A Wedding Whirlwind

Now that I'm back in the blogging world, let's rewind and recap the big event on June 11. You'll remember our long to-do list (that did all get done!), the vendors we worked with, the wedding nightmares, our DIY projects, banners, centerpieces, and favors, as well as the invitations, and the rings. Well, I'm happy to report that it all went according to plan. Literally. It all went perfectly. I'm not sure what percentage of that was my stellar planning skills, and how much was
just pure luck, but the day could not have been any better.

The weekend actually began on Thursday night, when out-of-town guests started to arrive. I remember being somewhat surprised when we walked into B's
parents' house for dinner that evening and a large group of his California relatives were there. Wow! I thought. This is it! This is actually happening! Somehow, seeing these relatives made me realize the reality of
the situation. And it only got better. I can honestly say that was the best part of the weekend--getting to see friends and family that we visit with so infrequently all there together to celebrate our big day.

I'm fairly certain that we had one of the biggest rehearsals ever to happen at GCPC. Since so much of our family was in town, they pretty much all showed up at the church, whether or not they actually had a role in the wedding.

The dinner was wonderful. Since we had originally wanted to have Spin! Pizza for our rehearsal dinner (long story...), the chef at the Doubletree agreed to go off their regular catering menu and whip up some flatbread pizzas for our party. Complemented with toasted rav, chicken fingers, fruit, and cookies, our "finger food" rehearsal dinner turned out fabulously.

Brandon's mom did these centerpieces--don't they look great? And now we have a plethora of bud vases left over. Good thing they're en vogue.

We used some time at the dinner to thank our wedding party and our parents. These gorgeous flower arrangements were done by our florist in these gorgeous vases from Macy's.

Our flower girls (all four of them!) got T-shirts from PersonalizationMall.com that say "I'm in Charge of the Petals", and our ring bearer's says "I'm in Charge of the Rings". The shirts are personalized with their names and the date. We even customized the hair color of the little character on the shirt. They turned out super-cute.

I gifted my bridesmaids with monogrammed tote bags from L.L. Bean (no longer available, but similar to these), as well as bedazzled "bridesmaid" t-shirts. And Brandon gave his groomsmen each a nice bottle of sustenance for the weekend.


That night, a bunch of our friends and cousins hung out at The Other Place. We love this group picture of so many of our favorite people at one of our favorite bars.

As I already mentioned, everything came together for a perfect wedding day. I feel so blessed that I remembered my earrings, got my hair done on time, and actually showed up to the wedding--all nightmares I was scared would come true.

Mom was the best at lacing up my dress. I'd say "Pull tighter!" and she'd yank and pull until I could hardly breathe. (My MOH did have to loosen it after dinner.)

These next few pictures are from our Private Reveal.

And these next couple show proof--we did it! We're married!

Our one bad wedding decision? Birdseed. After being pelted with those hard little orbs, I had birdseed wedged in every crease and crevice of my dress, glued in the hairspray in my up-do, and even down my dress, staining the skin of my stomach. Oh, and I forgot to mention that somebody didn't even open the bag first. Yeah, really...

In the end, our centerpieces turned out great, the Dairy Queen ice cream cake was a huge hit, my DIY banners and place cards were bright and colorful.




So, there it is folks. Our wedding in a whirlwind of a blog post. Don't worry--it was that much of a whirlwind for me, too. Last night, we finished our last batch of thank-you notes (I know, we took a little too long. Sorry, Miss Manners.), and I completed making our 75-page wedding album on Shutterfly. Those were the last of our wedding-related tasks to be completed, so I guess it's officially over.

The good news is that now I'll be one of those women who, looking back over the years, will be able to say, "Our wedding was perfect. It was the happiest day of my life." And I'll really mean it.

P.S. We purchased the rights to all of our photographs from RVR Photography, but I'd still like to offer them kudos and a huge THANK YOU for the beautiful images. Not all of these in this post are theirs, but some are.