Love Livre Live: Wedding Bells...

Ha! For those of you who know me, I'll bet that title got your attention! Sorry to disappoint, but I am not referring to my own wedding. However, I did ATTEND a lovely wedding this weekend that, should I ever decide to walk down the aisle, I may just have to adoringly mimic some parts of as though I were an annoying younger sibling... :)

This weekend was a lovely medley of all things I adore in a weekend. Friday, I stayed in, tired from traveling, and consumed cup after cup of mint tea while reading a book my sister recommended: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbough. It was a novel akin to the "blackout cupcake" from Crumbs; delicious and sweet, but not the kind of thing off of which you want to subsist. That said, it was a perfect read for my purposes. Saturday, I woke up early and freaked out upon realizing that we had a wedding to attend that night and I had nothing to wear. After some galavanting around multiple NYC neighborhoods, I found a dress and then raced home to get ready.

The wedding was everything that I love in a wedding. I have been to (and been in!) a lot of weddings. Weddings are always a good time and a wonderful opportunity to see the people you love, no matter the spectacle of the wedding itself, but over the years I have definitely developed an affinity for a certain type of wedding. The weddings I have attended have run the gamut--and when I say this I am not exaggerating--not even a little. I have been to budget weddings and weddings that have cost more than most homes, huge weddings where the bride and groom didn't even know everyone to small weddings where I knew every single person's life story, weddings with historical themes held in historical settings to hipster weddings that have attempted to depart from even a hint of a theme. While I remember all of these weddings (and have loved them for the people for whom the occasion celebrated) there are definitely some aspects of each of these weddings that I remember as clearly as the people I love--and this has led me to the conclusion that the personal touches at weddings are always what I remember. From an ice cream truck that one of my friends served ice cream in her wedding gown from at the end of the night, to another friend who had a mariachi band during cocktail hour, to a friend who gave out CDs (yeah, I'm old) as favors with songs that were special to the bride and groom, to another friend who transported her bridal party in a trolley, I love those parts of weddings where--even if it is something quite simple--embody the essence of the couple--and the wedding this weekend was beautiful because it was filled with tons of lovely personal touches.

Not our best picture, in fact, quite possibly one of our worst,

but M's exuberance cracks me up...

The ceremony was held under the Brooklyn Bridge, in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and had all of the idiosyncrasies of a classic New York City wedding. The D train kept loudly clacking by (even though the D train never seems to run on schedule!) and so the audience was in and out of hearing the performance of the ceremony--yet, despite this, both the bride and groom laughed about the train and teared as they spoke to each other. Adorable. In the heat of the summer, the groom insisted that his groomsmen (and wedding attendees) be comfortable and the bride insisted that the bridemaids not spend a ton of money on something that, let's face it, we all know nobody ever wears again! She coordinated their outfits and had them wear beautiful, long chartreuse skirts and simple white tank tops topped off by unifying and coordinated J Crew necklaces. It was simple and lovely.

After the ceremony, all of the guests walked over to Dumbo Loft where there was dinner (served from their favorite food carts!) and great music and dancing. The evening was filled with touching speeches by a variety of people and every song performed by the band was hand selected. This made for a Beastie Boys dance-off at one point that, while not your classic wedding serenade, was perfect for a group of man-boys who knew every word and, despite some pretty scary dance skills, were inspired to move by the music. Like the musical playlists, the bride and groom had done a lot of the decor themselves and there were tons of personal touches--for instance, they met when the groom taught the bride to ride a bike and therefore, bikes dominated their aesthetic. It was an absolutely lovely wedding--and made for a great way to spend a Saturday night!

On Sunday (my newly showing!) friend came in from Connecticut for catching up, manicures and pedicures, and some yummy brunch, and it was the perfect way to end a great weekend. Between the weather and the company, I am one happy girl!

Today, after doing some work and some exercise, both of which that needed to be done, M and I hopped on our favorite NYC mode of transportation and headed to Brooklyn for dinner. A drink in a our hand and some yummy seafood in front of us, we sat in the large outdoor space of The Lobster Joint and soaked in the sun, the wine, and the clams. Not bad, not bad at all.