The Oyster Wedding Flowers

A while back, I mentioned briefly the types of flowers and colors I might like to have at our wedding. In this post, I will show you the flowers we actually had. I love flowers in general (in fact, even as a single girl I'd regularly come home home from the store with my own flowers, just because they brightened up the place so much), and the floral design was very close to my heart.

The flowers I loved most were the ones for the ceremony. The florist did an amazing job here, and I think every single person who saw the ceremony space said, "wow" out loud. They were that great.
The thing I liked about our florist is that he does a "floral + decor" type of setup, so I never had to buy a single decorative element. So, all the candles, vases, and decorative elements you see (except for those personal items we mentioned, like the table photos) were provided by him. We were surprised to find that it was actually cheaper this way!

Our photographers took a ton of great shots, which I'll show you in a minute, but I also love this one taken by my husband's iPhone, taken as he was walking around getting ready. It's fuzzy and a bit underexposed, but it captures the ceremony room kind of dark and chandelier-y, just like I remember it.



Near the altar were pedestals with huge arrangements on top, and at the base of the pedestals were lots of candles. Lining the aisles are these cool submerged flower-candle things, an idea I stole from this wedding (from photographer Marie Labbancz). Here is our version of it:

We also ended up with this stunning shot of the pedestal arrangement; it's one of my favorites from the entire wedding day:


At the sign-in table, we had a bunch of vases with flower petals. I had mentioned briefly to the florist that I would have loved to be pelted with flower petals at some point, but we couldn't unless we had an aisle runner. Since I hadn't planned to buy one, I nixed that plan.

But on the day of the wedding, I found an aisle runner and tons of petals. By then, it was really too late to change plans or tell people to grab petals on the way in. I wish I'd known in advance... wouldn't it be great to be pelted with petals? Oh, is it just me? Never mind. It pains me to think that all these petals weren't used to make a mess somewhere.

Anyway, here's the table.



Here it is again. Do you notice anything different?


We also had our escort cards (calligraphy by Nicole Black, who did our invitations), with some flower petals sprinkled throughout:



The florist also did a great job with the broom, which I absolutely adore.



For personal flowers, we had the bridesmaid's bouquets:

My own bouquet, in an appropriately balanced extra-large size:

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...white bouquets for the mothers of the bride and groom






...boutonnieres for my husband, the groomsmen, and my little brother. Oh my gosh, aren't they so handsome?





At the reception, we had some beautiful table arrangements that alternated from small to tall. Mr. Oyster gets credit for choosing these submerged tall arrangement things, which I really liked, too. It only just now occurred to me that they match the submerged arrangements we had lining the aisle!



Also, our DJ provided the lighting for us, and he did a wonderful job. A while ago I'd seen another bride with this same venue, who accentuated some of her floral arrangements pin-spot lighting. I loved the effect so much that I stole it. Here, you can see it in action. I just now realized that there's a rose opening in this arrangement, can you see it?



That's the good news. Now it's time for the truth.

As lovely as all of these flowers are, and as much as I like many of them, they are almost completely wrong (except for the ceremony). We specified that we didn't want a lot of color and no bright colors at all; just little hints of pink, but mostly white/off white and soft colors. This was one of my major inspirations:

from the February 12, 2009 issue of Southern Weddings Magazine

images by Rippee Photography, linens by Wildflower Linen, flowers by Karen Tran Florals

And these are the predominant colors we received:




I know that the "inspiration" photo is a little washed out. I also know that flowers go in and out of season, and if that were the case, someone could have told me and I'd have been fine. But there's still a big difference between the two.

I know flowers don't seem like much, but these were so far off from what we'd hoped for that I noticed it immediately. When we walked into the reception room to preview it, I tried my hardest to be gracious. But there's absolutely nothing like walking into your own wedding expecting off-white and seeing hot pink in its place. (Hot pink...!)

There were several floral mis-haps that I haven't mentioned. Most egregious were the colors, but there were wrong sizes, decor that was promised and didn't appear, my own bouquet was the complete opposite of what I'd requested (the floral assistant worked on it during our portraits), and my poor MIL -- we specifically requested she have a wrist corsage because she uses a cane, but they didn't get that right either. I mean, these flowers are great, but they look like they belong to someone else. After the wedding, I found that the florist has a peculiar reputation for being very efficient, but wrong about colors (I'm lucky -- one bride requested lavender and got several beautifully styled orange bouquets!).

So I can't be too disappointed. First of all, I'm very, very blessed that the most memorable mishap of our wedding day was the color of the flowers. When we first began planning our wedding, we weren't sure if we'd even be able to have so many flowers at all. The ones we had were undeniably beautiful and I'm grateful to have had them. And most importantly, our guests had no idea -- they absolutely loved them and raved about them all night!

*Unless otherwise noted, photos are by David Wittig Photography.
Previously:

• A dark and stormy night
• Our Wedding Rehearsal
• The rehearsal dinner
• The Wedding Morning
• Getting Ready
• The Unveiling
• Fun With Cameras
• More than a Bridal Party
• Wedding Portraits and the Scary Moment
• The Oysters Get Married
• The Oyster Wedding Details
• The Oyster Wedding Photo Details

The Oyster Wedding: More Little Things

In between describing our ceremony and reception, I took a little break to show you some of our favorite wedding details.

Unintentionally (or subconsciously?) we ended up with a music and photography-themed wedding. We definitely did not set out to do this, but there it is. In putting together all my wedding details to show you, I figured that I would group the photography-related ones into one post.

Heritage Photo table:


This is something I'd seen in several weddings, the idea of a table with older family photos on it. I decided to do this several months before the wedding, but didn't really get into it until about two weeks prior. I started out shopping at Marshall's and TJMaxx, and bought a bunch of pretty frames that I knew would go with the venue's decor.

My husband really got into the act, and we ended up getting a bunch of photos of both sides of the family and a few guests, who were surprised to see themselves on the table. Then, I went to my hard drives, grabbed any photo I had of "couples" that would be attending the wedding, and printed & framed them. Actually, my husband framed them. Thanks, Husband!

This project also allowed us to sneak in some other family members without making things awkward or complicated. My parents' wedding picture is there, but waaaaaay on the other side of the table is my mom's wedding picture with my stepfather (the two photos were taken over 30 years apart, so I don't think anyone noticed). I admit that not all families could get away with this, but my own father is deceased, and my stepfather was not in attendance. If either of those were not the case, I probably would have had to be a bit more subtle.

We also placed a picture of my husband's brother-in-law, who died last winter and would have been a groomsman.

The Polaroid table:


This was a big hit. I really hate traditional guest books, and really wanted to have an alternative where people could actually write whatever they wanted, and we could have a bit of fun with it. I really love the idea of looking back in 40 years and seeing what all our guests wrote to us on our wedding day.
I got the idea for this instant-photo book while blog-surfing waaaay back in 2009:

photo by Lisa Lefkowitz from her blog

We had our calligrapher make a sign with the same wording, and we appointed our teenage niece "Polaroid Person." That's her in the background:

Our guests really thought this was a fun and different idea, and every single one of them made it into the book! Even our photographers got in on the act (that's them on the left side of the book, below.
Also something to keep in mind; I learned that you don't want to use Sharpies to sign your guest books and things, because they are not archival and will fade and yellow with time. Instead, we bought some Pigma pens. I put them in a cute ice cream dish, which you can see here.

We ordered the book from Adesso Albums, which had great customer service. (We weren't sure how many we needed; we ordered two, kept the 2nd one sealed just in case, and sent it back when it turned out we didn't need it. The company says you can at least 80 guests featured in one book, but I think that's a stretch.)

Also, this is not really a Polaroid album. It fits the film of a Fuji Instax 210 (although Adesso does sell Polaroid albums if you happen to have one of those cameras). We already have a Fuji, so this was pretty convenient for us. I found a cute basket to keep film in, too.

Engagement photos:


We ordered prints of our engagement photos soon after we had them done, and in a truly last-last minute project, realized that we had enough for one per table, and decided to throw them into frames. This also mysteriously coincided with the Aaron Brothers Buy one Get one sale.



The problem with these two projects? We meant to tell our guests that they could take their "couple" photos home, and we meant to send someone in each table home with an engagement photo. But we forgot. So now we have two boxes of pretty frames in our house. What to do?!

Guest Book/Bridal Portraits
And, so as not to confuse people (or, in case they didn't make it to the photo book), we did end up having a guest book at the entrance. It's also where we put my bridal portraits:

Most of these were set up in the cocktail area, so that immediately after the wedding, people could mill around, look at family photos, or take photos (with the Fuji Instax book), and generally have something to do in that "in between" time. Our guests have told us that they really enjoyed that.
Next (and without such a delay next time!) I'll show you some of our interesting and colorful floral details!

*Photos, unless otherwise noted, by David Wittig Photography.

Previously:

• A dark and stormy night
• Our Wedding Rehearsal
• The rehearsal dinner
• The Wedding Morning
• Getting Ready
• The Unveiling
• Fun With Cameras
• More than a Bridal Party
• Wedding Portraits and the Scary Moment
• The Oysters Get Married
• The Oyster Wedding Details

The Oyster Wedding: All These Little Things

Prior to the wedding, I wrote a few times about how the details of things just aren't as important to me as the substance of the wedding, the marriage, the gathering of friends and family. But they are still pretty important! Our photographers took more detail shots than I anticipated they would, especially since I shared my philosophy with them.

But in retrospect, it's nice to have these photos to remember the little things. Seeing the things that I wore, that I handled, that I smelled, on my wedding day, help bring it back to life for me. Before jumping into the rest of the recaps, I thought it might be nice to show you how all these little things came together on our day. I'll also show you my few DIY projects, which were barely completed the week of the wedding (which is why my only photos of them are the professional ones!).

The rings:

We ended up with several beautiful photos of the rings. Unfortunately, I forgot to give the photographer my engagement ring -- it stayed on my hand the entire day! It does show up in my bouquet close-up (below), and I'm happy with that.

My hair flower and accessories:


I showed you my hair flower already, but here it is in its fluffed out glory, next to my little purse.

I didn't actually use the purse. Just before the ceremony, I threw in some lip gloss and blotting tissues. I was too busy laughing at my wedding to use it, see it there hanging out all alone on the table?

The ring pillow:


I loved, loved my little ring pillow. I shared with you before how I sewed the pillow myself. For the flower on top, I used my same DIY flower steps that I used for my hairpiece, but I just used two really large pieces of silk. I stitched them together in the center, sewed it to the pillow cover, and stitched an organza ribbon on. I love the way it came out.

You've already seen my little brother as our ring bearer. He is adorable!



I meant to pick up some fake rings to attach to the pillow, but ran out of time. My mom told me later that this was not unnoticed by my brother. He said to her, "How come there are no rings on this ring pillow?" Later, during the ceremony, the minister asked for the rings and he said, "Is it my turn?" My mom had to explain that he was just holding the symbol of the rings.

My locket:
This was truly a last-minute project. A few days before the wedding, I ran into Francesca's Collections to get a necklace for the rehearsal dinner, and came across this locket that promised to be an easy-to-put-together project. I thought, "Hm. I did want to have a locket on my bouquet." Luckily, whoever makes these lockets has made things very easy. You just go to the website, resize the photo to their template, cut it out, and stick it in the adhesive. Even the "glass top" is just a plastic stick-on bubble. I didn't know they made these things! Amazing. Took me 20 minutes.

I replaced the chain with some more organza ribbon, so it would be adjustable. I also tied a knot with enough room to pull the top of the locket back for a photo. I was so, so happy to have this. Inside the locket is a photo of my father.





Escort cards:


We didn't have place cards (too exhausting!), but I was so happy we could have escort cards. Our calligrapher did them for us about two weeks before the wedding. I gave her a list of names and their table numbers, and she wrote the cards out for us and had them ready for me to pick up quickly. Of course, this means you can't change your seating chart for the two weeks before the wedding, but that was actually a relief -- I didn't need anything else added to my to-do list!



Our Cake:
We love, LOVED our cake. If you remember, we chose this simple beauty from a 2005 Martha Stewart magazine:

uncredited photo from Martha Stewart Weddings, fall 2005, "Liezel and Christopher"

Here's our version. Our baker changed the shape slightly to be more skyscraper-like, which fits with our wedding pretty well. Every time I see a photo of it, I want to eat it.





Here's the reason we remember the cake so much: when we chose and ordered our cake, we'd invited 120 people, so we got a cake that serves that many (it included one fake tier -- I think the one second from the bottom.). A few weeks before the wedding, when our guest list shrunk, it was too late to change the order. So we had this huge giant cake at our little wedding.

Even with the fake tier, we had plenty of cake leftover -- enough to bring to our day-after party the next day, and enough to put in the fridge to snack on after the honeymoon, and of course, that top tier is hanging out in the freezer.

As much as I wanted to condense all of these into one post, this one's getting a little long. Next up, I'll show you the details that made up the unintentional theme of our wedding.

*Photos, unless otherwise noted, by David Wittig Photography.



Previously:

• A dark and stormy night
• Our Wedding Rehearsal
• The rehearsal dinner
• The Wedding Morning
• Getting Ready
• The Unveiling
• Fun With Cameras
• More than a Bridal Party
• Wedding Portraits and the Scary Moment
• The Oysters Get Married

The Oyster Wedding Ceremony

The vision for our wedding ceremony changed many times while planning. I've written before about my inability to envision the wedding for a while after being engaged, and I also wrote about how I feel that the ceremony is the most important element of the day.

I described how I wanted our ceremony to be, and the emotional elements that I felt should be present:

It is so important to me that our ceremony reflect us in a way nothing else that day does. Falling for Mr. Oyster, and being with him every day, is one of the simplest things in the world to me. Marrying him is such a natural step for us to take, and we are so happy to do so. I hope our guests can understand what this means for us and share our happiness, and I especially look forward to feeling the encouragement and love of all those who have taken this step before us.

I think we were pretty successful. Despite a few hiccups, the ceremony was lovely, personal, and so meaningful.

Our wedding was in a long, narrow, mirrored room. The room seems perfectly designed for a ceremony, with its chandeliers on the ceiling outlining the aisle. The ceremony room was one of my favorite decorative things about the wedding day, and the florist really did a great job here.

(from Mr. Oyster's iPhone)

A major thunderstorm struck just as people were supposed to be arriving. There was flooding, snarled traffic, and apparently, a spectacular lightning show that our early-arriving guests watched through the windows of the ceremony room. Our photographers captured the rain:



I'm a pianist, but I absolutely love string instruments, and I'm so glad we had a quartet to play for our wedding. It turned out to be a great choice: the atmosphere was very calming, perfect for guests harried from their drive through a rainy and traffic-snarled Dallas. My mother tells me that it "set the tone for an elegant evening."

I had no sense of time that day, and it wasn't until later that I found out the ceremony was delayed 20 minutes while the planner waited for people who might have been caught in the weather. I could hear the music from my bridal "waiting room," and I found it pretty comforting. My maids of honor and I, all three of us pianists and music teachers, had a very nice time listening to (and maybe critiquing!) the musicians.

I highly recommend the Meridian Quartet, by the way. They were wonderful to work with, they have a great repertoire (important for this classical musician, who wanted to hear something besides the usual), and they also played additional music for our guests during the aforementioned 20 minutes, which I was mostly unaware of. (This is a photo snapped of me while we were waiting for the thunder to go away; you can see how anxious I am).




I only felt nervous in the few moments right before I left the bridal room. But otherwise, I was pretty calm the entire day. Before I knew it, everything was quiet and the ceremony was beginning. I can pretty much let the photos speak for themselves:

My new in-laws, who are pretty awesome. I'm very lucky to have them.

Doesn't my mom look amazing? I told you she was going to be a knockout! My stepfather was ill and couldn't attend, so we arranged for a family friend to escort her.

I can just about bet that this is a photo of my mom blushing after someone's told her how beautiful she looks. My mom is adorable.

Our beautiful and small (and nervous?) wedding party:

My hilarious little brother. He'd been practicing earlier that day, saying, "I'm going to be a gentleman!" And he was!

It's time to get married. I love this shot for so many reasons. Mostly because I think it captures how I was feeling as I was about to get married: pretty happy, not too nervous. I also like it because it is one of the only photos of my long veil, and is the only photo of our quartet. They were playing the only traditionally "bridal" piece of music I'd requested: The Wagner wedding march.

Mom and Brother look on. I can hear her saying, "Look, here comes your sister."

I think I'm smiling at my mom. I love how you can see the people looking back at me reflected in the background. I remember exactly how I felt as I made my way up the aisle, with everyone smiling and so happy to be there -- it is really an unparalleled feeling.

I know how this is going to sound, but seriously, I didn't realize until I was halfway down the aisle that I was supposed to be looking at my fiancé. I remember thinking, "Oh! And [Mr. Oyster] is up there, too!" That's me, always focused on what's important.

By the time I got to the altar, there was no distracting me. You can see that I love my husband so much that there are fireworks (actually it's just an interesting light in the background).

We also planned for my dear friend, who also has a wonderful speaking voice, to read "Unity," an essay by Robert Fulghum. Unfortunately, my friend told me a week before the wedding that he and his family would not be there. I missed him terribly and, sadly, have not heard from him since. I'm not sure what's going on there, but his absence is still felt and I suspect I will always remember it. We couldn't find another person who wanted to do a reading (!), so we gave it to the officiant. This is the reading in action, and is also how I heard it as the officiant read it during our wedding:

jen + ming // san francisco highlights from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Something else I'll always remember about our ceremony: The officiant, a week before the wedding, sent me an email saying, "Where is your ceremony?" Yes, dear readers, this is how I found out, one week prior to the ceremony, that the officiant had expected me to write out, word for word, the entire ceremony. Including the prayer. I'm sure this is just a case of missed expectations, but I wasn't too thrilled about this.

So, our ceremony, while meaningful, was something that I could nearly recite from memory, since I wrote every word of it myself and sent it to the officiant, who printed it out and read it during the wedding (and we paid her how much?).

On the upside, it really ensured that we meant every word we said and thought about it carefully beforehand. We did not use any "traditional" wording for our ceremony. It was so unique that our guests still think we came up with it ourselves! We almost did, but we used the Wedding Ceremony Planner for help.



My husband started tearing up during the ceremony as he read his vows, which I thought was so sweet. I thought that I might cry, but on the wedding day, I was all smiles and self-assurance. For me, reading my vows calmly and assuredly was my way of asserting my belief in the truth of the words I was saying.


After the vows, we had a "group blessing," which was one of my favorite things about the ceremony. We turned to the guests and asked their blessing and pledge of support for our marriage. After that was the "kiss" and the pronouncement. Here you can see the exact moment it hit me that I'd just gotten married.


...and then the "jumping of the broom." In our ceremony, we had the minister include a brief explanation of the tradition for those who might be unaware (since roughly half our guest list was not African American). This also gave me time to get back down the stairs with Mr. Oyster's help, so that we could be ready to jump.

Interestingly enough, almost none of our vendors or venue coordinators had seen a "broom jumping" either (One of them even kept asking my MOH why she was carrying a broom around)! So we celebrated and educated.

I was not about to jump with heels on. I creatively stepped over it, which totally has the same meaning:







Why am I looking back here?



Well, I suddenly realized that while we had practiced jumping the broom, we didn't practice what to do if my dress swallowed the broom up. I only thought of this at the wedding. I think it was just one of those times when you're really emotional and random thoughts start to pop into your head. So there I was, taking an extra split second to check and make sure the train of my dress wouldn't drag the broom away.

The broom was fine, though, and we walked away to begin our married lives:


My Maid of Honor picked it up:

We walked back down the aisle to an awesome, awesome rendition of "La Bamba," performed by our quartet. It was the perfect quirky thing to hear after such an emotional ceremony. It's this same arrangement:

After the ceremony, we escaped to a private room (the bridal changing room), where I said, "Hey, we got married!" about a million times. I was unbelievably happy and in shock, a condition which continued throughout the day and into our honeymoon, where I would randomly call out, "Hey, we got married!" and Mr. Oyster would say, "Yep."

Here I am fixing my rings, while I get a newly-married kiss. As much as I tried to be unaware of the camera, I do remember my photographer-brain kicking in for a split second when I glanced up and saw David Wittig snap this shot as the doors closed. And then I kissed my husband.



Everybody says that there will be things about your wedding day that you can't control, and of course, that's absolutely true. Sometimes they say, "It won't matter, at least you got married." Well, to be honest, it does matter, though how much it matters will likely change over time. (I can tell you now that some of these photos are my favorites... because I like how my dress looks! See, I'm thinking about what's important.)

Seriously, though, we had a beautiful wedding ceremony. After all this time, I vividly remember the happiness that we felt from everyone on that day, and of course, the ceremony was incredibly emotional and wonderful despite the last-minute changes. In fact, they just add to the story.

Photos by the Chicago based wedding photographers, David Wittig Photography.
Previously:

• A dark and stormy night
• Our Wedding Rehearsal
• The rehearsal dinner
• The Wedding Morning
• Getting Ready
• The Unveiling
• Fun With Cameras
• More than a Bridal Party
• Wedding Portraits and the Scary Moment