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!

Re-Post: "A Vermont Wedding"

This weekend, I will be heading to Vermont with Chris' family for a family friend's daughter's wedding. This wedding will be very similar to the Vermont Wedding we attended 2 years ago for the bride's sister. Today is a re-post of that Vermont Wedding which was originally posted on 9/14/10. The wedding this weekend will be very similar. I'm looking forward to a road trip and getting out of the "city" (in quotes because I don't actually live IN the city a.k.a Manhattan) for a weekend.

Originally posted 9/14/10:
I feel kind of funny blogging about the wedding I went to over the weekend because I don't even personally know the bride and groom. I was there as Chris' date, and the bride was Chris' family friend's daughter. I met the bride and groom on Saturday and they were lovely, charming, and adorable, but I just didn't know if it was appropriate to introduce myself with "Hi, nice to meet you. Thanks for inviting me to your wedding, do you mind if I blog all about it on Monday?"

So, I will keep the details to a minimum. I will say that this wedding was so different from any wedding we've been to, but filled with so much charm, and personal touches. It was the kind of wedding I always see in pictures, but never actually got to attend.

Their wedding took place at the bride's beautiful antique-filled house in Vermont. The ceremony was on her deck, and it was literally 5 minutes long. I think most people there, especially the men, were quite grateful for that! It was a beautiful sunny day, and a really great temperature when the sun was out. (But it was freezing by nighttime!)

Ceremony on the deck

After the ceremony, we were moved to another part of the yard where tents were set up. They had a bar area with bartenders and hors d'oeuvres like pita chips and hummus, vegetables, fruit, cheese, pepperoni and blueberry blue-cheese balls (which sound so weird but I LOVED!). After an hour or so, we were moved inside the main tent for dinner.

Table centerpieces. Sunflowers, and jelly jar candles

For dinner we had roasted pork with apples, roasted potatoes, salad, rolls and broccoli salad with feta and craisins (my favorite)!! After that, we had cupcakes and Italian cookies! Below:

Cake on top with surrounding cupcakes!

Cutting the cake in the tent

After that, they blasted the jukebox on the deck and people either danced, mingled, or huddled around the bonfire to stay warm. At one point me and my new friends, Monica and Kellyn, who both grew up with Chris, stole away from the party for some Andre in Monica's car:

Yumm Andreeee!

Bonfire at night to keep us warm!!

While others danced up on the deck!

It was a beautiful Vermont evening, and a beautiful wedding. The couple actually met on E-Harmony and they should really be the poster couple for the company. They seemed very happy and it got me even more excited for May! I couldn't leave Vermont without visiting a country store where I bought Vermont smoked cheddar cheese, pumpkin butter, maple apple peanut butter, pumpkin spice tea and apple cider tea, all of which I cannot wait to try!!