The Pink Elephant: May 2014

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Marie & Jason's Wedding Weekend: Part 2

Before I recap our Memorial Day and my birthday, I need to finish showing a few more pictures from Marie and Jason's wedding. Sadly, I don't have many pictures from the actual wedding night, but it was wonderful and of course Marie was stunningly beautiful and Jason very handsome!

Bridesmaids' Luncheon
Charles was the only boy in attendance and Rachel captured my absolute favorite photo of him to date! I know every mom says it, but I truly want to pause time and enjoy every moment the last 2.5 weeks of my maternity leave. I'm fortunate to be going back to a job I love, but I will miss all my time with this sweet baby...the ladies' lunches too :)

the Otto boys' ladies (me, Marie, Jean, Katie) with Charles

Marie with her mom and 2 sisters

Marie and our mother-in-law, Jean

Rachel and I with the bride

Marie's great aunt Doris said the sweetest comment about Charles when she met him, "If God made anything sweeter he kept it for himself!"

Marie and 3 of her gorgeous bridesmaids - Kelsie, Claire & Emily

Wedding Day!

Love this formal shot of our little family of three

My precious mom & dad

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Jason Grant Otto

Thank goodness for all my parents' help during the wedding weekend. Don't know what we would have done without them!

The bride and groom with sweet Celia, Jean's mom

Rach and her mom, Ann

Falkners - 2014 Christmas Card? :)

My parents took my baby and my real camera home at this point in the night. My iPhone pictures are terrible, but still wanted to share a few more.

Thank you for coming, Hamricks!

My cute in-laws

Landon & Katie

We love you, Marie & Jason. We wish you a lifetime of adventures!

XO,

Whit

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Marie & Jason's Wedding Weekend: Part 1 - Black, white and green apples!

We just wrapped up a wonderful wedding weekend celebrating my new sister-in-law Marie and brother-in-law Jason. Everything was perfect! I'm breaking up the recap into a few posts and starting with the rehearsal dinner since that's the event I helped create.

The rehearsal dinner was held at the Merrimon-Wynne house in downtown Raleigh - can't recommend it enough for events.

As a little gift for the bride and groom, I had koozies made with a sketch of the house. (Spyglass Promotions here in Raleigh helped me with these and were so easy to work with and better prices than online sites I found).

The food was a "southern supper" and included some of the bride and groom's favorites - BBQ, fried chicken, mac & cheese, string beans, cole slaw, potato salad, banana pudding, hush puppies, ham biscuits -- and of course cut up fruit. (Invitation from Charlotte's in Raleigh)

The sweetest bride and groom of all time! These are two of the most giving and kind individuals I have ever met. I couldn't be happier for them!

The matchmakers (Rachel and I) with bride and groom

Jean (my darling MIL) and I brainstormed together and worked on the rehearsal dinner ideas for a few months. We knew we wanted black & white and to tie in produce since the groom sells fruit and veggies for a living. We decided to keep it simple and go with only using granny smith apples. The simple, but elegant color scheme ended up being so gorgeous in the house and we had so much fun doing the flower arrangements, apple place cards and getting it all set up. I will say - we learned that event planning, while a rewarding creative outlet, is also exhausting! Thank goodness we enlisted a few of her friends, Rachel and had a VERY patient baby who happily hung out with us for 5+ hours while we worked away.

Jodi is the adorable owner of the M-W house. I am so impressed with how she transformed this historic Victorian home - preserving it's history & character, while bringing it into the 21st century with a clean backdrop for clients to bring their visions to life. Many times these historic event spaces can feel like you are in your granny's house - not this one!