Wedding // Ceremony

Well, it’ll be 5 years on Friday, so I thought it was about time I shared my wedding! I’ll be sharing it this week over three parts: Getting Ready, the Ceremony, and the Reception and today’s post is all about the “I do’s.”

All photos by Sarah K Chen Photography. But before we just dive into the wedding, here’s a little background:

Our wedding was inspired by the venue. We were married on the porch of the beautiful Hale House at Heritage Square Museum, and we incorporated many elements of “home” into the wedding design. I’m a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, so Alice was included as well with hints of a mad tea party, pink flamingos, doorknobs, and even croquet. The wedding was truly a labor of love. My mom and I spent months scouring Craigslist, the Rose Bowl Flea Market, antique stores, and thrift stores for furniture, decor, and all of the mismatched china. At least half a dozen times we received strange looks on the freeway as we used my mom’s convertible to transport a dresser or cabinet. I also hand-stitched seventy (70!) Save the Date postcards, while my husband, Ken, an illustrator and animator, drew all of the elements for the invitations, and Emily, one of my best friends and an amazingly talented graphic designer, took the drawings and created the invitations. She also created the wedding programs, and calligraphied the envelopes, as well as any other handwritten signs. Emily also handmade my garter and my veil, which used the lace of my mother’s wedding dress. She also helped me make a unique fascinator for each of the bridesmaids. I asked my bridesmaids to simply wear a black dress of their choosing, so the fascinators were a way to make them stand out from the other wedding guests. We also hand-polished the mismatched antique silverware, folded a hundred paper airplanes, and handmade the bunting, garlands, signs, and table numbers. Whew! And it was all worth it!

Both my mom and dad walked me down the aisle to a song from the movie Amelie. It was really important to me that both my parents were included – I don’t know why fathers gets all the credit of “giving away the bride.” And we were married by the High Priestess Wendy. My friend Wendy asked me years ago if she could officiate my wedding if I ever got married. So when Ken asked me to marry him, one of the first questions Wendy asked was if she could still officiate. She was ordained online and got to pick her title, so she went with “High Priestess.” And just a little FYI, the officiant’s title is included on the marriage license which cracks me up! The day before at the rehearsal, the Mister “rehearsed” dropping my ring by miming it slipping up in the air and juggling it back and forth between both hands before the mime ring “fell” down the stairs. Yeah … then he REALLY dropped the ring on the big day. I was not pleased. Luckily, despite bouncing down three stairs, it didn’t fall through any cracks and the Mister was able to retrieve it and quickly shove it on my finger before he dropped it again. After the “Richards and Poorer” and “For better or for worses,” we were then pronounced husband and wife and he kissed his bride. Instead of flowers, rice, or confetti, the guests threw their paper airplane wedding programs at us as we walked back down the aisle. Some aimed for the eyes … And then we took a few more group shots, some serious … … and some less serious. All in all, from the flamingos lining the aisle, to being married by the High Priestess Wendy who was “ordained online for only $39.99”, to the bunting blowing in our faces because it wasn’t hung high enough, to Ken dropping the ring, the ceremony was perfect and truly represented us as a couple! Click here if you missed the “Getting Ready” photos and stay tuned and I’ll post photos of our reception on Friday!