First of all, I’m sorry if you all are getting really bored of the wedding posts. It’s not really a secret I’ve had my thoughts on writing a wedding memoir/ manual and I really want to get all my thoughts down while they’re still pretty fresh. I also love having all the content I need at my fingertips.
…I’m also not sorry at all because I’m still so very much thrilled with what an amazing day we had. This is another long one. Get ready!
I had a hard time trying to name this post. Is it wedding themes? Wedding symbols? Wedding “Easter Eggs” as I’ve called them in past posts? I think what I’m going for here, and how I came up with a concise title that makes sense, is how to incorporate personal details into your day without making it seem too theme-y. While it can totally be the prerogative of some couples to have an over-the-top theme wedding, that wasn’t my goal. You want a cake shaped like Hogwarts for your Harry Potter wedding? Go for it! I wanted more subtle nods to special parts of our relationship.
For the sake of organization, I’m going to break this down into pieces and how we represented them.
Maps
Kendall just really loves maps. We have a map as the focal piece in our living room. I think it stems from his desire to see the world, and I appreciate it because I would love to see it with him. We also invited guests from all over the country, and world. I wanted to incorporate them into the wedding, so when I found a map box at a craft store for cards, I was literally jumping up and down excited. I had the same feeling when I found the flasks for the groomsmen. Especially since maps are really Kendall’s thing, I thought that would be appropriate for his men to receive a present that reflected him.
For Christmas, I gave him his special cuff links, with a map of DC on one, and his hometown Brandon, MS, on the other. Symbolizing where he came from and where he is. 
Butterflies
This is really goofy. I told this story on the post about my dress, but Kendall was teasing me about being totally wrapped up in a blanket one cold morning and called me a kitty-caterpillar. I asked him when I would get to be a butterfly. He paused for a second, and decided that I would not get to be a butterfly until we got married and then I would be his butterfly bride. That’s how I knew when I had found the dress- butterfly wings and all.
I definitely didn’t want a butterfly themed wedding, but I had fun sneaking little butterflies into the day- mostly with the flowers. Besides the wings on my dress, Bell Flowers helped me design special boutonnieres for Kendall and my dad. I had butterflies in my bouquet, in my bridesmaids’ bouquets, and in the baskets of flowers for the flower girls. My mom took a few of the little extras and made hair clips for the babies too, with pink glitter of course.
Gatsby
This one was really more of a feeling at the reception than a symbol that we wanted. We wanted to be in this beautiful space, The Mayflower, but we did not want anything stuffy about our day. Much like a Gatsby party, the champagne was flowing and people were having a blast in a gorgeous, opulent setting.
The hotel had its grand opening in 1925, so we had that roarin’ 20s thing built in for us. The Mayflower subtly has each floor themed for a different decade, and it just so happened that the Bridal Suite was on the 20th floor too!
While I tried to incorporate what I saw as 1920s type fonts for our posters and such (full disclosure, I have no idea if I got it right), the main Gatsby touch came from Marty Bruckner, the brain and artist behind Spaghetti Toes. I knew I wanted him to do our signature drink poster and when he asked for details about the wedding, I told him navy, rose gold, and “punk goes Gatsby”. We looked at some other signature drink posters but I knew I wanted something a little bit different, so he took elements I liked and made it our own. Totally. Nailed. It. He even added a filigree look to the glasses!
Adding to the glam feel, Tabitha also provided extra sparkle in the form of teeny pink diamonds that perfectly matched our table card holders– and all of the blush and rose gold accessories we had kind of all over.
DC
I feel like if you’re going to have a wedding reception in the “Grande Dame of Washington”, the “Hotel of Presidents”, and the city’s “Second Best Address” (the White House is the first) according to President Harry S. Truman, a frequent guest at the hotel, you better appreciate the history of the building and the city you’re in.
While we looked into doing a city-scape of the skyline of DC on our cake, we mostly represented DC in our wedding with my personal favorite symbol of DC in springtime, the cherry blossom.
Growing up with those pretty pink petals every spring, I knew that they were entirely too delicate to use as wedding flowers, confirmed by Bell Flowers, so we used them as color inspiration, art, and faux petal decor. We also had cherry blossom goat cheese puffs served at cocktail hour. #yum
I actually designed our logo using Picmonkey and graphics I bought off Etsy. Then I put it on everything. Stickers for the candy favors and card box, our RSVP cards, menus, programs, address cards with the address of the church and hotel- all using Zazzle. I also got some HQ paper and printed out posters for our ceremony and reception for things that I thought needed direction- the photo booth guest book and “pick a seat, don’t pick a side”.
The cherry blossoms for the cake? A STEAL from Amazon. Ditto the edible rose gold glitter. Our beautiful Fluffy Thoughts cake was included in our package from The Mayflower, and while their work is extraordinarily beautiful, it comes with a price. We got a beautiful, delicious cake without adding an extra cost. 
Music
If I had to actually pick what the theme of our wedding was, music would be it. Kendall and I found each other on OK Cupid, and he had some of my favorite bands listed as some of his favorite bands and that’s part of how we first started talking. Our relationship is rooted in music, and if you haven’t see our proposal story, you should. Our wedding hashtag actually came from that night. My friends Jess + Dana made a frame for We The Kings to sign that said She Checked Yes– a play on their song Check Yes, Juliet. Our wedding hashtag was born.
This was definitely the least subtle touch for our wedding and I’m totally fine with that. Our save the dates, table “numbers”, and escort cards were custom designed by a local woman who works out of her home. She doesn’t have a website but I shared her info in my vendor post.
One of the cool things that I hadn’t even though about until Tabitha suggested it was color coding the escort cards with meal orders. I don’t think it took away from the tickets at all!
Having the band names instead of table numbers was special not only to us, but for the people sitting at the tables. For one thing, doing away with the “number” system kind of got ride of that hierarchy of tables. We also got to put friends and family at table names that meant something to us and them. We were obviously at We The Kings, but we really did put in thought to the other band names we used and who sat and those tables. It was also kind of fun to see those pop-punk names on formal table settings. Perfectly captured the feeling that we wanted!
Besides the tickets and table names, we snuck in a few musical references- a We The Kings quote on our programs, a She Checked Yes cake topper, a special prayer for music during the ceremony, my Sweet Caroline cocktail, and very specific song choices throughout the reception. We ended the night with Check Yes Juliet, just like We The Kings does at every concert.
And one last thing…
We got married two days before my parents’ 30th anniversary. I consider that good luck because 30 years is a big deal! To tie in our two dates, my wore my mom’s wedding band as my “something borrowed.” As a shower gift, she gave us the cake cutter they’d used from their own wedding. It was engraved with their names and wedding date on one side, and she had it engraved with ours on the other.
I had so much fun putting together all these little details to symbolize my life with Kendall. What’s your favorite kind of wedding detail?
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