Matt and I were married on May 13, 2006, in Northborough, Massachusetts, not far from where I grew up. We had the ceremony and reception at the same location- this made it easier since a large number of our guests were from out of town and it ended up pouring the entire week before the wedding and on our wedding day. With all of the flooding, it was nice that guests only had to go to one place.
The only thing Matt cared about was wearing tails. He didn't care about any of the other details. I had wanted a more casual wedding- but I couldn't say no to the one thing he wanted- so we ended up with a much more formal affair. The bridesmaid dresses were black with a white accent and we did purple and white flowers.
I spent the day with one of my best friends. We got our nails done, then our hair and makeup, and then made our way to White Cliffs to get dressed. Once we were all ready, the picture taking began. Matt and I didn't see each other before the ceremony, so we did all of the pictures on our list that didn't require the both of us.
Our ceremony was upstairs- so once all of the guests arrived, the bridal party made its way up. I'm Jewish and Matt is Lutheran so we decided not to incorporate either religion in the ceremony and were married by a Justice of the Peace who is also a family friend. We put together a short, but meaningful ceremony and wrote our own vows. It was beautiful and perfectly "us".
After the ceremony we took some more pictures and enjoyed cocktail hour. We wanted to make sure everyone had a great time and ate well, so we spent a lot of time, and a good amount of our budget on the menu- starting with cocktail hour. There were a ton of passed hors d'oeuvres and a couple of stations- we also had an open bar.
After cocktail hour it as time to be introduced. We came in to, "Lovely Day," by Bill Withers and had our first dance to "If I Didn't Have You," by Amanda Marshall. It was perfect. After our dance Matt's brother gave a beautiful toast and my father read a poem he had written for us. He has written a poem for me for every major event in my life- always in the style of Dr. Seuss.
Even though we didn't incorporate religion into our ceremony, we did do the Hora. It was a great way to open the dance floor and it's always a good time. It was a little scary at times and my cousins almost dropped me, but it was fun.
Once people took their seats, the first course was served and Matt and I made our way around to say hi to everyone- and while we were busy we missed out on what we were told was a heck of a meal. People are still talking about the food over six years later.
Instead of traditional favors, we made donations to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Cancer has touched both of our families and our mothers were very involved with their local Relays. We put information about the donations on each table. Also on the tables were a few martini glasses with chocolates my mother and I made.
We did our parent dances and then the dance floor got busy. We took a quick break to cut the cake and then spent the rest of the night on the dance floor. We had a great time dancing with our family and friends. Things got a little crazy towards the end of the night when the DJ played "I'm Too Sexy", and dedicated it to the groomsmen. A few of them took the song literally and started taking their shirts off. My mom and her friends then proceeded to join them on the dance floor while waving dollar bills. Talk about embarrassing. But everyone had a great time.
-Becky
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