Just under nine years ago, my love and I tied the knot. After years of long distance courtship after he found me on - yep - my first blog, multiple trips back and forth across the Pacific, oodles of paid and unpaid time off, and a fair share of drama in between, he asked me and I said yes. This man moved his entire life to be with me, from departing his career of 16 years, saying goodbye to family, leaving his life as an apartment dweller just blocks from the water, and of course walking (or shall I say, flying) away from his home country seventeen time zones away. It was, and we were, absolutely meant to be.
We talked for a long time about what we wanted our special day to look like, and the three ideas that came up the most?
1) It needed to be about us and reflect US, and us alone. Traditions be damned. We would spend the day how we wanted, wear what we wanted, share what we wanted. If someone else didn't like our plans, didn't want to make the time, or grumbled about we chose to invite (or not invite)? They didn't need to come. Period.
2) It needed to be economical. After all, our focus was on building a life together...not racking up a huge credit card bill. And anyhow, our two week honeymoon that we took in the fall would always take precedent in the budget. Our love was already there, the rings were already on our fingers,
3) It needed to be GREEN. Like, no-BS kind of green. The entire process, start to finish, from leaving no trace where we said our vows, to how we dressed, to what we ate, to how it was documented, to how we celebrated afterwards, all needed to honor the planet.
And with that, the avid blogger that I've been since 2008, I created a series of blog posts entitled The Green Wedding Chronicles. From how we kept it simple, to picking a place, to prioritizing what we did and didn't want (and what we couldn't care less about!), to sharing some of the creepy stuff I learned about the most common wedding traditions, to how we wrote our vows and planned our day, to even how we got around that day, I shared my first person account of the three months leading up to the day we said I Do.
Not all the links work since some businesses and websites have moved on in the last 9 years, but I publish the link to this chapter in my life in hopes it might inspire the engaged to slow down and re-think their nuptials, and what it's Really All About...
PS - All photos above (minus the first one I took of my husband when we were scoping out locations and decided upon this little clearing) are by the fantabulous Ashley Courter. She made it easy, she made it memorable, and she was so good I forgot she was there most of the time (a very good thing).
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