Weddingbee boards

We were married at the Blue Dress Barn in Millburg, MI – right outside of Benton Harbor and just an hour-ish away from the Chicago area – on 8/9/08.

Digital photos from guests: <font color="#006699">http://picasaweb.google.com/nateamber8908</font> - we printed moo cards and gave people a picasa web address to upload their digital photos to. I love this and I hope more people upload photos. It’s great to see the night from everyone’s perspective.

A select few pro pics from our photographer’s blog can be found here: <font color="#006699">http://blog.arraephotography.com/2008/08/amber-and-nate.html</font>

And a whole, stinkin bunch of pro pics can be found here: <font color="#006699">http://www.arraephotography.com/ambernate/</font>

Here are our mega-sweet STD’s:
<font color="#006699">http://www.flickr.com/photos/bettybacon/2219537294/in/set-72 157603795967921/</font>
and the back…
<font color="#006699">http://www.flickr.com/photos/bettybacon/2219537400/in/set-72 157603795967921/</font>

A friend of mine owns a design company and she had one of her designers make these and our mega-sweet wedding invitations (which I will post later). The save the dates were printed on 6x10 postcards. Libby Cole was the designer and she’s open for freelance work if you’re interested – you can email her at libby.cole at gmail.com

So about this wedding – I never really dreamed of my wedding day nor did I ever think I was going to get married, so when we got engaged last October all I knew is that we wanted to have a fun party. We found the Blue Dress Barn and completely fell in love. We are from the Detroit area, but both of our families are from the west side of Michigan, so we figured it was a good location for the wedding. Amy at the barn was super nice, friendly, laid back. The rental of the barn included tables and linens and napkins, the paper lanterns & chandelier decorations and some other stuff that made planning a lot easier. There are not many photos – but it also had a fire pit & we had S’mores which I hear were awesome, I did not have any. The wedding was supposed to be outside, but a sudden downpour at 4 made us move it inside. I really didn’t mind, the pictures are great, we love the barn and I was just happy the weather cleared up right after so our guests could enjoy being outside. So – Blue Dress Barn – A+++

The wedding was truly wonderful – a great big party just like we had hoped. The barn was beautiful, the food was great, the kids were adorable, the karaoke was super fun and hilarious, the DJ was great – everything was perfect. I was BEAT by like 10pm though, ready to go home, but I stuck it out because, you know…it was my wedding and it seemed like the proper thing to do . Farmhouse and I are in a <font color="#006699">vintage scooter club</font> and we had our scooter rally the weekend before (I know they aren’t wedding photos, but if you want to see those too – you can check them out <font color="#006699">here</font>) and there were a bunch of small bags of better made potato chips left over from the rally that our clubmates wrapped and gave to us late in the night. I opened them and then tossed them into the crowd on the dancefloor – I think every bag was consumed, which I’m pretty sure is the true sign of a perfect wedding

Other stuff – With the help of friends, I made the centerpieces – the vases were ordered from <font color="#006699">Jamali Garden Supplies</font>, the sticks from <font color="#006699">Save-on-Crafts</font> (I also got a birdcage for the cards & some moss from there, but I liked the moss I got from Michaels better). The flowers & most of the moss came from Michaels. Over the 4th my friends and I drank a bunch of booze and wired flowers to the sticks. Later another friend of mine and myself drank a bunch more booze and filled the vases with rocks and sand, put some foam on top, glued moss to the foam & then we transported the sticks & vases separately & assembled them on location. Worked great and it was pretty cheap. We used house numbers for the table numbers – we got those at Home Depot. I ordered little bags from <font color="#006699">Garnish</font> and stickers from Etsy seller <font color="#006699">kellydesigns4u</font> – she was really nice and custom designed the stickers. The cookies inside were made by my bridesmaid – they were vegan and absolutely delicious. The veil was ordered from <font color="#006699">birdcageveils.com</font> - she was nice & easy to work with. I’m sure many of you recognize the flower as work of etsy seller <font color="#006699">Myra Kim</font>. She was awesome and I ordered it just in the nick of time, as she’s pretty backed up these days. I wore the veil & flower for the ceremony then took the veil off for the reception. My hair was done by my lovely friend Song Hee who is based in NYC – she is doing freelance work so if anyone is interested, you can email me at amberto at gmail dot com for her email address. And THE DRESS – I bought a dress in March, and two weeks before the wedding I realized I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to go through the whole drama of dress shopping, and frankly two weeks before the wedding I didn’t have time, so I just casually scoured craigslist for a short dress, which seemed like a lost cause, then BEHOLD – the dress was there. I drove about an hour to see it, bought it for $200 and promptly returned the original dress the next day. Everyone loved the dress, including me – it was great and the best impulse decision I could have made. The designer is Ronit Zilkha – she is a british designer & the dress was called Degas Roses (I guess – that’s what the craigslist ad said anyway). I added an additional crinoline. LOVED IT. Shoes were Nanette Lepore, found them in Chicago – and I really really love the shoes. I was sad to switch to flip flops but they were straight up killing me.

Ceremony Music –
Groom & Dudes walked out to – Calexico – Chach
Sweet lady bridesmaids – Bob Dylan – If not for you
Sweet lady bride – Os Mutantes – Baby
Amberto & Farmhouse leaving (I don’t know the proper names for these types of music) – Nomo – Discontinued.
Bridal Party & Bride & Groom announced to reception – AC/DC – For those about to rock
Cake Cutting – The Turtles – Happy Together
First Dance – Journey – Faithfully (I have an unhealthy obsession with Journey)
Bouquet Toss – Tom Jones – She’s a lady (DJ’s choice)

We had our honeymoon in Negril, Jamaica at the Sunset at the Palms resort (<font color="#006699">http://www.sunsetatthepalms.com/</font>) it was completely wonderful, better than we even imagined, and I can’t wait to go back!

I think that is all – I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I’ve enjoyed reading countless posts on this forum!

WOW Vegan cookies and AC/DC? a dream come true. I too am looking for just a fun party with a wedding on the side and was considering the Blue Dress...originally we were thinking up north but there seem to be too many rules (out by 10pm etc). Did you have a vegetarian meal? I would be interested in the name of your caterer and DJ if you would reccommend them. I would however, have to request no Tom Jones. Thanks for your time, Jen