Photos of our engagement and wedding! We got engaged on June 11th, 2009, and got married on August 8th, 2009! Yes, that’s only 2 months of planning…but somehow, our wedding could not have been more perfect, even if we had had a year to plan!
Derek lured me into a photobooth to take some fun photos, little did I know, that he had already taken pictures with proposal notes! When he handed me the photobooth strips for safe keeping, he had slipped the proposal in there. When I looked at it I just about fainted. First of all, I had never told him that before I ever even met him I used to say that a photobooth proposal would be the BEST way to get engaged! And second of all, how stinking romantic. I mean, my goodness. Does he know me, or what?! Truly a dream come true. After much screaming and crying (all happy), I said “YES!!!”
Quickly thereafter the engagement, we scheduled an engagement photo session with Vasna Wilson. A friend and incredible photographer, who we were lucky enough to have photograph our wedding also.
Our ceremony and reception was held at Radonich Ranch in Los Gatos, California. Under the tall, beautiful trees, on a perfect August afternoon, we were married with 70 of our closest friends and family present. It really was magical.
We were married by our friend Mark Scandrette, who conducted a beautiful and creative ceremony. Our closest friends were our attendants. (My little sister, and maid of honor, Janelle Gates, handmade my headpiece for me.)
Details! From the top left: 1. Our guestbook, which was also made by hand by my sister, was filled with photobooth strips from our engagement and the wedding. 2. Jars filled with flowers and candles were hung from the trees by ribbon. These jars were all recycled and collected for the 2 months prior to the wedding. 3. Flags made by my mom, Jennifer Gates, from her plethora of beautiful quilting fabrics. 4. These were packets I made that were the escort cards, and a favor; filled with California poppy seeds. 5. A friend of ours, the fabulous Anna Bond, designed our invitations, and gave me the flexibility to hand screen print them myself, which allowed me to use the screens for other purposes as well, such as for our programs! I am obsessed with her work…I find myself lucky to know the lovely lady! 6. My beautiful bouquet, which I assembled myself, from the flowers that our wonderful wedding coordinator, Marky Carr, got for us.
WE’RE MARRIED!!! Vasna got some amazing photos of the two of us together, rejoicing that the day had finally come for us to be husband & wife, partners for life.
The photobooth. This was one of the best things about our wedding. We rented a photobooth from Classic Photobooth Rentals to make up our guestbook, and double as a fun take-away gift for our guests. The result was an INCREDIBLE guestbook, and some insane photos of people having a great time in it. We also had an old typewriter for people to type their notes to us with, and photo corners to adhere the scraps of paper and photobooth strips to the book. We thought this detail to be only fitting of us, considering our engagement (not to mention my obsession with photobooths)!
My beautiful friend, Amy Ross, made our cupcakes for us: Lavender cupcakes with lavender cream cheese icing. Yummm! I made the toppers out of styrofoam letters from Michael’s, which I painted to match our decor. My dad assembled the AMAZING tiered tree cake stand for us. I have it in my home now as decor! I love it. Derek and I chose to serve our cupcakes together, since we didn’t really have anything to “cut” (seems kind of silly to cut a cupcake).
Our first dance was to the song “You and I” by Ingrid Michaelson. I would suggest listening to it if you haven’t heard it before…super sweet. :) Since I LOVE dessert, we had a SECOND dessert during dancing: ICE CREAM CONES! Woo! We served Balsamic Strawberry ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery, out of San Francisco. Marky (our wedding coordinator)’s husband was kind enough to make us that nifty serving box thing for them. Soooo cool, right?
I hope you love our wedding. It is still so magical for me to even think about. It was truly a PERFECT day. Thanks to everyone who helped out!!!
xo
m
Melody Hansen // Blog 