Well it finally came . . and I can't believe it's over already. I've been anticipating this wedding for 6 months after having my first meeting with the mother of the bride in December. The Enchanted Forest Themed wedding really gave me the opportunity to do something new and push the limits a bit _ which I'm always looking to do.
The set-up went like this:
Cocktail Hour was held inside the Westmoreland Club. Casual.
Dinner was moved outside into the tents (40x40, 20x20 & 30x40) which were screaming Enchanted Forest from trees built around the center poles of the tents, canopies of flowering ivy, lights . . three different floral arrangements along with three different table linens for the tables outside which really gave it quite the wow factor ! You really felt like you were in an entirely different place than downtown Wilkes-Barre outside under a tent.
Finally the guests were moves back inside for dessert and dancing with a room transformed with hot pink up-lighting (including changing all of the light bulbs on the chandeliers to pink) and crystal curtains that hung around the perimeter of the main ballroom. To keep the pink flowing throughout the rooms being used we accented the terrace with pink light bulbs in the sconces which really gave the room a nice glow and finally ending the pink in the final room with pink light up end tables. It.Looked.Amazing and word on the street the guests were certainly impressed !
First step was figuring out how we were going to build these trees. After several hikes in the woods we were able to drag out about a dozen branches suitable for the shape of tree I wanted to build. (it became a lot more of a precise hunt than I expected) After this we bought artificial weeping willow branches, drilled holes into the trees and began forming our branches.
It makes the job even more rewarding after taking a step back and realizing the environments that we had to create these trees. We ended up making them inside our tiny little office that's located in my parents bike shop.
The next step, after months and months of "engineering" (thats where Jason always comes in), planning and dreaming of these trees, it was time to install them.
Finally it was time to begin the decorating process of the trees . .
Finally, after a week, it all started to come together. I'm not going to say there wasn't mounds of stress that took a toll on me every single day, but it's all part of the job . . that I'm finally learning how to cope with (thanks to Jason of course, one of my biggest supporters . . along with my Mom and my entire family)
The day of the wedding I just so happen to get an email from the mother of bride that resulted in me 1) panicking 2) gathering my entire family together, on the 4th of July, to rush to the WMClub and pull this wedding together. I'm not going to get into much detail but in the end it was worth the rush and as much as I was upset over the situation, we really pulled together and made it happen. From 11:30am - 4:30pm we worked in the 95 degree weather making magic happen. Then having to return to the Club at 7pm to flip the inside room from cocktail hour to an entirely different atmosphere ! It really looked amazing and I was so proud of every end result.
Although the wedding turned out to be such a success and I was able to step back and really be proud of myself, I had a hard time letting the stress go.
Pulling up to our house around 9:30 I was so ready to join my neighbors for some drinks around the fire until Jason abrubtly tells me he "needs to talk to me" My heart sank and my stomach flipped, and I couldn't imagine what more could go wrong. I went inside, sat myself on a kitchen chair while Jason stood there and began to tell me how he had done something when he went home last Wednesday and how he didn't think he could be my boyfriend anymore. I literally collapsed into my hands and couldn't believe what I was hearing . . . until I looked up and saw the ring . . and Jason asking if I'd marry him. Yeah, I still can't believe it. . it was perfect.
