what does it mean | Brooklyn Bride

Feb 27, 2013

What does it mean? Koseli and Keenan

“What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Koseli Cummings and her husband, Keenan. Koseli is the blogger of Original Archiving and is a contributor to Design Mom. Her husband, Keenan, is a graphic designer. They are based out of Brooklyn, NY.

We were just children, really. In our early 20s and madly in love. It’s six years later and I still remember how peaceful and excited I felt that day, as I got ready and drove downtown with my parents. I was chatty and bubbly—not really the picture of a flustered bridezilla. But that peace and cozy feeling wasn’t something new with Keenan. He’d felt like home since our first conversation. Marrying Keenan will always be the best decision I’ve ever made.

To make our big day extra meaningful, we surrounded ourselves with “our people”. Family, relatives, and long-time friends that believed in us and loved us. They were all there, tearing up and laughing at all the lame jokes at our wedding luncheon. Two of my sister-in-laws sang a beautiful duet, I danced with my Dad, and then he handed me over to Keenan. It was so sweet.

A week after our honeymoon, we had a backyard reception at my in-law’s beautiful home in Southern California. Though my dress barely fit from all the cruise food, we were relaxed and happy to spend all night talking about the future and eating good food. The next morning, we moved to New York City to start our next grand adventure.

As far as the extras, my husband designed our monogram for our wedding invitation and I hand-sewed each one. Honestly, it was a terrible idea. I’m a horrible crafter and we later agreed that we had no idea what we were thinking when we made that plan. Also, there was a spelling mistake in half of our invitations! So embarrassing. But they were merry mishaps and even at the time, hardly seemed to matter. All we wanted was to be together.

Thanks so much for having me!

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House That Lars Built

Feb 20, 2013

What does it mean? Rachel & Simon

“What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Rachel Shingleton and her husband, Simon. Elizabeth is the blogger and designer of Pencil Shavings Studio and has an Etsy shop selling bright colored office supplies and cell phone cases (they are the cutest!). They live in Oklahoma.

Thanks to Brittany for having me today!

Not too long ago someone asked how long my husband Simon and I have been married and it somewhat shocked me to realize that we’ll celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this upcoming July. That went by in a flash! I remember hearing from numerous people that they didn’t even really remember their wedding day because it was such a blur of activity, but as I look at these photos I’m happy to think that I really do remember so many of the details.

We tried to bring meaning to our wedding in numerous ways, some with the more obvious ones like including all of our respective families (even the littlest ones!). But there were other things, too. Since I’m a graphic designer, I resisted the urge to outsource some of the designwork and ended up creating the invitations as well as the programs (my absolute favorite part of the wedding planning). Additionally, since Simon and I met in 1st grade, we had the headmaster of our school (who is also a close dear family friend) marry us. There were other little details, too, like serving Simon’s favorite flavor of cake (red velvet!) and his mother’s special punch recipe at the reception.

But beyond all that, we tried to bring meaning to the day overall by not stressing out about the details. Even if things didn’t go exactly as planned (and trust me – they most definitely did NOT!), we came away at the end of the day meeting our goal, and that was to be married! Now years later, all those crazy little snafus have ended up being funny stories, and the happy details are still at the forefront.

Thank you, Rachel and Simon, for being our guests today!

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House that Lars Built

Jan 23, 2013

What does it mean? Conor and Erin

“What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Erin Jane Riley and her husband, Conor. Erin is a graphic designer and blogger of Jane Reaction who just moved to Texas from the North Shore of Hawaii. She just opened up a wonderful letterpress stationery line called Fox and Anchor Paper. Welcome Jane!

Conor and I were married on a Thursday morning in front of our immediate family members and a couple of really close friends. It was very private and intimate and was the ceremony we had envisioned for ourselves from the moment we got engaged. In Mormon ceremonies the couple traditionally says, “Yes” to taking the other as their eternal companion instead of “I do.” I really wanted Conor to know that I was excited to be his forever so I said “YYYEEESSS” a little louder than I had planned (louder than I practiced in front of my bathroom mirror that’s for sure). It took everyone off guard including myself and to this day he still teases me about how enthusiastic I was!

Following the ceremony we had a somewhat larger but still relatively small dinner in my parents backyard. It was important to us that everything be sourced locally and by friends or family where possible. My sister sewed the ring pillow and placed it in a hallowed out book for us. My friends from my favorite restaurant catered and served the food. A friend of my mothers made the cake (and it was more delicious than any other wedding cake I have ever had)! My favorite cousin officiated and made announcements and queued toasts. My best friend from high school did my hair. My mom made her famous homemade jam for favors. I designed the invitations myself… it goes on. We tried to make sure all of the little details included someone we loved. The day was special and stress free because we knew all of those people loved us and were so happy for us to be happy together.

One of my grandmothers had recently passed away and because of declining health my other grandmother was not able to be in attendance. Those women had been really important to me throughout my entire life so it was really sad not to have them there. It was important to us to really include Conor’s Grandmother and honor her as the matriarch of the family. She was so excited and willing to help in any way that she could. She loves to embroider pillows and dish towels for gifts so we asked her if she would like to embroider the napkins for our wedding dinner. She was ecstatic! My mom cut and hemmed all of the cloth and then Ione (that’s Conor’s sweet grandma) hand stitched every napkin with a flower or our initials. It was such a sweet little accent and is now one of my most treasured keepsakes.

Thank you so much Jane! Be sure to check out her blog, Jane Reaction and her paper shop, Fox and Anchor

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House That Lars Built

Jan 09, 2013

What does it mean? Elizabeth and David

“What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Elizabeth Stirling White and her husband, Dave. Elizabeth is the blogger of David and Elizabeth and has an Etsy shop selling adorable pillows. They live in Australia.

I loved that our Wedding Day was a reflection of something we worked on together, our love and our story, and the people we cherish the most.

We wanted as many of the details as possible to reflect our journey together and us, this included the invites, the table decorations, the music we listened to and the words we spoke to each other. With creativity as such a big part of my identity, pouring all that I could into the day was a little like a reflection of my love for Dave.

As work has taken us to live away from our families, we did lots of the preparations together. I quickly worked out Dave had a strength in cutting things out, so would utilize this, as I sewed together invitations, bunting and napkins. It was great that when the day was all set up, we would stand back and look at what we had achieved together.

When Dave and I were dating, he went on a 6-week holiday to Canada (we’re Australian, so its a mighty long way, away) with his family. When he returned, amongst the presents was a beautiful snow globe from Montreal of a deer, you can wind it so it plays, ‘You’ve got a friend in me.’ This was the start of him bringing me back a snow globe whenever he traveled for work or with family. By the time we got married, the collection was around 30, so this became a bit of a theme throughout our day. I drew a picture of Dave and I in a snow globe, and this picture was on the front of our invitations, on the order of service, on the cake bags, and screen-printed on the napkins we made.

We wanted the day to reflect our story and not be like any other wedding. The ceremony was held on my parents farm, atop a hill where they’re soon to build a house. We love that it’s a place we go back to, and will always be special to us. We said traditional vows, but also wrote our own letter to one another, which we read as well.

The reception was in an old tin hall, nearby the farm, which had a barn like feel. We cleaned it up and laid out three long tables for our guests. Family dinners at home are one of our favourite things in the world. A wedding that felt like a great big family dinner (followed by lots of dancing) was one of the most important elements to us.

Having great photographers was one of the best decisions we made. Even still we pour through these photos remembering the details and special moments that we’ll always cherish about the day.

Thank you Elizabeth and David for participating on “What does it mean”. If you’d like to share your story, please write to Brittany at thehousethatlarsbuilt@gmail.com

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House That Lars Built

Nov 28, 2012

What does it mean? Victoria and Matt

“What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Victoria Hudgins and her husband, Matt. Victoria is the blogger and editor of A Subtle Revelry, a blog and quarterly online magazine.

How did we bring meaning to our wedding? What a wonderful question to ponder as we approach our 10th wedding anniversary. It makes me laugh to think of what we valued as 22 year-old bright-eyed kids, ready to take the world by the horns. To readers familiar with my blog, it should come as no surprise that we brought meaning to our wedding by celebrating well.

Our reception was held in the Italian/American club in Las Vegas – and yes, the venue did look like an episode of the Sopranos in Las Vegas. The first part of celebrating well is celebrating in your own style. If you are not comfortable with the decor, then you will not celebrate well. If you don’t celebrate well – AT YOUR OWN WEDDING – then no one will. In order to incorporate our own style we used large bunches of peonies around the room, vintage lace tablecloths and made certain there was enough confetti and sparkle to fill the evening.

After making sure the night stayed true to our particular style, the next way we celebrated well was to leave the details to others. For us to be truly present in the moment. I made sure all the details were taken of beforehand, and then trusted all the day-of details to my Maid and Matron of Honor. This enabled Matt and I to dance (a lot!), laugh (a lot!), and enjoy the company of our guests. This also prevented me from freaking out when Matt used his Braveheart-like sword (that I foolishly gave him as a wedding present) to cut the cake. I was having such a good time that I just simply enjoyed the moment.

I will never forget that night, mostly because it was the greatest party I’ve ever been to! We celebrated well – celebration is something that means a lot to us and it’s how we brought meaning to our wedding.

Thank you Victoria and Matt!

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House That Lars Built