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Recap: The Ceremony

It's around one, two days before the wedding, and I'm sitting in my parents living room staring at a computer screen. In front of me is an absolute jumble of meaningful sentiments I want to say to David in our vows. I had tried a few drafts. On draft 1, I was definitely trying to hard to sound smart and funny. It seemed disingenuous. Or hokey. Yes, I'd say it was somehow both gag-inducingly sappy and incredibly fake sounding all at once. So, scrap that. Draft 2? Well, draft 2 would have taken up half the ceremony.

So here I was with draft number 3. And what did I do? I scrapped the whole thing. Select, right-click, cut. I started from square one, and you know what? It was pretty good. It was waaay easier than I was making it. I was trying to tell a whole story! What I needed to do was make a promise. And that's exactly what I did. =)

Now, let's jump ahead to June 10th around 6:30...or something. I didn't have anything that told time and I was too busy vibrating off the floor to ask anybody. All of our wedding party was lined up with me ready to go down the aisle except David, who was already in the front of the church. I had so much adrenaline coursing through me that I could hardly form a coherent thought. I remember talking to my sister a lot....not sure what I said though...I'm sure I was just constantly repeating myself. People started filing in and my dad was suddenly there to take my arm.

The music changed to "Till There Was You" and the doors swung open. I didn't cry (although David was crying, which ALMOST made me cry) but I did get a weird tick that I tend to get when I'm on stage: I smile SO big my bottom lip trembles like crazy! That's okay, I figured that would happen.

I had both sets of parents stand up and "give their blessing and support" instead of just having mine "give me away" because I'm like that, lol.

My father moving my blusher back

My mother fixing said blusher because dad left it crumply in the back, hehe.

Our Unity Ceremony

Now, as part of our ceremony we did a variation of hand-fasting. In the most traditional sense, the ancient Celts would have everyone present at the wedding tie a cord around the couples' hands. Now, we had a big, big guest list so this was not an option, hehe. Instead, we had everyone in our wedding party tie a ribbon around our hands and then had our parents tie a larger ribbon around the others. For those that are curious, here's what our minister said:

"To the friends and family of this couple, you are an important part of David and Erin’s lives. Their interactions are colored by your thought and words.  You have a responsibility to one another and to this couple to be supportive, understanding, and honest.  On this day of their marriage I charge you to temper all of your dealings with love. To symbolize the support you give this union, and the accountability you will provide to this vow, we will now have a knot tying ceremony."

 

When our parents got up there at the end to tie all the ribbons together, my mother calmly explained that they didn't actually have the final ribbon to tie them all together, so they were just gonna fake it! C'est la vie! When they had finished faking the ribbon tie, the minister said:

"Up until this moment you have been separate in thought, word and deed. But, as your hands are tied together, so shall your lives become intertwined. May this 'Love Knot' always be a reminder of the binding together of two hands, two hearts, and two souls into one, for all the days of your lives."

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had my friend and wedding party member sing during this ceremony. She and our accompanist, Will, put together a beautiful arrangement of "Always" that didn't leave a dry eye in the house.

All-in-all, the ceremony was absolutely fabulous. I can't tell you all the details because it's a bit foggy in my mind; but I can tell you that I felt like I was on top of the world for that half hour. It was almost surreal as I stood up there holding David's hands. In fact, I couldn't really think of anything else. Just big happy balloon letters in my head that spelled out IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!

Recap: Group Shots!

When we got done with our couple portraits, we headed back to hang with the gang as they got ready for the group shots!

The girls getting ready.....

The guys getting ready....

Oh, and this photo. I love it.

Now, as I've mentioned before, our sides were not actually divided boy-girl (although we took some pics this way).

David had three girls on his side: (childhood friends):

this is one of his faves, I had to include it

And I had two guys on my side: (One of my besties from college and my little brother)

We took all kinds of combos!

the guys!

the ladies!

protecting my hair from the wind

sisters!

David and his ladies

David and aaaall the ladies

me and the guys

Brothers!

My favorites were ones were everyone was all together!

Next...the ceremony! Are you ready??

Recap: The Accessories!

Before we move onto to bigger things, I wanted to give a quick shout out to my old, new, borrowed, and blue! (and the other little accessories!)

First up, the blue. Yes, I know. I've mentioned them in like, three other posts or something, BUT I just love my blue shoes! Frilly and custom-made, they just make me so giddy! Remember: OxfordHeaven on Etsy!

Now for the something old. This necklace was my grandmother's. She and my grandfather passed away within a few months of each other last year. This was a gift from him to her.

I also had her brooch on my bouquet.

My headpiece was a pearl and rhinestone combo that we got from San Moon (Texas peeps know it!). It's like an accessory warehouse. It beat the heck out of the price for one at one of the boutiques!

Another BIG bargain I got was my veil blusher combo which I got secondhand (def a great way to go for this one. Veils are PRICEY!)

Side-note: this is one of my FAVORITE pics.

Another thing about my veil. I had this weird, weird notion that David shouldn't see me in my veil until the ceremony. I think it was a way to kind of justify my decision to do the first look. David wouldn't get the "full effect" until I was walking down the aisle! That was....cool, I guess... But now, I hardly have any pictures of me in this veil! It's probably my main regret of the day. 

Aaaanywho

My "Something Borrowed" was part of the reception, so we'll get to that when we get to it! ^_^ Next up: Group Shots!

Recap Part 2: The First Look

Truth: This post is mainly just pictures.

So, I was originally opposed to the whole "first look" thing. As evident by my posts, I'm selectively traditional. I tend to be traditional when it is no longer mainstream. Yes, I know. I'm just being contrary. Everyone was doing a first look, so I decided it was going to be important to me to have the first time my groom saw me was walking down the aisle. Well, eventually I stopped being silly I realized the practicality of it all. Basically getting pictures done *before* the wedding so we could hit up the reception ASAP. Since we didn't have a cocktail hour, we didn't want to have everyone waiting around while we snapped all our portraits. So, I gave in. And you know what? Traditional or not, I think the pictures are some of my absolute favorites. =)

And David still cried when I came down the aisle, so, don't let anyone use that argument to deter you if you want a first look. =) Oh, and here's some pics we took shortly after our first look!

Recap Part 1!

I expected to wake up Christmas-morning style, but that wasn't the case. I was actually a nervous mess! Not so much for the commitment--I've never had a problem with that part. It was just that about a year of planning, weeks of dieting, hours writing and rewriting vows, and around 250 guests were all compiling into one evening! There was too much to even wrap my head around! I tried not to think about it all too much. After all, there was actually very little I had to personally do. My wedding was now in the good hands of my mother and friends!

I went with my mom to go get my hair and make up done. Some may call this risky because I have never even met this woman before--let alone done any "trial run." However, things turned out magnificently. Honestly, I wasn't too nervous about it. Hair down, simple make up. No worries, right? Right! ^_^ (luckily) The time getting pampered let me relax a bit. What really got me chill was the first official thing to go wrong. Weird, right? My cake maker texted to say she wanted the cake to set a bit longer before moving. No biggie. She texted me a picture of it sitting in her fridge. Now, I cannot lay 100% blame on her at all, because I never really checked on the design details (just the flavors and the shape/size) but my "blue" was very....not. It did have blue on it. But, the thing is, I just didn't care! Yeah, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was beautiful. Why should such a thing matter right now? No one would think any less. And just like that I was totally cool. It just snapped things in perspective for me!

See? Beautiful. Color seemed like such a silly thing to fuss about. I never even mentioned it to her!

After getting dolled up, I travelled to the venue while my mother and some bridesmaids stayed at the salon getting their hair done. Just as a note, I was very passive about the hair situation. I said that they were free to do it however they pleased, and I certainly didn't intend for them to go out of their way and go to a hairdresser. However, a lot of the girls did anyhow! Oh well. They all looked fabulous!

Here I am waiting with some of the girls. My sister there in the purple shorts did a lot of other girls' make up. She's awesome! She did it for my bridals, too.

My mother gathered up some munchies and emergency supplies, which was fantastic. And my sister also did me a solid supplying me with that wonderful Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper. =)

Then it was time for the dress! My mom and sister helped me squeeze in!

Love this shot from our photographer. =D

Then I was ready for our FIRST LOOK! Oh, and the Mr. was getting ready too, at this time....

!!!!!FIRST LOOK COMING SOON!!!!!

By the way, if you click the pics you can see them all big and pretty now!

I'm BACK, Baby!

Okay guys. I didn't die. David didn't die. We didn't cancel our wedding. I just fell off the blogging wagon. I fell long and hard. BUT. I'm back! And I'm going to fill you in on how our big fat budget wedding went! (Here's a hint: it went GREAT!)

First, I want to introduce you to our centerpieces! I have never mentioned this to y'all because, no lie, my mother told me not to! But, here it is now!

The classic, French country look of toile let me work a good vintage angle in on my cobalt color scheme! Although, I have to admit, at some point, my wedding went from "vintage" to "waaaay vintage." My original train of thought was somewhere like 1950's glam, but somewhere between ruffled shoes and lacy dress, I because entranced with the indulgent style of Marie Antoinette. Nothing quite says "go hog wild" in a classier way than French aristocracy. So, I ran with that little French flair! It was hardly a theme wedding! Think of it as an accent! A French accent. (hehehe)

Early on we decided to use toile on the tables. It was my mother's idea and I loved it! I mentioned that it wasn't a very commonly used pattern currently and she immediately went into defense mode! My mother said to keep it a secret! Haha, she's so cute. She was SUPER committed to making my wedding special and she knew that I was big into making things "unique" *eyeroll on my part* (I've already talked about my unique obsession in an earlier post).

But, back to the tables. We scrounged around yard sales, resale stores, and ROSS to find tons of cheap toile pieces! Ross was, in fact, the best place to find these! We also used cobalt glass on the tables, which we both bought and borrowed. The place to get them was Jo-ann's Fabric! They were super cheap--like 3 bucks for the big ones!

The candles were an easy and mega cheap DIY! All it took was dollar store glasses and pillar candles (they were coconut, but I never noticed the sent! Haha!), two different ribbons, and craft glue!

We set one of each (in most cases) on a bunched (and un-hemmed) yard of sheen cornflower fabric!

These flowers were bought wholesale and put together by my WONDERFUL personal wedding team of my mother and her friends. I couldn't be more thankful for all their hard work! Didn't it turn out just amazing??