BACK DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH JOURDAN & WYATT

Say hello to Jourdan & Wyatt…they are the cutest couple and their wedding story is truly one to read….Jourdan sent over all the details and guys…really…you have got to read this…you won’t believe what happened behind the scenes on their wedding day….and check this out…Jourdan had ‘Bridesmen’, instead of ‘Bridesmaids’….and the images of their special day are simply gorgeous….Jourdan & Wyatt’s wedding story was captured by the incredibly talented and oh-so-nice…Leo Patrone….as always, Leo does an AMAZING job…Enjoy!

• We bought (not rented) everything that went on each table: this included carafes, plates, forks, knives, serving dishes, tablecloths, ALL OF IT. We bought most of the plates at dollar stores and all of the flatware we either owned or purchased at Walmart. 
• We sewed all 300 napkins ourselves from IKEA tablecloths. Never again. 
• We did all of the food ourselves–no caterer. We rented a refrigerated truck to keep everything in and prepared all of it the day before: Greek salad, couscous, and grilled chicken.

The problem with doing everything yourself is that if something goes wrong…it goes WRONG.  

The day before the wedding, my then-fiancé and I went to the San Francisco flower mart to get the flowers for the tables–simple saponaria to go in glass IKEA water bottles. They were perfect and we picked up some extra to be safe. When we got home, they went into the truck to keep cool until the next day. Then I went to the florist to pick up the flowers that would go on top of the cake (which were supposed to be the same as my bouquet). To my horror, she had gone ahead and made a cake topper, but not one flower was what I had asked for. We’re talking completely different. It was tacky and my bouquet was going to match it. I had to cancel the order since they didn’t go with anything else in the wedding. ‘No problem,’ I thought. I had bought extra flowers that morning, and that would be fine–we could make a very sweet bouquet that would be more than sufficient. The rest of the day went as planned–we got all the food prepared and into the truck. Easy. 

The next day while on the way to the temple for the service, we got a phone call: Everything in the truck had frozen over night. The food, the flowers, everything. That meant I had no bouquet, no boutonnieres, no flowers for the table, and 70% of the food was completely ruined with four hours until the reception started. Luckily, I have one heckuva family that launched into action. My maid of honor put together a makeshift bouquet from supermarket flowers. Our friends nearly killed themselves in the kitchen preparing food to replace what had been ruined. It turned in to a pretty frantic day, but the amazing thing was that our guests never knew that we had faced such disaster. They all thought the day had gone off without a hitch!  

One of the best decisions I made was having bridesmen instead of bridesmaids. My best friends in the whole world were guys–so why shouldn’t they be included in my big day? They were beyond thrilled to be included and were definitely the hit of the night. My man of honor gave a wonderful speech and one of my bridesmen caught the bouquet. It was certainly an unorthodox decision, but one I was really happy with. 

Our venue was perfect–it had the kind of old feel I wanted and perfectly complemented the wedding. Lots of charm.  

At the end of the day, we did go over our budget (thanks to the crisis at the last minute), but our wedding came to about $17,000 for 300. We bought all of the table settings with the intention to sell them post-wedding (maybe as a wedding package?). We haven’t sold them yet, but we’ll start trying soon. So, at the end of the day, once everything is sold–less than $15,000. 

Unfortunately, many details were missing from the day because of the food crisis, but at the end of the day, I didn’t care. I didn’t need my chalkboards, boutonnieres, pocket squares,  and kites–the things I felt make a wedding blog-worthy. My day was filled with laughter and love, and how could it have gotten any better than? 

And of course, our photographer, Leo Patrone was amazing–he even gave us a ride to the reception when everyone else was occupied with the food. His pictures are everything we wanted. The texture of film was perfect and he really captured our day wonderfully. He has my highest recommendation! He was our big expense for the wedding, and he was worth every cent.

Wedding: LDS Oakland California Temple
Reception: Shadelands Historical Ranch Museum in Walnut Creek, CA