Manolo for the Brides

What’s the best piece of advice I ever received when I was a bride-to-be? That’s easy. I can’t remember who it was that shared it with me, but I can say that theirs was a wedding tip that should be passed around with greater frequency. Briefly, the advice they shared was “Enjoy the wedding.” Simple as that. I think brides-to-be too often hear advice that boils down to “Enjoy your wedding by including X in your ceremony and doing Y at your reception” and “You’ll never enjoy your wedding if you can’t Z!” Humph.

On this rather dreary Monday, I’d like to remind all the brides-to-be out there not to be afraid of doing whatever it takes to enjoy the wedding. Want a bounce house? Rent one. Think pinball machines would entertain your guests? You can probably rent those, too. You want to change into a white wetsuit and have a first heat instead of a first dance? Do it. You say you need inspiration? The six brides below obviously had a great time at their weddings, and their guests probably did, too.

This bride and her groom both took a turn in the horseshoe pit at their outdoor reception. It was a bit muddy, but so what? (via)

Giant Jenga? Awesome. While looking for pictures for this post, I also came across snaps of a bride playing giant chess. Think big! (via)

Football fans have it easy when it comes to enjoying the wedding. Just mix one open space with one football and a matched set of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Sneakers optional, but probably a good idea. (via)

Brides and grooms who play an instrument or two can get up and jam with the band, though I don’t recommend spending the entire time on stage, as tempting as that might be. (via)

Playgrounds make for great post-ceremony photo opportunities, but they’re also a lot of fun to romp around in… especially after a solemn wedding! It’s even more fun with the bridal party, if they’re game. (via)

Shooting isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours, why not have a skeet break between the ceremony and reception? It could be a great way to blow off some wedding day steam. (via)

It struck me that brides and grooms thinking of planning a baseball themed wedding like my friend Mike mentioned in last week’s post might be inspired and impressed by seeing some of his plans. These are some of his and his fiancee’s wedding plans, and I am truly astounded by their thoroughness. It’s one thing to weave a theme into your wedding, but quite another to let your theme take center stage!

• I had David Wright help me with the proposal — he’s one of the most popular players on the Mets right now, if you didn’t know.
• The ceremony is going to be held at Citi Field, where the Mets play. How cool is that? All of the Mets games start 10 minutes after the hour, so the ceremony is going to begin at 1:10 p.m. and the reception will start at 7:10 p.m.
• We invited everyone attending our baseball themed wedding to join us on our first week of the honeymoon on a cruise, so we sent out magnetic save-the-dates with the wedding date and cruise dates colored in the way a baseball team does on its schedule of games.
• Our wedding invites are going to look like tickets with the stub being the RSVP.
• The wedding programs will look like baseball programs, with the bridal party listed as the starting lineup, the minister as the umpire, our parents as the managers, etc.
• Trish’s dress has a Mets blue sash, and my tuxedo vest will have the Mets logo on it.
• We even found a place that makes boutonnieres out of baseballs! And Trish’s flowers will be either blue or white or orange and white.
• The tables will be blue and orange and named after Mets players instead of the typical 1-12, and we’ll be at the number 41:Tom Seaver table. (We were going to make each table a baseball stadium that we have gone to.)
• We will be introduced at the reception as a starting lineup, and Trish’s daughter is going to throw out the first pitch to me. (ed. – awwww) I also think the bridal party is going to make arches with baseball bats for us to walk under.
• The last hour of the reception, instead of being a Viennese hour, will be a baseball hour with peanuts, Cracker Jack, ice cream in batting helmets, pretzels, hot dogs, etc. And we are going to change into “Team Wilder” baseball jerseys for that.
• Finally, the thank you cards will look like baseball cards featuring me and Trish.

Now that’s taking a wedding theme all the way!

(Photo by)

I think my lovely colleague and I have done our parts to convey the sentiment that every wedding is a good wedding. As long as no one got seriously hurt, no one was arrested or assaulted, and the bride(s) and/or groom(s) were legally wed by the officiant of their choosing, the wedding was a success. Maybe things went a little wrong here and there… the baker never showed so gram had to go down to Publix for six sheet cakes in the pouring rain, but you said your “I dos” and no one went without cake.

Why am I bringing this up for the umpteenth time? Because it comes to my attention every now again that there are plenty of people who think there is a definite right way to get married, and if you’re not getting married the right way, your marriage is doooooooomed. The right way usually involves white dresses, high heels, bridal veils, bridesmaids, groomsmen, big churches, solemnity, being escorted down the aisle by daddy, traditional music, limos, a tiered cake, father-daughter dances, circulated nibbles, an open bar, and at least 100 of your closest relatives and friends, if not a great many more.

The fact is, however, that some brides and grooms don’t want wedding attendants or butlered hors d’oeuvres or a gaggle of attendants or any of the other pomp and circumstance that frequently surrounds the modern wedding. Some couples don’t even particularly want guests other than a handful of witnesses, and where it’s a legal possibility, there are people who choose to have their officiant and a wedding photographer provide for the legal necessities. And sadly, sometimes these brides and grooms feel guilty about wanting small weddings, if a question posted to Metafilter is any indication.

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Just last week, I reconnected with an old friend via Facebook. Turns out he’s engaged, and he and his fiancee are planning a baseball themed wedding. After congratulating me on my book, which will be celebrating its two-year anniversary this summer, oy, he asked if there was anything about baseball themed weddings in its pages. Well, no, I had to answer, but what a great idea for an inspirational post! So here it is, for Mike, a little something about baseball themed weddings to delight and inspire.

Obviously, the most rabid baseball fans will want to hold their weddings at the ball field, but that’s not always possible. Perhaps you and your intended could find a way to take a few post-wedding photographs on a pitcher’s mound… maybe not that of your favorite major league team, but still. Run the bases. Have yourself a bridal at bat. Tag each other out. Have fun with it!

This awesome baseball themed wedding invitation from Byvik Ink Letterpress is surprisingly classy. It starts out its life as the ball, then opens to reveal a beautiful pattern of twisting vines and stylized flowers. If your all time favorite team has red in its colors, you could easily take this red and gray wedding invitation and make it your own.

A certain Sarah bought her Andy a pair of seats from Dodger stadium, which then became the seats at the sweetheart table at their elegant baseball themed wedding. Other awesome details include reception menus affixed to Cracker Jacks boxes and a ring bearer who carried a baseball glove instead of a ring pillow.

Mini-gumball machine favors from Bridal Wedding Favors let your wedding guests take a piece of the baseball theme home with them, and then there is the requisite baseball cake topper with a bride up to bat and a groom poised to throw a perfect pitch. As you know, I’m not one for little bride and groom toppers, but if you’re going with a baseball theme, go all the way.

Finally, consider turning your reception sweets into a tribute to the team you spend baseball season cheering. Custom cookies, like these from A Dozen Eggs Bake Shoppe, make a great baseball themed wedding favor or an alternate dessert for those who don’t fancy cake. For those that do fancy cake, I suggest you opt for something like this, but in your team’s colors.

Congratulations, Mike — play ball!

Please forgive my terrible pun in this post’s title, but the temptation to make it was irresistible. You see, Andrea Parrish and Peter Geyer of Spokane, WA have decided to pay for their upcoming nuptials using naught but the proceeds collected from the recycling of aluminum cans. According to their web site, they’ve collected 25,781 cans thus far, and have inspired others to donate the proceeds from their recycling excursions to the tune of 56,571 cans. Parrish and Geyer have a ways to go, however, before they can finance their relatively inexpensive July wedding. They’re planning a modest affair costing around $4,000, which will require them to collect a total of 318,648 more cans.

While it is a pretty insane idea — though a wonderfully create one — I must say I do like it a lot better than the “pay for my wedding just because I asked you to” schemes or the “pay for my wedding” registries. Parrish and Geyer are putting some real effort into paying for a wedding in an offbeat way. And is having your living room stuffed with bags and bags of aluminum cans all that much worse than having it stuffed with wedding favor boxes, ribbons, silk flowers, and seating chart mock-ups? All right, maybe it’s a little worse, if only because donated cans might not be entirely clean.

Like the idea? If you’re in Spokane, you can drop off your cans for this quirky couple at the Instant Sign Factory or they’ll gladly pick them up from your place (if you have enough to make it worth it, I imagine). For those not in Spokane, Parrish and Geyer recommend that you recycle your own aluminum cans, buy yourself a coffee or beer, and if you’re so inclined, send the leftover cash to them.

(Photo via)

Imagine stepping off an airplane into the arrivals terminal of the closest airport. You scan the crowd of people waiting for their loved ones and business associates, waiting for your fiance or fiancee. Unexpectedly, you see a woman in a long white dress or a man in a tux, along with someone who looks like very much like a wedding officiant. You might smile, wonder who they’re waiting for. Then you realize they’re staring at you, waving like mad in your direction. Smiling. That nut in the tux or that crazy lady in a wedding dress is your spouse-to-be and they have a big surprise for you. Do you… run over with a huge grin on your face? Book it in the opposite direction, trying to pretend you didn’t see? Sidle over cautiously, hoping it’s all a joke?

If you’re William Acosta or U.S. Army Pvt. Cody Beckwith, you choose option A.

Robyn Moore and William Acosta exchanged their vows at Corpus Christi International Airport after he got off a plane arriving from Toledo, Ohio. She was waiting in her wedding dress, with a justice of the peace at her side. granted, they were planning on marrying in December anyway and hadn’t chosen a site. More importantly, they both travel frequently for business and spend a great deal of time in airports. Acosta told reporters that he was speechless, but thrilled when he said Moore.

Shawna Hodge surprised her fiance U.S. Army Pvt. Cody Beckwith in much the same way, though their circumstances were very different. He was caught in all that winter weather that rolled over the U.S. slightly more than a week back and was stranded, missing his own wedding. Every flight he tried to book was delayed or canceled except for a midnight flight into Tampa International Airport. So that’s where Hodge and Beckwith said their “I dos” with their wedding party looking on.

My take? I love the second surprise wedding — the wedding hour came and went, and the couple made do. They’ll have a great story to tell people, maybe kids and grandkids. But the first surprise wedding? I don’t think Moore would have shown up in her wedding dress if she didn’t think Acosta would go for it, and they had picked up the license application the week before. While nothing was set in stone, however, I can’t help thinking that he might have had some idea of where they should say their vows. It worked for them, and that’s awesome, but I think I’d hate being put on the spot like that.

What say you?

Imagine you live in Philadelphia. Imagine you’re getting married. Imagine you intend to marry out of doors. What time of year would you choose for your ceremony?

Well, if you’re Blair Kahora and Matt Cardinal, you choose December 19.

You read that correctly, they chose December 19 for their outdoor wedding at Headhouse Square open air market. They even went ahead with their plans despite the fact that more than twenty inches of snow fell that day.

The makeup artist decided to bow out of the proceedings, but Matt and his groomsmen jumped into the fray and called to confirm all the other vendors.

Guests were told that formal clothing was optional. Most of them chose to show up, though the dress code rapidly turned into sweatpants rather than party dresses. As for the bride and her bridesmaids, they gave a nod to the weather by wearing Uggs and pashmina wraps.

After the ceremony, the happy couple stayed outdoors to get some pictures.

Me? I wouldn’t do it. After all, part of the reason I live in California is that I don’t want to deal with snow. For them, however, it seemed to work. Best of luck, Blair and Matt. And keep warm if you can.

Don’t like cake and, by extension, wedding cake? There’s always pie or pastries or chocolates or a sundae bar, candy buffet, and milk and cookies station. Cheese is considered a dessert by some, which means you wouldn’t be going out on a limb to offer a literal cheese cake. Or you could even skip dessert altogether with a sushi cake or a, um, pork pie cake.

That’s right, there be pork in them thar cakes.

“We are always looking to extend and improve our [product range] and hit upon the novel idea of a collection of giant-size celebration pork pies,” said Wilsons partner Andrew Green. “The pork pie wedding cakes, hand-crafted in our own in-house bakery, come in squares of ascending sizes of either seven, nine and eleven inches or five, seven and nine inches. They can even be personalised to include names, date and a suitable message.”

If you and your spouse-to-be absolutely cannot get enough piggy in your diet or your wedding, the Wilsons pork pie cake is one way to really load up on swine!