Wedding Pictures Part 16: Salty's Arrival, and FOOD!

Mmmmm.... Salty's.

I was kind of worked about our entrance. In my head, in a perfect world, we would just non-chalantly roll into our reception, just like any other guests.  If people clapped, ok, but no introduction. It just seemed like a silly thing to do because, well, everyone already knew who we were. What's the point?  It just made no sense to me. 

But when we got to Salty's our fantastic DOC Jackie asked about it, Sara asked about it, our photographers asked how we were going to do our introduction, and... after a couple of blank looks when I said I didn't want it, I caved. We could have an introduction. People were waiting and expecting it, and by golly, sometimes, you've got to give the people what they want, despite your crazy anxiety around it.

And so, in we came, and people clapped because we entered a room.  And we were announced as Mr. & Mrs._____, even though I still hadn't totally decided to change my name at that point. 

"Oh well. Let's drink mimosas and celebrate that we're married! Look at all these people... I want to hug them all! No wait, let's eat first!" 

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When we first started planning our wedding, we were happy that our ceremony location gave us lots of choices for a reception location.  We considered lots of different places around Seattle (a museum on the UW campus, the Faculty Club at UW, the parish hall, reception halls and venues owned by the City of Seattle, venues owned by caterers, hotels, even the Seattle Aquarium--- we investigated everything!), but in the end Salty's was the closest option to the church that we could afford and could accommodate our guest list. Which was fine with us....

View from Salty's! (The Space Needle is a little to the left.)

Cinnamon rolls!

Salmon! Little bagels! Oh yeah... and cream cheese.

Crab! Fresh fruit!

Hmmm... how am I going to fit the Florentine Benedict around the shrimp and salmon? 

Nope, we weren't going to be those couples you hear about that never get a chance to eat on their wedding day. Here's the proof that we did. Ok, I did. Kenneth was too excited to eat much, but I finished my plate. And I'm sure no one would expect anything less of me. :)

And, as proof that I wasn't the only one excited about food... our guests actually took pictures of their plates!

Cousin Jack's plate

Friend Marsha's plate

*No more last names. I ran Google Analytics on our blog, and people we don't know have been reading this, so for our privacy, no last names anymore. 

Wedding Pictures Part 15*: Getaway Car

Weddings are crazy expensive, and apparently Seattle is one of the more expensive places in the country to get married. The average Seattle wedding is $22, 537, and that's on the lower end of the averages I found online for Seattle weddings! (Highest? $37,000!) Not only is that equal to a year of school tuition/a house downpayment/a new car, but that just seems like a ridiculous amount to spend on one day of your life. I mean, if you can afford it, great, but there is so much I would rather spend it on if we had the option. Still, even then, spending that much wasn't an option for us. We were paying the largest chunk of the wedding ourselves, and we were committed to getting married as soon as we could, and having the wedding we really wanted, without going into debt. Obviously, this meant tight control of our budget, and saving, saving, saving.

And you're saying "Awesome, Brianna,... but, what does that have to do with the super cool getaway car I saw you in on your wedding day?"

Well, like I said, we budgeted and we prioritized. We spent the biggest chunk of our budget on things that mattered (feeding our guests, the church fees, our photographers) and planned to spend very little on things that didn't matter (transportation, mostly). Somewhere along the line, we realized driving ourselves on our wedding day wasn't an option, but we didn't have room in the budget for a limo or the usual wedding day transportation choices. My friend Dana offered to loan us her super cute red Prius, and we thought maybe our best-man or someone else could drive us. Another idea was to use a taxi...

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Cute, right? But, even better, there's a Green Taxi company in Seattle. All the cabs are green Priuses! So, not only would our transportation be super cheap (just a taxi ride), but it would also be a way to make our wedding a little greener. It's a win-win!

However, in the weeks leading up to our wedding, we realized we did have some money to spare in our budget. Not enough to hire a videographer (and anyway, Kenneth's uncle, a cameraman for the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Devil Rays, said he would do it for us), but enough for something. We landed on transportation, and Kenneth took on the job of making it happen. His choice, the 1950s Rolls Royce, was a TOTAL surprise to me when we left the church. I was shocked we could afford it, and that he had picked such a perfect car. I was expecting a simple little town car... not this pretty thing...

*Wow... In a million years, I didn't think it could take this many posts to recap our wedding. Oh well. Here we are with blog post 15.

Wedding Pictures Part 14: Church

Before we leave the church, I wanted to share a few pictures that don't really help tell the story*, but are soooo pretty.

Grandma J's prayer book with Granny's/Sara's rosary.

No, we didn't get married here because the church was pretty as some people thought. I love my church for more reasons than that... but I will agree that it is indeed, a pretty church.

The remodeled the altar area between Christmas and Easter, and we were nervous about it being done on time. No one wants plywood behind them in their wedding pictures.  More nerve racking though was when the initial design called for removing the baldachin canopy, changing the alter itself, or repainting the baldachin. (The baldachin is that wooden thing just above the cross with the painted panels, with the canopy being the part that hangs like... a canopy... ) Luckily, they were done on time. They didn't change a thing to the balduchin. Hooray!

*The main reason why I'm writing this blog is so I have something from which to create a sort of journal  to bring back memories of exactly what happened on our wedding day when I look at our album years from now. I've been omitting some of our best pictures that are beautiful, but don't tell the story, that don't remind me of how we felt, what we experienced on that day. However, I thought some people (that's you, mom!) might like to see the pretty pictures.

Wedding Pictures Part 13: K-I-S-S-I-N-G and the Recessional

So we've returned to the altar area after Ave Maria, and there's supposed to be a final blessing, we kiss, and then we head to the reception. 

We got to the altar, and were waiting for the priest to cue us for what was to happen next. All we got was a look like "Well, aren't you going to do what you're supposed to do?" We thought that meant kiss, so we did.

"Oh. We weren't supposed to do that yet? Whoops." We were looking at each other and the priest. How were we supposed to know we were waiting on our bridal party to walk from the pews back to the altar?

 (Here's a secret. We actually kissed at another point of the ceremony, right when we first sat down for the first reading, I think. It seemed like the natural thing to do at the time. But no one noticed that one. So that means 3 kisses during our ceremony... I'm sure that makes for good luck or something, right? right?)

(My friend Carina took the picture above-- and I'm so glad she caught the look on our faces.)

So the priest made it official with his last blessing, and THEN, we had the real kiss.

Hmm... before I go on, I forgot to mention how I nearly tripped as we were walking during Ave Maria. My shoes were slippery, and combined with concrete floors, it lead to a dangerous situation. After nearly falling flat on my rear end, (but not actually since my dashing groom caught my arm and stopped any damage before it could happen), it brought some much needed comic relief to the moment.

Jesson, Blessed Sacrament's liturgy director, must have feared a lawsuit... or he's just incredibly gallant... but either way, (thinking I tripped on my dress, not that my shoes slipped from under me) he made sure to help me with my dress the rest of the ceremony after Ave Maria. Which lasted about 10 minutes, if that. 

I'm laughing because Jesson was so convinced I was tripping over my dress. In the picture, I'm telling him something like "It wasn't the dress, my friend. It's the shoes! I just need shoes with more traction." All to no avail. 

And with that, the ceremony was over. We were off to our getaway car...