Week of Wedding 1: Setting the Scene

Good morning!

Well, I'm back to spread the good word about married life! It's been more than a week since we tied the knot, but it seems like it was thirty seconds ago! Nevertheless, I would feel like a bad blogger if I didn't start showing you SOME of the photographic evidence of this whirlwind of a September.

We had professional photos taken by Monica Lee, a photographer out of Clarksville who did great work on two of my friends' ceremonies. Her photos still need to be culled and curated with a professional eye before we get to see them, but my dear friend Jules took about a million photos of the happy day. It was so nice to get to wake up married on Sunday and relive the highlights through these pictures!! I thought I would show you some of hers and friends' photos of the pre-wedding, before giving you the actual "goods" (Matthew and I in our formal duds! YEEEEEAH) tomorrow. Come look!

Here's the guestbook table. I decked my little hatstand from home out with a 1960's bridal veil that in no way would fit attractively on my head (otherwise it would have been on it for the ceremony!), and this heart made of red paper flowers and a photo montage of Matthew and me reminded guests of the "reason for the season":

Jules actually also made this photo mat! It's usually in a frame, which she and her husband James gave me for an engagement present, but I thought it would be sweet to trot it out for the wedding decorations. There we are at Jules's wedding in the lower right hand corner! (The ouroboros that is my friendship with this wonderful lady, haha)

The room had this crazy, crazy carpet, which was love at first sight for me. I'm over the moon about how all our photos looks fall, fall, FALL in terms of seasonal feeling. Here's the arbor up where I would eventually meet Matthew to exchange our vows. It was nice to have a target to walk towards, because under my big net veil, it was hard to make out anything but shapes in the early evening dark! We had the sheers let in a lot of natural light as we walked the aisle, which I loved. We were going to attach lights to the arbor like the box set intended, but when it got down to those last 30 minutes or so, things had to be prioritized, and I was like, forget it, flowers it is. Notice how it matched the carpet! It looks a little lonely by itself but worked just wonderfully in the actual ceremony.

We thought we would get into the event space the night before, as the hotel coordinator had said Saturday weddings were usually set up on Thursday nights. That Thursday morning, the coordinator called and said a last minute meeting had been booked in the space (a Doberman Pinscher professional breeders' meeting, if you'd believe it), and a strictly-blocking, no-decorating rehearsal was the best we could manage before the meeting had to be set up. Kelsey, one of my bridesmaids and a key "making stuff happen" member of the wedding planning team, Matthew, and our friends Rob and Oznur (who were staying in the hotel and had come all the way from Switzerland to attend the wedding [more on that later]) decorated the room as I got my beauty rest on Saturday morning. They did a great job! My little succulent plantings and old books and tchotchkes made for a very "Matthew and Lisa" centerpiece. Plus, people were tickled to death to get to take the cacti home (win!). Here's the display from Jules's table...you can see my friends-since-high-school and fellow married ladies Caroline in the chevrons and Jennelaine on the right in the wispy bg of the photo:

Two days before the wedding, my mom and I went out to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to see what the situation with placemats was out there. I'd had a brain storm that morning, while wringing my hands about the lack of decorative runners or mirrors or what have you to "tie the centerpieces together", that PLACEMATS would be the right size and the right pop of color to make the whole thing look cohesive. BBB was VERY ACCOMMODATING by having these adorable multi-colored bamboo placemats for $1.99 apiece. I snatched up enough for the tables, and was ready to go! It was a wedding miracle that the colors went as well as they did, I was so pleased. Plus, you can bet I'll be using these again for entertaining at my house (bonus!).  UPDATE: Here's a photo Kelsey took!

That matador was from Eartha Kitsch's free garage sale! Love it.

More wedding favors! Here are the candles from this post and little treat boxes of Hershey's kisses laid out on a table. The black and white of it all looks so elegant! My mom assembled these from flat boxes at her kitchen table like it was a paying job the week of the wedding. I had to get my arts-and-crafts determination from somebody!

As a teaser for tomorrow's post...here's Alex and Thomas and Brian (bridal party members) getting ready to strut their stuff down the aisle:

And me! Nerves everywhere, my sister Sus on the right, getting ready to do this thing!

Do have any horror stories or unexpected coups from the set up of your wedding ceremony? How did you cope with the "AH! I'M ABOUT TO GO DOWN THE AISLE!" last minute heebies? I told Matthew after the ceremony that I never had even a tinge of a cold foot about marrying him, but I sure did freak out a little at the prospect of being in an enormous hoopskirt in front of pretty much everyone I have ever known, while also expected to perform an act of public speaking. Now THAT'S a nerve rattler!

The wait to see my dress will be over tomorrow, I promise! I'm off to get a little post-vacation rest, but I'll see you here Wednesday. Til then.