Wedding Wednesday | The Details

Today we're going to take a closer look at some of the small details that would have gone unremembered had our amazing photographers not captured them!

My wedding dress was from David's Bridal and cost a whopping $400! And I'm SO happy I didn't spend a fortune on it, because it ended up getting destroyed during the reception. One day I'm going to make a wedding shadowbox and I'm going to cut off the top part (under the beading) to use as the background. I just don't understand how women get so attached to their dress. And yes I wore pink TOM shoes :)

A better look at the personalized wedding hanger I ordered! One of my favorite things from the wedding :) I plan on adding it to the shadowbox as well.

My jewelry- the necklace was my great-grandma's and my grandparents bought the earrings as a shower gift.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent putting together the ceremony programs! They turned out beautifully, but I'm glad they're the only thing I really spent a lot of time on because half of the guests didn't even get one!

We decided to get a cake for the bridal party and cupcakes for the rest of the guests. Our take looked (and tasted!) amazing :) Of course T got a Star Wars groom cake that said May the Force be with You as well in Cherry Chip lol

Our invitations and toasting flutes! :)

A close up of my bouquet and our rings! My flowers weren't the best, but to be honest I didn't really care.

And there's a few small details that made our wedding even better :)

Wedding Wednesday | Reception

Here I am the week after our wedding anniversary and I'm STILL recapping our wedding. Thankfully I only have three more installments- reception, little details, and our professional photo album and I'm posting them all this week! Reception today, the little details tomorrow, and the album on Saturday :) So stay tuned!

 The wedding party walked into the reception to the Star Wars anthem LOL

 A Polish wedding tradition-

 Haha I think this picture is hilarious, because my shot was just water and I still choked on it!

 Cutting the cake

 The toast given by one of Thomas' best friends

 First Dance

We danced to You're Still the One by Shania Twain :)

 Grandfather-Granddaughter dance

We danced to Isn't she Lovely by Stevie Wonder

 Mother-Son dance

They danced to ...

 Garter removal

My husband is such a goof haha

 Bouquet toss

Erica, the girl on the far right in the red caught it :)

And of course there was a lot of dancing going on ;)

Wedding Wednesday | The Ceremony

I'm back this Wednesday with another chunk of wedding pictures! I can't believe that we're only 10 days away from our first wedding anniversary! This past year has definitely flown by and I don't see things slowing down anytime soon. I can't say I mind though- I enjoy being busy and having fun things to do. Now onto the ceremony pictures..

 The husband making his way down the aisle!

 The girls, Grandpa, and I waiting for our turn.

 Grandpa and I <3

 My cousin Leah read an excerpt from Richard Bach's Bridge Across Forever

"A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life."

 It was SO HOT! You can see me squinting because the sun was in my eyes and if you look closely you can see sweat dripping down T's chin.

 Instead of a Unity Candle we did Unity Sand with our wedding colors. The vases are really nice quality and it looks good displayed in the house.

 "You may now kiss the bride!"

Mr & Mrs!

I am so thankful that we all got through the ceremony without anyone fainting! It was a record breaking weather day and anytime we see any guests from the wedding they mention how hot it was haha

Wedding Wednesday | First Look

Early on in the wedding planning process it was evident that due to time constraints we needed to have a first look moment before the wedding ceremony and man oh man I am so glad we did! I can't tell you how much that moment calmed my nerves and set the tone for rest of the night. I am an extremely shy person when in large groups and around people I don't know very well. So let's just say the thought of 150+ peoples eyes being locked on me terrified me! Having this moment just to ourselves was so special and I can feel exactly how I did in that moment by just looking at these pictures.

Now I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking ;)

I didn't know what to do with my hands lol

One of my favorite pictures from the entire day & T says "it looks like I'm farting"

Ah, Fox Hills was such a beautiful location and our photographers (Northstar Photography) were so, so, so amazing!

Wedding Wednesday | Bridal Party

This weeks pictures are of our awesome bridal party! T and I were so lucky to have our closest friends stand up with us at the wedding and so thankful for all of their help. We even had a special guest- T's closest friend from the Army attended the wedding and we were so happy we could include him in a few pictures!

 The guys

 The ladies

 A huge bonus for getting married on a golf course- golf carts!!! We had so much fun in these and wish we had more time!

 The whole group

 One of my favorite pictures from the entire day! I can't wait to frame it and hang it up one day!

Of course I wasn't following the "rules" and looked at the camera.. everyone else was doing what they're supposed to.

I sort of feel like I'm "cheating" these recaps, because I'm not going into super detail, but it's the only way I can stay on top of posting these. And I really want to have them all posted by our anniversary which is in THREE weeks! Maybe one day I'll have time to come back and edit these entries to make them more in depth ;)

Honeymoon Recap

We decided on a 5 day Western Caribbean Carnival cruise for our honeymoon and it was the perfect choice! I have previously been on two cruises with my family and LOVED them. I also think they're the best bang for your buck. It wasn't hard to convince T when he saw how affordable they are either.

We flew to Tampa the day before our sail date as a precaution- don't want to miss your cruise due to a delayed plane. We stayed at Chase Suite Hotel with their Snooze n Cruise package. It was a great hotel- way more than we needed, clean, nice pool, they provided a free shuttle service, and was located right next to Bahama Breeze which is one of my favorite restaurants and where we ate dinner! We thought about going to Clearwater for the day, but it would've cost way too much for a taxi so we just hung out by the pool.

Wedding Wednesday | Girls Getting Ready

The entire bridal party got ready at a hotel near the wedding site- the girls in one room and the boys in another. Due to bad planning we didn't get as many getting ready pictures as I would have liked- none of the boys :( but that's okay. So as a piece of advice for any girls currently planning make sure you schedule enough time with the photographers to take pictures before hand. I am very pleased with the pictures we did get though!

The first stop of the day was to the hair salon! Colleen has styled my hair for all of my high school dances so it was only fitting that she did my wedding too ;)

A couple of the bridesmaids and I went to Clinique to get our make up done!

Waiting around the hotel room before the photographers got there!

Dun.. dun. dun.

Earrings

My great-grandma's real pearl necklace <3

Army garter

Touching up the lipstick!

Staying hydrated! Man I miss that "tan"!!

Me and my girls watching the boys walk in!

Wedding Wednesday | Wedding Rehearsal & Dinner

First off I want to say that when I was looking through these pictures last night I became so nostalgic. I miss my freckles and summer and wearing dresses and the entire weekend. It was so perfect and I decided that I want to have a party every year mimicking it (minus the cost)!

The rehearsal took place at our venue the night before and it was a lot of fun not to mention beautiful! I definitely felt a lot more calm afterwards and I'm glad we decided to do it. 

 The future hubs and myself.

My grandpa and I... I definitely should not have worn this dress and I should have at least done my hair! UGH!

 Bossing people around ;)

Tada!

 Hahaha I love this picture! I was saying "No turning back I got you now!!" Also notice my brother (in the yellow) pouting.. it was an emotional day for him.

As soon as the rehearsal was over we headed to a pizza pub/restaurant for buffet style pizza, salad, and pop! It was so delicious!! :)

Some of our bridal party with their gifts- the guys got engraved beer mugs and the girls got a necklace/earring set.

And this would be my pizza :)

The bridesmaids!

The groomsmen (except T's cousin Matt couldn't make it).

The whole group!