* Emily, Software Developer & Matt, Software Consultant and Small Business Owner * Photographer: Emily Johnston Anderson * Soundtrack for reading: “This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: Intimate and fun urban celebration of family and friends, with fantastic food and no cake.
The Info—Photography: Emily Johnston Anderson / Venue: PUBLIC Restaurant in New York City / Emily’s Dress: Watters Bridal from
Bridal Garden / Sarah’s Wrap: Saja Wedding / Matt’s Suit: J.Crew
Other cool stuff we should know about: Looking back I love how many DIY elements we ended up with, considering we didn’t set out with that as a goal (it didn’t feel too stressful). My friend Lauren and I made the hair piece. My brother did a drawing for the programs and had them printed. My friend Rosy sang during the ceremony. My friend Megan did the flowers on the tables with vases we bought at Ikea. Matt and I made signs for each table that were each named after one of our grandparents. Only one of our grandparents is still alive and we wanted to include them all in a way that wasn’t mournful. Each sign had an old photo on one side and a timeline of their life on the other.
We also wrote the ceremony ourselves after Matt’s cousin agreed to marry us. It was really important to both of us to have an officiant that knew both of us well and that would perform a non-religious ceremony. She did an amazing job. For the whole wedding we kept the traditional elements that we liked, scrapped the ones we didn’t and no one seemed to bat an eye. (Though I think the grandchild on the way may have helped distract from some of it.)
We also learned the lesson that if DIY isn’t working, don’t do it. We started out planning to put together playlists for all the music but it was causing a lot of tension between us. We decided that wasn’t worth it, so we hired a friend to DJ, who used song lists we had put together for some parts of the evening and filled in the rest. He did a great job and saved us from arguments that we didn’t need to have. When I asked my father to do a father/daughter dance, he wanted to take dance lessons together so that we could do a real dance. It was a great way to spend time together leading up to the wedding and something special to share that day. Considering how nervous he was and that he couldn’t do it without counting out loud the whole time, he did a great job.
Favorite thing about the wedding: As cheesy as it sounds, having the ceremony surrounded by a group of people who love and care about us. I was really nervous about being the center of attention but once I got up there I remember looking around the room. For a second I felt like I was in front of an audience of people with our parents sitting up front. Then I realized that I knew every single person there and that everywhere I looked was someone that we cared about. It was an amazing moment.
