(With Slip & Slide)
I am not sure why we didn’t post this sooner, maybe it was because we were not an official company yet so we didn’t see it as one of our events. But my wedding ceremony and reception wedding was the first event that Clarissa and I planned and designed together. It is as much of a Taffeta & Tattoos event as any other, even if we didn’t have the name yet. The ceremony was beautiful. It was held at Ricketts Glen, a state park that is pretty damned gorgeous on its own so we just had to put up some signs (modeled on old boxing posters) to direct guests to the correct waterfall. I arrived in my dad’s 1970 Challenger. He had the car before he had me and we used to work on it together when I was a super little girl, my mom tells me that one of my favorite words as a child was "bondoo" (not bondo). The vows, the I do, and the kiss took less than ten minutes and then it was time to thank everyone for coming (and finally eat some breakfast). As I was saying my vows and gallivanting around the waterfalls with our photographer, Clarissa was at the reception site, directing vendors and making sure that the whole place looked exactly like we envisioned it. The reception location was hidden away in the woods and offered us the freedom that we needed to have style of party that we wanted, relaxed, fun, and slightly rowdy. The venue was once a dance hall that was attached to a hotel back when the railroad was still the primary mode of transportation. The hotel has been gone the way of the trains, but the dance hall has been preserved in all its vintage simplistic glory. Best of all it had tons of both indoor and outdoor space, it was everything we had wanted. There were a few catches though. They provided the table and chairs (that were only permitted to be used inside) and a kitchen; everything else was left up to us. We transported plates, glasses, outdoor tables, decorations, wine, silverware, EVERYTHING. This idea was overwhelming at first, but we immediately realized that it meant they every detail would be our style. |
The reception was where Clarissa and I (and a bit of help from my husband) began to create the most personality infused (yet thematic) party that we could come up with. First off, my husband and I wanted a super fun party instead of a traditional wedding reception (it simply does not fit either of our personality types) where our friends and family would celebrate our marriage with us.
As we started throwing around ideas, a surprising, yet totally fitting theme came about: Vintage Technology. We thought about all of the elements that are at every wedding (a guest book, a card box, centerpieces, etc.) and thought about how we could make it unique.
The save the dates referenced by punk rock background and the first bit of vintage technology, the tattoo gun, by using slightly altered tattoo flash art, with our initials and wedding date for temporary tattoos. (And later we added on some pins (buttons) as a throwback to my high school messenger bag covered in pins from local bands, with the same design.)
Instead of a bouquet I carried a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends with two squares hollowed out to hold out rings, we dissected an old television set for the card box (ala the super awesome fish tanks that we often see in movies),the centerpieces were flowerpots made from Engelbert Humperdink records, and we had to have a photo booth. The guest book was the most involved, basically because there were two different parts to it (part bride and part groom), the first part (bride) was a 1960s powder blue typewriter with pages prompting “advice for the bride and groom" and the second part (groom) asked our guests to leave us fun messages on to corkboard. The photo booth was set up to print out two copies of everyone's photo strips and everyone pined up their extra photos and created unique message and tack it onto the corkboard. (We even used vintage film reels to hold and organize the art supplies.)
As we started throwing around ideas, a surprising, yet totally fitting theme came about: Vintage Technology. We thought about all of the elements that are at every wedding (a guest book, a card box, centerpieces, etc.) and thought about how we could make it unique.
The save the dates referenced by punk rock background and the first bit of vintage technology, the tattoo gun, by using slightly altered tattoo flash art, with our initials and wedding date for temporary tattoos. (And later we added on some pins (buttons) as a throwback to my high school messenger bag covered in pins from local bands, with the same design.)
Instead of a bouquet I carried a copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends with two squares hollowed out to hold out rings, we dissected an old television set for the card box (ala the super awesome fish tanks that we often see in movies),the centerpieces were flowerpots made from Engelbert Humperdink records, and we had to have a photo booth. The guest book was the most involved, basically because there were two different parts to it (part bride and part groom), the first part (bride) was a 1960s powder blue typewriter with pages prompting “advice for the bride and groom" and the second part (groom) asked our guests to leave us fun messages on to corkboard. The photo booth was set up to print out two copies of everyone's photo strips and everyone pined up their extra photos and created unique message and tack it onto the corkboard. (We even used vintage film reels to hold and organize the art supplies.)
There was absolutely nothing structured about our reception, no set dinner time, none of the traditional dances, no cake cutting...so from the very beginning the guests started gravitation to all the fun features that we had created. We wanted a reception that our guests didn't want to leave, we wanted them to get up, mingle and have fun. My main motivation was to provide other things to do that wasn't dancing. I am not a dancer, no matter how much you goad me, I am not getting on that floor, so most wedding receptions leave me out...I didn't want to leave anyone out. Mike mixed our playlist so there were clear dancing stints mixed with my punk and classic rock and my uncle and cousins had a pick up football game.
The photo booth was easily the biggest hit. We collected a great variety of props (silly glasses, hats, mustaches, boas and even a homemade speech bubble chalkboard (it was my first try at woodcutting) that were presented in one of my favorite vintage suitcases.
The photo booth was easily the biggest hit. We collected a great variety of props (silly glasses, hats, mustaches, boas and even a homemade speech bubble chalkboard (it was my first try at woodcutting) that were presented in one of my favorite vintage suitcases.
The most unusual element of this reception was also one of the most personal. Every party I have ever thrown has had a slip 'n slide, and I didn't think that my wedding should be any different. The kids loved it in the heat of the afternoon, and many of the adults kicked off their shoes and took a dive into the freezing hose water. And I most definitely went down in my wedding dress.
I ended the night in a jeans and a hoodie with my first glass of wine in the photo booth with all of my friends, which is exactly where I wanted to be after such a busy, spectacular, exhausting day.
Check out the full gallery over at Taffeta & Tattoos.