We hope you enjoy our very first real wedding on our blog!
- Ainsley & Madison
The Refinery Girls
We met in an acting class, and I was the teacher. We were Facebook friends, and kept in touch after the class was over by writing seriously long messages to each other, every day. It became obvious that maybe we should start having conversations in person, so we started dating.
We got engaged after a dinner out to celebrate our anniversary. We had just moved into our new condo, life was sort of hectic, so we went for a lovely dinner, but said we wouldn't buy any presents. When we got home, I was lying on our bed, chatting away, Shane was sort of half listening, pacing around, still wearing his coat. He came to the side of the bed, knelt down and said, "I got you a present", and pulled out a little box from his pocket. I froze, he told me to open it, I did and then gasped, looking at him, waiting for him to say something...but he didn't! He just knelt there, unable to speak, staring at me. I said, "is this...?", he said, "yeah...you wanna?" At which point I started laughing and said yes.
We had 70 guests. Our wedding song was Ingrid Michaelson singing Elvis Presley's "I Cant Help Falling In Love with You". The song made us both cry when we heard it, it's achingly beautiful, Shane sort of looks Ike Elvis, and it seemed appropriate, because it was so true for us.
Favourite moment: so many! For me, one moment was when I started to come down the stairs and I saw Shane waiting for me, it became real and lovely. To see him standing there, to see all our friends and family in this beautiful place, ready to witness our marriage, it was more powerful than I expected. My nerves left me, as I relaxed and started to enjoy the moment.
Also, sitting down to dinner, at one point I looked around and saw all these people I love, enjoying themselves, eating this delicious food, laughing, talking' enjoying themselves...it was magical. Midnight was pretty amazing as well! We handed out all sorts of noisemakers, so everyone joined in the countdown and then made crazy noise! Everyone was kissing everyone else for a Happy New Year! It was wonderful.
The bridemaid's lanterns were pretty special to me. I got some jars, filled them with mini Christmas balls and mini led lights and used them instead of bouquets. The ceremony was at night, so it was lovely to have glowing lanterns. I also loved the favours - I spray-painted little wooden hearts and stars gold, silver, and copper, and then glued them to mini-clothespins, added magnets, and clipped escort cards to them. Guests started clipping them to their ties, and dresses, almost like pretty little name cards! It made me laugh. I don't know if people kept them but we have a few on our fridge for holding cards and notes.
I also loved the bridesmaid dresses. All the girls looked so lovely and sophisticated. It took me a long time to decide on black; I wanted pale pink or soft gold as those were the colours I was going for, but all the pink/gold dresses just didn't look great. When we found these dresses at a BCBG factory outlet, I balked because they were black. After sleeping on it, I went back (well, more specifically, Bethan, one of my bridesmaids went back) and bought them. I'm so glad I did!
We went on a mini-moon to Leavenworth, WA. It's this little Bavarian-style town, covered in snow and Christmas lights. So magical! We stayed at the Solstice Spa, had massages, steams, hot tub soaks, a fireplace in our room. It was incredible. Relaxing, beautiful, just what we needed. Now we have some time to save up for and plan a real honeymoon!
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Vendor List:
Venue: Cork & Fin
Dress: Sposa Wedding World
Tux: Moores
Flowers: Amy at Garden Party Flowers
Hair: Barb Whiteman for Colourbox
Invitations: DIY
Wedding Favours: DIY
Music for ceremony/reception: iPod - we used the app "Wedding DJ"
Catering: Provided by Cork & Fin
Photographer: Bake Photography
