TaDa! Creations: Gretchen + Jeremiah Are Hitched

If you are just tuning in for the first time, here's a recap. My cousin, Gretchen + Jeremiah entered the Guthrie's "When We Were Married" $60,000 Dream Wedding Giveaway. Their video entry made the top five and then the voting began. We worked hard to get them the 20 some thousand votes that made them winners. People from at least 15 states were voting. It was an amazing testimony of how loved Gretchen + Jeremiah are by their family and friends. And they were overwhelmed by the outpouring.

The ceremony took place on the set of the Guthrie's current play "When We Were Married." Actor Peter Michael Goetz officiated. Gretchen and Jeremiah are the only couple to be married on the Guthrie stage. What an amazing honor that was.

Their photographer was a lot of fun. The husband and wife duo lead the wedding party down a treacherous hillside above the river, amid the Mill City ruins. We all managed to survive and thankfully the boys didn't tell us about the rat that ran across the path between Lisa and myself until after we made it back to the top. The photographer then ran across the bridge and took photos of us from across the river. I can't wait to see these!

Of course being in the wedding party myself meant that I was too busy to take all the photos I would have liked to. I missed a lot of key people and never once had a chance to turn the camera over to David or get a family photo of us. So, as usual, I am absent. C'est la vie.

The Cantilever

The three little flower girls on their way to photos.

Lisa and Rachel. JCrew dresses that we will definitely wear again. And I'm not just sayin' that.
Thanks Gretchen!

All of the little ladies ended up with blisters on their feet and walking down the isle barefoot.
They were adorable!

Emily just told me how in this photo, she was explaining to Gretchen that she would get her own flowers.

Rachel, Gretchen's best friend, Matron of Honor, and business partner. A lovely girl.

Peter Michael Goetz officiated.

Entertaining the little ones was no easy task. Girl-wrangling at it's best.

Peter was very approachable and enjoyed talking with everyone. His daughter-in-law is expecting twins so he had a lot of questions for David. Peter has been married for 43 years and has great respect for the institution of marriage. He was thrilled to be a part of the ceremony and he was even tearing up like the rest of us during the wedding.

My sweet, sweet Gretchen. Her laugh is like sunshine, sure to put everyone in a good mood. Growing up she was like a sister to me. My Dad and I lived with her family for a while after my Mother died. They all have a very special place in my heart.

Her earrings and bracelet were custom made for her big day, and a gift from her parents.

I'm glad I took full advantage of her down time while having her dress steamed before the ceremony. These are my favorite shots of the day.

Her Lela Rose gown was even more beautiful in person (if that's possible). Dainty little flowers all over, a deep V in the back and appropriately named "Meadow." A chapel length train = easy elegance.

These next three photos were taken by Gretchen's friend April (I snagged them from facebook). I was tearing up just walking down the isle, but really started to lose it when I looked down and saw her parents in the front row, both crying with their granddaughter sitting on my Uncle John's lap.

Throughout the ceremony, you could really tell how much they love each other. They wrote their own vows and Gretchen's ended with a perfectly delivered "and I promise to mostly obey you." It was the perfect touch of laughter to all the sniffles around me.

The Kalisch Family (friends of the family) provided music for the ceremony. They are a bluegrass string instrument band and it's always such a joy to hear them play. They performed the song Lee Highway Blues as the Mr. and Mrs. were leaving the stage. It was a lot of fun!

Here are Rachel, Gretchen, Jeremiah and April. Nine years ago, the 3 roommates went to The Loring Bar, in hopes of meeting some new friends. They were complaining about not having enough friends and were determined to find some. However, they ended up sitting huddled on a couch together and not talking to a single new person. Just as the Loring was closing for the night, Jeremiah came over and asked if they would give him a ride to his car, but he had no idea where that was. A little skeptical, they finally agreed. You see, Jeremiah was supposed to meet his sister at a place called The Lounge but he had gotten the name mixed up and ended up at The Loring. He had been dropped off by a friend and didn't know how to get back to his car, that they later found parked on the other side of the old Guthrie (Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden).

During the hunt to find his car, Gretchen smoothly said "Hey, maybe your friends and our friends could be friends." He said he would take them all out to dinner as a thank you (of course they didn't believe him). But Gretchen wrote down their number, names and hair color anyway, so he could remember who was who. True to his word, he called the next day. Rachel answered, and going down the list he said, "Is April there?" No. "Is Gretchen there?" Just a minute...and the rest is history.

The food was amazing! Lobster claws, oysters on the half-shell, cold soups in shot glasses, gigantic scallops grilled to perfection at chef stations to name a few. I wish we hadn't needed to leave so early to get the girls to bed, but they were a scary shade of beside-themselves-tired. We did manage to make it home in time to see the end of the ceremony on Kare11's 10 o'clock news. That was pretty exciting. We recorded it onto a DVD, and then added it to YouTube.