Our Wedding

On October 8th, 2011 Brandon and I finally had our wedding day! We started dating when I was fifteen and he was sixteen and through the years we saw this day coming, but having it come to life was more than words can describe. Now, after recently celebrating our eighth year together, we are thankful to have a relationship based on a strong friendship that started way back in seventh grade. 

We wrote our own vows and made each other both laugh and tear up. Originally Brandon did not want to write our own vows because he is so shy, but with so much going on, I felt like that would make everything slow down for a minute and let us really reflect on why we are in love in the first place. I wrote my vows the night before, and he wrote his the morning of, but they both were so short, sweet, and so us. After nearly eight years together, it is amazing how one little paragraph can still get to you so much... 

My nephew, Conner, AKA Con-man, was our ring bearer and was escorted in his car down the aisle by Brandon's little sister, Alize. I imagined him freaking out going down the aisle (even though that TOTALLY isn't his style), but that little guy did just the opposite. He was a total ham, giggling and laughing as he drove his car past 180 people. Then, throughout the wedding he pushed his car and walked around being a total silly goof-ball... we just loved it!

The wedding was PERFECT. Like, I'm serious. I really don't think things could have been better-- unless we could have slowed the whole thing way down of course. The week of the wedding had been warming up after rain and cold the week before, and the day of we were blessed with the most perfect weather around 75 degrees with sunshine and clouds. Everything arrived on time (including family) despite the drive and Brandon and I had decided the easiest way to get everything arranged was to work together in the morning-- so yeah, we saw each other before our first look-- but having that time together in the morning really helped keep the nerves way down. 

The day before we had picked up all the flowers and arranged the centerpieces at home. I was really excited to do this considering my sick obsession with flowers. Like, kid in a candy-store status. I even made my own cake topper in my great-great grandmother's teacup!

To help streamline everything my parents brought their toy hauler to our home and we loaded every last piece of wedding decor into it. It felt really good getting all that stuff out of our spare bedroom (oh yeah--side note-- roomie moved out in September which really freed up some space for wedding decor storage!). I was a little scared the next morning that we would open the trailer and find the flowers smashed or wilted or something (especially after having SEVERAL wedding-gone-wrong dreams), but when we arrived that morning they were perfect!

I hate to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but I bust my ass on this wedding and it paid off. I worked on details for months and really started getting my ass in gear when I had two weeks off before the wedding thanks to my school's year-round schedule! I really don't think I could have planned it any better than it turned out. We had a ton of help setting up from family and friends, and let me tell you, that made a world of difference. The day just went so smoothly, I wasn't stressed, there were no bride-zilla incidents, and only happy tears. 

Now, not to say everything was as perfect as a movie... some things were a little laughable-- like Brandon getting his hair cut by our friend/stylist outside of the bridal suite because he forgot to get it cut that week and was looking a little shaggy! But seriously, in the book of wedding-gone-wrong stories, I'll take that any day!

Our photographer, Rochelle Mort, is such an amazing and sweet woman. you can check out her blog here, and more photos from our wedding here. But seriously, she is probably one of the sweetest, most artistic women I know. We did a four part engagement shoot that took us through the four seasons leading up to the wedding, so we had a chance to really feel comfortable with her-- and that's a big deal for my once camera shy husband-- I think he's mastered modeling now... doesn't he look handsome?

As for the girls, choosing bridesmaids dresses was a bitch. Pardon my French... but really, matching dresses to a "goldish cream" is a real pain! We settled on four dresses, ALL under $50. My maid of honor, and very best friend, Allison, wore a striped Anthropologie dress that had some vintage lace detail and pulled in all the colors of the other girls dresses. We started with this and just matched the dresses to the colors in her's. The best thing about her dress... it was originally $168, then marked down to $80, then when I went to get a price adjustment down to $80 I was surprised to hear is was marked down to $50. Um, SCORE! The other three dresses are from Marshall's and Forever 21, each costing less than $30. I told the girls they could accessorize however they wished and that we should all wear cowboy boots-- you know, because I'm a tomboy at heart.

 

As I mentioned before, we arranged all the centerpieces ourselves, but my mom convinced me to let the florist do our bouquets to save the hassle the day of. And, of course, I have to hand it to my mom, because O.M.G. (yes, spell it out!) they were to die for. Originally he did not know if he could get Dusty Miller for the foliage, so I was SO excited to see it the day of. We went with cream and pink roses (because peonies were DAMN expensive), white hydrangeas, blue delphinium, and they were wrapped in burlap with some vintage button details. My bouquet had more white and no blue to distinguish it and it was wrapped in a dusty pink vintage lace that was also used of our champagne flutes. I seriously could not get over how much I loved them-- and they did not even wilt until a week after the wedding!

The florist's wife even told my mom when she picked them up that they were her favorite arrangement of all time :-)

Family photos don't get more real than this! I just loved how my nephew decided to pull my dad's ear for it... love him...

I cannot say it enough how wonderful our day was. We drank, we danced, we laughed a lot, we experienced only minor family drama (which was surprising considering leading up the wedding we had some big concerns), and the day was everything we hoped for and more.

P.S. Stay tuned for more photos-- I'm just a little short on time these days!