Cocktail Hour Music

As I picked the music for our wedding I looked at it as creating our own wedding soundtrack. I listened to every song and listened to all of the lyrics. I was a little detail oriented :)

Here are the songs I chose for the cocktail hour:

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image from iTunes

Pre-Ceremony and Ceremony Music

Picking the music for our wedding was really a labor of love. We handpicked all of the music from the pre-ceremony to reception music. I picked the pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner music and Eric picked all of the music for the reception. To play the music at our wedding we used iTunes and rented a pa system and speakers along with a microphone and stand to use for announcements and toasts.

Here are the songs I chose for the pre-ceremony and ceremony music:

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Our bridal party, Eric's parents and grandmother, and Eric walked down the aisle to Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.

I walked down the aisle with my mom to the Cove by Jack Johnson.

Eric and I walked down the aisle to Do You Remember by Jack Johnson.

images from iTunes

The Bouquets

My inspiration for the bouquets came from the Martha Stewart TV special, Destination Weddings: Bahamas. Martha Stewart made the bouquet for her friend and publicist, Susan Magrino, using a sand dollar that she drilled holes in for the base of her bouquet. Before the wedding Eric carefully drilled five holes into the sand dollars to make the bases for our bouquets.

Then the day before the wedding I took the 25 white Garden Roses that I set aside for the bouquets and cut them a little bit shorter than I did for the table centerpieces. Then I took each sand dollar and placed roses through all five pre-drilled holes. I waited to wrap them in ribbon and put the bouquets in mason jars filled with water overnight.

Then right before the wedding I wrapped the bouquets for my bridesmaids in really pretty chocolate brown ribbon and I wrapped my bouquet in pretty aqua blue ribbon that almost had a seashell pattern on it. I really liked the handmade feel and look of the bouquets :)

I can't wait to see the photographs from our wedding of the bouquets!

Our "Photo Booth"

during our rehearsal

during our wedding

after our wedding

One of my favorite things that we had at our wedding was our "photo booth." It was basically a photo booth without the booth. We were lucky enough to have NYC Photo Booth lend us the camera, printer, and software. The Saltaire has a great game and theater room with a big screen that was the perfect place to have it set up for the whole wedding weekend.

All total I think we have about 650 photographs of our family and friends from our "photo booth." Everyone had so much fun taking pictures together including us! Our signature pose is our fish face :)

images from our "photo booth"

Our Wedding Flowers

all unwrapped and waiting to be arranged

filled with water and ready for the roses

centerpieces almost done

My favorite flowers are Gerbera Daisies but after discovering these Garden Roses I think they have become my new favorite. My fiance ordered the Garden Roses from FiftyFlowers.com to be delivered the Thursday before the wedding. He received an email a few days before to let us know that the roses weren't quite ready to be harvested so they would be delivered Friday instead.

The roses were delivered during my "showerette" on Friday morning. My brother was kind enough to carefully unwrap all 144 roses (thorns and all) and put them in water. After my "showerette" I was so excited to see them. I walked downstairs where my brother unwrapped them all and it smelled like a flower shop. They were all lined up in vases on the floor and they were so pretty!

I cut the stems right above where the thorns started with some serious clippers and with the help of my bridesmaids we removed all the leaves. Luckily the thorns were just on the bottoms of the stems so we didn't have to worry about removing any thorns :) I put a dozen roses in each of the eight aqua blue mason jars for the table centerpieces. Then I set aside a dozen roses for the lanterns to hang from the trees for our ceremony outside. For the bouquets I set aside 25 roses, five roses for each bouquet to make later on that day. Then I put the remaining roses in smaller aqua blue mason jars to use as extra decorations at our wedding.

I can't wait to see the photographs of the centerpieces, bouquets, and the rest of the roses at the wedding!

images by my mom and my sister

One of My Favorite Wedding Gifts

The day before the wedding our parents gave this quilt to Eric and I. Our parents worked closely on creating the quilt with the help of a quilter in Colorado. Our moms had only met each other once before the wedding so I thought it was really nice that they worked on the quilt together long distance while getting to know each other a little better.

I love that they included "Better Together", our first dance song and our wedding date :)

Our Rehearsal Dinner

Our rehearsal dinner was so much fun! We had a southern barbeque with white sangria, and cupcakes from Mike's Pastry in Boston. Before our rehearsal started Eric's mom gave everyone crackers she handmade. They were tied with aqua blue ribbon for the girls and brown ribbon for the boys and filled with paper hats, fortunes, and little toys. At every holiday Eric's family has these crackers and there are many photographs with his family wearing paper hats :) I thought it was so nice that we had them for our rehearsal dinner too!

The night before Eric's parents made the white sangria with help from his grandmother. Some members of our families helped chop some fruit too. The cupcakes from Mike's Pastry are Eric's favorite and were a big surprise to both of us. Eric and I lived in Boston for over ten years together. It was nice to have something from the place where we first met and spent so much time together. It was such a nice night!

My "Showerette" Tea Party Details

my bride accessories

my bachelorette accessories

the "showerette" favors

So much time was put into all the little details. All of the guests wore hats and gloves, some their own; others were borrowed from my sister's boyfriend's grandmother. The day she found out about my "showerette" she brought my sister hat boxes filled with hats for us to use :) At the beginning of my "showerette" I was given fun bride and bachelorette accessories to wear including two great hats that I got to keep!

The guests were given gift bags filled with fun favors including candy cigarettes and lipstick, costume jewelry, earl grey tea, fabric napkins, handkerchiefs, teapot cookie cutters, tea time lip balm, and vintage looking letter openers. My mom and sister also created the Saltaire Gazette that was in everyone's gift bags that included gossip all about our upcoming wedding and the "showerette."

We had a fancy tea party and drank earl grey tea {my favorite} out of china tea cups. We also had crudite, mini quiches, petite sandwiches, brownies, cookies, scones, and a beautifully decorated cake. It really was one of best times I've had and I can't say enough about my mom and sister for all they did to make it perfect :)

My "Showerette" Tea Party

my sister, my mom, and me

my family and friends

my family and friends

My "showerette", combination shower and bachelorette party, took place at the Saltaire the day before the wedding. It was so much fun and a complete surprise. My mom and sister, also my maid of honor, were the amazing hosts. Every time I talked to them before the wedding they were busy with "showerette" plans and now I understand why :)

images by my brother and Eric's mom

Team Bride

My mom had this bride t-shirt made for me and team bride t-shirts made for her, my fiance's mom, my maid of honor, and my bridesmaids. We all wore them the Thursday before the wedding as everyone arrived, unpacked, and got ready for the wedding. The week after the wedding I was still wearing my bride t-shirt at the beach :)

Our Wedding Welcome Buckets

,Wednesday night I assembled most of the welcome buckets and delivered part of them with Eric's help to the front desk of the hotel we were staying at that night around midnight. I couldn't sleep and was excited to get things done :)

I waited till we arrived in Duck to put them all together because the supplies took up less space in my car than the completed welcome buckets. Thursday morning after we checked into the Saltaire I assembled the remaining buckets and delivered the last of them Friday morning.

Here is what we included in our welcome buckets:
an outer banks visitor guide
bottles of water
m&m's personalized with our names and wedding date {a gift from my mom}
salt water taffy
starfish goldfish
welcome note from us (we included weather information and tried to make light of the anticipated tropical storm, "If the tropical storm affects the weather on Saturday the wedding will take place inside. If rain is good luck on your wedding day then a tropical storm must be really good luck and two tropical storms well you can't really get any luckier than that :)"

Gettin Married

Time goes by so quickly, I can't believe that two weeks ago today we packed up our cars and drove to the Outer Banks for our wedding. We found a window marker at Target and as you can see we had a little fun with our car windows :)

We're Married!!!

We're married!!! More details, photographs, and stories soon :)

image from my mother in law

I Didn't Plan For a Tropical Storm

I didn't plan for a tropical storm. We did buy hurricane insurance just in case but in my heart I never felt like the weather would really affect our wedding. Especially because the weather here has been beautiful and sunny the past few days. Rain is supposed to be good luck so I guess a tropical storm is probably really good luck? :) I guess all we can do is hope for the best and plan for the worst. I am officially stalking the weather now.

image from weather.com

Eleven Years Ago

Eleven years ago Eric and I first met in September. We were neighbors in this apartment building while we were both going to school in Boston. Eric lived on the top floor and I lived on the first floor with one of my best friends whose also one of my bridesmaids. I can't believe how quickly time goes by.

Do You Remember

"Do you remember when we first met? I sure do
It was some time in early September
...Well I was crazy about you then and now
The craziest thing of all, over ten years have gone by"
by Jack Johnson

This is the song we are using for our recessional, I like to pretend Jack Johnson wrote this song for us :)

image from Symphony Properties