Outdoor wedding...

[swimmer]

The weather was perfect!

As you might know, I was freaked out about the weather, but it was gorgeous! Thank you for your gorgeous photos, insight, and inspirations, it would have been a hard go without the knowledge gained here.

The RD started with my rolling ring, which FI, now DH gave me days before the ceremony, getting stuck awkwardly in a non-rolly position on my wedding band finger...my uncle hacksawed one band off the morning of the wedding. But photos of that are for another thread, though its a good laugh a few days later and I have a double rolling band now.

So excited to show you the venue:

 

[swimmer]

The ceremony was outside, but inside the historic home was the food, here is the cake with fresh flowers, our ketubah painted by my aunt, and family wedding photos of parents and grandparents. The cake was butter cream, with lemon cake and raspberry filling.

 

[swimmer]

trying that again...

 

[swimmer]

We had the ceremony on one terrace of the garden, in front of the fountain that turned on as we kissed. The chuppah was a team effort with MIL, mom and friends sewing it. The ceremony only lasted 7 minutes (Rabbi is fast!) and while I had been concerned about getting emotional, my now DH had tears running down his face the entire time.

 

[Harleigh]

I just caught this on my lunch break, so I''m sure there''s more coming, but since I have to get back to work I just wanted to say how amazing everything looked! Congratulations on your marriage!

 

[swimmer]

The flowers were hydrangeas, (they were still in bloom outside), pink runnuculus, purple dragon''s beard, pink sweet peas, purple and blue stock, hyper...berries, pink roses, blue lysianthus, mmm, and how awful for the granddaughter of a florist, some others that have slipped my mind. I was going for vintage gardeny pinks, blue, and purple and our florist was just amazing. She teared up when I told her she had channeled my grandmother''s vision.

 

[swimmer]

Thanks Harleigh!
One layer of fountains had frogs, on my hs swim team my nickname was frog and I HAD to decorate them. The groundskeepers thought I was nuts.

 

[swimmer]

more flowers! every vase had different flowers.

 

[swimmer]

How on earth are photos clearer on PS than on my hard drive? OY, you can sorta see our names, not my intention. Here is us in the front taking a break before entering the festivities. Oh, and thanks again for the bustle help!!!

 

[swimmer]

Can''t forget the bling.

 

[swimmer]

And last one, while the dancing was going on we went down to the ceremony site for some kisses while the fountain was lit up. Hope you enjoyed, it was the best day of our lives. So wonderful to celebrate with our loved ones.

 

[Selkie]

Congratulations! Did you see my thread nagging you to post some darn pictures already?

Everything was incredibly beautiful, and you looked fantastic. The last fountain shot is spectacular-your photographer is a genius. And your florist, too. How awesome that she captured your vision so well.

What else: Cracking up at the frog! Oh, and I''d love to see some handshots of your new bling, mmmkay?

 

[sumbride]

absolutely gorgeous! I love love love your flowers! So glad the weather was perfect! It looks so perfect! And the frogs just rock!

 

[Stephanie]

Congratulations! That venue looks gorgeous!

 

[choro72]

Oh, so beautiful!!

 

[bensbride]

AMAZING flowers! I loved the outdoor venue, it was soooo beautiful! Best wishes!

 

[Sabine]

Everything looks wonderful! That last pic is fantastic, and I just love the decorated frog!

 

[zoebartlett]

Congratulations Swimmer!! I love your photos. Your flowers are amazing!

 

[zoebartlett]

I forgot to say that the ketubah is gorgeous! Your aunt must be an artist. Is she located in NE also?

 

[swimmer]

Thank you ladies!

Selkie! I didn't see your request for pix! You are too cute

I've got more... Yeah, just getting used to the bling.

Thank you Sumbride, coming from your legendary outside fete, that is a real compliment. Looking at pictures of your and other ceremonies gave me great insight and allayed fears.

Thanks Stephanie, Choro, Bensbride,and Sabine!

And Harleigh I hope you get your dress! fingers crossed for the delivery person to time it properly.

ZB, my aunt is an artist in Tennessee, the poppies she painted are from her garden and my parents' grew them in the backyard for the morning after breakfast. We ordered our ketubah online on watercolor paper as DH had the great idea of asking her to paint it when we couldn't find one that was really "us." Here is a better pic:

 

[swimmer]

Oh! Found some food pix. We had heavy heavy heavy hors d''oeuvres, lamb, cheesy garlic grit triangles, cornbread salad, salmon, brie, roasted veggies, spanikopita, curried tofu, mushrooms, and twice baked stuffed red potatoes. I just couldn''t deal with seating people, had too many nightmare seatings myself. A friend told me today that she couldn''t get on the dance floor because she had met too many fantastic people to chat up.
We loved having people from different worlds meet.

 

[swimmer]

more flowers! With votives we forgot to light. I really wanted to do sparklers, I mean, they are illegal in MA, why not just set off explosives since we were in TN?

 

[swimmer]

And a dancing picture because it was fun and I'm just smiling thinking about it.
Now I get why women smile and can share minute details about their wedding decades after it happened.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Gorgeous photos! I am so glad you had such a beautiful day! I especially loved your colors, so pretty. Best wishes to you and your DH!

 

[karasue91]

Wow your venue was absolutely amazing!!! How awesome that the fountain turned on when you kissed too!!!!!! Your flowers are gorgeous, YOU were gorgeous, everything looks like it was absolutely perfect. Congratulations!

 

[Gwyn]

Ditto to all the post. SOOOO gorgeous. And huge looking. Thats alot of seats! How many people attended your wedding. puts my little 50 person guestlist to shame!

simply fantastic!

 

[swimmer]

Thanks Sarah and Karasue!

Gwyn, no shame! I had wanted to do it somewhere exotic with just our siblings and parents, but some familial health issues, our parents'' desires, and DH saying, "but we have to have a band, and do it up right," changed my mind. We had just over 250 friends and family there. We still can''t believe so many people traveled so far to celebrate; 11 countries and 21 states were represented. We are both 31, and have lived all over, so no matter where we had it, family and friends had to travel if they wanted to attend. I think the key to getting a big gathering to feel intimate is having different conversation areas, also we had two different breakfasts and an RD where we got to chat with everyone so it felt cozier than 250. Also the microphone didn''t work during the ceremony! So I did get my wish and only had our immediate family at the wedding. At least it was short and folks could just look at the garden. It was mostly in Hebrew anyway.

I love that you are enjoying the photos, I don''t want to pester folks IRL.

 

[swimmer]

Lanterns for Gypsy. We had to stand still and didn''t do a good job of that, so that our photog didn''t have to use a flash.
Hugs for everything, hope your appt goes well in the am.
Thank you for your inspiration.

 

[swimmer]

And for Selkie,
The view of our venue at night taken by a friend who rowed home. Sounds like something you and your DH would do. Thank you for everything.

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 6/12/2008 10:12:44 PM
Author: swimmer
And for Selkie,
The view of our venue at night taken by a friend who rowed home. Sounds like something you and your DH would do. Thank you for everything.

Gorgeous photo! I keep going back to the poppies in the ketubah. Soooo pretty!