Thursday 27 November 2014

Happy Thanksgiving 2014!

We wanted to take a moment to wish all our Thanksgiving-celebrating readers the most magical of holidays. We hope wherever you are and whoever you are celebrating with, you make lots of wonderful memories.

We are extra thankful this year - thankful that we've been able to legally, and non-legally, marry each other and spend the rest of our lives together.


We are thankful that we live in a country where we are accepted for who we are, and don't need to jump through legal hoops if one of us gets sick, or if we decide to expand our family.


We are thankful for our loving friends and family who have gotten us (maybe even carried us) through one of the best (though decidedly most hectic) years of our lives.


And for their health, though a lot of our loved ones have had recent scares, or surgeries, or hospital stays - *touch wood* everyone has come through just fine.


We are thankful for social media, keeping us in contact with those we love who are far away, and for making Laura's home of the USA feel a little less far away.


We are thankful for Bisbee - we don't even have her yet and she is a dream come true, and completes our little family.

Now go eat lots and lots, and let us know what you are thankful for below!

Wednesday 26 November 2014

28th June 2014 - Our Wedding Photos - The Ceremony ♥

Geez, life sometimes gets in the way of publishing a good blog post. And because we are going through all our photos for these, individually choosing which ones to put up, we aren't able to rush these! 

Today we have for you one of our very favourite sections - the ceremony.

This is where we got really nervous. We were right on time, but waiting in the house for everyone to be seated and for the music to start... definitely the most nerve-wracking part of the day!
Our ushers, Laura's brother Jason and our friend Dave - both as dapper as Usher himself!
And then the music started ('I'm Yours' by Jason Mraz, in case you're wondering)...
Laura's Nan doing a great job as our Flower Nan!

Laura's Mum was walked down the aisle by her brother, Jason.
 Followed by our Bridesmaids



Alison: A recent export from Boise to London, Ali has become a very important part of our lives. Having grown up with Laura their friendship spans some 13 years and we can't wait to continue to add to that total!








Fiona: Otherwise known as Sarah's little sister! Fi has been with us since the start of our journey, supporting, organising and celebrating with us along the way. Always one to get the party started, the wedding was no exception.



Julia: This artistic gem was the genius behind our invites, menus, order of service, globes - in fact, you name it, Julia probably had something to do with it! She's known Laura since she was 11 or so, and has always been there for her - that includes on every trip that Sarah's made to Idaho!





Kate: Our honorary sister, Kate has known Laura since she was born - her Dad and L's Dad are bffs. But the three of us really became close when we moved to Australia for a year - and we love that we are taking our parents' friendship on another generation!
What's that change in music mean? Oh, here come the Brides! (to 'I Choose You' by Sara Bareilles)
Laura first, with her Dad, then Sarah with her Mum. Laura wanted to go first so she would get to watch her beautiful bride come up the aisle - best feeling ever, and that's when the nerves went away!


We LOVE this photo of our ceremony so much!


Laura's Dad was our officiant - and we wrote our ceremony (as well as our vows). This meant so much to us - Laura's Dad has been so supportive and loving to both of us, and as a bonus he is a pro at public speaking, so took it all in stride. The ceremony was really personal too.


Just looking at these gives us chills!


Laura's brother did our first reading, a beautiful poem and a nod to Sarah's Scottish heritage and mother. He did so well and we are so proud of him!



Then one of Sarah's oldest friends, Lisa, did our second reading - it meant so much to us that she did it, and it was lovely!


Yeah, we did our vows on the ipad haha - we were THOSE people

This moment was 'I promise to always observe your number one rule - a meal isn't a meal without a potato'



Sarah was adorably too eager to marry Laura - she said 'I do' before it was asked for!




And with Laura's Dad pronouncing us Wife and Wife, we were MARRIED!!!



Wooo!!


Bubbles!



If I was a flower growing wild and free, all I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee 





It's one of the most truly amazing and unique feelings to have so many of the people you love in the same place. All these faces, and the people they are there representing, mean so much to us and we are very lucky to have them in our lives!


And just like that, we were officially Mrs. and Mrs. Smith. 


This really was the best day. Ahh just amazing.

If you haven't yet seen the others, click here to see our previous wedding photo posts!

So we aren't going to overpromise this time, as we have a Thanksgiving dinner to make and a friend here from Germany, so we will be putting up our Bridal portraits on Monday, 1st December. Festive treat!!

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Thursday 20 November 2014

28th June 2014 - Our Wedding Photos - It's All In The Details


Ahh, wonderful Thursday. Time to reminisce on our favourite wedding details!



We are lucky enough to have some very talented people in our lives, and we had a long enough engagement to find and plan for lots of personal touches.

Our wedding was in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Idaho - so Laura's mum very kindly lent us her time and sign-making skills to get everyone to the location from the main road. They are so pretty, and some of the most photographed things on the day!



                                        One day we will bring this one ^ back to hang in our home!


Aren't they amazing?


Our wedding shoes were pretty and casual, though Laura requested Sarah (and the bridesmaids) wear heels for the ceremony so she wouldn't look crazy tall :)


Our wedding dresses - how gorgeous is this bathroom in the lodge we stayed in? It's properly girly, so features in plenty of our photos!


Even Kevin got in on the professional photo action! Meet Kevin.


We hung wedding photos of our parents and grandparents along a forest path that led from the ceremony to the reception, to remind us of the great loves that came before us. Laura's mum and dad are featured in the front photo, and Sarah's grandparents in the one on the left.


Our rings! On a pinecone! Just because!


Laura's pearl earrings, given to her by her parents, and our ring bowl for the Ring Warming ceremony, given to us by our lovely friends Susie + Natalie. We were so glad the rings were tied on, when one of the guests dropped it during the ceremony haha!


Sarah's wedding jewelry, given to her by her parents - she went on a lovely shopping day with her mum to get them! Me'thinks this is an acorn this time. 


Our bridesmaid dresses - again, in the lovely bathroom! We were so happy with these, they were feminine, woodsy, and the colour was perfect. Also they had pockets, so that's great. It was a huge challenge having bridesmaids in three different countries - we are relieved it worked out so well!


                                                                                    We purchased these wood bicycle cufflinks as presents for Laura's dad and brother - they are both very into cycling, so we thought they were perfect for them! And Laura's mum decorated these personalised coathangers for our bridesmaids, mums, Laura's nan, and of course, us! Pictured are three generations in hangers.
Sarah's mum gave us each a horseshoe to carry down the aisle - a Scottish tradition for good luck in a marriage. Laura's had her Australian great-grandmother's ring tied to it, brought all the way from Oz via her uncle. It was extra special because her mother also wore it on her wedding day! Sarah had her mother's eternity ring on her horseshoe.                              


All of our wedding papers (invites, programme, menu, etc!) were designed and printed by one of Laura's good friends from school, Julia Green. She was a dream to work with - took our wacky ideas and made them into something that made sense, looked great, and was very 'us'. It all came out great quality and on price! Seriously if you're getting married, get in contact!



Julia also did our table plan on chalkboard globes (found by Soiree) - our tables were named after some of our favourite places we travelled together, so this tied in perfectly. We managed to get one back in our hand luggage, so Russia is in our home, and two are up in Laura's parents' house!



One of the most unexpected things we loved most on our big day were our flowers, by Flowers At Will. We thought they'd be good, but couldn't have fathomed how much we would love everything he did. The tree centrepieces were initially our idea, but after it looked like it might not be feasible, Will made our dreams come true with the above. And the bouquets! They were natural and wild, how we had pictured them, and fit us while complementing each other so wonderfully. Purple of course is Sarah's, and the pink is Laura's!


Our cake was by Greg Marsh Cakes, and the little bird toppers we found on Etsy. It was delicious - Victoria Sponge, Red Velvet, and Lemon - all our favourites. Though Laura didn't even see it at the reception, we both went to town on the leftovers as we couldn't really fly back a tier for our first wedding anniversary. We'll just celebrate that with a new cake! Brandi at Soiree found these stunning sequin table covers for our accent tables - we thought they were so perfect to 'girlify' the woods, exactly what we wanted. And see the champagne flutes? These were given to us at our legal wedding in March, by Westminster Registry Office for being the first female couple to be legally married in Westminster! We were very happy to be able to carry them across the world to tie the two days together.


These handsome gents are modelling another one of our favourite things - these bow ties, worn by Laura's brother (left), her Dad (right) and our other usher Dave, are from Tie The Knot, which is an LGBT charity started by Jesse Tyler Ferguson (of Modern Family) supporting marriage equality. They have little owls on them - and in addition to looking awesome, and being the perfect colour, they represented the right for us to marry (which ironically came to Idaho only a few months later) and gave some money to that cause.



Our little favours, which were at each place setting, were key chains stating:


All of our overnight guests were given these welcome boxes, put together by Soiree, with a few of our favourite things in them (Diet Coke, anyone?) and things to remind them of the weekend. Our favourites were the handmade cocktail napkins, and locally made candle!



Phew! That was a longer post than we'd intended. But there were so many amazing little things we wanted to share with you! If you're planning a wedding and have any questions, please get in contact - and if you're Idaho based, we'd love to talk - we have lots of vendor recommendations!!


Ahh this post made us sad it's over - thank goodness we still have so many amazing memories!

If you haven't yet seen the others, click here to see our previous wedding photo posts!

Lets get back to the action - our ceremony post will be out Saturday 22nd November! OHMYGOD it's like we're getting married all over again... you know, kind of.

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