Theme:
We planned for a wedding that reflects our personalities and honors our ancestry. We are incorporating Scottish, Irish, and German traditions - as well as family traditions - to make a ceremony uniquely ours.

Colors: Dark Blue, Hunter Green, Ruby Red and Cream

Tartans: Primarily McKenzie and Black Stewart.

These two tartans are comprised mainly of our wedding colors and have the following significance -- Dawn had an Irish great-grandmother named McKinney. The name McKinney is found primarily in Northern Ireland and Ulster among the Scots-Irish or displaced Scots who moved into Ireland centuries ago. In Scotland, the McKinneys are a sept of Clan McKenzie. To honor Great-Grandmother McKinney, the decorations featured ribbons very similar to the McKenzie tartan.

Harry is a competing member of the City of Washington Pipe Band - a Grade II world-caliber band. COW, as it is called, wears the Black Stewart tartan and Harry [and others] will be wearing that tartan in the wedding. Harry's family is actually descended from Robert the Bruce, first King of Scotland. [Currently, Harry does not own a Bruce tartan and is content to wear his Black Stewart, as the Bruce is quite a "loud" (aka ugly!) tartan.]

Most of the decorations are being made with a tartan ribbon from Joann Fabrics that is a sort of combination of Black Stewart and MacKenzie. The setts look like Black Stewart, except that is is on a Navy Blue field rather than Black.

Logo: We made our own invitations, programs and decorative pieces, so we chose a logo to unify them all: a celtic knot in our wedding colors that incorporates a heart shape and symbolizes eternal love.

Attire:
The Bride: Growing up, Dawn and her mother shared one dream - that when the day came, Dawn would wear her mother's wedding dress. Unfortunately, Dawn and her mom [at the time of her wedding] come in two completely different shapes and sizes! Enter Harry's mother, an expert seamstress. For barely the cost of a veil at a bridal shop, Betty made a slightly-altered replica of Norma's dress for Dawn. For those interested in details, it is a very 50s dress with a big full skirt and princess seams. It is really two dresses in one: A silky sleeveless underdress [strapless in Mom's version] and a long-sleeved lace overdress. There is very little extra adornment [appliques, sequins, etc.] as the look of a fully lace dress is striking.

Also, due to the ornate look of the dress, Dawn made a very simple veil. The headpiece was a plain headband from KMart, onto which tiny white silk flowers were hot-glued. A plain white double veil with a ruffled edge was attached and voila! Instant veil. The headband was the no-slip kind with teeth, so no bobby pins were required. The extra white flowers were glued onto a plain clasp-style barrette. For the big day, Dawn's cousin Terry (owner of The Local Hairport in Irwin, PA) twisted rows of hair from the front to the crown and used the decorated barrette to secure the twisted hair into a half-ponytail. He then curled all of her waist-length hair into a cascade of curls down her back. The veil was worn over this for the ceremony and removed for the reception.

The Groom: Harry wore his Black Stewart kilt with a dress Highland jacket. The full highland gear was worn: sporran, kilt hose, flashes, ghillie brogues. Despite his father-in-law-to-be teasing him about his "skirt," Harry had looked forward to having a kilted wedding since he got his first kilt.

The Bridesmaids: The bridesmaids wore very simple tea-length Hunter Green gowns with bone/cream colored shoes. The dress is from the Chadwick's of Boston catalog and is quite reasonably priced, while the simple shape and cut makes wearing the dress after the wedding a very real possibility. The dress is shown here in Hunter Green and Burgundy. Terry did all of their hair, in similar styles. All had half-ponytails or similar styles. Twists like Dawn's were done for Helena, the Jr. Bridesmaid, while April's ultra-short style was sort of spiky with tiny barrettes in the front. (We called it the Dharma style after Jenna Elfman's first season Dharma hairdo!)

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The Groomsmen: The groomsmen were attired similarly to the groom - full dress highland with kilts, some Black Stewart and some Red Ramsay. Both tartans incorporate the wedding's colors.

Decorations:
In addition to honoring our ancestry and theme, we planned this wedding on a very tight budget. However, a tight budget does not a tacky wedding make! Dawn, overcoming her craft-challenged past, learned to use a hot-glue gun and made many of the wedding's decorations, with the help of Harry and his family.

Flowers: As Dawn is not inordinately fond of paying a lot for beautiful live flowers that die by night's end, she decided to use artificial - however most silks look, well, fake. Using a bit of creativity, she designed a keepsake "bouquet" that fits their theme and that her bridesmaids will be able to keep and use for years to come. Rather than traditional bouquets, each bridesmaid carried a cream-colored crocheted heart bedecked with red, green and blue flowers and ribbons. The stiffened crochet hearts were found at a local craft store, and the tiny silks used, while not entirely lifelike, fit the design perfectly. As of January, 1999, all of the flowers and corsages for the wedding were finished - 7+ months ahead of schedule.

Church Decorations: The church altar flowers were purchased through the church's regular florist with the simple suggestions of "Stick to the color scheme" and "Dawn really likes carnations." Pews were decorated with large pew bows made of tartan ribbon. As of June 1, 1999, all of the pew bows were complete, 2 months ahead of schedule.

Reception Decorations: While making the bridesmaids' "bouquets," Dawn purchased extra crocheted hearts and made similar [but not exact duplicate] hearts that were hung around the reception hall. [Brass lantern sconces circle the walls - one heart was hung near each lantern.] The hall also featured the wedding colors prominently, as well as tartan touches and the wedding logo. Centerpieces were rather ornate. Hunter green and red crocheted hearts [from the shower] on each table were topped by cream-colored taper holders decorated with the wedding flowers. The candles themselves were red, blue and green with ribbons braided around them to make a tartan-looking design and large tartan bows were tied at their base. The cake was decorated with the tartan bows as well as celtic knotwork similar to the wedding logo.

Favors: Due to budgetary reasons [as well as the fact that most favors are rather silly], there were not any table favors at the wedding. [Don't worry favor fans: Mints, nuts and candies were on each table for munching, anyway.] At the church, kids passed out cards with jingle bells and a verse about Irish wedding traditions. These were rung as Harry and Dawn exited the church [No rice or birdseed permitted!] and also served as a signal for the newlyweds to kiss at the reception. (Of course, purists clinked glasses or banged soda cans for kisses, too!)