WAY Belated Post-Wedding Post! (With lots and lots of pics)
So I completely fell off on doing progress posts for the last several months of my engagement, and then completely failed to do a post-wedding post when I actually got married. Oops. Well, here I am, 9 months after the fact, just in case anyone wanted to see how it all turned out.
A refresher first:
Intro Post
Progress Post 1
Progress Post 2
Since my husband and I are a pair of shameless nerds who met on the internet and got engaged via a hacked video game, our goal was to pull off a wedding that was both geeky and classy. If I do say so myself, we succeeded. :)
Our photographer was Tim Greer of Camera Famosa, and all the (numerous) following pics are his.
Venue: Century House, Latham, NY
I really wanted to get married outdoors, and we got EXTREMELY lucky with the weather. Our ceremony site actually used to be a tennis court, of all things, but it cleans up real nice with the addition of a tent and some decorations. The best part is the surrounding trees and the view.
One of the things that really sold me on the venue was the nature trail behind the ceremony site. It was a fantastic place for photos!
Aaaaand the reception room. My favorite part of this was the fireplace. It added great ambiance, but unfortunately also made the dance floor stupidly hot after awhile.
Food and Drink
The nice thing about Century House is that it's one-stop shopping: catering, open bar, and cake are all included. And the food is REALLY good. One of our appetizers was a tomato bisque shooter with a mini grilled cheese to dip in it. We...won't talk about how many of those I ate on the wedding day.
Our signature cocktail was called "The Critical Hit", basically a cosmopolitan slightly modified with citrus vodka and dispensed through an ice luge shaped like a D20, so the whole thing was one big Dungeons and Dragons joke.
Our cake was three flavors: white cake with strawberry filling (my favorite), red velvet (the husband's favorite), and almond cake with chocolate filling (because chocolate!). That icing, believe it or not, is NOT FONDANT. I made the cake topper myself, in homage to our Mario proposal.
Flowers and Decor
I used Price Chopper's floral department, believe it or not, for all the bouquets, corsages, and boutineers. They did great work and were very affordable. Flowers were overall low on my priority list, so I pretty much just told them my colors and let them loose. We used a lot of inexpensive flowers like carnations, roses, and sunflowers.
My stepmother, formerly a professional florist, DIYed all the ceremony and reception decor. This was our sweetheart table.
Bringing the nerd factor, my sister and I DIYed table numbers. Each table was named after a different fictional location from books, cartoons, video games, etc.
And my mom and I DIYed the card box. I am stupidly proud of this card box. It was THE HARDEST DIY project from the whole wedding. (...Please ignore the pony; someone decided that it needed to pose with the card box. ^^a)
We used a photo matte instead of a guestbook because I wanted to be able to display it after the wedding. It now has a wedding photo in it and hangs in our living room.
Paper
The one bit of the wedding I DON'T have good pictures of, LOL. There's a stock photo of the invitation kit we used in one of the progress posts, and really the only thing we did differently was print in purple ink. Our STDs were magnets from VistaPrint. My mom made the escort cards with a little 8-bit pixelated heart icon between the guest's name and the table name.
And my godmother made the programs.
Bride's Attire
Dress was Oleg Cassini for David's Bridal. Headpiece came from David's as well, and the veil was DB but purchased secondhand from another bride on The Knot's forums.
Shoes, after an epic quest because yellow dress shoes are hella rare, were purchased on Amazon. My necklace was Swarovski, the rest of the jewelry came from a couple random stores at the mall. My 'something blue' was a sapphire stud I wore in my cartilage piercing. It was way subtle, which I liked, but you can kind of see it in some of the pics. Sapphire is also my husband's birthstone. :)
My mother made my garters by hand. The 'toss' garter was made in our wedding colors. The 'keep' garter has rosettes made by my great-grandmother and beads from my grandmother's costume jewelry and my mother's wedding earrings, so it represented three generations of women in my family. It was my 'something old'.
Wedding Party Attire
I had six bridesmaids with wildly different tastes and body types, so I gave them a color (DB's Plum) and had them choose their own dresses individually. Somehow three of them still ended up in the same dress, but it still worked out. They voted on dress length and chose short. They're wearing black shoes because that's something everyone owns, I didn't want them to have to spend a ton of extra money, and it looked good with the purple dresses. They also had black pashminas I gave them as part of their thank-you present, to wear if it got too cold during the outdoor ceremony.
We got the tuxes for James and the groomsmen from Men's Wearhouse, and I kind of wish we hadn't. Out of all the vendors we used, they gave us the most trouble by far. The tuxes themselves were really nice when all was said and done, but it took a LOT of groomzilla-ing and micromanagement by James to make that happen.
I really wanted our mothers to feel comfortable and beautiful for the wedding, so there were no rules here. My mother-in-law chose to stick with the wedding's color scheme. My mom and stepmother...didn't. The dads are wearing the same tux as the groomsmen, with a black vest instead of the plum to distinguish them.
Us ladies had hair and makeup done by Lipstick 'N' Lashes. They came to the hotel so we didn't have to go anywhere, and did a fantastic job. I have never seen nicer updos.
Rings
My engagement ring came from Glennpeter's and our wedding bands from Hannoush, both local jewelers. Mine are white gold, his is tungsten.
Favors
We had a photobooth. I know some people find those corny, but you've got to know your audience, and my family went NUTS for it. This one is my 80-year-old grandmother and my great-aunts, having more fun than I have ever seen. I love that this happened. :)
And finally, a couple things that actually don't involve a million pictures...
Ceremony
James and I aren't religious, but we have a lot of family that are, so we did a custom ceremony that was mainly secular with just enough mention of God in it. Our officiant was James's former co-worker who just happens to be an ordained minister. Turns out he had asked this man to officiate his wedding someday before he and I even met. He had an officiant before he had a bride!
I am actually really proud of how the ceremony wording turned out. This post is long enough already, but I'd be glad to post the text separately if people are interested.
We did two readings; an excerpt from Kalil Ghibran's "The Prophet" and an excerpt from "True Love" by Robert Fulgham. You may have seen this quote online before, misattributed to Dr. Seuss: "We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." That was actually written by Robert Fulgham, in part of a series of essays about love that were published together. I would highly recommend checking "True Love" out if you're looking for a quirky but meaningful reading.
Music
We used Bruce Tallini for both our ceremony and reception music. This was something I was SUPER picky about, and he definitely rose to the occasion. This was perhaps also the part of the wedding where we let our geek flag fly the most:
Processional (Wedding Party) - "Concerning Hobbits" from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack
Processional (Bride) - "Into The West", instrumental version, from the Return of the King soundtrack
Right after we were pronounced husband and wife, we played the Final Fantasy victory fanfare
Recessional - Legend of Zelda theme, orchestral version
Reception entrance (Wedding Party) - Star Wars main title theme
Reception entrance (Bride and Groom) - Star Wars Imperial March
First Dance - "The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel
Father/Daughter Dance - "In My Daughter's Eyes", covered by Alfie Boe
Mother/Son Dance - "Faith of the Heart" by Russell Watson
Cake Cutting - "Eat It" by Weird Al Yankovic
Bouquet Toss - "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Garter Toss - "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen
And the unofficial theme song of the reception was "Gangnam Style". Our guests couldn't get enough of it, so the DJ played it THREE TIMES.
The Star Wars reception entrance was all James's idea. He BEGGED me to use the Imperial March for our entrance. We gave each member of our wedding party a toy lightsaber, and did a sword arch:
I surprised James by taking my sister-in-law's lightsaber and 'attacking' him when we got to the end of the arch. His groomsman threw him a lightsaber to defend himself, we pretended to battle for a few seconds, and then kissed. It was perhaps my favorite moment of the whole wedding.
And...that's everything, I think? It sure feels like it, LOL. Thanks for bearing with me through that stupidly long post, and for all your advice and support through my engagement!
A refresher first:
Intro Post
Progress Post 1
Progress Post 2
Since my husband and I are a pair of shameless nerds who met on the internet and got engaged via a hacked video game, our goal was to pull off a wedding that was both geeky and classy. If I do say so myself, we succeeded. :)
Our photographer was Tim Greer of Camera Famosa, and all the (numerous) following pics are his.
Venue: Century House, Latham, NY
I really wanted to get married outdoors, and we got EXTREMELY lucky with the weather. Our ceremony site actually used to be a tennis court, of all things, but it cleans up real nice with the addition of a tent and some decorations. The best part is the surrounding trees and the view.
One of the things that really sold me on the venue was the nature trail behind the ceremony site. It was a fantastic place for photos!
Aaaaand the reception room. My favorite part of this was the fireplace. It added great ambiance, but unfortunately also made the dance floor stupidly hot after awhile.
Food and Drink
The nice thing about Century House is that it's one-stop shopping: catering, open bar, and cake are all included. And the food is REALLY good. One of our appetizers was a tomato bisque shooter with a mini grilled cheese to dip in it. We...won't talk about how many of those I ate on the wedding day.
Our signature cocktail was called "The Critical Hit", basically a cosmopolitan slightly modified with citrus vodka and dispensed through an ice luge shaped like a D20, so the whole thing was one big Dungeons and Dragons joke.
Our cake was three flavors: white cake with strawberry filling (my favorite), red velvet (the husband's favorite), and almond cake with chocolate filling (because chocolate!). That icing, believe it or not, is NOT FONDANT. I made the cake topper myself, in homage to our Mario proposal.
Flowers and Decor
I used Price Chopper's floral department, believe it or not, for all the bouquets, corsages, and boutineers. They did great work and were very affordable. Flowers were overall low on my priority list, so I pretty much just told them my colors and let them loose. We used a lot of inexpensive flowers like carnations, roses, and sunflowers.
My stepmother, formerly a professional florist, DIYed all the ceremony and reception decor. This was our sweetheart table.
Bringing the nerd factor, my sister and I DIYed table numbers. Each table was named after a different fictional location from books, cartoons, video games, etc.
And my mom and I DIYed the card box. I am stupidly proud of this card box. It was THE HARDEST DIY project from the whole wedding. (...Please ignore the pony; someone decided that it needed to pose with the card box. ^^a)
We used a photo matte instead of a guestbook because I wanted to be able to display it after the wedding. It now has a wedding photo in it and hangs in our living room.
Paper
The one bit of the wedding I DON'T have good pictures of, LOL. There's a stock photo of the invitation kit we used in one of the progress posts, and really the only thing we did differently was print in purple ink. Our STDs were magnets from VistaPrint. My mom made the escort cards with a little 8-bit pixelated heart icon between the guest's name and the table name.
And my godmother made the programs.
Bride's Attire
Dress was Oleg Cassini for David's Bridal. Headpiece came from David's as well, and the veil was DB but purchased secondhand from another bride on The Knot's forums.
Shoes, after an epic quest because yellow dress shoes are hella rare, were purchased on Amazon. My necklace was Swarovski, the rest of the jewelry came from a couple random stores at the mall. My 'something blue' was a sapphire stud I wore in my cartilage piercing. It was way subtle, which I liked, but you can kind of see it in some of the pics. Sapphire is also my husband's birthstone. :)
My mother made my garters by hand. The 'toss' garter was made in our wedding colors. The 'keep' garter has rosettes made by my great-grandmother and beads from my grandmother's costume jewelry and my mother's wedding earrings, so it represented three generations of women in my family. It was my 'something old'.
Wedding Party Attire
I had six bridesmaids with wildly different tastes and body types, so I gave them a color (DB's Plum) and had them choose their own dresses individually. Somehow three of them still ended up in the same dress, but it still worked out. They voted on dress length and chose short. They're wearing black shoes because that's something everyone owns, I didn't want them to have to spend a ton of extra money, and it looked good with the purple dresses. They also had black pashminas I gave them as part of their thank-you present, to wear if it got too cold during the outdoor ceremony.
We got the tuxes for James and the groomsmen from Men's Wearhouse, and I kind of wish we hadn't. Out of all the vendors we used, they gave us the most trouble by far. The tuxes themselves were really nice when all was said and done, but it took a LOT of groomzilla-ing and micromanagement by James to make that happen.
I really wanted our mothers to feel comfortable and beautiful for the wedding, so there were no rules here. My mother-in-law chose to stick with the wedding's color scheme. My mom and stepmother...didn't. The dads are wearing the same tux as the groomsmen, with a black vest instead of the plum to distinguish them.
Us ladies had hair and makeup done by Lipstick 'N' Lashes. They came to the hotel so we didn't have to go anywhere, and did a fantastic job. I have never seen nicer updos.
Rings
My engagement ring came from Glennpeter's and our wedding bands from Hannoush, both local jewelers. Mine are white gold, his is tungsten.
Favors
We had a photobooth. I know some people find those corny, but you've got to know your audience, and my family went NUTS for it. This one is my 80-year-old grandmother and my great-aunts, having more fun than I have ever seen. I love that this happened. :)
And finally, a couple things that actually don't involve a million pictures...
Ceremony
James and I aren't religious, but we have a lot of family that are, so we did a custom ceremony that was mainly secular with just enough mention of God in it. Our officiant was James's former co-worker who just happens to be an ordained minister. Turns out he had asked this man to officiate his wedding someday before he and I even met. He had an officiant before he had a bride!
I am actually really proud of how the ceremony wording turned out. This post is long enough already, but I'd be glad to post the text separately if people are interested.
We did two readings; an excerpt from Kalil Ghibran's "The Prophet" and an excerpt from "True Love" by Robert Fulgham. You may have seen this quote online before, misattributed to Dr. Seuss: "We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness - and call it love - true love." That was actually written by Robert Fulgham, in part of a series of essays about love that were published together. I would highly recommend checking "True Love" out if you're looking for a quirky but meaningful reading.
Music
We used Bruce Tallini for both our ceremony and reception music. This was something I was SUPER picky about, and he definitely rose to the occasion. This was perhaps also the part of the wedding where we let our geek flag fly the most:
Processional (Wedding Party) - "Concerning Hobbits" from the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack
Processional (Bride) - "Into The West", instrumental version, from the Return of the King soundtrack
Right after we were pronounced husband and wife, we played the Final Fantasy victory fanfare
Recessional - Legend of Zelda theme, orchestral version
Reception entrance (Wedding Party) - Star Wars main title theme
Reception entrance (Bride and Groom) - Star Wars Imperial March
First Dance - "The Book of Love" by Peter Gabriel
Father/Daughter Dance - "In My Daughter's Eyes", covered by Alfie Boe
Mother/Son Dance - "Faith of the Heart" by Russell Watson
Cake Cutting - "Eat It" by Weird Al Yankovic
Bouquet Toss - "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Garter Toss - "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen
And the unofficial theme song of the reception was "Gangnam Style". Our guests couldn't get enough of it, so the DJ played it THREE TIMES.
The Star Wars reception entrance was all James's idea. He BEGGED me to use the Imperial March for our entrance. We gave each member of our wedding party a toy lightsaber, and did a sword arch:
I surprised James by taking my sister-in-law's lightsaber and 'attacking' him when we got to the end of the arch. His groomsman threw him a lightsaber to defend himself, we pretended to battle for a few seconds, and then kissed. It was perhaps my favorite moment of the whole wedding.
And...that's everything, I think? It sure feels like it, LOL. Thanks for bearing with me through that stupidly long post, and for all your advice and support through my engagement!