Wedding: Reception

After all of the emotion of the ceremony it was incredible to depart the church and head to the biggest party of our lives. While we cruised through the alley ways and parking garages of LoDo to get shots of the wedding party, the rest of our guests enjoyed cocktails and snacks at Mile High Station.

We hit the dance floor immediately on arrival for our first dance to Ben Folds 'The Luckiest' performed and played by our incredibly talented groomsman, Jordan.  The dance not nearly as impressive as it appears in this photo - contained some very special not-so-serious moves.

After some dancing we sat down along with 175 of our closest friends for a family-style dinner of meat and potatoes provided by Catering by Design.

The food was delicious, simple and unfussy. As soon as people started to pass the platters we knew we had made the right decision going for a communal meal.

During dinner we were treated to toasts from loved family and friends from throughout the pages of our lives, some we'd known forever, others, just a few years. Some old, one very young - each gave us an incredible gift by standing up and sharing their love on a day that for us, was all about that love.

After dinner our incredible 8-piece Motown band, 8trac M.E. accompanied our father/daughter, mother/son twirl around the dance floor with La Vie en Rose.... and then it was time to really dance.

8Trac M.E. was one of the very best wedding decisions we made, and a great story. We spotted them about six months out for the wedding, devoured every sample track on their site and decided that they might be the very best wedding band ever. A quick inquiry was met with the sad reality that vocalist and band leader, Chantel, was re-locating to NY - and as a result 8Trac would not be playing the Denver wedding circuit in the foreseeable future.

Fast forward a few more months and a lot more looking, including heavy consideration of a Beatles cover band. We couldn't take it, nobody could compare and we knew it. When it comes to live music, half as good for half the money isn't really a deal we could settle for. So we tried again. Confessed our love to Chantel, and guess what? She said yes! A plane ticket to Denver and the band was back together, rocking our socks off all night at the reception.

We didn't spend the whole night on the dance floor - we had a few other things to attend to, like signing our marriage license (thanks witnesses) and cutting our delicious four-tiered buttercream confection from Das Meyer Pastry Chalet. Guests also spent a bit of time in the photo booth and rocking out upstairs in the Rockband room.

I tossed the bouquet to an enthusiastic bunch of bridesmaids and was delighted when my sister made the catch.  D. sent the garter flying to a less enthusiastic bunch of bachelors. Then it was back to dancing.

As clichéd as it may be - Shout was the hit of the night. Jordan treated us to a little bit of Prince and then we closed out the night with a personal favorite: Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

And how could the evening have gotten any better? Sparklers, that's how.

Wedding: Ceremony

I don't think anything or anyone could have prepared me for the emotion and accompanying nerves that flooded my heart before walking down the aisle on my wedding day. In an event planning capacity, a wedding is stressful, your own wedding even more so - and so the stresses of getting everything done, just right, were present for weeks ahead of time.

And then you're in the dressing room, and your sister is holding your dress, your mom pins in your veil, Dad is standing by smiling and the magnitude of the day hits hard. I was a blubbering mess before I even made it around to the front of the church.

We started late (as all good shows do?) The guys were burning up at the front of our pre-air-conditioning era church. Loving friends from far and wide filled the pews and the balcony. The organ player was in full swing first with "Simple Gifts" then "Trumpet Voluntary" as the bridesmaids made their way through the church.

Photo by Robert Hubbard

After the parade of ladies, our ring bearer, Brandon, brought up the rear, with a quick wave to mom on his way down the aisle.

The music shifted, the doors opened, held by my smiling uncles. My dad had to remind me to slow down.

And then there we were, standing in front of everyone we knew, ready to seal the deal.

In planning a secular ceremony it's hard to fill up time and space, to strike the right balance of substance and moments of levity, to honor tradition while making the words personal and important to us. This is something we could not have done without the aid of our dear friend, fire chief, sushi expert and now reverend, Andrew Moschetti.

There on the night that we met and throughout the seven years that followed, he has always been a part of our lives. No matter what distance and time have come between us since our CU days, we pick up where we leave off.  Months earlier as we racked our brains for an appropriate officiant, it was Andrew's  status as renaissance-man that led my dad to suggest him for the post. No sooner did he say his name and we were writing off an email to beg him to accept.

He was awesome and gave us something that we will always treasure.

Readings also came from my dear friend, V., sister and D.'s brother and ranged from dinosaurs to Carl Sandburg. Moo and roomie, Jordan also treated us to a duet of 'Can't Help Falling in Love' that I wish I could share here. It's on Facebook for those of you hoping to watch.

The one passage I felt the most strongly about is not an uncommon one. From 'Union" by Robert Fulghum, it rang true for two people who had spent the better part of their adult lives together, and yet in a world of overly saccharine wedding readings, it still seemed fresh and un-cliched. It added gravity to that moment in time.

"You have known each other for nearly eight years, through the first glance of acquaintance to this moment of commitment. At some moment, you decided to marry.

From that moment of yes until this moment of Yes, indeed, you have been making promises and agreements in an informal way. All those conversations that were held riding in a car or over a meal or on long walks—all those sentences that began with “When we’re married” and continued with “I will and you will and we will”—those late-night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe”—and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of wedding.

The symbolic vows you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things we’ve promised and hoped and dreamed—well, I meant it all, every word.”

Catch hands now and face one another to make your vows.

Look at one another—remember this moment in time.

Before this moment, you have been many things to one another—acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, and even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last seven years. Now you shall say a few words that take you across a threshold of life, and things will never be quite the same between you. For after these vows you shall say to the world:
This—is my husband. This—is my wife."

While the reception and it's ensuing madness was designed entirely for the joy of our guests (and by extension us) I felt like the ceremony was for us, and for our families. I felt like the readings had significance to us and to the people reading them, they were meaningful, but not overly serious. There was plenty of laughter throughout.

D. and I wrote our own vows, something I had planned to do months before, but only really did the night before. What we said was in the moment, from the heart and lovingly flubbed. I wouldn't have had it any other way.

And then my favorite moment - for D. it had to be top hats, for me it had to be a choir singing 'Can't Help Falling in Love' of Elvis fame. Our choir was built of talented friends from across the country, lending their voices for a very big finale. He kissed the bride - their voices swelled and the joy was too much for words.

Wedding: Wardrobe

For anyone who has read my interview on Ruffled or chatted with me early on the the planning process - you already know that the top hat served as the jumping off point for all things wedding.  Literally in the very first "what do you want at the wedding" conversation D. and I had, he immediately stated top hats. Nothing else mattered as much, and it determined the direction for everything else from clothing to paper goods to photo booth. I knew instantly we wouldn't be having a wedding in a barn or a super modern gallery and that a certain theatrical flair would be needed. Not exactly a problem for us. 

Top hats demand morning suits, morning suits demand cravats. The end result was a perfectly tailored British look. To mimic our bridesmaid's black and white frocks, each groomsmen's cravat was a slightly different black and white pattern. 

D. purchased his suit and had it tailored. He wore it with his own tux shirt, Ben Sherman oxfords and Monopoly top hat cufflinks.

A certain ring 'barrier' had some special accessories as well.

I purchased a dress before my dress. At the time it was "the" dress, but it had a lot of the things I had originally not wanted. Strapless (for one) and although lovely, somewhat normal. It just wasn't what I wanted and I had misgivings about it from early on. But, for anyone that has had the bridal salon experience, you know what it's like when they put the veil on and everyone starts crying. You're hooked, and it's hard to leave empty handed.

Luckily, my past employment included a costume shop and a very talented boss, namely Ted Stark. Ted took the frothy, layer-cake confection of a dress I had in mind and made it into reality. The classic dress-maker feel and oddball theatricality was the perfect match for the top hats.

From the mikado silk bodice to the endless flounces of pinked ruffles to the perfectly placed pockets. It seemed to me to be the sort of thing you'd want to wear to a party. A celebration in dress form.

My veil, the subject of past pondering on this blog, was huge, epically, awesomely huge. And when scrunched up, it perched on top of my head like some sort of cartoon bow, or a swirling cloud of cotton candy. Made by my mom, embellished with my grandmother's rhinestone necklace. In my heart it is the perfect veil. There could be no better. If you want one, I'll make it for you and save you the mega bucks they cost in the bridal boutiques.

My massive earrings were vintage. The necklace, a wedding gift from D.

But my favorite wedding accessory of all? Without a doubt my disaster-plagued shoes that rose from their tie-dyed grave to become the most incredible footwear on earth. Another much debated item on this blog, I finally gave in to a pair of Nina shoes which I took to have dyed at a shoe shop in Denver. Several days later - and less than several days away from the wedding, they were returned to me, the dye process having failed and the shoes a sort of cloudy shade, leaking blue on anything they touched. My cousins and junior bridesmaids came to the rescue with a trip to Michaels, a handful of blue fabric markers and several hundred packs of crystals.

One by one, we took a turn at the counter - tweezers in hand, affixing tiny, tiny crystals to the back of my newly "blued" pumps, that still weren't entirely color-safe

Even if you don't think these kicks are spectacular, you have to admit, there is nothing cooler than wearing something on your wedding day that all those near and dear to you had a part in making.

And then there were the bridesmaids. The most fantastically quirky combination of black and white prints allowing each to shine on their own.

I was averse to traditional bridesmaids dresses from the very beginning, a wash of one shade wasn't working for me, neither were the fabrics or the prices. I wanted eclectic, and affordable, and actually wearable, so I started searching. Everything from Anthropologie to Ralph Lauren came together for a bridal party of pattern on pattern.

For months we scoured the interwebs and department stores in search of the perfect balance of spots and stripes, blacks and creams, lengths and necklines to find something that suited each lady. Along the way there were hits and misses, great surprises and a final result that I can't stop looking at. 

Almost all photos by the incredible Erik Clausen of Poser Image - the rest are snapshots from around the house.