All photographs by Digital Dimensions
Sharon & Corby Anderson
Married 7-7-07 of Carbondale, Colorado
Corby was born on January 7th and his lucky number has always been 7 – so he wanted our wedding to be on 7-7-07.
The Details
How long to plan the wedding: One year
Budget: $12,000
Number of Guests: 175 – 85% from out-of-town
Wedding Site: Colorado Rocky Mountain School Barn - Carbondale, Colorado
The Flowers
Flowers were chosen with deliberate flair. Sprigs of mint flowing out of cylindrical vases with cut limes showcased inside the water. Sharon loves to cook, so there were rosemary sprigs used for the men’s boutonnieres and sprigs of mint used in each of the ladies’ bouquets. An elaborate herb wreath was also placed in the entry of the barn above the gift table.
The Food
Since we try to eat very healthy and many of our guests are diabetic or vegetarian, we had our caterer create a delicious yet healthy menu for our buffet style dinner. Items included rosemary baked chicken, sweet potatoes, couscous salad, dinner rolls, veggie tray and fruit tray. We each incorporated one ethnic food from our backgrounds. We served Polish sausage bites with horseradish sauce to honor my polish heritage and for Corby we served southern style green beans to honor his southern background.
We also had a late lunch around 10:30pm. This included ham and turkey cold cuts, potato salad, noodle salad, and the couscous salad, veggie tray, fruit tray and rolls from dinner. This is an old Polish tradition that makes sure your guests get something to eat before they drive home and also insures that you won’t have too much food left over. We paid for it, why not use it.
The Cake
The cake was a gift from a friend. I wanted a simple square cake with off-set layers. The bottom layer was red velvet and the second layer was orange-spice-pecan. We had a groom’s cake made in his favorite flavor, Chocolate Kailua, by the mother-of-the-groom.
The Favors
Our favorite beverage to relax with is jasmine tea so we found a company called Tea Forté that is our absolute favorite. I checked online and purchased direct from the company. Each place setting had one white jasmine triangular shaped silk tea bag.
Special Touches
Our dog, Bear, was the ring “bear”.
“The Natives”, led by local wild man Steve Skinner, performed the wedding night music with zest and skill. My brother, Ron played a couple of polkas on his flying trumpet. The groom and his brother and several good friends played a set of music in a reunion of their band, “The Ragged Mountain Meltdown”.
The groom is a filmmaker by trade, and surprised the wedding guests with a professionally made, hilarious documentary called “Curious About Engagements”, that he had filmed secretly during the engagement. The showing was the world premiere of the 12-minute video.
The adult beverages were all chosen for their local connections. The beer was Sunshine Wheat, by New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. The crowd was a sophisticated group of beer drinkers, and they heartily approved. Local wines were provided by the groom’s friend Kevin Doyle, proprietor of award winning Woody Creek Cellars. Other wines were chosen for their connection to the groom’s former home in Northern California. Red Truck and White Truck Wines provided a perfect match for the dinner selections. Family friend Jess Graber, the owner of Colorado’s only whiskey operation, provided a special bottle of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. We served Seven and Seven (and 7) cocktails in honor of the numerological anomaly.
The Rehearsal Dinner
We invited all our guests to a Hawaiian themed Luau with a southern pig BBQ. A mariachi band played well into the night. Several friends pulled their trucks around the horseshoe pits, and games went on into the early morning under the headlights.
Our Advice
1. Agree to disagree. Even though it is the bride’s day, she has to realize that everyone, including the groom, wants to give advice or leave their own special touch on the event. Take any gifts, decorations or advice and store them away. You may or may not use them. You still have the final say, no matter who is paying for it.
2. Hire someone to handle all the small details and last minute issues like ice or drunk guests.
3. Stay relaxed and really enjoy your day. It really does go by so fast that there will be many people you don’t get to talk to.
4. ALWAYS make several copies of any special DVD or CD that needs to be played during the night. Give a copy of each to the best man to hold on to.
5 . Utilize the internet. There are a lot of advice pages and samples you can do yourself such as maps for directions or rehearsal dinner invitations.
6 . Make sure that you can sit down, dance, stretch your arms and attempt to go to the bathroom in your dress before the wedding day. Get comfortable shoes to wear all day instead of switching when the ceremony is over. You might end up carrying your dress for the rest of the night if your shoes are a different height. There is no reason for too high heels when your seamstress can hem your dress to any length. A really good seamstress is worth the money.
8 . Make LOTS of lists and cross items off once they are done. It will save a lot of time to know certain things don’t need to be thought of again and again.
9 . Bring extension cords even if you don’t think you’ll need them.
10. Borrow what you can! You may not want to buy a cake stand, cake servers or the card box. Ask around to your married friends or relatives to see what they might let you borrow.
Honeymoon Locale
Have not taken one yet but plan on Tahiti and New Zealand in the late winter or spring.
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