Our Wedding

Since our one year anniversary is just around the corner, I thought I would share our wedding day with you! But before I get to the big day, I’ll give you the inside scoop on how we picked our location 😉

Before Ari and I were engaged, we had always talked about having a small intimate destination wedding. I wanted only immediate family by our sides as we said our vows somewhere tropical. Fast forward, to a couple of months after our engagement, Ari and I started worrying about the logistics of having a destination wedding. Some of the concerns we had were: Would the resort look as beautiful as it did on the website? Would we arrive and be completely disappointed? Would our guests be able to take the time off / be willing to fork out a couple grand to accompany us to our destination? Who would do my hair? Photos? etc.  Now I know there are packages and wedding planners for a destination wedding, but I knew I couldn’t handle the ‘what ifs’. Lets face it, I would have been an anxious mess up until the big day, plus Ari’s family wasn’t completely on board either, so we started looking for other options.

Now that our destination wedding was vetoed, our guest list grew to accommodate Ari’s extended family. We went from 7 guests to 25!! I know what you are thinking…but to me this was a big deal. (If I had it my way, we would have just eloped!) Next, we started planning our venue. I knew exactly what I wanted, and even found the perfect location. But a price tag of 20k for the venue alone, did not make sense for a wedding that small. So we were back to the drawing board. In the past I had always joked with Ari that we could have a backyard wedding at his dad’s place, and now it seemed like the perfect spot! Ari and I talked about it and I immediately started a pinterest board and planned on lots of DIY decorations. Little did we know, we would be moving to North Carolina and I would have no time for DIY projects.

Lucky for me, my mom helped out A LOT!  And as I mentioned in an earlier post, hubby built my rustic door for the backdrop of our wedding the day before! (that post here!)

Fast forward to wedding weekend. Ari and I both took Friday off and headed back up to Pittsburgh Thursday night. Friday is pretty much a blur and I barely saw Ari (other than when he was consoling me as I was balling my eyes out in fear things wouldn’t go as planned). We were both pretty busy getting things ready. Ari was building the door and fixing up the backyard, while my mom and I got our decorations together, picked up flowers, did my makeup trial, and got my nails done. Ari and I had originally planned on going to a piano bar with my brother, his fiance and my cousin, but it ended up being a late night of last minute touches instead. The morning of our wedding, my mom, aunt and myself set up the table decorations and then I was off to my hair and makeup appointment. I honestly think this was the fastest time has ever went. Before I knew it I was headed over to the house to have a quick rehearsal with the minister and then rushing to get my dress on for our first reveal photos.

Let me tell you, I was a bag of emotions. And walking down the isle was the hardest thing I ever had to do! I really don’t know Ari’s extended family very well (some I had only met once prior) so it was very intimidating and another level of stress that I didn’t want at the ceremony. Honestly, I wish Ari and I would have had a private ceremony and then celebrated with everyone after, but I know it made his family happy to experience the ceremony with us 🙂

Our reception, took place on the back patio and we had a private chef cook us delicious food! We found our chef through thumbtack and he was perfect. We knew what we wanted to serve our guests and he helped us customize our menu. The food and service was absolutely amazing and I would recommend our Chef to anyone in the Pittsburgh area. The tables, chairs and table cloths we rented from party savy. And all the decorations my mom made!

For those of you curious, here is our menu:

Now before I get to the pictures.. here is a little wedding Q&A

Total cost of wedding?
we spent about 5,000 (not including wedding dress or Ari’s suit)

Best part of the wedding?
Marrying my hubby! DUH and the food!

Worst part of the wedding?
Being a nervous/anxious wreck

Any mishaps?
We were supposed to have blood orange sorbet as an intermezzo, but the chef forgot to serve it..but that just meant more left overs for us 🙂 And prior to the wedding, I had a horrible seamstress who jaggerdly cut the hem of my dress, but luckily my dress is so flowy that it wasn’t noticeable.

What would you change?
Nothing, I got married! Actually, we were a little disappointed with our photos, so we would opt for a different photographer.

What did you miss?
Having our friends there! But we wanted an intimate wedding.

Stay tuned for sappy anniversary posts!

XO