This is mrsorigami's Chocolate Wedding!

Every detail of our wedding was worth it, and everyone we see now who came to the wedding tells us how much fun they had. I can't believe in just a couple of months, we will be celebrating our one year anniversary.

We made everything for our wedding, except for the cake, food, and attire. We wanted it to be personal and unique, and for it to represent everything that our love for each other stood for. We are so lucky and thankful to have so many loved ones who helped us with our wedding. Out of everything we made, the origami roses were the biggest and most time consuming project, but we never once thought about quitting the idea. It was a total success and we could not be happier with the way it turned out!

Our officiant was actually my brother-in-law. So we were able to write the entire ceremony the way we wanted it..all in our own words, with our own vows. It was very personal for us and turned out exactly how we wanted it to.

Daniel is a pianist so he arranged and recorded all of the music that was played while our guests were being seated and during the ceremony. The song that I walked down the aisle to was a suite that Daniel wrote for me one year for my birthday. Later, when we got engaged, I knew that I would use that suite to walk down the aisle to.

On our programs, I did each and every one of the golden 'B' seals by hand, before putting them on each program with double sided tape. They came out very nice!

We made all of our programs, save the date postcards, invitations, menu cards, and every other stationary you can think of. It was so much easier, cheaper, and personal than ordering the same thing everybody else does from invitation companies.

We folded over 1,400 origami roses. We made origami rose ball topiaries as centerpieces, my bouquet, bridesmaid bouquets, bouts, a tossing bouquet, and our cake topper. We also had a single rose at each place setting during the reception for our guests to take home with them.

The brand of paper we used for our origami roses was Fabriano Ingres handmade Italian paper.

"Ingres paper, also called fabriano ingres is the most elegant and equisite handmade paper from Italy. The paper is elegantly watermarked, mould made and acid free drawing paper with two deckled edges. The sheets are available in a spectrum of colors and a range of weights.
Each paper has a distinctive look with a rich appearance and an appealing effect. The paper features a soft laid surface. It is one of the popular handmade paper of Italy. The paper is mould made of lignin free cellulose."

I made coin cufflinks for Daniel and all of the groomsmen, they were a big hit! The guys all got cufflinks, a rubik's cube, a Jaws dvd, and some other random stuff. I gave my bridesmaids chocolate pearl necklaces, along with some other special goodies. We had our rehearsal dinner at The BlackFinn Restaurant & Saloon here in Richmond, VA, downtown overlooking the James River. The entire bridal party along with parents and grandmothers were there. It was really nice to get everyone together like that before the wedding. Everyone met at the Manor House before, to do the rehearsal..it was cool being there with just the family.

We had a "guest book" quilt. I picked out all the fabrics and helped design it, while Daniel's second cousin Mary Clare made it for us. She was so honored to make this for us. Every square ended up being filled with love and kind words from our friends and family. She is such a wonderful loving person, and this quilt is something we will cherish together forever.

I made little packets of tissues and placed them on some chairs at the ceremony. They read "For your tears of joy." Each seat in the first rows had them.

During the ceremony my twin brother, who is a marine, stood by my side as my honor attendant. Then I had my 2 sisters and a friend as bridesmaids. On Daniel's side, his 2 sisters stood by his side as his honor attendants, and his 3 brothers were groomsmen. The guys all wore tuxedos and the girls wore matching brown dresses with pickups similar to my dress. The bridesmaid bouquets were smaller versions of mine in ivory roses, and the bouts for the guys were single red origami roses.

We had a memory mantle with pictures of grandparents and parents on their wedding day or another significant time. To the side of the memory mantle was a table with a digital photo frame, displaying a slide show of Daniel and I through the years. We made dvds of the slide show and gave them to family members at the rehearsal dinner.

We also had a candy bar! I bought tons of candy after Halloween at a great bargain..filled various shaped jars and had metal candy scoops for each jar, of varying size. I had little bags that I stamped with a B in the color brown, so guests could take as much candy as they wanted home with them.

During the reception, our DJ played a play list that I created, and he also added in some songs he knew would get the crowd going. We were very specific about what songs we wanted and which ones we definitely did not want. Everyone loved him and he & his assistant did an awesome job!

The song that Daniel and I danced to as our first dance was "I love how you love me" sang by Beth Orton. Daniel & his mom danced to "I hope you Dance" by Lee Ann Womack, which his mom loved. My dad and I danced to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows." Then our attendants played a trick on me and my twin brother & had us dance to "MMbop" by Hanson! It was hilarious and we were just a tad embarrassed..but it brought back so many memories!

For our wedding night, we stayed at Richmond's historic Jefferson Hotel..words can't even describe how wonderful that place is.
Our honeymoon was in Venice, FL. The shark's tooth capital of the world! One of our hobbies is hunting for shark teeth..it is a lot of fun and we now have a collection of thousands of teeth. The trip to Venice was amazing and we plan to go back again soon.

We decided to go with a local baker..Cakes by Graham. I had tried his cakes at various bridal shows. Daniel and I went to a couples night in January of 2008, held by the Richmond Bridal Association. Couples were able to meet various company owners as well as play casino style games to earn raffle tickets for the various raffles they had there.
We ended up winning $100 off of a wedding cake from Cakes by Graham..so we went with them! It worked out perfectly for us since they were local and we both already knew how good they were.

We met with the owner and ordered our cake. We knew the kind of design we wanted and we worked with us to achieve exactly that. Definitely a true professional who cares about what he does.

http://cakesbygraham.homestead.com/

We decided to make our cake topper..more details on that will come soon.

Back in April of 2008, I went to Celebration Bridal shop in Lynchburg, VA with my mom, because their shop carried a lot of dresses by designers that I liked. I tried on a bunch of dresses and then I saw this one on the rack..tried it on and knew it was the one. I kept going back to it even after trying on other dresses. We ordered it, along with a dress for the rehearsal dinner, and my mom's dress for the wedding. Everyone there was so nice, especially the owner.

http://www.celebrationbridal.com/

The dress I ended up choosing was by Allure Bridals, style #8329.

Fast forward to August 2008. My mom, sister, and a bridesmaid & I went back since the dress had arrived. I tried it on and it fit perfectly.

I also ordered some shoes from the same shop, but didn't like them. I couldn't return them since they were custom dyed for me. I ended up finding these other shoes that I fell in love with.

We decided to have our ceremony and reception at The Manor House at King's Charter (9400 Charter Crossing
Richmond, Va 23116).

http://www.themanorhouseva.com/

We knew the ballroom would be the perfect place to have our ceremony. When we visited the site for the first time in January of 2008, we pretty much knew when we walked inside that it was the place for us. The coordinator at the house gave us the grand tour and then we booked the date a couple of days later.

November 15th, 2008. We planned that date as soon as we were engaged..2 and a half years ahead of time.

Soon after we booked our caterer, Catering by Jill. The owner of the company met me at the Manor House and we went over all of the details for the wedding day, just like the house coordinator did with us. Everything was coming together perfectly.

Daniel has been folding paper since he was a toddler. His Aunt Marilyn realized he always had to keep his hands busy, so she gave him paper to do just that. Throughout his childhood he learned to create very detailed origami models, all using one piece of paper folded multiple times. When I met him in high school, I learned how talented he was at this. Later, he taught me how to make basic origami. When we were dating, he would always fold me little things out of paper at restaurants or other places we would go. I ended up with tons of little origami pieces he created during our relationship over the years.

Daniel proposed to me on May 17, 2006..just two days before our five-year anniversary (5/19/01 was our “dating” anniversary). He laid out a trail of 519 origami cranes, with rose petals in the middle, and candles at the end of the trail. He waited at the end of the trail. I came home to a great surprise, and the proposal was so beautiful.