On May 23, 2010, Matthew Glass and Faye Allard were married by Mayor Michael Nutter at the Independence Seaport Museum. The couple won a $90,000 wedding from Events at ISM and philly.com in the Love of a Lifetime wedding giveaway. (Video by CinemaCake Filmmakers)

Be sure to also check out a collection of photos taken by Kevin York Photography. See gallery »

Just because you aren't invited to Matt and Faye's wedding, it doesn't mean you're in the dark. We asked them to give us some details of their big day... just for you. Don't forget to come back Monday for photos, videos, and their custom wedding song!

What are you most excited about for your wedding day?
We’re both very much looking forward to being able to celebrate with so many of our family and friends.  We’ve got a great band, jazz singer and DJ lined up, our own custom made wedding song, amazing food, a “same day edit” mini movie about the day, and of course, who can forget the fireworks to top it all off.  It’s really going to be the party to end all parties.  We’re also looking forward to actually getting married (and being Mrs. Glass and Mr. Dr. Allard ;)!

You have an interesting person officiating your ceremony. Who is he?
Well, this is the first time we’ve made this public, but we are so lucky to have Mayor Michael Nutter officiate our wedding!  It fits perfectly as our story really is one that revolves around our love for Philly and what better way to honor that than to have the mayor of the city marry us!  We met with the mayor last week to discuss the ceremony and marriage and we were just so impressed with his friendliness and warmth.

Faye, have you figured out your “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue?”
Something old: my beautiful engagement ring – it belonged to Matthew’s grandmother and is more than 70 years old.
Something new and blue: (exclusive reveal) my dress!
Something borrowed: I am taking with me a trinket that belonged to my Dad’s mother, who sadly died before I was born. It is her lucky bingo mascot called “Joan the Wad”

Apparently there is another line to this rhyme: “And a silver sixpence in her shoe.” I did not know this until my dress designer, maker, and now dear friend Janice Martin, told me the full rhyme and surprised me with a real English sixpence dating back to 1958.  I was very touched and, as per tradition, I immediately taped it to my shoe!  Perhaps the sixpence brought the good luck that helped chase the ash cloud away!

What has been your favorite part of this whole experience?
It’s really hard to choose just one moment, as it’s all been so incredible.  We’ve met the most amazingly talented people along this ride and have made great new friends too.  We feel just so lucky to be in this position and perhaps the best part of all is that we are able to share all of these wonderful prizes with our friends and families.  Thank you vendors and loved ones so much for all your support – we couldn’t do this without you.

« Read Part 1 of the interview

With only a few days left before the big day, we check in with Matt and Faye. Here's what they had to say:

Was there anything you disagreed on throughout the planning process? If so, how did you come to an agreement?
Matt: Believe it or not, we haven’t really had any major disagreements about any aspect of the wedding process, except perhaps the cake design. Faye really liked design number one, and I really liked design number three. Fortunately, it wasn’t up to us to make a decision and the public voted – and Faye ruled victoriously! Our advice to anyone getting married is put the things you can’t agree on up for vote, it helps keep the peace!
 

Will Tyson have a role in your big day?
How could we not include our wonderful bulldog Tyson on our big day?!! Tyson is going to be a co-ringer bearer along with Faye’s godson Jordy. Tyson has a bow tie and a very posh collar and leash thanks to the lovely folks at Spot’s Spot. Something tells us that if anything is going to go pear shaped on the big day, Tyson might be the source of that mishap!

Faye, how will the Icelandic volcano impact your guests traveling from Europe?
Faye: It certainly has been a tumultuous ride over the past few weeks for me! First, British Airways called a strike and cancelled many of the flights my English friends and family were on (cue mild panic) and then when everyone had figured that out the Icelandic volcano blew again exactly one week before our wedding and spewed ash over British airspace, cancelling many flights this past weekend and threatening to further disrupt air travel up until our wedding day (cue complete panic). I couldn’t bear the thought of my dad not walking me down the aisle or my mum not seeing me in my wedding dress. However, I think the combined power of positive thinking and facebook paid off – one of my lovely bridesmaids had her whole church praying for the safe delivery of my family and so many people kept their fingers crossed that ash would not have an impact. And, lo and behold, the ash cloud appears to have moved away and flights are still going! Hurrah!

Is there a well-deserved honeymoon planned?
Faye: Thanks to Matthew’s parents we’re headed off to the wonderful white sands and blue seas of Mexico. Neither of us can wait to have a complete week off to relax. It’s been a very, very hectic three months!

With less than a week until the big day, what’s left to do?
Faye: Actually, Wednesday marke the end of the preparations. We’ve worked hard to get everything done ahead of time so that we can spend time with our family and friends in the few days before the “big” day. One last thing that does have to be done, however, is picking up my dress. This is going to be quite a feat – it’s fair to say this is a dress of quite some substance and Matthew cannot see it. Thankfully our very kind neighbors have agreed to store it at there apartment so that Matthew won’t sneak a peak and Tyson wont be tempted to sleep on it!

Come back on Sunday to find out what Matt and Faye are most excited about, Faye's old, new, borrowed, and blue, and who they were able to snag to officiate the ceremony. We'll also have photos from Kevin York, a same-day edit video from CinemaCake, and the full-length audio of Matt and Faye's custom wedding song from Custom Songs by Erik coming Monday morning.

I’ll admit it: I am a girly-girl when it comes to all things body, clothes, hair and makeup. That being said, I usually forego pampering for lack of time and/or money, but thanks to Philly.com and some generous vendors, I am lucky to be the recipient of many awesome girly-girl treatments! One of these great prizes is professional hair and makeup done by the wonderful Genevieve Forsythe on the big day. I am very excited about this because even though I am confident about doing my everyday makeup, many people have told me that wedding day makeup is a different ball game; you have to consider how long the makeup has to last, how it should be a tad more dramatic than an everyday application, and most importantly, how it is going to look in photographs. Time to call in the professional!

I’m glad to have Genevieve on hand. Even though we hadn’t officially met until my hair and makeup trial, I felt an immediate connection to her since she’s also getting married soon (congrats!) and we’d been exchanging ideas and experiences via email for a month or so before my first trial run. Genevieve is every bit as nice and talented as I expected. One of the best things about working with Genevieve is that she works with you and your ideas; it’s a collaborative, team effort and Genevieve was happy to hear my two cents. Her easygoing nature really helped me relinquish control and give Genevieve her creative space to make me look the best I can. She used two great primers, which lived up to all the hype by maintaining their fresh look all day. Genevieve then used her creative juices to experiment with my eyes; her first rendition gave them a very dramatic, cool look, perfect for a night out. Even though I could pull it off in a club, we both agreed that on the big day, we would tone it done to “wedding day me” as opposed to “night club me.” The whole experience was extremely worthwhile because I got to play with different options, including the lip color Genevieve applied (which I loved!). I never wear lip color and wouldn’t think to use it on my wedding day, so stepping outside my comfort zone paid off!

Another thing I had never tried before that Genevieve recommended were false eyelashes. These individual lashes made a massive difference and unlike mascara that can run or flake off, falsies don’t budge one bit! $10 says I’ll blub on the big day (my track record isn’t good since I cried just listening to the band perform at a showcase), so it’s comforting to know that my tears won’t leave black streaks down my face. Farewell mascara, it was nice knowing you!

The last order of the day was my hair. I’ve never been a big updo person thanks to my monkey-like flappers—Will Smith hasn’t got anything on my ears, so my hair was always going to be down. Genevieve and I decided to keep it simple and embrace my natural waves, since my dress is going to be pretty dramatic. Throughout the entire day, Genevieve kept the big picture in mind, worked her magic, and the results were great.

Here’s some footage from the make up trial:

Billie Jean, Jenny 867-5309, and Jack and Diane…

…watch out! You’re not the only one who gets songs written about them, because apparently, we get a song written specifically for us on our wedding day! How amazing is that!?

We recently had lunch with Erik Balkey, the very talented musician and songwriter of Custom Songs by Erik. We have to admit that went into this meeting a little apprehensive, as anyone who knows us will testify that we’re not the most romantic couple and the idea of having a Celine Dion-esque ballad written about us was as appealing as having another two feet of snow in Philly.

Soon into our meeting, Erik (a super nice bloke in Faye’s words, I’d just call him a good guy) picked up on the fact that romance to us is more along the lines of making each other a much needed cup of tea (read, Matthew making Faye endless cups of tea) than flowers, chocolates and grand, over-the-top gestures.

Not missing a beat (literally and figuratively), Erik suggested that perhaps a more appropriate song would be in the musical style of the Beatles or Van Morrison. This appealed to both us since we are big fans of these artists. As Erik put it, this kind of song would capture the great things about love without the lovey-dovey, seeped in cheesiness warbling that some other singer-songwriters seem to gravitate towards.

At the end of the meeting, Erik informed us we’d have homework (it seems we can’t escape it!), a series of questions about our relationship and how we view each other. We had to complete these questions separately and one question was very hard: “If your partner was a character in a movie who would they be?” Thinking about this was really fun (albeit dangerous, ladies, you better choose a superhero character for your man) and we challenge you to think about this with your own loved one. Let us know how it goes…

Anyway, now that we’ve sent in our responses, the only thing left to do is wait. And wait. And wait. Until our wedding day when the song will be revealed for the first time, and every guest will get a copy of this song as a party favor (another awesome prize-thanks Erik). We cannot wait!

In the meantime, check out our little interview with Erik.

*UPDATE!* We've gotten a short snippet of the song for you to listen to. Enjoy!
^{"Faye Be Baby," written by Erik Balkey and performed by John Conahan. (Custom Songs by Erik, copyright 2010)}

[ Listen with own player ]

Imagine being in the middle of 200 people, 400 eyes gazing upon your every move. The lights shine on you, the music plays, and…you freeze. This scenario has played out in our minds constantly over the past couple months as we’ve come to accept that we will have a first dance. In order to combat our natural dancing ineptitude, we’ve been lucky enough to take dance lessons at the spacious and airy Society Hill Dance Academy in Olde City. Some of you will remember our first video about dancing which showcased how awkward, challenged and unsure we felt—Faye especially (Faye: that’s totally deserved – the only dance I’ve ever been able to do was the chicken dance; I couldn’t even master the Macarena!). Anyway, fast-forward 8 weeks and check out our dance moves now (see the video below). With the persistence and encouragement of our miracle performer instructor Shana at Society Hill Dance Academy, our two left feet (especially Faye’s) have been cured. Shana is the perfect instructor, fun and vivacious, but she’ll get the best out of you one way or another! I think Shana quickly learned that Faye really didn’t have any idea about how to move her body, but amazingly found analogies to help her get into the groove, as it were.

It would appear the instructors at Society Hill Dance Academy help make dances out of an amazing range of people; we’ve seen other engaged couples practice their first dance, including an amazing couple this past week perform a beautiful foxtrot to Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” (we hope you have a lovely wedding), we’ve been put to shame by two 8 year olds samba-ring like pros, and witnessed a room full of twenty-somethings shaking their behinds to some bass busting hip hop. Theoretically, Philly should be the dancing capital of America based on what we’ve seen at the dance academy!

What made our experience at Society Hill Dance Academy so great was we could see our improvement from week to week, and as we improved, the dancing became more and more enjoyable. No one likes doing something they struggle with and when we first started dancing, we were b-a-d bad. But thanks to Shana’s persistence, encouragement and understandable teaching style, when once we were the ugly ducklings, our feathers fluff a little brighter today. While we will never be confused with professional dancers, the clumsy, inept, and rhythm-less features that marked our first dancing has been replaced with fluidity, comfort, and tempo. The true testament to how much we’ve improved is that we’ve so decided to take part in their free dance parties on Fridays. We never thought we’d see the day when we’d go out dancing for fun, but that day has arrived!

Guys, you know what I’m talking about: your stride is a little stronger, your shoulders are back, your head is up, your smile is easy…your confidence soars because you know you look good. This is the feeling I just had after meeting with Brian of Henry A. Davidsen, the man who custom-made my suit and shirt. Prior to the meeting, my outfit, the suit, shirt, and tie I am going to wear for my wedding, existed abstractly, but not after today. In a custom-made suit, everything feels natural and easy. I put on the black, tone-on-tone suit along with the textured white shirt (protected from riding up the pants with snugtecs), and everything tapered perfectly to the shape of my body. My right arm hangs slightly lower than my left, my left leg is slightly longer than my right, but the beauty of working with Brian and seeing the results for the first time today is that all these little idiosyncrasies become a part of the suit. The result is that the suit doesn’t feel like a suit, but rather an extension of your body. As I walked down the street to pick out my shoes, I felt 18 again, impervious to any slings and arrows that could come my way. By the way, I bought my shoes from Blue Sole Shoes on 18th and Chestnut, a warm, cozy store which matches the personality of its owner, Steve. I’ve never thought that much about dress shoes, but when I told him I wanted a pair of shoes to complete my suit, and he brought out the perfect pair…Steve can find a pair of shoes to match any occasion). Anyway, back to the suit. I felt so good in it that when I returned to Brian’s, I didn’t want to take the suit off. I’m more of a business casual type of guy, but I actually left Brian’s thinking that I can’t wait to wear the suit again. Check out the photo below for a little taste of what it looks like, though it won’t be revealed in full until May 23.

One of the prizes I was most intrigued by was the ten sessions at Bailine Body Sculpting. I had literally no idea what this was, so had visions of scalpels and fat sucking vacuums when I turned up for my first appointment. Thankfully, I was greeted by the super smiley Marianne, who explained to me that the Bailine system is a very popular in her home land of Norway and that this was the first center to open in America, much to the chagrin of a lady in Chicago who wanted the center there. Personally, I’m very glad it’s in Blue Bell!

So I bet you’re wondering how it all works. First you are weighed and measured and then these figures are inputted into a machine, which calculates your BMI and realistic ideal measurements. I was impressed by the ethos of these goals; Bailine acknowledges that we really do all come in all shapes and sizes, and there isn’t a one-sized fits all treatment. They don’t expect you to become a size zero, nor do they advocate that, which I think is healthy and refreshing. They just encourage you to be the best you can be, which might be a 10 or might be a 2. The treatment includes really sensible and doable advice about diet and exercise too, which in my view is the key to being the healthiest you can be.

Then you get hooked up. They strap stretchy bands around key parts of your body and the slip large round pads underneath the bands. These electric pads send a small charge into your muscles which force them to contract, thus stimulating the muscle contractions you’d do at the gym. Take a look at my behind the scenes video to see how it works. It doesn’t hurt, it is very much on the borderline of being pleasurably weird. The nearest I can get to explaining it is think deep tissue massage but more intense and only for a split second. While this is going on you are laying listening to a CD which is all about mental well being and has the most infectious little new age jingle ever “baiiiiiiline!”

So does it work? As I am not really overweight, I cannot really speak to the weight loss properties of the treatment, but I will admit that I do have some pesky cellulite and after each treatment I have noticed a marked improvement to the texture of my thighs. So I did find you Ms New Booty – with the help of Bailine!

PS, Matthew will kill me for writing this, but he really wanted to try this treatment. But alas, it’s for girls only.

Admittedly, neither of us had given half a thought to the custom of providing amenity bags for our out of town wedding guests. It just wasn’t on our radar. We’re guessing that if it wasn’t for this contest we’d only remember to do them the day before and they would probably consist of Trader Joe paper bags filled with a can of Coke, a Snickers bar and then two loose Advil from our big jar at home. So thank god for Cheryl at A Basket Case out in Exton!

Don’t let the name fool you – gift baskets are just the beginning. Cheryl can custom-make gift boxes, bags, and even flowers for any occasion and any budget (Faye was especially impressed at Cheryl’s ability to deal with people who didn’t have so much money to spend). The choices are endless and you could spend a great deal of time deciding on what the “amenity bag” looked like, without even getting to what the contents would be! Luckily, Cheryl was a great guide and we didn’t take long to decide upon a silver-colored gift box as it combined the elegance of the basket with the easy carrying of a bag and just emanates good vibes. Not to mention it looked dang good.

Choosing the carrier for all the goodies is just the beginning however, and we were in for a treat, literally. Before choosing what goes in, Cheryl insists that we sample the goods: chocolate-covered pretzels, caramel popcorn, peanut brittle, honey-twisted pretzels, hummus, sweet red pepper spread, among others. Let me tell you, they were delicious; my mouth is watering right now thinking of them! When you walk through her shop, you feel like a kid in a candy store, but the selection goes beyond, it is truly gourmet: chocolate, toys, wine, spreads, potato chips, pretzels, coffee, tea, flowers, fruits, pasta, cooking sauces, and even meats.

We are just so thrilled that thanks to A Basket Case we can say a massive luxury thanks to those guests who are coming from so far and willing to spend the money to stay for our wedding. You’ll be in for a treat for sure!

So take a look at some of our footage at A Basket Case: