Please ignore the crayon specks from my scanner :)Brenna asked to watch our wedding video the other day. She loves to see us all dressed up and even likes to plan her own wedding. "I'm going to wear a big white dress like you, Mommy, but I'm not going to invite those noisy kids (her much older cousins)."
So I've been thinking how much I loved our wedding and how happy I still am about how it turned out. We spent about a 10
th of the national average (and by we, I mostly mean my parents, who would've been happy to spend more-they're very generous like that). So how was it that we spent less and yet I'm still thrilled with it almost 12 years later? Especially considering that, since then, I've heard brides complaining at their own reception!
I think the most important thing we did was consider very carefully what kind of wedding we really wanted. Casey wanted only close family and friends - there were literally only a handful of people he felt had to be there. I wanted the whole thing to feel very homemade and familiar. And I knew I wanted our families to be very involved.
Small and homemade is naturally going to be less expensive than big and fancy! In fact, I skipped invitations entirely and either called or hand wrote notes to everyone. But we still had to figure out the details. We picked a date two days after Christmas, which worked out perfectly, even though it seemed crazy at the time. My granny provided most of the decorations just by moving her Christmas decorations to the
rustic log cabin we rented for the ceremony and reception. I use the term rented pretty loosely there - I don't actually remember if we paid anything for it at all. And it was a Boy Scout cabin. But after (a lot of) cleaning it worked fine. I had a sentimental attachment to the cabin because we'd had my dad's welcome home party there when he came back from Desert Storm. And it was perfect for a Christmas wedding.
The flowers were one place I bucked all the money saving advice. I wanted real! My aunt was working with flowers at the time and I talked her into making my bouquet. We bought white roses (and pink for my little sister) and baby's breath and my aunt used greenery trimmed from ivy and ferns. We bought a few red roses for the men and that was it. My grandmother rescued the ivy (which represents
fidelity, by the way) for me and rooted it so we both have all the ivy we could ever want.
My grandmother also made my wedding dress for me. She'd been sewing for me since I was born and I picked a pretty simple pattern. It also left her with extra fabric to make dedication gown for me when Levi was born. It's all about the sentimental stuff with me:) I slapped together my own headpiece at the last minute by attaching tulle and seed pearls to a ivory satin barrette.
Casey found a tux he really liked at the local bridal shop and rented it (after we looked at every suit in the mid-state area). His
bestman rented the same one and my dad and brother both wore their military
uniforms. My sister was my maid of honor, even though she was just seven and my uncle told her that if I backed out, she would have to marry Casey! My mom bought her a very cute Christmas dress that matched our colors and she got a little more wear out of.
The cake was my only disappointment. I asked at two bakeries about having a red velvet wedding cake and neither would do it! Since we were running out of time I ordered a regular white cake and had a red
velvet groom's cake made for Casey. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have pushed harder:) "Different" wedding cakes are all the rage
now...I was just ahead of my time:) But it did turn out nicely. We had the bakery frost the layers very simply and not stack them, then another aunt made floral toppers and we put them on pedestals of varying heights. Actually the pedestals were upside-down vases temporarily attached to glass plates.
The food was lots of fun...my dad and I made the majority of it the night before. I just thought of all my Christmas favorites (fudge, shrimp cocktail dip, apple cider, etc!) and we fancied it up as we went along! We borrowed lace tablecloths from everyone.
My mother really splurged on a photographer (not the one who took the above picture!). She's still splurging on pictures for me to this day! And my brother in law volunteered to video the whole thing for us.
Unfortunately, my granny made him set up at the back so you can't really hear us, but you can hear my noisy nephews:) I'm glad to have the video because Brenna loves to watch it, but I probably wouldn't have paid for one. The pictures, though, I love.
I love weddings...I would love to get married again someday! But I'd always pick Casey:)
I was so excited when Brenna asked to have a tea party - dressing up, making little snacks together, shopping for the perfect tea, doing a craft together, decorating a hat, beautiful invitations... I had soooo may lovely ideas. This was going to be the ultimate mommy-daughter tea party. Only it was never going to happen - when would I find time? But my little girl is growing up and I was tired of saying "maybe tomorrow, baby." 
The important things are the time together and the tradition. My mother made the special little tea set for me in 1983. My granny gave Brenna the pink dishes. My grandmother and I had tea parties all the time when I was little. Funny, those were a highlight of my childhood, but I don't remember them being very fussy. Just a special little bit of girl time. 
