8/18/12 Recaps: Setting Up

While I was at the farmhouse finishing up various small craft projects and catching up with a lot of old friends, Matt, his family and the boys in the wedding party spent Friday and Saturday mornings setting up the tent.

Friday morning they put up all 120 Chinese paper lanterns and arranges and tables and chairs:

Bobby (Matt's cousin) and Matt hanging lanterns

ready to hung

the groom overseeing the tent ^__^

Saturday morning, Matt drove back up to the tent at 7AM to finish setting up. His family joined him, and as a team they were able to do EVERYTHING including: putting the tablecloths on the tables, arranging the picture frames and labels, hanging the guest paper cranes, hanging the seating chart tags, putting out the trail mix, setting up the juice, and tons more!

the seating chart tags are hanging on twine behind the boys, and the trail mix is out on the table

"husband" and "wife" (in Korean) signs on our chairs

the drinks: mason jars, waters, sodas, coolers

directing guests to the seating chart tags

Without the help of Matt's family, plus the groomsmen, none of this would have ever been pulled off! A HUGE thank you to everyone that helped out, at the tent and elsewhere!

8/18/12 Recaps: Lanterns at Night

Matt and I made the right decision to head up to the mountain late Friday night to catch our lanterns all lit up. Matt's dad and stepmom had gone up a few hours prior and highly recommended it, and knowing that we probably wouldn't see the lights at the actual reception, we knew it would be our only chance. The small, battery-powered LED lights were added as an afterthought, thinking that the tent might get a little dark once the sun began to set. Fortunately we didn't need them for the real wedding, but were thankful we got to experience the magic anyways:

This was also one of the only moments of alone time Matt and I had had all week. As late as it was, as tired as we were, it was meditative and refreshing to sneak into the park in the middle of the night and experience our tent, something that we invested in, in quiet company.

8/18/12 Recaps: The Wedding Week

Here is the first of many recaps on the wedding! I am now settled back into Korea so I have the time and energy to start posting about the big day. Enjoy!

To start, I'll write about the wedding week.

The week started off with Matt and I moving into a family friend's farmhouse. Our friends graciously lent us their house while they were away on vacation, which turned out to be a Godsend! 7 of our out-of-town friends were able to stay with us in the house, making it a full house of 9! We moved in and prepared for friends to fly/drive in from all over: New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin, California, Oregon and Ottawa!

Monday we drove up with my Mom to visit with Fr. Chabot, my childhood priest who would marry us. We went to his camp on a lake and enjoyed an afternoon discussing the ceremony details, which calmed my nerves a bit! One big thing that he suggested that threw me off guard was to add contemporary music to the ceremony. This was something Matt and I thought wasn't encouraged, so I was a little stressed! We spoke with the cantor and organist and figured out a few new songs, so it all worked out. We also added a few things into the ceremony: a unity candle and the signing of the marriage certificate.

Tuesday  and Wednesday we were busy finishing up last minute details. Matt spent a lot of time with his mother and sister getting the cranes ready (!) for their big debut, while I was at my parent's house making 12 gallons of homemade lemonade and iced tea.

Wednesday night our friends from Ottawa arrived: Pam and Jesse. We met Pam in Korea and she is one of my bridesmaids and also made our cake and cupcakes! We were so happy to see them and spent the night catching up at the farmhouse, which was so nice.

Thursday we had friends arriving at all hours from the airport and beyond. Matt and the boys got in some disc golfing, while the girls all hung out and worked on various little projects I had left to do. It was absolutely AMAZING to have my friends volunteer to help! While I knew they would, I didn't realize how enthusiastic they would be! I had the ladies painting signs, gluing, cutting, etc. Pam started the cakes/cupcakes and everyone just went about helping. It was terrific! That night we all went out to eat (the wedding party plus out of town guests) to a local pizza place in Portland on the waterfront.

Friday morning Matt and the boys woke up bright and early to hang the lanterns at the tent. Thankfully due to Matt's meticulous string cutting and measuring a week before, the process was super easy and there was plenty of help! At 3:00PM we had the rehearsal at the church. I will talk more about this in another post! After the rehearsal we all went to my parent's house and met up with out of town guests and close family for an awesome spaghetti dinner in the backyard. Again-more on that later!

Friday night, as exhausted as we were, Matt and I took a drive up to the tent at 11:30PM (!!) to see the LED lights that the boys had put in the tent. I will write a post about this as well, as the pictures are fabulous! It was great for the two of us to get a little alone time and to experience our lanterns lit up in the darkness!

So there was the extent of the busy wedding week!