Lisa and Mike's Wedding: the beauty's in the details

This weekend, Hubby and I were honored to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine, Lisa, to her sweetheart, Mike.

Lisa was the incredibly talented graphic designer I hired in my last job, right out of college and we have remained friends even after my leaving. I'm so thankful that, even though I may not have been the easiest person to work for at times (and yes, girls, spare me the examples - I've enough distance to probably fall on my own sword these days) I have been able to maintain many friendships with the people I worked with and for over the past few years.

Ms. Lisa is a beautiful, sweet, tender-hearted, and yet intelligent and grounded woman - I know, right, who gets all those qualities? So unfair! She is also extremely crafty and by that I don't mean sly, I mean she couples her design-eye with crafty hands to match. To top it all off, her now-husband, Mike, is also the creative sort, a successful graphic designer in his own right and, as it turns out, rather thrifty. So, put together creative, crafty Lisa with creative-frugal Mike, and you've got a special sort of do-it-yourself wedding that just couldn't be beat for personal touches.

Like this, the writing on the fans handed out to attendees for the ceremony...



Or this, the whimsical display of photos from Lisa and Mike's time together. By the way, the photos were hung right above a huge canvas of a tree where friends and family could pop their thumb print and name on a branch, instead of a guest book. (I didn't get a photo for this, sorry, the bright sunlight was problematic.) Cool or wot?



And there were the little anecdotes on the back of the table number cards







Or the unique board to help you find your table number





Even the flowers that adorned the aisle were hand-made (yes, meaning, literally that) by Lisa and Mike with fabric they hand-picked to match their color theme





And, of course, they designed the layout (and hand-made some of the elements) of their own little sweetheart table, which was just heart-breakingly adorable, just like the couple themselves.



Of course, Lisa and Mike couldn't be content with writing their own vows, they went 10 steps further and wrote the whole ceremony from start to finish. Which, by the way, was lovely - the perfect length and the appropriate amount of mushiness, gravitass, and personalization. I had tears in my eyes, especially when they used the verse from "These are the hands..." for the hand blessing, someting which Hubby and I also wrote into our wedding and which is still one of my favorite and most touching parts of our whole ceremony.



In fact, everything was perfect, not an element was out of place or out of theme - or if it was, it was so insignificant that it did not notice.

Funnily enough, the one element Lisa and Mike didn't plan down to the last detail, was The First Dance. Yet, by winging it, they managed to hit just the right note yet again: their natural shyness came across as tenderness and the lack of fanfare added to the whimsical note of the whole afternoon.







Plus, there was this thing where one of the waiters looked kind of like a Greek God, but that's another story for another time....

Here, in all her beautious splendor, is the lady of the day herself



I mean, how can you NOT love her??

Oh, and then there was this...



Flippin' A, they pulled out ALL the stops, didn't they?

And yes, Hubby and I were there too, and here's the proof...





And lest we not forget our mutual and good friend, Joe, a God in his own right when it comes to managing an event. I remember the relief when Joe showed up to take the day's events off my hands almost four years ago and I'm sure he did the same for Lisa. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that the lack of anything appearing to go wrong was also somewhat of his doing.



If you want to see more photos from the day, just click here