September 04, 2012

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!



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