Real Wedding Planning
Mr. and Mrs. Digraph QU forever!
I had to repeatedly reassure my students yesterday that the wedding we were having was not real. A student in our class was dressed as the Bride. (When she showed up for the book character parade in full Cinderella regalia, we knew she would be perfection. And she was!)
BUT, the planning of it was for real!
We had celebrated the occasion as a grade level at my previous school, but this was the first wedding at my new school. I suggested the idea to my team, and they had never heard of anything like it. They liked the idea, but not enough to do anything about it.
I didn't really have any vision yet, except for the Bride, but it started to take shape quickly.
I asked the principal if he wanted to officiate, and he was totally game. I don't think he knew what he had signed up for, even though I sent him a script, and let him know that he was going to teach Kindergarten phonics. But he is such a good sport, and enjoyed it so much that he wants it to become an annual event now. 😅
So, we had a date. ✅ We had to have cake and punch, and the easiest way
would be to hold the ceremony in the pod and serve food outside, to minimize mess.
We have a wonderful wrap around specialist at our school. He counsels students and works with parents all day. He has a relationship with our neighborhood H-E-B that had already donated so much to us. What would it hurt to ask? He was lovely enough to offer to make the request and even deliver the cake on the morning of the event. Cake ✅
Then I reached out to one of our student's parents who owns a business and asked if they would want to sponsor the punch and paper products. She was so gracious and sent cash, every poor teacher's friend. Punch ✅ Thank you, Pro-Optix Eye Care!
I spoke with my friend who coordinated the wedding at my previous school. She referred me to Maria Manore Gavin's Q and U Wedding Party Printables, linked HERE. ✅ I visited her blog Kinder Craze with details and photos, and my vision started to come together.
✅ I made invitations with Gavin's editable printables including the sponsors' logos and distributed them to each class, our admin team and secretary. (The lady is Boss!)
✅ I asked my little Cinderella if she had a wedding dress at home, and of course she did! Her mom was pleased she was chosen.
✅ I asked around for a Groom candidate who would already have a suit. My teammate asked one of her student's moms. He could definitely handle the spotlight, but he didn't have a suit. Mom said she would buy something. He was an absolute prince, too!
✅ I solicited for volunteers, because I needed five, but only sent invitations home with the Bride, Groom and sponsors.
✅ My principal has a high school background, so I wrote out a script for him. After all, he was going to be the emcee and the lesson instructor teaching phonics for the first time. I even emailed him articulation videos from Neuhaus Education and our HMH Into Reading Texas series.
✅ I began collecting gifts that start with "qu:"
● I had a quarter from Every Day Counts.
● I had just received a beautiful quartz coaster from my friend.
● I could cut out a question mark from my daughter's old poly folder.
● I found a little duck in my treasure box and made a straw reed to quack.
● My teammate had a beautiful quilt that her mother made. (This received all the "oos" and "ahs" that it deserved when revealed.)
● What could I do for "queen?" Ultimately I settled for a printout and stuck it in a sheet protector.
✅ I didn't want to waste boxes, so decided to use tissue paper inside clear plastic shoeboxes. I knew that King Dollar had wide ribbon that I could tie around the boxes. After emptying my closet, I discovered there weren't enough of the same ones, unless I wanted to empty filled boxes. Then I remembered that I had just bought some beautiful shiplap fabric boxes from Daiso, and there were just enough of them! (My daughter and I *love* that place!)
✅ Instead of students cutting and gluing pictures, I made a foldable with a giftbox on the front. It had the QU image in the center of the big bow, "From:" on the left side of the bow and the date on the right side. When the students folded their paper in half, they could record the "qu" gifts on the blank inside. I described it to my teammates as a follow-up for the wedding and added it to our "copy" folder.
We were now two weeks before the event when reality hit, namely Omicron variant. We still had permission to hold the event, but it would have to be completely outdoors, and the weather was supposed to be rainy and windy. My little project just exploded -- the scale of our small wedding just multiplied, and everything had to be larger to fill the space. Now all the pieces no longer fit on a mental checklist.
New Bigger Plans with lists and more people to request from:
Our Coach couldn't have been sweeter by giving up his blacktop and speaker unit. He even said that he would hang out nearby with his P.E. class, in case we needed help with the sound system. ADDITIONALLY...I had to notify our neighbor school's coach, whose blacktop sits a couple yards next to ours on the same lot. (Would he need to take his 5th graders somewhere else? Oh, no. I justed wanted him to know that we would be having a big to-do with our principal teaching a lesson out there to the whole Kindergarten grade level. Oh, well, then, his students might even want to watch. I promised him cake and punch, which made his day.) ✅✅✅
✅ The plant operator would leave tables on a dolly the day before.
✅ The cafeteria would lend us a large pot and ladle and even park our punch on a cart overnight in the cooler.
✅ We had lots of leftover Plexiglass barriers from last year in the library.
✅ My son was home from college and would help me set up before school, then pass out forks to the five-year-olds before they picked up their cake plates. (I got the cute little silver ones from Dollar Tree and didn't want them all falling off the plates.)
✅ I curated a list of kid-friendly danceable songs and emailed them to our youngest team member, who had a Bluetooth speaker and Spotify account.
✅ I found a video of the bridal song that was the right length. My son converted it to an mp3 and I forwarded that over, too.
✅✅✅ I had a punchbowl, two juice pitchers and a white santuko knife at home.
✅✅✅ I had some beautiful silk orchid stems, also from Daiso. I picked up some floral tape from Wal-mart when shopping for punch supplies and made a bouquet and two boutonnieres with some white ribbon in my craft box. A student wore a plain white felt scarf on Monday, and her mom let me borrow it for our principal's costume. I had some floral pins left over from my sister's wedding, and I put silicone earring backs on the ends. I pinned one boutonniere on the scarf and the principal's costume was done.
✅ I was going to make the Bride a veil, but King Dollar had a white headpiece with white roses, pearls and ribbon. Score!
✅✅✅✅✅ At school I have a set of cafeteria trays that I use every day. They would be perfect for cake and punch service. I also have gloves, wipes, paper towels and hand sanitizer pumps.
✅ I love Glue Dots, but they're pricey. I found these balloon glue dots that come 100 per roll! I attest they are just as sticky.
✅ I measured the blacktop, tore a piece of white butcher paper roughly 20 feet and cut it lengthwise to make it twice as long.
✅✅ I decided to use the picnic bench that was already at the back of the blacktop for the gift table, but it was long. I brought a decorative wooden box and vase of silk hydrangeas that I had at home to add visual impact. I also grabbed the large burlap bow that didn't fit on my classroom wall. It would secure to the bench with a pipe cleaner.
✅ I had two rolling carts for the cake and punch, and piled everything else onto the folding tables dolly.
✅ One week before, I secured four more volunteers, spent a minute thinking through how things would play out and wrote job descriptions. The day before I emailed them out.
✅ I asked two of the admin (just in case) if one of them would take photos. I emailed them both the list of photos. I also print it out with a little pen.
✅ I printed and "bound" two scripts with a little ribbon. I gave one to the principal with his costume and one to the photographer.
✅ The night before I separated the little plates, and popped them into a large lidded container with some unflavored dental floss and gloves. I figured out that we needed to divide the cake into eight rows, and serve 1"-1.5" slices so that we could get 150 servings. I learned the best way to cut a sheet cake and explained it to the cake cutter before the ceremony.
Before I went to bed, I was happy that the morning would be sunny and not windy, but wondered if it will be warm enough for students to sit on the blacktop, which no one swept.
I slept soundly and awoke with the realization that the students would need chairs, and the best way to do it would be for each one to bring their own out and back in. I told my teammates and they were happy to accommodate.
I set aside at least half an hour to set up, and it was plenty.
● We rolled out the tables and gifts.
● We set up the tables.
● We laid out the aisle runner.
● While my son glue dotted the aisle runner, I set up the gift table and got another piece of butcher paper just big enough to create a focal point in the front. That also got glue dotted down.
● I also set the speaker and mic in front by one of the poles.
● We rolled the carts out and set them by their respective tables.
● We set out the trash bins on either side, behind where the students would sit.
● We took the punch bowl out of its box and covered it with foil-covered cardboard.
● Before going inside, I realized that the students would need a visual to know where to sit. I used masking tape to make lines on either side of the aisle runner. I didn't measure, but it was 8-10 feet from the "stage." Next time I will use chalk instead.
When the bell rang, I was with my class doing what I normally did.
Half an hour before the ceremony, I got the punch cart and emptied the soda into the pot.
As volunteers arrived, I gave them copies of their job descriptions, and sent them out to find their tables with their rolling carts of paraphernalia.
Ten minutes till, I took my students out. Half of them sat on one side of the aisle and the other half sat on the other side, right behind the line. We have five Kindergarten classes. As they came out, I had to direct students to snake around the aisle runner so it wouldn't get completely trampled.
The ceremony started after everyone was seated, including the wedding crashers. 😎 Actually, NO adult was seated, but standing with cameras. The groom stood by the principal. There were a couple stalls, because I left a few details out of the script, but I could stand by the pole and quietly cue the principal who had the mic. When the music started, the bride walked down the aisle, and the students were rapt. The principal warmed up and got students involved in the call-and-response.
After the "I dos," came my favorite lines:
"And now if there is anyone present who disagrees, and thinks that the letters "Q" and "U" should not be united, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.
"Then, by the power vested in me by the rules of phonics, I pronounce the letters "Q" and "U" husband and wife."
The bride remembered every detail! She turned around, held the groom's hand, raised her arms and smiled as everyone cheered and a dozen cameras snapped. It was *EVERYTHING!*
After Mr. & Mrs. QU cut the cake and clicked punch cups, they sat on the gift bench and opened presents. I was on hand to remind them to hold each gift up, so the principal could announce them and ask the audience the digraph sound: quarter, quartz, question mark, quack, queen and quilt. It was so memorable, my students were able to recall every gift for their foldables, which we completed together when we returned to class.
Happy music was played as classes lined up for cake and punch. Afterwards, there was dancing all over the blacktop. One of my teammates had the brilliant idea to end with the Chicken Dance. We are in Texas, after all. It had the added benefits of focusing all the divergent energy and defining closure for the activity.
I was so pleased with the event! It was a much bigger deal than anyone else anticipated. (Maybe there is some truth to the key to happiness being low expectations - haha.) We had enough cake and punch for all the students, admin team, office staff, cafeteria ladies, costodians and two coaches. The wedding was all the buzz around the building. 😁
Honestly, I am glad that planning is done. It was worth it, though. And now I have all the pieces ready for next year, and all the buy in! That's a win!
If you want editable printable lists, just let me know. I revised and saved only the helpful stuff.
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