wedding

for months, i've been collecting junk and gluing and cutting and glittering and folding and crafting for the wedding. it was going to be 100% DIY and 100% awesome, i thought. i can do this. after a while i started to wonder what the hell i was thinking. everything in the house, including us, was covered in glue, glitter, embossing powder, and paper scraps, and i was developing carpal tunnel from all the sewing. when we got to the farm friday night, and i saw all the space we had to fill with our boxes of handmade decorations, i nearly had a panic attack. we should have just hired an event planner and a decorator and a goddamn florist, i thought. this is going to be a disaster

now that it's all over, my memory must be blurring exactly how stressful and laborious the process was, because i have to say that a DIY wedding is the way to go. **caveats: i had a ton of time, superhuman bridesmaids, selfless friends, and wendy kim. if you are missing any of these components, you may want to think twice.** our wedding was small, only about 60 guests that we considered the closest of the close. so we designed and handmade every save the date and invitation. i sewed names onto each favor bag, stamped and embossed each escort card, and made a paper flower for every seat. my bridesmaid and new sister evelyn stitched together the programs one by one. i felt like the hand-madeness of it all communicated how special each guest was to us. for the reception area, we worked in the barn with the wedding party and a few incredible and selfless friends until 1AM the night before dragging tables, cutting burlap for tablecloths, filling jars and cups with chili peppers, and cursing at the half-constructed dance floor. in the morning, the bridesmaids and i stripped leaves and dethorned a bunch of flowers and figured out on the spot how to make a bouquet. for our altar, we got a bunch of tree branches from the flower district, and the boys somehow constructed an arch. saying our vows in front of something that my husband and his brothers built made the ceremony extra meaningful. the gift box was an old microscope carrier that sta found in an antique shop and then had carved with our wedding logo and names. our "DJ" was just a playlist put together by chuck and me, until some of the guests took over and put on whatever they wanted. every single person danced, even chuck's grandmother, and the party went on until 4AM.
the wedding felt like a group effort, that slowly came together, even as it was going on, through the efforts of every person present. it wasn't a party put on for us by strangers. every single detail at the wedding-- the signs, the jars of candles and chili peppers, the floral arrangements, the programs, the music, everything, was made by me, chuck, the wedding party, or a guest. we constantly had these * OH SHIT * moments-- the seating chart went missing, we forgot a guestbook, the groom lost his shoes-- but somebody would always somehow save the day. we couldn't have pulled of this crazy half-baked plan without our self-assembled team. i realize also that even if things hadn't looked as fantastic as they did, it would have still been an awesome time. our people were pretty great. so thank you to the wedding party and every single guest who helped out somehow, either by agreeing to MC at the last minute or just by showing off your dance moves. i've never had so much fun in my life, and i'm so grateful that you all were there to usher us into our happily ever after.

(oh, and hi robert.)