Homegrown Wedding

Our Ceremony

Sarah — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:51:11 -0500

Our ceremony took place on the grounds of Pineland Farms near one of the fishing ponds. It was a gorgeous, sunny Autumn day. Just perfect! We were married under a beautiful arbor built by our brother-in-law, Jason, & his father in the weeks leading up to our wedding. We were so lucky to have them build this for us, & it now sits in our backyard! Our florist, Minott's Flowers, covered the arbor with the most goreous dinner plate dahlias & hydrangeas that I had ever seen. Guests were picked up from the various parking lots & the houses they were staying in by the trolley. I was not nervous until the very moment the trolley came to pick us up...this was it!

Rich's parents & Rich's sister's fiance, Dominic.

Our brother-in-law, & builder of the arbor, Jason, & my mother.

Our sisters, Deb & Jessica.

My cousins, Samantha & Megan, handed out the programs.

The arbor was placed in front of the gazebo that was already there.

My cousin, Susan, did one of the readings. Rich's friend, Dave, did a second reading.

Here we are exchanging vows. This was my favorite part of the ceremony because we wrote our own vows & memorized them. We wrote our vows separately & did not share them, so they were a complete surprise! Rich went first & two lines into his vows I suddenly realized...we were inspired by the same exact poem! Out of the zillions of poems & wedding vows one may choose from we picked the same one! Of course he had no idea until I started saying my vows. Only a handful of people knew we wrote our vows separately & they just broke out laughing {as did we!}.

{photo by Rich's friend, Ben Gabriel}

Our friends Sky & Dickie {who are married} played the music during our ceremony which included "In my Life" by The Beatles & "One Love" by Bob Marley. They did an amazing job.

Rich with his best man & best friend since high school, Shiloh.

My memere & me.

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Our Wedding Party

Sarah — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:11:02 -0500

Rich & I did not see each other until I walked down the aisle. We took photos with our wedding party before the ceremony to save some time & to ensure we were not late to our own reception. I took photos with my bridemaids at the Equestrian Center & Rich was with his groomsmen at the home where they got ready.

My sister & maid of honor, Jess, & my mother.

Boys will be boys...with Budweiser.

Those horses were so beautiful. Tomorrow, the ceremony!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Getting Ready

Sarah — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:06:54 -0500

All the ladies {plus my dad} got ready at the Loft which is above the Equestrian center at Pineland Farms. It was a gorgeous & huge space for everyone to spread out. My sister, Jess, & I were up early, but we laid in bed watching random youtube videos {including this ridiculous one}, most likely to easy our nervousness about the day. My friend & bridesmaid, Deana is a hairstylist & she & her friend arrived early to start on our hair. We had a breakfast of champagne & pastries, the ladies did their nails, we laughed, shared stories, & relaxed.

My something old was a 4-strand necklace with beads that belonged to my 96 year-old Memere {who was at our wedding with my 95 year-old Pepere!}. My something new was my dress. My something borrowed was a watch that belongs to my mother-in-law that was given to her by her mother. My something blue was my garter given to me by my sister. Our ring bearer bowl was from Palomas Nest.

I collected vintage handkerchiefs with all of my bridesmaids' & our moms' initials on them & gave them as gifts that morning.

My dress was a BCBG Max Azria.

My sister-in-law, Deb, made all of the necklaces for the bridesmaids, inspired by the amazing necklaces of Elva Fields.

While I was getting my hair done, I had no idea Jess was still writing her maid-of-honor speech!

Deb did my make-up as well!

The bridesmaids' dresses were from David's Bridal.

Our gorgeous flowers were by Minotts Flowers, & I will share many more photos of those beauties in a few posts!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Our Welcome Dinner Lobsterbake

Sarah — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:42:46 -0500

The few days leading up to our wedding were crazy. Just crazy. Not even for me necessarily, but for my family. I will get to those reasons in a few posts, but it resulted in my dad & brother-in-law, Jason, not making it to the rehearsal.

They did make it time for the most delicious lobsterbake catered by Fosters Downeast Clambake. Our venue, Pineland Farms, owns a number of houses that guests may rent, & we had our welcome dinner at the house Rich's parents rented for the weekend. Fosters did all of the baking on-site as well as all of the serving. We opened the dinner up to anyone who was coming in on Friday night & it was a great chance to see everyone, meet some of Rich's friend I had never met & hang out late into the evening.

The house is located next to a cow pasture in the middle of the woods, but it opens up to sweeping views of the land. A few of our friends from LA could not get over how "in the middle of nowhere" they felt...& how much they loved it!

The dress I am wearing belonged to my Grammy, who passed away last November. My aunt gave it to me last year & it fit me perfectly!

It was a little too chilly to swim, but the open pool did add for some pretty reflections & a pop of blue against all of the golden-green leaves of the trees.

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Paper Details

Sarah — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:06:01 -0500

Hello! Today I am sharing more paper details from our wedding on my studio blog. Last week completely escaped me, but this week = photos! Promise.

{Image by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Our Invitations

Sarah — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:57:12 -0500

Hello! Today I am sharing photos of our invitations on my studio blog & the story behind the designs. I will be back here this week to finally start sharing photos of our wedding!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Style Me Pretty

Sarah — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:18:44 -0500

Oh my! It has been awhile since I have posted, but with good reason. Today our wedding is featured on Style Me Pretty! There is a little write-up about our day {by me} along with some very kind words from SMP. We are so flattered! You may also view an entire gallery of even more photos. I cannot wait to share more photos & details about our day, as well as some behind the scenes & mini-tutorials on some of our DIY touches.

What a wonderful way to start the long holiday weekend! Happy Thanksgiving!

My Bridal Shower

Sarah — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:04:34 -0400

{Photo by my dad, David Parrott}

I am so excited to share that my gorgeous bridal shower is featured on one of my favorite wedding & event blogs, The Sweetest Occasion!

My sister & maid of honor, Jessica, mom, Janet, & cousin & bridesmaid, Lisa planned the entire day at my Aunt Jo's house on the Piscataqua River in Dover, New Hampshire on July 25th. They, along with my now sister-in-law, Deb, cooked all of the food for my shower, & Jess, of course, baked all of the desserts!

Thank you to all of my family, bridesmaids, & friends for planning such an amazing day! It was such a surprise. Thank you to my dad for taking all of the photos as well {he is a former photographer & model, you know}.

Head over to The Sweetest Occasion for tons more photos & all of the details!

Our Thrifted Plate Collection

Sarah — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 08:00:00 -0400

My mom, sister, & I spent an entire year thrifting the perfect plates for our wedding. It has been over a year since I last gave an update on the plates & we had a long way to go! But I am happy to say we collected 175 dinner plates & 175 dessert plates by the end of the summer. They sat in a boxes in one of our spare rooms for about 10 months until we started hauling them to my parents' house in Maine. My parents washed all of the plates {I know! We are so lucky} & took off all of the price tags until...my mother sliced open two of her fingers. Thankfully this was the only wedding-related injury, but it was a bad one. I took over removal until they were done.

As I mentioned when I first declared we were thrifting plates, it was a lot of work! Searching, washing, removing stickers, & figuring out what plates will go on which tables. My mother & I spent hours "curating" 17 tables of plates, arranging & rearranging until we had perfect tables of 6 - 9 plates. We were a bit obsessive, to say the least, but I wanted to make sure each guest had a different plate at each table while giving the table a cohesive look. We did not collect 175 unique dinner plates {I had about 20 of one design!}, so we organized the plates on the kitchen table & used the dinning room table as our "wedding table" to play with the layout.

We found the key to keeping the plates cohesive, while still having the eclectic, "I just pulled this out of my cupboard" feeling, was collecting plates in similar colors & designs. Nearly all of the plates we collected were floral patterns in browns, yellows, oranges, & greens, with a few pinks {for exmple, that one blue plate up there was not used in the end}. We collected mostly stoneware plates, which were more natural looking {& prevelant!}. If I found a design I liked & there 10 of them, I bought it. Had we invited only 50 guests, or something small, perhaps I would have collected only one of each design, but knowing we needed so many plates, I did not worry as I knew I could put them on different tables.

Originally we were not going to collect dessert plates, but we decided since we were already there looking at dessert plates & were putting so much effort into those, why not continue the look. The dessert plates were kept on a small table near the dessert buffet.

Logistically I had been worried about a few things: 1. Would guests know to bring their own plates up to the buffet; 2. Would our venue was them for us & pack them later; 3. Would we run out if people went back for seconds? Everything worked out. Sometimes I think couples do not give their guests enough credit & will not figure things out. But they do! Everyone brought their plates up, Pineland washed & packed all of our dishes, as well as setting them on the tables the day before, & we had plenty of plates for both dinner & dessert.

I am so happy we went through the work to collect all of these plates. The tables looked amazing {photos to come!} & almost all of our guests commented on how they either felt as if they were eating at home or were, in fact, dining on the same plates they grew up with. How fun! With our theme of "Homegrown Wedding," they were just the response we had hoped for.

Now what? Well...I am selling them! Or almost all of them. I went through & picked out my favorites as they will become our "everyday" plates. What you see in these photos are all of the ones I am selling. I have individual photos of them on flickr if you would like to see them & I have also labeled them as dinner or dessert.

I would like to sell them in one lot for each size. I have a lot of 140 dinner plates for $140 & 125 dessert plates for $75. Most of the plates I bought for between $1 - 3, depending on the size, if they were in sets, etc. They are all in excellent condition as we did not purchase any with cracks, chips, or excessive scratches. A few show a bit of wear, but the stonewear really stands the test of time! For a couple looking to add a vintage, homegrown touch to their wedding, while adding to their own personal collection, & with the ability to resell after the wedding this is the perfect score! Not to mention the months saved driving around from thrift store to thrift store searching for pretty plates. We did that for you!

Please email me at sarah(at)parrottdesignstudio.com if you are interested. I am located in Providence, Rhode Island & I am willing to meet you somewhere. I think it would cost as much as the plates to ship them as they are super heavy & I am worried they would break. I travel through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & Maine frequently. I will likely be in Vermont at some point this winter as well. I would probably drive to Connecticut too...depending on how far, but we could always meet half way. They are boxed & ready to go.

Married!

Sarah — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:29:43 -0400

{Image by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Hey! We did it! Our wedding was September 18 & it was the most beautiful, Autumn day in Maine surrounded by friends & family.

I have so many photos & details to share of the day, including all of the many, many things we made. I cannot wait to share.