Friday, May 17, 2013

Allie + Sebastian Get Married! The Details + Our Wedding Video (Part 4)

Ahhh, the details! Since we had a destination wedding, the planning process was smooth sailing. A simple checklist of what we wanted from the resort, a few items we packed with us, and there you have it! (I had a very proud moment when we were able to fit all wedding-related items in one suitcase! Hip-hip-hooray!)

It's the little things that tie the wedding together, and show off just a bit of our own personalities, and now I'm giving you the inside scoop on it all! From gorgeous floral pieces to a little something to cure a hangover! Enjoy...

FLORALS

Because they're just so darn gorgeous...


WHAT I WORE


Funny story about the dress: back in August I went dress shopping for the first time, and didn't expect to find anything I liked. I tried on one shoulder dresses, big puffy dresses, ones with ruffles, bows, sparkles, rhinestones galore... I never thought about my wedding dress once in my life. When I was asked what I was looking for, I just sort of shrugged, not knowing where to even begin. (Talk about options out the wazoo! Holy cow!)

That same day, as I was trying on dress after dress, I was handed the dress you're seeing today. I looked at it and scrunched my face. Nah, it's not me, I don't really like it.

But on it went! And my face just lit up. Oooh, I really like it. It was flowy, beachy, tucked in just the right spots, and had just the right amount of sparkle. (It even had built-in air conditioning as the dress opened at the bottom, revealing my legs as I walked, bonus!)

I stepped out of the room, showing it off to my Mom and now Mother-In-Law. My Mom's jaw practically smashed into the floor, speechless, and my Mother-In-Law was in tears.

And that was it. The first day, I couldn't believe it! Something I had expected to be a long and grueling process stretching out for weeks on end, just clicked, like so many other details during the planning process. Another moment where I just kept repeating, meant to be.


During the ceremony, I really wanted to go barefoot, so when I stumbled upon these barefoot sandals, I was head over heels. (Ha-ha!) The girls wore light pink beads, while I stuck to ivory. The material was soft and stretchy, so after putting them on, they were really comfortable and we didn't feel them at all! (They'll probably end up making a few more appearances this summer:)

Not pictured: On the morning of the wedding, I was surprised with two family heirlooms: my grandma's blue hankercheif, and a "T" pin that her mother gave her when she was little. I was blown away! It felt incredible being able to have a piece of her with me on such an important day in my life.

THE PROGRAMS

Can I just toot my own horn for a second and tell you how much I loved our programs? Sebastian and I put our heads together and created them ourselves and I just love them! We used a photo from our engagement session, worked a little magic in Photoshop/Illustrator, and voila!

On the day of the ceremony, we placed them with a hand fan (that we got for a wicked deal in Chinatown!) on each of the chairs. It was so nice seeing the final product and finally being able to reveal everything to our guests. We kept all the details a secret from everyone because we wanted each person to experience everything for the first time that day.

Here's how they looked...


OTHER BITS + PIECES 

I was absolutely in love with our place cards, found on FairyfolkWeddings Etsy shop. (Who was a dream to order from!)  I really wanted to stray away from the traditional place cards and have something that our guests could have as a keepsake from the actual wedding day.

Once they came in, I wrote out each of our guests names on the cards, and we were set! They were a little bit tricky to set up, just because they have to be "just-so" to get the cards to sit correctly, but they looked so beautiful on the tables. (Have a look at this post for a glimpse of the table settings!)


Our guestbook was one of my favourite pieces we picked up for the big day! We worked with PuzzleGuestBooks to custom-make a map of the Dominican, with a heart located where Punta Cana is. She was incredible to work with, and gave us lots of tips on how to make our guestbook look as good as it could possibly be. Each piece is handmade and was even more amazing when we got to see it in the flesh.

Unfortunately, our actual guestbook is away being framed so I'll have to update this photo once we get it back! Our friends and family signed each piece with some of the most hilarious and heartfelt words and sayings. We spent the morning after our wedding reading through each piece and laughing hysterically. I can't wait to see the final product and hang it up on our walls.


OUR FAVOURS

When it came to gifts for each of our guests, Sebastian and I wanted to keep it light-hearted and fun. Truth be told, in the beginning, we had no idea what to give our guests, and wasn't sure if they were even worth it. Back and forth we went, would anybody even care? Would anybody use it? Was it worth the time and money?

Then came The Hangover Kit. It was a perfect mix of our sense of humor, and a nice way to welcome our guests to the Dominican. Everyone received the following...

+ A welcome note + itinerary designed by Sebastian and myself. (Note that this gal, who is so far from a professional diy-er, went incredibly stamp happy the day these were made!)
+ One reusable cup (which were carried around throughout the rest of the trip! It was a lot nicer than having flimsy plastic cups poolside!)
+ A hangover kit bag, which I feel really completed the look. I found these ones on Etsy.
+ Advil (& More advil)
+ Pepto Bismol
+ Tums
+ Breathe Right Strips (Cracks me up everytime, but they do work wonders!)
+ Listerine Strips
+ Mint Tic-Tacs
+ Sunscreen

Everyone ended up loving the bags, and kept telling us how much they used it throughout the week! :)


THE VIDEO
And now, here's our wedding video! I hope you enjoy! (For better viewing, head to YouTube and increase the quality:)


Thank you so much for reading along and sharing your thoughts on our big day! I loved every minute of sharing it with you! xx

For more wedding-related goodness, pop on over here to read Allie + Sebastian Get Married! (Part One), The Ceremony (Part 2), and The Reception (Part 3)

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Thank you for sharing your lovely wedding day on the blog, Allie. So much joy spills from these posts! You guys did a magnificent job in the planning, and I'm so happy to see that it turned out to be a dream wedding day! Congrats again!

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  2. OMG! Congrats Allie :)

    -- Farah

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  3. What a beautiful day!! Congratulations on your wedding, and thanks for sharing your day.

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  4. I love the video! Congratulations to both of you!!! :)

    PS. I was just wondering, did you have to fly out your photographer or it was a local one?

    Thanks!

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    1. Thank you so much, Julie! We went with the photographer from the resort and were incredibly lucky with how the photos/video turned out! I had lowered my expectations quite a bit so was absolutely blown away with the final results :)

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  5. Your dress looks so much better on you than it does on the hanger. And I LOVE those placecard holders!! (But I'm partial to anything with seashells, since my initials are S.E.A.)

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  6. GORGEOUS GIRL!! I love your dress and your barefoot sandals! SO CUTE!

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  7. Allie! I am so behind on blogs =(. But your wedding... girl. That is straight up magical. And you looked so incredible!!! Nothing but joy for you and Sebastian.

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