This wedding was especially important because Colin is one of my husband's closest friends, and Chris was honored to be part of the small wedding party. Colin was also a groomsmen in our wedding, and Kim was a huge help in setting up for our reception. So, it was my greatest pleasure to help out this fantastic couple in any way that I could.
Here are some photos from the wedding weekend:
Kim and Colin at a Thai restaurant after the rehearsal. It was family style dining and the food was fantastic (spicy!).
A note about their ceremony, the pastor that presided over their ceremony is Colin's Best man's Father, also one of Colin's late father's good friends. The wedding took place at Zion Lutheran Church, where Colin's father was a long time member, and now Kim and Colin are members of the church congregation. This extra note did not go unnoticed during their wedding. It is always so nice to have someone you know personally preside over the ceremony. It made it that much more intimate.
The reception took place at Somerset Hills Hotel (http://www.theinnatsomersethills.com/enter.html)
Here are some pictures of the ballroom getting ready for the reception:
Adding the dance floor...
You can also see the beautiful chandeliers in this room. The hotel is very vintage and the walls are brocade and there is this subtle Victorian air about the place. It was very beautiful. The chandeliers looked antique and went very well with the decor of the hotel. Outside the ballroom was the foyer, where the cocktail reception took place.
According to Colin, the owners changed hands a few times during their engagement, resulting in the removal of a grand piano and the resignment of an onsite wedding coordinator. Colin was especially upset about the piano, since he had a fraternity brother who is a classically trained pianist he was hoping would be able to play for cocktail hour. The pianist friend did play at the ceremony and he was wonderful.
The morning of the wedding, Chris and I met with Colin and his sister (Katie) for breakfast. This is them showing off the wedding name on the hotel board. Poor Colin was sick and losing his voice, so we tried to keep his speaking to a minimum. After breakfast, we went upstairs to his suite to play some guitar hero with the groomsmen.
After Guitar Hero, we all trekked over to the mall (Jersey really has a lot of malls don't they?) for lunch and for Colin to get his wedding ring resized. Ha, at the mall, Chris picked up Guitar Hero for us to play!
Once we got back to the hotel, we all went over to the reception area to make sure everything was set up for the wedding. We did have a case of the missing votives and missing signature drink sign. The votives were on a chair hidden by linens, and the signature drink sign had ran off with the maitre'd. So it all went well (the signature drink was a pomegranate martini- yum!).
Here is my hubby posing at the church after the reception. Kim's colors were chocolate brown and pink, and she utilized the flowers of white hydrangeas, roses, calla lillies, and orchids. Her bouquet was beautiful!
The bride and groom is pictured here with the groom's mother and sister. Kim's sister and Colin's sister were the only bridemaids. The entire wedding party was very small, but I really liked it. It kept it all very intimate and personal. Colin, being in the same fraternity as my husband, has many friends, so we appointed 3 other guys to be ushers, and they did a fantastic job!
I don't have any photos of it, but Kim made her own programs using the basic template from my wedding (it's also currently being used for programs I'm making for next week's wedding). It came out great. If I find a picture of it, I will definitely post it.
They used Stephen Taylor photography. According to their site, they recently did a wedding that was being taped for a Style Network's wedding - probably Who's Wedding is it Anyway? I didn't get a chance to catch the two photographer's names, but they were very nice and funny and did a great job capturing candids of all the guests on the dance floor.
Kim loves animals. She especially loves cats. In her free time, I believe she rescues all abandoned, sick, and homeless cats! I believe she has 4 cats in their condo right now. In any case, for her table numbers, she asked guests to provide photos of their family pet and she created table numbers with the photos. This cat obviously belongs to the couple. Our other friend's table feature their tabby cat, Buttons.
They decided to go with a sweetheart table, and the table faced the band, Sumar (http://www.sumar.com/about.html) who were really great and really got the crowd dancing. Music was a very important part to the couple since Colin is very musically inclined, so guests would have expected music to be an integral part of their wedding.
The birdcage was used for cards and placed on the gift table. I like to give personalized gifts, so in addition to our normal wedding gift, I also hand cross-stitched a kitchen towel in their wedding colors with their wedding date. I hope they like it!
Out by the cocktail area/foyer, a guest book table and escort card table was set up by the ballroom entrance. The guest book was an alternative to an actual book, but a plate in which guests can leave a message using a special marker. It was fun, and something they could definitely display in their home.
I loved Kim's dress. I can't remember off the top of my head the designer of her gown, but it was absolutely stunning on her. Because of her height, the pick ups of her dress did not wear her; she wore the dress! The halter was a great choice for her bust area and also showed off her extremely well toned arms. (Just a side note, I asked her if she was going to start crying at the church, and she said she already had her bawling session while she was running on the treadmill the other day! Running and crying- she's amazing!)
I loved this shot because it really shows Colin's expression from the entire night. The whole night, he looked sooooooooo in love and just admired his new wife. After the rehearsal dinner he asked if anyone got a picture of Kim because, "she was smoking hot!" I've met many couples in love before, but I have never met someone like Colin who is absolutely smitten, even after years of dating! I hope their passion lasts forever.
This is a picture of the Chester family gag gift, presented by Kim's sister and her husband. Many years ago, a member of their family was given this sculpture as a wedding gift, and because it was so hideous, they decided to make it a joke gift that will be presented to each member when they got married. Kim's sister married 6 months earlier, and was giving it away to Kim and Colin. They signed and dated the sculpture and will have to hold onto it until another Chester gets married.
And a picture of us from the wedding. After doing a bunch of weddings in a row for business, it was so nice to be a guest at another. Although I did little things here and their for the couple, it never ever felt like work, and I just wanted to be a hand, especially when things could have gotten stressful. I did bring my emergency kit with me, but kept it in our hotel room, and only needed to bring it out for some advil and saftey pins. Plus, wearing something nice to a wedding is so much more fun than wearing a suit!
I leave you with a picture of the happy couple honeymooning in Hawaii:
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