Do you love weddings? Do you fancy the idea of writing about them?

Things are getting busy here at Intimate Weddings and we’re looking for someone to write some fresh and snappy content for our blog. This freelance position will require two blog posts of 200-300ish words per week. Blogger will be responsible for finding images, and crediting images in the blog posts.

This is a paid position. Interested? Send over three samples of your work to christina@intimateweddings.com

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

We had family style dining with a beautiful spread of food made possible by some fantastic people! We first snacked on appetizers – fruit, nuts, olives, cheese, and the best wings you could imagine! Nathan and I wanted family influences and so we asked both our mothers to contribute to the food. My mom made southern potato salad, southern brown sugar baked beans, pecan pie and another southern fave chess pie. Yum!! We devoured the tater salad! Nathan’s mom baked so many pies - apple, cherry, blueberry, blackberry! And, the main event was catered by Nathan’s wonderful cousins – Robbi and Krystal. They did such an awesome job. The night before the wedding they prepped the food – shucking corn, marinating wings, boiling noodles, and cutting up condiments. We had all our favorite bbq faves including burgers, hotdogs, tater salad, boston baked beans (made possible by Robbi’s mom and Nathan’s aunt!), macaroni salad, green salad. I was in complete awe at how much delicious food there was, and the amount of work Robbi, Krystal, and all of our guests put in.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I’ve been asked a few times now what was my favorite part of the wedding, and I have to say it was the ceremony. We were so happy to have Nathan’s father, Mr. Bob Griffin, marry us in front of our friends and family. My father-in-law can weave a story together so naturally that you can’t help but be inclined to give your undivided attention. Nathan and I always knew that we wanted him to tell our story and bring us together on our wedding day.

The ceremony was perfectly us – sweet, loving, awkward, funny (I cannot believe how many laughs were had), honest – and just beautiful. We asked Bob to say a bit about the importance of love, marriage, and family (where he spoke to his long and loving marriage with his wife Debbi), and then we read our vows to one another. Nathan and I have always written to each other – even before we  formed a romantic relationship. We created a journal space where we could write to each other; we leave notes (on Post-its) for each other around the house; and we have a box filled with correspondence. The funny thing about Nathan’s vows is that he lost them the night before the wedding and had to rewrite them hours before our ceremony!! Well, technically he lost his iphone which the vows were saved on. But even still he did a great job at writing them again last minute.

My vows:

Nathan, I think we are rare. Pure. But even moreso I think you are. I think all of these things you do daily are so true, and wonderful. The motions you have made to be present for us. The ways you love me. The million-billion-gabillion ways you let me know. I think about our love today, our love tomorrow. And, even when I think it’s impossible I love you more.

Because I love you I promise to be your best friend.
I promise to encourage you, your endeavors – and all 300 of your art projects.
I promise to listen to you, and love you the way you need to be loved.
I promise to laugh with you often – in the kitchen when we are making dinner, at the bus stop when we are trying to forget how cold Chicago is, and all those moments in between when nothing but a laugh will do.
I promise to be patient with and for you – I promise to live in the moment with you.
I promise to be your loving partner in all our adventures, and I intend to keep my promise that I made to you the first time we met.
Because I know I will love you for the next 85 years. And, then some.

 
Nathan’s vows:

There are few relationships in life which simply make sense; peanut butter and jelly, wine and cheese, hot chocolate in winter and you and I. Days after we met, I wrote to you and said, “I think I may be falling in love with you. I don’t want to let you go. I feel close to bursting. I don’t want to leave here, this place, your company.” And two years later, standing here beside you, nothing has changed. I am still falling in love with you and I still don’t want to leave your side. We are lucky, you and I.

So my one promise to you is this… with each passing moment, my love and devotion to you and our future together will not waver. It will only grow as we grow, tenderly nurtured through constant dialogue, great sex and the occasional moment when the courage to say “I was wrong, I’m sorry” makes all the difference.

I love you.

We ended up hugging and kissing quite a bit during the entire ceremony. At one point I remember saying: “I don’t think we are supposed to kiss this much.”

And, then we were Nathan and Carey Griffin!!

It was such a beautiful moment.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I just need to take a moment to praise my little brother Drew who took the photos at our wedding. He just booked his third wedding this month (and ever)! I am so proud of him, and so lucky to have been the first.

I love you buddy.

More photos from our wedding:

Nathan knew from the beginning he wanted to wear a bowtie! And, I just love it (though now he keeps saying that he looks like a nutty professor). We found his bowtie on etsy from Xoelle. She creates bowties and other cute things like aprons out of vintage materials – Nathan’s tie used to be an old shirt. Neither of us knew how to tie a bowtie, nor do any of our friends or family! Can you believe it? I tried really hard to learn the week before the wedding through the use of a you tube video but couldn’t figure it out perfectly. Nathan fooled around with the tie for a good thirty minutes before the ceremony and actually figured out how to tie it!

His ring is custom designed from Wood-Rings.

I think he looked just dapper.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

My hair piece was from the wildly talented Whichgoose. I found her through etsy, and actually ended up buying two hair pieces from her because I couldn’t decide which would be best with my dress without trying them both on. The other hair piece I decided not to wear on our wedding day got some use at the Ren Faire earlier this summer, though. Her pieces run between $30-$50 for the most part, and are beautiful!

My necklace was also from etsy artist Luxe Deluxe. This was one of the first accessories purchases I made for the wedding, and felt so happy with my decision. I don’t normally wear a lot of necklaces, and might not have otherwise, but Nathan really loves when I do. I thought this necklace was delicate enough (the leaves are vintage brass from the 1950s) and the pearls were a perfect touch to accent my hair piece.

My ring is a simple 2mm 18k gold band that we ordered from believe-it-or-not weddingbands.com.

I really depended on etsy and some amazing do-it-yourself-ers to bring this wedding together. And, I really have to highlight Kelly of KellyBowBelly! She has the cutest shop of little kid accessories from neckties to bowties to skirts, and beyond that is so nice to work with!! She was above and beyond helpful, and considerate to my order – cute matching ties for my handsome nephews Jacob and Griffin.

I highly recommend her!

This week we’ll be featuring some of the highlights from IW Bride Blogger Carey’s intimate wedding in New Hampshire. Take it away Carey!

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I bought my wedding dress before we were officially engaged. It came out of a box some random morning at work (Anthropologie), and I gasped. That is it! I have loved it ever since. And it waited so patiently in a box inside my closet for me to finally wear it on our wedding day. When it finally went on sale, I bought a second dress which also waited patiently for me to finally have someone make a bolero out of the skirt for me. The friday night before we left for New Hampshire my dear partner Abigail and I cut the lace, pinned the pattern, and sewed a perfect little cover for my arms.

Really, I love that dress. And, I will probably wear it again at a party someday. Why not?

My shoes were also from Anthropologie and designed by Sam Edelman.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

We took the DIY approach to heart with our October wedding. We did everything ourselves including the food, the decor, the save-the-dates, invitations, flowers – even the vows. And we couldn’t have done it without our amazing family.

Crunching numbers and plans.

Nathan building the fire.

Our special guests who helped with the celebration arrived Thursday evening to a cozy home with a roaring fire, welcome bags on their beds, and lots of hugs and excitement! That night was spent catching up, dancing, laughing, crying, and drinking. We even took an adventure field trip in to the woods! That’s how we roll.

The next day is when the work began! I cannot even tell you how incredibly lucky we are to be surrounded by such giving friends and family.

Stay tuned for more posts on Carey and Nathan’s New Hamsphire DIY wedding!

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

My friend Aron showed me this picture of tin can lanterns not that long ago, and I fell in love.

While not the easiest thing in the world to do/make (I guess it’s more tedious than hard), I thought that they would be a wonderful addition to our wedding decor. My sister-in-law-to-be Heather began saving the larger formula cans that she used to feed baby Griffin for the project. She even made one herself to see how long it would take, and how it would turn out.

This is the one she made, and it is beautiful!

So while I was in New Hampshire this summer I began the project a little more in depth. We weren’t really sure where the tin cans would even go until we got to the house. I would love them hanging, but all the trees they could hang from are far from the reception action. Heather came up with another idea of spacing them across the stone wall in front of the house at night time with candles in it. It would be a small glow but so pretty evenly spaced there. Perfect!

I then spray painted them all with a bronze-y rust color. I wanted to take 6 of them home so Nathan and I could make some, too. But I was only allowed to take 2 home. Heather says she will be able to make them all before the wedding, but if not I’m sure we can poke some holes the week of. With 15 people at the house, and a glass of wine it should be fun!

Another sidenote if you ever want to try these yourself: Heather ran into an issue with the can denting in as she poked the holes with an icepick. My father-in-law cut a piece of wood that would fit inside perfectly to act as a structure for the can on the inside. This helped, and the can didn’t dent any longer.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I bought Love Poems by Pablo Neruda.

And, I love it! It makes me happy.

I have named you queen.
There are taller ones than you. taller.
There are purer ones than you. purer.
There are lovelier than you. lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal gown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass.
the nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it.