Return of the Prodigal Bride

At long last, I am returning to "normal" life after spending the last several months preparing for my wedding and helping my new husband manage his late mother's estate. Now, I will have time to blog again! Rejoice!!

All of those hours, days, and weeks of planning proved worthwhile--we have received rave reviews from our guests, from the vendors we hired, and from the venues. Ed (@savagetechman) wanted a wedding to remember and I made sure he got one.

Like many royal weddings, our wedding party consisted entirely of children. We had four sibling groups, all children or grandchildren of our closest friends, plus Ed's soon-to-be 15-year-old nephew served as the best man. My maid of honor is only nine, but she gave an incredible speech. Of course, to satisfy the Catholic Church, we also had a couple of adults (my sister and his cousin) serve as the official witnesses.

Ed held his bachelor party with his buds at a restaurant designed for gamers and geeks, while my "hen night" was a morning at the salon getting manis and pedis for all seven of my little bridesmaids and their mothers. (The salon we selected had Hello Kitty! chairs for the girls.) With so many youngsters, we adopted the theme of "Princesses and Superheroes" for the wedding rehearsal so that they would have more fun as we worked through the ceremony. Afterward, we took a group of 40 to our favorite Japanese hibachi restaurant where we had four chefs competing against each other to provide us with a better show. During the wedding, my wheelchair bound father "rolled" me down the aisle, my veil was converted from my mother's wedding train, Ed wore his late father's wedding ring and gave me his grandmother's wedding ring. We also married on what would have been his parents' 53rd wedding anniversary. (By the way, getting married on a Tuesday evening can yield some much-needed savings!)

At the reception, I indulged Ed's love for Star Wars by having his friends welcome him with a light saber honor guard and (his big surprise) I brought in a balloon performance artist to create a life-size Darth Vader for him to duel. (Check out No Ordinary Balloon Man.) Finally, since the reception venue used to be a showroom for Packard automobiles, we hired a classic Packard as our transportation for the evening. Then, we retired to an historic inn overlooking our historic riverfront before running away to the mountains for an adventure-filled honeymoon.

Our wedding videographer, who called our reception "the best wedding reception in the history of the world," created this fabulous hi-lite video for us.



If you are in Savannah or you would like to have a destination wedding in our beautiful and historic city, I highly recommend all of our vendors and venues:
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
British Pie Society
Miyabi's
Bryson Hall
Old Harbour Inn
Danielle Debien Photography
Craig Harney, TV producer & videographer
Chef Nick of Mahgniffe Catering (a dear high school friend!)
VIP Entertainment (ask for Dewayne)
No Ordinary Balloon Man
Timeless Motorcoaches
Stitch Savannah
(My flowers were done by my sister as a gift, but she is not a professional)