose a dress, any dress, in that color family. I sent along affordable suggestions as I found them, but when it came down to it, each girl chose a dress that they liked and felt comfortable in. As a gift, I picked out necklaces from Etsy that had the first letter of each of their names on a letterpress block. For his groomsmen, Chris chose a more uniform ensemble, but I think they all looked great. He special ordered blue Vans Authentics through the store he works at, and as an added touch of pink they each wore a small boutonniere.

(mayhem)

(Watermarked photos by Spring Smith Studios, non-watermarked photos by Desarae Repass)

Someone asked in one of my last posts why I didn't end up wearing the orange and pink heels that I originally planned to wear: unfortunately we had some rain the week of the wedding and the ground was too soft to walk in stilettos on, I would have aerated the lawn!

Wedding Style File: At The Salon

(photos taken by Adria)

Dress c/o ModCloth

Belt: American Apparel

Cat Pin: Thrifted ($1)

Shoes: Thrifted ($10)

Please excuse the picture-heavy post. And the bra-straps. It was my wedding day after all, and on your wedding day you can get away with these sort of things. As much as I will preach DIY and low-maintenance hair, I've always loved going to the salon, especially for big events. I've been going to the Cut Off Salon & Day Spa since high school, and even worked there from 2006 to 2007 as a receptionist. So there was no question where I would be going for my wedding-day hair and make-up. Per my practice appointment, I knew my hairstyle would be vintage-inspired, and decided to dress accordingly. I had a few last-minute errands to run afterwards, and didn't want to be running around town with fancy hair, and no fancy outfit to match! I chose this ModCloth dress by Dear Creatures because it's comfortable and conveniently buttons up the front, a key feature so as not to have to pull the dress over my perfectly coiffed hair when it came time to change. I kept the accessories simple by adding a brown belt and little kitty pin, something I had completely forgotten about until I found it buried in a bag full of thrifted wedding supplies!

Also, this was too cute not to share:

This little diagram is from my practice appointment with my stylist, Michelle T. After wrangling my hair into a beehive, she smartly decided to draw herself a diagram for my day-of hair. I have so much hair to wrangle, it requires scientific formulas!

Our Wedding: Save the Dates & Invites

When I came across this post on Ruffled, I bookmarked it immediately. Since we were planning to have our wedding at my childhood home in Maine, I loved the idea of using vintage Maine & New Hampshire- Chris's home state- post cards as save the dates (left image). We spent the remainder of last summer and early fall scouring flea markets and Ebay searching for unused postcards for our project. Once we had accumulated enough, it came time to get stamping. We bought an inexpensive stamp set from Staples and stamped the backs with our information.

For our invitations I knew I wanted something special. We toyed around with the idea of designing our own postcard, or reproducing a postcard we both liked, but in the end thought of something better: hiring an extremely talented friend. Our dear friend and talented illustrator, Adam Ziskie, designed a custom postcard for our invitations, he took what we loved about the old postcards we were sending out as save the dates, and turned it into a modern postcard of our very own:

Image ©Adam Ziskie

Our Wedding: The Ceremony

Want the full experience? "Click play"!

Processional:

Recessional:

Want the full experience? "Click play"!

Ahh, I get weepy just looking at these photos! When planning our ceremony, we focused on keeping it simple, short, and sweet, we've sat through some loooong wedding ceremonies and didn't want to do that to our guests or each other. For our processional music we chose Going to the Chapel by the Dixie Cups, it was fun and fit the vintage atmosphere perfectly, when I finally made my entrance with my dad everyone started clapping in time with the music! We asked our friend Dave to preside over the ceremony, he's the one person that has been friends with us both separately (I met him at the SAT's as a Junior in high school, Chris met him at the different high school they both attended), as well as a couple. Dave wrote something personalized to read for us, and Chris and I each wrote our own vows. For the recessional, we chose a cover song by Joey Ramone, Chris and I both love older punk music and this song was classic enough while still being fun and celebratory. As we walked out, bubbles floated in the air above us, it was perfect!

Watermarked photos by Spring of Spring Smith Studios / Unmarked photos by Erica Ruch

Thank you so much to everyone who commented on yesterday's post and also to those that too the time to comment on Spring's blog post as well! Because we received well over 75 comments on her post (!!!), Chris and I won an 11x14 gallery wrap print! Thank you!

Our Wedding: What We Wore!

On Julie:

Dress: Betsey Johnson via The Closet Consignment, Boston, MA

Shoes: Pair 1: Anne Klein via Macy's/ Pair 2: Jeffrey Campbell via Lulus.com

Necklace: Vintage via Flea Market

Bracelet: J.Crew

Hair & Make-up done by Michelle T. at The Cut Off Salon & Day Spa, North Conway, NH

On Chris:

Suit: The Ludlow Suit via J.Crew

Tie, Shirt, Belt, Socks via J.Crew

Shoes: Florsheim via Zappos.com

Wanna know a secret? I bought my wedding dress before we were engaged! One day in March 2010, while Chris and I were window shopping on Newbury Street in Boston, we wandered into Betsey Johnson (ok, I dragged him). That year Betsey was doing a lot of wedding-esque party dresses and I pointed out this dress to Chris and said: "If we ever got married, this is what I would wear". Well, one month later while window shopping with a friend on Newbury again, we strolled by The Closet Consignment, and you know what was in the window? This dress. In my size. for $80 dollars. How could I not buy it? And hide it in my closet? And hope I got engaged someday? Well, as luck would have it Chris proposed a few months later and the first thing that was taken care of was my dress. After some late night ironing with a flat iron (yes, for hair), and fluffed up by a couple of vintage petticoats, it had the perfect 1950's vibe I was going for. I have never loved a dress more.

There will be plenty more wedding pics this week, but if you're feeling antsy you can head on over to the Spring Smith Studios Blog and check out the rest!

Also while you're there, I would love it if you could leave her a comment. Spring is running a little contest with me, if I can get 75 comments on the post, I win something special. Thank you for taking the time! xoxo

Our Wedding: Preparations & Rehersal

Photos taken by me and Benjamin Colbath

Photos top to bottom:

Mom bakes pies for the dessert table

Our center pieces and table numbers ready to go

Bea, Emily, and Chelsea string up the ball jar lanterns

Chelsea letters the menu chalkboard

Escort cards and directions

My brother was extremely popular/ Jamie & Eric

Eric found some chains? / Me and beer

To say our wedding was DIY would be a total lie, while most everything was done by hand, it certainly wasn't done solely by me or Chris. We count ourselves extremely lucky to be surrounded by a community of creative (and hardworking) and extremely kind people, all of whom we owe way more than a simple "thank you".

The week of the wedding I drove up to my mom's house in Maine to start organizing everything and pulling the last few things into place. It was nice to be home again, but very stressful. I couldn't wait until that Friday, when my bridesmaids rolled into town. We spent most of Friday setting up, my mom baked the last of the pies, we strung up lanterns and twinkle lights, and decided where everything was going to go.

That evening we hosted what must have been the most casual "Rehearsal Dinner" ever: hotdogs, hamburgers, beer, paper plates. But you know what? I wouldn't have had it any other way! It was nice to finally be able to relax a little and enjoy the company of our friends and family. Do you see how dark the sky is in those last images? We missed torrential downpours by a couple of miles!

Our Wedding: The Engagement Photos!

What he's wearing: All J.Crew except the shoes, the shoes are vintage and resoled

What I'm wearing: A ModCloth dress, Forever21 shoes, & a Spotted Moth necklace

Here we go, time to recap this shindig! For those off the grid: Chris and I finally tied the knot last weekend in front of everyone we love. Now it's time to undertake the task of recapping everything that happened! Since I'm still waiting to see all the photos, I thought I would start with our engagement photos!

Back in late June, on a hotter-than-hell evening, Spring of Spring Smith Studios came to Massachusetts to take our picture. Chris and I wanted our location to mean something to us, but also be fun, so we chose the Salem Willows Amusement Park & Casino (that description should be taken very loosely- it's an arcade). We have been taking photobooth photos there since our first date, so incorporating the photobooth was of top priority!

You can see more of our engagement shoot on Springs Blog, and on the Style Me Pretty: Massachusetts blog!