How to Personalize a Wedding

As I've mentioned, my mom owns the ballroom & event center (please do not call it a banquet hall!) where my brother and his wife (!) got married.  It happens to be the same building where my sister and her husband got married AND where BJ and I got married.  Mom says we can get married wherever we want, but if we want her to be able to attend, we should get married at her place.

Our wedding was so long ago that our photographer actually shot on film instead of digital.  Ha ha! It poured down rain that day, so we were married in the ballroom, instead of in the garden where we had planned to have the ceremony. One of these days I'll sit down and scan in all the photos, but here are a few.

Our cake was amazing.  My mom made those roses by hand out of gum paste, one petal at a time.

Our colors were navy and silver with purple and magenta accents in the linens and the flowers.

Compared to what brides are doing now, 11 years later, our tables look practically bare.  Mom has so many more linen options now than she did then.  But they were still beautiful.  Our flowers were just spectacular.  The candlelight made it look very warm once the sun went down.  This was taken before anyone arrived:

Here we are during the ceremony -

They say that the clouds parted and the sun came out just as my dad and I walked in.

This picture gives you a better idea of what the flowers looked like.

I got to here in the scanning and thought, "How is it that 11 years later, so many people look younger?"

May 26, 2001

Except us.  We were babies.  I had just turned 25 and BJ was 24. 

Megan and Trey's wedding was shot on digital, and I have a squajillion pictures.  They were married in the chapel, which didn't exist in 2001.

October 18, 2008 - our family had grown a bit!

I was Megan's MOH and Chuck was one of his groomsman.  In fact, each of us three siblings has had the other two in their wedding - Chuck was an usher for us and Megan was a bridesmaid, and Megan and I were both Chuck's bridesmaids.  Awww.  I think we also all had bridal parties of 8 people - 4 men and 4 women.  Mom says one attendant per 50 guests, and we follow the rules!

Timeless

It was a beautiful fall day, and we took a lot of pictures in the garden.  Note the ferns.  When I get the pictures of Chuck and Sara's flowers you'll see how much you can change a pergola.

I can't think of a sibling group that enjoys each other and loves each other as much as we do.

For some reason, this is the only picture I can find of the ceremony, which is weird because I know I have more.  It shows you, though, what a different look it was from my wedding in the ballroom, and when I get my hands on Chuck and Sara's pictures, you'll see how different theirs was.  Uncle Doug performed the ceremony for Megan and Trey, and for his son Brian and his new wife Jen last weekend.

The balloon release was spectacular.

Here's my toast, and a good view of the head table.

Chocolate brown and red were their colors.  I used to know how many red roses the florist used.  I want to say 2500.  I think every red rose in Indiana was in Valparaiso that day.

I'm just now noticing the similarities between Megan's dress and Sara's dress, which I'll show you below.

Uncle Stu took the happy newlyweds for a ride on his firetruck.  You can't see Ed Collier, the photographer, in this shot, but he's sitting on top of the cab of the truck snapping away, and I was sure he was going to fall off.

Now for the ones you've really been waiting for -

Sara and Chuck's first kiss as husband and wife.  Click on it so you can see the details in the flowers in the pergola and the bouquets.  Even the flowers that are blooming in the garden are different from the ones in Megan's photos, because of the time of year - October and July have completely different palates when it comes to flowers.  Mom keeps it neutral, but if you happen to marry one of her kids she'll plant flowers for you that match your wedding (in Sara's case, purple).

I'm stealing these photos from Facebook, until the photographer posts the real ones or Mom uploads hers, but here's the first dance:

All that cool ceiling decor didn't exist for Megan and I, but how amazing is it?  And the flowers that Sara and Chuck chose were absolutely awesome - they had kind of a wildflower feel, but there were several (9?) huge statement arrangements on the guests tables that really made you stop in your tracks.

No one has posted a picture of their cake yet.  Let me see cake!

You can kind of see the detail in Sara's (AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL) dress here:

Need.  More.  Pictures!  Their colors were deep purple and green.

Oh, this is a good one of us girls, and you can really see the flowers:

Another good one, closer, of Sara's dress:

The beading was so delicate and lovely.

These are in the order that I'm finding them on Facebook, not the order that anything actually happened in...

July 28, 2012

So there you have it, three kids from the same family married in the same venue but with completely different looks.  You don't have to do anything crazy to personalize your wedding.  With the right venue, creative use of color and flowers, and by varying the time of year you can make your wedding a reflection of who you are - even if everyone you know got married at the same place.