On Saturday, Erin and I got married in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. You may or may not know that we both reenact the American Revolution, and Williamsburg was hosting the 225th anniversary of the march from Williamsburg to Yorktown, where Cornwallis surrendered the Crown army, and America won independence.

We have both been married before, and both have had the "big expensive" wedding. We undershot or $5K budget by about $3K. Mainly because Williamsburg thought it was so cool that they gave us the site, carriage, preacher, etc for free. In return, public got to see a colonial wedding. Most of the cost went into importing yards upon yards of silk for Erin’s dress from Thailand. The rest was hotel accommodations (we were NOT camping that weekend ) and food (which we bought and the women from our reenactment group prepared). We have not gotten any bills or proofs from the professional photographer yet. When he heard about what we were doing, he offered to shoot the wedding for free, charging only for prints - so long as he could use the wedding in his advertising. He is going to try and get the proofs online before he goes to Bolivia to shoot another wedding this week. These pics are from a friend I had loaned my camera to (except for the dress prep pics, which I took).

On to the Pics! I'm gushing. Deal.
Making the dress:
This is the under structure. Stays (18thC corset) and pocket hoops. Fashion was to have HUGE hips.


Erin working on the muslin gown, to be able to make alterations before cutting into the silk:


Me and the preacher waiting for Erin's carriage to arrive. We were married in the garden of the St. George Tucker House. The wedding was at 6pm, just before sunset. The weather was _PERFECT_.


Our dear friend Bill agreed to hand off the bride:



Gettn' Hitched!



(continued next post)

Man and Wife:


Our carriage awaits:



The guy in light blue is the living history director for all of Williamsburg. This was the first time I have ever seen him kitted out, and he did it to be the footman for my carriage. The carriage is the Governors Carriage, and is the nicest Williamsburg has.


From there we got a tour of Williamsburg via carriage. I have been going there as a reenactor for 10 years, and have never been in one of the carriages. We heard several kids ask as we rolled by "are those people real?" It was WILD.

The carriage brought us back to our camp for a reception there.


More pics (if you want to see them) are on my flickr page:
http://flickr.com/photos/vacca_rabite/sets...57594330926713/

Zach

Alright, 5% Nerd factor, but 95% "How Fuching Cool!!" factor. Looks like it was an amazing and memorable event. I've seen rich folks spend 50k in an unsuccessful attempt to acheive those 2 things.

Congrats on the wedding and the marriage. All the best to you both.

There's something so dignified about Erin in that beautiful dress, and her Mona Lisa smile. Completely different from most weddings, where you can most definately foresee the bride dancing on a table top, or getting sh!t-faced-drunk.

Congrats to you both, Mr. and Mrs. Nerd!

Jen

That's the absolute coolest geek-fest I've ever seen.
Amazing carriage!
Finally a wedding where the main topic isn't how drunk Uncle Al fell on the cake table or what a bitch the maiden of honor was.

That was really cool, I don't think sword's would have been a good idea at my

wedding, but very cool.

Congradulations!!!

I would have gone ahead with the Klingon wedding instead though.

Beyond Great!!! Congrats!

There's nothing wrong with extra nerd.
Although you need to try harder and get that over 100%
I usually try for about 120 in all things

Congrats!
And that is an awesome ceremony.

Creepy... yet, at the same time...weird.

I've been attempting to find a balence of those two my whole life. I bet I would've made the perfect Chimney Sweep for your ceremony! Congrads and try not catch beri-beri, rickets, plauge, croup or be burned at the stake as human steak.

That's not funny! Brian keeps talking about that. Seriously, I half expect to walk down the isle and see him up there with one of those broad swords and wrinkley foreheads.

Jen

Thou hadst a wicked cool Weddinge!

(I'm partial to the "get married on Halloween, in costume" route myself. Perhaps that's one reason why I've never found the right woman.)

Ha could be Betazette Or how ever you spell it. can we all get an invite?

When we first started talking about getting hitched, we knew we did not want the big white dress, ballroom, etc. We had both had that and it just did not work for us.

We seriously considered just eloping in Vegas with Elvis.

But I have been reenacting for 11 years, and Williamsburg was Erins first reencating event 3 years ago. In March we descided to get married there, and started the ball rolling. We never imagined that Williamsburg would be as receptive to it as they were.

In some ways, it was ustterly chaotic. Erin was still sewing her dress 2 hours before she had to wear it. There is still more that she wants to add to it. 2 weeks from the wedding, we were told there was not a preacher for us at all. We worked that out, and I met the preacher only 25 minutes before the cerimony. There was no plan for rain. We "borrowed" chairs from another function an hour before the wedding. Then all my troops had to do a drill demonstration, and were not able to get back to the wedding area until 15 minutes before the cerimony. Williamsburg changed the venue for the cerimony 4 times, and once after invitations had gone out.

But it all worked out, and better then I ever could have imagined it.

Zach

This is funny...

(the sad part is that I get the joke...)

Bravo! How cool is THAT? Best to you both, although, after the THAT wedding, everything's gonna tend to be downhill. I salute you both (as well as all those who helped you out)! The Cap'n

I met a guy (owner of a VW shop in Colorado) who got married on Halloween -- a wedding BOTH wanted to do. They showed me their wedding album and everyone was in costume -- it was wicked cool! A girlfriend I had wanted to do the same.

So have faith, there are women out there who want to do it.

Ask Andy what day he and Shannon got married...

Jen

Congrats...Glad you could do this the way you both wanted to.


KT

I'm not sure which carriage that is......

It looks like the early Pagnoli or possibly early Furnam Bros..

I also think the wheels are possibly early oak Fiskes.

Maybe Gustl or JPB havea better idea..
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OOOOPpppssssss.

Wrong thread........

Congradulations to you and your new wife. Rock On.....

Clayton

Way cool! Congratulations!

Some things just look right.

May the good luck endure,

Fin

Very cool!

Very cool. Congrats!!

Well done, young man. I hope you left the flintlocks at home during the honeymoon.

p.s. does your lovely bride have a sister????? he, he.

I must say good sir, thout hast fashiond thine affair in good taste, good judgement and gallantly exprrrrrrressing thine inner man with unwaivery panash. Good show all around and tastfully done.


Ale haggard wench!

What's next? Honeymoon in a log cabin?

Very cool. Congrads

Nah, we are going to fly to Maimi, get on a big boat, and float somewhere warm for a week before returning to the really real world.

I'm really not used to wearing a ring yet.

Zach

How cool! Congratulations.

Right on, Zach! Nerd love is pure love

You guys did it your way and in a style that truely inspires awe

So, when will you be free to start workingon your car?

Erin looked great in that dress man.

That is so far beyond cool that it defies words!

CONGRATS to you and your new bride. May you have many wonderful decades together!

Stacie

How incredibly lovely! George Washington himself couldn't have done it any better... congratulations to you both. That is truly how the ultra elite got married back in the 18th Century. Even Elvis can't top your event - how fortunate for the CW (Colonial Williamsburg) folks that you opted out of the Vegas route!

On behalf of history buffs and William and Mary alums everywhere, THANK YOU!!

[quote name='Vacca Rabite' date='Oct 16 2006, 06:37 PM' post='796065']
[quote name='URY914' post='796044' date='Oct 16 2006, 09:20 PM']

I'm really not used to wearing a ring yet.

Zach
[/quote]


It burns for years......