It has been a long time since we've updated...life got crazy busy and as much as we love sharing, we would rather be spending our time having new adventures that writing about old ones. Sorry for the delay but we should be back in business from here on out. Since we last updated we've had a thousand new adventures, we spent another winter as snowboard instructors in Telluride, we took several long road trips, we moved back up to Alaska for the summer....but the biggest adventure so far has been getting married!
On April 10, 2017 we said "I Do" at the Joslyn Castle in Omaha, Nebraska. We chose the castle because it was built by one of Steven's ancestors, George Joslyn, at the turn of the century and Nebraska is right smack in the middle of the country so all of our friends and family had to travel about the same distance. We did all of the wedding planning ourselves, which was a huge learning experience for both of us. We didn't have a theme, but we did try to add as many personal touches as possible to the day so that everything would have more meaning to us.
George Joslyn made his fortune in the newspaper industry so our invitations and programs were both designed to look like old newspapers. I even wrote several articles about George and Sarah Joslyn and the history of the castle. You can see our invitation paper if you follow this link. We also used vintage newspaper ad paper bags as envelopes and to make banners and hanging flowers for the reception.
George Joslyn made his fortune in the newspaper industry so our invitations and programs were both designed to look like old newspapers. I even wrote several articles about George and Sarah Joslyn and the history of the castle. You can see our invitation paper if you follow this link. We also used vintage newspaper ad paper bags as envelopes and to make banners and hanging flowers for the reception.
| Rather than choosing wedding colors, we had a wedding "plaid" that we had specially designed and printed to match Steven's first tattoo of a plaid band on his arm. Steve is very talented with a sewing machine, so he spent all winter designing and sewing his own bowtie and vest out of our plaid fabric, complete with antler buttons and fancy pockets for his pocketwatch. He also made bowties for all of the groomsmen and a bowtie and vest for our nephew Jovin. He chose compasses as the studs in his shirt as a tribute to our love for travel, and hyper-realistic skulls as cuff-links because they're awesome! | |
Steven also made me a shawl out of our plaid, and I used it to make my own shoes out of a pair of grey Toms. All of the bridesmaids had a plaid shawl as well, and a small plaid flower on their shoes. I wore fossilized mammoth-ivory earrings made by an artist from our summer home in Skagway, and the pearls that my grandmother sent me when I was a little girl. My bouquet was made of orchids and lillies, since the Joslyns used to grow orchids in their home and their daughter's wedding bouquet had lillies in it. We also decorated the castle and the reception area with live orchids.
Our ring-bearer Jovin carried a ring pillow made from our wedding plaid and mounted on a slice of an Aspen tree from the place where we were engaged; Telluride, Colorado. The rings we chose are made of titanium with a beautiful wood burl inlay and we had "Jamm Soom" engraved inside, which is Seereer for "Peace Only." For the ceremony we wrote our own vows, and our niece Justice did an amazing job reading a cute little poem called "Marriage is Madness." We wanted to keep the ceremony short and sweet, so it only lasted about 30 minutes. We used a Navajo wedding vase in our ceremony that was made in Four Corners and given to us by Steve's parents.
| By far my favorite part of the wedding was the private picnic Steve and I had on the grounds of the castle while all of our guests made their way to the reception. We had packed a fancy picnic lunch in an antique picnic basket we found at the antique store in Skagway, and we sat on a beautiful quilt my mom gave us as a gift to eat it. It was really nice to get to spend some time alone together on our wedding day to really soak in the moment and make a new memory. | |
About halfway through our picnic it started to rain, so we moved everything into the Volkswagen Bus that was going to take us to the reception and finished eating at the little table inside. We had contacted the local VW club to find a bus that matched Steven's old bus as closely as possible and, the owner was even nice enough to let Steve take it for a lap around the park!
We held the reception at the pavilion at Hanscom Park, the oldest public park in Omaha, which used to house a greenhouse donated by the Joslyns. We served a build your own sandwich style lunch with a lot of fruits and veggies, and had tea, lemonade and old fashioned glass bottle sodas. We had a naked-style cake with butter cream frosting in between the layers, and topped with lots and lots of fresh fruit. We had made our own cake stand out of a slice of a Sitka spruce tree from the zipline where we met in Alaska, but the cake company forgot to bring it (that was the only bad part of the day).
After the reception everyone had time to go home and change, and we had an informal beer reception at Infusion Brewing company later in the evening where we served a beer we brewed ourselves! When I was looking for a place to have an after-party Infusion brewing company offered us their tasting room as well as the opportunity to brew our own beer for the wedding. We chose the style and they helped us create a recipe and brew it from the hops up! We traveled to Omaha in February to work with our brewer, and we ended up going with an Apple-wheat beer that we named "Apple of my Eye."
After the reception everyone had time to go home and change, and we had an informal beer reception at Infusion Brewing company later in the evening where we served a beer we brewed ourselves! When I was looking for a place to have an after-party Infusion brewing company offered us their tasting room as well as the opportunity to brew our own beer for the wedding. We chose the style and they helped us create a recipe and brew it from the hops up! We traveled to Omaha in February to work with our brewer, and we ended up going with an Apple-wheat beer that we named "Apple of my Eye."
It was such a great day to get to spend with family and friends, and we are so grateful to everyone who celebrated with us both in Omaha and in spirit! We're really looking forward to many more adventures together as Mr. and Mrs. Joslin!
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