Go Vikings!

More and more couples today are opting to show their college spirit by involving their alma matter into their wedding, sometimes making it the whole wedding theme. There's so many neat ways to include your college pride into your wedding, and lots of levels of reflecting that pride.


For the uber devoted, the college mascot, or whatever big identifier of their college, can be included in name placards, on invitations and as bouquet jewelry, and, at the ultimate, in the wedding vows. ("I Janet, take Brad and the UW Huskeys, from this day forth...") For other couples, just the touches of college pride with the inner knowledge that it's for the school is good enough.


Here's a middle road.


With this challenge being college alumni, how could not do my own alma matter, Western Washington University (GO VIKINGS!!!). Our colors are navy blue and white, and our mascot is the Vikings (could you guess?). The two images Western uses to ID the school are a Viking ship and a viking face with a big-ass horn helmet. Since I'm not a fan of the horns, I used just the ship image for my icon usage.


Ok, the archaeologist in me (yes, I have a degree in archaeology) feels the need to correct a misunderstanding. Viking is not a noun, it's a verb. To go a viking. Basically, the word viking is the same as the word pillage. Class dismissed.


So for the bride, a sweet mermaid dress by Mori Lee titled "Blu". Aw yeah. The bouquet - blue roses. Why, you ask? Western prides itself on being know for a couple of things - and one of the top 4 is it's incredible rose garden, featuring about 30 different species of rose. So gotta give props to the roses as being the flower of the wedding.


The bridesmaids in navy blue dresses by Forever 21, with white rose bouquets. I love having a contrasting bouquet for the bride from the bridesmaids. For their hair, blue rose hair clip!


Now, the overall decor. You know how I mentioned Western priding itself on 4 major things? Well the second thing is the trees on campus. We literally have a 200 year old giant sequoia. They even have an online tree tour.


Anywho, there's a walkway of trees leading up to the 'Old Main' building - the first building of the school, and, for everyone who walks down that path, you get a tingly feeling on the back of your neck, and you can't help but feel a part of something so important, and can't help feeling important yourself. I found only 1 photo of this walk online, and it's a winter shot. I'll check and see if I can find a photo I've taken in the summer.


I really wanted to bring this into the wedding. So for the ceremony and reception, taking place in a park or something with lots of large trees. The aisle walking either between a path of trees or near some large ones, lit by candles with lights hanging from the trees. At the reception, bring the trees under the tent, and have small topiary's as centerpieces, or, like the photo in my polyvore shows, have some larger potted trees.


For the invitations, it's easy to find a navy blue and white set, like this beautiful one I found from Fine Papers. It's really unique to find wedding invites that come in a non-white envelope - very, very cool. I also found a wedding cake that sticks to this general scheme (blue as the domanant color), navy blue with white 'pearls' - so beautiful!


Also at the reception - blue cocktails! I found 13 different blue cocktails at the Absolut Vodka site - just typed 'blue' into the search bar. They really make it easy to find a color-coordinated drink for your wedding.


And to bring in the school icon - martini shakers with the school's viking ship logo on them for all the attendant's gifts. You can also add a little viking 'jewel' to the bags of Jordon almonds. Simple, and gets the point across that the Vikings ROCK!

{Rebekah} College Alumni: Go Vikings! by bekahross

Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, now an esteemed title, was the inspiration for a wonderful song, and the person it was written about was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at Albion College in Michigan. My grandmother, though not the woman who inspired the song, was the Sweetheart after this gal. My grandmother, a sister of Kappa Alpha Theta, married her own love, a brother of Sigma Chi, my grandfather. Which made it an easy choice, given today's wedding theme of sorority/fraternity, to use these two houses as my base.


The colors of KAT (Kappa Alpha Theta - it's going to get annoying to type pretty soon), are gold and black. The colors of SC (Sigma Chi) are gold and blue. Hence, the wedding colors being gold, blue, and black. Easy. The flower of SC is the white rose, the flower of KAT the black and gold pansy. So for the bridesmaids, blue dresses and gold dresses, with bouquets of black and gold pansys. The bride, in a lovely gold Vera Wang, carrying white roses. For the centerpieces? You guessed it, bunches of white roses and the black and gold pansies on the tables.


The groom and his attendants are all dressed in lovely black tuxes, with engraved cuff links. For the attendants, the cuff links engraved with the SC Roman letters. For the groom? One engraved with SC letters, the other engraved with KAT letters, for his wife. So cute!


One of the fun things with sororities and fraternities, is that they have crests, just like traditional family crests. So on the wedding cake, on the middle tier, have the baker add the crests! I've superimposed the crests for each of the houses on the cake in my polyvore.


Another fun thing with sororities and fraternities, is their traditions. One tradition that most sororities have, is when a sister is married, at her reception her attending sisters surround her and her now husband, and sing the sorority song. There's a sweet picture of such a singing in the polyvore below. It's really fun to do this, because sorority membership runs in the family, and you can have mothers and grandmothers who were members of the sorority join the sisters in their singing and it's a tear-jerker.


Lastly, I've chosen an awesome location. The Ruins. I fell in love with this place a year ago when looking through Seattle Bride Magazine, and wanted to have my wedding there. The neat part - they have a medium sized gold room -for the ceremony - and a large blue room - for the reception. Dude- it's a color coordinated wedding in the simplest way possible!

{Rebekah} Sorority/Fraternity: Sweetheart of Sigma Chi by bekahross