The Wedding Post – Part 1

Wow!  What a whirlwind this last week has been for my family!  As many of you know, my oldest daughter, Nicole, just got married last weekend at our cabin, so last week was filled with wedding preparations and festivities.  The wedding was absolutely fabulous and we couldn’t be happier for Nicole and her new husband, Nate, as they start their lives together!!

All week long we were busy running errands and finishing up craft projects, but by Thursday, things were really starting to heat up…..people started arriving in town…..tuxes were picked up……nails were manicured…..the groomsmen all got away for the bachelor party….and so on.  Friday was the day that the cabin was transformed into a beautiful wedding venue.  I was snapping pictures all week to try and capture the transformation.  By the time the tents were up and all of the decorations were in place, you could hardly recognize that this was our cabin, it looked so amazing!

Today I’m going to share with you some of the pictures that I took leading up to the wedding as well as a few from the wedding.  Once the day of the wedding arrived, I didn’t take as many pictures myself, I let the photographers take care of that.  A part 2 post will come once we have those pictures to share!

Welcome to the Hitzeman cabin!

We began the week with a champagne toast to Nicole and Nate.

Then the work began with last minute craft projects, like finishing up the place cards for dinner.

Things were heating up on Thursday as the groomsman picked up their tuxes and had their bachelor party.  We girls went and had our nails done, with manicures for Nicole and Kelly and pedicures for Nate’s mom, my mother-in-law and me!

After our nails were done, we met up with some of our relatives that had traveled all the way from Omaha, NE to be part of the big day.  We had a great time catching up at dinner!

Then it was Friday and the transformation of the yard began.  At 9 am the crew arrived to put up the tents and tables and what a process that was!

While the tents were being set up, there were lots of twinkle lights being put up all over the property.  I’m pretty sure we had enough lights to light up the entire city of Baxter, MN!  They were strung on the front porch, the back deck, the dock and down the driveway.  Once the tents were up, lights were also strung all around the inside of them.  It was absolutely gorgeous when everything was lit up after dark!

Inside the house, flower bouquets were being made to put in mason jars that were going to be hung from shepherd’s hooks to decorate the aisle.

Once the crew was done setting up the tents, they set up the tables.  It was hard to imagine that almost 150 people were going to be able to be seated for dinner.  But then we went in and added the linens and center pieces and things started to come together.  The center pieces were the cutest thing, too!  Nicole had the idea to spray paint wine bottles with chalkboard paint and write the table numbers on them with chalk.  She then wrapped twine around the neck of the bottle and attached a piece of chalk so that the guests could write notes to Nicole and Nate.  They had a lot of fun reading all of the messages the next day.

Once everything was done with the tents, we got to work setting up the chairs and the aisle decorations for the ceremony.  We were so thankful that there was no rain in the forecast and we could set up the ceremony outside instead of inside one of the tents.  That way we were able to set the second tent up for the dance and the bar and didn’t have to move anything but chairs after the ceremony.

It looked very chaotic as we started setting the chairs up, but eventually it all came together perfectly.

We were all SO pleased with the aisle decoration.  We alternated the mason jar floral bouquets with groupings of different sized logs.  It turned out to be elegant and rustic and was perfect for the outdoor setting.

Finally the set-up was finished!  I have to say it would not have gone as smoothly as it did if it were not for the help of so many friends and family.  Everyone who was over that day did a great job of pitching in and getting things done and I would like to send out a big thank you to all of you!!

Now that the set-up was complete, it was time to get cleaned up and move on to the rehearsal and the groom’s dinner.

After the rehearsal, we moved on to the groom’s dinner, which was a lovely picnic at a local park.  It was a great time for catching up with the wedding party as well as friends and family who had already come to town.

Finally the big day had arrived!  The bridal party had all spent the night at our cabin and we were up early the next morning to get ready.  We started the day with bagels and coffee and then we were off to the salon to get our hair done.  Once we ladies had left the cabin, the groomsmen all came over to finish up the last minute details for the day.

After we finished at the salon, we came back to the cabin and it was time to help Nicole get her wedding dress on and get ourselves ready.

Once Nicole was ready, she walked down to the beach and surprised Nate by coming up behind him and covering his eyes.  We all watched this from a bedroom window and it was so sweet!  The photographers then took pictures of just the two of them.  While this was going on the bridal party finished getting ready and the groomsman started arriving.

Before the pictures started with the whole wedding party, the bouquets and boutonnieres were passed out.  I will digress for a moment to let you know that Nate, along with most of the groomsmen, are HUGE Wisconsin Badger fans (notice the all the red in the wedding party).  Since he is such huge fan, Nicole had managed to order red and white Badger ribbon that the florist used to make his boutonniere.  As you can see from the picture, he was thrilled!

Now they were ready for pictures!

Before we knew it, it was time for the ceremony.  At this point, I put away my camera and enjoyed being mother of the bride, focused on the ceremony and let the photographers do their job.  It was an absolutely beautiful ceremony, everything was perfect!

Once the reception began, I did take my camera out again and was able to snap a few more photos.  We had a delicious dinner that started with a fresh summery salad with raspberries, mixed greens and a raspberry vinaigrette.  The whole salad was wrapped with a long, thin slice of English cucumber and accompanied with a fresh breadstick.  The salad was followed by the guest’s choice of chicken florentine, beef short ribs or vegetable fettucine alfredo.  Dinner ended with the guests being served either white or chocolate cake with a custard filling and the wedding party enjoyed red velvet cake!

While everyone was enjoying dinner there were several other things going on.  Of course there was glass-clinking (everyone wants to see the new couple kiss!).  Nicole and Nate were very clever, though.  Every time the glasses started clinking and they stood up to kiss, they also stood up and drew a name of another couple out of a bag.  That couple had to stand up and kiss, as well.  I think there was probably more clinking because everyone wanted to see who else was going to kiss.  My brother and sister-in-law were one of the “lucky” couples!

As the main course was wrapping up, the speeches and toasting began.  First Steve, with the father of the bride toast, then the best man, Ryan, with his toast and finally Kelly, with the maid of honor toast.  Each toast was very heartfelt with just the right amount of humor thrown in to give everyone a little laugh!

After the cake, it was time for the dance to begin and everyone moved over to the other tent.  Keeping with tradition, Nicole and Nate had the first dance, but they threw in a very fun twist.  They started out dancing to Frank Sinatra, but shortly after they began their dance, the music stopped.  They looked at each other in total (mock) confusion as a different song started and the whole dance party ran out to the dance floor.  At that point, they all performed a total choreographed dance!  It was so much fun to watch!

Then for the next 3 1/2 hours, there was lots of dancing, visiting, hugging and congratulating.  We knew it was a good time when at midnight, the music stopped and no one could believe that the party was actually over!

The final festivity of the weekend was the gift opening.  A fairly large group of us made our way over to my sister-in-law, Cady’s house for a lunch hosted by Steve’s parents to watch Nicole and Nate open their gifts.

Now the happy couple is enjoying a honeymoon to Orlando and a cruise for some much deserved relaxation!