Real Wedding Sunday: Liz & Sean
When Jocelyn Filley sent me this wedding, I knew I just had to feature it. Not only is it lovely, but it is a perfect example of how an imperfect day, where it seems that nothing else could possibly go wrong, can still make for a beautiful, meaningful and fun celebration. I'll let Liz tell most of the story...
Our biggest hope was that we could create a wedding that would be beautiful and feel very personal and fun. We had 130 people in attendance. Sean and I are both very laid back and appreciated that the Beach Plum Inn on Martha's Vineyard was the perfect setting for casual elegance.
Our wedding logo, a polka-dotted fish, could be seen on many things at the wedding, including our invitations and the fishbowl that was meant for people to put their wedding cards in at the reception.
The weather. Well, what can we say. The wedding site and Friday night party site both would have been absolutely beautiful if we just could have seen on of the inn's famous sunsets. But it poured and poured and poured from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We were shocked that people even made it to the island since most flights and even ferries were cancelled! The rain was so bad that the Justice of the Peace had to stop talking during the ceremony because no one could hear him over the rain.
Flowers by Donaroma's.
Cake by Cakes by Liz.
For our wedding cake, we ordered cupcakes for everyone and then for the top of the cakestand, our baker made a polka-dotted fish cake in our wedding colors - but on the way to the wedding the baker had to slam on her brakes and the cake slid off her back seat and got destroyed!
Although we had sides on our tents, the band had to evacuate because a gust of wind blew the rain right under the sides of the tent. The tent was flooded and the band had to relocate to the kitchen area of the inn - not what we had in mind for aesthetics!
Band: The Mike Benjamin Band.
To ensure we had the maximum memories possible, we created a guest book station where people could take instant pics of themselves and put it in our album with a note. We also set up a "self-service video camera." We didn't want our videographer to chase people around, and our friends felt comfortable speaking to a little camera set up in the lobby.
I totally forgot this part of the chaotic story! The last day of work before I was leaving to go to Martha's Vineyard, I was running for a cab because I was late for work. My heel got caught in a groove in the sidewalk, and I tripped and fell. I broke two fingers and had a black eye! I ended up in the emergency room because one of the broken fingers was my ring finger and they wanted to cut it off! Thankfully, lots of ice and time brought the swelling down so they didn't have to.
But in spite of it all... we had such a blast! Not one person at our wedding let the rain get in the way of having a great time. Everyone was on the dance floor (outside of the kitchen). People gobbled down the delicious cupcakes and totally forgot about the actual wedding cake (which the baker brought over a new one at 10:00pm). We partied until they had to shut the lights down at the inn. It was great! It was the most informal but best flow to a wedding that I could have hoped for. And the most important thing? We got married!
Congratulations Liz and Sean! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us, and for showing how important it is to remember what really matters - and that a little rain doesn't have to put a damper on a good party. I think it's safe to say that the best contingency plan is a good attitude! And thank you to Jocelyn Filley for sharing the images with us - it's so apparent from these photos that everyone had a great time. As Jocelyn said, What the day lacked in sunshine was made up for in spirit!
Our biggest hope was that we could create a wedding that would be beautiful and feel very personal and fun. We had 130 people in attendance. Sean and I are both very laid back and appreciated that the Beach Plum Inn on Martha's Vineyard was the perfect setting for casual elegance.
Our wedding logo, a polka-dotted fish, could be seen on many things at the wedding, including our invitations and the fishbowl that was meant for people to put their wedding cards in at the reception.
The weather. Well, what can we say. The wedding site and Friday night party site both would have been absolutely beautiful if we just could have seen on of the inn's famous sunsets. But it poured and poured and poured from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We were shocked that people even made it to the island since most flights and even ferries were cancelled! The rain was so bad that the Justice of the Peace had to stop talking during the ceremony because no one could hear him over the rain.
Flowers by Donaroma's.
Cake by Cakes by Liz.
For our wedding cake, we ordered cupcakes for everyone and then for the top of the cakestand, our baker made a polka-dotted fish cake in our wedding colors - but on the way to the wedding the baker had to slam on her brakes and the cake slid off her back seat and got destroyed!
Although we had sides on our tents, the band had to evacuate because a gust of wind blew the rain right under the sides of the tent. The tent was flooded and the band had to relocate to the kitchen area of the inn - not what we had in mind for aesthetics!
Band: The Mike Benjamin Band.
To ensure we had the maximum memories possible, we created a guest book station where people could take instant pics of themselves and put it in our album with a note. We also set up a "self-service video camera." We didn't want our videographer to chase people around, and our friends felt comfortable speaking to a little camera set up in the lobby.
I totally forgot this part of the chaotic story! The last day of work before I was leaving to go to Martha's Vineyard, I was running for a cab because I was late for work. My heel got caught in a groove in the sidewalk, and I tripped and fell. I broke two fingers and had a black eye! I ended up in the emergency room because one of the broken fingers was my ring finger and they wanted to cut it off! Thankfully, lots of ice and time brought the swelling down so they didn't have to.
But in spite of it all... we had such a blast! Not one person at our wedding let the rain get in the way of having a great time. Everyone was on the dance floor (outside of the kitchen). People gobbled down the delicious cupcakes and totally forgot about the actual wedding cake (which the baker brought over a new one at 10:00pm). We partied until they had to shut the lights down at the inn. It was great! It was the most informal but best flow to a wedding that I could have hoped for. And the most important thing? We got married!
Congratulations Liz and Sean! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us, and for showing how important it is to remember what really matters - and that a little rain doesn't have to put a damper on a good party. I think it's safe to say that the best contingency plan is a good attitude! And thank you to Jocelyn Filley for sharing the images with us - it's so apparent from these photos that everyone had a great time. As Jocelyn said, What the day lacked in sunshine was made up for in spirit!
Labels: Real Weddings
posted by Kathryn at
5:30 AM
12 Comments:
Thank you so much for this post! I live in Mass.(not far from the Cape) and I remember that weekend of really heavy rain! I'm overdosed every single day with 'perfect' weddings from numerous blog sites. It is so refreshing to see that many things can go wrong at a wedding and the bride just goes with it and everyone still has a good time. It's a great reminder of what you're there for in the first place.
This is precious! SO much better than almost every wedding I have seen or even attended... I love that you had such a great sense of humor about it! What great memories your guests and you will have forever! I bet you will enjoy a long and happy life together!
What a wonderful post, I'm so glad you shared this with us! :)
That wedding looks so fun!! Even though, if it had happened to me, I probably would have had a coronary. Great reminder just to enjoy the day--no matter what!
Aww, what a cute and fun wedding!
this wedding looks wonderful and such a good example of how far cheerful attitudes can go. i'm usually kind of uptight about things not going "perfectly" but my wedding day had some less than perfect moments as well (it was raining, the supposed vegetarian entree for all my vegetarian relatives had BEEF it it, the entire entryway table to the reception was not set up until AFTER everyone got there, etc) but for some reason the day was so fun and wonderful that i found myself not getting worked up about anything either. i hope everyone has that experience! cheers!
i mean, i hope everyone is cheeful, i don't hope they actually have my wedding bloopers :)
OMG! That sounds like one of the most amazing weddings ever. It is so great that they kept a good attitude about everything, but you know bad wedding, great marriage. Best of luck to them!
Such marvelous positivity--congrats to the couple! A beautiful, beautiful event!
What a great story... and it's so important to not let the weather, or details you can't control ruin your day. So real, and yet so happy!
Lovely sweet polka dots! So sweet!
I am planning an outside wedding on April 25, 09 and praying that there will be no rain! I have come to the idea that no matter what the weather is like David and I will still be married and that's all that matters. Thank you for this inspiring post! Sooo beautiful!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home