Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Joey and Heather's Wedding

On March 12th, the Ce and I headed to the San Francisco Bay Area to see two good friends get married.  When we arrived at Oakland Airport, it was raining.  The wedding was the next day.  It was supposed to be outdoors.  I felt pretty bad for the bride and groom, especially because I tend to bring rain to places in California that I want to be warm and sunny.  Nevertheless, we made the trek up to Sonoma that day in hopes of a better tomorrow.

Boy did we get it!  Their wedding day had cloudless skies and was even a little bit warm.  We drove the groom over to the venue to drop some things off and then headed to a park across the street so that they could take pictures.  Enter first problem of the day.  Their photographer never showed up.  No idea what happened to her still, but I guess this shows that if you're going to pick a family member to do your pictures, picking a responsible one will save you headaches.  Problem number two:  the bride's hair appointment ran late, so even if the photographer had been there, they couldn't have done pictures.  Fortunately, I was able to take a few quick pictures before they needed to get to the venue.

The Depot Hotel is not actually a hotel oddly enough.  It once was as you can tell by the lovely courtyard with a reflecting pool in the back.  This was the spot where Joey and Heather got married.

 personal photo

And that's my Ce in the background getting ready to officiate the ceremony.  This was very much a quaint wedding with perhaps sixty people in attendance.  The site worked very well for that.  Since it is now a restaurant, the Depot caters to small crowds, and the back courtyard was not even big enough for everyone to sit down.  This worked really well to make the wedding space fit the number of people in attendance because you could never really tell how many people were there in such a small space, making the wedding seem grander than it actually was.

Joey and Heather were looking for simplicity in their wedding.  They are not much for tradition.  They met online, were friends for over a year before elevating their relationship, and dated online for about four years before meeting in person.  Finally, in August of 2006, Joey hopped on a plane to Ohio, and they spent a week together doing things that need not be mentioned here.  Less than a year later, they had moved in together.  About a year ago, they decided to get married.  Not your average love story, and I know it probably seems crazy that they went so long without meeting, but if you knew them, you'd understand.

Anyway, the ceremony was short and personal with little flair.  I'm not going to post my pictures of it just yet because Joey and Heather haven't seen them, but I will share a few from the reception.

Since the Depot is now a restaurant, finding good food was not an issue for this couple.  Everything was excellent, particularly the pasta bolognese.  Like the ceremony, the reception was simple.  It was more like having a large group of friends come to a restaurant together than a traditional wedding reception, but it worked really well with the location.  The restaurant had a simple beauty of its own, and it didn't need much help from Joey and Heather.

My favorite part of the wedding was the favors.  They made little mice out of chocolate-covered maraschino cherries with a Hershey's kiss stuck on the front for a nose and M&M's for ears.

personal photos

So cute!  I also loved the other personal touch they gave this wedding.  Instead of a guest book, they bought five bottles of wine, one to open on each of their next five anniversaries, and had the guests sign them in gold and silver sharpies.

personal photo

I loved it!  Apparently, this is a growing wedding trend, and I may have to steal this idea as well as the mice.

Overall, it was a very nice wedding that showed that you don't have to go all out or spend a ton of money to have a lovely, memorable day.  And I got to steal ideas from them, so, you know, I'm good.

What has jumped out at you at weddings you've seen?  What ways can you make a wedding simple and memorable at the same time?

4 comments:

  1. Those little mice are so cute! Such a creative favor. And I think the wine bottle idea is cool. I saw it done at a wedding last year.

    I couldn't figure out how to send you a message replying to your comment about my Snow White decal... I bought it from a seller on Etsy about 2 years ago. He no longer sells it because of legal reasons with Disney, but I've seen similar decals sold around the web.

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  2. Awesome location. And those mice are super adorable! I think the thing that stands out most for me at weddings is when the couple steps out of the box and does something that really reflects them. Like you said, it doesn't have to cost a lot, but it makes a big impact.

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  3. Thanks! And sorry about the confusion. I just added my email address to my About Me, so hopefully it won't be too hard to find in the future.

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  4. The mice are cute, but think about how much time that would take to make 'em all, and you'd probably do it at last minute. I remember my aunt's wedding and all the stress making hersheys kiss favors wrapped in tule with a personalized ribbon bow. Lots of stress.

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