Our Joyous Day: reception revelry

Our reception revelry entailed celebratory bliss amid a bevy of handcrafted and antique details at our lovely venue. All décor was either handmade, or vintage goodies that came from the collection at my apartment or borrowed from dear friends.
Our guestbook area had yellowed novel heart garlands and quaint weathered frames suspended from the tree branches above. A vintage green drawer served as a card container, and a nicked cherry red shelf displayed our engagement photos amid a plethora of time-honored ephemera. I particularly loved the wooden calendar that indicated Saturday, March 10th!

For our guestbook, lovely ladies and genial gents signed vintage novel hearts pasted on a blown-up engagement photo that featured plenty of negative space. We also made a horde of chalkboard frame signs to situate throughout the reception area.

To adhere to our vintage book-inspired theme, we invited winsome guests to write witticisms, warm wishes, and words of wisdom for us. They scribed them on library cards I designed and printed on cardstock from here, and stuck them in library pockets from here that we attached onto an aged chalkboard bulletin board.


I nabbed a worn vintage map of the western United States at a thrift store for a buckaroo, and transformed it into a timeline of major milestones in our lives as individuals and as a couple, including when and where we were born, lived, went to school, worked, where we met, where he proposed, and of course, where we were tying the knot.
Our guestcards were displayed in revolving book stands that indicated to guests that "love is sweet, so take a seat!" To align with our theme of the Joyous Day, each guestcard package comprised of a bitty booklet for the furtherance of our guests' joy that we stuck in recycled taupe envelopes from here. The miniature envelope on the outside held a manila tag that revealed to guests their table number. The pretty parcel was sealed with a personalized graph paper label.





Our centerpieces were haphazardly charming - a compilation of vintage lovelies I had been rounding up over the years, so no two reception tables spotlit identical centerpieces. Each centerpiece comprised of an endearingly nicked vintage tea tin brimming with cheery flowers arranged by my dear bridesmaid, Ruby. To accompany the floral arrangement were an assortment of large and small time-honored mason jars that served as photo frames for our engagement pictures. They also held a table number we made from sticking handmade nostalgic stationery numbers and corresponding Bible verses onto striped paper straws. Crocheted cream or tan colored doilies, vibrant vintage handkerchiefs, a stack of time-honored novels, vintage teacups, and other aged wares further accentuated the buttercup yellow tablecloths. Each table setting exhibited a doily-esque china plate, a feedsack-reminiscent tea towel napkin, and a perfectly tasty pastry favor within a kraft box from here wrapped with baker's twine and labeled with a personalized thank-you message to the guest. Why pastries? Enjoying dessert together was one of the first ways the Mister and I bonded!
Our appetizers and drinks table was layered with vintage tablecloths in our wedding color scheme. My lovely momma-in-law prepared all of the fruit, cheese, and cracker hors d'oeuvres, and we created levels for the finger foods by utilizing well-worn wooden crates draped with vintage hankies. The dear Navales family created sweet drink concoctions and hot tea refreshments. We labeled the glass drink canisters we purchased from here with chalkboard labels made by painting wooden circles with chalkboard paint.

I painted our dinner menu onto a couple of vintage windowpanes with acrylic paint. When we were contemplating reception dinner options, we had three requisites: 1) highly budget-friendly yet generously proportioned, 2) creamy mac n' cheese per my preference, and 3) meaty heartiness per the Mister's proclivity. Therefore, one of our favorite restaurants catered our reception, and the exceedingly delicious buffet-style portions did not disappoint.



Our dessert spread consisted of a mishmash of sweet tooth gratifying cookie-filled cupcakes baked by Food Network's Cupcake Wars winner and dear friend, Dorothy. We also had decadent cookies from here to reflect my Bruin heritage, and buttery and delicate madeleines from here. Our cake was a teeny yet moist red velvet cake from here, and I crafted a cake topper from a couple of vintage novel hearts along with a stamped "Alex & Helen" on a red heart. The dessert table was dotted with whimsical vintage teapots and time-honored trinkets, while all sweet treats were displayed on cake stands that we made, and served on dainty vintage dessert plates amassed over the years.
We set up a games area beneath a majestic hundred-year-old sycamore tree. We spread handmade quilts circa the 1930s on the grass, and decorated the space with feedsack throw pillows I sewed some years ago, olden doodads, decades-old picnic baskets, and brilliant floral arrangements in vintage milk glass vases and rusty vintage tins. We scattered classic board games around, as well as a vintage wooden ring toss game, and a wooden croquet set from the 40s, all for our guests' entertainment during cocktail hour.
Adjacent to the games area was a photobooth lounge. The same handy friend who crafted our wooden ceremony arch helped to make our photobooth wall that we gussied up with yellow damask wallpaper from here and upon which we hung colossal chipped wooden frames that I scored at the flea market. Guests could not only pose through the empty frames, but also on the vintage yellow couch we found here. Piled steamer trunks and suitcases served as a coffee table.

Dear friend and talented singer/songwriter Jarell Perry sang "You and I" for our first dance as husband & wife.
Our reception area twinkled with Italian café lights that we rented from here, and hundreds of yards of vintage hankie bunting that we made during crafting parties. Our wedding was truly a testament to the love that the Lord has kindly surrounded us with. Our wedding party, friends, and family spent countless hours at weekend crafting parties with us pre-wedding, and helped to set up and clean up post-wedding. In the midst of wedding planning mayhem, our church families encouraged us to seek the Lord above all else, for He is truly what our relationship is about. We were so touched and thrilled that our most cherished family and friends journeyed from near and far to celebrate the Joyous Day with us. Putting together the wedding taught us that our relationship is lovingly shaped by the community we have around us, and we cannot cultivate a thriving marriage without them in our lives. Our Joyous Day was truly a celebration of love all around, and to them we raised a toast!
All photos primarily by our talented photographer and dear friend, Christian Cruz, along with some personal pictures.  Our awe-inspiring videographer and dear friend, Cakeflix, also captured the Joyous Day beautifully via this breathtaking cinematic masterpiece: Happy Friday, friendly folks. Thank you kindly for perusing through this week of wedding posts!

In case you missed prior posts on the Joyous Day:
+ much-awaited ceremony
+ greatest wedding party of all time
+ first look
+ getting ready to tie the knot
+ wedding invitations
+ save the date & engagement photographs

Our Joyous Day: much-awaited ceremony

We called our wedding day the Joyous Day because the theme of our wedding centered on Psalm 16:11, which says, "...In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." The Mister and I would not be where we are today as individuals and as a couple if it were not for the grace of God saving us and molding us daily to ascertain the surpassing joy that is in Jesus Christ. The truth that true joy is found in Christ alone guided us throughout our dating, engagement, and now, our married season of life.
Our Joyous Day took place here, which the Mister and I chose for the Victorian house museum's intricate attention to detail, and its potential to hold a ceremony, reception, and other festivities throughout its spacious grounds for our 250-person guestlist. After making our invitations, I learned that I could not possibly carry out everything I envisioned and wanted to craft for our wedding on my own. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful community of family and friends who were so willing to sacrificially help with our Joyous Day. Our handy friend crafted the wooden ceremony arch, and my dear bridesmaid, Ruby, helped to sew the backdrop out of vintage handkerchiefs from my collection. She even made the beautiful A&H sign out of fresh flora.
So many dear friends helped to punch out thousands of paper hearts from vintage novels during our crafting parties, and one of my former roommates from college helped to sew hundreds of feet of the vintage novel heart garlands. We strung them along the chairs at the ceremony, and also used them throughout the reception. 
As the Joyous Day drew nearer and we found ourselves scrambling for time, dear friend Danni helped to design our programs, as inspired by our wedding website. She was also our amazingly talented and creative day-of coordinator, and was beyond magnificent in ensuring everything ran smoothly.
We commenced our ceremony with an upbeat and jolly prelude by our barbershop quartet, which was something that tickled my fancy ever since hearing the Dapper Dans at Disneyland decades ago. Our quartet consisted of some talented young friends the Mister and I have known since they ran amok in elementary school. They sang "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and though I was not present whilst they harmonized so gloriously, I heard a recording of them post-wedding and thought they sounded so fun and grand that I played their song for two weeks straight. They wore red and white striped barbershop quartet vests from here, straw boater hats from here, and navy wool bowties from here.
The processional ambled down the aisle to "Before the Throne of God Above," one of the Mister's favorite songs. Our handsome ring bearer carried our wedding bands in the vintage Mary Poppins book with which my love proposed to me. Our winsome bible bearer wore a vintage buttercup yellow dress and straw hat a la Madeline from Paris.
Our adorable flower girls wore blue or red vintage sailor dresses and these sandals. The first pair scattered flower petals from handkerchief-lined vintage egg baskets, while the second pair followed by toting a "here comes the bride sign" sewn from vintage handkerchiefs.

One of the most flooring blessings from the Joyous Day is that my dearest parents walked me down the aisle to one of my most favored songs, "You Are My All in All," which we didn't know would happen until one week prior to the wedding. Their support on that day meant so incredibly much to us.
We strung an array of lace from the patio to create an enclosed curtain-like entrance for the processional.


Our dear friend, Faye, opened the ceremony with a call to worship to "Exceeding Joy," which aligned to the theme of our Joyous Day. Hearing the beautiful, truth-laden lyrics stirred my heart and my tears at that moment and continued as our friend, Taylor, read Genesis 2:18-24 and Ephesians 5:25-33. Our dear friend and one of our officiants, PJ, then encouraged us about the marriage covenant's ability to safeguard love, the necessity of friendship throughout marriage, and the power of the gospel in marriage and all of life. He and his wife, Frances, were also the ones who planted seeds of romantic interest in the Mister towards me years ago, and were amongst those who guided us throughout our relationship.
Being finally pronounced husband & wife after exchanging vows and rings made it a Joyous Day, indeed, especially because we recessed to "Oh Happy Day." Photographs are mainly by the amazing Christian Cruz, and some personal. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on our reception revelry!

In case you missed prior posts on the Joyous Day:
+ greatest wedding party of all time
+ first look
+ getting ready to tie the knot
+ wedding invitations
+ save the date & engagement photographs

Our Joyous Day: greatest wedding party of all time

The Mister and I are extremely blessed to have the wonderful ladies and gents that consist of the Greatest Wedding Party of All Time (GWPOAT) in our lives. They have contributed significantly to who we are as individuals, for they have each inspired and encouraged us in innumerable ways throughout the years. We dubbed them the GWPOAT because the Mister himself is referred to as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) via professional paintball, which he played since he became pro at sixteen until he retired a few years ago (he played for this team and even had a veritable fan club!). It really meant so much that the GWPOAT stood beside us on our Joyous Day, especially because some had to miss a pro paintball tournament, some had to fly in from all corners of the world, and some had to postpone their plans to permanently move across the country and across the world for it. Learn more about the dearest of them all at our wedding website here.
My bridesmaids are utterly captivating inside and out, and they were thoroughly lovely in their wedding gear. I had my bridesmaids select 1940s-esque vintage dresses in buttercup yellow or French blue, while my maids of honor donned cherry red. They all purchased their dresses from a thrift store, here, or here. I wanted for their dresses a variety of floral patterns, as well as solids; lace, as well as cotton; straight hems, as well as scalloped hems; all in varying shades of my most favored primary colors. They all wore cream-colored, t-strap/ankle-strap, peep-toe heels to offset their bright frocks, and most boasted pin curls as well.
The groomsmen emanated spiffy grandeur that day. We procured their faded cornflower blue shirts here, their tweed herringbone vests here, their charcoal gray pants here, and their navy wool bowties here. Like I divulged in my post yesterday, my dear bridesmaid, Ruby, fashioned all of our whimsical bouquets and boutonnières. We spruced up each bouquet with a vintage handkerchief, which was a detail I adored.
What better pose for the gentlemen than one the Mister often busts out as the self-proclaimed Gun Show?
They make a cheery cohort, don't they?
All photographs courtesy of our amazing photographer, Christian Cruz. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on our much-awaited ceremony!

In case you missed prior posts on the Joyous Day:
+ first look
+ getting ready to tie the knot
+ wedding invitations
+ save the date & engagement photographs

Our Joyous Day: first look

I can't fathom why, but I was nursing a mild case of butterflies to see my love for our first look. Perhaps it was all the anticipation building up to the moment? We tarried a while before we got situated at our venue, and the Mister was found playing with our vintage croquet set while we figured out specifically where we would be enacting our first look. One of his groomsmen urged him along with "Alex! Let's go. You are here to get married. You are not here to play croquet." Once our talented photographer, Christian Cruz, positioned us both, he encouraged us to hold a normal conversation (as ordinary as wedding day dialogue goes). The first thing the Mister proclaimed was, "Vintage!" Well, the nerves vanished right then. In fact, I just reveled in that time to laugh and share in the especially special and sweet moment with my love before the ceremony where we would be pronounced husband and wife.







I was giddy to behold my dashing love in his wedding get-up. We got his charcoal gray suit and tweed herringbone vest here, his light blue pinstriped shirt here, his navy and red striped bowtie here, and his shoes here. My dear bridesmaid, Ruby, painstakingly assembled all of our gorgeously chipper bouquets and boutonnières. We had each of our bouquets embellished with a vintage handkerchief from the collection I had been amassing over the years, which I used a plethora of throughout the ceremony and reception.


Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on our winsome wedding party!

In case you missed prior posts on the Joyous Day:
+ getting ready to tie the knot
+ wedding invitations
+ save the date & engagement photographs