The Wedding

Friday, December 23, 2016

It's weird to look at your wedding photos, but only the ones without any faces in them. It's like surreptitiously peeping on someone else's event, but everything looks considerably too familiar for that to be true. These are our hands.





We got ready at the North Shore Springhill Suites. I determined I'd pay money to reduce my stress, so the hair and makeup stylists came to us. G brought wine, and we ordered Greek salad bowls in an attempt to get sustenance in us for a day of having photos taken, lol.

J meanwhile, wandered around a bit. It takes men considerably less time to get dressed.




The bridesmaids left, and I met up with J at Allegheny Landing, where we took our First Look photos. If you want to make someone's day, try calling a Lyft on your wedding day as your ride to the pre-ceremony photos. We were dropped off at the National Aviary, and had our family photos done in neighboring West Park. The lighting kept changing, depending on if the sun was behind a cloud or not. It was a lovely, if a bit chilly, day.

My bouquet had cabbages in it. Cabbages!!!
(Farmer's Daughter Flowers is a floral wizard).




J's uncle lead a voluntary brass quintet for our procession and recession music. I missed my cue, but suspect that's what happens when you use non-traditional music (Handel's Music for the Royal Firework).

The ceremony was fairly brief, with readings done by our siblings (The Goodridge Decision, as a subtle nod to the support of same sex marriage; Mali's "Love is Like Owning a Dog" for a bit of humor; and James Dillet Freeman's "Blessing for Marriage" as a secular, sentimental description of marriage without suggesting any co-dependency). The sun was setting in saturated shades of pink, and a loud Pittsburgh train went by in the middle. A baby bunny nibbled foliage along one of the side aisles and all went swimmingly. It is hard to stay present during such activity, and I'd say I failed pretty badly at being in the moment, but it was still lovely.



After the ceremony and abbreviated receiving line (the guaranteed way to interact with everyone efficiently), we took 10 minutes to ourselves in the Grasslands Room. Guests were still getting situated in the cocktail hour, and we had the room to ourselves along with the wee birds.

Before entering the reception, J had the privilege of using the BYOV Bustling Guide and bustled up my dress train, so I wouldn't step on it all night.





My father, sister, and a good mutual friend from Pittsburgh gave lovely, funny toasts. The food was from Atria's, and was really tasty. We were successful at eating, although I think the food was better savored during the tasting ;)

And then we proceeded to dance like no one watched, a goal I'd been working toward for some time. I even got the lil brothers on the dance floor, but it took some miraculous feats of strength.



A penguin visited during the cocktail hour, and an owl visited table-side during dinner. Naturally.

We had heaps of the most delicious white lily cake, along with some carrot cake from Food, Glorious Food. We had sheet cakes to supplement the modest tiered cake, and got to eat the leftovers the next day. That raspberry & whipped cream cake does not get old. I had it first at another wedding years ago, and knew that's what we'd serve at ours. So, so good. And the "naked cake" with just a crumb coat and botanical decorations looked just perfect!

It was so wonderful to see so many of our good friends and family, and show them a good time!

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