Our spring 1920s-themed wedding

As I mentioned in a previous post, the spring wedding season is starting.

My husband and I were married at a 1920s-themed wedding in April 2007. I think spring is a lovely time to get married, for several reasons: Because it's such a pretty season, because it's not too hot, and because it's a symbolic time for a new beginning.

Of course, spring weddings can also be quite a challenge, because it is the beginnign of the rainy season in many places. Luckily, the day Michael and I chose for our wedding was sunny and perfectly clear.

A risk of spring weddings that we did encounter was that sometimes a late frost can kill or retard the new spring growth. Our wedding was in the courtyard at a winery, which is usually draped with grape vines. Unfortunately, a week of hard frost in late March or early April meant that there wasn't much green growth on the vines.



Of course, there was enough green growth to take this series of pictures, which turned out to be among my favorites of all the pictures of Michael and I together:



It really was a perfect wedding!

Finalizing wedding plans

Michael, my sister, and I just got back from a trip out to visit Michael's family and finalize our wedding plans. While we were there, we...

* Applied for our marriage license
* Met with the videographer -- the $600 fee is insurance that my mom won't try to chase me down the aisle with a video camera
* Met with the manager at the venue and chef from the restaurant across the street to make plans for the ceremony and reception
* Went to the florist's shop and chose what I want for bouquets, table arrangements, etc.
* Met with the minister who will be performing our ceremony

I'm suddenly very glad that we're doing a small wedding. The total number of people there -- including the wedding party and the people we've offered to feed (i.e. the minister, photographer, videographer) -- will be about 26.

I'm also very glad that I'm not into all the frills the wedding industry manages to convince most brides that they just have to have. Uh-uh, not me. I'm doing a small bouquet for me, smaller ones for my bridesmaids, a rose for the lapel of each of the men and for the minister, and bouquets on the tables in the swan vases I found. The chef managed to convince me to do some flowers as garnish on the cake. But that's it. Since our ceremony will be held outside at the winery, the grapevines will provide some additional decoration, but other than that, I'm not trying too hard.

Our meal with be the most elaborate (and most expensive) part. We're feeding our guests buffet-style, with nice paper and plastic, for the sake of simplicity, but the food will still be really good. We're having salad with three choices of entrees -- one vegetarian entree, one seafood entree, and one chicken entree -- but guests can basically mix-and-match. There will also be an asparagus side (yum yum -- my favorite veggie!) and a selection of breads. Our wedding cake will be carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!

Instead of hiring a DJ or (gasp) a live band, we're going to put together CDs on our own of 1920s-style music. We should be able to play it on the winery's stereo system. We haven't yet decided what music we'll walk down the aisle to.

Finally, Michael and I have chosen to go with a ceremony that is nonreligious and rather brief. Neither of us are religious, so that kind of thing was out of the question. We're not writing our own vows or anything, either -- I want to get married and have a party, not make a speech!

After our trip, I think the majority of the wedding plans are taken care of. Everything is really coming together! Both Michael and I are getting very excited now!

Do children belong at a wedding?

The question of the day (or perhaps of the week) is whether or not to have kids at our wedding.

Michael's brother's kids are one thing. They come with the package. Anyway, the eldest is very well behaved and the youngest is too young to make trouble. No, my concern is with other people's kids.

We have, I think, three guests (or couples) that have children - nine children total, between the three of them. Because we are trying to keep the wedding small - and, actually, because the wedding is going to be at a winery - we're thinking of excluding the children. But, how do we go about asking this of our guests? A note in the invitation? Ask them in person? I have absolutely no idea how to handle this.

If anyone has any ideas of how to handle this - either from personal experience or common sense that I somehow don't have - please feel free to comment or contact me. I would love to hear your input!