The Back Story
Anyone who knows me knows I am a total damask freak. So it seemed only natural to choose black
& white damask as my wedding theme.
I knew I wanted a pop of colour as well, though. So, after consulting with my husband-to-be,
we chose a brilliant cobalt blue from one of his favorite dress shirts. (Seriously, we carried that shirt around all
over the place for a while trying to make sure we got the colour right.)
But I’m getting ahead of myself. How did Fred & Ginger meet? (And why the heck do we call ourselves Fred
& Ginger?) Well, long story short, I
was friends with Bob’s roommate who worked at a local martini bar/dance
club. One night I decided to introduce
myself to him … and our friendship blossomed from there. And with great chemistry like that, it wasn’t
long before we started falling head over heels in love with each other. Bob
proposed to me on Valentine’s Day 2011 with a stunning yellow diamond ring …
and that brings us to where we are now.
(P.S. Bob’s alias when he gets a
little rowdy on the town is Fred Rogers and, after I dyed my hair red, people
started calling me Ginger. When we first
started hanging out & recognized the great chemistry we had – like Ginger
Rogers & Fred Astaire – we thought it was fun to refer to ourselves as Fred
& Ginger.)
The Bridal Party
After we were engaged, I instantly knew I wanted my two
sisters, Laura & Jayne, to stand up in the wedding. And I totally believe in the “rule of threes”
… so I rounded out my leading ladies with my best friend, Meghan. My daughter from my first marriage wanted to
play an important role as well but we both agreed she was too mature to be a
floofy little flower girl, so we made her a junior bridesmaid. As for the gents, Bob chose is best friend Cory
& two of his close guy friends, Josh & Jeremy. He also asked another good friend, Mike, to
act as usher. We had a little drama on
the guys’ side as the wedding date neared …
(Friends, NEVER discuss politics over more than one bottle of wine … it
makes for harsh words & hurt feelings) and the best man had to decline his
role when his work schedule changed just weeks before the big day. Thankfully, our other three guys rose to the
ranks & we added on a new usher, our good friend & game night buddy,
Randy. And all was right in the world. As for our officiant, we found out at our
friend, Adam’s, annual Thanksgiving dinner party that he is a licensed
officiant in our state, so we instantly assigned him to bring us together in “mahr-wage.”
My girls wore delicate, black chiffon,
tea-length dresses. My daughter wore a
cobalt blue satin dress with a black tulle overlay that held lots of shimmery
sequins within its folds. Personally, I
was not a fan of the dress … but I wanted her to be happy with what she was
wearing & it did add a nice pop of colour.
She also talked me into letting her wear a tiara – which I HATE – but,
again, I wanted her to feel special. My girls
carried stunning white & black bouquets formed from dahlias, roses &
dusty miller ... and accented with whimsical, curvy Hawaiian fern fronds as a
nod to our growing up on Oahu. I wore a charmeuse, fit-and-flare, full-length,
one-shoulder gown from Ella Bridal that featured an open back with a sash
connecting to the shoulder strap accented with organza flowers. My bouquet
consisted of white roses, dusty miller and black & white
anemones. (Fun fact: a lot of the dusty miller in the bouquets came from my very own garden.) We each also wore a blue feather from Fine Featherheads to carry
through our signature color of cobalt blue. For the ceremony, I wore my hair down in soft
romantic curls with a braid through the top front. The girls wore black shoes of their choice ...
while I chose a pair of strappy, cobalt blue kitten heels. We all wore
SpaRitual cobalt blue nail lacquer in Circle of Life on our toes. The gents
wore black pants & vests paired with white, French-cuff shirts & cobalt
blue ties. Each man wore a boutonnière I handmade from various black &
white grosgrain ribbons & unique black buttons. During the ceremony, my husband & I
presented white Hawaiian orchid leis to our mothers in thanks for all they have
done for us over the years. After the ceremony & photos, the bridal party
went to dinner at a local restaurant, Wish, where my fiancé had proposed the
year before on Valentine's Day.
The Reception
We always joked about the horrible “chicken dinners” you see
so often get at weddings and, as we were paying the majority of our wedding
expenses and wanted to keep the budget down; we decided to do a desserts &
cocktails reception. Honestly, doing a
reception that way was more our style anyway.
We wanted to recreate our Retro Club days as that’s where we met and
worked for so long. And we love desserts
and liquors, so it really fit us better anyway.
For the groom’s cake, I HAD to go with a bleedin’ armadilla …
a la Steel Magnolias. My fiancé lived in
Texas for a bit during his childhood and any Texan can tell you about the
unfortunate armadillos on the side of the road that lost the battle in truck
vs. wildlife. And in high school I
played Annelle in our production of Steel Magnolias and I have always LOVED
that movie. So I commissioned Debbie
Meier of Loving Traditions Cakery to make me a red velvet, marshmallow fondant armadillo
groom’s cake. Not only was he fabulous
to look at … but he was delicious to hack into as well.
For décor, it was pretty much DIY – except for the fabulous
blue uplighting our DJ did & the stunning table arrangements my florist, Fawn Mueller of Inspired by Nature, created -- and I think I did a pretty stellar job considering
my budget. I got the damask table cloth
for the dessert table, the reception table runners and a few chairs ties from
smartyhadaparty.com. They were great
quality at an excellent price point. Then
I bought two bolts of damask fabric from Joann’s and used that to make extra table
cloths (okay, I admit, I had one of the girls from work make those for me cause
I just didn’t have the time) and a wrap for the reception bar. I also had a girl friend make eco-friendly
cabernet scented damask candles for the pub tables at the reception and put out
little damask trivia boxes I found on clearance at Michaels. My favorite thing was our DIY photo “booth”
that I draped with damask curtains from my Spalon’s massage room & made
cute little felt accessories for. We
also did a sweetheart table because I can’t stand the idea of a head table
where everyone is staring at you and looking up your nose.
And though I’m not into people staring at me, I definitely
wanted to look like a knock-out for the reception. So I opted for a higher, frillier blue shoe
for dancin’ in and wore my hair in a Kate-Middleton-red-carpet-inspired chic updo
that she wore for the Olympics opening gala.
I also added a custom-made black sash with organza flowers that were
copies of the ones on the shoulder of my dress.
Thank you etsy.com.
Funny Little Anecdotes from the Wedding Extravaganza
And what’s a wedding without a few mishaps? One of the caveats of an outdoor wedding is
running the risk of going head to head with Mother Nature. Thankfully, our ceremony day was bright &
beautiful. The rehearsal on the hand … The
very minute that the girls and I pulled up to the Historical Museum, it started
torrential downpour raining. We sat
there in the cars for about half an hour or more, waiting for it to clear
up. It never completely did, but at
least it let up to a light drizzle so that we could hash out a rough
rehearsal. And nobody remembered the
wedding script … so we ended up having to wing it off my memory.
The next day, at the ceremony, we had some interesting
snafus as well. I didn't know it at the time,
but our usher, Randy, was HIGHLY medicated for some back surgery he had
recently undergone. And we’re talking
the good stuff – where you’re functioning in society but you don’t remember
where the heck you were that week while on the meds. I couldn’t figure out why he kept looking at
me like I was speaking Greek as we reviewed the scripted wedding rundown. I got a little annoyed because he sat the
moms way to earlier on the first song (they weren’t supposed to be seated until
the second song) … but later on when I found out what drugs he was on … well,
let’s just say I’m glad our moms got seated in the right place at all! Poor
Randy. Such a trooper!
I had also designated a trusted girl friend to take care of
the music cues at the ceremony. Well,
unbeknownst to me, the guys thought they would be cool cats and use a remote to
play & stop the music. But they
forgot to make sure the batteries were good.
Oops.
My daughter also went through some periodic diva-ness
throughout the wedding weekend. Which is
understandable when you’re entrusted to a grandma who lets you stay up late and
eat a bunch of junk food for 4 days straight.
Thanks, Grandma! What’s funny is,
though, I think the pictures our photographer, Marie, caught of us having our
little “asides” are hilarious. I’m
totally going to blackmail her with those later on in life.
But perhaps the most interesting & memorable wedding
snafu was our wedding crasher at the reception.
This really stellar person not only accosted some of our female guests
on the dance floor … but made a guest star appearance in the women’s bathroom
where some of my girls and I had been trying to do bustle reconnaissance. Let’s just say that my husband’s package isn’t
the only one I saw that night. I have to
say, though, I was so proud of my middle sister, Laura – who I’ve NEVER seen
get pissed at anyone – use more swear words on this guy than I think even our
father had in his entire Naval career.
It really warmed my heart to have her come to my rescue like that.
Ending Credits
I am so lucky & blessed to call several very talented people my friends and professional cohorts in the local wedding scene. (We specialize in weddings at my Spalon.) The dear, sweet Fawn Mueller of Inspired by Nature was my florist and she created stunning flowers that were well beyond anything in my dreams. She created my vision and much, much more. She also stepped in as my linen lady – and thank goodness! Her attention to detail is everything an OCD girl like me could ask for. And my photographer was the amazingly talented & fabulously inspirational, Marie Walkowski of Walkowski Photography. Marie and I were destined to be friends – we went to the same college and had a brief stint at Joann Fabrics during our career transition days. When she gave me the flash drive with my wedding pictures, I literally laughed & cried because it brought back so many wonderful memories from that day and she caught amazing things on camera that I didn’t even notice during all the hoopla of the wedding extravaganza. I cannot imagine going with anyone else for a wedding and these two amazing women helped all my dreams come true! (All photos for this post are courtesy of Walkowski Photorgraphy.)
www.walkowskiphoto.com
www.lovingtraditionsllc.com
www.inspiredbynaturellc.om
www.sweetlolascupcakes.com
www.euphoriaspalon.com
www.elegantoccasions.net
www.etsy.com
www.smartyhadaparty.com
