The Wedding Issue :)
GOOD MORNING! I AM MARRIED TO MY HUSBAND JORDAN, WHOSE WIFE I AM! It’s so fun and exciting. We had the precise, exact wedding we wanted on Saturday, March 23, with about 160 friends and family members in attendance.
Let me start by setting the scene on a cool rainy Saturday. All the planning was as done as it was going to be. I was nervous and excited with a few hours to kill before it was fully Wedding Time, stomach full of butterflies as the minutes waded through molasses.
I went off to get my nails done by myself and enjoy a few moments of solitude – and then the push notifications began. Bomb threats, lockdowns, suspicious packages, street closures, evacuation orders. All because our very horrible county commissioners chose to foment hate and bigotry against, of all people, OUR LOCAL LIBRARIANS for hosting a Drag Queen Story Hour. Please, please, donate to the Library System of Lancaster County.
So with bomb-sniffing dogs on the scene about four blocks from our house, we gathered to celebrate love and community. And it was a beautiful, playful, reprieve from the horrors of the world, if only for a few hours.
Since Jordan and I have been together, we have attended nine whole weddings. We had a good sense of what works and what doesn’t. Our priorities after ample field research went something like this:
The food must be very delicious and ample
The speakers must be reduced to the absolute smallest number possible
The event had to give guests enough activities to stave off boredom without being hokey
Photo booth
When we decided to get married on our way to the opening night of the John Mayer Solo Show in Newark (pictured below), we knew we wanted to do things fully, completely our way, traditions be damned – unless we liked them. We picked out a venue, a date, and an officiant before we even told my parents we had decided to marry.
I knew right off the bat that I would be eschewing a Say Yes to the Dress style bridal gown in favor of something more colorful and thrifty. We pulled all the planning and design in-house, seeing as we are a marriage of a comms girlie and a graphic artist.
We chose a very non-traditional venue for our nuptials: The Lancaster Science Factory, a children’s physical science museum a 6-minute walk from our house. We had initially chosen a much more standard wedding venue, but soon opted out in the interest of fun for ourselves and our guests. We had been to a number of weddings that offered attendees little to do besides eat, dance, or sit on your phone. And we wanted our friends to have fun!
In our invitations (a Jordan Capizzi joint) and in two emails to guests before the wedding, we set the dress code as “elevated field trip” and encouraged everyone to “err on the side of comfort” with their attire. We wanted to prepare everyone for a very playful family reunion rather than, say, The Oscars. I even told a few people that the energy was “there were too many people to have in our backyard, so this is the next closest thing.” If I know anything about event planning, it’s Vibe Discipline.
Jordan also designed the chip-clip favors we gave our guests and the placemats at every setting, featuring all our vendors and the words to our first dance, In The Dining Room, from the hit show Joe Pera Talks with You. We are very stoked to see him live in May – our first comedy show as Mr. and Mrs.
I got flowers for myself, Izzy, Jordan, his band (who played us in), and our immediate families. We hired a lovely local woman who runs First Light Flower Company to arrange those for us.
As for table centerpieces, instead of flowers, we pulled a craft off Pinterest and combined it with an incredible design Jordan made. The inspiration and the final product pictured below. Of note: The brilliance of the lollipops is that they kept drunk guests from yelling on their way out the door. I remember this anecdote from a bar in Ireland, who gave patrons leaving at 2 am lollipops to keep them from waking the neighbors.
Before dinner, we gave people drinks and set them loose in the science museum. My dad said of the wedding the next day that nobody in the place was on their phones at all – everyone was engaged in conversation, at the photo booth, or climbing the exhibits. Within moments of the end of the ceremony, adults and children alike were climbing the sky bridge. Playing with your friends is so fun! The kids had a blast, the adults were like kids in a fun way, and about an hour after the ceremony, I changed from my powder blue kitten heels to my new yellow wedding crocs (sport mode).
We fed people Callaloo’s Trinidadian appetizers and entrees, and sent as many people home with leftovers as we could. After dinner, we had our one (1) speaker give a few remarks while we opened up the cupcakes and coffee room for dessert time (Lancaster Cupcakes and Butter and Bean, respectively).
Our friends at Keller Audio – known as Country Fried Two Piece when they are also DJing – handled all the sound for the night, from microphones to the band to the music. We gave them some starter songs for the cocktail hour, as well as the dance party, and they handled the rest.
At the end of the night, about 20 friends helped us move the tables and chairs out of the way so the cleaners could come through in the morning, and then walked back to our house with us for another round of food and drinks and fellowship. The relief that washed over me as I changed from a dress to sweatpants and descended the stairs of my house to friends and family giddy off an evening of wonder and friendship,,,,,yankee candle you will make a million dollars if you can create that scent.
And that’s about the bulk of the logistics! Everything else I can show you rather than tell you. Here’s a little collage of some of my favorite images from the our photographer’s sneak peek (whole album linked here). Footage of our ceremony available upon request. It’s a cool 13 minutes, and from what I have heard, it’s a tear-jerker.
Some final notes:
If you’re in Lancaster on April 6, come see the Nielsen Family Band at the Grand Ole Z’Opry at Zoetropolis
Friend-of-the-caucus JW Nielsen is hosting beginners line dancing on April 22 at West Art
The primary election is April 23! You can still request a no-excuse mail-in ballot at Vote.PA.gov
See y’all next time!