First off, I want to give props to the vendors we used for our Big Day. Without them, it wouldn’t have been our perfect wedding day.
Ceremony & Reception Venue: Samuel Cedars in Rogersville, MO – The owners Doug & Dodi were so easy to work with & so helpful on the day of, and the place looked gorgeous. And our package included a DJ at an EXTREMELY reasonable rate. He was great too & did all of the reception “announcements”.
Food: Country Deli in Springfield, MO – The food was delicious, plentiful, and very reasonably priced, and their servers did a great job of keeping everything stocked, & they even cleared tables & cleaned up (which wasn’t even part of their contract).
Cake / Cupcakes: AmyCakes, of COURSE! Everyone raved over our cupcakes, they were all fantastic.
Photographer: Crystal Washburn. Being a former wedding photographer myself, I was SO nervous about picking a photographer. I didn’t want to spend a ton of cash, but I also knew I had to have amazing photos. I fell in love with Crystal’s photography style & we got along smashingly. She did a wonderful job & was one of the most reasonably priced photographers we interviewed.
Makeup/Hair: The Hubs’ sister. Her salon ( Primpin’ Salon) is in Iberia, MO.
Flowers/Decor: My sis, Christina.
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Okay. So. The Big Day. Our wedding was scheduled for 1pm, Sunday, July 10. Myself, Future Hubs, my parents, my wedding coordinators (Tara & my sis), and an array of our bridesmaids/groomsmen arrived at the venue at 9am to start setting everything up. The venue provided tables/chairs/etc, but we opted to save the $500 and not have them set up & tear down everything for us (in retrospect, we totally would have paid that. The setting up part wasn’t a pain-- it was the tearing down, once everyone’s left & we were just ready to head off into the sunset). Tara had tasks delegated to everyone so the set up went really smoothly.
The photographer showed up at 10am & started shooting away, taking pics of the prep, then the groomsmen, my dress/shoes, etc.
We decided to knock out part of the pics before the ceremony, and the rest during the reception to save some time. Future Hubs & I, since we had to help with set up, had decided that we could see each other in plainclothes that morning, but as soon as it was time to get dolled up, we went into seclusion until the “reveal” during the ceremony.
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Something Old: a pendant with my grandparents’ photos in it, wrapped into my bouquet
Something New: a gorgeous necklace, made for me by my coworker
Something Borrowed: An opal ring from my matron of honor
Something blue: My shoes, my earrings…really, when blue is one of your wedding colors, this is not a challenge.
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I was a wee bit stressed during the prep…and then once I went into seclusion (and people kept trying to come in to see me, or ask me questions) the stress built a little more. I started having butterflies in my stomach after my hair was done…
(LOVED this hairdo. The braid was my very subtle nod to Princess Leia. :P)
…and then when it was time to put the dress on, I had to have someone bring me a glass of water because I was actually a little concerned that I might faint. Thankfully my gals-in-waiting (particularly my amazing best friend Monica) helped keep the mood light & fun.
(the changing room might have been a little cramped…can you tell?)
Finally, Tara came in to tell me it was time, that they were ready for me. So I came out & lined up with my dad & our flower girls / ring bearer.
~ Ceremonial Songs ~
For the wedding party, mothers & grandmothers – an instrumental version of Train’s “Marry Me”
For the ring bearer, flower girls, and me – Owl City’s “If My Heart Was A House” (if you don’t know this song, YouTube it. Now. About 1:17 minutes in was when I began my walk down the aisle.)
(For the record—this is the only time I’ve ever seen my dad in a suit. My dad is NOT a suit guy. It was SO odd, but he looked great.)
My uncle, Rev. Phil Kreiling, officiated. I always knew I wanted him to perform my wedding ceremony, and thankfully, Future Hubs didn’t have any clergy family members to contend with.
I should mention now…it was HOT. Stupid Hot. Like, 90-something degrees. We had prayed for good weather, and while there was no threat of rain, it was HOTHOTHOT—something we knew was a risk when we picked our date. We did our best to make sure the programs would make decent fans, just in case. Thankfully there was a bit of breeze during the 20- minute ceremony to give some relief.
The Hubs’ sister did a reading from Ephesians, and my sister did a reading from Mark Twain’s “The Diary of Eve” that makes me tear up every time i read it:
"The Garden is lost, but I have found HIM, and am content. He loves me as well as he can; I love him with all the strength of my passionate nature, and this, I think, is proper. If I ask myself why I love him, I find I do not know, and do not really much care to know; so I suppose that this kind of love is not a product of reasoning and statistics... It just COMES--none knows whence--and cannot explain itself. And doesn't need to.
It is my prayer, it is my longing, that we may pass from this life together--a longing which shall never perish from the earth, but shall have a place in the heart of every wife that loves, until the end of time; and it shall be called by my name. But if one of us must go first, it is my prayer that it shall be I; for he is strong, I am weak, I am not so necessary to him as he is to me--life without him would not be life; now could I endure it? This prayer is also immortal, and will not cease from being offered up while my race continues. I am the first wife; and in the last wife I shall be repeated."
(And yes, we totally almost made each other cry.)
For the Unity Ceremony, we went with a sand vase. I’d found two pretty bottles & one pretty vase at the thrift store, and we had bottles of sand from Destin, FL and Gulf Shores, AL (beach vacations we’ve taken together) that are just different enough in color to make a pretty swirl. We decorated it with shellacked Louisiana oyster shells and the “placeholder” ring that he gave me when he proposed (we then picked out my actual ring together, later on).
(Music during this part: “Your Love” by Brandon Heath)
We also presented flowers to our moms & grandmothers, and had a moment of prayer for the family members who had passed, since at the time, Hubs & I each only had one remaining grandmother living.
Then vows, then rings, then another prayer, then finally, “you may kiss the bride!”
We were showered with bubbles as we walked back down the aisle as man & wife:
Processional: Colbie Caillat’s “I Do”, which we danced down the aisle to…sort of a mini second line, if you will…
(The above photo is brought to you by The Bride herself, since I wasn’t without my camera all day.)
(YAY pockets!)
Tomorrow: The Reception! Let’s get this party started!
beautiful! i really love the green sash. well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you! We were pretty happy with it. :D
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