Love Under the Moon: It's All in the Details

Detail posts are seriously one of my favorite recap posts when following the Weddingbee bloggers. After months of following a bride's story I love seeing everything come together at the end. Plus, when I first started wedding planning detail posts provided great inspiration for me! So get ready to start pinning, this will be my most photo heavy recap yet!

We'll start off with attire.

I am still borderline obsessed with my Private Label by G dress and cathedral veil from Etsy seller Diamond Wedding Veil. Because of the gorgeous detailing on my dress I chose to add very few accessories to the rest of my look. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I purchased my earrings or bracelet, but I do love that I can still wear them out to dinner occasionally and be instantly transported to our wedding day.

My shoes were from David's Bridal, although I quickly switched them out for flip flops after the ceremony.

Image via Shaw Video Productions

Finally, my DIY hair flower added the perfect touch:

 Mr. Coyote donned a black tuxedo with a silver vest and tie and his surprise Dragon cuff links.

Personal Photo

The groomsmen also wore black tuxedos, but with black vests and ties. All tuxedos (including the fathers' tuxedos) were rented from Tuxego. The bridesmaids each chose their own floor length gown in berry from Alfred Angelo.

All of our flowers were from Frank Gallo & Son Florist. Even after multiple meetings our florist still didn't quite understand my floral vision and I was pretty disappointed with my bouquet and bridesmaid bouquets. They did, however, nail the boutonnieres and reception centerpieces.

My bouquet was a mix of burgundy calla lilies, white hydrangea and pale pink orchids. They were wrapped with a burgundy ribbon and topped with a few special charms. 

The bridesmaid bouquets were a mix of burgundy calla lilies and white hydrangea.

All of the men wore a simple burgundy calla lily for their boutonniere.

I talked about how Mr. Coyote and I didn't really have a theme for our wedding. We did have a color scheme, but the rest of the details were just kind of thrown in. I like to think it all came together well, but even if it didn't, I'm happy that we chose to take this time to really make our personalities shine.

As soon as our guests entered the ceremony space they were greeted by my cousins and a table that held our ceremony programs and a birdcage provided by Franklin Plaza for cards.

We chose to keep the ceremony space itself simple, taking advantage of Franklin Plaza's beautiful space and decorations.

A table at the front of the room held our wine box and a candle provided by Franklin Plaza.

During the cocktail hour our guests were given the opportunity to sign our guestbook

and pick up their escort cards.

I absolutely loved the reception space at Franklin Plaza.

Each table had a candelabra supplied by our venue and a floral centerpiece from Frank Gallo & Son Florist. I mentioned about that I wasn't thrilled about the bouquets, but our florists totally redeemed themselves with our centerpieces. They were exactly what I had envisioned.

The centerpieces were a mix of burgundy calla lilies, white hydrangea, hot pink stargazer lilies and light pink alstroemeria.

Each place setting held our menus and favor bags.

Mr. Coyote and I chose to have a sweetheart table for our reception. This little table for two held our last minute Mr. and Mrs. signs, the toasting glasses we received from Mr. Coyote's parents, a few candlesticks and a low floral centerpiece.

Last, but not least, were our cake and dessert tables. If you haven't noticed yet, I had a bit of a love affair with our wedding cake. Villa Italia Bakery made the cakes for our engagement party and my bridal shower and they did not disappoint us with our wedding cake. It was a four tier vanilla buttercream cake with alternating tiers of vanilla cake with raspberry creme filling and marble cake with cannoli filling.

Each slice was accompanied by a scoop of either vanilla ice cream or raspberry sorbet.

A separate table with Italian cookies and pastries rounded up our desserts.

Our DIY cake topper still makes my heart melt and we currently have it on display (along with a few other wedding accessories!) in our apartment.

We sadly never had the opportunity to use our second set of toasting glasses due to some time constraints, but I'm glad that they were at least on display with our cake for most of the evening.

Whew! Well, that about wraps up the Coyote wedding details. Have you been thinking about how all of your little details will come together?

Image via Shaw Video Productions

*All photos are by the fabulous Upstate Photographers unless otherwise noted.*

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone before heading out to join the rest of our guests for our cocktail hour.
• The reception begins with a rockin’ introduction. Followed by our first dance and parent dances.
• Best Man M knocks us all out of the park with his speech. Our maids of honor had a little trouble with their speech, but my uncle brought us back on track with his beautiful blessing.
• We were too excited to eat, so we spent some time visiting with our guests until it was time to cut the cake.

Love Under the Moon: Don't Stop Believin'

The rest of our evening went by in such a blur, sometimes it's hard to believe it even happened. And although our photographers managed to catch some of the excitement before they left, the majority was documented by our videographer and our guests.

There were awkward love sandwiches:

Photo by Upstate Photographers

Stripping:

Photo by Upstate Photographers

And other shenanigans:

All six photos are courtesy of Coyote guests

Oh and this happened:

(Whoops!) / Guest Photo

The night flew by as Mr. Coyote and I danced, mingled, and took ridiculous photos.

Photo by Upstate Photographers

We both have the ugliest laughing faces in this photo (and I don't even remember what we were laughing about) but I'm sharing it with you because it truly captures the unfettered joy and happiness we felt that night.

All too soon DJ Nate announced that it was time for the final song of the evening. Choosing our last song of the night was easy. We knew we wanted an upbeat song that would get everyone out on the dance floor so we went with that classic song that every drunk person in a bar loves to sing.

We knew we made the right choice as soon as the first notes of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" filled the room. My new father-in-law shouted, "I LOVE THIS SONG" and starting waving his hands in the air like a champ. I quickly gravitated to my bridesmaids, who have all spent more than one late night in a bar screaming these song lyrics with me.

*The following photos are screenshots captured from the Coyote wedding video by Shaw Video Productions.*

I love that you can see FIL Coyote's crazy arm flailing in the upper left corner.

My brother, always the narcissist, quickly interjected yelling, "Girls can't have all the fun!"

As if on cue, my new husband found himself cozied up next to me...

And the rest of the wedding party soon followed suit.

Finally, my parents and even Mr. Coyote's parent joined in to belt out the final chorus.

The remaining Coyote guests formed an even bigger circle around our mini love circle, cheering and singing along.

Screenshot via the Coyote wedding video by Shaw Video Productions

My heart soared during those final minutes. I laughed, sang and soaked in the last moments of our reception. As I clutched my new husband, I once again found myself in awe of what we had just done. Even though our venue is a large building you could just feel it overflowing with the palpable love of our closest friends and family members.

Just like that the song ended, and with it, our reception. We exchanged farewells, gathered our belongings and slowly made our way outside, into the moonlit night.

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone before heading out to join the rest of our guests for our cocktail hour.
• The reception begins with a rockin’ introduction. Followed by our first dance and parent dances.
• Best Man M knocks us all out of the park with his speech. Our maids of honor had a little trouble with their speech, but my uncle brought us back on track with his beautiful blessing.
• We were too excited to eat, so we spent some time visiting with our guests until it was time to cut the cake.
• We dance and have a private photo shoot. Then we get crazy with our photo booth.
• I take a second to fill you in on the special relationship that I have with my brother.

Love Under the Moon: Sibling Rivalry

Well hello there Hive! I apologize for my absence last week. As I'm sure many of you heard, Hurricane Sandy really threw us for a loop down here in Westchester County. Mr. Coyote and I are (thankfully) safe and sound and counting our blessings, but we were unfortunately out of work and out of Internet for the entire week. Everything is now running as smoothly as it can be after a disaster such as this so, in an attempt to return to a normal life, I am back to finishing up my recaps!

Today's post is going to be a little bit different than all of my other recap posts. That's because this particular entry is not really a recap, but a story and a group of photos that I felt really needed to be shared with the world. This is a story about Mrs. Coyote and her little brother.

(Personal photo)

My brother and I have a very interesting relationship. We're not just siblings... We're best buds. And when we're together we are a serious force to be reckoned with. Some of our favorites past times include harassing our mother, stalking each other on Facebook,

(Images via Facebook. Names and photos edited by me.)

And ruining what would otherwise be lovely photos.

(Personal photos)

Oh and I forgot one more thing. We LOVE to dance. And although most of our other family members also love to dance no one gets up on that dance floor faster than my brother and me. Since Mr. Coyote is not much a dancer he is just happy that his wife has a guaranteed dance partner at all family functions while he sits at the table and eats his cake. It's really a win-win-win situation.

Our wedding was no exception. Little Bro Coyote and I tore up that dance floor like it was nobody's business.

(All photos following are courtesy of Upstate Photographers)

Oh and that boutonniere in my hand? Yea, that belonged to Little Bro Coyote. He didn't pin it to his jacket quite right so all day long he was fiddling with it. And fiddling with it. And fiddling with it. I even tried to help him while we were taking our formal family portraits, but it was a lost cause.

Every once in a while he would stop dancing to fidget with his bout. Eventually I became so fed up with him and his stupid boutonniere that I ripped it off his jacket and insisted he keep dancing with me. That seemed to do the trick and we were back in business.

I danced A LOT at our wedding, but some of my favorite memories were definitely getting my groove on with my little bro (and stealing his boutonniere!).

Miss a recap?

• I babble about being married and share our wedding video.
• We finish up some last-minute wedding tasks and pre-wedding jitters set in the day before the wedding.
• We practice getting married and then head to our rehearsal dinner where I shed my first tears of the weekend. We later wind down with our families back at the hotel.
• My bridesmaids get pretty and I get a special message from Mr. Coyote.
• I try to cope when things don’t go quite as planned, but thankfully I quickly bounce back and then it was time to become a bride. Meanwhile, Mr. Coyote was calm as a cucumber as he got ready with the dads and groomsmen.
• I finish getting ready and see an unexpected guest on my way to our first look.
• It was finally time to cross the street and meet my groom!
• We spend some time with our wedding party and then some time alone. Ceremony time was rapidly approaching.
• Our ceremony begins with the family and bridesmaid processional and continues with the bridal processional.
• I share the full text of our ceremony.
• We recess and my father gives us a very special wedding gift.
• Our friends and family gathered for some formal (and not so formal) portraits. Then Mr. Coyote and I spent a few moments alone before heading out to join the rest of our guests for our cocktail hour.
• The reception begins with a rockin’ introduction. Followed by our first dance and parent dances.
• Best Man M knocks us all out of the park with his speech. Our maids of honor had a little trouble with their speech, but my uncle brought us back on track with his beautiful blessing.
• We were too excited to eat, so we spent some time visiting with our guests until it was time to cut the cake.
• We dance and have a private photo shoot. Then we get crazy with our photo booth.