Today our Real bride Erica of Girl With A Satchel shares her wedding day details with us.
Tell me about your ‘details’? favours, centerpieces etc
The table centrepieces featured bluebirds.
As there were bluebirds on the invitations, I decided to use them as a motif for the reception. My friend Aime’s mum made amazing table centerpieces: little bluebirds nestled amongst branches covered in crystals and berries mounted in clear vases filled with white pebbles.
I loved them. And they were a labour of love for Jen – each one took hours to make! We ordered little brown favours bags with the bluebird motif through our invitation designers, Poppies for Grace, and filled them with caramels and éclairs we bought from Big W, then tied them up with navy-blue ribbon, in keeping with the colour theme. The table settings and tablecloths and chair covers were all white.
Tell me about your flowers? Why did you choose them? Where were they used?
Erica’s bouquet
We had a local florist create posies of lisianthus and baby roses. Divine!
What music did you walk down the aisle to?
Vanessa Carlton’s ‘A Thousand Miles’. It was symbolic of our long-distance relationship!
Did you have any special parts to your ceremony?
Erica and James during their wedding ceremony.
As we’re both committed Christians, we wanted the ceremony to honour God and our commitment to centring our marriage around him. We chose the readings and hymns carefully (Amazing Grace and Chris Tomlin’s “Indescribable”) but didn’t want to alienate our non-Christian guests, so it was all very light and good humoured. We had two reverends overseeing the proceedings – a family friend and the minister from the church – which was a little different.
Did you have a something old, new borrowed blue? If so what were they?
Umm, not really! There was blue on my garter, I had an old purse, my shoes were new and, well, I guess I forgot to borrow something!
Did you DIY anything for your wedding? Tell me about it?
Apart from the centerpieces made by my friend’s mother and stuffing the favour bags with sweets, nope. Unless you include the marquee, in which Jim did all the lighting (we bought paper lights from Bunnings to keep it soft) and the cupcakes (made by Jim’s aunt Muriel) we had for dessert. Oh, and I compiled seven CDs of music for our DJ to play throughout the night. It took ages but was worth it – I had people asking me to burn them copies!
What perfume did you wear?
Ralph Lauren Romance.
What traditions did you keep? Which ones did you throw out the window?
Erica and James
It was traditional in the sense that we kept to the ceremony within the conventions of our faith (though we’re not aligned with any particular church) but otherwise we weren’t too fussed with formalities.
I wanted my sister to speak at the reception, as she’s my best friend, and our wedding dance wasn’t rehearsed – there was too much other entertainment to think about.
Next- Erica shares her post wedding thoughts!
Looks like a gorgeous day! Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations!