Eric and Lauren met with me in April of 2008 to plan their wedding for May of 2009. Their venue was The Matthews House. When the economy tanked earlier this year, Eric and Lauren, being a frugal and considerate couple, decided to scale down their wedding plans and move the venue to Eric's family farm in Chapel Hill. The date was changed to October 3, 2009. So, when I saw them at the rehearsal on 10/2, it had been 18 months since we had met!
Our flower girls are Katie and Izzy, daughters of friends of Lauren's family. We did not know if they would make it down the aisle or not because at the rehearsal, they were very shy. Something must have happened overnight because they made it all the way down and they even remembered to sprinkle the petals!
Here comes the bride! The aisle was unfortunately covered with gravel, guaranteed to chew up the delicate train of Lauren's beautiful bridal gown. So, after attempts to get a runner to stay down, we gave up and Megan, the Matron of Honor, did the honors of carrying the bride's train as Lauren entered with her father. If you look closely you will see that the bridesmaids wore purple dresses with bright orange high heels and carried bright orange bouquets. The effect was very pretty.
Our bride and groom are really quite talented. As part of the ceremony, a song that they had written together was performed by Eric's sisters, Rachel and Rebeka and their friend, Catherine Jones. The beautiful music written by Eric and played on the keyboard by Yuri Broze, featured lyrics written by Lauren adapted from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. It was simply stunning and I was so glad when the guests broke out into applause because I wanted to applaud them as well. It was quite moving. Tears were streaming down Lauren's cheeks and the hankie I carry for just that reason came in handy.
The couple also chose to have a family sand ceremony in which their parents poured in sand from the Mississippi River at St. Louis where Eric grew up and sand from the shore of New Jersey where Lauren grew up. This sand represented the couples heritage and foundation. Then Eric and Lauren poured in sand representing the two of them.
The couple and wedding party departed the ceremony to go take photos while the guests were invited to enjoy a cocktail hour on the lawn.
Finally Eric and Lauren are happily married! The change of venue and date all worked out for the best and they had a fun celebration with their guests. Their ceremony was at 1:45 and I hear that the party was still going strong at 7:30!Eric and Lauren, I wish you a very happy marriage and may all your dreams come true!
Here is the reception tent in the back yard. It was huge!
See the dance floor and all the tables and the bandstand?
The band is getting set up and the lanterns make the tent so festive.
Pretty table arrangements and attractive place cards.
This was a beautiful cake. It was made gluten-free. The smaller cake (not pictured) was dairy-free. It was baked by Aggie Stachura who used to bake wedding cakes for Whole Foods when they sold wedding cakes.Karen Harmych of From This Moment was our wedding planner and director. Karen is wonderful. Eric and Lauren contacted me a couple of months before the wedding feeling too stressed about pulling everything together for their wedding. They needed help organizing all the vendors and creating a time line. I recommended they contact Karen whom I have worked with many times before. She knows how to pull those loose ends together and get everything handled. She did it again for Eric and Lauren. Thanks, Karen.
Gregory Lewis of Catering by Design, catered the reception as arranged by Karen, and there were some additional dishes from Neomonde Mediterranean Deli. I tasted a phyllo pastry cup filled with chicken, mango and cilantro that Greg made and let me tell you it was delicious!
The videography and photography were done by good friendsof the couple who are not in the wedding business in NC. The band was also a group of friends of the bride and groom.
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