John & Rachel’s Wedding

I’ve been to 4 weddings recently, so I’m going to work backwards getting them posted here!

Last weekend, I attended John and Rachel’s wedding in Lynchburg, VA.  The ceremony was held in a church, and the reception was held at Timberlake Tavern – a beautiful old white building that opened in 1929 as a hotel for rich Lynchburgers (in 1910 Lynchburg had the 3rd highest average income in America! Who knew??!).

I don’t know how much they spent on their wedding, but there were a few things they did to save money:

1. Getting married outside the city – the further away from expensive cities you can be, the more money you can save on the catering and venue.  Lynchburg is 3 hours south of DC (it was the bride’s home town).
2. Rather than renting cloth napkins, silverware, and crockery, they used clear plastic plates (much nicer looking than white paper ones), tumblers, and cutlery.  They also had paper napkins embossed with their names.  While this method is a lot cheaper, the downside is the un-greenness of it (is that a word?!).
3. The bouquets were simple and small, using flowers that were in season (gerberas).  The bouquets seemed pretty simple so they could have easily done them themselves, but they had them professionally done.

Here’s some pics from the day:

John and Rachel leaving the church - everyone lined up to blow bubbles. I loved the bridesmaids bouquets! On another note, the day ended up being quite hot, so if you plan to be outside for any part of your day, remember: sunscreen!

Since the reception hall had limited parking, the guests parked in a nearby field and a limo-bus shuttled everyone to the reception. I wish we'd known in advance - it was so hot and I got burnt!

I love this! Not only do you have the bridesmaid in the front getting really concentrated on catching that bouquet, but you have two girls in the back strangling each other in an attempt to get it! (the bridesmaid caught it!)

One of my friends wore a similar outfit to me! Had to get a shot (I'm on the right)

They made their own imitation Moo cards with a few different engagment pictures and the photographer's info on the back

The lemon and lime filled centerpieces were on the food tables. They had small bud vases with 4 gerberas on each of the guests tables. As much as I love big centerpieces, small ones are much better on wedding tables - otherwise guests feel like they are talking to a big bush instead of their friend on the opposite side of the table (and will probably relocate your beautiful centerpiece on the floor).

Here's their wedding cake and groom's cake. The groom's cake was made by a close relative and reflected John's passion for playing the piano. Speaking of groom's cakes, I went to a bday party recently with a Wii remote shaped cake! So cool!

All of us on the steps of Timberlake Tavern, farwelling the newlyweds.

Overall, this wedding was a lot of fun! A number of my friends were there, and since we were all 3 hours from home, everyone stayed till the very end.  The inside of the tavern was rather small, so the guests tables were scattered all around the place – on the porch, inside, and under a tent.  Since we were so dispersed, everyone wandered around from table to table for most of the reception.  The DJ made sure to have plenty of speakers set up around the place so everyone could hear everything easily.