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.)

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.


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.


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 -

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 -

i made the invitations with paper & ribbons from paper source, my sewing machine & typewriter, and handwritten lettering.

the dessert spread -



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.

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.


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.

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.


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

back in the swing

hello everyone. i have to admit, it has been tough to figure out how to jump back into this. i'm waiting for my photographer to send her official wedding photographs, so i kind of want to hold off on the big-official-homerunballerina-got-hitched post, but writing about anything else seems kind of silly, too, since getting married was, you know, pretty much the biggest thing that's happened to me, ever. so i begged my little sister to send me some of her husband's beautiful photos (thanks andy!!) so that i could at least do a little wedding lead-up post.


our banner, made by the lovely caitln of nice

i left work a week before the wedding and took the train up to connecticut to get started on wedding preparations. my to-do list was pretty horrifying. i'd already made a piñata and dyed all 85 cloth napkins, but i still needed to design placecards, cut them out, decorate the piñata, create signs for all the food, and make the topper for the cake. . . not to mention baking everything on the dessert and appetizer menus, which, by the end, had gotten a little out of control. five kinds of macarons, two types of pie lollipops, rosemary creme brulee spoons, malted chocolate chip cookies, and mini lemon blueberry tarts, plus, of course the wedding cake; and for appetizers, two kinds of quiche, lobster rolls, 2 different cold salads, deviled quail eggs, and sam's specialty potatoes. sam had been gone all weekend, fishing with his buddies in the connecticut river; rather than be a responsible adult, staying home and crossing some things off this to-do list, i went out harder than i have in years for three nights in a row, so that not only did i accomplish zilch on the list prior to arriving in connecticut, but i actually took all of monday off once i'd gotten there, choosing instead to kick up my feet, sip some wine, and bask in the glow of my fiancé's presence because hey, we had all week!

yeah, i'm kind of dumb sometimes.

tuesday i spent the entire day sifting almond flour, beating meringues, and folding in colors to make all the macarons: strawberry balsamic mascarpone, lemon cherry dark chocolate, clementine honey white chocolate, chocolate caramel sea salt, and coconut lime. that night my parents arrived, and we had a nice quiet dinner at home as i slowly hyperventilated into my pinot grigio. this was not going as planned. yes, knocking out all the macarons was a big coup; but i had three days left, two of the evenings already set aside for other plans, and a laundry list of things to accomplish.

thank god for dettmars.



my mom and dad got in tuesday, and the rest of the dettmar brood (my older sister emily, her adorable son pete, my sister esther & her husband andy, and my little brother colin,) trickled in over the course of wednesday and reported for duty. we made repeated trips to grocery stores; they chopped strawberries, made pie dough, assembled lollipops, quiches, salads, and cookies. basically, they saved the wedding. i truly wouldn't have been able to do ANY of it without them, and i'm eternally grateful. luckily for me they are all married already, with the exception of my little brother, so i won't be forced into indentured wedding servitude until he finds the right lady. i hope he gives me a couple years to recover.


filling quiches; the tarts, quiches and macarons, ready to be brought out


sam's famous potatoes, and the god-forsaken deviled eggs (quail eggs are my nemesis. i won't be making these again for awhile.)

everything turned out beautifully. the morning of the wedding i woke up at 6 am with butterflies, and went with my dad to pick up bagels and donuts and ride over to the house to start the final preparations. my mom and sister had decorated and filled the piñata the day before; my sister-in-law (and our reverend) sheila sat at the dinner table finishing the placecards; by dad, brother and brother-in-law spent practically the entire day blowing up 700 balloons to fill the roof of the tent (despite andy's CRIPPLING allergies which he was too sweet to complain about.) my mom and esther tied ribbons to the pie pops to identify flavors, and two of my former co-workers showed up and became honorary family members by busting ass all day to assemble the cake, bake all the cookies, make buttercream, and finish the creme brulees.


my cake topper, and my mom & sister's handiwork


rosemary creme brulee spoons; malted chocolate chip cookies


this is what 5 hours worth of balloons look like.

in the end, i know everyone says it, but i look back on that day and just feel so incredibly grateful for my friends and family. people woke up at the crack of dawn (and in my family's case, REPEATEDLY woke up at the crack of dawn, to be subjected to such menial tasks as peeling impossibly small eggs and curling ribbons on the ends of lollipops) to make our wedding exactly what we wanted, and it absolutely, positively was. there is nothing about the day i would have changed (except, perhaps, my choice of facial hair remover, but more on that later,) and i am eternally grateful for all the wonderful, generous, talented people i'm surrounded by that made it possible. i love you all, and i am forever in your debt. i promise i'll make you dinner one of these days to show my gratitude. yes, you. every last one of you.


we got married under the apple tree. . .


and ate dinner and danced under the tent.




much, much more to come. i should have our photographer's photos in a couple of weeks, and there are some really amazing details i haven't even gone into - our florist put together the must gorgeous centerpieces and bouquets i have ever seen, i swear, and the dancing was, as my mother would say, off the heezy. (yes. she really would say that.)


much love,

xo audrey