Y'all, this wedding. The sweetest moments. Lovely humans. Awesome rentals : )
Read below Colleen's Q&A!
Did you have something borrowed, blue, old, and new? If so, do tell!
A few special people and pieces were involved in this tradition:
My sister (and officiant of our wedding) gave me a beautifully blue & turquoise beaded clutch from anthropologie featuring a floral design within the beading (new & blue)
My mother-in-law gave me a vintage handkerchief she found at a vintage market festival in Arizona (old)
My sister's mother-in-law (and who is the truest definition of a grandmother to our daughter) let me borrow a blue diamond cluster ring she got in Puerto Rico (borrowed & blue)
City Park Wedding with Sculpted Films and Lovegood Wedding & Event Rentals in New Orleans, Louisiana with Mismatched Chairs | Vintage Rentals with Rustic, Boho Details
Describe your wedding flowers.
I am so fortune to have a good friend who's a triple threat! Her and her husband are a cinematography/photography duo based out of Michigan in addition to her "adorned floral" company. Adorned Floral (Brittany) created a bouquet of organically grown garden roses from California, heavy on the tropical greens. In a soft, muted bridal color palette with pops of the signature purple and gold as a nod to Nola.
She created our daughter's flower crown in the same fashion. Along with our cake topper, with the addition of berries and macaroons.
As for the rest of the wedding, one of the reasons we picked New Orleans was for it's natural aesthetic so we didn't use flowers in any other fashion - assorted greenery garlands on the tables with white pillar candles and metallic votives.
What readings, if any, did you have at your ceremony?
My sister/officiant had us take the love language test and we both hit on "quality time". So she picked a reading on our behalf that spoke to that. We are not religious in the traditional sense, but it's very platonic advice.
“In his recent piece, “Joy of Love” Pope Francis speaks to the fine art of deepening love through time.
Love needs time and space; everything else is secondary.
Time is needed to talk things over, to embrace leisurely, to share plans,
to listen to one other and gaze in each other's eyes,
to appreciate one another and to build a stronger relationship.
Sometimes the frenetic pace of our society and the pressures of the workplace create problems.
At other times, the problem is the lack of quality time together --sharing the same room without one even noticing the other.
Instead of offering an opinion or advice, we need to be sure that we have heard everything the other person has to say. ... Often the other spouse does not need a solution to his or her problems, but simply to be heard, to feel that someone has acknowledged their pain, their disappointment, their fear, their anger, their hopes and their dreams.
Love trusts-- it sets free-- it does not try to control, possess and dominate everything. This freedom -- which fosters independence, an openness to the world around us and to new experiences-- can only enrich and expand relationships.
What was your most memorable moment about your wedding day?
When I looked out and really took in all those who came to celebrate our love. We didn't have an intimate guest list, but a smaller list (so I hear?) of maybe 140 guests and 120 people showed up for us...or for New Orleans (ha). I guessed maybe around 80, due to the statistical percentage of how many guests decline for local and destination weddings. Nope, just pretty much our entire guest list. Only a few local guests but other than that, everyone made time out of their busy lives to come together for us. I was beyond moved by every single one of them. That's pretty magical.
Tell us about some of the songs you used throughout your wedding and why you chose them.
Ellie's Badge - from the soundtrack to "Up". Our daughter, Z, walked down the aisle to it as the flower girl while a friend played acoustic guitar. Up is the sweetest pixar movie about forever love and it's meaning always stuck with me.
Postcards from Italy - Beirut. Bride's walk down the isle to acoustic guitar and friend's beautiful voice. It's a song that makes us think about each other and the personal success of our relationship through good and bad. And how at the end of the day, we choose us. It's an uplifting, promising kind of song. It really hit me when it says "when she will marry me outside with the willow trees" - they were oak trees, but i'll take it.
You Make My Dreams - Hall and Oates. Our entrance song at the reception. Sam's favorite band of all time - we were hall & oates for halloween one year... we had to pay tribute.
Our Love - Gary Clark Jr. Our first dance. We love the blues! And we're known to have a very passionate kind of relationship. We embrace it and so does this song.
What’s next for you as a couple? What memories are you looking forward to making together?
We just returned from the adventure of a lifetime kinda honeymoon - 2 1/2 weeks in Thailand.
We're really looking forward to continuing to build off of what we began 4years ago. A business, remodeling and creating our home, adding to our sweet little family, and filling our lives with adventures along the way. I love the evolution of a good love story, no matter the ending, and I'm looking forward to ours.
Favorite detail of the wedding was:
The second line! I'm not from New Orleans but I'm so glad our wedding planner, Emily, highly recommended it and personally knew Daryl Dancin' Man. We got down. It was groovy. I hear they say down there, you're not officially married until you have the second line - well it's official now!
What advice do you have for folks currently planning a wedding? Never lose sight of the reason why you're getting married. Turns out no matter how big or small, or casual or fancy, the planning and stress you give it can get to you. It's all worth it in the end if you keep that in mind and create a genuine memory that represents your love. Real love.
When did y’all get married?
Friday, October 12th 2018
With the help of local friend and our wedding planner, Emily, she suggested October as the most neutral month as far as weather goes. And I liked the sound of all the even numbers in the date we chose to spare me of my superstitions. Not to mention everyone down there said it had rained for 13 days or so straight right up until that week and there was a hurricane in Florida and a crazy storm in Texas, yet the sky gifted us with a clearing on our wedding dat
How did y’all meet? Tell us your love story.
My sister happens to be married to one of Sam's brother's best friends, and a close friend of Sam's as well. He had moved back to this little town we both grew up in a year after I had returned and we had mutual friends. We pursued an interested in one another Halloween night 2014. I was a skeleton and I thought he was a poor effort of a skeleton as well...turns out he was just a skunk. It was during a time that I was working on my own self healing and a single mom. He never pushed for my time and patiently waited 6 months to meet my better half - my daughter, Z.
Tell us all about the proposal!
It's a sweet, silly proposal because I have a sweet, silly partner. He proposed the day after Christmas 2016, the night before we flew out to Vegas to celebrate his mother's birthday. I have this weird thing about needing my house spotless before I leave on a trip and our then 3year old was on a bed-time strike 'til an hour before - so i'm flustered, fyi. It was about 11pm and I had a face masque on and a toilet brush in my hand. He is a wood worker, on the side, and made me this beautiful jewelry box, lined it with faux fur, etched on the lid 'will you marry me?', and had the ring in it. I was so in my own head about my last minute to-do list that I said "that's a really nice box", like cool i'm busy - took me a minute to realize he was proposing! I said yes, kissed him, then went about my way. We were both slightly disappointed I think. When I was done doing everything, I got in to bed and cried because he knows I can't relax when I have an agenda and he couldn't wait like a couple more hours....but what I was actually upset about was that I couldn't drop everything and live in the moment with him - but I wasn't going to tell him that 'til the next day because I'm stubborn. Opposites attract, right? The next day he "proposed" again with our daughter - they hid and jumped out and she had the ring box. It was funny and sweet and all three of us were able to live in that moment. It was all perfect...both times.
Photographer: Sculpted Films - based out of Michigan Videographer: Sculpted Films Planner: Emily Swietlik, owner of Swietstuff Designs and local event coordinator Venue: Ceremony - City Park , Reception - Palatial 1851 Southern Estate on Esplanade by Stayloom Properties (vrbo for the win) Florist: Adorned Floral - based out of Michigan (assorted greenery garlands from Costo and they were amazing)
Wedding Cake: KD Nola Treats Caterer: Kenny's Cajun Creole food truck, outsourced by Roaming Hunger Vintage Rentals: Lovegood Wedding & Event Rentals Paper Products: Masks curated by Swietstuff Designs. Otherwise we created the majority of our wedding from amazon and etsy Bride’s Gown: Lover's Society purchased from a Lovely Bride store in Scottsdale, AZ Bridal Salon: AJ's Wicked Salon and Spa - friends and coworkers who traveled from rapid city, south dakota Hair and Makeup: Molly @ajswicked - makeup , Brooke @ajswicked - hair , along with Kylie and Jade Bridesmaids’ Dresses: no wedding party. Daughter's flower girl dress - Tea Princess AU , Sister/Officiant's dress - Reformation Menswear: J.Crew