Ingrid and Brandon

Have you ever heard that rain on your wedding day is good luck? If so, then we can all agree that according to this legend, Ingrid and Brandon will have lots of luck in their future. Saturday was a beautiful day. Yes, it rained but not until after Ingrid and Brandon were at the church where they would stay dry. It rained while they finished getting ready but stopped raining for pictures. Then it rained for the ceremony but stopped raining while the guests waited outside to blow bubbles at the newlyweds. Now… I call that lucky!

The church was beautiful, especially with the candles lighting the alter that the church provided. They were the most beautiful candle arrangements I have seen. In fact, I am putting those on my "to purchase" list. I would love to have those available for my brides to rent if it fits in with their style.

Julie and I arrived at 8:30 to start decorating the reception. By the time we were done, the room was beautiful. Beth Maxwell with Save the Date provided the chair covers and Scott with Sound and Light creations provided lighting. I believe that the chair covers and the lighting really added a new element to this room. Ingrid also had a beautiful, 3-tier ivory cake with sage green ribbon from Cake Connections. Julie had a lot of fun setting up her candy buffet… which was a huge hit. I heard guests continuously remark about how much they loved this idea. Ingrid's centerpieces were three vases of varying heights on a mirror. Each vase was filled with water and a floating candle. Around the mirror was a thick ring of fresh rose petals. They weren't spread out… but they were bunched together to form a tight ring. I loved it. I really liked the look they gave the table. If you ever want to do something similar, it takes about 1 gallon to cover 3 tables. We also spread the roses between each row of table name tents (used for the assigned seating), around the outer edge of the cake table and head tables, and on the cocktail tables. They were beautiful.

The ceremony and reception went pretty smoothly, however Ingrid and Brandon did have two "gentlemen" who decided to attend the reception without an invitation. Fortunately, one of the bridesmaids notices these two men enter the reception in their white T-shirts, blue jeans, and baseball caps. She immediately asked Ingrid if she knew who they were. When Ingrid realized they were "wedding crashers" she told me and I asked them to leave. They played dumb acting like they didn't realize they were at someone else's reception. I informed security and followed them out. I watched them walk across the parking lot to the Hampton Inn. After this, I had security call the Hampton to ensure they didn't "crash" a wedding there. That was the last we saw of them. Who knows why they came… maybe it was just to check things out or maybe it was to try and get free drinks. They could have also been after the gifts… specifically the cards. This is just a reminder to everyone… that you should always keep your gift table as far away from the entrance/exit doors as possible.

Overall, the ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. I enjoyed working with Ingrid and Brandon. Hopefully now that she might have some more time on her hands again, she will be able to get some more weddings on her own plate for her videographer business. She is EXCELLENT!

If you would like to see some photos of the wedding, Pam Cooley has some posted on her blog. Pam is a very talented photographer who is a lot of fun to work with. You can see some of these photos at http://www.pamcooleyphotos.com/# . (click on 'blog')

Finally, I just want to send out another big Congratulations to Ingrid and Brandon! :)