Nikki & Henry's Wedding

Was WONDERFUL! SoundGuy and I spent the weekend in Duluth celebrating with our friends Nikki & Henry. I consider Nikki one of my quirkiest, most unique friends, so I couldn't wait to see what kind of wedding they had cooked up. Knowing that at least two of our loyal readers are on the fast-track to engagement (wink, wink girls!) I figured I should share all the fun details that made the day so memorable!

Rehearsal dinner was a BBQ at Elger Tower (for those of you hip to Duluth's hot-spots). Nikki & Henry's outdoorsy style showed up in a canoe full of beverages! Here's the bride, flanked by CSSA pals Tracy and moi. Jillybean - just photoshop yourself in. We missed you!
Apparently the groomsmen spent the afternoon dumping forty bags of ice into the canoe! I have no idea who drew the short straw and had to empty it at the end of the night.

On the morning of the wedding the bride and groom hosted a 5K run, complete with bowties and veils for all the participants. We caught up with Nikki after the race to admire her cute running outfit, and (more importantly) to meet Tracy & Erik's adorable new baby, Ava.
Sidenote: Not only is Ava cute with a capitol Q, she's also the tallest baby we know. At four months, she's already the height an "average" baby would be at 12 months! Better reserve the exit row for her next plane ride =)

The ceremony and reception took place on the shore of Lake Superior, at the Public Beach House.
Everybody kicked off their shoes to enjoy the sand. This adorable row of green shoes belongs to the bride and her gals. Too cute!
Guests were greeted by ushers distributing beach blankets.
When those ran out, some very resourceful ushers rounded up all sorts of surfboards from the beach house and flipped them over on the sand for additional seating.

Henry's dad performed the ceremony, and they exchanged the most touching vows. Not a dry eye on the beach!
Here's the happy couple! Let's get inside so I can show you all the fun details of the reception!
Nikki's favorite food is pizza so the reception was catered by Pizza Luce. NUM! Oh...there's no pizza in this picture. You'll just need to use your imagination. Imagine us eating our pizza with multicolored sporks (also the favors), and following it up with donuts instead of cake.
Note: Tracy & Erik were not solely responsible for the depleted platter of donuts on our table. We all shouldered that burden together.

Nikki & Henry hired a few of Nikki's students to take care of all the details. In a fit of genius, Nikki created t-shirts for the whole crew using the lovebirds graphic from the invitations.
Members of the wedding party also received these t-shirts as their gifts.

In case the donuts weren't enough, a "Tweet" table was set up. Guests scooped up bags of tasty tweets.
Of course, the lovebirds logo showed up on the Tweet Bags as well.

Erik likes Tweets.

The bride and groom kicked things off with a very impressive first dance - choreographed salsa! They had a big finish, but I didn't manage to catch it on film.
Look at our girl kicking up her cute green heels!

In case the donuts and Tweets weren't enough to sustain the guests as they danced the night away, buckets of S'mores supplies were stationed around the fireplace.
Is there a dentist in the house?

My personal favorite (aside from witnessing my friends profess their love and solidify their partenership for life and all that) were the corsages. Nikki's friend, Katie models hers for us:

Do you see what that is? It's a genuine 1980's slap-bracelet, people! Best Corsage Ever! I played with mine all night =)

Lots of details went undocumented...Nikki & Henry's little dog, Stella, attending the ceremony...my pretty new blue dress sewn with love by my future MIL...dancing the night away with my SoundGuy...and, of course, making music to honor our special friends on their special day. Oh, and did I mention that SoundGuy ran the sound and DJ'd the reception? Or did you just assume that already? From now on, always assume that.

Congratulations Nikki & Henry! We loved being a part of your day, and were moved by the love you share!