You’ve seen the ceremony… now on to the little details!

All photographs by Kelly Prizel Photography

I went a little craft crazy with our wedding. Which was weird, since I had never undertaken a craft project in my life up to that point. I think I was just really scared that our wedding would end up looking like every other wedding in the history of weddings. I’m not sure why that scared me so much — probably because I was unsure about my feelings about weddings and marriage in the first place. So I crafted away for months and months (I’m not sure I would recommend taking on so many crafty details to anyone else — although I loved it, I did feel a little insane in the weeks before the wedding). So here they are… all the pretty little details, for your enjoyment!

Escort Cards and Table Numbers

You may remember from this post, that I was particularly excited about these vintage math flash cards. And they did not disappoint. They were pretty, they were unique, and I think people got a kick out of ‘em.

Favors

Near the beginning of our planning process, we stumbled upon the notion of giving scratch-off lotto tickets as favors. I really loved the idea and I think Beau loved it even more. We’d gone to so many weddings and showers from which we took home trinkets that sat in the trunk of our car for months before we threw whatever they were away. So, scratch-off lotto tickets seemed perfect: they were fun, you didn’t have to take them home with you, and they benifited the great state of Massachusetts in all it’s gay-marriage-loving glory.

But once we decided on the favors, we were left with the dilemma of how to display them. I mean, they’re not pretty. So after many, many months of pondering the question, we settled on creating petal envelopes with messages of thanks (because I really liked the idea of favors being a thank-you to all the folks who took the time and spent the money to be with us for our wedding). You can’t see it in this picture, but the back of each petal envelope is sealed with a penny that is superglued to the spot where the petals meet. Folks used their penny to scratch their tickets — and we even had a few winners!

Cupcakes

I am lucky enough to have two gourmet chef aunts. Okay, so, they’re really English professors, BUT, if they wanted to be gourmet chefs, they could be. They’re that good. And when I told them we had gotten engaged, the first thing out of their mouths was “we’re making the cake.” I could not have been more thrilled. These cupcakes still haunt my dreams, months later. I think my biggest regret from the wedding was that I didn’t eat more of them. I actually kick myself about that on a regular basis. No joke.

Flags!

You may remember the flags from the ceremony post. I really think they were one of my favorite things about the whole affair. They were the little thing that made it all feel like “us.” One of my friend’s made a facebook photo album of our wedding in which her “yay” flag is predominantly displayed in every photo. Love it.

Childhood Photos

In the weeks before the wedding, we collected hundreds of childhood photos to put on display at the reception. The whole weekend really felt like a coming-together of families and it was nice to recognize the roles that all of our friends and family had played in the years leading up to our union. We picked a lot of photos that had folks who would be in attendance with us in our younger years.

Not-Quite Programs

We didn’t actually have programs. I was planning on it until the very end when it just didn’t seem neccesary. We had asked my grandmother, who is writer, to write a poem for our wedding. She wrote a beautiful tear-jerking wonderful poem. What we didn’t know was that as a surprise to us, she had a graphic designer turn the poem into a piece of art and create copies for everyone. So, instead of programs, we had my grandmother’s beautiful poem. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Centerpieces

Early in the planning process, I put my mother in charge of centerpieces. Centerpieces were out of my sight and out of my mind until a month before the wedding when I started to freak out about them — since we didn’t have a florist and I had put pretty much no thought into flowers or centerpieces. Well, it turns out that there was absolutely no need to freak out because my mother had put SO MUCH effort into the centerpieces that I started to wonder if I should have delegated more to her. She had spent the year collected thousands (literally thousands) of pieces of sea glass and ocean rocks which she lugged back from remote islands in her kayak. She had also been buying up vintage milk bottles from thrift store and yard sales for an entire year. And she concoted a grand plan to pick all of the flowers on the morning of the wedding (which she did) from local wildflower fields. It was just stunning.

All photographs by Kelly Prizel Photography

Next up… the reception!

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