Monday, May 25, 2015

Our Wedding: Getting Ready






















Heels: Badgley Mischka (Landmark)
Hair and make-up: Myself/my mom
Ben's suit and shoes: Perry Ellis
Robes: Eberjey
Engagement ring: Tiffany & Co.; Ben's wedding band: Ben Bridge

I am so excited to be finally sharing our wedding on the blog! I'll be sharing photos (I promise, I pared them way down from the original 600) in three separate posts, so stay tuned this week for the entire day from getting ready through reception.

Our wedding was layered with a lot of meaning - in the place we got married and the week leading up to it. It felt more like a history of Ben and I as a couple, and reached beyond getting married and into our past. Though we had a rough start finding a venue and wavered between an Oregon and Hawaiian wedding, our final choice to get married on Oahu turned out to be perfect.

Ben and I were married at a private residence on the beach in Lanikai and then drove across the island to Waikiki for our ceremony at the oldest hotel in Hawaii. Both places held such significance for me - the ceremony site was at the home of a very dear family friend to my grandparents and I was able to get ready at my grandparents home, which was put on the market and sold shortly after the wedding. The reception was held at a hotel I'd gone to tea at as a baby with my aunt, grandmothers, and Mom. It was Ben's first time to Oahu, but not to Hawaii (one of his favorite places in the world).

I really wanted our wedding to be full of meaningful and handmade touches, but I wanted to stay away from a Pinterest-based event that didn't ring true to who Ben and I are as a couple. With that in mind, we incorporated lots of details that came from our family. My mom braided my hair and I did my own make-up. My talented aunt made my pearl hair "vine." I wore the pearls that my grandmother and my mother had both worn on their wedding days many years ago. Ben and the groomsmen (our brothers) drank Hawaiian moonshine out of a Portland distillery's set of flasks before the wedding, and wore traditional maile leis for the ceremony. The day before the wedding, my grandmother made our bouquets for the ceremony. She and my mom took old plant stands that had belonged to my great grandmother and painted them white, to later fill with my grandmother's hand-arranged florals for the ceremony. We incorporated proteas, a flower that grows abundantly in Hawaii, but is also originally from South Africa into our arrangements - a nod to a place Ben was studying during our relationship and my home. We sipped champagne from my great grandmother's glasses before leaving for the ceremony.

The morning we got married, it was pouring rain. The squalls coming in off the ocean were heavy and the roof of our rental house was overflowing with sheets of water. I remember being so nervous, sipping lukewarm water and attempting to eat toast but my bridesmaids were cheering me on, and my family had their eyes on the ocean, to look for a break in the clouds. When we started to get ready I was worried that my anxiety would get the best of me and I'd never make it to the ceremony, but I suppose that experience was a testament to the fact that anxiety can't stop you from doing anything. Take heart, anxious brides!

More to come!

12 comments

  1. You looked beautiful on your wedding day!

    xx,

    Tania

    http://inspiremyfancy.blogspot.com/

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  2. These pictures are so beautiful, great memories, and you look stunning! :)

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  3. So gorgeous, your pictures are stunning!

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  4. The photos are stunning, of course, and the wedding sounds so special. Can't wait to see more!

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  5. Oh my goodness, what a perfect day! You and your mother are stunning and the locale looks so peaceful and lovely, perfect for a wedding! Your dress is also one of my favorite styles :-) Thanks for sharing, cheers!

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  6. Love that the wedding sounds so thoughtful and meaningful with so many ties to your roots of family and dear friends - that makes those details so much more memorable for years to come than just paying for items and services. I look forward to seeing and reading more about your wedding! You do not look anxious at all in the photos, it looks so wonderfully relaxed and serene actually!

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  7. I love these photos! They are so bright and full of promise. Especially love the third to last one.

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  8. I truly loved reading about the significance of your wedding venue. How sweet and wonderful. The photos capture the love and happiness of the day and I think it's so great you can share a portion of that with us.

    xo,
    nancy

    http://www.adoretoadorn.com

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  9. Aww I love this post! What stunning photos. I love all of the sentiment, especially that your mom did your hair! (She is really talented) What a bummer about the weather the day of, but your photos and the stories of the day are wonderful, regardless of the rain!

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  10. What lovely pictures! Thank you for sharing them with us!

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  11. Olive Branch SchoolMay 26, 2015 at 6:47 PM

    What a great and beautiful captured start to a new future.

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  12. Looks like such a perfect day! I'm excited to see and read more about it. :)

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