The Deets

Ever since before we even got engaged, I've been obsessed with scouring wedding blogs and magazines.  I love to look at the details that people chose and how they all fit together.  As someone who dreams of planning weddings, little details like mini chalkboards, tiny buttons glued to escort cards, and tote bags with the bride and groom's monograms on them are like crack to me.  So, in case anyone cares, here are the details of our wedding.  If you don't care, don't read this...I'm sure there's an episode of Real Housewives on somewhere.  I won't be insulted.

The ceremony location was outside of the cellar room on a cobblestone patio.  From the first time we saw it, we knew we would barely need any decorations; it was already so green and beautiful.  All we added were some poms from Pomtastic on, of course, Etsy.  Thank God our venue was in charge of all the decorations because I would not have wanted to sit and unfold all 20 poms and hang them, but they did a great job and I think the ceremony turned out perfectly simple.

A picture of the ceremony location at night, loved the lights.

Our beautiful ceremony, notice the poms!

I knew I wanted to do an "In Memory Of" table since there were so many important people to Mike and I who were no longer with us, especially his father who had recently passed away.  I wanted the table to look vintagey so we bought mix-matched frames from Kmart, Wal-Mart, and Target, (I'm thrifty, what can I say?).  I made a photo book on Shutterfly and left tons of blank room on each page and set that on the table with some nice pens for people to sign as a guest book.  

Our flowers, done by the amazing Shannon at Flourish, turned out beautifully.  Especially since we picked the type of flowers during a trip to Wal-mart, found our florist via google whom we had never met in person until the day of the wedding.  She did an amazing job and on a tight budget.  I couldn't believe she made our centerpieces and bouquets look exactly how I'd envisioned them.

My bouquet.  It photographs more orange than it was, they were bright yellow and gorgeous!

The bridesmaid's bouquets, I love the huge green leaves.

Instead of doing corsages, my florist made flower rings for the moms.  They were a big hit!

My escort cards were by far my favorite project.  I found embarrassing or silly pictures of all my guests and their dates, (thank G for Facebook), and printed them on business cards with their table number and name on the back.  I pinned them to the bulletin board I covered with our fabric (DIY post found here).  Everyone had fun finding themselves and it turned out really cute and funny.

We ended up having a candy buffet because, well basically we couldn't find any favors we liked and the mo-in-law really wanted to.  It turned out really cute though so I'm happy we did!  We bought mix-matched jars from a kitchen outlet, Target, and Wal-mart, (this is starting to sound like quite the white trash, Wal-mart wedding), and filled them with candy we bought online from this adorable store called Nuts Online.  Seriously, order from them...they send you little e-mails saying thank you and making nut puns.  I love them.  We bought simple plastic bags to hold everyone's candy in from Amazon and I bought white pipe cleaners from...you guessed it...Wal-mart and cut them in half for people to hold the bags shut.  My favorite thing on the candy buffet were the cigars, matches, and cutters my dad bought to surprise Mike with.  All the boys loved having the cigars and it was a nice extra thing for Mike since the wedding can end up being so much about the bride.

It was way harder than you'd think finding tasty yellow and white candy!

A great thing about our venue was that the price of the cake was included in everything so we didn't have to stress about finding someone to make that.  We opted for a really simple cake with some fresh flowers on top from our amazing florist.  One of my FAVORITE things about the wedding was my last surprise for Mike which was a groom's cake in the shape of a soccer ball made my one of the groomsmen's uber talented fiance.  Mike loved it and it was delicious to boot.

Red velvet cake with buttercream frosting.  YUM.

Both cakes with all of our bouquets, so sweet of the venue to have the vases ready for our bouquets.

How amazing is this cake? Made by Laura at Susie Cakes.

The tables turned out great which is actually surprising seeing as how I had never put everything together before so it was a surprise to me what it looked like the day of.  The table numbers were made by my bridesmaid Vanessa by painting wooden house numbers and they turned out super cute.  Our table runners were made by mo-in-law to add some color to the tables instead of having a ton of flowers.  We bought vases from Gilt and Wal-mart of course and our florist filled them with loose flowers.  I made the menus that were tucked into our napkins and the place cards.  Overall, they were pretty cheap, but cute tables!

You sick of the color yellow and hearing about Wal-mart yet?  It's okay, we're done.

The Big Day

So the wedding is over.  I spent over a year planning and stressing and crying and yelling and wishing for this one day.  Not gonna lie...I'm glad it's over!  I do however wish I remembered more, but they always tell you it goes by in a blur and it sure did.  Overall, it was an amazing day and I would BARELY do anything different which is pretty good for me.  Here are a few highlights from the big day.

The girls and I started the day off at the spa at Wine & Roses which was amazing and all the girls ended up looking beautiful even though I felt like a drag queen because I never wear that much makeup.  Thankfully I didn't look like a drag queen!  I do wish I looked less scary in the non-makeup pictures, but whatever, it was fun and relaxing, a perfect start to the day!

My inspiration picture suggested to me by Erin about 2 weeks before the wedding.

No makeup yet....scary!

Their spa is so pretty and peaceful.

Ray took these shots paparazzi style through the doors.  Love it!

Pre-spa, the girls and I had a mimosa and Kristin and Vanessa gave quick and sweet toasts.  Love these girls so much!

How cute was my mom in her Mother of the Bride shirt?  Thanks to Laura for thinking of it, Lauren for getting the shirt that morning, and Jessica for ironing it.  Team work!

The boys had fun getting ready too although theirs was a little boozier than ours.  They were great sports with taking the sock pictures I requested too.  They all looked so handsome!

My handsome husband getting ready.

Mike & the boys made good use of his groom's gift.

One of my favorite memories of the whole day is when Mike and I saw each other for the first time.  We decided to take all of our pictures ahead of time so we got to go straight to our reception after the ceremony. Ray helped us choose a place to meet to see each other alone for the first time that day.  He literally hid behind a tree taking pictures of us and they are just so beautiful, I love them so much.  Mike, who everyone knows is not normally a really emotive person, was so happy and smiley once he saw me that it made all my stress and worries disappear for the rest of the day.

Everyone knows I hate having my picture taken so the couple of hours we spent taking formal pictures were my most stressful of the day.  I wish I had relaxed a little more and taken it more slowly.  There were a couple pictures I forgot to take and I don't look great in some of them because I'm so tense and stressed and for some reason I'm pulling faces or talking in half of them which makes me mad, but overall we got some beautiful shots so it turned out great.

It's rare Laura & I take a picture together where our faces aren't touching.

Our families were great sports about everything and we got some really special photos with all of them as well.

my mom and I

Mike, his mom, & Scotty

Mo-in-Law, me, & Mike

Dad, Monica, me, & Mikey

Mom, me, Mike, & Laura

After a couple hours of taking pictures, I was pretty frazzled.  The girls and I went back to John & Jess' room where we proceeded to sip on some champagne and have an impromptu dance party.  Dancing around with them cured my frazzled nerves and it was one of the highlights of the whole day.

After the dance party with my girls I was more than ready for the ceremony.  The ceremony ended up being beautiful.  John was the best officiant I've ever heard and I've never seen Mike happier or more loving.  I couldn't believe how much I cried, but I was just too happy not to!  What an amazing memory, I'm so glad it went the way it did.

Walking down the aisle with my dad

I loved how simple our ceremony location was.  All it needed were some poms, perfect!

We started out playing it cool.

Then I started crying.

And being cool went out the window.

I tried really hard to get Mike's band on to no avail!

Husband & Wife!

Bippity Bopping down the aisle to Bruno Mars

Doing Ray's end of the aisle smooch

My favorite picture from the day

Benefit of having a tiny wedding, you can get all your guests in one picture!

I honestly don't remember much of the reception, but from what I hear everyone had a great time.  I didn't eat anything, but the food looked great, the cakes were amazing, the toasts were beautiful, and there were some funny drunk guests.  Success!!

Dad giving his beautiful toast

Cheers!

Me being weepy while Laura gave her toast.

Owen killed it with his funny toast.

Cake!

Bling!

Overall, it was a perfect day.  I will always nitpick things, especially pictures of me!, but I'm so happy with how it all turned out.  And now.....I'm married!  So weird!  I couldn't be happier though and am so glad to have started my married life and not have my own wedding to plan ever again!