Wedding Preparations

Leading up to Saturday, 3rd August, 2013.

Laura and Arend’s wedding had to rate as one of the organisational triumphs of the 21st century, and they both are to be congratulated on the months of planning which resulted in a very happy, relaxed day for everyone.

Here are just some of the preparations:

• Lanterns:  Laura brought from San Francisco quite a number of large and small white lanterns (plus paint) which she and her team of helpers painted yellow, orange, blue and white, to decorate the wedding tables.  With little (electric) candles in them, they looked stunning, both day and evening.  
• Table flowers:  Laura had a large number of flowers delivered to the lodge, in shades of orange and yellow .  These were stored in the lodge’s movie room (renamed the “flower room”) where she and her helpers arranged them into vases brought from San Francisco, which were painted to match the lanterns.

• Bouquets:  Laura and her helpers also assembled the bouquets for the bride and bridesmaids, and buttonholes for the leading men.

 

• Wedding cake:  Anna made and iced the Mexican fiesta wedding cake on site at the lodge.  This was quite a feat with unfamiliar ingredients, no kitchen scales, an unfamiliar oven and high altitude baking.  Congratulations Anna!  Sourcing the fondant icing was quite a process.  Anna wasn’t taking any chances with finding the right sized cake tins, and brought her own from Australia.

 

• Window picture:  Sian painted a Mexican-themed wedding picture on one of the windows.

 

• Wedding hair:  Laura had a trial wedding hair appointment in nearby Truckee, and arranged for a hairdresser to come to the lodge to do the hair of the bridal party and family and friends.

 

• Wedding nails:  Laura arranged a manicure and pedicure in nearby Truckee for members of the party, and on her wedding day, had Haley give her one blue nail on each hand for “something blue”.  Kirsty is having her hair done, while Sian and Haley have already been curled.

 

• Bridesmaids’ necklaces:  Anna spotted these in a shop in Lisbon when she was there in June for a conference.  She took a picture, sent it to Laura for her approval and bought them the next day.

 

• Zoe’s wedding clothes.

 

• Zoe in her wedding clothes.

 

• Zoe is ready but Anna is not.

 

• Mexican Mariachi Band:  Several Mexican bands were checked out, and this one selected.  They were fantastic!

Some of the other notable preparations included:

• Pre wedding catering:  Catering for up to 20 people for five days was a magnificent feat considering the nearest shops were over half an hour away.  Most of the grocery shopping was done at a bulk grocery even further away, and the Naylor ladies and Kirsty did a fantastic job keeping everyone fed.  Thank you ladies!
• Wedding drinks:  These were purchased tax free in Reno, over an hour away from the lodge.  There was a bit of an issue in that the alcohol was over-catered (no mention of any names as to how this happened!) and fitting it into cars to take home was an unusual problem.
• Bridesmaids’ dresses:  These were purchased in San Francisco and had to be rapidly fitted and altered when the respective bridesmaids arrived from Australia.
• Transport from San Francisco:  Anna and Pedram hired a car with a baby seat, Arend drove Laura’s car and Laura hired another car.  Most of the visitors repacked their luggage to take just what they needed for the six days of the wedding, and left the rest behind at Laura and Arend’s small flat.  Paul deserved first prize for this exercise, whittling his requirements down to his suit, a small back pack and a plastic bag.  Then the twelve people, their luggage and at least four large boxes of wedding equipment, plus Laura’s voluminous wedding dress, were inserted with military precision into the three cars, and off we went.

There were of course many other preparations which had been made for this special day.

When Laura gave us our room numbers for the lodge (on colour co-ordinated paper) we were also given a few very pleasant wedding duties, which we were all very happy to do.  A running-sheet email to everyone the evening before added some last minute details.  Everyone knew what was going on and everything unfolded beautifully.  Congratulations Laura and Arend!