Drew & Kelly’s DIY, Family-Oriented, Coral & Grey Wedding

Images: Cynthia Shipp Photography

When your brother is the groom and the bride is (now) your sister-in-law, the regional requirements of your blog can be ignored. So while Drew & Kelly tied the knot up in Connecticut this past September, and technically this is a DC area blog, the details of their wedding & love story were too perfect to not share. Plus I had the absolute HONOR to serve as their officiant, and so naturally I needed to share this moment with you all. Warning, it’s next to impossible to narrow down pictures that you have such an emotional attachment to, to this one is picture heavy. Happy Thursday you guys.

We knew we wanted our family involved in everything!  We decided that our wedding parties would be strictly family – Drew’s sisters and brother-in-law’s and Kelly’s brother and step-sister were all included in the wedding party.  Even at the last minute Kelly’s teenage step-brothers became “flower-boys!”

While working on wedding planning it was very important to us that the ceremony fit our personalities and was meaningful to us.

Our ceremony included many family elements along the way as well!  Each of our bridal party pairs walked into the ceremony holding their babies (our 4 “flower babies!”) and we recessed from the ceremony with our 8 month old to a live acoustic guitarist version of “Send Me on My Way” by the Rusted Roots!

We were married under a gazebo overlooking a small reservoir at dusk! We decided who better to ask officiate than Bree – Drew’s sister and wedding coordinator extraordinaire! She knew us and knew what we wanted so she was the perfect officiant fit. She did the most amazing job making us laugh, making us cry, and simply just making us feel comfortable!

^excuse me while I go cry again, after reading these amazingly kind words from Kelly. Love you guys. I was HONORED to be your officiant!

 During the ceremony our mom’s read excerpts from two children’s books – Kelly works in early childhood so this was important to her!  Drew’s mom read from “Oh the Places You’ll Go” while Kelly’s mom read from “The Velveteen Rabbit”.

^ I tried HARD not to tear up myself during the ceremony. No one wants to see the officiant crying … butttt I couldn’t help it. Everything was just so damn beuatiful, and I was SO happy, and OK, only 5 months post-partum, so let’s just blame that ;-p

We were far from traditional when planning our wedding – our men wore tangerine converse and picked out their own gray suits, our girls wore coral pumps and picked out their own gray dresses!  Overall, we stuck with a gray theme with highlighting undertones of coral and gold.

READ MORE FOR THE REST OF DREW & KELLY’S CORAL & GRAY, MILL ON THE RIVER WEDDING (INCLUDING THE WEDDING VIDEO DREW EDITED HIMSELF!)

We were set on hosting our wedding outside in the fall as the leaves peak in the Northeast and the day turned out perfectly!

We were so thankful that we included our 9 month old in the wedding!  She held the title of lead flower girl and was perfect the entire day!  She slept through most of the reception and went home with her great-grandparents late that night!  Having our wedding photos with her included are some of the best memories we will ever have!

We choose our venue (Mill on the River) because of the rustic indoor space (lots of wooden elements with undertones of gold) and the outdoor gazebo space and boardwalk for the ceremony and cocktail hour!  We love to visit wineries in Connecticut so our first thought when thinking about our wedding was that we wanted it to have a laid-back, winery type feel.

< This next picture is a family tradition from my side that I couldn’t resist from sharing … my mom has a picture from her own wedding, of her parents kissing her cheeks, and so it started with my older sister taking the same picture, then me, and now my brother. You’re next Kristen! ;-p >

Many of the elements of our wedding was all DIY from hours of pinterest searching!  All of our DIY elements were created by my step-dad (thank goodness for his construction experience!).

Our hand cut cork place cards, our gold spray painted wine bottles, and our gold and silver glitter tree branches.  We spent an endless amount of time testing different glass paints and organizing centerpieces to make day of set up easy!

Note the Disney wedding winks – my brother works for ESPN, which is owned by Disney and so Disney has become a part of Kelly & Drew’s relationship. They honeymooned in Disney and used lots of Disney music at the reception. So fun.

This might be my favorite image from the wedding … my brother’s humor is, well, let’s say unique to my brother. The way he makes Kelly laugh is just one of my favorite things about their relationship. Evidence:

We were grateful to just have a laid back wedding day where everything went smoothly and reflected our personalities and family perfectly!

Congratulations (again) you two – WHAT A DAY. And now here’s the video Drew edited. As I mentioned, he works for ESPN as an editor, so he had some friends shoot footage at the ceremony & reception and he edited it himself. I half joke often that he should move to DC so I can hire him to open a Capitol Romance Wedding Videography arm …

Kelly + Andrew 9.26.15 from Andrew Harrison on Vimeo.