A key component to any reception is the drinks, food, and a little mood music. We agonized over the menu... for food and for the bar. Ultimate the idea of "free flowing" reception that encouraged lots of mingling won out and I loved the ability to incorporate so many flavors in the menu... so the cocktail style worked for us. However, we were worried that people would leave hungry so we opted to include a buffet, or as I like to call it a grazing station, with small plates so that we could include heavier/substantial foods.

We worked with our caterer to create a summery/seasonal menu that would transition throughout the evening. We started with passed hors d'ouevres, then moved to a buffet of seasonal flavors, the third course was filled with retro bites, and then finally dessert.

For the bar we decided to keep this fairly simple and work with what would have a summery, gardeny feel. We had a Lynchburg Lemonade, Rose Wine Spritzer, and a Cosmo inspired mocktail passed during the cocktail hour. The original names were modified so the drinks were named after streets we have lived on in Chicago. The wines were our favorites from our vacation to Sonoma County. The beer and root beer were from a local brewery with a Bud Light thrown in to round it out. We brought in the alcohol ourselves so were able to return what was left over... although I am not sure that it was an incredible saving.

Music is another area where you can really personalize the evening and of course, set the mood. We set up a folder in iTunes and started added songs every now and then... we ended up with a 7+ hour playlist of our favorites. We then broke it out by hour so that the music would transition with the menu course that was being served. Then the excel file was shipped off to our DJ. Control freak? Maybe. One of our friends came up to me later in the evening and said that when one of the Bon Jovi songs came on she remembered us picking out those songs on a juke box at a birthday party a few years ago... Music is such an easy way to add a touch of yourselves to the reception and to enhance the atmosphere that you are trying to create.

Up next I will post our "mini trash the dress" photos from when we stole a few moments during the reception.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

When you have your wedding at A New Leaf, you are required to use them for the floral decor. This was a positive for me as I love the flowers at A New Leaf, when Dan gets me flowers this is where he goes, and because they are working on site there is no delivery cost and a bit of flexibility with using the pieces they have on hand for decor. One of the challenges however is that you don't see a mock up and only talk to them about a month or so before your wedding... I could say that I wasn't nervous about how the flowers would turn out but that would be a lie. I could say that I don't care about floral decor but that would be a lie too... you can't grow up in my house without a love of flowers and gardening.

I was thrilled with the floral decor. It really fit the "from the garden" look I described to the florist. Birch became a common thread throughout; we had birch branches at the ceremony, birch vase wrappers, and birch poles... I loved the mossy accents, the bud vases surrounding the centerpieces, and the overall gardeny effect...

For additional touches, we reused the whirlyball roses from the ceremony for the highboys and used strings of bud vases...

Up next I will post the final pieces of our reception, including the summer garden party menu and our "mini trash the dress" photos.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

When we envisioned our wedding day, we saw an intimate day where we would celebrate our promise of forever with those closest to us. We wanted to share the city that had become our home with our family. We wanted to be able to talk, rather just say hello, to everyone that was there to celebrate with us. We wanted the day to be comfortable and for there to be a natural ease to the atmosphere. This is what guided all of "major" decisions during planning such as where, which vendor, what colors, etc. Our theme became an intimate, understated summer garden party.

The venue, A New Leaf, played a significant role by being the gorgeous background...

 

We decided on a cocktail reception as we wanted there to be an abundance of both mingling and of flavors on the menu... people flowed between the garden and the storefront chit chatting and nibbling...

 

 

 

For our entrance into the reception, Makes Me Happy by Drake Bell played...

 

As we cut the cake, Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen played in the background...

Towards the end of the evening, the chest that had been the guest book station transitioned to hold the favors. The boxes that I made were wrapped with a strip of the paper used on the programs/quiz books and topped with a ribbon that held on the DIY double sided tag. We filled them with Girl Scout cookies; incorporating both supporting a great organization locally by purchasing from a girl scout in the neighborhood (I was a Girl Scout growing up) and our love for cookies (thin mints were my pick and dear husband picked the shortbread designated by the color of the ribbon)...

 

 

 

Up next I will post the other pieces of our reception, including the floral decor and the summer garden party menu.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

 

 

Our wedding ceremony was one of the most emotional moments of my life. It was truly remarkable... We had spent a considerable amount of time planning the ceremony. We selected an officiant whom we felt a connection with and one that we felt had a "presence." As a nonreligious couple we were so happy to find Bruce Otto, a retired Reverend; at the wedding you might have thought we had been attending his church for years (more than one guest asked us this in fact!). We also "crafted" our ceremony to contain messages/themes that we value in our relationship. I say crafted rather than wrote because many of the elements (paragraphs, sentences, etc) where selected from a book I posted about here. The music was selected based on how the song made us feel, as cheesy as that sounds! We kept the decor minimal. The room was so "warm" on its own with the sunlight on the brick walls and we decided that we preferred a simple, understated look that wouldn't compete with the ceremony...

We used several shades of pink roses and the ribbon that was used throughout from the invitation to tying the linens on the highboys. {You will see the hanging flowers again later in the day}

We waited for the ceremony to start in this little hallway that was filled with skylights...
This photos is from right after my dad sat down, we peaked at each other with these little smiles and with so much emotion in that one look... You may notice that the "groom's parent's seats" are empty, his mom was having some medical issues and wasn't able to sit; so they stood in the back during the ceremony...
I love that you can see us softly in the background of this photos...
Dear husband was rubbing my hands with his thumb through out the marriage address, vows, and ring exchange... with tears in eyes...
One of my favorites...
Our processional was "Happy Together" and it was the perfect fit for the moment and for setting the tone of the reception... we were so happy! {For some ultra-cheese, I am listening to the song as I type this post and it just makes me smile!!}

Next week I will do a few more wedding posts: a few of our favorites from when we stole a few moments during the reception, a bit on the reception decor and such and then that post I mentioned my first day back from the honeymoon... why I will unabashedly say that our wedding day was perfect {and yes, things did still go wrong}.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

As I mentioned, we used that time before the ceremony to take photos. We took pictures in Lincoln Park with our dogs as that is where you would have found us nearly any weekend day the past 5+ years, pictures in the courtyard garden at our venue, and the "formals." Many brides are a bit torn on the idea of formals as photojournalist has taken the stage for wedding photography; I knew that someday I would want a picture of my family all grouped together from my wedding day... and my mom would have put her foot down to no formals!!

I will post up a few of my favorites taken during that time but will keep from too much overloading, when the anticipation was still strong...

As dear husband puts it, this picture is typical us: dogs pulling us where they want to go and us just laughing at them...

We decide not to go to the "downtown" area of Chicago as the park and Old Town neighborhood felt more like the "neighborhood side of Chicago" that we love and feels like home to us...

I love this picture but it makes me laugh as I can tell that I was getting warm (it was a hot summer day)...

As I mentioned, we did do formals. It took maybe 20 minutes to get all the variations... I like that they are fairly relaxed and in the courtyard... (even if my mom is mid-word in this one!)

We did a few of the traditional wedding party photos but this is my favorite where they were just hanging out in the background...

And of course, all those photos in the park and walking around made my dress and veil filthy! My sisters were frantically scrubbing while I just stood there trying to make sure I drank enough water... (and you can see way in the background the restroom signs we made!)

Next up... it is time to get married!!!

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

We decided early on that we would see each other before the ceremony. We wanted to be able to be able to greet and celebrate with our guests and enjoy our cocktail reception rather than be off taking photos; particularly as our ceremony and reception were at the same venue thus the reception kicked off immediately following the ceremony. I am glad that we arranged our day this way as we were able to spend a little over 2 hours prior to the ceremony taking photos and there is no way we could have taken that much time if we did it during our reception (without missing half the reception anyways). For us, the walk down the aisle and seeing each other there was still intensely emotional. More on that Friday with the ceremony.

For now, just a few photos of our "first" meeting...

This is what my hubby looks like when he is a little nervous...

We were so excited and just completely filled with emotion. I will never forget Dan's face

My sister suggested wearing our wedding bands for the pictures... I am so glad that we did this so that they are in the couple photos that we took.

And then we were off to take photos!

Next up is the photos we took before the ceremony...

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

For some reason, I obsessed about the personals. How traditional looking did I want to go, how much color versus understated, would understated not pop enough, what colors, which of the flowers in season at the end of July would work for me, and on and on... I truthfully only made the decision for the personals about 1.5 weeks prior to the wedding... it was the last day they could order them!

I loved how they turned out. My florist had a pretty good idea of the overall look I was going for and I gave her a color scheme (white/ivory/cream and green) and a few flowers (creme garden roses for me and green lisianthus)... She got it perfectly as I could not be more happy with how they turned out.

Florals by Brianna at A New Leaf.

I loved my bouquet, the garden roses smelled wonderful...

For the bridesmaid bouquets, I also requested the smaller size to keep the budget down... For $30 each compared to the $60 each originally quoted, I found these to be very pretty...

And the bouts turned out nicely as well, my groom requested that it wasn't very big but he preferred the more traditional ones... His was white lisianthus with a green hydrangea sprig and everyone else had the green lisisanthus.

I had originally planned to DIY for the personals; I am glad that I didn't. It actually cost me less to just have them done by the florist as I wanted a variety of flowers. And the time savings was definitely needed that weekend.

Next up is the first meeting tomorrow and then the pre-ceremony photos and the ceremony will wrap up this week.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

Of course there are two sides of the story for the "getting ready" part of the wedding day. Both of you preparing for such an important day in your life; going through many of the same rituals every bride and groom goes through with your own spin on it, your own version of the story. Whether you have a makeup artist or have your friend apply your makeup or spend the time drinking tea and dress in five minutes, it is sure to be a time that you cherish.

My groom had puppy patrol during the early part of the day. As some of you whom have been reading this blog for while know, our dogs are our kids and it was incredibly important for us to have them part of the day. But our dogs can be spirited so our idea was for Dan to walk them around and tire them out a bit so they would be calm...

Then he headed up to his parent's room where "the boys" got ready together. My husband thinks he is a little comedian here with the "if I have to look" as he picked out the socks believe it or not...

He is so proud of the tie he picked out...

The boys are almost ready for the "reveal."

We are both so happy that we had our photographer there during the getting ready part of the day; Dan loved seeing the photos of the girls getting ready as much as I enjoyed seeing those of the boys getting ready. I know we will cherish the moments captured of us preparing for our wedding is so there is much emotion building during that time.

Next up is the floral personals this afternoon and the first meeting will post tomorrow.

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.

Immediately after hair and makeup, I ran down to my parent's room to get dressed. The whole time just as anxious as can be to get to the "couple photo" time and the ceremony.

I love this photo... my sister helping pack up my clutch {more thoughts on bridal clutches to come} and get my stuff situated and my brother and dad just watching tv around us as though nothing is going on...

My accessories... other than the blue the "something old,borrowed,new" are in this photo...

Getting dressed... me thinking "hurry it up back there!"

And now I am a bride!

Next up is the groom getting ready, the floral personals, and the first meeting...

Wedding Recap Posts:

- My Version of a Perfect Wedding
- A Stolen Moment During the Reception
- Eat Drink Be Merry
- The Garden Party Floral Decor
- The Garden Cocktail Reception
- The Ceremony
- The Time Before The Ceremony
- The Meeting
- Florals: The Personals
- Getting Ready: The Groom's Side of the Story
- Getting Ready: Dress and Accessories
- All About The Shoes
- Getting Ready: Hair & Makeup
- 300th Post A Wedding Photo
- Wedding Photos Are Arriving: Almost A Bride

Or all of the post on our wedding day can be found through the label My Wedding.