It’s crazy to think a year has gone by since I got married. A year ago on this nearly 90 degree day, I was running around like crazy taking care of all the last minute details of our do-it-yourself wedding, right down to the flowers with live succulents, the booze, the invites, the music, the wedding fans: you name it, we probably made it ourselves. Between my husband and I, we have enough of a skill set to host any kind of party. Oh, and the crochet. There was crochet! “Crocheted Gifts” by Kim P Werker had just come out and I saw Annie Modesitt’s, “Trinity Lace Shrug” and loved it. It was a week before the wedding and I had no time to think of engineering a garment on my own considering all that I was already doing. I bought the book and set out to make the garment within days of the wedding (cutting it close, eh?)

What you can't see are my buckling knees, no lie! 6" yellow heels will do that to a gal.

Our wedding was the anti-wedding and I was the anti-bride. Neither of us are completely into formalities. We didn’t want anything fussy since we’re not fussy people. We like to have fun and hang with our friends and that’s what our wedding was set out to be: a party to celebrate 10 years together. That doesn’t mean we boozed it up making our way down the aisle! We did have our fair share of laughs though. The ceremony was both very touching and quite humorous at the same time. Our wedding “celebrant,” Dana did a fantastic job delivering the opening remarks. There was a lot of poking and at times it felt like a roast (in a good way).

No booze was ingested during the making of this photograph. I swear.

We had a simple ceremony that lasted 15 minutes. I wrote the reading which left very few dry eyes in the small group of 50 family and friends; I am a soothsayer with the words when I need to be. We also wrote our own vows. I don’t know how I got through that ceremony without crying.

Someone yelled, "IT'S ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME!" right after we were pronounced husband and wife. Love, Love, Love!

But I did. It was an emotional day made extra emotional by the recent passing of my step-father just a few months earlier. His passing was the impetus to move forward and get married after a 5 year engagement (no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you on that number). We received so many compliments on the wedding. Many said it was hands down the best wedding they had ever been to.

Our reception was a party. No fussy sit-down meal. Incredible food served buffet style. All organics! Friends made up the band and switched out during different sets so the music was always pumping. We skipped the wedding cake – we both HATE cake, yuck – and opted for Bailey’s vanilla ice cream in a chocolate bowl with a chocolate dipped spoon. SUPER YUM.

A sweet ending to a sweet day.

Here are some more details about the wedding…which is in 4 days!

Techno-Wedding Cards & Bouquet Extras:

Larry came up with the FABULOUS idea of having our guests be able to automatically upload pictures they take at our wedding using their cameras and phone cameras. Once someone takes pictures, they just send them to a prescribed email address and they’re posted automatically in an online image gallery for everyone to see, share, print, download, whatever. The gallery is already set up so if people want to snap and upload on wedding day, it’s ready to go. Yeah, we’re a bunch of geeks.

The other items clumped into this image are for my bouquet. The top one is a picture of my step-father. I printed it out and cut the image to fit this silver trinket I bought at Michael’s for $3.00. The other is something I picked up last night. I’m thinking of adding some crystals at the bottom of the one that has Larry’s name on it. Both will be attached to my bouquet so my step-father will be walking me down the aisle, posthumously.

Tree of Wisdom:

This will replace the boring guest book that is sometimes signed but rarely re-visited after the wedding. Basically, guests can complete the sentence that’s posted on a sign next to the tree. Some of them say, “Marriage is like…,” “Always say….,” “For a Long, Loving Marriage…” (Here’s a link to the pdf of the sign. I printed it out and put it in a black picture frame). We’ve encouraged guests to say silly and ridiculous things! Once they’re written what they want, they’ll hang the card from the tree.

I bought these sandblasted manzanita branches from Nettlton Hollow and arranged them in a glass vase I bought at Michaels. You can see one of the placemats will go underneath it.

I crocheted a basket to hold bird and leaf cards I cut from heavy paper. I love the birdies!

I’m going to try to squeeze in another post before the wedding but no promises. I’m busy finishing up the loose ends. No really, I’m just about done with my version of the Trinity Lace Shrug from “Crocheted Gifts” by Kim P. Werker.