Sherry L. VerWey and Ryan Sweeney’s love story didn’t begin with love at first sight. Actually, it took nearly 12 years for the two to realize what everyone else already knew. “Friends have called us the ‘Ross and Rachel’ of Highland High School, but we were the last ones to know it,” Sherry says.

The pair met in first grade, grew up only two blocks from one another in Highland, Indiana, and attended elementary school, high school and college together. It wasn’t until years after college when Sherry and Ryan reconnected online that everything finally fell into place. “We hung out a few times, friends like we had always been, but then he asked me to dinner,” Sherry recalls. “It wasn’t until midway through the week that I panicked, thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, is this a date?’”

It was, and a week after their first date, a kiss sealed the deal. “When he finally kissed me, a kiss that had been building up for nearly twelve years, we both knew that this was more than just a date,” Sherry says.

A Faire Proposal

A self-proclaimed “nerd,” Sherry has attended the Bristol Renaissance Faire, held in Kenosha, Wisconsin, since she was 13 years old. On one trip to the fair with a small group of friends, it was “business as usual: comedy shows, pub crawls, joust,” Sherry says, “but at the end of the day Ryan was acting strangely.”

When Ryan wandered off with his camera and the fair began to close, Sherry set off to find him. As a security guard tried to direct them toward the entrance, Ryan dropped to one knee and pulled out a ring. “The security guard said, ‘Quick—your camera,’ and he took pictures of the whole thing,” Sherry says. 

“It’s a perfect story for a perfect day, and we have a great picture to remember it by,” Ryan adds.

Handmaking a Halloween Wedding

When it came to wedding planning, the theme and date, Saturday, October 29, were an easy choice for the couple. “Ryan and I both love Halloween,” Sherry says. “We would usually host Halloween parties for all our friends, so what better than the party of the year on our favorite holiday?”

Sherry decided to create many of her own décor elements and invitations. As sole proprietor of Gypsysoul Creations, Sherry is no stranger to handmade creations. She offers special occasion calligraphy and revamps envelopes and invitations, plus sells her hand knit and woven scarves and shawls.

Over the course of a year of planning and creation, Sherry crafted a Halloween tree of lit willow branches painted black with hand cross-stitched, beaded Halloween characters for decorations, made with the help of her best friend; and a gallery of family and friends’ wedding photos and childhood photos of the couple set in vintage frames bought from resale shops. Sherry also revamped her printed invitations with calligraphy and Halloween embellishments.

No Reason to Worry

With a year of planning and crafting behind her, Sherry and her bridesmaids began the morning of the wedding with hair and makeup at Salon Sage in Highland, then headed to a hotel to dress.

With the fullness of the skirt and all the laces, all hands were on deck to help Sherry into her dress. “It took several bridesmaids to get me in that dress,” Sherry laughs. She had tried on more than fifty dresses before finding “the one,” an Oleg Cassini dress unlike anything she was looking for. While the dress was much more modern than Sherry’s fairy tale vision, “It was perfect!” Sherry gushes. “I fell in love.”

The bridesmaids dressed in black and white polka-dot dresses they had each selected and accessorized with orange accents and shoes. Staying with the coordinated but not “matchy-matchy” look, each bridesmaid carried a unique bouquet featuring fresh and felt flowers, charms made by Sherry and Halloween ribbons.

While the girls pampered and prettied themselves, Ryan and his best man prepared at his parents’ house. “I was nervous writing my vows that morning, but after that, I was calm,” Ryan recalls. “Everything felt right, and I knew I had no reason to worry about any of it.”

An Emotional Reveal

Because the couple wanted outdoor photos and knew they would be working with limited daylight on a fall day, they chose to do an outdoor reveal. “We knew that it would be emotional seeing each other for the first time that day and we wanted to make it special,” Sherry says. “I remembered reading that the Carmelite Monastery in Munster had beautiful grounds and a cave. Keeping with the Halloween theme, we figured it would be perfect.”

The reveal was an emotional moment for the couple. “I cried,” Ryan admits. “There are thankfully no obvious pictures of it. She looked absolutely amazing.” Ryan continues, “I remember turning to my best man, Brian, and telling him, ‘Well, that’s it. There’s nothing that can go wrong today that will ruin it for me.’”

A Touching Ceremony

Their ceremony took place at the Towle Theater in Hammond, where the theater’s youth ensemble had recently completed a run of Anne of Green Gables, which meant the stage was already decorated with real branches, hanging aged window panes, and a large tree trunk that extended floor to ceiling. Tasha Raylene, owner of Virtuous Events and the couple’s wedding coordinator, hung votives from the ceiling to set the mood. “We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful space,” Sherry says.

The couple’s very personal ceremony was officiated by Ryan and Sherry’s friend Theodore Laich, a nondenominational minister. “His words were so touching, and the ceremony was incredibly special with him presiding over our vows,” Sherry says.

Ryan, who had been nervous about reading his vows (the couple wrote their own), was calmed by the intimacy of the setting. “We had such a small group attending and I was so close with all of them that I wasn’t worried about getting up in front of them on stage for the ceremony,” Ryan explains. 

‘Halloween Gypsy Caravan’ Reception

After the ceremony, the newly married couple and their guests enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres, a buffet of heavy appetizers, served at stations set throughout the reception space at the theater, and wine, craft beers and a few special beers home-brewed by the couple’s friend, Greg Miller.

In lieu of assigned seating, the couple opted for vignettes of couches, chairs, and coffee and highboy tables, along with a few traditionally set tables. “Anytime that we had a party, we would always mingle in the kitchen around the food, so we wanted to re-create this atmosphere at the wedding,” Sherry says.

“The whole atmosphere had a Halloween Gypsy Caravan feel, with nothing matchy-matchy, which I hate, and everything just blending into one another.” Sherry’s two favorite décor elements? “I loved the jack-o-lanterns everywhere, which we made at two pumpkin carving parties at my in-laws’ house,” Sherry says, “and the gorgeous Halloween wall that was lit by Virtuous Events really pulled all the elements together.”

Reflecting on their wedding day, the couple agrees: “It was everything we hoped for and more than we could have imagined!”

Happily Ever After

Sherry and Ryan both work in social service positions in Northwest Indiana. The Sweeneys now live happily ever after in Hobart, with their cat Rhiannon and dogs Molly and Demus.

As the officiant concluded the ceremony, she introduced the couple, who are both in their late 20s, as “Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds,” and proclaimed, “No power in the verse can stop them!”

Another couple, Matt and Michelle Marovich, agreed to love each other in sickness and in health, but also swore that “in the event of an apocalypse, human, vampire, zombie or otherwise, I promise to fight and die by your side.”

In the same way that couples of the 1960s and 1970s began looking outside religion to contemporary culture and music as inspiration for their vows, some couples today are influenced by the misty (and perhaps invented) past, the fictional future and even lurid apocalyptic fantasy.

For instance, the 2008 wedding of Mr. and Ms. Marovich in San Pablo, Calif., details of which were later posted to Offbeatbride.com, was not the first to contain references to zombies. But it highlighted something of a trend among a certain subset of couples who are looking outside (sometimes way outside) accepted custom.

Ms. Marovich, 35, said she received several e-mails from people who wanted to copy her vows, and the Offbeatbride site has since featured dozens of zombie-themed weddings. So many that the site’s founder and publisher, Ariel Meadow Stallings, said she recently cut back on them, for fear of overexposure.

“It’s being used in ceremonies in ways that aren’t just gimmicky,” she said. “It’s actually kind of a powerful cultural metaphor that people are tapping into.”

The zombie reference was not meant to be trendy, said Ms. Marovich, who for the ceremony wore a red silk gown trimmed in white lace, hardly a “Night of the Living Dead” wardrobe. What appealed to her, she added, was the idea that “if the world was ending and every social structure crumbled, our marriage would still be the most important thing.”

The couple’s officiant, Leslie Light, brought that idea a little closer to home. “They vow not to allow the other to become a zombie when they aren’t looking: slipping into apathy, numbness and a maddening hunger,” Ms. Light said.

The wording for traditional marriage vows can be traced to religious texts of the Middle Ages. The Sarum Missal, translated from Latin in the 11th century, has some of the earliest recorded vows in English, said Dr. Ruth Karras, a history professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of “Unmarriages: Women, Men and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages.”

Vows from that period were as simple as, “I take you as my husband, and I take you as my wife,” Dr. Karras said.

The Rev. Jonipher Kupono Kwong, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, said that people who consider themselves solidly secular still yearn for the transcendent, particularly in a wedding, and sometimes find it in science fiction.  

“This has a way of giving them the bigger picture and seeing the universe as one that supports them,” said Mr. Kwong, who once presided at a wedding with a “Star Trek” theme. “It’s a more universal way of showing what it means to make a commitment in front of something bigger than you,” he said. “It’s spiritual in that sense.”

And some ceremonies that are said to have their origins in remote antiquity, like handfasting or stone oaths, have no prescribed vows or strong ties to a particular faith and can be molded or reimagined to fit many points of view. That perhaps is one reason wedding officiants and planners are also seeing new interest in them.

Jamie James liked the oath stone idea and went to the New River in North Carolina, near where she grew up, to find the proper rock. “I’m only 4-foot-9, so I was having to bob,” said Ms. James, now 41. “My foot came across one that I kept tiptoeing on. I immediately knew it was the one.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have done a Natalie Portman (read: got hitched in secret) and left us all desperate for more details on their super-mysterious wedding. Thank goodness for gossipy inside sources, eh?

We’re only a teeny bit jealous about the fact that Ryan and Blake, who have been dating for about a year since meeting on the set of ‘Green Lantern’, didn’t invite us to their secret wedding.

Although, when people like Blake’s brother Jason start bragging about how amazing it was to The News, we can’t help but turn green with envy:

“It was amazing… I traveled all around the country and rented cars from out of state to keep it under wraps. I think they did a good job. It was spectacular.”

We get it Jason; it was amazing and we weren’t there. Tell us something we don’t know!

At least we’ve got all of your need-to-know wedding questions covered.

THE DRESS:

First up, the Gossip Girl actress walked down the aisle in a one-of-a-kind Marchesa bridal ballgown designed by friends Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig. Sources for the firm have revealed that the gown featured a hand-draped silk tulle bodice (luxe!), covered with custom crystal and rose gold embroidery.

THE BRIDESMAIDS:

When you’re as gorgeous as Blake Lively, you don’t need to worry about your bridesmaids upstaging you, which is why she chose to put them in some drop-dead gorgeous Marchesa gowns. Think  blush silk chiffon with crystal embroidered detail.

THE GROOM:

Ryan Reynolds may be the face of Marks Spencer, but he didn’t opt for one of their suits on his big day – thank goodness. Instead, the handsome actor opted for custom-made Burberry suits with leather suspenders. How very Mr Darcy of him!

THE RINGS:

Apparently the couple exchanged wedding rings by New York jeweler Lorraine Schwartz, a source previously told The News. 

THE CAKE:

Marie Antoinette would have ADORED the Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds $3,000 wedding cake. Baked by Maggie Austin Cakes in Maryland, it was driven eight hours across three state lines, according to sources at The News.

THE PARTY:

Sources have claimed that the pair enjoyed an ntimate, personalized party at a rustic barn in Charleston, South Carolina – and the lucky guests of Ryan and Blake were treated to a “fun-filled carnival hour” and elegant reception. Not to mention a live performance by Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine, if reports at People are to be believed.

It sounds spectacular, doesn’t it? We wish we could have been there…

September is the month when many couples start to think about their wedding plans for the coming year. Your budget is very important but you can really stretch it out if you think about ways to make it work for you. Check out my top tips below: 

• First of all budget! And stick to it!

• Make a list of your priorities - this is very important. Write them down then your budget will focus around what is important to you.

• Choosing to get married mid-week or on a Friday is a big cost saver. It also gives you and your guests the chance to have a lovely long weekend.

• The seasons can dictate the cost; getting married in winter is much cheaper than the height of wedding season. You can plan for the weather and make use of the fabulous discounts that venues offer.

• Getting married later in the day will help you save a considerable amount. There is less time that guests need entertaining and feeding. Marrying at 3pm or 4pm is a lovely time. It gives you all day to get ready and enjoy the build up, as well as enjoying daylight and flowing beautifully in the
  evening.

• Choose your venue carefully. Booking a church hall or cricket club is considerably cheaper than a stately home. They are often blank canvasses for you to transform.

• Trim the guest list; this is one of the main areas to save money. Each extra table of guests means extra flowers, décor, food, stationery etc. Smaller, more intimate weddings are very on trend.

• Instead of expensive invitations make your own or buy the many DIY kits available for. For example www.chartula.co.uk do the most fabulous classy invites you can make yourself. You can also gain advice on wording from their website.

• Consider emailing some of your invites, which costs nothing at all. There are many free wedding websites, which allow this, and you can still include maps, information and pictures. Perhaps a great idea for friends and relatives you always use email or Facebook to communicate with.

• Be creative; ask your family and friends for help when making table plans and things such as favours. Using gorgeous ornate frames sourced from Ebay and then hang colour coordinated ribbons to which luggage labels are attached printed with your guests’ names for a lovely unique idea for a table plan.

• Buffet food costs less than a sit down meal. You can still have a sit down starter and then guests can help themselves to a hot buffet. Great for picnic style themes or English country styles.

• Have a barbeque or hog roast, these are great ways of saving on your food bill. They are great for socializing and in the summer a lovely way to spend time in the sunshine.

• Ask your venue what the corkage costs are. It may be much cheaper for you to supply your own wine. That way you get the best choice, you can even go on a booze cruise and save pounds. Champagne toasts will never have been so cheap.

• Give your guests a drink on arrival and then have a paid bar. Free bars are very costly. If you do want to provide the alcohol why not put an honesty box on the bar for your guests to contribute to.

• Make sure you check the contracts when you sign a supplier for hidden costs. For example,check if VAT is added, and will the rate go up if you book a year in advance?

• MP3 players are a great way to provide music at your evening reception, played over the venue’s PA. You can choose exactly what you want. Ask your guests in their invitations what music they like then you can include that too.

• DJs are much cheaper than a live band. Choose the right one and they will have you dancing into the night.

• If your heart is set on a live band how about looking up bands on college websites or drama/music colleges. They want the practice and will be extremely cost effective. You can see them first and be sure they are right for you.

• Lovely wedding cakes can be bought from the high street now, such as Marks Spencer and House of Fraser. They even come in different flavours. Decorate them with fresh flowers or toppers sourced from the internet. Serve as dessert to save money too.

• Wedding cupcakes are still very on trend. Serve them as dessert or give them to your guests as favours.

• Try and use flowers that are in season. To make your budget go further ask your florist to use lots of lush foliage and reduce the amount of blooms. Your centre pieces will still look amazing.

• If you family are keen gardeners perhaps you can grow your own flowers. This is great if you are having a marquee wedding. Sweet peas look fantastic in large bunches and smell divine.

• Collect lots of different jam jars then instead of expensive centre pieces use them grouped in the middle of the table filled with country flowers. You can also collect extremely cheap vases of varying sizes from Ikea to do the same thing. Afterwards sell them on Ebay.

• Candles are a great source of atmosphere and extremely cheap. IKEA sell the most cost effective votives. Place them everywhere for a romantic sophisticated atmosphere.

• Consider using large church candles of varying heights placed on mirrored tiles for your centrepieces instead of flowers. Add sprinkles of Swarovski and some fresh flower heads around the base and hey presto an ultra chic look.

• Use big flower heads that look impressive and go further, for example hydrangeas.

• Use your centre pieces as presents for the bridal party. It’s lovely for your guests to take home the flowers - they wont get wasted and you won’t have to buy extra thank you gifts.

• Instead of using a professional make up artist go to a MAC store with your bridesmaids and learn how to apply your own make up. It’s great fun and a lovely day out. Alternatively you can choose to have your make up done professionally but your bridesmaids can use the session to apply their own.

• Use the high street for your bridesmaid’s dresses. Monsoon, Coast and Debenhams, all do a great range. If you let your bridesmaids wear different dresses, that suit their body shapes, but the same colours to match your theme, they won’t mind paying for them. You can spend less buying them nice jewellery to bring the theme together.

• Wedding jewellery can be very expensive so try www.beadfusion.co.uk for unique and cost effective accessories. They can be made just for you and they are beautiful. They also make great bridesmaid gifts.

• Wedding dresses take up a large part of your budget. Look on the Internet for sample sales. Go to the wedding shows and pick up a bargain.

• Check out www.almostnewweddingdresses.co.uk for designer dresses sold by brides for excellent prices. Try Rock My Wedding. They have a large list of brides who are selling their nearly new dresses.

• If you desperately want a honeymoon but can’t afford it, why not ask your guests to contribute to a web site that pays for your trip. You can make it very personal by detailing what the money is going to. Your guests feel they have contributed to something you really want. Try www.zankou.com which allows you to create your own gift registry.

• The moral of the story for budget saving ideas is to shop around, ask suppliers to add value to their package – if you don’t ask you don’t get. DIY as much as you can. Your guests will really notice and feel like you have added your own stamp to your fabulous day.

Pop back next week, let’s look at using cheese instead of a traditional wedding cake.

Written by:

Wedding Planner -  Julie Dawson – The Wedding Genie

2. Seasonal menu-At a winter wedding, it is appropriate to mix in those comfort foods (soups, lasagna etc.) with traditional dishes. These types of foods are a nice change from the usual and are sure to set your wedding apart from the rest! You can also incorporate some of those wonderful winter beverages such as hot chocolate or eggnog.

3. Convenience-Planning a winter wedding that will coincide with a holiday such as Thanksgiving or Christmas is ideal because it will allow for more people to attend. Most people will already be traveling around this time of the year so it will be easier for guests to travel to your wedding.

4. Cost-Wedding statistics show that an average wedding can run up to $26,000, but having a winter wedding can save you up to 50%! This will leave you with some extra money to splurge on your honeymoon or that new car you’ve had your eye on.

5. Theme-Surrounded by the pristine white snow, winter can truly be a beautiful background for a wedding. Why not have a Fire and Ice or Winter Wonderland theme?

IN conjunction with its 175th anniversary, world–renowned jeweller Tiffany Co launched its “Sparkling Bridal Campaign” recently.

The month-long bridal campaign, which ends on Sept 30, celebrates the brand’s rich legacy that is synonymous with romance, elegance and timeless designs.

Mini wedding cakes in the Tiffany blue theme.

A wedding-inspired installation is now on display at the Couture precinct of Pavilion Kuala Lumpur. In honour of Merdeka and the approaching Malaysia Day, the installation features cake toppers reflecting the multicultural diversity of Malaysia.

With four mini cakes in total, each is finished off with a handmade cake topper featuring a Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western couple respectively.

The event was made more special by the appearance of Tiffany’s master engraver Timothy Murphy, who flew
in from New York to demonstrate the brand’s iconic style
of engraving.

Marry me: A Western wedding cake topper was part of the display.

Tiffany has also forged a partnership with Citibank during this bridal campaign, Citibank credit card holders are offered special gifts at Tiffany’s stores. Also, to help capture special moments, customers who make a purchase during this month will be entitled to a special gift from Olympus. – Nadine Fernandez

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A crazy little thing called love

Preparing for your wedding should be a fun, not stressful, experience.

The experts share their advice for the latest trends and gorgeous styles – including top tips for nipping potential dramas in the bud.

So what’s popular on the wedding scene right now?

Jenn Veza, The Original Wedding Company owner and wedding planner, said common trends for the upcoming spring/summer wedding season included a slight shift away from vintage.

“It’s been such a popular wedding theme for a long time but currently weddings appear to be trending more towards Hollywood glamour and themes that are a bit more sophisticated,” Ms Veza said.

As far as colour themes went, she said strong tones and stripes were in – particularly monochromatic themes.

Ms Veza said this wedding season a lot of weddings and receptions would go with black and white.

“It is such a timeless sort of colour palette, regardless of trend.”

One interesting aspect is a growing tendency to forgo the tradition of bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Ms Veza said this was not a budgetary choice but more because couples preferred not to choose favourites, especially with so many special people in their lives.

Cocktail wedding receptions were popular a couple of years ago but the swing was now towards a more traditional sit-down formal dinner – with a twist.

Under the new reception trend, entree and main meals were sit-down and formal but the dessert was a buffet.

“I think brides and grooms are more conscious of getting people up and mingling, and a lot of venues are offering that as an alternative,” Ms Veza said.

When it comes to the ceremony itself, wedding celebrant Lionel Yorke said he conducted wedding vows in two ways: a good way and what he called the “better-better” way.

He described the good way as basically traditional wedding vows, two or three words at a time, which the couple repeated after him.

Alternatively, the “better-better way” involved having the couple write a love letter to each other, without knowing what the other had written, then reading it aloud on the day in front of family and friends.

“It just makes it more personal for them, and more personal for the people there,” Mr Yorke said. “It is lovely and it really makes the wedding.”

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Avril Lavigne

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Avril Lavigne is “excited” about planning her wedding theme.

The singer has big ideas when it comes to her upcoming nuptials with Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger. Avril hasn’t begun brainstorming for the details of her ceremony, but hinted she may design her own bespoke “bad ass” wedding dress.

“I’ve been thinking about it; I haven’t come to a decision on themes yet, but I’m really excited to start planning and even more excited about the wedding dress,” Avril told US Weekly. “I have a lot of ideas and I’m trying to figure out which direction to go.”

The star has displayed a variety of different looks and styles since she rose to fame as a teenager. Avril’s interest in fashion has developed into her own clothing line Abbey Dawn, which she showcased the latest collection of at New York Fashion Week on Monday.

The individual singer says even though it is too early to discuss specifics, she does have a few ideas about the dress.

“I have my idea of what I want,” Avril told People. “It might be something that I buy a few different dresses and rip them up and put them all together and dye them, or maybe I’ll kind of do a collaboration with another designer.”

© Cover Media

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It’s not too surprising when brides in the Southwest say “I do” wearing cowboy boots instead of white-satin heels and swap a 10-gallon Stetson for the traditional lace veil.

Western Wedding Expo

When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.

Where: Fountain Patio, Cave Creek Smokehouse, 6245 E. Cave Creek Road.

Admission: Free.

Details: 602-644-1303, westernweddingexpo.com.

In Cave Creek, which looks like it could have been plucked out of a Wild West film, it happens pretty often. This gave Dominick DiMichele an idea: Why not organize a Western-themed wedding expo?

DiMichele, who last hosted a wedding expo in April in Scottsdale, was contacted by the owners of Cave Creek Smokehouse in Frontier Town to visit their Fountain Patio, which often is used for weddings.

“I wasn’t even thinking of a theme until I saw the venue,” he said. “There’s been more than the average response to this event already, and people are excited because this is something different.”

The expo Saturday will feature 60 vendors and take place at the Fountain Patio. The highlights are two fashion shows. The 11 a.m. show is hosted by Avondale’s Strictly Western Trading Post; the 2 p.m. show is hosted by Joan King, owner of the Antique Emporium in Cave Creek.

“I thought this was a great idea because a lot of people in the area have Western-themed weddings,” King said. “I have customers wander into my store and they see the wedding section and tell me they wish they knew I was here so that they could have had a more authentically Western wedding.”

She will feature weddings dresses from the 1920s to the 1980s, first showing models wearing the gowns in traditional shoes and veils, then coming out with Western accessories and jewelery. Christie Roshau, Miss Rio Nuevo 2012 and a top-10 finalist for Miss Arizona, will model for the show.

“We’re going to show an ankle-length full-skirted dress from the ’50s,” King said. “There’s also a Western dress from the ’80s with a train Velcro-ed on, so the bride can wear the full dress for the ceremony and take off the train for the reception. I have a cream-colored prairie dress that will fit in well with the theme, too.”

DiMichele was contacted by a rental company that will display a huge tepee three stories high, providing an unusual venue for a wedding.

Not all of the vendors will be Western-themed, and there will be a variety of DJs, transportation companies, bakeries, caterers and venue-rental companies from all over the Valley at the event. DiMichele expects up to 800 people to show up.

It was the wedding no one saw coming, but details of the very romantic nuptials between Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are now emerging.

When the pair tied the knot on Sunday night in Mount Pleasant, SC, only the 60 lucky guests in attendance knew any details about the hush-hush wedding.

However, the woman responsible for the event, wedding planner Tara Guérard, revealed to Celebuzz that the famous couple wanted their ceremony to feel like “home.”

Find out more on the wedding and five new developments after the jump.

1. The wedding theme was both folksy and elegant, the wedding planner revealed.

“Ryan and Blake wanted the event to look and feel like home,” Tara Guérard of Tara Guérard Soirée told Celebuzz. Guerard, who has an office both in Charleston, SC and New York and has even written a book on weddings — Southern Weddings: New Looks from the Old South, said she wanted to ensure the nuptials had a touch of old Southern charm. “With decor and live music, we all created the charm, elegance and magic of times passed,” she said. “It was a truly beautiful evening and celebration.”

2. Bette Midler tweets she didn’t sing at the wedding.

Where do these knuckleheads get the idea that I went to a wedding and actually SANG at it?!Can you imagine? I was in a hotel lobby is all!

— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) September 10, 2012

3. Lively’s ex-boyfriend wasn’t invited to the wedding.

Actor Penn Badgley, 25, who dated the starlet from 2007 to 2010 after meeting on the set of Gossip Girl, told People the newlyweds are “pretty spot-on”: ”I actually didn’t know until last night, but I think it’s fantastic,” Badgley told People. “I couldn’t be happier for her.”

4. It was a who’s-who of local celeb guests.

Famed chef from one of Charleston’s most upscale restaurant’s, Peninsula Grill, Graham Dailey and his girlfriend, photographer Brianna Stello were among those in the small audience of close friends and family, according to the Charleston Grit.

Blake and ryan wanted southern charm on their special day

5. One of the guests not only attended the nuptials but helped cater as well.

Chef Dailey helped feed the guests at the summer ceremony — which seemed fitting since Lively and Reynolds are big fans of his restaurant.

6. The reception spread was filled with plenty of southern comfort fare.

The VIPs didn’t leave with empty stomachs. The menu for the crowd included 15 quarts of truffle cream corn, a multi-tiered cheese tower, and the Peninsula Grill’s signature coconut cake.

Blake stuns as the new face of gucci 

7. Old friends and co-stars made the journey for the special occasion.

Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-star Alexis Bledel was seen shopping at clothing store RTW Charleston on Monday, Celebuzz was told by a local. Could she have been one of the special guests at the intimate ceremony? 6.