The following morning we woke up in our hotel suite at the Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay and met up with guests from out of town for brunch and a day of sight seeing along the St. Lawrence River. This down time spent relaxing with loved ones is exactly why we planned a two-day wedding and, though more complicated at times, it’s still one of the best decisions we made. Later that evening we welcomed 150 people for a full reception at the Edgewood in a gorgeous room with panoramic views of the river and a wood-clad gazebo ceiling.
First up though, a slight change of looks for me. Instead of wearing my hair up again, I asked my hair stylist (who is actually my cousin) to chop my hair back to my signature bob length. She’d convinced me to grow my hair out a bit before the wedding, but by that point it was driving me nuts so we sat in our hotel suite and cut my hair less than an hour before our reception. I wore a sparkling head band from He Knows My Name. Of course, a two-day celebration did allow me to wear my dress twice, which I was more than happy to do.

Our reception was really all about fun. We ditched our bouquets and instead all carried cluthces – the girls carried the black satin ones I had bought for them and I carried the same jewel green clutch that was a gift from my lovely friend Cheyanne. The girls wore different styles of dresses from Dessy in champagne paired with black shoes and pretty necklaces I made for them. The guys wore classic black tuxes with champagne ties made to match the dresses.

I designed and crafted all of the paper goods for our reception. Because we met on a wine tour along Seneca Lake and have since gone back for several wine tours, we named each table for a winery we love. We included a little card that described the winery, why we love it and provided his and hers wine recommendations. Everything was done in shades of blue and kraft paper, including tiny little envelopes secured to a cork board with pearl-head pins that held escort cards. I recruited Mike to neatly label each envelope with the guest’s name. Centerpieces were white hydrangeas in vintage milk glass vases and we littered the tables with tiny little candles. Because we’re both obsessed with sweets, favors were little kraft paper bakery boxes filled with homemade cookies baked by my mother and stepfather. We used a Kolo album to create a scrapbook guest book – by the end of the night, one of Mike’s aunts had taped in a little scrap of lace from my dress that had ended up on the dance floor.
Being literature buffs, the cake was topped with a cluster of paper flowers made from the pages of old romance novels. Otherwise the design was simple – we worked with the pastry chef we did because her cakes are amazingly delicious and the strawberry champagne flavor reminds me of the birthday cake my mother makes me every year. Splurging on a fancy fondant cake was of no interest to me, this was all about the cake for us. We ate the top tier for breakfast while on our honeymoon – hands down the best breakfast I ever had.

Our wedding ended up being a perfect reflection of us and who we really are. On more than one occasion I could be found running around bare foot in my wedding dress swigging champagne straight from the bottle. My father ended up out on the dance floor with pant legs rolled up and  a huge smile plastered across his face. We laughed, we cried and we danced until we were sweaty. People still talk about how much fun they had and, for me, that’s what really mattered. We skipped a lot of the fuss, we skipped weird traditions we didn’t love (bouquet and garter toss come to mind) and we focused on the details that mattered most to us. It was all about the love.

So there you have our wedding. I could show you endless photos of guests screaming with delight on the dance floor or tell you about all the things that didn’t go as planned (there were many), but a year later the things I remember best are the people, the smiles, the love and the laughter. I could recount all of the projects that didn’t get finished (there were several), all the great ideas for fancy little details that never happened, but when I look back those are never the things that come to mind. I remember getting married, being blissfully happy and living happily ever after. (Or something pretty close to it.)

{Photos by James Bass. Please credit images to The Sweetest Occasion and James Bass.}