Before the Mane Event: Rehearsal

After a fun day with my favorite girls, and a brief wardrobe change, it was time to head over to the venue for rehearsal.  What's that?  You want to hear about my outfit?  Well, okay!

I wanted to wear something bridal, but I also wanted something that captured the style of our wedding.  I decided on a white dress with shamrock green accents.  I wore a Vineyard Vines silk sundress with a Limited cardigan.  I accessorized with some silver strappy sandals that I had lying around, as well as a pearl necklace and earrings set that I received as a gift from a family member.

 {cardigan by Limited / via WWEPW, dress by Vineyard Vines / via Little Bow Prep}

Here's the outfit in action, complete with my ribbon-clad rehearsal bouquet.  Oh, and hey!  This is the first official pro-pic!  Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Evan Hampton's fine work:

Papa Lioness, showed above and also looking snazzy in green, walked me down the aisle.  We were ready for a run-through.

It's pretty surreal looking at this now, now that I've seen this same shot on the wedding day itself.  But at that moment, all I was thinking was YES!

{all photos by Evan Hampton unless otherwise noted}

The funny thing about rehearsal was that I couldn't stop shaking.  I was like a nervous chihuahua!  I don't know if I was cold, nervous, excited or happy, but things were definitely starting to set it.

How did your rehearsal go?

Before the Mane Event: Mr. Lion's DIY Project

Nothing better illustrates the differences between my personality and Mr. Lion's personality than how we respond to a to do list.  I look forward to crossing off each item with pride and a satisfying sense of accomplishment because I'm just a bit Type A.  My laid back husband, on the other hand, needs a deadline.  "This has to be done by when?  Oh okay, I'll make it happen."  But, don't you want to just do it now?  Wouldn't that just make you feel like you could take on the world?!

"Assemble the chuppah" was on Mr. Lion's to do list for months.

For months, our living room was home to 8-foot aspen poles that had nowhere to go.  By the way, we ordered these from Nature's All, Inc., a company that sells aspen and birch poles specifically for chuppahs and arbors.  This way, you can be certain that the width, height, and shape of each pole is uniform throughout.

{via Nature's All, Inc.}

I had also purchased birch flower pots from Save On Crafts.  These were to serve as bases for each pole.

{via Save On Crafts}

About a month before the wedding, Mr. Lion decided that the flower pot bases weren't sturdy enough to support the heavy 8-food poles.  He promptly made a trip to Home Depot, where he purchased cement to fill the pots and wooden dowels to connect the tops of each pole.  Then, these additional materials sat in our living room for a few more weeks.

You'd think that a neurotic planner like myself would be getting a little apprehensive about Mr. Lion's last minute plans, but I know the guy pretty well and I knew that it would get done eventually...even if we had different ideas of when things should get done!

The Thursday before our Saturday wedding, Mr. Lion got to work.  He filled each birch-covered flower pot vase with cement and allowed it to set to the pole.  He drilled holes in the top of each pole so that the dowels could connect at a 90 degree angle.  I hot glued some lace (which I had bought earlier because I like to plan ahead) to two of the dowels.  This allowed the lace to be stretched over the top of the chuppah to cover it, but it could easily be rolled up like a scroll for portability purposes.

This illustrates why 1) I'm glad we have vaulted ceilings and 2) why we need a garage:

And this illustrates how the dowels and the poles connect:

The final product was amazing, especially once our florist added her finishing touches!  The chuppah is supposed to symbolize the home you build together, and ours was a literal symbol of craftsmanship, too!

What DIY projects has your fiance helped with?  Did his timetable stress you out?

One Last Paper Project

My trusty ol' Epson has certainly been put to use while planning this wedding!  Lots of card stock and tons of ink later, it's printed everything from invitations to Save the Dates to all sorts of signage.  Now that we're drawing closer and closer to the big day, I figured it was about time to round up every last bit of leftover card stock and print one final paper project: the ceremony programs.  And I'm really excited to share them with you!  The project itself isn't that exciting, but it's a first glance into our ceremony, which I'm looking forward to more and more every day!

I designed the program to fit on #10 paper, front and back.  I used Monterey BT, which has become one of our signature fonts.  Instead of using Ecuyer DAX, our other signature font, I used another serif font to avoid too much clutter: the aptly named, Georgia.  Then, I printed front and back on #10 ivory card stock.

The front reads:

• Processional: "Married Life" by Michael Giacchino (yes, the song from "Up!")
• Officiant's Greeting: "Love" by Roy Croft
• Declaration of Support
• "I'm Yours"/"Over the Rainbow" a la Jason Mraz & Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole, respectively: performed by MOH Sister Lioness and two of the Lioness cousins.  Yes, one of those girls plays the uke.  She is that awesome.
• Romans 12:9-18: Read by Stepsister Lion
• "Union" by Robert Fulghum: Read by another awesome Lioness cousin
• Declaration of Intent
• Exchange of Vows
• Exchange of Rings
• Sheva Brachut, Hebrew Scripture: Read by some friends from PT school
• Pronouncement
• Recessional: "Everlong" a la Vitamin String Quartet (we're entering our reception to Foo Fighters' "Everlong," so we thought it'd be appropriate to bring things full circle!)

Holy moly, you guys.  We're getting married!  It's surreal to see the ceremony written out like that, but it makes me grin from ear to ear.  The back lists our wedding party and our parents.  It also includes a message of gratitude from us, in both English and Spanish!

We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone for being here today.  Your presence makes this day even more meaningful!  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by the love and friendship each of you bring into our lives each day.
Queremos decir gracias a todos por venir hoy. Esta dia es mas especial por su presencia. Estamos bendecidos porque tenemos su amor y su amistad todos los dias.
{with love /con cariño}

Julia & Dave

Remember that beautiful old chair that I found at one of my favorite antique stores?  Well, here's a little mock-up to show what the programs will look like on display at the ceremony:

And here's a picture of Lion Corgi entertaining herself while we complete yet another DIY project:

What do your wedding programs look like?  Did you decide to go the DIY-route?  How do you plan to display them?

A Whimsical Window

A few months ago, Mr. Lion and I went out to dinner for our last date-iversary.  After dinner, we decided to go for a little walk through the Virginia Highlands, one of my favorite areas in Atlanta.  One house that we walked by had a significant amount of trash on the curb...not garbage-trash, like we're-remodeling trash.  Among this trash was an old, rustic window.  I immediately thought of Mrs. Husky's post and the inspiration was instant.

We had planned on designing and printing programs, so we decided not to use the window for that.  However, we didn't plan on having ushers, so we could use the window for seating!  Here's the design I came up with:

Now, here's the part where I get in a little over my head.  The window is 37" x 34".  I wanted this text to fill the window.  I assumed the best way to paint the text on the window was to print and trace.  Now, maybe some of you design kids out there could have shown me an easy way to get this scaled just right, but my computer-illiterate self decided to muddle through it on my own.  What!  Mr. Lion was out of town for his bachelor party!  I had nothing better to do!

I used Keynote to design a slide, since that's what I've used to make research posters for presentations.  I opened the Inspector tab to edit the size of the slide.  In Keynote, one inch equals 72 pixels, so I did the math and created a 2664 x 2448 slide.  Then, I created a very large text block.  I mean, VERY large.  The line with "seat" was font size 400!  Then, I found a free program called PosteRazor that "tiled" images, like this:

The program then saved several 8 1/2 x 11" pdf files like this:

I cleaned the window thoroughly and got to printing.  I taped the pages, text side up, on the back of the window and traced over with a paintbrush.  This part was much more in my comfort zone than "tiling!"

 All taped up and ready to paint!

Total cost of this project?  About $2 in paint!  Totally worth stepping out of my comfort zone!  What DIY projects have taken you out of your comfort zone?

The Many Sides of Chuppah

As I've mentioned before, Mr. Lion is Catholic and I'm Jewish.  Neither of us are traditional in practicing our faiths, but we definitely identify with them culturally.  As a Jewish bride who plans to have a non-denominational wedding ceremony, I wanted to somehow incorporate a few Jewish traditions.  One tradition that we decided to include was using a chuppah.

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A chuppah, or canopy, is a piece of decor that sits at the altar during a Jewish ceremony to symbolize the home that the bride and groom will build together.  Traditionally, the four poles are carried down the aisle by members of the wedding party.  From there, it can either be secured at the altar, or the wedding party members can continue to hold it up throughout the ceremony.  The groom walks underneath first to symbolize his ownership of the home, then the bride walks in to symbolize the groom providing for her.  No offense to tradition, but we'll probably walk underneath together because that's more our style!

The chuppah is usually open on all sides, to symbolize the hospitality of an open home.  The chuppah is typically covered, to symbolize God's presence over the home and over the marriage.  The cover can be designed with traditional Jewish symbols...

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...or it can be a more modern and unique design...

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...or it might not even be fabric at all!

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The chuppah itself can come in all shapes and sizes.

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Some chuppahs aren't even covered on top, but the concept is still the same.  Plus, it serves as a great way for the couples' personalities to shine through!

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So what will our chuppah look like?  Well, we wanted it to fit in with the rest of our whimsical garden decor.

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We're Mr. Lion is planning on going the DIY route with this project.  A few wooden poles, some cement and flower pots for the bases, and some fabric for the top should do the trick.  Our florist is providing a little bit of greenery, but other than that we wanted to keep it pretty simple.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

What's the significance behind your ceremony decor?

The Aisle-Walkin' Soundtrack

We decided pretty early on that we wanted to have a DJ at our wedding.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good band at a wedding.  But in order to include something as obscure as 311, some good booty-shakin' music, and some salsa for Mr. Lion's family, a DJ was a more practical option for us.  In addition to reception coverage, our DJ offered ceremony coverage for a very reasonable price.  Literally, he made us an offer we couldn't refuse and I had to say goodbye to my dreams of having a string quartet play as I walked down the aisle.  I was briefly bummed out, but then I discovered the Vitamin String Quartet.

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Maybe having a DJ play our ceremony music wouldn't be so bad after all!  Perhaps it was an opportunity to get a little creative with our song selections.  I like Canon in D as much as the next bride, but buying some Vitamin String Quartet on iTunes allowed us to be a little more quirky than elegant...which, let's face it, is more true to who we are!  They had everything: Lady Gaga, Coldplay, and of course, these guys:

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Then, I started looking around for other string quartet tributes.  I stumbled upon this gem and knew it was made for me:

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We had found some great options to play as guests were seated, we found some selections for the recessional, but I was still wasn't sold on the processional.  I wanted to walk down the aisle to something that was significant to us, but that also captured the whimsically vintage theme that surrounded our wedding.  Something like this:

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Ugh, I'm going to be a bawling disaster.  How did y'all chose your ceremony tunes?  Did you go a more classical route?  Or did you pick something more modern?

Finding the Right Words

Most of our wedding ideas thus far have revolved around the reception.  We've had our first dance song picked out since before we got engaged, I had imagined exactly what I wanted our centerpieces to look like, and have I mentioned the food?  I suppose this is pretty normal for most brides, but I find it ironic because, to me, the ceremony is the most important part of a wedding.

Here's my confession: the ceremony kinda intimidated me.

Source: The Flirty Guide

I'm Jewish and Mr. Lion is Catholic, though neither of us practice our faiths strictly.  We both believe in spirituality and in an individual religious identity, though neither of us really follow an organized pattern.  Though we do not feel that our religions are a huge part of who we are, we still wanted a somewhat religious ceremony.  I wanted to make sure that Jewish customs were included, but I wanted them to be presented in an interfaith manner.  Mr. Lion was actually much more flexible about his side of things; he wanted to allude to a higher power, but in a more nondenominational sense.

Upon considering all of these factors, it seemed as though it was going to be quite the challenge to have our cake and eat it too.  I mean, we were basically writing our own ritual!  How in the world do people do that?!  Well, I went on Weddingbee and looked into a few secular readings, as well as a few Christian readings, and a few Jewish traditions.  Their message board served as an excellent resource for finding exactly what I was looking for.  I bookmarked lots of things, and went back to avoiding planning the ceremony saved it for a rainy day to discuss with Mr. Lion.

Well, August 29th rolled around...our one-year engageaversary.  We decided to celebrate by choosing our ceremony readings.  I read my favorite bookmarks aloud to Mr. Lion, while he rated each one on a scale from 1-5.  Then, we narrowed it down from there and decided on several pieces that would become components of our ceremony.  Our overall favorite came from a sample interfaith Ketubah, a traditional Jewish wedding contract.  Though we don't plan to sign a Ketubah, we fell in love with this particular one's words.  In fact, we plan to rearrange it and use it in our vows.

From New World Judaica:

The bride and groom stood before family and friends, gazed upon each other and declared: “I have found you, whom my soul loves.  I bind myself to you, whom my heart desires utterly, passionately, and selflessly.  I vow to place you before all others, and nurture your mind, body and spirit.  I will forevermore hold you dear to me and stand by your side in both joy and sorrow.  I will dream your dreams and comfort you in times of challenge.  May our love continue to grow from strength to strength and intertwine us through the years as we create our family together. We will make a home in which the flow of seasons and the passage of time are marked according to our traditions, where the joy of children’s laughter rings in every room, and where we aid in the repairing and healing of the world.  According to the rituals of marriage, I make you holy to me with this ring.  May it be a sign of my love for the world to behold.  I enter with you, my beloved, into this.

The best part about choosing our ceremony readings was that we did it together.  I've done most of the wedding planning so far on my own.  Mr. Lion is always happy to offer an opinion when asked, but he's just not into it enough to take initiative.  I'm really glad the ceremony was more his thing.  It provided a level of comfort that allowed me to directly face something that was out of my comfort zone.  It was also incredibly romantic...reading through such meaningful words and imagining what it would be to hear them on the big day.  We're not the most romantic couple in the world.  We're silly and sarcastic, and we like having fun with each other.  This makes the rare sappy moments even more special.  I was so glad I got to share this part of the planning process with Mr. Lion.


What parts of wedding planning have intimidated you?  Has your fiance helped to pull you out of that funk?