Juli and Jeff Said "I Do"!!!

What a phenomenal weekend!  I'm completely and totally exhausted, but Jeff and Juli's wedding weekend was truly one for the books!  And I could not be happier to call Juli my sister-in-law! (When a lady complimented me on the bouquet in the airport - see below - and I told her my sister-in-law made it I got all giddy as I realized that was the first time I'd actually called Juli that out loud :0)

There were SO many aspects of this wedding that were beautifully personalized because Juli actually did make them personally by hand.  The bouquets are the best example - she hand folded each origami flower and put them all together into the bouquest herself.  One for her, one for each of the five bridesmaids, small flowers for the boutonnieres for the guys and the corsages for the mothers, plus two white and pink bouquets that were given to 2 couples that had been married the longest (one of them being my grandparents - 62 years!!!).  There were a few dozen extra flowers that she also brought to the florist and had incorporated into the garland for the Chuppah!  This girl never stopped!

She had also made all of the invitations (hand stamped paper, people!), put together goodie bags for the hotel to give to out of town guests, made the cake topper (those clothes being worn by the hand painted bride and groom are hand sewn....), and put together all of the favors.  It was gorgeous!

The ceremony was beautiful.  They had a joint one with a pastor and a cantor and it was short, sweet, and meaningful.  The resounding successes then continued into the reception where the food was incredible (one appetizer was coconut crusted chicken with a mango dipping sauce that I'm determined to recreate) and the drinks were plentiful.

We even did a cousins tequila shot with all of the cousins from my mom's side of the family AND my grandma!  They also scored a slam dunk with their DJ, who was probably one of the best I've heard.  He played familiar oldies during dinner followed by a perfect set of fun but not annoying dance songs after.  The dance floor was packed the entire time!  And the dancers included my mom for most of the evening too, which shocked me and my brothers - we all had SO MUCH FUN!  And what Jewish wedding would be complete without the Horah?!?

Juli's head and the light fixture had an initial near miss, but then the lifters got their act together and the bride and groom happily screamed away!  My dad and the brides parents also made lifted chair appearances followed by lots of swinging and dancing!

This was S's first time meeting most of my family too and I'm happy to say it was a resounding success all around!  He loved everyone and they all loved him too!  And let me also say that he is a dancing machine!  I thought I loved to dance, but he outlasted me on the dance floor by far.  Luckily my aunts and newly twinkle-toed mother picked up the slack for me!

I know I'm biased since it was my brother's wedding, but I have to say that I think this is one of the best weddings I've been to in a while.  It was so great to see all of my family (many whom I haven't seen in 7 months to a year), meet all of my brother and Juli's friends, and watch my brother and sister-in-law start their married life together at such a beautiful event.  Mazel tov Jeff and Juli and I hope you have a wonderful time on your honeymoon in Hawaii!

(Top and bottom pictures taken by Brad Ross Photography, the cake topper pic was by Juli's sister, the cousins taking a shot with grandma photo was taken by S, and the rest were taken by my cousin of Sweet Pea Photography)