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Mr. and Mrs. Tiramisu

He's a Maryland boy, and I'm a Northern girl turned Annapolitan, who blogged my way through the planning of our Southern Maine seaside wedding.  We hosted rain, hail, lightning and a power outage at our outdoor reception in addition to our 187 guests, and if we could go back, neither of us would change a thing.

 

• Engagement Photos - We posed, smooched, and jumped for the cameras in our beloved home town of Annapolis.

 

• The Whole Tiramisu Family - Our first child, Duncan, absent from the wedding festivities for fear he would eat a flower girl (or two).

• How We Met - The short story: at college.  The full story: not the world's most romantic, but click the link for details.  

 

• E N G A G E D - It was on a boat, and I was totally surprised did a good job at acting surprised.

The Tiramisu ladies wore the Ann Taylor Karen Strapless Dupioni Silk dress in Pacific Blue.  Mrs. Tiramisu's side of the bridal party consisted of her sister and sister-in-law, Mr. Tiramisu's twin sisters, one high school friend and two college friends (one as maid of honor).  Here are more details on their dresses and accessories.

 

All the Young Dudes - wore standard black Calvin Klein tuxedos from Mens' Wearhouse.  Mr. Tiramisu's side of the bridal party consisted of his two brothers (one as Best Man), Mrs. Tiramisu's brother, two college friends, one high school friend, and one middle school through college friend.  They ditched vests or cummerbunds for suspenders only and looked awesome.

Jacket-less groom and groomsmen (and a few others) later on in the evening:

The Before and The After

When we were first planning our wedding, I contacted Kathryn at Snippet & Ink, who designed this fabulous inspiration board for us:

And here is how the inspiration played out in real life, a board with photos from our wedding:

Mr. Tiramisu picked out my engagement ring and wedding band (both by Martin Flyer) at Zachary's Jewelers in Annapolis, MD.  I chose a platinum band for him, which you can read about here.

I had quite the time finding the perfect wedding day shoes, which I envisioned as light blue peep toe heels.  My saga included writing a desperate letter to them (they didn't respond), ordering them in the wrong size, and then stressing about how to have my dress hemmed so that I could wear both heels to the ceremony and flats to the reception.

In the end, on my wedding morning, I put the "perfect" blue heels on for just a few pictures before deciding to stick with my comfortable flat shoes for the whole day.  I'm so glad I did!

I wore them all day long and they were fabulously comfortable.

Actually, I still wear them!  And all day long at work I can look down at my toes and be reminded of my wedding day :)

Details on both pair can be found here.

I gave my florist very little direction (something along the lines of "dark blue hydrangeas, some white mixed in, NO roses") and ended up with this gorgeous bouquet.  It contains (I think- please correct me if I'm wrong!) blue hydrangea (my florist imported this particular shade from the Netherlands), white stock, mini calla lillies, and irises.

 

The handle was wrapped with a piece of lace from my grandmother's wedding gown, which was my "something old":

 

The bridesmaids bouquets were a lighter shade of blue hydrangea:

The flower girls carried flower wands:

Our CD favors doubled as escort cards.  We decided to do a mix of love songs, and asked each member of our bridal party (which included all seven of our siblings), our moms and our dads for their favorites, and compiled them all together with our pick included too. It made for quite an eclectic mix (especially because we didn’t tell them why we wanted their favorite love song when we asked, so a few were caught off guard!), and we loved what it said about us and those we love. From my 13-year old sister’s Natasha Bedingfield tune, to my new favorite “Me and You” by Michael Reno Harris, to the more classic “When A Man Loves a Woman” and “What a Wonderful World”, everyone was represented. We included on the song list who had chosen which song and what their relationship to us is—it was a big hit.

I made our invitations using a Gocco screenprinter.  Click for details and cost breakdown.

 

We used our engagement photos to create table numbers.

 

Here they are in action:

Photography by the fabulous Samantha Warren.

Part 1: The Pre-Game                        Part 2: We Practice                 Part 3: The Day Is Here

Part 4: Going to the Chapel                Part 5: We Do                       Part 6: Sweet Little Details I and II

Part 7: Photos and Thunder                Part 8: Free Fireworks             Part 9: The Calm After The Storm

Part 10: Who Needs Power              Part 11: The Show Must Go On    Part 12: Let There Be Light

Part 13: Cake Smash                        Part 14: Singled Out               Part 15: The Last Dance

We loved our 4-tier buttercream cake from the European Bakery.  It was decorated with blue hydrangeas by our florist.  Each layer featured a different flavor:

1. Vanilla cake with a filling of cream cheese frosting mixed with whole fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries

2. Chocolate cake with a filling of chocolate ganache and raspberry preserves

3. Lemon cake with a filling of lemon frosting mixed with whole blueberries

4. Lemon cake with a fililng of cream cheese frosting and blueberry preserves (we saved and froze part of this top layer to eat on our anniversary)

We learned a whole lot more than we cared to know about tents and lighting while planning for our wedding.  Here is some of our hard-earned research....

  Tent Lighting                LED Throwies                 Up Go the Lanterns             Questions Answered

Please see our vendor reviews for details.

Photography: Samantha Warren Weddings (based in Portland, Maine)

Day of Coordination: Karen Gazzara of Affordable Occasions (based in New Hampshire)

Band: Brick Park   (based in Boston)

Florist: Poppy of The Ladyslipper Flower Shop (Gray, Maine)

Cake: European Bakery (Falmouth, Maine)

Videography: Revel Video (based in Massachusetts)

Tent Rental: One Stop Party Shoppe (Portland, Maine)

Other Rentals: Festive Occasions (Woburn, Massachusetts)

Transportation: York Trolley Company (York, Maine)

Beverage Delivery: RSVP Beverage Center (Portland, Maine) (207) 773-8808

We continued the "many shades of blue" theme of our wedding on a trip to French Polynesia.  I think we can both safely say that we've never before seen such a beautiful spot on earth.  We booked through Janelle Graustein of Easy Escapes Travel who gave us the best deal (although we should mention that nothing about French Polynesia is a "deal") we could find.

First Island: Moorea

 

Second Island: Bora Bora part one, Bora Bora part two (stay tuned)

 

Third Island: Rangiroa (stay tuned)

What the heck is keeping Mrs. Tiramisu busy now that she's not planning a wedding? 

Find out here: