Josh, over at LCI Paper, is getting hitched and he’s having 50 people at his backyard wedding. He’s agreed to share a bit about his plans and how he and his sweetheart are creating a highly personalized event that is truly a relfection of themselves.

By Guest Blogger, Joshua Birch

Before I proposed, my future bride and I attended a friend’s wedding that took place at a church. As we waited for the ceremony to start—and it started quite late—we glanced at each other with uncomfortable looks on our faces and then back to the organist who was playing dark, moody pipe organ selections. We couldn’t believe the depressing mood he was creating with his music. I wondered if he was just trying to show off his virtuosity, because he certainly wasn’t thinking of the bride and groom or their guests. No one could have directed him to play those pieces for this wedding. It was literally funeral parlor music which I tend to like, but not before a wedding.

The actual wedding was as traditional and as cookie cutter as you could get. There wasn’t a hint of the bride or groom’s personality, nor did the minister show that he knew them very well. Luckily, at the reception, the toast that my friend the groom was about to make would erase all negative thoughts I might have otherwise kept about the wedding. When it was his turn to toast, he stood and spoke from his heart, complimenting his new bride as if she was the most wonderful woman in the world, and thanking her parents, his parents, and his honored guests.

He must have spoken for 15 minutes, but people were riveted to his words. He thanked a number of individuals for being there and recognized people who had come as far as Jamaica, his native country. I was a very surprised and lucky recipient of his recognition, and I was truly floored. He shared experiences we’d had together and showed how important those experiences were to his current endeavors. A few weeks later, I give him a call and told him how impressed I was with his speech. I felt that he had come into his own as a mature man. Because of his desire to connect with people, he had made his wedding day one that we’ll remember with affection.

The type of connection my friend made with his guests is one that I am hoping and planning for my up-coming wedding. But I also want to inject as much of my personality and my fiancée’s personality into the actual ceremony.

It started with my proposal location choice. Originally, I had hoped to propose at a ski area–on an actual chairlift. I missed my window of opportunity when the ski season ended and I was not yet ready to propose. So instead, I planned another ski lift ride. But instead of doing it at a ski area, I proposed at our favorite amusement park. At Lake Compounce in Bristol, Connecticut, they have a quad chair lift that brings guests to the top of a scenic and very steep mountain. She was completely surprised and tells me that the excitement of the proposal combined with the fear of the steep ride was almost overwhelming.

Another way I’m injecting personality into our wedding experience is with our wedding site choice which is in the large backyard and on the large deck of a close friend in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. The site reminds me of my early childhood in rural Western Mass.

By Carey, IW Bride Blogger

I haven’t been a bridesmaid that often – really, only once – and technically I was a best woman. I also really rather enjoyed it – standing up for my best friend as he went through the days preceding and then his beautiful wedding day. I do know a lot of people, though who have been a part of a bridal or groom’s party, and I know that it can be a healthy responsibility. It can add up to be pretty expensive especially if it is a destination wedding (think about it…plane tickets, car rental, hotel room, days off from work, and an oh so special dress or tux); it also doesn’t allow for a lot of personal freedom during the festivities.

Since Nathan and I are having an intimate wedding, we decided that the traditional bridal and groom party might be too formal for us. We also realized that if we actually had a bridal or groom party no one would be seated at the ceremony! There is no possible way I could choose who would or would not stand next to me of all of my closest friends. The solution – Guests of Honor!

As you know, we are renting the beautiful house in New Hampshire with plenty of rooms and bathrooms. Way too much room for just Nathan and I especially since we want to create a warm, cozy Thanksgiving feeling. For years my best friends from college and I have found some way to spend Thanksgiving together. There was the first year when my best friend AJ’s sister flew up especially from Florida, then there was the year I tried cooking my first turkey and I insisted it be organic – feathers and all! Then there was the year my friend Janet hosted it at her house with a whopping 15 of us. No matter the year we always try to find a way to spend it together, and those years we can’t all be there we make sure to give thanks for those faraway friends.

With this in mind Nathan and I invited those people we would consider a part of our bridal or groom’s party to stay with us at the house. And, let me tell you we have a full house! Everyone was excited, and honored to not only be able to reunite, but also be a unique part of the celebration. Our guests will arrive 2 days before the wedding, and will stay a total of three nights. Many are coming from all over the country – LA, Sacramento, St. Louis, Portland, and Chicago! Some have never met before, and others haven’t been in the same room together in years!

A while back, I wrote about having a shabby chic wedding.

Recently, I found some tea-themed wedding printables to go along with the shabby chic theme. You can download them over at Style Guide.

And if you planning on making your own tea, check out Layla’s Etsy shop for diy tea bags. She also has lots of fragrant herbs to fill them with!

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Clothespin caketoppers are popping up all over the place. And now you can make your own! For $10!

I stumbled on this super helpful DIY caketoppers tutorial over at Craftster.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Doll pins (you can find them at your local craft store or here)

Pencil

Craft paints

Clear gloss varnish (Delta Ceramcoat Gloss Interior Varnish was used for these)

Lace or ribbon with a width of at least 1-1/2 inches

Small buttons for bouquet

Multisurface glue (like E-6000)

Fabric glue

2-1/2-inch-diameter wooden circle

Glitter (Martha Stewart Crafts Fine Glitter in White Gold was used for these)

Hop on over to How to Make a Clothespin Caketopper for the full tutorial.

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Rachel & Michael

Sonoma, California

Wedding Date: August 15, 2009

Number of Guests: 32

Wedding Ceremony Location: Private residence in Sonoma, CA

Wedding Reception Location: Private residence in Sonoma, CA

Why did you have an intimate wedding?

We chose to have an intimate wedding because we are both from New York City and our friends and family still live there. Mike and I live in Los Angeles now but everyone lives back east. My family and Mike’s family made a vacation out of it and stayed in Sonoma for a week after the wedding. For others, they rented houses or stayed in hotels for the night. We had some guests drive from Los Angeles and San Francisco but we understood that flying across the country from the East coast was expensive and a lot to ask of people. We both wanted the day to be happy and fun and not to be stressful or rigid. We left the seating up the guests, had music on an ipod playing but did not expect people to dance, offered many places for people to sit and relax (i.e., with their feet in the pool, on the lawn, in a hammock or walking through the vineyards).  It was important for us for people to simply enjoy themselves. We did not register for gifts, have a big engagement party or even have a bridal shower. We had small bachelorette/ bachelor parties, mine was in Calistoga with my maid of honor and the groom went to Vegas with 10 of his friends.  An intimate wedding fit our personalities and styles.