Wedding Helpers

Right before Christmas I managed to make it back to the US to spend some much desired time with my family.  I also got our professional wedding photos while I was there.  The photos reminded me that I have one talented bunch of family and friends.  When we found out we were moving to Germany we had to drastically change our original wedding plans.  That left us a little over 8 weeks to plan an entire wedding.

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The only reason we pulled this off is because of the insane amount of help we received from family and friends.  This post is dedicated to their wonderful talents.  They should put themselves up for hire.

Flower girl basket and ring bearer pillow hand-made by my aunt.

My talented aunt made the pillow out of the exact same silk as my dress.

She also lined the basket with the same silk!  And made the color-coordinated sash for my goddaughter's dress.

Garter and toss garter hand-made by the same aunt.  I adored the little something blue!  She even sewed tiny crystals in the center.

I took a picture of the veil a bridal store was selling for $125 and my aunt made me a perfect replica.

The flower pins in my hair were also designed by the same aunt.  She sewed pearls and crystals in the center and used the same silk to match my dress.  My hair would not have looked good without them.  These would have cost over $100 to buy in the store.

Hand-crafted, five-tier, wooden cupcake tower custom made by my dad and painted/decorated by my mom.

Close up of the cute little bows.

The amazingly talented artists, my mom and dad.  They could retire and just make and sell cupcake stands.  Brides would pay so much for them.

The award winning bridesmaids are wearing pearl necklaces handmade by one of my bridesmaids, the bridesmaid's mother, and me.  By the way, half of these girls would have been naked if a certain friend had not remembered to pick up their dresses from the dry cleaner when I did not.

The earrings I am wearing were also specially designed for me and gifted to me by the same bridesmaid's mother. She is extremely talented with jewelry and made these earrings in about 20 minutes based off of a sketch of something I saw. She also made the coordinating pearl necklace the flower girl is wearing.

Programs designed and printed by my oldest sister.

The little design you see on all of the wedding stationary was drawn by one of my students and then digitally rendered by my older sister.

My mother and sister worked together on the beautiful table number cards for each table.

My student's design was also on the place cards made by my sister.

All of my students composed original metaphors about love on little orange cards that were stuffed inside every napkin.  Another one of my bridesmaids spent a good amount of time making signs for the tables that explained where the metaphors came from to guests.

That was a small fraction of what we actually had help with in terms of the entire wedding process. From day one, I had my best friend in DC/my bridesmaid helping me plan with a specially made wedding planning document. This same friend along with my best friend from college/bridesmaid planned the most hilarious and perfect bachelorette party for me.

The cake that made me give up the other man in my life.

This is before he ended up covered in all of my lingerie.

They also helped me make a last minute dinner and dance playlist the night before the wedding. They also made sure that everyone had food on the day of my providing breakfast at the salon and lunch in the bridal suite.  Like I said, award winning people!

I was even further blessed by the help of my best friend from high school who flew out early just to help me with last minute things. She even went to Target with her husband rather than sight-seeing to buy emergency supplies for the day of the wedding. Other DC friends of mine went out of their way to see to the day-of logistics at all of our wedding sites (including restaurant set-up, ceremony set-up, cupcake delivery, and bus transportation).

I better stop here because I doubt that anyone is still reading, but somebody owes a post to team groom.  I know he had a lot of help too, including help avoiding a major dinner fiasco.