Showing posts with label our wedding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label our wedding. Show all posts

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Official Wedding Photos: Part 2 (Formals & Reception)

Hello all!

Before I post our honeymoon photos (we just got back), I'm terribly overdue posting the second installment of our June wedding photos.  I took the summer off blogging and have some serious catching up to do!

Our wedding day was perfection - we couldn't have ordered better weather and everything went delightfully well.  It was such a  joyful day.  I feel so blessed.  

After our gorgeous outdoor ceremony, we cut our wedding cake and celebrated with champagne and hor d'oeuvres (see my first post here) on the veranda.  Then we quickly dashed away with our families to do some formal wedding photos.

~ Formals~ 

Here we are with our beloved, wonderful mothers:

David with his grandmother who turns 90 this week and is a charming firecracker of a lady in perfect health:

With the mothers and grandma:

Here we are with David's parents and our very small wedding party!

And here we are with the mothers and wedding party:

After about a million more family photos, we went off to do photos of me and David.

I felt like the Queen posing for this one:

I love this series of photos of us walking down a garden path:




~ The Dinner Reception ~

My favorite part of wedding planning was the reception tablescapes!  

Our event stylist, Alexandra, and I had such fun developing the aesthetic.  In the end, we chose to do all-white table linens and warm brass candlesticks, with gold chiavari chairs.

I searched for months to find enough brass candlesticks to fill the tables.  Most came from thrift shops, with a few of the finer ones purchased from antique stores.  We added pink water glasses from Anthropologie to provide a dash of brightness to our softly-coloured tablescapes:

I designed all our paper goods, including place cards and menus, with the amazing calligrapher Jenna Rainey of Monvoir.  Check out her work beautiful work here.

Our central floral arrangements were created in footed brass bowls I sourced from both antique and thrift shops.  Our flatware was fluted with gold-tipped ends:

We also had tiny floral arrangements in glass bowls (Anthropologie) at the end of each table.  Since we couldn't repaint the room, we worked lots of foliage into the little arrangements to relate to the (green!) walls.  And the gold tones of the brass worked well with the golden woodwork on the walls.  This is the only problem working in a reception space that isn't painted a neutral - you have to work with the palette you've been given!


Our wedding favours were beautifully wrapped in white paper boxes with hand-dyed (in France) rose silk ribbon from the utterly exquisite ribbon collection at Froufrou Chic:

Our selected favours were bottle openers (Wm Sonoma) for the men and porcelain rose bottle toppers (Anthropologie) for the ladies.  Since we only had 22 guests, we splurged a little on these!:

We also had a charming stuffed wool lion favour for our baby guest:

Our reception dinner was gourmet perfection, created by the Reader Garden Cafe executive chef Merritt Gordon.  We started with a lovely asparagus soup followed by a green salad with candied pecans:


The dinner was fun and lively as we celebrated and visited with our happy guests:





Don't forget to say hello to small guests:


The meal was amazing - Alberta AAA organic braised beef short ribs with crispy onions. potato puree, and sauteed greens.  Perfection!:  

Dessert was a divine chocolate cremeaux (like a mousse cake) with shortbread and fruit preserves, and edible flowers to garnish:

During dinner, our photographer captured a few more details, including our invitation suite and gifts table:


As sunset neared, around 9:30pm, David and I escaped for a few more photos:

Luckily the garden still had some lovely late spring blooms:


It was such a wonderful day!

~ The End ~


Making our day perfect were all our amazing vendors, whom I cannot thank enough:

location reader rock garden & reader garden cafe (proprietor katherine moore)
photography: genevieve renee
decor styling by alexandra of pink and honey (and a very involved bride!)
florals by blue hydrangea
paper goods by mon voir
wedding cake by crave
vintage furniture rentals by vintage loved
reception dinnerware, flatware and chair rentals by special event rentals
officiant tamara jones
guitarist jason delaney

Clothing, accessories and hair:

bride's dress: sonia's bridal, customized by bride's dressmaker 
bride's veil: david's bridal
bride's shoes: nine west
bride's earrings: adorn boutique
bride's bracelet: nordstrom
groom's attire: henry singer (suit and cufflinks hugo boss)
matron-of-honour's dress: the bridal centre
bride's hair: jennifer mcfarlane
bride's makeup: ashley gill

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Official Wedding Photos: Part I (The Ceremony)

We (excitedly) received the photos from our June 21 wedding yesterday!

Our venue was the idyllic Reader Rock Garden and Reader Garden Cafe in central Calgary.

Our photographer, the lovely and amazing Genevieve Renee, captured our dreamy day so beautifully.  

Our wedding day was perfection - I could not have ordered more perfect weather.  The temperature was mild, neither hot nor cold (around 21C/70F), and the light was gorgeous after several days of rain (and light rain the morning of the wedding).

So without further ado, here are the photos of our ceremony and the champagne toast that followed (we cut our cake right after the ceremony, and had champagne and hors d'oeuvres before our formal photos and our dinner reception)

~ Before the Wedding ~

My dearest Mom and me, in the bride's room, before the ceremony:

My bridal bouquet, a soft composition of white and blush peonies, pink garden roses, ivory claire du lune spray roses, sahara roses, pink astilbe, blushing bride flower, jasmine vine, scabiosa and sweet peas:


My dress and veil, with fine satin edging:

Pale pink patent shoes:



Meanwhile outside, David waits for the festivities to begin:
The little box in his hand (with an orange kitty on the wrapping paper) is a little gift for me...

David having his lovely boutonniere pinned: 

 I wanted a slightly overscale boutonniere - ivory spray roses accented with pale pink miniature wax flower and dark foliage, all wrapped in muslin:
David's tie is a pale ivory, to match to my dress - but it appears lighter in the photos

We're ready to get married!  

I chose a simple lace dress for it's heirloom/vintage quality, which suited our historic venue, my traditional tastes, and our "warm garden elegance" theme.  Also the 3/4 (or half) sleeve look is a bit of a signature in my wardrobe:
I liked how the clean, slightly more modern lines of the veil created a counterpoint to the detail of the lace. I think I needed simplicity in the veil for 'balance'.

The entrance to our garden ceremony, with a charming small vintage sideboard, tall floral arrangement in a footed urn, and a pale pink velvet guest book to welcome guests:

Velvet guest book: Anthropologie

The ceremony site, with our classical guitarist Jason Delaney getting ready in the background:


Our stylist, Alexandra, draped our focal tree with panache in stunning white fabric.  The gentle breeze made it flowy and dreamy:

Ceremony chairs with wedding programs for arriving guests:


Roses, for our mothers.  We included a "mother honoring" part in our ceremony, to honor the amazing women who raised us and enrich our lives every day:

The Ceremony Begins


David's brother and his wife - our best man and matron-of-honour: 
I. wears a champagne satin A-line dress, nude pumps, and gold and glass earrings from Anthropologie

David and I arrive together (our processional was The Beatles,"In My Life"):


The ceremony begins:





I thee wed (the ring exchange):


With the power vested in me, I now pronounce thee:

Husband & Wife!

(Our recessional was to the Beatles "Here Comes the Sun", which was sooo pretty!)


~ Champagne & Wedding Cake ~


After the ceremony, we returned to the veranda of the Reader Garden Cafe for champagne, wedding cake and hors d'oeuvres:

Our wedding cake, a gift from my mother, was a stunning confection of lemon (3 layers) and chocolate cake (4 layers), filled with vanilla and chocolate buttercream respectively.  The outside was frosted with vanilla buttercream and decorated with tiny white sugar flowers.  It was delicious, as well as delightful to behold:

The charming veranda was so prettily styled with a gorgeous vintage white sideboard we found, perfectly framed and backlit by an archway overlooking the garden:




Champagne for everyone!


A toast to us, by David's brother:

A variety of gorgeous (and delicious!) gourmet hors d'oeuvres arrive, courtesy of the venue's amazing new chef, Merritt Gordon:



Visiting with guests:






And now time to relax with a little cake:

Mmmmm cake!

*

Making our day perfect were all our amazing vendors, who I cannot thank enough:

location reader rock garden & reader garden cafe (proprietor katherine moore)
photography: genevieve renee
decor styling by alexandra of pink and honey (and a very involved bride!)
florals by blue hydrangea
paper goods by mon voir
wedding cake by crave
vintage furniture rentals by vintage loved
ceremony chair rentals by special event rentals
officiant tamara jones
guitarist jason delaney

Clothing, accessories and hair:

bride's dress: sonia's bridal 
bride's veil: david's bridal
bride's shoes: Nine west
bride's earrings: Adorn boutique
bride's bracelet: nordstrom
groom's suit, shoes, shirt, tie, cufflinks: all henry singer (suit and cufflinks hugo boss)
matron-of-honour's dress: the bridal centre
bride's hair: jennifer mcfarlane
bride's makeup: ashley gill

I hope you've enjoyed the photos from our ceremony!  

Please stay tuned for my next post, where I'll share some of our formal photos and also our dinner reception photos!

xo Terri