Panama wedding details - the chupah

For anyone visiting for the first time, to get the background on this story, read anything in my archives called "My Best Friends Wedding" and/or labeled "Panama Wedding". Too many posts to link to, but I will link to a few throughout.

So the biggest design element of the wedding ceremony was the chupah. I came up with the idea almost immediately after Zett and Bryan got engaged, and am thrilled that they loved the idea and trusted me with the implementation.

The idea behind the chupah ended up having even more meaning once they had settled on the idea of a destination wedding.

The idea was to send every invited guest a piece of fabric with their wedding invitation, and invite them to write some sentiments for the bride and groom on the fabric, and then return it with the response card. I would then take all of the squares of fabric, and make them into a "quilt". Then the "quilt" would be hung from four poles, held by dear friends, and Zett and Bryan would be married underneath the chupah made from all the love and best wishes from their friends. Of course the even more sentimental piece was that the fabric was representing the presence of some friends and family who could not travel the distance to Panama.

To get the ball rolling early, I spent a long time in JoAnn fabric trying to decide on what patterns of fabric would be good to use. 

Back in the beginning stages of the wedding planning, we decided on a color palette of turquoise, orange, and red - as discussed HERE.

Then, I found these 5 fabrics and decided that they would make a wonderful quilt.

Then it was time to design the invitations. What a stroke of luck that one of the fabrics I chose, and the rubber stamp we decided to use had a very similar flower!

The fabric, and...

The rubber stamp detail on the invitations. See more about the invitations HERE.

So I cut up all the fabric into 10"x10" squares. Each invitation got a square of fabric - no preference as to who got what color - just random.

(Note: the Obamas have not yet returned their fabric!)

Once the responses started to roll in, it was time for me to start sewing. 

First, I randomly paired up two squares at a time, and sewed them together side-by-side. I didn't exactly use precise measurements either - some people wrote pretty close to the edge so I tried my best to show all the writing. I had rough guidelines I used on my sewing machine - basically a half inch in from each side is where I started stitching.

After I got all the squares paired up, I laid them out on my living room floor - trying to make a totally random pattern - but also having no two alike patterns next to each other.

At this point I was still waiting for some fabric - don't worry I had enough to make a rectangle!

I had Zett and Bryan write messages to each other on separate squares. These two squares were the center of the quilt.

Then, I just sewed everything together (the lines were mostly straight!) to form a rectangle. I decided against making it a real quilt because I thought it would be too heavy for the poles. Good call I think based on the good breezes we had during the ceremony.

I offered to make it into a real quilt after the wedding if they want one. Or it could stay as is as a wall hanging. Their choice.

To finish the quilt I made sure to trim all the loose threads on the back, and then just edged the whole thing in some teal colored quilt binding.

Then, to be able to have a way to secure the quilt to the poles, I simply sewed two long lengths of satin ribbon to each corner.

The quilt was finished! I folded it up and brought it with my carry-on - I could not risk that getting lost!

After the rehearsal on Saturday, we discovered that we would need a little something more than just a knot to keep the chupah tied to the poles.

Luckily I had brought my trusty hot glue gun with me, so we just hot glued the knots to the poles. Actually, Jim did. Thanks babe!

The end result was just as I imagined it. Colorful, meaningful, and beautiful. I think everyone loved it.

For more wedding photos, visit my Dad's blog - the official wedding photographer - HERE at Hey Morand! Photography.

It's Panama Week! - Day Three - Wedding Day! The Ceremony

The report on the Panama Wedding continues...

To see the post from Day One, click HERE.

To see the post from Day Two, Morning, click HERE.

To see the post from Day Two, Afternoon/Evening, Click HERE.

Sunday morning arrived before we knew it. We headed back to the Gamboa resort bright and early. Zett's orders were to relax and drink champagne, while I put my mom to work :)

I had spent a lot of prep time on the ceremony details, back home in the US. We had the larger pompoms - these were to be hung on the chairs along the aisle.

In the cones was eco-confetti. Being in the rainforest, we had to have something that was environmentally friendly. This eco-confetti simply dissolves in water!

The aisle runner was inspired by a wedding Zett had seen featured in a magazine. She saw it only weeks before the wedding and asked if I could create something similar. I went to JoAnn's the next day and found this fabulous fabric. 

I bought all that they had - 12 yards - and hemmed the edges. It was the perfect width for the aisle. It was more of a turquoise color than it shows in this photo.

The biggest project for the wedding was the Chupah (separate blog post on this coming next week). When Zett and Bryan first got engaged and we started talking about wedding ideas, I suggested this to Zett.

I picked out five different fabrics several months ago - all complimentary styles - and in the color palette of the wedding. I cut the fabric into squares, and we included one square in each wedding invitation. Invitees were asked to write their best wishes for the bride and groom onto the fabric, and return it with the response card.

I collected all the squares of fabric, and after creating a random pattern on the floor, began to sew them together. I did not make a traditional quilt with batting or even an underside of fabric. I didn't even really use precise measurements! I just sewed everything together and then finished the edge with some quilt binding. I then sewed some long lengths of ribbon to each corner, so we could tie it to the poles.

The end result was even more beautiful than I had expected. We tied the ribbon to the poles with the patterned side facing downwards. Then the front two chupah holders would hold their poles higher than the two in the back, so that the audience could see the patterns and colors. 

The idea is that Zett and Bryan would be married underneath a chupah made of all the good wishes of their friends and family - from those who were there in Panama, as well as those who could not make the journey.

Tomorrow's post - the reception!

It's Panama Week! - Day Two, afternoon/evening

For the story on Day two, morning, click HERE. For the story on Day one, click HERE

Also please check out Hey Morand! Photography for more photos - my Dad's blog - the official wedding photographer.

So after we had a delicious lunch at the Gamboa resort, it was time to get cracking on all the wedding ceremony and reception decorations.

Here are some photos of what I had to work with at the hotel...

The beautiful ballroom - look at that ceiling!

The terrace where the cocktail hour would be held

This is the terrace where the ceremony would be held - that beautiful scenery as the backdrop

Onto the decorations...

To stay on budget, we needed an idea to add color to the tables without spending a bunch of money. Renting table linens was pretty expensive, so we decided to stay with white linens and white chair covers. I could add color a different way. Zett also wanted to keep the flower budget to a minimum, so we decided to utilize vases, colored water, colored glass stones, and floating candles. We also scattered a few tea lights around the tables.

To add color to the table without using colored linens, I suggested using ribbons of varying widths and colors, laid across each table. For extra pops of color, we would add a tissue paper pompom to each table setting as a napkin ring.

I made all the napkin rings back home, but kept them all folded up. Then all we had to do was fluff them up once we got to Panama. 88 smaller pompoms and another 16 large once for the ceremony! It's a good thing I had my mom, Jim, Zett's parents, and Zett to help with the fluffing!

Zett and Bryan named each table after a significant place/event/group in their lives. The Obama campaign is where they met and fell in love.

For the seating card table, I got this great two yard piece of fabric from JoAnn's for about $3 in the red tag section, and just used it as a tablecloth. I then added the same ribbon, but had all the ribbons crossing in the center, and then grouped each table's seating cards along each ribbon, in alphabetical order. The same vases and candles were in the middle.

That was all we had time to get ready on Saturday. The rest of the reception set up, and the ceremony set up would be completed on Sunday before the wedding. 

We were taken back to the hotel to get ready for the Groom's Dinner. Bryan's parents hosted the event at the local Yacht Club - Texas style - a great barbeque with plenty of drinks and desserts. And perhaps a little karaoke again at the end of the night...

Our hosts for the evening - Linda and Wayne

Another fun night!

Tomorrow...Wedding day preparations...

My Best Friend's Wedding - Frantic dress fiasco

I have a bone to pick with Bloomingdale's - but I'll get to that later.

Zett has asked me to be her matron-of-honor and of course I said yes! This being a pretty casual wedding, she said that I could pick any dress I like, but would like for it to be turquoise. There will be two other girls in the ceremony also wearing turquoise, and our dresses will all be different. 

Great! How easy is this? I get to pick my own dress - whatever style, fabric, and shade of turquoise I like. Piece of cake I thought. I started looking at the first sign of spring. Checked out the winter sales to see if any gorgeous dresses were lingering on racks. Nothing. 

Then I figured I'd wait for the spring/summer fashions to hit the stores - turquoise is the color of the year after all! I'll have no problem.

WRONG!

I have had SUCH a hard time finding a turquoise dress. (Well, at least one that I would wear - I found plenty that are made for 85 pound 16 year olds!) 

As I was coming to my wits end, and the end of my allotted shopping time, I was racing through Bloomingdales and saw this beauty:

Trina Turk Lotus Blossom dress. Regularly $284, but with a discount and some coupon that I didn't have but the salesperson gave me it only came to $154 plus shipping. They didn't have it in my size, but would order it and it would get sent to my house in 7-10 days. Bingo! The dress search was over. I could rest easy.

7-10 days turned into about 17 days before I knew it, and I finally wondered where the hell that dress was? I called the customer service number on my receipt, and was told by the computer generated voice that my order had been cancelled. WHAT!!!?!?!?!?!

So I called customer service again, pressed 0 until I got a real person, who simply told me that my order had been cancelled because the store made a mistake and did not have it in stock. NONE of the stores had it in stock. REALLY?!?!? When I asked him why no-one had contacted me, he said, "it appears as though an email was sent, but then that email was returned." That's because I haven't used that email address in 3 years! I don't even know where they found it! I said, "how about a phone call??" No response. He asked me if he could help me order another dress - I snorted and hung up. UGH! The frustration!

I immediately scoured my shopping websites, reached out to a dress buyer friend, and came up with some options. I ordered this on bluefly.com:

Mikael Aghal jeweled turquoise dress in taffeta. Roughly the same price as the other. It just arrived yesterday.

In the meantime, not to be screwed over again, I called some local bridal boutiques to see if they could help. 

In the back of my mind I had this dress as a back-up also:

Nordstrom - Tadashi - just under $300.

The last boutique I went to was a cute little place that just opened in November called Toast Bridal. The salesperson was so helpful, and understood my panic! Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to order anything in time, she went in the back and dug through some of her samples that hadn't even hit the sales floor. BINGO! I found the dress. It's gorgeous, looked great on (needs only minor alterations), and with a 15% discount for being a sample, was the best price yet!

Love it! Dessy style 2794 in Oasis. I am contemplating having it altered it to knee length. But I REALLY love the way it looks at floor length. Zett says she would love either.

Thoughts?

Oh and here are my shoe choices:

Nina Electra

Or my old standbys:

My Manolo Blahnik Sedaraby in silver - what I wore down the aisle. Classic, gorgeous and comfortable - the shoe of a lifetime :)

Now that the Bluefly dress has arrived, I'm glad I continued to look. Cute, but not what I was going for. Will be sending it back.

Now, what to do with my hair...?