Monday, July 11, 2011

it's a blitz!

well, the big day has come! i got my wedding photos in the mail on friday afternoon, but had to race off to connecticut to celebrate someone else's big day; so i'm finally posting them now. i wasn't sure the best way to do this - there are a LOT of pictures, you guys - like, several hundred of them - so i did my best to just edit them down to a reasonable number, where you can get an idea of the night. . . and there are still about a hundred. so i think i'll break this up into two posts - one leading up to the actual ceremony, and one during and after.

i spent most of the morning of the wedding at sam's parents house - the wedding was in their backyard - helping fill balloons, finish off desserts, make signs for food, and all the finishing touches. my great friend veronika put together the cake for me and i put the little topper i'd made of sam and i on top; my old boss (who happens to be eric from top chef just desserts, aka "the nice one" if any of you watched that show!) came in super early to help and was a total rockstar, bruleeing about a hundred creme brulee spoons, making buttercream, and baking cookies. and of course my mom, dad, brother and sisters filled the pinata, blew up balloons, tied ribbons and made the whole thing possible.

i left to head to the hotel in the afternoon, where my sweet friend jess did my hair and makeup (with a little help from my bridesmaids.)
Untitled-1
my mom had helped me design a vintage-inspired veil, and sam surprised me by sending a gift along with a friend at the last minute, as i was getting dressed - a vintage pin i'd been eyeing at the jewelry store a couple days before. it matched my dress perfectly.
Untitled-4
Untitled-5
or, i should say, matched my ORIGINAL dress. i decided a couple weeks before the wedding that i wanted to surprise sam - he'd seen my wedding dress (i am terrible at keeping secrets) so i asked my little sister if i might be able to borrow her dress for the day - a beautiful, simple j crew gown. it fit pretty perfectly (although the girls were rather jumping out of it,) and it actually matched my veil much better. i ordered a rhinestone belt from etsy to spice it up a bit.
2011-07-05_377
2011-07-05_380
but i'm getting ahead of myself! once hair and makeup was done, we raced back to the house (and we were LATE! the first shuttle beat me there, and i wasn't even in my dress yet!) i ran into sam on the way in, and helped him straighten his tie -
2011-07-05_370
before dashing into the bedroom to change into my dress and wait to walk out. meanwhile, kendall, our lovely photographer, snapped some photos of the invitation, food, cake and flowers -
2011-07-05_365
i made the invitations with paper & ribbons from paper source, my sewing machine & typewriter, and handwritten lettering.
Untitled11
the dessert spread -
2011-07-06_051
Untitled-9
Untitled-8
five different macarons, almond lemon blueberry tarts, blueberry and apple pie pops, rosemary vanilla bean creme brulee spoons, and truffle-goat cheese-stuffed potatoes, all homemade. there were also lobster rolls, mini quiches, malted chocolate chip cookies. . . and barbecue for dinner.
Untitled-6
i cannot say enough good about our florist, a friend of sam's family - paula at pentimento floral. i know absolutely nothing about flowers, and kept on referencing pictures i'd seen online, and she absolutely blew me away. my bouquet was a masterpiece (you'll see tomorrow,) and all the centerpieces were ridiculously gorgeous as well.
Untitled-14
Untitled-10
i dyed the napkins on by one, a green ombre to match the invitations - we didn't really have "wedding colors" as much as every color we could possibly bring into it. i ended up using succulents with little name flags for placecards.
Untitled-13
aaand the cake! my friend and former coworker veronika volunteered to make it for me, and at first i resisted - i really wanted to do everything myself - but i'm SO glad i relented in the end. she made a simple vanilla bean genoise, and i made a lightened strawberry pastry cream for between the layers, and a rosewater vanilla buttercream for the outside. i fashioned a little audrey and sam out of fondant the week before the wedding - it's hard to tell, but sam's got a little fish on the end of his fishing pole, haha.

back in the bedroom, kendall snapped a few photos of me as i got dressed and anxiously waited to walk out.
Untitled-2
2011-07-05_378
and i'll leave it there for now! shit - i only got through about a third of the photos in this post, so i may need to break it up into three - it feels so obnoxious to post so many photos at once. i promise the ceremony will be up tomorrow!

xo audrey

18 comments:

  1. Congrats on your wedding! From what I can tell you look lovely! And backyard weddings are the absolute best in my opinion!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing, I adore this! The desserts look TO-DIE-FOR! I love that your wedding was majorly DIY...you rock! I am eagerly awaiting for the rest of your wedding day story to unfold. =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. the dessert table looks AMAZING! Also, I love the photo of you straightening Sam's tie. So sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the dessert table! And the picture of you straightening Sam's tie is so cute! And you look gorgeous. I can't wait to see more tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are such Beautiful pictures! I Love your hat!

    ReplyDelete
  6. aghhh audrey i love these!! and your wedding looks SO incredible! that dessert bar alone is perfection!

    ReplyDelete
  7. that wasn't too many photos & they were all beautiful! what a lovely day you had. i don't think you shared the flowers with us before. they were so very pretty!

    http://honeybeelane.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Based on the pics so far, I'm a huge fan of your wedding. It looks like your ceremony was brimming with personal style. And I love your fondant cake topper - very cute, if also a bit phallic, hehehhe (intentional?). Congrats!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh wow, what a refreshing approach! And you look positively radiant :D x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aww, I knew everything about your wedding would be amazing! Gorgeous photos. I LOVE all the color and handmade/personal elements.

    ReplyDelete
  11. can't wait. these are amazing. you look beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Beautiful photographs - and the desserts! It looks like it was a wonderful day :) Congratulations to you and Sam.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Put up as MANY photos as you want. I LOVE them. Your big day looks AMAZING (so far), I can't wait to see the rest. I love that you switched up your dress at the last minute!

    ReplyDelete
  14. lovely photos! it's really inspiring me to put a lot of homemade/thoughtful touches to planning my sister's wedding. Super stylish!

    Katie x

    ReplyDelete
  15. thank you guys so so much! it was really a pretty perfect day. i feel so blessed and amazed to have such sweet readers.

    @stylefyles, hahaha, phallic? he is holding a fishing pole. . . i guess i can see what you mean, but it was certainly not intentional! ha!

    ReplyDelete
  16. It looks so great.. I still can't believe you did all of this by yourself (mostly). It's so impressive..and Audrey, honestly, it all looks amazing. I can't wait to see the rest of the photos. It looks beautiful. You look beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Everything looked so amazing! You guys did such a great job on your headpiece, it turned out perfectly. That's how I opened my etsy shop..I created so much for our wedding that I decided to make pieces for other brides! I should have known all of the food would be so cute and I love the little succulent place cards!

    Krystle
    http://dearwinsome.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  18. the veil's so adorable, as are both of you.

    ReplyDelete