"Wedding Elf"

Back in February my physical therapist Britta (also good friend of my sisters) asked me to help her plan her wedding. How could I say no when she offered me my very own parking space on the big day?!?! **Britta and I first met when she parked in my reserved parking spot at the apartment I shared with my sister at the time. When I got home that day I had no idea that Britta was my sisters boss and had permission to park there. So what did I do? I proceeded to give her a piece of my mind… (and many inappropriate hand gestures/choice words). Oooops! My bad.

Britta and I met several times over the last 6 months but when Sunday finally got here I just couldn’t believe how fast time had flown by. The planning that went into this wedding was amazing. Honestly, I didn’t “plan” anything. I just acted as a sounding board for Britta when she needed to bounce ideas of someone with a little experience. My main role in her wedding was to be there day of to help coordinate everything coming together. Every time Britta would introduce me to someone she would introduce me as her “Wedding Elf” since I was just there as a highly trained helper. There were a lot of moving parts for this wedding. For starters it was on “The Lawn” – the home of Jeff’s Grandparents. The Lawn is acres upon acres of land with beautiful trees and buildings that date back to the way back. This was a true “do it yourself” wedding. Tent, chairs, tables, linens, stage, lights, power, water, kitchen tent, cocktail setup and ceremony setup. Even the invitations were DIY – the bride’s sister made them. (Don’t get any ideas Jen.)

Saturday afternoon was all setup. We ran into the expected issues – not enough extension cord, diagram issues, missing supplies/boxes. But no big deal when you have 19 people in your bridal party. Yep, you read the correctly. There were 9 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen (and I’m here to tell you they all looked like the stepped out of JCrew catalogue). I had no problem finding jobs for the girls and heavy lifting projects for the guys. I kept calling the guys “my muscles”. Couldn’t have done all that setup without them.

Sunday was the big day. I got to The Lawn nice and early (10:00am) to finish the setup. I worked my butt off that morning getting tables in the correct spots, dropping linens, and setting chairs. Why join a gym when you can be a wedding coordinator? I did not regret skipping my run that morning. True Story. About 3 hours before the wedding was set to start, as I was putting the finishing touches on the tent, the Fire Marshall showed up. Oh, hello Mr. Fire Marshall…is there a problem? Apparently, even on private property you have to have a permit for a tent that will hold more than 50 people. Big oops. Needless to say I put on my best smile, batted my eyelashes, swore up and down this was my first time ever working an event. Permit? Who knew. The owners of the house got fined (I think, not actually sure what went down) and the FM proceeded to do an on the spot inspection of our tent. We past the inspection with flying colors and a stern warning to secure a permit next time. You got it. Phew, crisis averted thanks to my new friends Matt and Barry the FMs.

The ceremony was on the front steps of the house (re-creating Jeff’s parents wedding) and it was amazing! The weather was absolutely perfect and the backdrop made for some beautiful pictures. Britta was very calm and collected and couldn’t wait to see how “handsome Jeff looked.” From the ceremony to the cocktail hour and then right into the reception everything was amazing. When the sun went down the (almost) full moon lit the sky along with hundreds of stars. It was really a sight to see.

Congratulations Britta and Jeff!!! It was my pleasure to be a part of your wedding.