Wedding: Chalkboards Galore

Chalkboard signs were a pretty big part of our wedding day. They are such an easy (and cheap) way to add a lot of character to your event. I got mine signs from my wholesaler (because I'm super fancy like that) but I know a lot of stores on Etsy or Hobby Lobby sell wooden signs. Then we painted them with chalkboard paint from Lowes (two coats) and I commissioned my sister and MOH, Hillary to do all of the writing for me.

I wasn't super prepared for this....I think I maybe gave them to her a week before our wedding. So looking back I wish I would have gotten a few quotes that meant more to us vs popular ones (such as F. Scott Fitzgerald one).

One quote that I have always LOVED is from Jim Halpert (The Office) about Pam. We couldn't fit it on one, so Hillary split it up between two signs.

Here are the rest of our signs. I had Hillary do smaller ones that said "Reserved" for our Family tables and sprinkled throughout the venue were signs with our hashtag "StewPartyof2" (I wrote a post here sharing why I think an event hashtag is a must) so people would remember to use it.

Wedding Vendor: The Venue

OKC Farmer's Market 

My venue. It was one of the very first decisions I made. It is a really cool venue...not in the greatest part of town, but I love how big it is and it has an amazing view of downtown OKC. I wouldn't say that I regret having my wedding there....BUT I kind of wish that I would have shopped around a bit.

I'm not writing this post to put the Farmer's Market on blast...at all! But, I want to share with you my wedding planning process, and venue was a major one.

We chose the Farmer's Market for many reasons. One, it was a huge space, and I wanted to get married and have the reception in one place (less decorating, right?). Two, they provided a lot! DJ, alcohol, soda, water, tea, 2 bartenders, security, tables and chairs (that they would set up for us). Three, it was such a cool and unique venue.

All of those provided were great (if you were there and saw any one of my family members, you KNOW the alcohol was working :) )... except that the chairs were super dirty and we had to wipe them off.

Our venue is not specifically just for weddings. It is a farmer's market, antique store, concert hall, roller derby rink and apparently and MMA fighting ring. Through the entire 10 months we were told we could set up the Friday before. That way on Saturday we could somewhat relax. Well...the week before the venue told us there would be an MMA fight held the Friday night before our wedding, til 2am (it was supposed to be the weekend before, but was rescheduled due to weather). (Cue my one, major freak out of the wedding process...sorry, Jake!) So, we gathered my family and friends and worked our asses off Saturday morning getting everything prepped. It was a lot of hard work, but in the end, it came together because we had some ALL STARS helping us out. It sucked, but stuff like that happens, and again....if that was the worst thing to happen during the wedding planning process, no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Another thing that bothered me was one of the staff called my mom a few days after the wedding and "scolded" her because our guests wiped Vaseline on the bottom of some of the chairs. Now....lets take a second and think about this one. Who at a wedding uses Vaseline? No one. Who at an MMA fight uses Vaseline? Everyone. Mystery solved. Maybe if they had cleaned the chairs in the first place, they would have figured that out.

Like I said before: our venue was so cool looking and unique. Here are some of the reasons I chose to get married there:

Giant windows with great light....

 

Great architecture...

and string lights everywhere that made our night magical...

All photography by the fab Caroline Rentzel Photography

MIA No More

OK, I get that I’ve been MIA, and I’m sorry…kind of. Now that life has come to a slight slowdown, I’ll be able to share more of myself with you! Guys, I seriously can’t wait to share with you every single detail of our wedding, our marriage and our home!! So let’s start…

First off I’m now officially a Stewart! Hence the blog name change. I will miss being a McGuire, and let’s get real, it’s not like that is something that is mistaken by anyone who is familiar with the McGuire clan…I’m still loud and obnoxious and cuss occasionally. But I full on embrace my new name. I’m in love with being married… (Did you know when you get married you get to see that person every day? Not just a few times a week? Um, hello! Why hadn’t anyone informed us of this first?)

Jake and I have been busy settling into our new home, and our new life. It has been so much fun! We’ve started new shows…SCANDAL (OMG!) We’ve fought over dishes, bank accounts, my decorating choices, thermostats and sleeping habits (apparently I move…a lot) and we have recently relived our favorite day ever! Yes, we got our wedding pictures back! Lots of giggling, laughing, crying and finger pointing went on and we just had the best time.

Our photographer is Caroline Rentzel of Caroline Rentzel Photography. She did such a wonderful job capturing our perfect day and putting on paper what we had dreamed of.

I’ll share more about Caroline, our other fabulous vendors and about our DIY’s in the future!

I’ll leave you with this picture, just a little glimpse of the complete and utter joy we felt that day!