i’m truly not very romantic. i have very few fantasies about white horses or moonlight dinners or sunsets.
we got engaged on christmas eve, my husband had dutifully kept his extra gift secret. he asked my mother’s permission via text message. when the time came, he handed me the box and said, “ya know i want to marry you, right?”
i took me a minute to realize he meant – soon. like for real.
oh! yes.
so like any bride who works at a place that sells copious amounts of magazines, i bought every bridal magazine i could get my hands on. what i wouldn’t give to have that money back! although i knew that my wedding would be represented no where in their glossy pages. i bought a wedding gown in january. it was beautiful if inexpensive as these things go. i toiled to create a wedding around this gown.
i just didn’t work. it wasn’t me. i was depressed and stressed and a mess. from january until july, i hmmmed and haaaawed over ideas – not details, mind you. ideas. finally, we decided on a casual preparty and then a small ceremony a few weeks later. plans never really solidified on the ceremony although somehow i got my act together enough to pull together the party.
the week before the party, mike & i said “screw it. what the hell? this isn’t us.” we arranged to get married at the party. no fancy dresses, no silk ties, no pomp, no circumstance. i wore a cream jcrew jersey skirt & hoodie, mike wore shorts. we surprised our family and friends and had great fun. we exchanged rings and that was that.
i wish i could tell you that i had all sorts of fancy diys or clever details. i didn’t. although, it was all diy! we had bbq and cupcakes and there was lots of beer. the most memorable part was watching the kids beat the tar out of a pinata. all the kids got to give it a good whack before mike’s nephew finally opened the sucker up and the kids started grabbing up candy.
so… it’s almost wedding season in the states. it’s time to think weddings for a bit! here’s how we scout wednesdays work:
- write a blog post or post a flickr photo related to weddings in some way.
- link back to scoutie girl or this post. you can also grab my button on the left sidebar.
- then come back here and leave your link in the “mr. linky” below. and then check out other scouts!
Tara Gentile is a business coach and blogger serving passion-driven entrepreneurs with fresh ideas about 
Very excited about this we scout Wednesday! Everyone loves to talk about their wedding, right? Tara, yours looks perfectly you which is… well, perfect! love that you surprised everyone so there wouldn’t be a big hoopla.
Thanks is awesome, Tara, thanks so much for posting it! I’m getting married in August and when we first got engaged–mine did the Christmas present surprise too–I ran out and bought a bunch of bridal magazines and started planning like crazy. The pressure very quickly got to me–trying to make both families happy and the pressure to have a super amazing wedding since I’m an artist and I think people expect something fantastic. So I very quickly ditched the planning and the ideas and we decided to just elope on our summer trip to the beach. I give major props to those girls who can pull off a big wedding, but it’s just not me!
I’ve been thinking about my own wedding so much lately as I work with brides. Thanks for being the catalyst to writing this post.
PS Your wedding looks awesome!
I LOVE your wedding. So casual and more about the two of you then all the shenagins that weddings can become. There are so many silly expectations with weddings and it is always refreshing to see a couple break down the barriers and just focus on their love – not garter belts
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Thanks for sharing pictures of your special day! Weddings have been inspiring me lately. I linked to a piece that I just completed. Weddings are so special… my husband are going to be celebrating ten years this year.
I love your wedding. You are so right. A lot of people just get too caught up in wedding fever and it makes them super stressed out. They soon forget about the original purpose of weddings: They are about marrying the love of your life. Not about the decor, food, centerpieces or dessert and all that stuff.
That being said, I am currently caught up in all the buzz around weddings as I just got engaged. I love browsing and posting about all things weddings. But I know as the day gets closer, we will just want a casual party for family and friends to eat a nice meal and just relax with none of the hoopla and stress. You are such an inspiration!
What a spectacular day!!! I’m so glad the weather was nice so you could make it work – wow! Love that pic of you looking over your shoulder and laughing – so candid and pretty! Thanks for sharing!
Matt and I wanted to have a bbq in his parents’ backyard, and it turned into a small too-elegant-for-me affair – too much coersion from parental forces. OY! It poured ALLL day tho so the tent in the yard as opposed to volleyball may have been a good thing!
Hi Tara,
This is the first blog type thing I have participated in and it’s fun! I was having a hard time coming up with a blog post about weddings that wouldn’t seem totally out of left field compared to what I have been blogging about lately (painting a surfboard), but I had a stroke of inspiration and found something I could post about weddings that would fit in perfectly with my other posts of late.
I LOVE how your wedding came together! I also love that you were trying to go down that more traditional road and found your way back to something that fit you – thanks for sharing that process. I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of wedding I might want, and I don’t think traditional would fit me at all either, so it’s really great and refreshing to see the way you did it.
-Kristen
That article was great; thanks for posting it! I recently got engaged and am also the big ol’ unromantic sort. I honestly never thought I’d get married and was never one of those girls who dreamed about her wedding growing up.
My fiancee has been married before and desperately wants to avoid all the drama and stress he went through the 1st time. We’re trying to find a way to keep it cheap and stress-free. No $5000 cakes for me! I read this blog out loud to him and we both agreed that this was more like the type of wedding we’d prefer. Thanks again!
Oh, Tara, what a wonderful story. How awesome that however untraditional it may have been, it reflected the two of YOU!
Although my wedding had a lot of the more traditional stuff, it too reflected the things that were most important to Andrew and I: Family, friends, good food (and beer, we had kegs from a local brewpub), good music, and lots of hands on involvement! (we made all the hors d’oeuvres, set up and decorated all the tables and chairs), my Auntie Candy arranged all the flowers I had purchased from the flower market the day before, and my dress: designed by me and an awesome seamstress, the main detail was lots of handmade lace brought back from Europe during WWI by my hubby’s great-aunt Tressie!
You know, looking back almost 18 years ago, I can see that how we planned and executed that day was a template for how we’ve been living our lives ever since, and I couldn’t be happier with how it’s been turning out!
[...] Check out more on awesome weddings on scoutie girl! [...]
I absolutely love this and I love these photos. I need to see more stories of unconventional weddings like this one. It reassures me that I’m not the only one not interested in a princess fairytale wedding. Congratulations!
I’ve loved reading your blog for several months, but this is my first post. And what a great topic! Loved your pics and I love how everyone interprets a happy wedding in different ways – anything goes, really.
Since Dave and I’d both been married before we went for a small, intimate gathering of family and friends with a non-denominational (I’m Catholic and he’s Baptist) ceremony the park – St James Court in Old Louisville. Turned out a beautiful spring day and a beautiful ceremony – hard to believe it’s been two years!
[...] post for my anniversary in august. But Tara Gentile at Scoutie Girl challenged me today with her We Scout Wednesdays and so i’m posting all my wedding-y goodness a little [...]
ok…i’m a sucker for weddings. they were the focus of my life for almost 6 years! so i posted and i just love Mr. Linky
my only problem was trying to choose/edit what photos i should post! don’t ya’ll love EVERY pic from your wedding?? hahaha.
thanks for the awesome post tara. you totally know yourself and are never afraid to express it. it’s so genuine. so likeable and real.
Tara your wedding, I think, is even more beautiful without all the glitz and glamor. After all, a wedding is about love and commitment. Sometimes we forget that:) I’m glad you guys pulled it together your way. And what a cute couple you are! Thanks so much for sharing.
Wow, Tara, Your story is just great. It takes real self awareness to realize what truly makes you happy and I give you alot of credit for not going with a cookie cutter wedding! Good for you! And I am sure that it was much less stressful.
[...] to Scoutie Girl for the inspiration on her post! [...]
Your wedding looked perfect! So important to stay true to who you are. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos with us.
You have no idea how much this post hits home for me. Though I am not officially married yet Juan and I know we want to get married. But besides budget, something big and fancy just isn’t us. I keep thinking about having it be low key yet cheerful and celebratory. For example if I lived in a house and not an apartment, I would just do it in our back yard. Well, we’ll see what happens in the month/year to come. I’m so happy for you and congrats. I’m glad the day was a success!!!!
Oh Tara! Your wedding photos are perfect…the whole story is! Congrats to you and thank you for sharing your story. Looking forward to wedding season!!
What a lovely story Tara; as my hubby said while we were dealing with the stressful details of wedding planning “I’m happy as long as we both say ‘I do!’” It can be so easy to lose what’s important about the day in the midst of all the planning and scheduling and budgeting. At the end of the day your wedding has to make you and your groom happy! Everything else should just fall by the wayside.
Thanks for the fun wedding scout!
Our 2005 wedding & reception was held in the garden at the pottery studio I worked out of at the time. It was pretty much just a big picnic. The thing that my husband and I were most excited about was getting all of our friends together in one place. Then we went to Texas for the Austin City Limits Music Festival for our honeymoon. It all suited us very well.
I LOVE, LOVE , LOVE non-traditional weddings. Whatever works perfectly for you is the best! Your wedding looks like it was lovely. xoxo
I’m nowhere near the point of hearing wedding bells with my guy just yet…but your wedding sounds like my fantasy wedding (whenever it happens)! Thank you for a lovely post that warmed my heart and makes the case that it’s not about the pomp and circumstance of one single day – it’s about the lifelong commitment that is a result of that day.
from PA also…
just found your blog …. awesome!
I am off to read more now …look forward to reading more of your posts…I love weddings that are outside the box
Holy cow! I am so tired I can’t think straight, but I was determined to have my photos done, my write ups done, my etsy page done… just so i could do this link! I hope the blog write up still makes sense when i read it in the morning LOL. Thanks again for doing this, it is great to be part of your (not so) little community! I can’t wait to read through these… but I think I will wait till the am
Cheers!
~A
[...] I know we just had our 2 year anniversary and I posted some photos last month, but I saw this post on Scoutie Girl today and just had to participate. How sweet! I love Tara’s story and with every wedding [...]