A Wedding Story:: Stacia

Simon and I met about a little over 3 years ago at a non-profit networking reception.  We got engaged about a year and a half later  (he proposed at 2:30am after we got home from a friend's party.  We were up late talking and it just happened!!!)

With the wedding planning, we wanted something that was very clean, modern, and soft.  Basically, we didn’t want big and over-the-top.  Our main priority was for it to be a good party and everyone have a good time!  With that in mind, we added fun details such as the photobooth and the wedding speech bingo.  We also wanted something that reflected us as a couple, which included everything from me wearing ballet slippers during the reception to having our first dance be a Bruce Springsteen song (we both love Springsteen!) and incorporating my Jewish heritage and Simon’s Scottish heritage.    

One of our biggest priorities was the wedding itself.  We lucked out and had an amazing minister and rabbi who walked us through the process.  Simon and I spent hours going over what was important to us and finding the right vows, readings, and ceremony elements that would reflect us as a couple.  We really personalized the readings for the wedding—we did both “A Red Red Rose” by Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland and then had our kettubah (the Jewish marriage document) read aloud. Designing our ceremony was an amazing part of the planning process and I would recommend it to any bride.  It made it that much more special and something that was just “ours”.  It wasn’t an easy or short process but our ceremony was definitely “us” and I can’t imagine it any other way.

As far as attire goes...Simon's kilt was a no-brainer.  Simon was born on Bermuda and grew up there and in the UK, including going to boarding school in Scotland.  His very proud of his Scottish heritage and he wanted our wedding to reflect that.  His father and brother also wore kilts to display their heritage.  For all of the men in the wedding party, we did heather and thistle boutonnieres, which are the national flowers of Scotland. For me and my bridesmaids, I really just wanted to be comfortable.  I wanted us all to be able to dance, eat and breathe!!! I lucked out with my dress.  I bought with Brides Against Breast Cancer, a non-profit that sells wedding dresses to help fund breast cancer research.  It was perfect.  

The day itself was just amazing.  I spent the day the bridal suite with my bridesmaid---my family rotated in and out all day.  It was super low key and I loved it.  I did get antsy around 2:30 and texted Simon that I was done waiting and we needed to get married now.  I guess being impatient is better than getting cold feet!!!

I had two favorite moments of that day...one was after the ceremony and when the pictures were done, Simon & I had 15 minutes alone in the suite.  We sat on the couch, kicked our shoes off and he had a beer while I ate salt and vinegar potato chips (my favorite!)  It was so fantastic that even in the middle of the insanity that is a wedding, we were still "us."  

The other great moment was the hora (traditional Jewish folk dance).  I had such a great time dancing with everyone.  We did our hora immediately after the father/daughter then mother/son dances, so everyone immediately jumped on the dance floor. Being up on the chair with Simon was fantastic—I just remember being so incredibly happy and that’s when being married became a reality. The best part of all of it was that we didn’t tell his parents (who are not Jewish) about the tradition of lifting both the parents of the bride AND the parents of the groom in the chairs—the look on his parents’ faces were priceless!  They looked like they were having so much fun. 

So that's it.  That's our wedding in a nutshell!  

If you would like to share your own wedding story here please e-mail me at elephantstrunk42 @ gmail dot com. To see more Wedding Stories click here.