things are better with a parrott

Parrott's Photo Booth Company Debuts!

When Rich & I first started planning our wedding we knew we had to have a photo booth.  When it came time to book one, there were none to be found.  Instead of being sad, I pitched an idea to my father along the idea of, "Hey!  We should build our own photo booth & make it a business of your own!"  Or something like that...& he was all about it.  Nearly a year in the making, & many sleepless nights, my sister's husband, Jason, an architectural engineer, designed, engineered, & built the whole thing with the help of my father, & many other family members.  On September 18, Parrott's Photo Booth Company made its spectacular debut.  It was, without a doubt, the hit of our wedding reception. 

The photo booth is an actual booth.  No poles with a fabric backdrop.  No camera with an automatic timer or remote control.  With Parrott's Photo Booth, you get in a vintage-inspired booth, sit down, smile & pose, preview your photo strip, & Voilà! An instant photo strip to take away.

Also...there are props!  My sister & I went nuts the week before my wedding, which happened to be a month before Halloween.  Perfect timing.  My parents have been collecting even more since.

My parents, the owners, enjoying the fun!

The booth rental comes with tons of fun things, including a keepsake scrapbook for the event hosts.

Below are a few of the actual photos taken at our wedding.  Another cool feature is a cd of images is sent to the event hosts after their event.  So in addition to the scrapbook, you also get all of the photos to print to your heart's content!

Me & Li

My sister, Jessica, & Jason, the photo booth creator.

A few of Rich's college friends.

My 95 & 96-year-old Pepere & Memere.

Me & Rich {he may die that I put this here...}

Parrott's Photo Booth is based out of Portland, Maine & will travel anywhere in Maine, sea coast New Hampshire, & parts of Massachusetts.  They are available outside of these areas on special request.  Contact them today to book them for your wedding, next special event, fundraiser, party, etc. etc... you will have so much fun!!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

The Making of a Passe-tête

For our wedding, my sister & I decided we need to have, what the French call, a passe-tête, commonly called a comic foreground, head through the hole, carnival cut-out, or "those things that you stick your head through!"  We thought it would be a fun thing to have during the cocktail hour & throughout the reception. 

We went with the farm-meets-carnival theme, & created a wacky little bunch. I sketched out the design on a piece of paper first, then we went to work drawing it onto the wood.  All then men were away for Rich's bachelor party so it was a perfect night to create...& use power tools!! 

Inspired by small stump, we drew a farmer, a dancing hotdog with boots, & a sheep with barm similar to one at Pineland in the background. 

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Our guests seemed to have a good time with it & we got a bunch of very silly photos.

{Last three photos by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Our Wedding Reception - Part II

Our dessert buffet was incrediable.  Some might say insane.  It was larger than our dinner buffet, but we were okay with that!  My sister Jessica of Nothing Bakes Like a Parrott baked all of our desserts & designed the table.  A few nights before the wedding we assembled the ribbon backdrop.  Jess's husband, Jason, built the wood stand for her to use for her dessert tables & it worked perfectly for ours.  Instead of spending the morning drinkng bubbly with the rest of the bridemaids, she got her hair done first & ran over to the reception venue to set-up.

The groom's cake was amazing!  Rich is a drummer, so I took a photo of his drums, sent it to Jess & she recreated it!  It was red velvet & cream cheese & was gone as soon as it was cut.

Li Ward, our photographer, also did all of our dinner & dessert buffet labels.  I had rubber stamps made with Deb's, my sister-in-law, illustrations & stamped various pieces of kraft paper.  Li then calligraphed the labels in white ink.

My mom made eight or so batched of her famous toffee.  I stamped little labels & my sister baged & stapled them closed.  I purchased small food-safe kraft boxes for people to take home their dessert, along with the bagged toffee, which acted as wedding favors.  We had a lot of thoughts for wedding favors, but with so many of our guests traveling, we decided an edible favor was the best.

We cut the carrot cake & that was one of the only bites of dessert I had until our after-party {but I more than made up for it the next day!}.  Rich was a perfect gentleman, but, with the encouragement of his father, I smooshed a little frosting on his face.

Our dessert buffet menu looked like this:

- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - this is the groom's cake
- Spiced Orange Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - the cake we cut
- Mini cupcakes which include:
    - Spice Orange Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
    - Lemon-Raspberry Swirl with Lemon Buttercream
    - Fleur de Sel with Chocolate Ganache
    - Coconut with Coconut Buttercream
- Pizzels & Italian Anise Cookies - a nod to Rich's Italian heritage
- Janet's Famous Toffee - my mom makes the best toffee.  Ever!
- Nutella Cheesecake Brownies - because they are delicious & I have a mild obsession with Nutella

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Our Wedding Reception - Part I

Finally!  The Reception!  I realize it has take me forever to share all the details of our wedding, but today I am sharing the decor.  As most of you know, my mom, sister, & I spent a year collecting vintage dinner & dessert plates, which was one of the focal points of the decor. 

For table markers, we were inspired by our friend's Sky & Dickie's wedding where they used their favorite record albums.  We love music & Rich is a drummer {by night!}.  We also loved the graphic nature of album covers.  We made sure to pair appropriate album covers with the people who were going to sit at the table - Beatles for his parents, Jimmy Buffet for mine, Jamiroquai, Led Zeppelin, & Bob Marley for our friends.  Each table had three milk glass vases of varying sizes that I also collected.  Our florist, Minott's provided me with two large buckets of flowers & one of my mom's friends arranged all of the bud vases.  Minott's arranged all of the larger or wider vases.  Our flowers were goooorgeous & included a mix of dahlias, zinnias, queen anne's lace, straw flowers, David Austin roses, hydrangeas, & various decorative grasses.

My parent's bought Rich & me special plates as a nod to our engagement in Paris.  My mom found these at Anthropologie & they were so pretty.

In additiona to the record albums & milk glass vases, I also purchased a bolt of green burlap & cut it into large squares to anchor everything in the middle of the table.  We were allowed to have open flames, so we purchased tea lights & placed 6 per table.  It added a wonderful glow to the room. 

In additional to collecting vintage plates & vases, I spent a lot of time designing our escort card table.  That is to say, I told people my ideas & they made it happen.  That gorgeous table?  Built by my father!  He purchased the cherry wood & legs, sanded, stained, & finished all 7 feet of it {we are currently re-doing our house & it will eventually go in our dining room}.  The shutters were a Craigslist find & were taken off an old Victorian mansion in downtown Portland, Maine.  My mom, sister, dad, & I all worked on cleaning, sanding, & painting them with milk paint. 

I did not have time to set-up the escort table myself, so I drew a photo for my Aunt Paula & cousin Lisa {& fellow bridesmaid}.  The wreath was set-up by our florist, Samantha, & my aunt & cousin hung the photos, which were wedding photos of our grandparents.

On the table we had our parents' wedding photos, our engagement photo, the escort cards, & guest book.

I really, really, reeeally loved that wreath.  It was beyond beautiful.

The room where our reception took place was really nice with minimal decoration.  There were 2 large paintings on the wall which we could not take down because they were originals, but I was okay with that.  We strategically placed the desert table in front of one, & the other one was in a far corner so you could not see it. The windows had wood blinds, but we decided they needed a little more, so my mom found these beautiful lace curtains with leaves & birds.  We bought inexpensive tension rods & hung the curtains in each of the 15 windows {the curtains are for sale here!}.

Lastly, I created a few dozen paper flowers out of westminster bells & hung them on the head table.  I found the perfect pink color on eBay.  I decided I wanted to hang a few paper lanterns over the dance floor, which did not quite work out as I envisioned.  If I had money to hire a professional lighting crew, I would have, but c'est la vie.  It still looked festive! 

Tomorrow I will share one our favorite parts - dessert!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}

Photos with The Wedding Party

As many of you may know, I kept a separate wedding blog, Homegrown, while planning our wedding.  I kept the blog separate during our 2-year planning process & then started sharing the actual photos once we were married on September 18, 2010.  I have wanted to expand upon the content of this blog, & after much thought, I decided to combine the two blogs.  It is only natural to share wedding inspiration & our wedding on a blog that already focuses so much on wedding invitations & paper goods.  As happy {& impressed} as I am that I have filled this blog with unique & original content ({or the most part} for the past four years, I decided I need to mix it up a bit. 

With that said, today I will continue to share our wedding photos where I left off on Homegrown.  So far I have shared our welcome dinner, wedding invitations, paper details, getting ready, our wedding party, & the ceremony.  Today I have photos of us with our wedding party after the ceremony!

{All images by Fat Orange Cat Studio}