Wedding week: Our reception (part 2)

More felt pennants I made... they were also navy and mustard and white like the ones on the cookie table.

We did a slideshow of photos of us growing up while people were finishing up dinner and eating cookies. My part was set to 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins. 

Nate's part was set to Photosynthesis by Frank Turner. Some of my cousin's little kids couldn't wait to start dancing, so they danced to Nate's slideshow!

We also did a slideshow of photos of Nate and I together that was set to Just Breathe by Willie Nelson. Henrik came over and pointed out to us that he recognized us up on the screen (cute!)

Our first dance was to Harvest Moon by Neil Young.

Then I danced with my dad to You Got It by Roy Orbison (I've always made fun of my dad for his love of Roy Orbison so this was a fun surprise for him!) Apparently my dad is hilarious when he dances.

Nate and his mom danced to Watching The Wheels by John Lennon.

Then it was time for us to relax! Even though our wedding was relatively small (130 people), and we knew everyone so well, it was nice to be done with "the wedding show" portion of the day. No more posing for photos, no more pressure that everyone is watching us, just time to have a beer and dance and talk to everyone! Phew! 

Thanks everyone for letting me blather on about our wedding all week and post too many big photos! If you have any questions about anything, let me know and I'll answer you! 

All images DeBruyn Photography

Wedding week: Our reception (part 1)

Our reception was pretty casual. For dinner we had salad, fruit, and a build-your-own burger (or veggie burger!) bar with fries! It was awesome! We didn't want to do cake since it's so expensive and usually no one eats it anyway. So we ordered sugar cookies frosted to look like baseballs from a local non-profit - Cookie Cart! They were delicious and it's such a great program to help teens in a not great neighborhood learn life, work, and leadership skills by running a bakery! 

We ordered a cake topper from here despite not having a cake. It's a loon (the MN state bird!) marrying a bear (the MN Twins mascot!) I threw some extra flowers and lanterns on the table, along with some felt pennants I made and a few of our extra mini-bats. 

I had picked up a bunch of cake plates and platters at thrift stores over the past few months. 

For our centerpieces, we grew grass in galvanized tubs. We put an old baseball, one of the mini-bats we lathed ourselves, and a tealight in the grass. Then we hung a star lantern with a tea light over it. The table numbers were photos of Nate and I at that age, from 1-13. 

For our seating assignments/wedding favors, we gave everyone a photobooth picture frame that they could use later when they took a picture in the The Traveling Photo Booth! The booth was a huge hit and it was also our guestbook. The booth prints two copies of your photo strip every time and the attendant put one in a book for us, which everyone then signed by their photo! It's amazing! 

For our card box, we found a vintage PBR box for $2 at an antique shop. We put An Awesome Book of Love out after the ceremony so people could look at it along with a photo from my parents wedding and Nate's parents wedding. Our moms both wore big hats to get married! Go 1970s!

All photos DeBruyn Photography

Wedding week: Our ceremony

Our ceremony was short. Like crazy short. We didn't want a bunch of readings and songs, so we just boiled it down to the essentials. Nate and the wedding party walked to "Girl from the North Country" by Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. We had an astroturf aisle to go with our baseball theme!

My dad and I walked to Be My Baby by The Ronettes.

Nate's nephew Terry read An Awesome Book of Love (you can read the whole book online if you click on that link). We had four big hanging Moroccan star lanterns instead of an arch and we stood on home plate! 

Nate and I wrote our own vows which were also short and sweet. We exchanged rings, kissed, and that was that!  Our officiant was my disabled buddy Daniel's dad! He's a former pastor, theology professor, and current chaplain at a children's hospital. He was a big help in planning our ceremony and it was nice to have someone I know so well and who knows what he's doing! And look at the cool copper walls!

We all walked out (and waved to Henrik!) to What a Wonderful World by Joey Ramone. Then it was time for the reception, which I'll post about tomorrow!

All images DeBruyn Photography

Wedding week: What they wore

For our wedding party, we wanted them to look similar but not the same. We really tried to let them do what they wanted and wear things they would wear again (I know everyone says that but I think we actually succeeded!) Sorry for the random alley photos but we took most of our photos inside since it was freezing, rained a bit, hailed a bit, and one of our groomsmen is unable to walk long distances but these outside ones show their full outfits better than the inside ones! 

For the bridesmaids, I told them to buy any navy dress they liked, as long as it wasn't floor length. I think they all did a great job and will actually be able to wear them again! They all wore whatever neutral-ish shoes they wanted. They also chose their own star-themed necklaces and earrings and I bought it for them as their bridesmaids gifts. I didn't tell them anything about hair, but funnily enough, they all wore it down!

For the groomsmen, we let them pick out their own navy cardigans and bought it for them as their groomsmen gifts. Then they all wore different neutral pants, whatever tie they wanted as long as it wasn't crazy bright, and brown shoes.

The most important thing to us was that they were all there with us, especially since three of them had to fly in for the occasion! One of Nate's groomsmen has a rare form of HLH and we were so happy he was healthy enough to fly in (he had to move away two years ago to be near this specialty hospital in Cincinnati and has since undergone lots of chemo, a bone marrow transplant, dozens of daily medications, and will soon need a kidney transplant.) He cannnnnnot get sick and we were so worried he would get sick after he left from being around so many people at the wedding and flying but he really wanted to be here and I'm happy to report our wedding did not kill him! That would have been a bummer.

I originally wasn't going to do any flowers since we don't have any involved in our centerpieces, but I decided I wanted them after all. I made the bouquets and boutonnieres myself from Million Star Baby's Breath and Craspedia. 

I ordered the flowers in bulk from Fifty Flowers and they arrived on Thurday (the wedding was on Saturday) and quickly took over my kitchen. I made the bouquets on Thursday since I knew these flowers held up well and basically don't look any different as they die/dry anyway. I used baker's twine to wrap the stems since it reminded me of the stitching on a baseball.

Sadly this is only half of the baby's breath, it really gets BIG once you start unpacking it from the tight bundles!

Oh hai, I'm getting married in two days and my kitchen is a flowerbomb. And they don't even smell good!

The morning of the wedding I made the six boutonnieres as well as two corsages for our moms. Doing the flowers wasn't difficult, but it was stressful! Looking back on it, it was a money saver and we were trying to do this whole thing on the cheap, but it also kinda made me crazy for a few days and especially the morning of the wedding! I didn't want to do the boutonnieres and corsages ahead of time because they had a live leaf off a random plant involved in them and I didn't think it would last too long without water! I'm happy with how they all looked, but it might have been worth it for my sanity to skip them or have them done by someone else!

All images (except my kitchen photos) DeBruyn Photography

Wedding week: What we wore

Well, my dress was vintage from the 1950s. I found it at an Arc's Value Village years ago for $14. I had planned to sell it in my etsy but once I tried it on, it fit like a glove! So I held on to it. Yes, I was that girl with no boyfriend and a wedding dress in the closet. Weird. Anyway, I got it restored by the vintage wedding dress restoration team at White Way Cleaners because while it was in great condition, it was looking a bit "Ms. Havisham."

 For shoes, I had two pairs. For the photos and ceremony, I wore these Pollini wedges:

For the reception, I changed into these vintage leather baseball Keds. They were only made in 1992 so tracking down a pair on ebay in good condition and in my size took me a while! I'm so glad I did this - while I'm pretty good in big shoes, after taking photos for so long, it was nice to dance in comfy shoes!

For jewelry, I wore this necklace I had custom made on etsy here. Nate's dad died 15 years ago and I wanted to find a way to include him in the wedding. His mom sent me a copy of his signature from their wedding certificate and I secretly had it turned into this necklace which I wore as a surprise for Nate.

Nate's ring is from a local independent jeweler and my wedding band is a carved ID ring which says "NATE" from etsy here.

I found two pairs of starry earrings on ebay and attached them together myself to make one pair. I struggled with what to do with my hair. I was maybe going to go get it done but I didn't want to wind up looking like I was going to prom and my hair (while based in laziness) has kinda become my signature look. So I fancied it up a bit with some rhinestone stars (and a birdcage veil). My hair accessories are from etsy here, which came with one big star comb...

and three small star combs... (also you can see what the back of the dress looks like here!)

Nate wore his tortoise shell Ray Ban glasses, a navy DKNY suit, a brown English Laundry tie with tiny skull and crossbones on it, a Michael Kors shirt, and To Boot New York shoes.

The only photo we have where you can really see his awesome shoes:

Okay! Tomorrow I'll post about the wedding party and their attire! 

All images DeBruyn Photography

Cropped

Friday's get-up... I've had this sweater since I was probably 15? My dad got it for me in Ireland.

Glasses - thrifted vintage American Optical, lenses replaced

Sweater - handmade in Ireland, from my dad

Jeans - Gap

Shoes - Michael Kors

Another wedding photo from our photographer... I can't wait to see more pictures! It was freezing outside and the grass was soaked because it had just stopped pouring rain/hailing before we took these photos. Still, totally worth it! 

image from DeBruyn Photography

Awkward squared

Yesterday was school picture day at work and I totally forgot until like 10 minutes before the bus came! I was (of course) wearing a shirt that had crazy shoulder doo-dads at the time. So I quick ran upstairs and changed! IDK if a western shirt was the right choice but whateves...

Shirt - vintage Wrangler

Heart necklace - vintage

Pants - Target

Wedges - nicole (inherited from a friend)

Trying to coordinate and photograph my coat every day since I have so many goddamn coats...

Jacket - vintage Knit Fashions, Inc

Speaking of school photos, Nate and I used our childhood portraits and school photos for our table numbers at the wedding. So table one had a photo of us both when we were one year old, table two at two years old, etc. Here are my two faves...

Nate has hockey hair and ONE GIANT TOOTH? I'm in! And of course I've got the requisite "50% of my head is bangs" look that was popular in 1987. (P.S. I would totally wear my outfit from the photo now if it fit.)

This was back when Nate used to get arrested for skateboarding all the time and he looks EXACTLY like Reese from Malcolm in the Middle... I was slowly transitioning out of my tomboyness but still refused to wear make-up.

There's plenty more awkward photos where these came from, so maybe one day I'll post some more of them. We both had some amazingly large glasses for a while too! 

Team Olson

Sorry for the disappearing act but I had Thursday and Friday off work. Then Saturday, I GOT MARRIED. NBD. 

 Photo by deBruyn Photography

That's the only "real" photo we have so far... the rest are crappy cell phone pics...

Or photobooth pics...

The fam...

And here's one from the rehearsal dinner with Nate and my sister (my maid of honor)...

Then Nate and I went out of town for a few days for a sort of mini-honeymoon (it's too hard to take time off during the school year so we'll do a "real" honeymoon later, well, maybe!) Then we moved all Nate's stuff into my place and opened all our cards and gifts. The highlight was this:

It's a seat from Target Field where the Twins play! We know one of the architects whose firm designed Target Field and he gave it to us as a wedding gift! We were beyond excited! Only a handful exist outside of the stadium and they're all labeled row 7, seat 33 (for Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.) I'm looking forward to many years of fighting over who gets to sit in it while we watch Twins games.

I'll post more wedding photos and details in the coming weeks I'm sure. But it was a perfect day. I kept waiting for something to go wrong, and it never did! It rained/hailed when we were supposed to be taking pictures outside but it cleared up enough to take some outside later. Besides, the building was so cool, I didn't mind taking a bunch indoors!