Inspiration Board-Ceremony

The game plan

Here it goes; our wedding plans.

As you know, the wedding will take place at the home of my family's close friends Steve and Gail. The ceremony will be in the woods of their property and reception in a field adjacent to these woods. There will be space for camping, a big glowing bonfire and Sunday brunch to follow, of course. In case of rain, the ceremony can be held under our tent. The tent will be built by my wonderful father(with the helpof Josh's groomsman and my brothers). In the initial budget run through, it was realized that renting a tent for $1500+ was absurd, and my genius dad suggested that he could build the tent with lumber that could be torn down and reused after the wedding, for $600 or less. Yipee! This in turn sparked a fire to try and replace anything I initially thought needed to be purchased for the wedding with items that are used or can be borrowed. Thus lowering costs and the carbon footprint our Big Day will create.

We will be married by Josh's father. Rex is the perfect person to conduct our marriage ceremony for three reasons:

1. Rex worked many years as a sucessful salesman which = good public speaking skills. He also traveled with this work doing workshop to teach his skills to others in sales and now does public workshops with his new career in healing.
2. Rex is a skilled healer and spiritual counseler. His insight and intuitive touch will make for what we believe will be a touching and deeply moving ceremony.
3. Josh and I have always wanted someone near and dear to us officiate the wedding. Nuff said.
   

Choosing wedding colors also came easily. My engagement ring contains two sapphires (my birthstone) on either side of a diamond taken from an old ring of Josh's. The day after Josh proposed, I was admiring the ring and realized I would wear the sapphire pendant my grandmother gave to me for my high school graduation. Green was choosen when it was decided we were going with a casual, rustic feel for the day. Blue will be an accent color since green is more evident in nature (duh).

Prior to the engagement I'd always believed that friends and family should have little to no involvement and responsibility beyond showing up, looking beautiful, and having the time of their lives. I just want our loved ones to enjoy the day for what it is; the union and celebration of two beloved people. I have thoroughly changed my viewpoint on this matter. I've realized that if I am to stay under budget and keep my sanity, we're going to have to enlist help from the troops. The key will be to ask everyone, and I mean everyone, to be responsible for one task. This way no one is being overwhelmed with several tasks, and everyone has a role to play. And besides, this union and celebration will be that much more personal and meaningful if all those close to us have contributed in one way or another.

Flowers will be provided by a neighbor of ours who has green hydrangea bushes and we will pick Queen Anne's Lace as they are free and grow wildly everywhere in Michigan. Ceremony music will be played by Matt and Steffan, two highschool friends of mine on acoustic guitar and Mandolin. The day will be documented in photographs by my wonderful, Aja, who has assisted me in wedding and event photography in the past. I'd love to have women from my troupe, the Habibi Dancers, perform at the reception. I'm trying to enlist a friend to do a mini Salsa lesson to encourage interaction between guests and we'll have open salsa, merengue and bachata dancing for a small portion of the reception. We wont have cake, but would like a mini desserts table with goodies made by any talented cooks we know who are wiling to contribute. Josh's old bandmates, Ben and Whitney, will hopefully do an acoustic set to kick off the after party. Sunday brunch will be prepared and served by the entire wedding party.

Go team go!

Our beautiful wedding location

We've had amazing weather for November in Michigan. The past couple of days have been in the low 70's. Today I walked around our yard barefoot for the first time in weeks! I wanted to be sure to post these photos while it's still felt like fall in these parts. Josh and I finally made it out to our ceremony/reception site to finalize all the layout for the actual ceremony, where the tent will be built, and areas for camping. My parent's good friends, Steve and Gail, have been gracious enough to suggest using their property for our wedding and we couldn't have asked for a better location. Not to mention they are absolutely the some of the nicest and laid-back people you will ever meet. Gail even told me that day about her wedding experience, a drive through chapel in Vegas, and her wishes to renew their vows in the middle of the Grand River with wading boots on! Their place is 5 miles west of our house in Grand Ledge and it really is nature at it's finest. We are SO lucky to be getting married at there. These photos were taken on a cold Autumn day, but keep in mind our date is set for August 22nd.

This is the path back to the location of the ceremony. All our guests will have a nice little walk through the woods to get there.

Clearing in the woods where we will get married!
Their dogs and cat followed us while we walked around the property.
path to the Reception tent.
This is where the reception will be. My dad and the guys will build our tent from the ground up here. Look at Josh and Gail all bundled up, it was cold that day.
Steve and Gail's horses, what a beautiful site/sight!

OCD

Maybe I should get it out there that I am a perfectionist and probably a little obsessive compulsive. It's to the point where I mostly never let anyone help me with anything, because I only want things done my way. That sounds so horrible in writing but it's true. We just had our 2nd annual Halloween Bash and this is one of the first times I've allowed other people to help me cook food and hang decorations for a party. I love being a hostess, but with that comes my urgent need for everything to be absolutely wonderful and impressive. I want the largest selection of food, the funnest atmosphere and an amazingly good time to be had by all...except for me. I always spend so much energy trying to make everything perfect that I stress way out and don't enjoy one minute of it. Even my own engagement party was spent watching a pot of water boil for corn because I was so busy trying to do everything myself that I forgot to turn the stove on for such a little thing.

So the Halloween party...I will say that I still went back and moved some decorations around, BUT there were many things I forced myself not to care about and just be grateful that people were wiling and able to help. And I had a blast! People were fed and fun was had by all including me! I desperately have to keep this experience in mind for our Big Day. It's perfectly fine to let go of my own image of how things need to be. We're getting married and nothing else matters, right?

I had sent out an email to our families and wedding party with a list of items we were hoping to obtain for our wedding. I tried to make little to no specifications on the items, forcing me to make do with what I'm given. After all beggars can't be choosers. I received the 1st items off my list the day of our Halloween party. Josh's mom had called earlier in the day asking me what type of blue vases I was looking for. In the midst of party preparation I had no time to return her call and when Josh's brother Nick showed up for the party with the vases, I got nervous about what they looked like. "what if they're not our style? the wrong shade of blue? too small? too big?" I opened the bag to find she had purchased vases that look identical to ones I had gotten on clearance months ago! It was a sign; If I can learn to let go, then I will be rewarded with beautiful blue vases. Er... I mean...don't worry, be happy.