OH! A Wedding Celebration

For the 7 of you who actually read this blog, I'm sure you already know by now that I recently got married to my oh-so-wonderful, "monster-loving fiance" that I always refer to in my artist bio. I never really wanted to post anything about the wedding planning process on here because the internet is already inundated with wedding sites, I figured there are far better resources if you're looking for advice. (One of my favorite's is Off Beat Bride)

However, I would like to post some of the things I designed for our big day - and maybe I'll throw a photo in or two from our AMAZING photographer, Kate Sommers

Our wedding was fantastic and very D.I.Y. (Great for saving that sweet cash money, but not so good for one's stress level.) All I can say is thank the gods for our wonderful family and friends for all of their help!

Ryan and I collaborated to design our 'Save the Date,'  which turned out exactly like we wanted and helped set the theme of the black and white chalkboard / banners that we used throughout the wedding.

For many reasons, I've decided to keep my last name. (I'm Karen O, what can I say?) Since we knew that going into our wedding, I came up with an identity of sorts for all of our design collateral.

After our ceremony, we left to go to a near by park to take photos before we lost all of the light. I knew that we were going to be gone at least an hour, so we planned to have things to do for our guests. Obviously, eating and drinking are a must at any party - but we didn't have the budget for a traditional catered dinner service. So instead, we decided to have a food truck. We booked World Street Kitchen for the big day and everyone loved it! I had a lot of people coming up to tell me they thought having a food truck was a brilliant idea.

We also came up with a mingling "BingOH!" game for our guests to play, and as a way for both sides of the family to break the ice. I got the idea from Off Beat Bride, and just designed the cards to fit with our theme.

I had 10 different cards with categories like: Is over 6 feet tall (All of the Hanson family are giants!) Went to high school with the groom, is wearing blue shoes, is a freelancer.. stuff that I knew pertained to our guests. I think people really enjoyed playing - and having a free drink as incentive really helped.

Well, there you have it. Those are just a few of the things we put together ourselves. We also made all of our flower arrangements - thank you Minneapolis Farmer's Market and Trader Joe's.. had friends bake desserts for us, my unbelievably talented mother made my dress, and we set up the wedding space with the help of our amazing bridal party.

I know I said I didn't want to post about wedding planning, but I will leave you with one piece of advice. A wedding isn't just about the bride (Gasp!) It's about two people bringing all of their loved ones together in celebration of the love they have for each other. It's about community. And if I learned anything from trying to do my wedding on my own, is that it takes a community to pull it off!

Photo by KNG Sommers