Depending on who you ask, Randy "accidentally" proposed to me on 11.11.11. He claims he didn't realize the unique date, but many of his close friends and family members teased he picked the date so he could remember it. I of course said yes, and we giddily spread the news.
Within the same week, I acquired a sturdy bridal binder, started several Pinterest boards to get "pinspired", and drafted a Google maps document marking about 25 different potential venues I wanted to visit. Randy, being much more pragmatic, asked what my 'must haves' were for a venue, popped those words into a search engine, and stumbled upon The Inn at Lambertville Station. Having attended many of our friends' weddings, we knew we wanted to hold the ceremony and reception in the same space, and we wanted guests to be able to stay overnight at the location, Later that month, we drove to The Inn, met the wedding coordinator, Melle, and fell in love instantly. It was exactly what we wanted: unique, indoors, rustic, homey, and romantic. After meeting with Melle, we ate at the Lambertville Station Restaurant, which was once a functional train station. In fact, our invitations ended up looking like train tickets to celebrate the uniqueness of the Inn. The food at the restaurant was amazing, so we knew out guests would be in good hands. The surrounding towns are equally as charming, and we could picture ourselves visiting annually to reminisce while always finding something new to do.
Once the venue was set, the real planning began. As an avid crafter, I wanted our wedding to be unmistakably our own, and we both worked to incorporate many handmade personal touches. Starting with the ceremony, several family members helped to tie hundreds of white knots for guests to wear. The white knots symbolized support for marriage equality, which, at the time of our wedding, was not a reality in New Jersey. Our programs, layered flags, were also handmade by family members. Perhaps the most impressive craft was our whimsical ceremony backdrop: a large, custom frame, handmade by a talented carpenter friend of ours, which we attached a variety of ribbons to by hand.
I should mention that I initially wanted an outdoor ceremony, but my husband talked me out of it, and I'm so thankful he did. We got married on literally the hottest day of the year. It was the kind of hot that smacked you in the face as soon as you got outside; if you wore glasses, they fogged up instantly upon exiting an air-conditioned building. The staff did an amazing job of setting up the riverside ballroom with its gorgeous panoramic views of the Delaware River for our heartfelt and personalized ceremony.
We wanted our ceremony to be memorable and unique to us. To achieve this, our friend played violin as guests arrived and during the ceremony. We had two readings : "A Lovely Love Story" by Edward Monkton, and "Yes", a poem by Muriel Rukeyser. We also exchanged traditional vows as well as our own original ones. We walked back down the aisle as husband and wife to Guns N Roses "Sweet Child of Mine" played on violin. Our guests really enjoyed our ceremony, and Randy and I both look back on it as our favorite part of the day.
After the ceremony, we wanted to be a bit more casual and draw attention to one of our biggest interests, craft beer. One of our favorite breweries, Riverhorse Brewery, originally was located in Lamberville, so the venue was even more perfect for us. The bulk of the work for the beer-themed crafts really happened in the last few weeks before the wedding, where all hands were on deck with last minute preparations. Coming from a family of teachers, I had access to many talented women who happened to have summers off. We spent hours making all of the centerpieces by hand. Our friends and family members helped us to collect unique beer bottles from a variety of breweries in the months leading up to the big day. We gave each bottle its own treatment, and guests took them home at the end of the night. In keeping with the beer theme, our escort cards were magnetic bottle caps which corresponded to breweries, a different one for each table. We also used spare caps in cylinder vases which we topped with candles for cocktail hour and bar decor.
We incorporated several other personal touches throughout the cocktail hour and reception, I hand wrote all of the signage using craft paper and paint markers, and displayed all the signs in silver frames. Next to the escort cards, we displayed wedding photos of our family members, with a sign that read "Love actually is all around". On the same table was our guest book, which we purchased from etsy.com: oversized R & J, with markers for signing decorated to look like flowers. We incorporated our cats in really fun ways: I gave Randy cufflinks with their pictures in them, and we dolled them up in tuxes (yes, tuxes for cats exist) so that they would look like honorary bartenders.
The reception was a blast, and we even had our own fireworks show right on the river that guests raved about. Our cupcake tower featured two different flavors of cupcakes, and guests raved about both. Our favor was a combination of donation and tasty treat. Towards the end of the evening, our DJ instructed guests to place their escort cards into one of three donation boxes. We couldn't choose just one charity, so we chose three most important to us, and guests got to pick which they wanted to support. Since one of our favorite snacks is trail mix, guests made their own bags of trail mix to enjoy from our trail mix bar. Finally, guest each received a "Jen & Randy: a perfect match" matchbook and sparkler, and we ended the night with a sparkler sendoff.
We are now living happily in New Jersey with our two cats, and often reminisce about our wedding day, chilled craft beers in hand. Cheers!
