Hayley & Nick
One sentence sum-up of the wedding vibe: A joyful, emotional, noisy, sweaty, delicious love-fest.
Soundtrack for reading: “On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons
Other cool stuff we should know about
We had to be picky about our DIY projects since we were planning from so far away, but the projects we took on were so worth it. We designed and printed all the paper products ourselves. The invitations, in particular, were enormously time-consuming, especially since I hand-addressed them all, but they were perfectly imperfect and we had a lot of fun making them. We displayed a huge map entitled “The Road You Tread to See Us Wed” to show where all our guests came from—eighteen states, France, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. (I got this idea from Pinterest, obviously.)
We strayed from the traditional Catholic wedding readings and instead picked readings that emphasized family and hospitality. Our wedding party was lopsided but we didn’t care. I had my best girlfriends stand by me (wearing dresses I impulse—bought from the Banana Republic Outlet), along with two “bridesmen.” My older sister pulled double duty, standing beside me as maid of honor while sprinting back and forth to the choir loft to sing the Mass. Instead of buying new wedding bands, we re-exchanged our engagement rings at the altar, and Nick carved us a ring holder out of a (used) Harry Potter book, to show the chapter titled “The Unbreakable Vow.”
We wanted the reception to feel like a big dinner party, so all the food was served family-style and we had a massive head table to accommodate our wedding party and their dates. Nick’s family baked thousands of cookies to contribute to a cookie table, an awesome northeast Ohio/western Pennsylvania tradition I had never heard of before I started dating him.
Favorite thing about the wedding
Spending an entire weekend surrounded by the people we love most in the world. Looking around the room in awe of all the people who came to celebrate with us. Sneaking glances across the aisle at my handsome groom all through the ceremony. My fierce yellow shoes.
