Liza and Ryan: Vermont Wedding Recap

As you know, a few weekends ago, Chris and I spent the weekend in Vermont with his family celebrating Liza and Ryan's wedding. I've only met these two twice before, both times at weddings (her sister's and mine) so I don't know the couple that well. That being said, this wedding was just like her sister's two years ago, but with Liza and Ryan's own special and personal touches.

We arrived just in time for the 4:15pm ceremony. Unfortunately, the sky was getting darker by the minute and we knew that a big rain storm was quickly heading our way. The ceremony was literally 5 minutes long, and we all headed under the tent JUST as it started to really rain. The timing could not have been more perfect.

Ryan and Liza brew their own beer in the basement of their Pittsburgh home. So in addition to various wines and beer they had on hand, they also had a keg of their own home-brewed beer. It was very good and very strong! The bride and groom even had matching beer mugs on their sweetheart table!

The tables were very beautifully done, with simple flower arrangements and chalkboard table numbers.

Favors were little personalized bottles of maple syrup and a maple leaf wine bottle stopper

We had cocktail hour, followed by dinner where we had a variety of food including: tomatoes and mozzarella, fruit, pastas salad, rolls, penne al la vodka, chicken, beef, stuffed whitefish, scalloped potatoes, corn pudding, and rice pilaf.

We then mingled and danced

 The "kids" table

With my mother-in-law!

After dinner, it was time for Liza and Ryan to cut the cake.

The majority of the night was spent dancing, and mingling with old friends, it even included a hula hoop contest!

The hula-hoop champion was Connor!

 With my buddy, and hula hoop champ!

 

My favorite part of the night was the releasing of the wish lantern. I've seen this on wedding blogs many times, but never in person. A wish was written onto the paper lantern, in this case was "Love each other forever", and then released into the air. This lights on fire and turns to ashes before it lands anywhere!

Liza looked on at the lantern with her sister and mom.

We had a really great time dancing the night away on this beautifully cool night. It was really nice to catch up with those I hadn't seen since my wedding, and meet new people I hadn't met before.

4 weddings down for 2012, 4 more to go!