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!!
On Saturday Chris and I attended the wedding of Tori and Clay. Tori is an old friend from High School, and after we became friends our freshman year, we discovered that we are actually second cousins -we have the same great-grandfather! From then on...Tori and I pretty much referred to each other as "cuz".
We headed to my parent's house in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon, and had lunch with them before we got ready to head out to the wedding.
We arrived at the Woodstone Country Club, in Danielsville, PA shortly before 5:30pm. The ceremony space was really beautiful, with a grand staircase, and amazing chandelier. I loved how the bridesmaids and groomsmen lined the stairs on either side of the couple.
Tori looked stunning and excited as she made her way down the aisle!
The ceremony was officiated by their friend and groomsman, Matt. It was special to have their ceremony completely tailored by someone who really knew them, and their relationship, very well.
After the ceremony, we headed over to cocktail hour, which overlooked the beautiful golfing green at the club.
I enjoyed catching up with an old friend, Mal, from Elementary school and summer camps at Quiet Valley!
Tori and Clay had a ton of unique things that made their wedding personal and even more amazing. Instead of a guestbook, they had all their guests sign a large wooden initial "H", which will be such a wonderful addition to their new home in New Jersey.
Super impressive were the guest favors. Each person received a glass made from recycled and cut-down wine bottles. There was a printed explanation on how they did this, and let's just say it involved words like "dremel", "wet tile saw" and "grinding stones" - things I didn't understand, but sounded super impressive. These were indeed a labor of love as it took them several days to make, but they came out amazingly!! I love our new glasses and I might even use mine as a votive candle holder!
After cocktail hour, we took our seats and the bride and groom were announced as they made their grand entrance!
We listened to some touching and funny speeches!
And watched Tori and Clay's first dance as husband and wife:
Prior to dinner we had a salad, followed by a berry sorbet intermezzo!
Then we had chicken with shrimp, snow-peas, and roasted potatoes
After some dancing, it was time to cut the cake! Tori got this cake topper as a surprise for Clay who's a rugby player. This topper fit them to a tee!
At one point I thought I had lost my phone (this happens, typically, 5 times on any given day...it was just on the other side of the table), so I missed the whole explanation for this, but the Groom and his groomsmen performed an interesting, traditional Hawaiian Dance for all the guests:
Tori and Clay met at Ursinus College where they apparently have developed a tradition at weddings for the groom to do a striptease for the bride before the garter toss. Haha, this is certainly quite a tradition! Clay was hilarious doing this little strip-tease for Tori...but he kept it totally PG and classy, at least for the moment...
Then it was time to get the garter!
What happens
when you get a room full of rugby players and alcohol together to catch a
garter? Apparently you get lots of strong men lifting other strong men into the air to catch it...in other words: you get hilarious mayhem!
The victor:
I was finally able to steal the bride away for a picture!
Congratulations to Tori and Clay and thank you so much for inviting us to share in your special day!
Wishing you a lifetime of wedded bliss and an amazing honeymoon in Aruba!
Below is a slideshow which also includes some video clips from the day:
Cheesy title for today, but it was way more romantic than "The End." Alternate title consideration was "To Be Continued..."
Well here I am at the very end of my wedding recaps. I literally do not have any more to share with you about our wedding. I have shared every last detail of our day with you and now 55 posts and 23 Friday Finds later, I am literally at the end...in a somewhat symbolic end to 2011.
It's been a great journey so far, and you have been with us every step of the way. You were with us when we got engaged in the Bahamas
After visiting 13 venues, we finally decided on The SandCastle in Franklin Square, New York.
You were there for our TWO engagement parties:
We had our engagement pictures taken at Wagner College:
And we sent out our save-the-dates
We picked our band, photographer, florist, and hotel and I had my bridesmaid dress fitting day:
We had our cake tasting!
I found my wedding day shoes!
You were there when I picked my dress! (Even though I made you wait to see it!)
You saw us mail out our invitations:
You were with me for my Bridal shower
You were there when my mom finally picked her dress!
You were with us when we got our marriage license
You traveled along to Atlantic City for my Bachelorette party!
You witnessed Mickey and Minnie personally wish us a happy marriage!
You were there when we hit the 30 day mark!
You helped me pick out which Guest Book to have!
You saw every last detail of our wedding
And traveled to Italy with us on our Honeymoon
Thank you for following us on this incredible journey...the laughs, the tears, the stress, the excitement, the love!!!
But this is not the end of Saying "I do"! There are over 50 blogging brides for 2012 over on my Blogging Brides page, and I so look forward to following them all as they count down to their big day in 2012. I love weddings, and with all the weddings Chris and I will be attending in 2012, you can be sure I will still have LOTS to share!!
