* Evangeline, Psychologist & Adam, Psychologist * Photographer: Jessica Schilling (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: “Just Like Heaven” by The Watson Twins *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: An incredibly intimate, non-traditional, relaxed celebration filled with tons of love, support, tears, and laughter!
Continue reading Wordless Wedding: Evangeline & Adam
* Nicolle, Program Manager & Paulie, Network Engineer * Photographer: Emily Takes Photos (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: The most amazing, loving, laughter-filled, close-knit, uniquely special weekend ever!
*Andee, Human Resources & Collin, Imprintable Sales*
On APW, we tell a lot of whatever the reverse of wedding horror stories is. And that’s for one simple reason: When I was getting married, the airwaves seemed to be full of wedding day disasters (that could have been averted if the couple just spent more money), and those stories were giving me nervous breakdowns. What I really needed to hear was that if I relaxed, things would probably be more or less fine. Not perfect, but fine. But that means we don’t always spend enough time discussing not totally loving your wedding. (Do you want to write about this? Send us a post!) So Andee’s story about her wedding not being the best wedding ever is just right. It’s a great story of coming to peace with yourself, but also a story of a wedding that clearly was the best wedding ever (for them). Let’s cheer-on her self-acceptance and compliment her outfit (holy sh*t that dress…).
“Everyone told me it was the best, most fun wedding they had been to”—I will never say those words. The fact is no one told me that our wedding was the best or most fun anything. I’ve heard people enjoyed the crab, but that’s about as far as the compliments go. And it took me a while to be totally fine with our wedding. I loved that our wedding ended with us being married, but I hated that other people didn’t love or even like our wedding. People left much earlier than I had hoped. It hurt my feelings. After the wedding was over I began to doubt all the decisions we had made about the wedding. We got married in my parents’ yard, with all homemade food and only thirty people (including us) in attendance. It wasn’t a shotgun wedding, it was more of a “the bride has mild social anxiety disorder and planning a big party isn’t her bag” wedding.
When we first got engaged I was giddy on the love and excitement and I willingly fooled myself into thinking I could do the 150-guest wedding with dancing and cake cutting and a big dress and all that jazz. When I imagined my wedding before I met Collin it was always at the courthouse. But this courthouse type of girl fell in love with a wedding type of guy. Collin was dead set against a courthouse wedding; his family has been through a great deal of loss in the past several years and they needed something to celebrate.
So I pushed forward through my doubts about my ability to do the wedding thing and continued planning. We rented a venue, booked a photographer and a DJ, sent the save-the-dates to 100+ people. And then came the great wedding meltdown of 2011. It involved lots of crying and grinding of teeth and loss of sleep—all because I was trying to fit my square self into a round wedding. It just wasn’t happening. I felt like a complete and utter failure because I hated and dreaded my own upcoming wedding.
Something was not right; inside I felt severely unbalanced. My family was extremely worried for my health and sanity. Then one day in the midst of planning melt down, Collin said we were forgetting it, forgetting the big wedding. He cared more about me than anything else, and he just wanted to marry me, and he preferred that I be sane when we did it. I burrowed into his neck and cried tears of relief mixed with tears of guilt for being unable to do what he wanted for his family. He assured me it would be OK. We called the vendors, lost our deposits and were free for the next couple of months. Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Andee & Collin
* Erika, Actor & Tristan, Payroll Administrator * Photographer: LittleBat Photography (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: “I Have a Boyfriend” by The Chiffons *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: We had a wonderful party where our friends and family could be completely themselves in the most glamorous way.
* Aubrae, Chef/Entrepreneur & Joel, Medical Student * Photographer: Hart & Sol Photo (APW sponsors) * Soundtrack for reading: “La Valse d’Amelie” by Yann Tiersen from the Amelie soundtrack *
One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: Our wedding was exactly ours: free of extraneous frills, noise, and distractions—just us, celebrating our love with those we love, surrounded by nature and the city.
*Kristine, Registered Nurse & Steve, Benefits Coordinator*
Today’s post is proof in its purest form that you don’t need a fancy wedding (or a wedding with lots of details, or an expensive dress, or any of the nonsense the WIC is selling you) to have a glowingly happy wedding. Kristine & Steve’s wedding, with a white bridesmaid’s dress, a tiny guest list, an impromptu iPod dance party, and photos by long time APW sponsor A Beautiful Day Photography, is one for the ages. Let’s do it.
My baby family is only three months old and I’m already chomping at the bit to write a Wedding Graduate post. I have been since the day I discovered APW. But I’ve struggled to begin because there is just so much to share. Do I focus on the gorgeous setting that made every venue-related mini-meltdown completely meaningless? What about the dress saga? As a plus-sized bride, I knew boutique shopping would be a challenge. After the salesgirl at the first store put her foot in her mouth one too many times, I tried to have my dream gown custom designed through Etsy. This was a disaster too. So I said uncle six weeks before my wedding day and rush-ordered an ivory bridesmaid dress from Joielle. And it was just right.
Or should I share the experience of becoming a wife for the second time by the age of thirty? There was a whole heap of baggage I had to wade through during our pre-engaged and engaged eras. But somehow those insecurities were nowhere to be found on October 15, 2011.
But what has really stuck with me is how damn joyful the whole weekend was. Pure f*cking joy.
I knew Steve and I were making an important commitment. I knew it would be special. But maybe because of the planning stress or because of the baggage, I wasn’t sure I expected to be so high that day. Maybe because I was trying to be so cool and laid back about it all, I didn’t think the actual wedding day would matter so much.
It mattered. So much.
We chose to have an extremely small ceremony. Part of it was to stay within our budget and part was that we didn’t think we needed the production, as we called it. It was about celebrating our commitment. Who cared about a million tiny details? So we invited immediate family and a couple of very close friends and called it good. My aunt and uncle and Steve’s dad generously offered to throw us a post-wedding celebration in our hometown a few weeks later. We really got the best of both worlds: An intimate ceremony that perfectly reflected our relationship and our personalities, followed by a casual party that allowed us to celebrate with everyone we knew and loved.
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