This is another one of those pesky wedding posts.
Our wedding had a very nature friendly and vintage theme going on. In keeping with that theme I decided early on we were going to make our own tree slices from the huge stock pile of wood at Green Acres. I had been searching online and tree slices were going for $20 a pop. With our 21 tables at the reception that just wasn't going to fly. And when I found a customized brander in the shape of a heart with our initials I just couldn't pass up the DIY project.
Somehow in my head I had it work out that this project would be a piece of cake. That after a few fun hours we'd have 25 perfectly shaped tree slices. Boy was I wrong!
We ended up with about 30 slices. None were the same shape but that's what made them unique. The biggest problem was crackage. A week after we had successfully branded about 10 slices almost half of them had cracks. After consulting a local wood expert he suggest we put them in a cool dark place. That trick seemed to work and we managed to avoid any major cracks from there on out.
We knew then that we would need at least 10 extras for backups. So my dad took up the chain saw and sliced log after log. Each slice was about an inch thick and 12-14 inches in diameter.
Our set up method was pretty simple. We took a large tree stump and strapped it to a rack wagon. Probably not the best or safest method, but it got the logs off the ground and made it much easier to make a straight cut.
Then we were on to branding which was a big hairy beast in it's own right. The first day we branded about 8 and only 1 ended up working out. We originally hoped to use an old mulberry tree but alas the wood was too hard to brand. So then we started using pine slices and had a lot more success.
Here are a few tips for branding...
- Make sure you have a good build up of really hot coals
- Leave the brand in the coals for around 5 minutes so it gets nice and hot
- Wet your wood... Pour water over the tree slice you are about to brand
- Use some sort of protective glove (or several protective gloves... we ended up using an Ove' Glove and 2 potholders)
- Get 2 boards to press down on each side of the brand (we didn't do this until the very end... this method worked the best for an even brand... when we applied pressure to just the handle the brand started to warp and bend)
- After each branding session you might have to reset and straighten your brand
So basically that is what I have to offer. After completing the whole process I can totally understand why tree slices are so darned expensive to buy! Would we do this again?... probably not. We spent 4 Saturdays cutting wood and branding when we could have spent around $500 and just bought them online. But, in the end each tree slice was unique and special to us and we managed to get 21 great looking slices for the reception.
Below is a video of the whole process. It was taken pretty early on so we aren't using the 2 pieces of wood technique but you can get a good idea of what all went into the branding. Plus my dad imitates Turtle Man and I couldn't pass that up!
This post is about the wedding.
Saying it was an amazing day would be such an understatement.
First of all I'd like to give a huge shout out to Mother Nature. It was 71 degrees, FOR A HIGH, at the end of July. Pretty much unheard of. People wanted coats and sweaters. It was the perfect weather for the perfect day.
The ceremony was held at the University of Illinois Arboretum. Such a gorgeous place filled with flowers and trees and all things nature (including a pond and Japanese garden). We avoided the Japan House but managed to take pictures just about in every other location possible!
Which leads me to my wonderful and lovely photographer Kara Kamienski. If you have a wedding coming up in the next year, 2 years, 5 years, I highly highly highly recommend you book her right now. She's just so easy to work with and her bubbly personality makes you feel comfortable and at ease when her and her assistant are snapping hundreds of pictures of you and your spouse.
Next topic... still relating to pictures... Because we booked pictures through Kara we just happened to be lucky enough to get Blake Ransom to video our wedding and compose a short video for... drum roll... free! Blake is new to the photography and videography wedding scene and was looking for experience this summer. But let me tell you this... he is no amateur. The short little clip he made of our day was absolutely perfect. I cried... a lot... and have watched it almost a million times now. Here it is incase you haven't seen it or want to relive the day.
And one last thing about pictures... As you can probably tell from the video above Arren and I did a first reveal. I'm so so so glad we did this. For one Arren was a nervous wreck while he was getting ready. As soon as he saw me and got over the shock of seeing me all prettied up (it was pretty shocking!) he calmed right down and was ready for the wedding. Also, it allowed us to take 95% of the pictures before the ceremony. We had about 3 hours of pictures with us, our bridal party and our close family before the whole shindig even began. Our guests weren't left waiting after the ceremony to get their party on and we were much less stressed since we had most of the afternoon to snap up pics.
In case you are wondering here is the general order we took pictures...
- Everyone getting ready/rings/dresses/other little details
- First Reveal
- Bridal Party
- Arren and I
- Our close family
- After the ceremony we took pictures with extended family
These few pics I have posted are ones Kara edited and posted to her Facebook right after the wedding. I'm still anxiously waiting on the rest, but the wait will so be worth it to see all the amazing pictures and details Kara and her crew captured.
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