Shake it, Shake, Shake it, Shake it

Being a Midwestern bride I wasn't very familiar with the idea of a second line until Weddingbee's Miss Star filled me in. I didn't know the tradition of having a band lead the way, the bride & groom carrying parasols or the guests waving hankies, but once we started exploring the tradition of second lines I got more and more excited to incorporate these elements.

My mom got right on the idea of the guests waving white hankies. She started scouring the Internet looking for white handkerchiefs until I stopped her dead in her tracks.

A couple of months before I had seen the wedding of Grace Bonney, creator of the much loved Design*Sponge. Grace & her fiance, Aaron sent screen printed handkerchiefs as invitations and I loved the mismatched look of vintage hankies.

Once my mom got on board we started scouring antique malls & eBay looking for vintage hankies and I'm proud to report that we have (almost) all of them.

We want to make sure our guests have them on hand for our second line so the current plan is to wrap them around our ceremony programs as belly bands and attach them with a sticker that instructs our guests to wave them with all of their might as we make our way to the reception.

via

Are you incorporating any traditions in a non-traditional way?

Point A to Point B

One of the reasons we were so excited to have our ceremony at The Chouse was it's proximity to our reception venue.

Our reception venue is literally two blocks from our ceremony venue, so in an effort to carry on the party and be green we're having a walking parade ala a New Orleans' Second Line.

Second lines started in the 19th century when African American jazz bands started participating in funeral processions, the bands would proceed down the street followed by the family and close friends (known as the first line) who were followed by others known as the second line. Currently the band still leads the way followed by the bride and groom (first line) and the wedding guests (second line).

I'm not gonna lie, Jus & I are kind of excited to surprise the heck out of all of our guests. I'm pretty sure* that none of our guests have participated in a second line and I have a feeling this is really going to get the party started.

I'm so excited! Just look at how much fun we'll have.

Via

Via

Via

Via

Via

So let's add parasol to the list of necessary wedding items and get ready to dance our way down the street.

*I'm probably really about 99% sure considering our wedding guests are almost all East Coasters & Midwesterners