Alternatives to Wedding Traditions: First Dance

As a non dancer myself, I would have loved nothing more than to come up with something other than the dreaded first dance. So... thank you to Offbeat Bride for posting this cool "Wedding Dance for Non-Dancers".

Whitney Lee is the photographer for Stephanie & Kevin's recent wedding.

Stephanie says: "I guess the main thing that made our wedding offbeat was that we tried to do things because we liked them or because they were important to us, rather than doing things because they're just always done at weddings.
We had a "First Rock Band" rather than a first dance. This was because we love Rock Band and we do not love to dance. It's definitely one of my best memories of the night; my husband on guitar, me on the drums, and all our friends and family surrounding us and belting out "Living on a Prayer." Exuberance all around. It was awesome."

Sondra's Ink Side Note... I do enjoy watching first dances very much, in fact they normally make me feel all mushy. I just happen to have been born with no rhythm and a serious case of stage fright.

Real Wedding Inspiration: Libby + Jeremy

Libby & Jeremy

09.06.08

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE DETAILS OF THEIR SPECIAL DAY.

VENDORS

Cupcake Tower & Small Cake: DeBoer Bakery, Zeeland

Wedding Gown: Casablanca, September's Bride

Bridesmaids Gowns: Watters&Watters, ordered online

Groom/Dads/Groomsmen/Ushers - Bunny Tuxedo, September's Bride

Ceremony: Calvary Reformed Church in Holland Heights

Reception: Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant on the lawn

Stationery: Sondra's Ink

Photographer: www.clevercreationsphotography.com

Band: Names of James

Makeup: Smooch Beauty Boutique

Florist: Flowers Etc.

Fave part of the wedding decor:

The flowers were absolutely amazing, but our own touches were my favorite aside from that...

1. We had our guests sign antique water skis instead of a guest book. My dad is an antique collector and so the pair of water skis we used for our wedding was from his 10-plus pair collection. I inherited my love of antiques from him and so that was also why it was special to me/us. We moved to Colorado in October and the skis didn't fit in the car. They will be mounted to a wall in our next place though! They turned out awesome!

2. We put the place cards in a large 6' piece of driftwood my mom found on the beach.

We plan to turn the driftwood piece (which we had sawed lines into) into a photo holder...

The wedding was obviously nautical themed...it turned out so AWESOME!

Fave moment of the actual wedding day/night (most memorable):

We didn't see each other before the ceremony, so the moment I entered the sanctuary and caught his eye, I never looked away. All the way down the aisle...I was so happy!

Another of my favorite moments was the "little girl dance". Instead of a wedding party dance, we had our four flower girls dance to "shake your booty" with us and we threw up a bunch of boas and beach balls..

it was SO much fun!

Any advice to future brides?

Enjoy the planning - I had a "no fuss" rule. If we started fussing, we simplified and moved on.

Also, stick to your guns. the "us" details were my favorite and differentiated our wedding from the next.

Last, remember you can aim for perfection but you have to accept that a kid may scream or a bridesmaid may have bad shoes...get over it! It's so much more than that... :)

Any bloopers?

No real bloopers actually! I thought our 4 flower girls could be problematic (2 age 3, 2 age 5) but they were PERFECT! They dropped every petal and were adorable!

But...Jeremy was warm and his hands swelled with nervousness so it took me a bit to get the ring on!

Back to work...

Only a couple more days of vacation for me and then back to the office I go!! Shannon and I will be back in the office on Monday morning bright and early to return calls and emails! I am very happy to be off work... but excited to meet the new brides I have lined up for May & June!

My next mini-vacation will be the weekend of June 5-7 to attend a special wedding!

Happy Tulip Time everyone!

Sondra

Affordable handmade formal dresses

Wow! There are so many things I want to blog about, but so little time to do it now that wedding season is upon us! But for this great find I am going to take the time and just do it!

Anybody who follows my blog knows my oldest daughter is one-of-a-kind. She aims to not be like everyone else when it comes to everything, especially formal events. With prom coming fast for us, we found ourselves looking again at vintage dresses to makeover into the perfect unique dress. But this time I knew it would be hard to get the alterations done since it's also super busy at September's Bride and their seamstress is most likely crazy busy.

This dilemma prompted me to get creative and to do some ETSY.com searching using the "homemade" and "vintage" tags...

What I found blew me away!!! Seller, Cherrypievintage, had a gorgeous dress listed for $130.00 and it was handmade. The problem is that it was tea length and Lexie had her heart set on floor length. So I "convo'd" her and asked if I could purchase one full length and in Lexie's exact measurements for $150.00. And she said YES!!! Better yet, she had it done over the following weekend, shipped it for $8.00, and I got it two days later!

From start to finish the entire event took place in seven days!! My question was emailed to her on April 8 and I had the dress in hand on April 15! Better yet, it fits Lex like a glove (I will post the pictures of her in the dress after prom).

Even better... she could have even done it in a custom color for the same basic price if we had wanted that option! Unbeleivable value and service!!!

Of course this made me think that it would be really neat to have custom handmade bridesmaids dresses! And it's so totally affordable! We are planning to alter the dress after Prom into a tea length semi-formal dress so it can be worn again someday.

WOW! Taylor Grey Photography

Those of you who follow my blog already know I LOVE posting pics of my kids- they are all sooo cute after all! But I was really excited to see these gorgeous shots of my oldest daughter.

These are a few of the photos that Kerri, from Taylor Grey Photography, took.
Aren't they stunning??? I am so fond of the urban edge that Kerri has.

Lexie will be a Senior next year! Where has the time gone???