Wedding ABC's

I saw this on another blog and thought it was a fun idea.  So in honor of our 4th wedding anniversary, here are our wedding ABC's.

Attending:

Our venue could only hold 200, so I stuck with that number.  I invited something like 198 guests.  Some guests only were able to make it to the wedding and not the ceremony.  I don't know what the exact count was there.  The reception was suppose to have around 170, but some people RSVP'd and then didn't show up.  (Don't get me started on that!)

Bridesmaids:

I had one maid of honor (my sister Angella), one matron of honor (my cousin Erica), and 4 bridesmaids--my cousin Sonja, my college roommate Amanda, my roommate and co-teacher Laurie and friend Kristin.

 Catering:

We had to use the catering at the venue we chose.  We had a cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres on the patio and then a buffet style meal.  Honestly, I don't know how the food was because I didn't eat much of it.

The cake was from a local lady who worked out of her home.  I got her information from theknot.com

 I was a little irritated that she put the monogram on wrong (and I couldn't switch it because the M had two prongs and the B only had one).  You'd think a cake lady would know... but I'm sure no one else noticed.  I blinged out the cake topper myself! :)  It was a small cake because I don't like cake.  It was basically just for cutting and for saving the top.  It was half coconut with pineapple mouse and half chocolate with chocolate filling. We had a cheesecake buffet with different toppings for our guests.

Dress:

My dress was the one thing my mom purchased.  We got it from David's Bridal.  I think it's very "me".  I always knew I wanted something that was big and poofy at the bottom.  I know that's not for everyone, but with my body type it's what I wanted.  I felt beautiful, but still comfortable.  That was important to me.  I didn't want to feel self conscious about my body.

 (I don't have any of those dress-hanging-on-the-back-of-a-door pictures.)
The dress came with a train or without a train.  I chose to go without a train.

Engagement:

We got engaged on June 25, 2006 after just two and a half short months of dating.  Crazy, I know!

We got engaged at Inniswoods Metro Gardens in Westerville, Ohio and then later had our engagement pictures taken there.

 The exact spot we got engaged--in the gazebo.

Flowers:

I was on a budget.  I wanted real flowers for my bouquet, but didn't want to break the bank.  I'm not a huge flower person (as in knowing names)--I just have a few favorites.  One that I knew I wanted to use were gerber daisies.  My other favorite flower is a stargazer lily.  I found a great (and inexpensive) florist through theknot.com and went to her.  We added in roses because they were a cheaper filler.  I like roses anyway, so it worked for me.  My bouquet had the three types of flowers and the bridesmaids had the same minus the lilies.  We actually used starfighter lilies instead of stargazer because the color was a little darker and matched my color theme better.

I loved it!  It's very me.  I wanted fun, not stuffy.

The only other real flowers I used were two huge displays at the alter that later got transferred to the reception and decorated the buffet table.  I used a lot of candles at the church and also at the reception.  I had two different center pieces using fake rose petals and also candles in the windows.

Groomsmen:

Michael had one best man (Phil) and five groomsmen--Jason, Tommy, Danny F., Danny S (his cousin) and Aaron.  He's known Danny F and Aaron since middle school and then went to high school with all the rest (including his cousin).  How rare is that...to still be best friends with the people you met in 9th grade?!?

Yes, half our groomsmen were giants. :)

The grooms cake was made by the same lady who made our cake.  We had it at the rehearsal dinner.

Honeymoon:

We went on a cruise to the Bahamas.

We swam with dolphins, scuba dived (ok, Michael did.  I laid on a hammock!), and went parasailing.  We had a great time.

Invitations:

I don't have a picture of our invitations.  They were pretty basic.  I printed them (and the escort cards) myself.  I do have a picture of the invites I sent to the girls for our morning brunch (and schedule).

Sorry the picture isn't the best--it's from back before I had a digital camera.

Isn't it cute though?  I love the matching envelope.  Yep-made that too! :)

Justice of the Peace:

My uncle Dennis married us.  He is my godfather and from a teenager I said he would be the one to marry me.  We had to jump through some hoops--it's hard to find a church these days that lets you bring your own pastor.  Plus, he's not licensed in the state of Ohio.  Someone else had to sign the marriage license.  All in all it worked out.  It was important to me and is one of the many special elements/details of our day that make me happy.

Keepsakes:

I'm not sure I have any keepsakes?  I have things from my wedding, sure.  I'm just not sure there is anything I would label a keepsake.

Ladies night:

Since half of my bridal party lived out of state, my bachelorette party was pretty small.  I'm not much of a "partier" in the traditional bachelorette kind of way, so it all worked out.  The few of us that were there had a great time.

Music:

My nephews played the violins while guests were being seated.  The ceremony music was all on C.D.  One of the moms of two former students of mine sang.  The song I chose was actually a duet, so she sang with her step-dad.  They sing a lot together in church and she said it would be a good fit.  I loved the song and I thought they did a great job.  We had a deejay for the reception.

Newlyweds:

I don't know what this one means?  I don't think we are considered newlyweds anymore.  I think we were great newlyweds though.  Everyone says the first year is the hardest.  I thought it was pretty easy.  I remember saying often, "If this is the hardest, then we are in for one easy ride."

 Old, New, Borrowed, Blue:

Old was a handkerchief that my aunt had given me when I was a teenager.  She brought it back from one of her travels (I can't remember where at the moment).  I carried it with me.  New was my dress, shoes, and jewelry.  Borrowed was my cousin's veil.  Blue was on the bottom of my shoes.

   (Once again, sorry for the poor picture quality.  I had yet to steal Michael's camera :)

Photography:

I really liked our photographer.  Turns out, he's from Wisconsin! :)  Photographers are so expensive! I found a lady I liked online.  I emailed her and she was not available on our day.  She gave me two recommendations.  One of them didn't return my email, so he was out.  We met with Chris at his studio (he does more commercial photography for work).  We saw examples.  He was willing to work with our budget, gave us a discount if we paid in cash, AND threw in our engagement pictures for free.  I didn't want all the stuffy you stand here with this person and you stand here with that person.  I wanted him to capture the day.  I think he did a great job.  Oh, and I loved that I got two photo albums of the proofs (that don't say PROOF all over them) and then the C.D. with rights to print whatever we want.

Question popping:

Isn't this the same as engagement?  He asked me on Sunday morning, June 25th.  After church we went to the park.  It was close to our church and we had already been talking about our wedding.  He said we should check it out and see if we wanted to get our wedding pictures taken there.  We walked around a little bit and he asked if anything looked good to me.  We were by a gazebo and I said that it would be cool to take pictures in the circle of the gazebo.  Then, he popped the question.

  Reception:

Our reception was at Bent Tree Golf Club in Sunbury.  Really, I chose that place because it was the only place we could afford.  It was nice though.  My only complaint is that it was SO hot.  They must have been having air conditioning problems, because someone went to a wedding there a few weeks after mine and said it was comfortable.  Oh well.  Everything can't be perfect.

All my EU friends at the cocktail hour

The bridal party came in to the Price is Right theme song-name tags and all-and did something funny (or where suppose to anyway...we had a few bumps on a log!)

I'm pretty sure everyone was laughing and having a good time, which was my goal.

We came in to the Ohio State fight song.  I love this picture.  It cracks me up!

Michael and I took dance lessons and danced our first choreographed dance to Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts.

Check out that perfect form

After that, we ate, did the cake cutting, did the father/daughter dance (to My Wish by Rascal Flatts), and then danced the night away!

 

Michael actually dancing... one of the only songs he danced to :)  He didn't even want dancing at our wedding, but he did it for me.

Looks fun, huh?  Yep... it was! :)

Shoes:

I don't have any pictures of just my shoes.  They were from David's Bridal.  I literally bought them because they were the right height.  My dress didn't need to be altered at all.  I liked them though.  They had bling.

Trash the dress:

I didn't do this.  My dress is currently in a cedar closet at my bosses house.  It still needs to be cleaned.  My spray tan melted right off in the heat! :)

Unique:

I think lots of things about my wedding were unique.  I did what I wanted to do and didn't do what I didn't want to do--no matter how traditional.  I made everything myself and planned everything on my own, down to the very last detail.  Some you've already seen.  Others:

I made the rose and lime displays (4) the morning of the wedding.  

Our guest book was a scrapbook

Instead of bubbles or bird seed, I made these wands with bells on them

 I dyed my crinoline pink

The church we got married at had a rule that you had to have an aisle runner... so I painted mine.  You can't see the green very well, but it had a little border too.

Then it got cut and hung up behind our head table

Genius, right? :)

Vows:

Our vows were traditional with a twist.  I found some online with wording I liked better than the traditional ones, so that's what we used.

Wedding Woes:

I didn't really have any.  Everything went pretty well.

X-rated:

Again, I don't know what this is suppose to mean?  There was nothing x-rated.  We didn't even do the whole garter thing.  I'm not a fan.

Young kids:

My youngest niece Hannah was my flower girl.

My ring bearer was a little boy that I taught named Jeffery.  I also taught his older sister, so there was some history with the family.  This was my way of tying in being a teacher to my wedding day.

Seriously, isn't he the cutest?!

Zzzz:

We stayed and partied until it was time to close down the reception.

This is one of the last pictures of the night.  You can tell I partied hard.  My hair is falling out of it's do.  I am tired, hot, and sweaty.  I love the look on Michael's face in this one.  Such adoration.

We had a great day.  I get told even to this day that our wedding was one of the most fun people have been to.  Everything was done by me, and I had a blast doing it.  I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.  (To the same groom, of course!)

Happy Anniversary Love!