Somewhat of an Update

Well, I really don't have much of an update for you regarding the status of our reception photos. If you could, PLEASE keep you fingers crossed that all of the images have been recovered (our friend/photographer's computer crashed and we weren't sure at first whether our images even still existed) and that they weren't corrupted when the computer crashed again. Oh, and that we'll get them sometime in the very near future. I'm SO excited to share everything with you guys - I just hope I'm able to using our professional pictures instead of our guests' images. 

I think I'll go ahead and give you a sneak peek of some of the details that we got pictures of from our main photographer and the few shots we've seen of the other photographer's work in an upcoming post. I feel so bad for leaving you all hanging, but believe me, I'm anxious to see them too! 

In the meantime, definitely go check out my newlywed/house/life blog here! I'm doing my best to update regularly and you can tour the rooms of our house, see what my sweet husband and I are up to, and look at pictures of our adorable puppy. There are even some recipes and house/home decor projects thrown in! I miss all of you a LOT so I'd love to see you over there!

Thanks for sticking with me through this - And I'll hopefully be back with another post soon! 

Guest Posting!

Still no reception photos. :( I know I keep saying this, but I'll hopefully have them soon! In the meantime, I had to share this post with you - I actually wrote it as a guest post for Amy over at Little Miss Wedding Planner who got married this past Saturday, but it's something I've been wanting to blog about for a loong time. You can read it here if you want, but make sure you still head over there and tell her congratulations! (I've successfully stalked her on facebook and she looked absolutely gorgeous!)

If you've followed this blog, it’s pretty obvious that I love weddings. I honestly enjoyed every part of our planning process and I especially loved blogging about it, reading other blogs and finding inspiration from them, and ‘meeting’ other brides. Unfortunately, I think there’s one downside to weddings today being all over the internet - Brides lose sight of the fact that each of those weddings is a celebration of two real people’s relationship. There’s so much judgment and forgetting that the point of a wedding isn’t the pretty pictures, the trendy details, or the hope of being blogged/featured in a magazine.

I’ve always loved crafty things, but I’d never really had a reason to be crafty aside from scrapbooking or making gifts. My wedding was a chance for me to enjoy tons of DIY projects and craft until I was sick of it. I loved that those details reflected my personality and hobbies. My husband, David, and I also decided we wanted to put as little financial burden on my parents as possible and that we didn’t want to go into debt for our wedding. It was our decision as a couple to have a budget wedding for 250+ guests.

Did I love our wedding? You bet I did!! But do I love weddings that have absolutely no DIY projects and cost $30,000? You bet I do! I love that each wedding is a reflection of a loving relationship and exactly what the bride and groom wanted. No bride has any right or reason to think that some detail of another wedding is ‘tacky’ (PLEASE get rid of that word!) just because she chose not to do it. You hate the dollar dance? Don’t do it. You’re convinced a first look is the only way to go? Have one. And let everyone else choose what works for them.

I can’t say that I’ve never made a comment about a picture of someone’s wedding on facebook or one of the weddings on TV (Four Weddings, anyone?), but I’m seriously making an honest effort to get rid of that negativity. The wedding blog/bride blogger network is such a great one - The only thing that would make it better is a huge push to eliminate the judgmental attitude that’s become so popular.

Ok, stepping off my soap box now. Do you agree or disagree?

J+J’s Wedding

I still don’t have reception photos yet, so the break from recaps will continue. However, I realized I’ve talked multiple times about my friend J, who got married about a month and a half after David and I on July 31st, and I never mentioned anything about their wedding. 

J went to KU with me so we were both finishing school in 3 years, in long term (6+ years) long distance relationships, and hoping for a wedding shortly after graduation. David and I got engaged in March and they got engaged in October of 2009 and we got to spend our senior year planning our weddings together. We shared vases, paper lanterns, and some other decor and she actually ended up doing a boudoir shoot after hearing about it from me! She also used the same photography company we did, but had a different photographer.

I decided to share some of their pro pictures since they were recently posted on our photographers’ facebook page! 

 

 

 

{She had the cute pink bow shoes I wanted my bridesmaids to wear, but wasn’t mean enough to make them – They were 4” heels!}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{The father-daughter and mother-son dance – You can see my cute hubby and half of me on the far left side of the picture in the background!}

{My Dollar Tree paper lanterns!}

{All photos by Amy Stevens of Lola Jo Photo Design}

Their wedding was so pretty, fun, and them – I loved it! And I love even more that we’re now both wives and we live about 2 miles apart in cute little houses with our husbands. We love hanging out with them and we’ve introduced them to Channing and Zach, so we’ll have a little ‘married couple group’ after their wedding in April! :)

Did you/do you have any friends going through the planning process with you?

{Giveaway Winner!}

We have a winner of the $45 CSN Stores gift certificate!

Christina!

Christina, if you could contact me with your email address as soon as possible, that would be great! Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who entered - Hopefully I'll have another giveaway for you in the near future. :) And for another way to brighten up your day, head on over to Life of Meg's Mingle Monday! I know I've posted about it before on my other blog, but I'm not sure if I have here - I just heart Meg. We went to high school together and she's sweet as can be and has an adorable blog! Go check it out!