The wedding recap continues…

When I left off last time, the bridesmaids and I had finished getting ready and were heading over to the Grand Newport Plaza, our ceremony and reception site. We were going to get ourselves set up in the bridal suite and then meet with the boys for pictures.

All photos taken by Apertura unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to click for bigger.

Here we are arriving at the site.

While we were all getting ready, my fabulous coordinator Angel, the GNP staff, and our vendors had been prepping the site and setting up all the little wedding projects Rob and I had been working on. I was nervous that the end result wouldn’t look the way I envisioned but I was not prepared at how overwhelmed I would be when seeing everything come together so beautifully. The sight as guests walk into the lobby…

Close-up of the lobby — I just love it! The gorgeous guestbook wish tree (made by the awesome Allie is the focus of the table, baskets of ceremony programs are on both sides next to pictures of our parents at their own weddings, and the “Rob and Kel” letters round it all out. (Rob painted those letters!)

More wish tree! It’s such a fun alternative to the traditional guestbook. And it doubles as floral decor! I made tags by taking flat notecards (I bought some with fun expressions on one side from Paper Source), then punched a hole and strung pink or brown ribbon through it. These tags were laid out in a glass bowl with pens and guests were instructed to write us a note and hang it on the tree.

Better view of the tags. Oh, see the pens! My cousin helped me make little paper flowers to attach to the tops of the pens. They were really hard to make. :/ But I couldn’t have plain pens on the table! I’m silly.

The programs. This was one of the hardest projects. Seriously. Actually, I think I just made it hard. I’d never used Illustrator before but for some reason got it in my head that I should use it for this project. Smart. Then I chose Stardream bronze paper to use as the cover. Too bad it was so thick that folding it created creases if not done exactly right. I stuck Rob with that job — he was much better at it than I was. Finally, the inside pages all had to be cut by roughly 1/8 of an inch (!!!) after printing because when putting all the pieces together, they stuck out ever so slightly past the cover. UGH. The paper cutter I have for scrapbooking came in handy for this but getting the measurement correct was a PAIN. Oh well, I think the end product looked great!

On the other side of the round table was a birdcage that served as a card box.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

Past the main table in the lobby was another table with the escort cards. Some of them were simply displayed on the table and the others were hanging from foam boards we embellished. Rob used a staple gun to cover them with pink fabric (the back of the boards looked TERRIBLE, hehe) and then my aunt draped pink and brown satin ribbon across to hold the cards.

Closer look at the escort cards. The color of the cards indicated the guest’s entree choice for dinner — pink was beef/chicken, brown was chicken/fish, dark pink was vegetarian, and white was the kids’ meal. I gave the escort cards some extra detail by adding a floral embellishment and a strip of lovely Japanese blossoms paper to the bottom.

Back to the girls!

We arrived in the bridal suite to find our florals! Bouquets for the bridesmaids and me, a hair wreath and pomander ball for the flower girl, and corsages for other women that had special roles in the ceremony. So much LOVE. Allie really outdid herself.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

The bridesmaids’ bouquets were all pink roses and orchids.

(Picture by my friend Robyn)

My bouquet was a gorgeous mix of white roses, orchids, mini calla lilies, stephanotis (sooo pretty), and pink peonies (!!!). Peonies are normally in season from April through June but for some reason, they were around in August. Allie called me the day before the wedding to tell me she could get them for me. I was so excited! They’re such a fluffy and fragrant flower.

Touching up my lip gloss before heading to my “First Look” with Rob.

On the balcony waiting to see my groom! SQUEE.

Next up: First Look and Portraits!