I am now a (quite thoroughly!) married woman! Yup, two of everything for me (well, almost everything). Two rehearsal dinners, two ceremonies, two receptions. I'm American. I do things big. What can I say? I only had one dress (which I got to wear twice. Who does that? ME!) and one cake (baked and decorated by my very own Grandma!). So here's the story in pictures:
Saturday, March 5th, 2011:
The New Zealand Wedding
Flowers: DIY by my lovely bridesmaids!
All us gorgeous girls
All the handsome boys
Yeah, I clean up okay!
On our way!
Look up there!
Yup, Jandals (aka Flip Flops)
I do love this man!
Mwah!
My crew (yup, 10 + Bob and me = 12).
The restaurant staff had to work hard to get our head table organized!
They did a good job! Check out the shell necklaces for favors.
This is why we chose Long Bay Restaurant for our wedding venue. Stunning views!
Pity it rained all day...
Bob described this wedding perfectly:
"We had a party, and somewhere in the middle, a wedding broke out."
Our first dance as a married couple!
You and Me by Dave Matthews Band.
And off we go...wedding one: DONE!
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves that night. It was a bit overwhelming for me to walk myself down the aisle, as I had decided that if my dad couldn't be there to do it, then no one would walk me. I thought I would be fine, but I saw all the people and was blown away!
Our good friends Lew Black and Warren Payne provided the music for the ceremony. Lew played guitar, Warren played the accordion, and both of them used their booming voices to set the soundtrack for the moment with folk music. It was so special!
The food was fantastic. Seriously, the broccoli...wow. I could have eaten a whole plate of it, which is saying a lot because I usually eat broccoli begrudgingly, and prefer it covered in cheese sauce, which negates all of the vitamins, minerals, fiber blah blah blah....but stir fried in a sweet, dark soy sauce...Oofdah!
But why would I eat a whole plate of broccoli when there was:
Turkey roulade wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cranberry
Pan-seared fish with extra delicious white sauce
Herb-roasted potatoes
Rice Pilau
For dessert:
Tiramisu
Pavlova with fruit and cream
Our guests all seemed to enjoy themselves. The staff seemed to have fun as well, especially the Bogun Bartender, who recognized Bob from Naquadah and also all the boys from Upraw...he thought he'd died and gone to local Auckland music heaven! He said it was a great change from the usual stuffy, formulaic weddings he usually sees there. That's what I wanted, something different.
On Sunday, we basked in the afterglow.
On Monday, we flew to the USA!
Friday, March 11th 2011:
The Denver Wedding
We got married at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Aurora, Colorado.
This was my home church when I was growing up. Pastor Jeff Shearier did the ceremony. He's known me since I was about 14 years old and I used to babysit his kids.
Check out the pipe organ in the back! Again, our music was played by a meaningful person in our lives.
My family's long-time friend Karen Montross played the organ for our ceremony.
One of the most exciting things about this whole wedding business was the chance to see these girls again!
They are my good friends from college, and I hadn't seen them in many many years.
We chose the beautiful Grant-Humphrey's Mansion near Downtown Denver for our reception.
My Grandma baked and decorated the cake. Awesome!
It broke my heart a little bit to cut it!
Goofing off for photos, with my brother as the lone groomsman.
He did a spectacular job!
First Dance, Part Deux!
And the much-anticipated Father-Daughter dance,
to Fathers and Daughters by Paul Simon.
We both cried a little.
Unlike New Zealand, we had BEAUTIFUL weather this day!
There was not a smidgen of snow to be found anywhere,
which is highly unusual for Denver in March.
My husband is all class. Doesn't he look like he just jumped out of a gangster movie?
(The old-school ones, like Godfather-styles)
The Denver wedding was a much more formal, intimate affair. When I was planning, I wanted to have two distinctly different days, and that's what I got! Friends and family came from all over the country and it was such a blessing to see so many wonderful people whom I have not seen in many years again.
We had a lot of fun planning the menu here. Since our ceremony was at 10am and the reception started at noon, we wanted to do something a bit out of the ordinary (at least as far as weddings are concerned). Our very talented (and very lovely!) caterers at Biscuits and Berries helped us develop a marvelous brunch! We had:
Appetizers:
Scallion corn cakes topped with grilled prawns
Assorted mini quiches
Mini chocolate hazelnut doughnuts with a shot of milk (my FAVORITE!)
Brunch:
Red velvet pancakes
Build your own omelette station
Brown sugar and chili bacon
Canadian bacon
The best roasted potatoes EVER
Fresh fruit with caramel creme fraiche dipping sauce
Assorted muffins and pastries
And, to top it off:
A Bloody Mary and Mimosa bar!
As you may imagine, this wedding was tinged with a bit of sadness and grief. My mom had put a lot of time and effort (not to mention excitement!) into helping me plan everything, and it was a huge shock to us all when she died.
We forged ahead though, remembering her and knowing that she was very much with us that day.
I'll do a honeymoon blog another day...we had a truly fantastic, luxurious and relaxing time in Fiji!
I want to thank all of the vendors who helped make both days so special:
New Zealand:
Dana Wilton, for hair and makup
Damon Lord, for photographs
(he's a talented friend who offered to take photos)
Denver:
But most of all, thank you to all of our wonderful, kind, generous and loving friends and family who helped us plan along the way and came out to celebrate with us!
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