November 11, 2007

A Funky & Delightful Wedding


This arrived in the mail Friday. And no, it doesn't actually take six months to get a marriage certificate in Massachusetts; it takes less than a week once your husband remembers to send in the form. But I digress.

The occasion also marks our first official Funky and Delightful collaboration. Tory and I had crafted together in the past and had been throwing around the idea of starting a blog for a few months. Planning a wedding seemed like a perfect opportunity to commit.

The wedding was being held at an historic house and my future husband and I wanted it to feel like we were inviting people into our own home. I was disappointed with the rental options for table linens, nothing felt like us. Instead, we decided to buy fabric and make them ourselves. Tory and I had just discovered Heather Bailey's Freshcut fabric and we were smitten. Her fabric designs evoked the precise feeling I wanted to create at my wedding; relaxed, elegant, vintage with a modern twist.

We chose six coordinating fabrics and went to work. In one day, with two sewing machines and two sets of hands, we made six table runners, forty yo-yos and tons of plans for our blogging/crafting future. We documented the whole process in photos, of course.





The day of the wedding finally arrived and we woke up to sunshine and blue sky.

Tory and I arrived two hours before the guests to oversee the set-up. I was a teensy bit nervous (can't imagine why) and Tory was the one who ensured everything went smoothly while I flitted around wringing my hands. Thank you Tory, you really are a rock star organizer.

The table arrangements were perfect. The flower centerpieces (peonies and Gerber daisies in a short square vase) turned out exactly as I had imagined. We even had a special table for the children with a favor bag filled with small games and toys for each of them. They loved it.

Tory incorporated the yo-yos into green garland we had draped over the four large fireplace mantles in the house. They added a splash of color in lieu of flowers and were a fun twist on the traditional. We placed a number of framed family photos around the house and on the mantles (that's me on the left). Our original plan had been to make garlands entirely of fabric. After measuring the mantles and calculating how many yo-yos it would take to cover four mantles that were each seven feet wide and five feet high we quickly adjusted our plans and decided to use greenery instead.

For the favor boxes I covered what seemed like a million buttons with fabric. Ribbon and leaf tags were MSL. Inside the chocolate brown boxes were chocolates - no false advertising here. Several people have told me that they still have the button from their favor as a reminder of the day. Totally worth the carpal tunnel syndrome.

The cake was as delicious as it looked. The bottom layer was chocolate (for my dear husband, who insists that cake is, by definition, chocolate and moist) and the top layer was vanilla. Both layers were topped with raspberry preserves and wrapped with vanilla fondant. I have to admit I spent a lot of time fretting about the cake. I was adamant that it be gluten-free (call me selfish, I wanted to be able to eat my own wedding cake) but I also wanted everyone to enjoy it. I nearly ended up baking it myself, but fortunately the lovely and talented Vita Cohen had just opened a gluten-free bakery and came to my rescue.

It was a wonderful wedding. Our favorite people came, we had a perfect day in a beautiful setting, the food was amazing and no one guessed that it was all gluten-free. Our photographer was a delight and managed to get gorgeous candid portraits of every single one of our guests without being intrusive in any way. There was croquet and a pond to walk around. So much fun, so many special memories. Not to say that everything went exactly as planned. I forgot my bouquet. The dishes that the rental company delivered were not the ones we ordered. Quite honestly, none of those things mattered at the time or in retrospect.

As a special treat, I leave you with a Funky & Delightful wedding photo. Here's to many years of creating, making and blogging together.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh my! that is sooo amazing! if you still have the tables cloths and want to unload them, let me know!
i can't believe you guys got to cooperate on something so memorable!

Unknown said...

My daughter and I the conversation about gluten free wedding cakes just a couple of days ago. She said she wants to be able to eat her cake, too. She wants ME to be able to eat her cake. Now I know it can be done.