Kelsea & Ryan's Penn State Wedding

“Our wedding was...a dream come true"

- Kelsea & Ryan 

Today's Wedding Wednesday post features a June 2014 New Jersey wedding celebrating the marriage of two Penn State alumni who truly bleed blue and white. While I don't know Kelsea & Ryan personally, I feel like we're family, as we're all Penn Staters and she reached out to me after reading the We Are...Getting Married post I wrote last year, happy to share her own PSU-themed soiree with Wediquette readers. Check it out below, and look for her answers to some of our most prominent wedding questions as you go! 

What made this celebration unique?

Our Penn State wedding theme made our celebration unique, and Penn State means a lot to us as alumni. We spent a lot of time at Penn State as we grew as a couple, established our friend group there, and Ryan even proposed to me at the Nittany Lion Shrine (a prestigious spot on Penn State’s campus)! 

   For the wedding, we incorporated Penn State, blue & white, and even the Nittany Lion into our decor wherever we could. At the ceremony, we had crystal chandeliers and blue ambiance lighting, white chairs with jeweled white wraps, and a custom aisle runner bordered by blue rose petals and featuring our logo (a Nittany Lion paw print with our monogram and wedding date) which later became our guest book. We had personalized blue & white pom poms for guests to shake as we exited as Mr. & Mrs., programs featuring one of our engagement photos, blue & white unity sand, and a glass that Ryan broke under the blue and white chuppah that was wrapped in a blue cloth. 

 For Cocktail Hour, we had a Nittany Lion ice sculpture, our floral arrangements fit right in with the color scheme, and our guests found their place cards for dinner at tables named for infamous PSU spots and activities such as The Berkey Creamery, The Allen Street Grille and THON. 

   During the reception itself, we had silver charger plates and blue napkins at each plate setting, silver and white centerpieces, and PSU colors across the Sweetheart Table. We had a blue light-up stand for our champagne glasses, and little figurines holding banners that said "I Heart PSU". The dance floor featured a custom spotlight with our logo, and lighting around the room showed off the color scheme. The cake was blue and white with paw prints and a topper that looked like the two of us sitting on top of the Nittany Lion shrine. I carried a blue & white jeweled brooch bouquet throughout the day, which matched the bridesmaids' blue and white dresses. Ryan and I entered wearing blue & white sunglasses, and we all had a blast!    

Tell Us About Your Venue- We had our wedding at the Versailles Ballroom at the Ramada in Toms River, NJ. We picked this venue because it had everything under one roof: ceremony, reception, after party and hotel!

Advice for Future Brides & Grooms- Enjoy every minute of your wedding. All the hours you spend planning it will fly by in 5 short hours. Make sure you take a step back and say WOW all these people are here for us! Soak in the moment.

Favorite Wedding Moment? I really can’t pick one favorite moment because the whole night was amazing. One thing that stuck out was during the garter removal when I “iced” my husband by placing a Smirnoff under my dress. “Icing” was a common practice at PSU parties we attended, where you surprise someone with a Smirnoff Ice bottle and they have to chug it on one knee. It was a funny surprise at the wedding, and made for a memorable moment.

Tell Us About Your Honeymoon- We went to Montego Bay, Jamaica! We did a lot of relaxing and drinking, but we also went zip lining which as a fun action-packed trip. It was nice to relax and spend time withi each other after the hectic months leading up to the wedding. One tip I would say is to leave the day after the wedding- it helped us really relax and reflect on all of the activities that went on.   

Vendors-

           Venue- http://www.versaillescaterers.com/

            DJ- http://www.eliteentertainment.com/

            Photographer- http://www.photosbyjan.com/

Kelsea & Ryan's wedding is also featured online here and here...because it's just that amazing! 

Thank YOU, Kelsea & Ryan, for sharing your big day with us! We are...wishing you the very best in your marriage and in your life together and are totally inspired by your blue & white pride! 

Note: Kelsea & Ryan have the rights to share all of their pictures, and we’re thankful to them for sharing (and Jan for capturing) their beautiful day!

Wedding Wednesday: Joe & Aimee's Sweet Wedding Day

"Our wedding was...way too quick!"

-Joe & Aimee

Joe & Aimee got married in early March and you sort of got the feeling that you were in a sunny snow globe after the snow had settled. Everything was beautiful, and had that cozy wintry feel without the messy driving conditions! Thank goodness, as many guests traveled to get to the wedding, and everybody had a little trek from the ceremony in Harrisburg to the reception in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We were honored to attend as guests, as Joe is one of our good Penn State friends, and we were so happy for the two of them to start their forever as husband and wife after being close friends since high school. Read on to hear about the wedding in Joe's words (in blue).

What made this celebration unique and you-nique? 
   The celebration was unique because almost all of the closest people in our lives were gathered together for one awesome night. What made it "you-nique" were our surprises for each other: Aimee got me an oreo cake, and I made her a video. 

Why did you choose Grace United Methodist Church for the ceremony? What made The Cork Factory your ideal spot for the reception? 
   The church was where Aimee's parents, aunts and uncle, and cousin all got married, and we love the space. Plus, the Pastor was very accommodating to our multi-faith background.  The Cork Factory topped our list because it was the full package. It had so many things we wanted, and was an awesome looking space. 

Advice for Future Brides & Grooms-
   Wedding planning stress is more likely to come from other people than your significant other.

Favorite Wedding Moment?
   Everyone singing together at the reception.

 
Some of our Penn State best + Aimee!

Honeymoon-  Where did you go? What did you do? What recommendations do you have?
   Our main honeymoon was to London. Having never been to Europe, our biggest concern was making sure we weren't over-paying for anything.  
   We went all over London and parts of England in true tourist fashion; the Tower of London, various museums, Stone Henge, the city of Bath, the Cotswolds, Windsor Castle and more. We found that keeping it simple for several meals saved a lot of money (e.g. we bought cereal to keep in our room for breakfast several of the days). 
   The Tower of London tour by Billy the Beefeater was informative, funny and a must-see. To paraphrase Billy, "For all  you Americans in the tour group, today is going to be a bit of a history lesson as I fill in what happened between the end of the Bible and 1776". 
   Aimee really liked the Cotswolds bus tour (think countryside/Downton Abbey) and all the classic houses, churches and neat little shops. We stopped by the city of Bath during a tour, and ended up taking a train to spend the day on our own later that week. It has beautiful parks and scenery, great stone buildings, a super old Roman bathhouse (hence the name) and a great mix of modern shops and markets. 
   Also while in London, we recommend eating at The Abingdon. We would never have come across it without someone recommending it, as it's tucked away off the main streets. The food was delicious, well-priced, and you could dress casually while still feeling like you were at a place more upscale than a pub. 

Reviews-
  Our DJ, Matt from Central PA DJ's, was awesome. He found some excellent music to match our theme, and took the time to learn the SNL intro to use for our wedding party's introduction. 

Also, Ed Koester, our videographer, was flipping fantastic! Having someone with his talent and experience was a big help on our big day. If you'd like to contact Ed for more information, his email address is ejk1981@gmail.com and his phone number is (717) 830-4350. This is shared with permission from Ed himself. 

Hampton Popcorn Factory  made our favors (Aimee's brother works there) and were awesome about customizing everything down to to the last sprinkle (or jimmy, depending on where you're from). We gave our guests little plastic containers of either chocolate-covered pretzels, kettle corn or Twix popcorn. (They were AMAZING, and tied with the most adorable blue & white and grey bows with a little Thank You note)!

Thanks so much to Joe & Aimee for sharing some of the details of your beautiful wedding with us! Congratulations and best of luck in marriage and in your life together! We wish you all of the sweetness and happiness that you deserve now and forever.

Note: Joe & Aimee have all of the rights to their wedding photos. Their photographer was a family friend who does not usually photograph weddings, but took some beautiful shots for them. <3