Our parade to Lunch. Plus lunch.

The rest of our day was spent at the Philadelphia Society of Free Letts, the oldest Latvian Society outside of Latvia. They had a spunky mid-century building (although the society dates back to the 1890's), with the tiniest library I'd ever seen, and a sprawling auditorium upstairs for our reception concert.

The wedding party and some friends walked with Sam and me while we paraded down St. John Nuemann's Way. Philadelphia is full of so much history; you cannot escape it! Our wedding photo-shoots were split between this historic belgian block street, and the Edgar Allen Poe House, where we also took our engagement photos.

I had a friend from Moore make Fletcher a bow-tie
with the fabric from the ladies' dresses.

Lunch from BirchTree Catering was delicious. Light summer sandwiches and salads.
I screenprinted the menus at each table setting with hand-drawn text and illustrations.

Fancies from Federal Donuts in South Philly.
We strived to use our Philly favorites throughout the day.

Cutting the donut.
We are not huge cake fans; and who doesn't love a great donut!

Fletcher and Aubrey in the tiny library.

Me and my mother, making funny faces.

In the scary basement of the Edgar Allan Poe House.

This little furry kitty popped out of the herb garden at the Poe House.

The ceremony in the park!

We held our ceremony in Liberty Lands Park, a neighborhood owned and managed park mid-way between our home and our reception. Over the 20 years that the park has been owned by the neighbors, they've built a stage for concerts, which was perfect for the musical ceremony we planned.

The gals and I met my brother, parents, and Sam's parents
at our reception location and took a historic trolley to the park.
The trolley also brought our ceremony guests back and forth to the park.

The guys were waiting for us to escort everyone to the stage.

While we didn't have a maid of honor or best man,
my younger brother and Sam's best girlfriend broke up the gender monotony.

Sam's parents, Holly & Steve Cusumano.

Sam escorted my mother, Sharon.

So I could walk with Dad. 

Our friend Allen officiated, because of his excellent oratory skills and sharp dress.
 We obtained a Quaker wedding license (since Allen is not an official officiant).
Our promises were made among friends and family only.

Our ceremony included hugs and thanks to our friends.

With our community support, we made our vows.

All the while, dueling harps set the tone!
Yes, they played an adaptation of dueling banjos for us too.

Sam, an electronics artist, had our kiss rigged to make noise!

His "Apple Distortion" project was the trigger. Electricity!

It was a very hot day in July, so of course there is ice cream.

We did it!

Local legends, Little Baby's Ice Cream, brought the sweet treats to the park!
Izzy approved. Scrumptious!

A photograph capturing a photograph being captured.

Photos: Getting ready with the girls

A year later, here are some of the photographs taken by Katrina Ohstrom.

In the morning, Sam left bright and early to meet helpers at our ceremony site. He designed, wrote, and facilitated the program for our ceremony. At home, the ladies gathered with coffees and croissants for hair + makeup, dressing, and flower prep!

My dress was 1920's silk crepe, beautiful details but so fragile!

Makeup by Aubrie Costello, a fine artist and good friend.

Hair perfected by Roberta Briggs, via Fringe Salon.

While the girls got ready, I put the final touches on the bouquets,
which Sam's mother and I arranged the day before,
with local flowers and fresh, fragrant herbs from her garden.
Each bouquet and boutonniere included a paper sculpture
I made one for each person in the wedding party, including moms and dads. 

We are almost ready to go!

The rings: a vintage engagement ring, and custom made rings by Heather Bryson.
Heather used the gold from my parents' wedding rings to make ours.

Photos!

Many thanks to everyone who took photos on the day of our wedding. They are rolling in and help to relive the day over and over again.

This one's from Mark.

Photos from our photographers are almost ready to view....keep an eye out.

MARRIED! with PHOTOS!

Wow! Sam and I have had a wonderful couple of weeks!  We officially tied the knot on Sunday July 29th, as planned, and threw a wonderful party. We give our sincere thanks to everyone who helped make the day possible, and to everyone who came out to celebrate with us, drink the bubbly and eat delicious foods with us.

We have seen lots of photos pour in from friends and family on facebook and via email, and we're loving seeing the madness!  Please, if you have photos or video from the Ceremony or Wedding Party, send an email to one of us for aggregation and compilation! Soon, we will have a collection for you to view from our photographers at Little Red Fox Photography. We were lucky to have Katrina shoot our formal shots, getting ready, and the ceremony and lunch parts during the day, and Tracey shoot our dance party reception. They both did a great job, as they've been sending us little teasers as they edit and prepare the collection for us all to see!

We picked up our official marriage record 'copy' from City Hall yesterday (why did I think this would be more elaborate...?), and now we can prove that we are officially united in the eyes of the law! Hah! Our longtime family-like friends, Andrea Vozzi, and Norm Fetter Sr, were our witnesses. Thanks! We love you!

Our beautiful wedding rings were handmade by local jeweler, Heather Bryson, who is a longtime friend and fellow Moore alumna. Heather took the rings of my parents and cast them to make parts of each of our rings. She did a wonderful job.

woah! our wedding! tomorrow!

katie posting here.... in about 24 hours, i will be stepping towards my husband-to-be, and i couldnt be more excited! sam and i have been working very hard the last few days to finish up our plans, get our helpers organized, and pickup all sorts of things for the big party! we have been watching the weather forecast this past week, and it looks like we will have fine weather tomorrow for the outside ceremony that is early in the day. however, a slight chance of thunderstorms is noted, which this year has usually meant storms somewhere else in the region, but just to be safe, bring an umbrella! it will help to shade you too, if youre not under one of the tents during the ceremony. a brief recap of tomorrows festivities: 11am: assembly at liberty lands park at 731 n. 3rd street, north end. 11:30 bridal party arrives and ceremony begins. all are welcome! 1pm: family lunch (invite only!) latvian society of phila, 531 n. 7th street. 5pm: reception and concert, latvian society of phila, 531 n. 7th street. all are welcome! our little lunch is just for the family and bridal party, so if anyone is at the ceremony and needs to kill some time in the neighborhood before the concert, there are lots of options! northern liberties neighborhood is chock full of awesome brunch and lunch spots, no matter what youre looking to eat! the random tea room on 4th street is one of my favorite relaxing spots to hang for an hour. across the street from the latvian society is the edgar allen poe house, a free historical site with cool herb garden and dungeon like basement. its open until 5; check it out! we just found out that the boyfriend of one of my bridesmaids had his flight stranded. instead, he's driving halfway across the country! epic! wedding of the year, folks...get into it! see you tomorrow, lovelies!

Dealing with the HOT HOT Heat

Hi friends,

As most of you have experienced; it's been pretty darn hot in Philadelphia, and everywhere else, this summer. Worse than last summer. Obviously, we weren't hoping for the heat waves we're getting when we picked our date, but 'C'est la vie,' we just have to make accommodations to keep everyone safe and comfortable while we're outside.


Hopefully, Liberty Lands will look like this, and be a relatively comfortable 85 degrees outside...but.....

If you've never been to Liberty Lands Park, this is it, we'll be gathering at the North side, pictured here. Tents will be covering most of the family seating and there will be cold bottled water.  If you have a favorite parasol, summer hat, or personal fan, it would be wise to bring it along, just in case! We're keeping the wedding ceremony short and sweet, so we can get out of the sun quickly!

The Latvian Society is air-conditioned, so at least the rest of our day will be nice and cool!

xoxo