Lucky in Love

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

I shared our reception details.

We had one special last dance.

Our First Year

2011-06-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

I know I keep saying this, but I seriously cannot believe our anniversary is 2 days away. The last year has gone by in the blink of an eye, which makes me a little sad, but also tells me that it’s been a year full of memories and fun. Before getting married I think everyone wonders what the first year will be like – If you’re like me, you had people tell you that the first year was the hardest, or that it was terrible trying to figure the whole marriage thing out. You don’t know what to expect, so that uncertainty combined with those comments leads to some anxiety.

I remember the night before our wedding (if you haven’t read any of my wedding recaps – read this one! It’s seriously one of my favorites because of my sweet husband!) falling asleep praying I’d be a good wife, teammate, and best friend to David. I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but I knew that both of us were committing the rest of our lives to each other and promising to do anything in our power to make our marriage glorifying to God.

Honestly, I couldn’t be happier with how our first year turned out. I’m not saying we didn’t argue, didn’t disagree, or didn’t cry a few times out of frustration with each other. That definitely happened. But through all of that we learned about each other and about us as a married couple. We’d been together 6.5 years when we got married, but I feel like you learn so much more as a spouse. Marriage is a whole new level of commitment and closeness, and it teaches you so much.

I learned David constantly leaves his utensils/plates/cups in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher. I learned he needs warm water to brush his teeth. (Isn’t that odd?!) I learned he presses snooze about 30 times every morning. And I also learned more important things, like that he’s constantly helping his family/mom in some way – that he’ll drop absolutely anything to make sure he’s there for them. I learned that he’ll support me no matter what. I learned that he is the hardest working man I’ve ever known. While I probably ‘knew’ some of those things before, seeing it on a daily basis is totally different.

So much has happened in the last year. David supported me through nearly 3 months of unemployment following our wedding, and then celebrated with me when I found my first ‘big girl job.’ We experienced our first holiday season as our own family. We became a part of a new group of friends who we absolutely adore. We dealt with a ton and a half of family drama. We celebrated our first birthdays and holidays as husband and wife. We survived David finishing his last couple semesters of undergrad and his first real busy season as a public accountant. We grieved with a dear friend through the loss of her father/one of our mentors. We completed countless house projects. We hosted multiple family get-togethers and parties in our (now not so) new home. We watched friends get married, offered advice (are we even qualified?), and were even readers in one wedding. And through everything, we fell even more in love with each other.

I wouldn’t change a thing about our first year of marriage. Has it been easy? No, not really. But has it been worth it? MOST definitely. The one thing I’ve learned over and over again is that you must make your marriage a priority. It’s so easy to slip into a routine and end up living like roommates instead of husband and wife. You make time for everything else that’s important to you – Why wouldn’t you make time for working on the most important relationship in your life? Multiple people told me that marriage is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do, but also one of the most rewarding, and I couldn’t agree more.

I am SO blessed. And I’m so excited to see what the next year (and the many years after!) holds for us. Regardless of what happens, life is so good with David by my side. It’s so comforting to know I have a husband/best friend/teammate/partner/encourager for life.

I love you more than I ever thought was possible, babe! You’re my biggest blessing, and I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am for you, everything you do, and everything you are. Happy 1st anniversary!

Married ladies – What's the most important thing you learned your first year as a wife? I’m obviously still learning, and love advice!

Also, I have my last recap (tear!!) scheduled to go live later today. :( I can't believe I'm really finished. If you've missed any, be sure to catch up!

Wedding ABC’s: Part 2

2011-06-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here’s the rest of my post from Tuesday!

Music:

Our grandparents were seated to ‘Canon in D’ and our parents were seated to ‘Love Never Fails’ by Brandon Heath. Our bridal party walked down the aisle to the beginning of ‘Kisses and Cake’ by John Powell and I came in at 3:47 and it was absolutely perfect.

Two of our friends from high school were our musicians, and they sang ‘When I Say I Do’ by Matthew West and ‘The Luckiest’ by Ben Folds. Here’s a low-quality recording of the first song – He did SUCH a good job!

Our recessional was ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ by Hall and Oates – Probably one of my favorite parts of the day!

And our first dance was to ‘our song,’ which is ‘True Companion’ by Marc Cohn.

Newlyweds:

This is a blog all about our newlywed life, so you guys are pretty much caught up on that! Here’s one of our first pictures as newlyweds!

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue:

My something old was my grandma’s rosary that was wrapped around my bouquet:

My something new was my dress, shoes, veil, basically everything.

My something borrowed was my slip and corset from my best friend.

My something blue was my bride underwear from Victoria’s Secret (on the left in the picture, although yes, I bought all 3) and my KU garter.

Photography:

We used Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design and would highly recommend her!

Question Popping:

It happened March 7, 2009! You can read the whole story here – It’s a good one! :)

Reception:

I absolutely loved our reception aside from our terrible experience with the venue – Boulevard Banquet Hall (now ‘The Boulevard’) in Wichita, KS – DON’T use them!! – and wish we could do it all over again! You can read all of my posts about it here. (And please do – there are so many pictures I want to share!)

Shoes:

I’m about 0.25” shorter than David, so I wore pink ballet flats!

Trash the Dress:

I love looking at pictures of trash the dress sessions, but I could never do it!

Unique:

Oh man, we had a bunch of unique details because I was determined to take the DIY route. You can see a lot of them here. Also, our ceremony was totally written by us, so it was unique, although I’ve since seen another bride use it. I recapped it word for word here, here, and here.

Vows:

We wrote our own vows, and I loved them. I said, ‘I, Laura, take you, David, to be my husband before God who bought us together and all of these witnesses. As we enter upon the privileges and joys of life’s most holy relationship and begin together the great adventure of building a Christian home, I will look to you as head of our home as I have looked to Christ as head of the church. I will follow you through all of life’s experiences as you follow God. I will love you in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, and will be true to you by God’s grace, trusting in Him so long as we both shall live.’

Wedding Woes:

Again, our reception venue. You can read that whole story here. The only other one I can remember is both of my sisters being late to get ready/take pictures, which was pretty disappointing at the time. Overall, though, things went really well!

X-rated:

Uhhh, no.

Young Kids:

Our flower girls and ring bearer were my nieces and nephew. They are the cutest darn kids ever, biased or not. I love them to pieces!

{With our honorary flower girl, their baby sister!}

Zzzzz:

We were SO tired after everything was over! Luckily we had Sunday to recover a bit – We had lunch and opened gifts with our families and then took a nice long nap before packing and running errands for our honeymoon. Our flight left early Monday morning, and having that extra day was SO nice!

So there’s a quick recap of our wedding! If you’re interested in more details or have any questions, feel free to contact me or visit my wedding blog!

Wedding ABC’s: Part 1

2011-06-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

David and I are celebrating our first wedding anniversary on Sunday! It’s hard to believe it’s already been almost a year – Time has FLOWN by! I plan to finish my recaps (I only have one more!) before our actual anniversary on Sunday, but I’m posting this on my newlywed blog so I thought it’d be fun to post here too! I know most of you have probably seen these pictures and read posts on a lot of these topics, but it’s a fun little recap of the major details! My posts this week will be focused on our wedding and first year of marriage, so I’ll probably be double posting most of them. If you’re not following me over there yet, please do – I miss some of my Lucky in Love readers, and I post there much more frequently!

I know several different blogs have taken part in the wedding ABC’s posts, and I just love them. But, I’m going to split my post into two parts like Tara did since I’m a bit wordy and I like to include lots of details! Here we go.

Attending:

I think we had about 250-275 guests! We started dating our freshman year of high school, so we had lots of mutual friends and families from high school along with our own families, friends from childhood, and friends from college.

Bridesmaids:

I had a matron of honor (my sister), a maid of honor (my best friend), three bridesmaids, and a junior bridesmaid.

Cakes:

Our main cake was made by Cakes by Carrie, and the groom’s cake was made by Cheri’s Bakery and incorporated David’s love of the KU Jayhawks and reffing soccer!

Dress:

My dress was from David’s Bridal and I just loved it!

Engagement:

We were engaged for just over 15 months, which was nice since I was living 2 hours away and finishing my undergrad for 14 of those months. It seriously flew by!

Flowers:

All of our flowers were completely DIY! It was our biggest project, and I definitely couldn’t have done it without the help of my mom, SILs, and MIL. I LOVED how they all turned out, and have since done the flowers for a friend’s wedding!

Groomsmen:

David had two best men (both of his brothers), three groomsmen, and a junior groomsman.

Honeymoon:

We honeymooned at The Royal Cancun and absolutely LOVED it! We can’t wait to go back!

Invitations:

Our invitations were DIY too, from kits I actually found at TJ Maxx! I was so happy with how they turned out!

Justice of the Peace:

Our pastor was the father of one of my good friend’s from high school, and also someone who had known both David and I since we started dating. He did such a great job!

Keepsakes:

We have too many to count with all of the little details I made. Our main one would be our framed engagement picture with the photo mat that we had every sign instead of a guestbook. It’s on display in our dining room!

Ladies Night:

My bachelorette party/weekend was so much fun! My MOH did a fantastic job of planning it!

Part 2 with letters M-Z will be posted Thursday! :)

You Make My Dreams Come True: One Last Dance

2011-06-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

The night was coming to a close, and the DJ totally surprised us by having all of our remaining guests join us on the dance floor and surround us in a big circle. We weren’t exactly sure what he was doing until he started playing ‘Then’ by Brad Paisley and told us to soak in minutes of our reception surrounded by people who love us.

Both of our photographers had already left, but BM S was there to capture it. I’m SO thankful, because this was honestly one of my favorite parts of the day and these pictures (although we’re dripping with sweat and my hair is frizzy) are some of my most treasured.

{I love everyone’s expressions in this!}

I love that you can see David’s brother and our SIL L with their arms around each other – I made the slideshow for their wedding a year before, and used ‘Then’ as the song for the pictures of them together. :)

And then David’s cousin yelled his congratulations and best wishes to us:

David sang to me the entire time. His face in this picture just makes me smile:

And with that, the song, and our reception that we’d poured so much into, was over. This next series of pictures is my absolute favorite:

Guys, I’m down to my last recap, and it’s a short one at that. I can’t believe it. I hope you’ll stick with me for the last one!

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

I shared our reception details.

{Giveaway Winners!}

2011-05-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

There were hardly an entries for my business card giveaway, which is good news for those of you who did enter! I got to choose three winners, and each of you will receive 500 business cards from All Business Cards!

The winners are:

{I made it out of 6 since there were 6 actual individuals who entered}

Hannah of Gator Tales

Jess12 of A Long Engagement

and

SimoneC of Just Simone!

Congratulations to the winners! Contact me with your email address, and I’ll pass it along to my contact at the company! Thanks to everyone who entered!

**If you’re looking for another giveaway, you should check out this one that ends tonight at midnight! One of my memorial candles or a photo frame bouquet charm is up for grabs! AND it’s for a good cause - $1 will be donated to the Lupus Foundation of America for each comment/entry! Head on over now!

{Giveaway}

2011-05-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here’s a nice start to the weekend - I have another giveaway for you guys that’s great for brides and those of you who are either not engaged or already married! Almost everyone has something they could use business cards for, and I’m giving away a set of 500 business cards to THREE lucky winners!

I used business cards as photo sharing cards at our wedding, and I still think they’re such a fun idea!

I know a lot of you have etsy shops/websites/blogs as well and are looking for business cards to hand out – Here’s a perfect opportunity! I’m actually quite jealous that I can’t enter since I’m going to be needing more for my etsy shop in the near future.

The cards could be single or double sided, printed on thick 16pt card stock, and have a Glossy UV finish, a Matte Finish, or can come uncoated. The giveaway is only open to US or Canadian residents and will cost the winner nothing. UPS ground shipping is included.

To Enter:

You must be a follower of this blog.

Each entry should be a separate comment.

Leave a comment telling me what you would use the business cards for!
Tweet about the giveaway and include a link this post, @les852,. and @allbusinesscard somewhere in the tweet. Comment with the link to your tweet.
Become a follower or let me know you’re already a follower of my post-wedding blog.
Blog about the giveaway and send me a link to the post in a comment.

The giveaway will end Saturday, May 14th at midnight CST and the winner will be announced on Monday. Please be sure that I’m able to contact you should you be one of the winners! Good luck!

{Giveaway Winner!}

2011-05-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

It’s my pleasure to announce the winner of the Sadie Ryan Keepsake Tile giveaway! I know whoever wins the tile will be incredibly pleased with its uniqueness and quality – I still love seeing ours every time I walk in the door!

{The number of entries was 39 instead of 40 even though there were 40 comments because the first comment was deleted by the author – Just to clarify!}

The winner is Brittany, or bnc9387!

Congratulations! Contact me at laura.friedberg10 {at} gmail {dot} com with your email address so I can pass it on and get your tile started!

Thanks to everyone who entered! I have another fun giveaway coming up along with my last (tear!) recap and plans for our wedding album, so stay tuned! :)

{Review + Giveaway}

2011-04-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

I was recently contacted by a representative from Sadie Ryan Keepsake Tiles about doing a review and giveaway of their wedding invitation tiles. It’s no secret I loved our invitations, and I was already looking for a way to display it in our home, so I was thrilled to do so! I was even more thrilled when I visited their website and laid eyes on some of their past work – Gorgeous!

{Above images from their website}

All I had to do was send them a high quality scan of our invitation and they emailed me when it was shipped. The customer service, communication, and packaging was superb, and I was SO impressed when I opened the package! The quality of the tile is just as nice - It’s thick, heavy stone, and the detailing at the top matches our living room perfectly!

Here’s a reminder of what our invitation looked like:

And here’s how the tile turned out:

I have it displayed on the table right by our front door, and I’ve received compliments on it from everyone who’s seen it!

Now one of you will have the pleasure of owning a Sadie Ryan Keepsake Tile as well! The tiles are a gorgeous, unique keepsakes or great gift ideas for bridal showers, weddings, or even baby showers. So even if you’re not able/wanting to use it for your own wedding invitation, you could easily give it as a gift! I know I would’ve been thrilled to receive one of these as a wedding present!

The tiles come in both black and color and in two different sizes: 8.75 x 7 inches or 10.75 x 6.5 inches. The giveaway is for one personalized tile and is only open to US readers.

To enter:

You must be a follower of this blog.

Each entry should be a separate comment.

Leave a comment telling me about your wedding invitations! (Or what you would use the tile for!)
Tweet about the giveaway and include a link this post and @les852 somewhere in the tweet. Comment with the link to your tweet.
Become a follower or let me know you’re already a follower of my post-wedding blog.
Blog about the giveaway and send me a link to the post in a comment.

The giveaway will end Saturday, April 30th at midnight CST. I will announce the winner Monday, May 2nd. Good luck!

{Giveaway Winner}

2011-03-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you to everyone who entered my CSN Stores giveaway!

The randomly chosen winner is…

The adorable Meg of Life of Meg!!

Congratulations, lady! Email me or comment with your email address and I’ll get you your gift certificate!

Thanks again to everyone who entered! Be on the lookout for another giveaway coming up soon!

{Giveaway}

2011-03-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

As a way to celebrate almost being done with my recaps (only one more to go!) and my birthday being this Sunday, I have a great giveaway opportunity! And be sure to keep reading – I have more exciting things in store in the near future. :)

I think most of you know that my husband and I own a cute little home. With spring right around the corner – finally! – we’ve been talking a lot about what we’ll do with the landscaping. I moved into our house after our wedding last June, so this will be our first ‘real’ spring and summer in our home where we can focus on its curb appeal. One of the things we’ve been looking into is outdoor lighting. It makes such a huge difference for a really reasonable price!

Today I’m giving away a $50 gift certificate to any of CSN Stores 200+ online stores! The gift certificate can be used on any item, but will not cover shipping costs. Also, this giveaway is only open to US or Canada residents.

To enter:

You must be a follower of this blog.

Each entry should be a separate comment.

Leave a comment telling me what you’d use the gift certificate for.
Tweet about the giveaway and include a link this post and @les852 somewhere in the tweet. Comment with the link to your tweet.
Become a follower or let me know you’re already a follower of my post-wedding blog.
Blog about the giveaway and send me a link to the post in a comment.

The giveaway will end Saturday, March 19th at midnight CST. I’ll post the winner the following Monday! Best of luck!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Reception Details

2011-03-01T12:00:00.006-06:00

Since I’m nearing the end of my recaps, I decided to include a post about all of the reception details before finishing recapping the reception. I was SO happy with how all of the details I’d worked so hard on came together. I’ve updated my DIY Projects page (you can find it right under my header) with pictures and links to the tutorials, so be sure to check it out!

{Our Favors}

{Hurricane Vases/Candle Holders & Cake Stands}

{Tulle Pomanders Centerpieces}

{Kids’ Table}

{Damask Table Squares}

{Family Wedding Photo Display}

{Luminaries}

{Chair Signs}

{Coasters}

{Tulle Wreaths}

{Toasting Glasses}

{Various Other Details}

And here are a few views of the room as a whole. These are some of my favorite pictures of the whole day. It feels so good to look at the photos that encompass everything I’d dreamed of, wished for, and worked toward. Love.

*All photos in this post taken by either Brandi of Lola Jo Photo Design or Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!
Our sneaky bridal party decorated our getaway car.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Car Decorating

2011-02-28T12:00:00.001-06:00

When I realized several members of our bridal party were missing for about 20 minutes late in the evening, I had a pretty good idea of where they might be. Thankfully I have some great photos so I know exactly what was going on!

{guest photo}

I’ve got to end the post with these next two pictures. I absolutely adore them!

{guest photo}

*Photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

Then it was finally party time!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Party Time

2011-02-09T12:00:00.002-06:00

It was finally time for some dancing! I think the dancing was honestly one of the things I most looked forward to about our wedding. I LOVE good music, good friends, and shakin’ my booty. I was so happy to see our dance floor packed the majority of the night.

{Thunder clap and ‘Yeah’ by Usher, anyone?}

{Remember my friend J?}

{David’s older brother and best man, J and his wife, L – I love this picture!}

{My SIL and David’s cousin – We all have the same first and last name!}

{LOVE this picture! Both my dad and David’s brother J say they don’t remember this happening – ha!}

{Cupid Shuffle!}

{guest photo}

{I love my niece and nephew in the bottom left corner!}

{Love these pictures!}

{guest photo}

{My brothers! Guest photo}

{guest photo}

We had SO much fun dancing the night away. Towards the end of the evening, a few of our friends (and several members of our bridal party) disappeared for a few minutes – You’ll see what they were up to in the next post!

*All photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

And the dollar dance!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Dollar Dance

2011-02-08T12:00:00.004-06:00

The dollar dance is another controversial wedding tradition, but it was one we knew we’d participate in. I’ve heard it may be a Midwest thing (or called something else in other regions) but every wedding we’ve been to has done it, and a lot of our guests expected it. We had so much fun with it, and our guests did too. It was so nice to get a chance to visit with tons of people individually.

To be honest, I have no idea what songs our DJ played. I pretty much left it up to him, and he did a great job of keeping the music going (even after he had to play a few more songs than we’d planned because of the number of guests who wanted to participate!) and kept the mood upbeat and fun. Anyway, on to the pictures!

{David’s younger brother’s girlfriend}

{BM S!}

{MOH A’s boyfriend}

{GM J}

{GM J’s girlfriend}

{Our wonderful SIL}

{My beautiful momma}

{David’s aunt with his mom looking on}

{guest photo}

{Love my mom!}

{My aunt and godmother who was a reader in our ceremony}

{My ‘little’ brother}

{My big brother}

{MOH A’s boyfriend}

{guest photo}

I feel like I say this about every post, but these are more of my favorite memories and pictures of the night. I think I’m laughing in almost every picture! So don’t hate me too much for having a dollar dance at my wedding. :)

*All photos in this post (unless otherwise noted) taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

We did our bouquet and garter toss.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Bouquet & Garter Toss

2011-02-07T12:00:00.003-06:00

We were finally ready for the bouquet and garter tosses. David and I are pretty young and were the first of our friends to get married, so we had LOTS of single friends who were more than willing to participate. I loved this part of the night!

First up was the bouquet toss, and we used the most popular/cliché song out there - ‘Single Ladies’ by Beyonce. Say what you want – I loved it!

My first throw didn’t go so well. The bouquet ended up hitting something on the ceiling, and it landed on the floor – Turning it into a mad dash from the kids to get the bouquet.

{guest photo}

I tried it again, and it turned out much better.

Mainly because my best friend, MOH A, caught it!

David chose the song for the garter toss and he chose the Mission Impossible theme song – ha. Random, but comical.

Do you see that bright blue shirt right in the middle? That’s MOH A’s boyfriend. He was inches away from catching it – Wouldn’t that have been perfect?!

Instead, one of our friends’ younger brother (who’s still in high school) was the lucky one.

{See my DIY garter?}

I wore two garters so I wouldn’t lose my KU garter that my mom made me. I wish I’d gotten a pro picture of them, but thankfully BM S snapped this one while we were getting ready:

{guest photo}

I know the bouquet/garter tosses are controversial in the wedding world now, but I’m so glad this was one tradition we kept. Everyone enjoyed it, and these memories and pictures are some of my favorite from the day!

*All pictures in this post (unless otherwise noted) taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

We danced with our parents.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Special Dances

2011-02-02T12:00:00.002-06:00

After dancing for the first time with my new husband, it was time to dance with the other important man in my life. My dad is my hero, hands down. He’s always supported me, and he’s been the dad that every girl dreams of having. David has so many of the same qualities as my daddy, and I’m so glad – He’ll be an incredible father some day.

When I was thinking about my dance with my dad (way back in December of 2009!) I blogged about our relationship and about the song I’d chosen. I also mentioned the slideshow I planned to make of the pictures of my dad and me. The slideshow was a huge success (although the execution of starting it on time was not so great – again, thanks to the employees of our awful venue) and my dad loved it!

{I have no idea why ‘girl’ isn’t spelled correctly in the beginning or why the text isn’t clear – It was in the one we played!}

The mother-son dance immediately followed our dance. David has always been really close to his mom, so it was nice to have a special time to honor their relationship. We made a slideshow of pictures of David and her as well, and they danced to 'My Wish’ by Rascal Flatts.

With the dances finished, there were only a few ‘important’ moments remaining. Up next is the bouquet and garter toss – And believe me, our guests definitely didn’t hate it! The pictures from the tosses are some of my favorite of the entire night!

*All pictures in this post taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

We had our first dance!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Our First Dance

2011-02-01T12:00:00.004-06:00

When the cake had been cut and everyone had a chance to get a piece (or two) we went ahead and had our first dance. I wanted as much dancing time as possible, and we also knew several of our older guests/high school teachers/etc would want to leave after the ‘main’ parts of the reception were over.

Leading up to the wedding we’d gone back and forth about doing a fun first dance (a la Rock the Reception) since my best friend, MOH A, and I were both on the dance team in high school and taught the guys dances during spirit week. I had these grand visions of starting our first dance normally and then having the music skip and the video of one of the boys’ high school dance routines (with A and I leading them) come on the screen. It would’ve been hilarious. And so much fun. But MOH A also lives 8 hours away and was only in town for a week before the wedding. You may remember I left a LOT of projects to finish during that week. There was just no time to choreograph and teach a dance routine.

Looking back I’m still kind of sad it didn’t work out, but I also know it would’ve made the week leading up to the wedding a lot more stressful than it already was. And I would’ve been anxious about ‘performing’ in front of all of our guests. So our first dance was simple and uneventful… and perfect. We talked about how we couldn’t believe we were finally married, we laughed, we kissed, we sang to each other, and I cried a little. I love those memories.

There was never any question which song we’d dance to if we did a ‘normal’ dance, though. True Companion by Marc Cohn has been our song throughout our whole relationship. And I’d been waiting for YEARS for these lines to be true for our relationship: ‘So don’t you dare try to walk away. I’ve got my heart set on our wedding day. I’ve got this vision of a girl in white – I’ve made my decision and it’s you alright. And when I take your hand, I’ll watch my heart set sail. I’ll take my trembling fingers and I’ll lift up your veil.’ Feel free to play the song to really set the mood for the pictures!

{I love that she caught me singing!}

{The fact that I can tell David has a huge smile on his face just from the laugh lines by his eyes makes me so happy! I’m so thankful for this shot!}

We were honestly in our own little world the whole time we were dancing. I really hate being the center of attention, but I wasn’t even concerned about everyone watching us. The four minutes flew by, and I immediately wished I could go back and repeat it as soon as the song ended. But I still had my other favorite man to dance with – My dad! Up next, the father/daughter and mother/son dances!

*All photos in this post taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

Then it was time to cut the cake.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Cake

2011-01-31T12:00:00.002-06:00

I’m really hoping to get my recaps finished within the next couple of weeks. The more time that goes by, the more I’m forgetting, so I’ve got to get busy!

After the toasts and finishing dinner we went ahead and cut the cake. We wanted our guests to be able to eat dessert while they watched the mother-son/father-daughter/first dances. I already wrote a vendor review for the lady that made our cake, but I’m still SO happy with it months later. She works out of her home, we got a great deal, and she does great work.

I also had a grooms cake made for David – It was a Jayhawk (of course) but they were able to make it into a Jayhawk referee. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but David refs a lot of soccer, so it was perfect! It incorporated two of his big passions, and although I’m pretty sure everyone at the wedding ‘got’ it, I printed a couple of pictures to sit next to the cake to kind of explain it.

We had kind of a dessert table set up and had additional sheet cakes, too. We ended up with way (way WAY) too much cake, but better too much than too little!

Sadly, I can’t remember which song we had played while we cut the cake. I know we did something standard/cutesy, but I have no idea which one. The night went by so fast – If I could offer advice to future brides it would definitely be to write down little details while you’re on your honeymoon, because as much as I hate to admit it, you forget things! It hasn’t even been 8 months and there are so many things that are already fuzzy in my mind.

{edit by me – some of the recovered reception photos were unedited}

We got up there in front of everyone and realized we had no idea what the heck we were doing. We look so confused in the next picture.

{edit by me}

We just cut out a big chunk, broke it into a couple pieces, and fed each other. The cutting may not have been very graceful, but the feeding definitely was. I am most definitely NOT a fan of having cake shoved in my face, and David knew it. And like most grooms, he wanted his bride to be happy, so I was fed nicely. :)

{On a side note, I love how my $7 DIY hair flower looks in these pictures!}

{edit by me}

Next up? The dances!

*First 9 pictures in this post taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design. Remaining pictures taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography with some edits (as noted) by me.*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

We listened to touching toasts.

You Make My Dreams Come True: The Toasts

2011-01-03T12:00:00.001-06:00

I apologize again for my long absence – I can’t believe I only posted once during the month of December. Eek! I’m sure you can all relate to the holiday season being incredibly busy. If you’re ever interested in what I’m up to (besides procrastinating on finishing my recaps) be sure to check out my other blog! I’m usually pretty good about posting about what’s going on, and sometimes I’ll even throw in some house/decorating/DIY tutorial posts. :)

Anyway, back to the wedding! In the last post I mentioned the meal, but I realized I don’t have any pictures of our buffet line setup or the food itself, so I don’t have much to share. We used a small family owned caterer (the owners are actually related to my SIL) and couldn’t have been happier with them! You can read my vendor review here.

As soon as we were finished eating we started with the toasts. I wish more than anything else that I had a videographer JUST so I could’ve had the toasts recorded. Both my matron of honor (my oldest sister) and my maid of honor (my best friend) and both of David’s best men (his brothers) prepared toasts and all four of them were SO sweet. Each of them had at least a line or two that made me cry.

My sister started off the toasts and talked about helping take care of me when I was young and the special connection we had. (In a family with 6 kids, you find ‘favorite’ siblings, and she was definitely my favorite sister.) She also said she couldn’t have chosen a better husband for me or a better younger brother – You can definitely tell at which part the last photo was taken.

My best friend was up next and talked about how it was all because of her that David and I started dating (she actually was the one who told him I had a huge crush – even though it was supposed to be a secret!). Her toast had the perfect balance of sweet and funny.

David’s younger brother wrote an incredible toast. He typed the whole thing out (we still need to get a copy) and said some of the NICEST things about both David and me. He started out by talking about how talented both of us are and then talked about our relationship and how he looks up to us and is inspired by our love for each other.

{I’m pretty sure this is when he was talking about how I can always beat him and David in a game of horse. :)}

And last, but certainly not least, was David’s older brother. He talked about how he and David had grown really close over the last few years since David lived with him and told us how proud of us he is.

{I only have the copy with a logo of this picture. :( }

After he was finished he asked all of our guests to stand and toast to a long and happy marriage – I loved that moment of the night!

After the toasts were finished David and I took a minute to thank all of our guests for coming and for their continual love and support. David did all of the talking and I did a lot of nodding and smiling – I absolutely hate public speaking. :)

With the toasts finished, we were ready to cut the cake!

*All photos in this post were taken by Becky of Stamp of Life Photography*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

{Stamp of Life Photography}

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

And then made our grand entrance!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Our Entrance

2010-12-13T12:00:00.001-06:00

After realizing we had no money for drinks at McDonalds, (read my last recap if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about) we decided to go ahead and drive to the reception. The majority of our guests were there already, so we just waited for a few minutes near the entrance for everyone to get drinks and for our bridal party members to arrive.

After everyone was there, we got lined up and ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas started. Cliche? Yes. Perfect for us? Also yes. We love that song and sang it to each other all the time. Unfortunately, I have a total of ONE picture of our grand entrance even though we had two photographers there. I’m really not sure how that happens, but here it is!

I don’t think my smile could get any bigger. I just couldn’t contain my happiness when we entered the room and I saw that everything I worked so hard on had come together and everyone (almost) we love was gathered together to support US joining as husband and wife.

{Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design}

We headed to the head table to find our seats and get a drink! I was still dying of thirst, and you can see me chugging my cup of tea in the second picture – ha!

{Stamp of Life Photography}

Next up? A delicious meal and some sweet toasts!

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

We made our grand exit.

They’re Here!!

2010-11-23T10:00:00.002-06:00

I FINALLY have the CD with the majority of our reception photos! Some are unedited, some have the photographer’s logo, and they’re not very organized yet, but I HAVE THEM. For awhile there I thought this day might never come. I’m so excited to finally finish my recaps!

Here’s a sneak peek of our fabulous reception (no thanks to the awful venue) with MUCH more to come:

{These first five pictures are from Brandi of Lola Jo Photo Design}

{The remaining pictures are from Becky of Stamp of Life Photography}

Eeee, exciting, right?! Recaps will be finished up soon, although I can’t promise I’ll be able to post every day – Things are a bit crazy with the holidays and everything. I want to get them written as soon as possible, though, before I forget any more than I already have!

I’m officially BACK! :)

Somewhat of an Update

2010-10-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-10-13T09:00:00.001-05:00

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

2010-10-05T12:00:00.002-05:00

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!}

2010-10-04T12:00:00.001-05:00

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!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Our Exit

2010-09-29T12:00:00.001-05:00

I debated during our planning process about what type of ‘grand exit’ we’d have and when we’d do it. I would have loved sparklers when we left our reception, but we ended up staying until the very end of it (hey, I love to dance!) and the majority of the people who were left were in fact a bit intoxicated, which is what I was worried about.

We decided to do bubbles when we left the ceremony, and I absolutely LOVE the pictures from our exit. Honestly, two of my favorite memories of the day were from our exit/our drive to the reception.

While we were signing the marriage license my bridesmaids were handing out bubbles to our guests as they walked out of the church. By the time we were finished, everyone was outside waiting for us, as was the incredible car we drove off in!

One of my good friends (actually the same one whose dad is the pastor of the church we were married at and got us hooked up) drives a classic el Camino that she and her dad totally restored together. They go to all kinds of car shows and know tons of people around town with gorgeous classic cars. She asked about a month before our wedding if we knew what we were doing for our getaway car. We really hadn’t thought about it, so she said she’d take care of it. Uh yea, she definitely did! She gave us two options the week before the wedding, we picked one, and she had it at the church waiting for us with a just married sign on the back and a CD of songs she and her sister made for us. She took care of it afterward too and drove it back to its owner from our reception! I was SO happy with how it all worked out – She’s wonderful!

I love that you can see my nieces/our flower girls in the above pictures and my dad helping the younger one, A, blow her bubbles. They’re definitely who I’m smiling at in this picture:

I have the biggest, goofiest grin on my face in all of these pictures, but I couldn’t help it! I just can’t hide it when I’m excited!

One of my favorite memories of the day happened as we went to get in the car. My friend left the keys in the car’s ignition for us, so when David opened my door for me the car’s alarm started going off. It was absolutely hilarious, and all of our guests were laughing with us. I love David’s expression in this picture:

My aunt and cousin were on the other side of the car, so they got some great pictures of our guests – I’m so glad I have their photos!

{2 above photos taken by my aunt}

{3 above photos taken by my cousin – The kids on the right hand side of the first 2 pictures are ones I nannied for. I love how he’s looking up at me in the first picture!}

And I have to include BM S’s picture of our kiss – I love it!

{picture taken by BM S}

Another of my favorite memories from the day: When we left the ceremony we took a different route than our guests to avoid any highways (a convertible + long hair and a veil = not a good idea) and so we’d arrive a bit later than them. I was dying of thirst, so I told David to go through the drive-thru at McDonalds so I could get a Dr. Pepper. He pulls into the drive thru and we’re about to order and then he realizes.. Oh wait. Neither of us has any money. We literally had nothing on us – No ID, no drivers license, no money, no cell phones. It was weird, but kind of fun! So we laughed and decided to forget about it. When we told people afterward they said we should’ve gone through anyway and said, ‘We’re newlyweds and we’re broke. Literally!’ Haha, I still smile every time I think about that story.

So now that we’ve made it to the reception, I won’t have any recaps for you for a bit – I still don’t have the pictures of our reception from our second photographer, so I don’t have a whole lot to share yet. Hopefully I’ll be getting them soon and I’ll finish up my recaps – I can’t wait to share our reception with you! :)

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design unless otherwise noted*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

I shared our ceremony details.

*Don’t forget to enter my giveaway from CSN Stores!!

{Giveaway!}

2010-09-27T12:00:00.002-05:00

What better way to start the week than with a giveaway?! They’re always good at making Mondays a bit more fun.

I recently finished decorating our first house, and one of my very favorite rooms is our bedroom. Bedding sets are so helpful for setting the feel for a bedroom, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of modern bedding options available on CSN Stores’ sites. Several of their bedding sets even have free shipping!

{source}

If you’re in the market for new bedding, a $45 gift certificate would certainly help! Even if you’re not looking for bedding, the gift certificate can be used on any product from any of CSN Stores 200+ sites. The certificate does not cover any shipping costs.

So how do you enter?

For the first mandatory entry, leave a comment telling me what you’d use your gift certificate on.

For additional entries *separate comments for each please*:

-Become a follower of my blog

-Become a follower of my new newlywed blog

-Follow me on Twitter and tweet about the giveaway and include ‘@les852’ and a link to this post in the tweet. Be sure to comment with a link to your tweet!

-Blog about the giveaway and comment with a link to your post

The giveaway will end Sunday, October 3rd at 8 PM CST and the winner will be announced next Monday. Good luck!

*I actually just blogged about our master bedroom yesterday! You can find the post on my new blog.

You Make My Dreams Come True: Ceremony Details

2010-09-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

With the ceremony completely recapped I wanted to share some of the details that were so important to me. I figured I’d include the signing of the marriage certificate in this post too since I only have a few pictures of it. These are some of my very favorite pictures of the day!

Tears of Joy Packets – Post here and for sale in my etsy shop here

Programs – Post here

Sign and guestbook – Post here

Bubbles (and gift table in the background) – Post here

Memorial Candles – Post here and for sale in my etsy shop here

Our card box – Post here

The church

Letters made by MOH A and her boyfriend

Painted monogrammed aisle runner – Post here

Mum Pomanders – Post here

My bouquet and locket bouquet charm

Bridesmaid bracelets, bouquets, and bouquet charms – Post here and here and charms for sale in my etsy shop here

And the signing of the marriage certificate – I thought it was interesting that we didn’t sign anything. Only our MOH, best man, and the pastor signed. Is that just a Kansas thing, or is it like that for everyone?

Whew! We had more details than I thought, but hopefully you enjoyed seeing my projects all come together as much as I did! :)

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

We had a little fun with our recessional.

**I shared the news on my new blog, but I thought I’d let you guys know I finally got a job (using my degree!) and started full time today! Your prayers/positive thoughts that my first few days go well and that it’s a good fit are greatly appreciated! :)

I’m going to do my best to keep up with blogging and finish these recaps – I have a few more that I can write, but I’m still waiting on the pictures from our reception from our 2nd photographer. Hopefully I'll have them soon!

You Make My Dreams Come True: The Recessional

2010-09-21T13:10:00.002-05:00

Sorry to leave you guys hanging! Like I said, this is one of my favorite parts of the entire day. I had looked and looked (with help from BM S!) for a fun recessional song that isn’t overplayed or inappropriate to play in a church. When I played the song I found for David his face lit up and he totally agreed that it was the one.

(You may want to turn your volume up for the first part and then back down after our kiss – The talking is pretty quiet and the music is pretty loud. Sorry!)

We walked back down the aisle to ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ by Hall and Oates, thus the name of my recaps! It’s upbeat, fun, and still has cute lyrics! We planned a kiss in the middle of the aisle, and thankfully you can see it on the video because our photographer didn’t catch it.

Literally as we were lined up for the processional a couple members of the bridal party asked if they could dance back down the aisle. I’m all for dancing and having fun so I said of course! Some of them did, some of them didn’t, but it was so cute regardless!

GM J took the dancing part seriously – I loved it!

Then came our sweet flower girls racing/dancing back down the aisle. I had to include a video of this part too – I wish the quality was better, but you’ll just have to believe me that they were so stinking cute! You can see the younger one, A, dancing at the end.

Next our parents and my grandparents were ushered back down the aisle.

And that was it! Our ceremony that we had planned, personalized, and dreamed of for so long was really over.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

The ceremony ended. (Part 3)

You Make My Dreams Come True: Ceremony Part 3

2010-09-17T12:00:00.001-05:00

After exchanging rings we lit the unity candle. We chose ‘When I Say I Do’ by Matthew West to have sung during this time. I was originally just going to have a recording of it played, but our friend from high school, Cooper, who we’d asked to sing ‘The Luckiest’ was more than willing to learn it and play it for us (with about 2 weeks notice!) I’m so glad he did. I wanted to be able to share it with you, so the only way I could think of was to take a video of our ceremony video – I apologize that the quality isn’t great, but you can at least get an idea of how incredible he sounded and you get a little live peek into our ceremony!

We also gave roses to our moms at this time. We didn’t include this is the program or let them know ahead of time, so it was a bit of a surprise for them. I carried two pink roses with my bouquet and had my sister/MOH hold them and hand them to me.

We really wanted to honor them for providing both of us with such great upbringings rooted in love and in Christ. The sacrifices they made to send us to private Christian schools hugely impacted us both as individuals and as a couple. Without them there’s no way we would be where we are today – We would have the foundation we have, we wouldn’t have the experiences we have, and we likely wouldn’t have even met.

After Cooper was finished singing, Pastor M read the hand ceremony that we’d chosen. Again, this was something that was really important to me and I took a lot of time looking through different ceremonies and taking bits and pieces of several of them to create something that really ‘fit.’

That song spoke of your hands. And your hands, that now have rings on them, are the hands of your best friend that are strong and full of love for each other. These hands are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever. These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will comfort you like no other. These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind. These are the hands that will countless times wipe away the tears from your eyes – tears of sorrow and tears of joy. These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it and lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged will still be reaching for yours while still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch. Our prayer for you today is that both of you will use your hands to build a marriage rooted in your faith, commitment, and love for one another.

When he was finished, Cooper came back up, this time with Mikayla, another one of our friends from high school. They sang ‘The Luckiest’ by Ben Folds while David and I took communion. While we didn’t have communion for all of our guests (as some of them might have been uncomfortable and it would’ve taken quite awhile) we did want to take it together for the first time as a married couple. It’s something we do every week at church as a couple and it was a really special part of our ceremony.

I’d post a video of them singing together, but it took forever and a day to upload the first one. They did an awesome job. And watching the video, you can see David singing to me and me trying to keep from crying. That was hands down one of my very favorite parts of the day.

Pastor M: Let’s pray for Laura and David. Father, we thank you so much for bringing these two together. It gives us great joy to see your work in their lives individually and your work in their lives together. Lord, we pray every blessing upon them. We pray that you would grow them, that you would strengthen them, that you would bind them in a closeness that they’ve never even known as of yet. But Lord we commend them to you, to the praise of your glorious grace, that they might live a life together for your glory. Thank you for the joy and the love you’ve put between them. We pray that you would bless them in every way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

David, Laura, because of your commitment to one another and to your Lord, by the authority granted to me as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus, I now pronounce that you are husband and wife. David, you may kiss your bride!

I love this progression of pictures because you can see me pull him towards me! Ha! I loved our kiss. :)

After I let go of him I leaned back in for one more peck like I always do and everyone laughed. Pastor M smiled and asked ‘Are you finished?’ and David said, ‘Yeah, we’re good!’ Haha, the result was this picture:

With that, our handcrafted, personalized, incredibly special ceremony was over. We were finally husband and wife!

But the recessional was another one of my favorite parts of the entire day, so I’m making you wait until Monday for that post! Have a great weekend!

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

The ceremony continued. (Part 2)

You Make My Dreams Come True: Ceremony Part 2

2010-09-15T12:00:00.000-05:00

After my wonderful daddy ‘gave me away’ and sat down, the ceremony continued with a reading by my aunt and godmother.

She read ‘Union’ by Robert Fulghum. When I’d looked for readings during the planning process it was the one that took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes. Every line of it was SO true for us and our relationship. I tried to keep myself from crying while she read, but when my aunt and I made eye contact her voice caught and tears streamed down my face. From here on is our actual ceremony text:

“You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making promises and agreements in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held riding in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those sentences that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped for, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.”

Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another – acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another in these last few years. Now you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same.

For after today you shall say to the world –
This is my husband. This is my wife.”

Pastor M: David, Laura, I have so enjoyed getting to know you as we’ve had our times meeting together. You make me smile when I see you. Your smile makes me smile; I love your heart and I love who the Lord has made you both to be. You’re a great couple and I know the Lord has blessed you with each other.

Many of those who are gathered in this room today have known you far longer than I have and since your earliest days have loved you. They’ve watched you develop. They’ve lived life with you. And they’ve prayed for the Lord to bring you to Himself and then to bring you to godly marriage. Laura, David’s family has prayed for you since long before they knew you. And David, Laura’s family has prayed for you since before they even knew your name. But, undergirding it all, before the foundations of time, the God of all glory eternal in the heavens has ordained this day – The day when you are joined together to become one flesh. To His glory, you and your marriage will now be a living example of Christ and His Church.

The words of God to us from Ephesians 5: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it just as Christ does the church, for we are members of this body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I’m talking about Christ and the church.”

This wedding ceremony, as holy, special, and glorious as it is today, ultimately redirects our view to the wedding of the lamb and His bride, the church. As Jesus loved His church and gave himself up for her to make her holy and blameless, so you also David are charged to love Laura in that same way. And just and Christ and his body, the church, are joined together as one – So today, you two become one flesh in God’s eyes.

David and Laura, because of your commitment to Jesus as Messiah and because I believe that you truly desire to be all he intends you to be in your life together, I can confidently proclaim that you are bound together today in Christian marriage. Marriage where Jesus reigns preeminent, where His word and His ways are held high, where Christ-like love and submission is given and received, and where you live all of life – the remainder of your days on this earth – together for His eternal purposes and to His praise.

Would you please turn and face one another? We now come to the vows, and the vows are a statement of your intent, a promise you make. You should understand that the vows that you are about to repeat are bounding upon you in the eyes of God and of these witnesses.

David, we’ll begin with you as you repeat these vows** to Laura:

I, David, take you, Laura, to be my wife before God who brought us together and all of these witnesses. As we enter upon the privileges and joys of life’s most holy relationship and begin together the great adventure of building a Christian home, I will look to Christ as head of our home as I have looked to Him as head of the church. I will lead you and share all of life’s experiences with you by following God through them. I will love you in sickness and in health, in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, and will be true to you by God’s grace, trusting in Him so long as we both shall live.

And Laura, if you’d repeat these vows to David:

I, Laura, take you, David, to be my husband before God who bought us together and all of these witnesses. As we enter upon the privileges and joys of life’s most holy relationship and begin together the great adventure of building a Christian home, I will look to you as head of our home as I have looked to Christ as head of the church. I will follow you through all of life’s experiences as you follow God. I will love you in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in sorrow as in joy, and will be true to you by God’s grace, trusting in Him so long as we both shall live.

The rings that you are about to exchange now are a symbol. A symbol is simply a reminder of something bigger than itself. As the symbol of the cross represents God’s love and his provision of salvation through Jesus, the small rings that you are about to exchange are a symbol of something more profound – Something much bigger than a circle of precious metal. Because from this day on, these rings will serve as a simple and practical reminder that you, Laura, belong to David and that you, David, belong to Laura and that the God who created you now looks upon you as one flesh. And we pray that these rings will also remind you that you are encircled and surrounded by family and friends who are here for you, to help you, to share wisdom with you, and to pray for you. All of us here want you to know how much we love you two. May I have the rings please?

Let’s ask the Lord to bless these rings. Father, we thank you for the symbolism inherent in these rings – That they remind us of commitment, they remind us of unity, they remind us of so many things. They remind us of your unending love for us in Christ and your provision for us. This day, these rings will take on new significance as they remind David and they remind Laura of their commitment to you and to one another. We pray you’d bless these rings now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

David, if you would take this ring and place it on Laura’s finger and repeat these words to her: With this ring, I thee wed and seal my vow of faithful love to you. All my worldly goods, with thee I share and all that I am, I pledge to you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Laura, if you would take this ring and place it on David’s finger and repeat these words to him: With this ring, I thee wed and seal my vow of faithful love to you. All my worldly goods, with thee I share and all that I am, I pledge to you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

The ceremony started. (Part 1)

**We wrote our own vows and combined parts from several different sources that we found online. Unfortunately I’m not sure exactly where all of it came from, but hope that ours can be a source of inspiration for other couples writing their own ceremony! For us, traditional vows just didn’t hold the meaning they do for some people after seeing multiple divorces happen within our family.

{Giveaway Winner!}

2010-09-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to announce the winner of my giveaway for an $80 gift card to Nordstrom!

source

The winner is…

Jeska!

Jeska, if you'd like a physical gift card sent to you, could you email me your full name, mailing address, and phone number? If you'd prefer a virtual gift card all I need is your email address! You can contact me at lauras07@ku.edu.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Ceremony Part 1

2010-09-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

David and I knew from early on in the planning process that we wanted a ceremony that reflected who we were as a couple. Our faith is a huge part of who we are, both as a couple and as individuals. It was really important to us that we had an officiant who knew us, believed the same things we did, and was willing to let us personalize the ceremony. I absolutely loved how it turned out. From here on is the exact text of our ceremony.

David, Laura, this is a holy moment. This is a moment in your lives that is set apart. It is different from every other moment. For at this moment you have come to formally recognize that God has called you first to Himself, and then to each other, forever in Christian marriage. For all that can be observed and said about marriage, we must note that the very concept of marriage originates not in some arrangement of society or in cultural convenience, but in the eternal, providential design of the God of the Christian scriptures. The very notion of marriage; the idea that a man and a woman should be paired for life and for living has its beginning, its root, its very origin revealed by God to us in His Word. For in the beginning, in the account of creation itself, we read that the two shall become one by God’s decree.

Genesis 2 reads as follows: “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all of the beasts of the field and all of the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all of the livestock; the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, but for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.’ For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” This, then, is where the very idea of marriage has its origin. In the being, the mind, the heart, the design of God himself.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your wisdom in creating us the way that you have and for designing and ordaining the very notion of marriage. But Lord, this day, we come to celebrate that you have brought David and Laura together to be one, to live all of life, Lord, for your glory. We celebrate this day. We pray that this service would be a time that we would reflect on the blessings and the glories of marriage and the joy of seeing you bring David and Laura together. Thank you, Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I speak to you now as a congregation. Each of you is here today because you have, in some way, had an impact on David and Laura’s life. Some of you have known either one of them or both of them for years, and some of you may be meeting one of them for the first time today. But whether you are an old friend or a new one, you have a special place in their hearts. You also have a special purpose. As beloved family and friends, it is you who they will turn to in coming years, both in joy and in sorrow. It is you with whom they will share their happiness and bring their pain. You’ll watch as their marriage matures and as their love deepens and as their children grow. And when hard times come, and the loving support of family and friends like you is needed, David and Laura will be able to turn to you just as they turn to each other. Do you pledge to support and help strengthen their marriage by upholding them with your love, prayers, counsel, and concern for today and always? If so, please answer, “we do.”

Congregation: “We do.”

Now David, please state your intent. Do you take Laura to be your wife in Christian marriage? Do you promise to love Laura? To cherish her as your wife, to love her in sickness as well as in health, to love her by your actions and your attitudes regardless of the circumstances that surround you? Do you promise to provide for the spiritual, emotional, and material needs of your home as God enables you? And David, do you promise to be faithful to Laura as her companion in this life until God calls you home? If you agree to these promises, David, please respond by saying, “I do.”

David: “I do.”

Laura, do you take David to be your husband in Christian marriage? Do you promise to love David and to cherish him as your husband? To love him in sickness as well as in health, to love him by your actions and your attitudes regardless of the circumstances that surround you? Do you promise to support and encourage his leadership, as he by God’s enabling, provides for the spiritual, emotional, and material needs of your home? And Laura do you promise to be faithful to David as his companion in this life until God calls you home? If you agree to these promises, Laura, please respond by saying, “I do.”

Me: “I do.”

Who gives this woman to be married to this man?

My Dad: Her mother and I do.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

A step back to the playing of the slideshow.

**Happy Friday! Don't forget my giveaway ends Sunday evening!

You Make My Dreams Come True: The Slideshow

2010-09-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

I was watching the video of our ceremony so that I’d have the text for the next few posts (and heck, because I love watching it) and I realized I was so excited to recap the processional that I totally forgot to post about our slideshow. I’ve said multiple times that I’m a huge picture person, and it was a big deal to me that we had a slideshow as part of our ceremony to look back at how we got to where we are today.

We played it right before my grandparents and our parents were seated and had it start right at 4:30 so that anyone who was a little late could still find a seat and not feel like they were interrupting. I wish I could’ve been somewhere where I could see and hear our guests’ reactions to it, but several people told me afterward that they loved it.

This was another project that we definitely waited until the last minute on, but I have to say David had a HUGE part in making sure it happened. He knew how much it meant to me, so he spent hours scanning in our pictures and then attempted to even put them in the slideshow chronologically. It saved me so much time and it meant the world to me that he put so much effort into it.

Anyway, enough talk. Our slideshow:

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

It was finally time for the processional.

You Make My Dreams Come True: The Processional

2010-09-07T12:05:00.001-05:00

While the grandparents and our parents were being seated, the bridal party was getting lined up.

Finally it was time to really get the ceremony started. The song that I had known for over a couple years that we’d use for the processional started and everything became so real. Definitely play the song as you look through the pictures!

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First was GM J, David’s friend since kindergarten, and BM S, my friend and roomie from school

Next was GM J, one of David’s best friends since preschool, and BM M, one of my best friends from high school

GM M, my ‘little’ brother, and BM R, my older sister

They looked so cute in both I couldn’t choose – This is David’s best man K, his younger brother, and my MOH A, my best friend

David’s other best man, his older brother J, and my other MOH, my older sister A, along with our ring bearer who insisted on walking with his mom and carrying a soccer ball – Hey, at least it went with our colors :)

Our Jr GM M, my nephew, and our Jr BM K, David’s younger sister – He looks a little solemn because his arm that she’s holding was broken. Poor kid fell off a rope swing the day before our wedding and no one realized how badly he was hurt (and he never said anything!) He was such a trooper for our pictures and ceremony!

And lastly, our flower girls R and A ~~made it~~ ran down the aisle

It was finally my turn. The music had been timed perfectly. The moment I’d imagined of my dad and I coming through the door right as the music swelled was perfect. He looked at me and asked if I was ready, I smiled and nodded and that was it! I was off to marry the man of my dreams and my best friend.

(Be sure to go to 3:47 in the song to get the full effect for these next few.)

I had hoped so badly that David would cry. I figured I’d be crying the whole way, but it wasn’t until I looked at him from down the aisle and saw him biting his lip and his shoulders shaking.. Tears welled up in my eyes and I realized how insanely special that moment was. It was the moment we’d waited years for and a moment we’d never get to relive.

This was it - We were in front of all of our family and friends finally about to publicly make a promise that we'd already made to each other years before. We were minutes away from becoming husband and wife!

Tip # 11: Go with the flow. Your ring bearer wants to walk down the aisle with your MOH and then screams when he can't follow her up to her spot? Oh well. He's adorable and no one will remember that with all of the other beautiful, touching parts of your day.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

The grandparents and parents were seated.

{Giveaway!}

2010-09-03T12:00:00.002-05:00

I'm sure most of you who visit a fair share of bride blogs have seen similar giveaways going on right now and I wanted to wait until I got to 250 followers, but this one is just too exciting! I don't know anyone who wouldn't want one of these:

source

Yes, that's right, an $80 Nordstrom gift card!

It seems like the process of finding a Mother of the Bride dress is one of the most stressful items on the to-do list for brides. This surprisingly difficult task is made infinitely easier with the resource of DesignerApparel.com. They've designed a page specifically for brides-to-be and their mothers to find perfect Mother of the Bride Dresses. They offer brands like Adrianna Papell, Tadashi, and Eileen Fisher among others!

DesignerApparel.com is an incredible resource! Can you imagine how much easier and more enjoyable your shopping experience would be with their site? They partner with retailers like Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Bluefly, Zappos, and Nordstom and they have helpful tools like price comparison, sale notification, and free shipping notice!

So how do you enter?

First, comment and tell me about your experience looking for a Mother of the Bride dress.

For additional entries:

Become a follower or let me know that you're already one (in a separate comment.)
Become a follower of my new blog!
Follow me on Twitter and tweet the following: Check out this #giveaway for an $80 Nordstrom giftcard from @les852 and DesignerApparel.com! http://bit.ly/ac3DP4

The giveaway will close on Sunday, September 12th at 7 PM CST and the winner will be announced Monday morning! Good luck!

You Make My Dreams Come True: And So It (The Ceremony) Begins

2010-09-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

While we were back in the bridal suite our guests were signing our ‘guestbook’ and being seated.

I loved that my cousins (our guestbook and program attendants) all wore black, white, and pink without me saying anything!

As soon as they were seated the seating of the grandparents began. Unfortunately, all of David’s grandparents have passed away and my grandpa (my dad’s dad) I guess didn’t want to be seated individually (since my grandma has passed away). This left just my mom’s parents to be seated during this time. We/I chose to play ‘Canon in D’ for their seating since it would be a song they would all recognize and appreciate.

Once they were seated it was time for our parents to be seated. We used ‘Love Never Fails’ by Brandon Heath for their seating and the lighting of the unity candle. Click play to get the full effect. :)

David really wanted to be the one to seat his mom, so he did that and then entered again with our officiant after the unity candle was lit.

Both of my older brothers seated my mom. You can finally see the mom’s bouquets – I think they turned out so cute!

I love how happy they look after lighting the candles!

Once they were seated and David and our officiant were in their places, it was time for the bridal party to enter.. Someone looked a little anxious:

You’ll have to wait until next week for that, though. :) Tomorrow I’ve got a pretty awesome giveaway for you, so be sure to check back!

Tip # 10: Make sure you talk with your grandparents (especially if one of them has lost their spouse) and ask if they’re comfortable with being escorted down the aisle. It’d probably be even better if they could be present at the rehearsal.

*All pictures in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We spent time hanging out waiting for the ceremony to start.

Exciting News!

2010-09-01T14:46:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Twitter you know I've been working on my post-wedding/newlywed/life blog so I can pretty much switch over once I'm finished recapping our wedding. I'm pleased to announce that it's finally up and running, complete with its first post! ;)

You can go here to check it out. And please let me know what you think!

A recap of the start of our ceremony is coming tomorrow - Be sure to check it out!

You Make My Dreams Come True: Hanging Out

2010-08-31T12:00:00.001-05:00

After our formal pictures were finished we headed off to the bridal and groom ‘suites.’ The church basically had two big rooms set up with mirrors and chairs for us to relax in before the ceremony started. It was nice being away from the craziness of the guests arriving and it gave my girls a chance to eat – I was way too anxious to eat anything and forgot to arrange for lunch to be delivered for them. (I know, terrible!) My mom forced me to eat a couple crackers, but like I said before, my stomach freaks out when I’m anxious.

I pretty much paced around the room and we took some pictures while we waited for the ceremony to start. Having the flower girls in there distracted me, which was nice! :)

Love those pictures of MOH A with my niece!

Photo by Lola Jo

We took more individual pictures and got one of all of the bridesmaids and flower girls (a shot our photographer didn’t get) so I’m definitely thankful for these! I have no idea what the guys were doing during this time, but Brandi was getting pictures of our ceremony details (that I’ll share soon). I figured she was getting a couple ring shots since David’s brother/best man had both of our rings, but nope – We didn’t end up with any.

With BM S

With MOH A

It’s ‘tradition’ for us to take serious face pictures – We have one from almost every single high school dance and plenty of random ones too. I guess Brandi didn’t catch that because she didn’t give me the one she took. :(

With my two sisters

Photo by Lola Jo - Love that she caught this!

Shortly before we had to get ready to line up for the processional I was given another card from my very soon-to-be husband. (I know, a sweet email and two cards in one day?!) I think it may have been even sweeter than the last one and I cried again and then passed it to my girls and let them cry over it too.

And for my memory’s sake, his message inside:

We are now 30 minutes away from the single greatest event of our lives thus far. And to think – you planned all of it, made all of it and I am so proud of you. I know I wasn’t always the most helpful, or the most exciting with helping out, but it was all worth it! Babe, the card says a lot about how life throws us amazing things that we don’t quite realize are amazing all along. I knew I had something special right from the beginning, though! You challenge me to be a better person and have made me the man I am today. The man that is going to love you in word and in action. The man that is going to take care of and provide for you. And I cannot wait! You will be the most beautiful bride I could’ve ever imagined! I love you, always and forever. I’ll see you soon!

It was really happening! I was seriously about to marry my best friend, my sole mate, and my better half! I went to the bathroom (by myself, thank you!), touched up my makeup, and got ready to line up for our processional!

Tip #9: Even though you’ll be anxious/stressed/preoccupied, don’t forgot to have food arranged for your bridal party! They’ll want to eat even if you don’t. :)

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We got pretty!

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.

We took bride & groom portraits.

We took care of the formal portraits.

We took pictures with the kiddos.

We Have a Winner...

2010-08-30T12:00:00.002-05:00

...for the $40 gift certificate to CSN Stores! Thanks so much to everyone who entered - I was happy so many of you decided to! I have another giveaway in the works that may be even better, so stick around! :)

Anyway, back to the point. The winner is...

Henria O.!

Congratulations! I'll be emailing you with the details!

Thanks again to everyone who entered!

**Also! One of my sweet friends from high school (yep, I know Meg in real life!) has an adorable blog and does a 'Mingle Monday' post every week where people can link up and meet new bloggers! I've found some great ladies through it and encourage you to check it out this week!

You Make My Dreams Come True: The Kiddos

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

I know every bride says this, but I honestly think we had the cutest ring bearer and flower girls ever! Our ring bearer was my nephew/godson and our flower girls were my two oldest nieces. You may remember that both of my sisters had babies this spring, so my new nephew and new niece were our ‘honorary’ ring bearer and flower girl. They all looked SO precious!

The flower was just too big for her little head!

I love each of those kids with all my heart and I’m so glad they were a part of our wedding! They’ll be making more appearances in future recaps! :)

*All pictures except for the first three in this post were taken by Brandi Coldwell of Lola Jo Photo Design*

Need to catch up?

We started on Thursday.

We decorated Friday morning.

We rehearsed.

We had our first look!

The guys had their turn.

The girls stole the show.

We got some fun bridal party pictures.