Where it All Began

Thanks to our Save the Dates, everyone now knows the quick 10 second story of our entire relationship. What our friends and family may not realize though, is how much of a heartfelt connection I now have to New Orleans (and the areas surrounding it), thanks to the fact that it is quite literally where our relationship began... and thus where my life began to change forever (aww). To this day, whenever I see or hear something about the hurricanes it (for lack of a less cheesy term) tugs at my heartstrings and immediately takes me back to that first trip Dan and I took together.

While we took a fun little vacation in December back to The Big Easy, we weren't engaged until a few weeks later (although Dan carried the ring around with him on our trip looking for the perfect moment to propose!), so it didn't occur to me while we were there that I should look around for inspiration to add to our wedding day. Then we got engaged, and I quickly nixed the idea of a New Orleans "theme" wedding as I wanted nothing to do with purple, green and gold or mardi gras beads and masks. While those things are great, they're not my style, AND they really aren't indicative of our time there as we spent our days rebuilding homes destroyed by the hurricanes and looking through ruined family memories rather than drinking and partying on Bourbon Street. I wanted to find a way to incorporate that time and the emotional connection behind it, and without much thought I settled on figuring out a way to get a bunch of reclaimed/salvaged wood from the area back here at home to use in my wedding decor.

Right. Except that New Orleans is a solid 15 hour drive from Chicago, and I wasn't exactly swimming in free time to go, money to pay for it, or most importantly - the resources to find the actual wood when and if I got there. Then something incredible happened, and by incredible I mean the one and only Rachel Burger, a friend of both mine and Dan's who has proven time and time again that a true friend is hard to come by (she is also a perfect example of the saying "a true friend will drive you to the airport"). Rachel told me one day that her sister lives in New Orleans and just so happens to work in construction and art... and could get me a bunch of old wood and ship it to Chicago in USPS flat rate boxes. THEN she told me that she was paying for it all as her wedding gift to Dan and I. And then I squealed.

Well, Rachel and her sister totally pulled through for me, and last week I received 3 boxes full of absolutely perfectly old and weathered wood, straight from the New Orleans area and salvaged from buildings at least 75 years old! To say that I am a bit obsessed with it would be an understatement.

Isn't it pretty?!?

The plan is to use the wood to make table numbers, using these two images as inspiration!

Rachel going out of her way to help me with this particular part of the wedding is just another reminder to me of how blessed we are by the friends and family we have in our lives. I literally could not be doing all of this without everyone that has provided their time and help! So, Rachel, thanks for being an amazing friend and for making it possible for me to have exactly what I wanted for my wedding day. I truly could not have done it without you and your sister!