Wedding ABCs

We are back at home and are settling in to married life. We had several friends that were unable to make the trip to Alabama for the wedding, so I thought I’d post an update here. Before we get started, I should warn you that this is long. I should also give you a heads up that the “ABCs” were taken from a blog belonging to a friend of a friend. Who am I kidding; none of you thought I was creative enough to come up with this. I promise to, or at least try not to, include a picture with every letter. You can read about the whole wedding after the jump. Enjoy!

Attending: We had almost 275 people in attendance. My little church was packed full. Although there were lots of hands to shake and people to hug, we were so glad to be able to spend the day with all our friends and family.

Bridal Party: I had 8 bridesmaids. My childhood friend Haley was my Maid of Honor. I also had 5 other childhood friends (Whitney, Erin, Megan, Julie, & Michelle) and 2 college friends/sorority sisters (Leanne and Jessica). Steve had 8 groomsmen. His brother David was his best man. The other groomsmen included my brother (Ethan), his 3 college roommates (Kenny, Kent, & Mike), and 3 of his friends from Marquette/ROTC (Isaac, Tyler, and Rob). In addition to the bridal party, we also had some close friends serve as ushers. They were all friends of Steve’s from Marquette ROTC: Joe, Pete, Luke, Adam, and Mike.

Ceremony: We were married at Central Heights Baptist Church. It’s the church I grew up in and the church my parents, grandparents, aunt/uncle, and cousins still attend. It is very special to me. I always knew I’d get married there, but luckily over the past few years it has had a major face lift complete with beautiful new stained glass windows shipped over from an old church in England.

Dress: My dress was the second dress I purchased. I bought a beautiful one shortly after our engagement but I didn’t put a lot of thought into it. It was a very pretty ivory dress with lace trim, but to be honest it didn’t really “look” like me. After much consideration (and Mother and Daddy’s blessing) I started my search again. I found my actual wedding dress at Cherry Tree Lane in Florence. As soon as I put it on, I knew it was THE dress. I didn’t have that feeling with the first one. I loved everything about my dress…including the pockets!

Engagement: Steve proposed on December 22, 2010 at 5am. I know this because I was up getting ready to head to airport and when I came out of the bathroom, he was standing there. Since it was so early, I wasn’t expecting him to be awake and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Even though I was wearing a towel and my hair was wet, it was perfect! We ended up having a lengthy engagement in order to avoid crappy weather (super hot and really cold), his brother’s wedding, and football season. It was certainly worth it since I was able to spread out the planning; and Mother and Daddy were able to stretch out the check writing.

Flowers: Our flowers were done by Cindy Harrison. I know little to nothing about flowers. My only request was that she use various purple hues and after that she just ran with it. She used some purple tulips in my bouquet, which made me happy. Also, entwined in the stems of my bouquet was my “something old,” my maternal grandfather’s Purple Heart that he earned after being shot and held as a POW in Korea for 18 months. He passed away when I was young, so I never developed a close relationship with him, so it was special for my mom to have part of her father there on my big day.

Grub: Amy’s Cakes and Catering did the catering and our desserts. I was so busy running around that I barely got to eat anything. Some of the food we had included marinated chicken skewers, BBQ sliders, little puffs with various fillings, and a mashed potato bar. For my cake with chose a 4 tiered white cake with lemon curd filling and buttercream icing. It was decorated with a fan design in two shades of purple with hydrangeas on top. Instead of a groom’s cake, we chose to do mini apple pies, pecan pies, and cheesecakes. I think it was a huge hit and a nice treat for Steve since he doesn’t love cake.

Honeymoon: We were so thankful Uncle Sam allowed us to take a honeymoon. We travelled to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. We had a wonderful and relaxing 8 days at the Excellence Resort. We spent time laying out on the beach and by the pool, ate great food at all 8 restaurants at the resort, went horseback riding, saw a really lame disco show, and even had a “War Eagle” moment!

Invitations: I do not have the words to express how grateful I am for our stationer. From the first day I stepped into her store with my binder and 1000 ideas, she was fantastic to work with. We had two types of invitations: our out of town guests received a gray envelope containing a white pocket including a 3 layer (white, gray and purple) invitation, directions, reception card, website card, and RSVP card. The pocket was wrapped in a purple band and sealed with a square containing our names superimposed over a fleur de lis. Local guests (and those familiar with Florence) received the 3 layer invitation and RSVP card.

Justice of the Peace: In Steve’s family, there is no shortage of ministers. His father and 4 of his uncles are all Lutheran ministers. We were happy to have Steve’s father presiding.

Keepsakes: At our reception, we had cards for guests to sign and hang on a tree. We also had a photo booth that printed out 2 copies of the photos – one for the guest and one for us. We plan to put both the photos and cards in a wedding scrapbook. We opted not to do favors for our guests. We took the money we would have spent on favors and made a donation in honor of our friends and family in the military to The Fisher House Foundation, which is kind of like the Ronald McDonald House of VA and DOD medical facilities.

Ladies Night: I was fortunate enough to get to spend one of my last weekends as a single girl in Nashville with some of my closest friends. On Friday night, we kicked off the celebration at Sambuco. On Saturday, we spent the day drinking mimosas, brunching, and shopping. On Saturday, we had dinner at the Hutton, where we were staying. After dinner, they threw me a fun lingerie shower, and then we hit the town. We stayed at a random karaoke bar all night, where I continued to jump on stage when I heard a song I liked and hijacked the performance. I ended up leading the bar in USA chant after singing “Proud to be an American” (Steve would have died).

Music: Since the 5^th grade, I’ve had my heart set on my childhood pastor performing my wedding ceremony. However, Steve’s father ended up officiating. Lucky for me, Brother Mike and his wife Deb are super talented musicians. Still set on their participation, I asked them to be our musicians. She played the piano and he played the guitar. We opted for music that was non-traditional in a wedding sense, but was still appropriate for a church wedding. At the reception, we had a DJ so we were assured to have lots of options to dance to (aside from the typical dance songs, which I outlawed from the get-go).

Newlyweds: After returning from our honeymoon we began the task of unpacking, washing, and finding a place for all our wedding gifts. It took some motivation since in August we’ll be packing it all up for our move to GA, unpacking for 6 months, the repacking and heading out to who knows where. Being married is so wonderful, although marrying into the military comes with scads of paperwork, I’m enjoying every minute of it.

Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue: My something old was my grandfather’s purple heart, which I entwined into my bouquet. My something new included my purple Kate Spade wedding shoes and my new multi-strand, seed pearl necklace from my parents. While I loved my necklace, it threw a kink in my something borrowed plans. I had planned to borrow my friend Maddie’s necklace. Thankfully I caught her before she left DC and she brought me her beautiful pearl bracelet to wear. I wore an aquamarine ring given to me by my parents as my something blue. Instead of a sixpence in my shoe, I used a penny minted the year my Granny was born that she had carried. She passed it down to my Aunt Lynn and my cousin Alyssa for use at their weddings. Alyssa passed it on to me and it was a special way to have my Granny, Granddaddy, and Aunt Lynn with me on my big day.

Photography: Kristen Borden of Alabella Photography did an amazing job capturing all the happenings on our wedding day. She and her assistant Sarah were super easy to work with, focused on taking the shots we wanted, and were even successful at getting Steve to smile in uniform…not an easy task.

Quintessential Moment: My favorite moment of the day was our “first look.” Steve waited for me on the balcony of our reception site. Once we were alone (well us and the photographer), I read the card he had written. Steve is a man of few words, but he had filled the inside of the card with the sweetest, most heartfelt words I’ve ever read. Let’s just say, my makeup had to be touched up.

Reception: Finding a reception venue in the Shoals area is a little tricky. With the wedding being outside the city limits, I knew the reception would have to be in the heart of Florence to keep people from having to drive all over creation. This crossed off all 3 country clubs. The Marriott was out from the get go due to high cost and lack of options. We settled on Pickett Place, a home formerly owned by a Civil War colonel. It’s now owned by the wife of one of the surgeons that works with my dad. It’s a beautiful home filled with period furniture. She recently built an addition, nixing the need for a tent and providing an option for rain. It was a beautiful venue that needed very little decoration and provided a great backdrop for our pictures and the fun celebration that took place.

Songs: For our wedding music, we chose “Edelweiss” from the Sound of Music for the seating of the mothers and my grandmother. The bridal party entered to “Blackbird” by the Beatles. I came down the aisle to the theme from Forest Gump – the piano song playing while the feather is floating through the air. We exited the church to “L-O-V-E,” the Michael Buble version. Since neither of us are dancers, we invited everyone to join us for our “first dance.” We chose Adele’s version of Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love.”

Traditions: While we didn’t follow many traditions, we didn’t really go outside of the box either. Steve did follow military tradition and he wore his dress blues. We also had the traditional military sword arch as we exited the church. The Marines march out in formation, draw swords then we exit through them. Once we got to the last set of swords the guys lowered them and announced we had to “kiss to pass.” After we kissed they raised their swords and we continued. As soon as we past them, the Marine (Mike) on my side swatted me on the butt with the sword and said, “Welcome to the Marine Corps, ma’am.” It was so neat and I’m so glad we were able to include even more special people in our wedding.

Unique: At our reception we had a photo booth with all kinds of props. It printed out a copy for the guests to keep and one for us to keep. Looking back through the pictures the next day was so funny. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and we have some great memories to look back on!

Vows and Readings: We opted to stick with the traditional vows and luckily I was able to keep my eyes dry while reciting them. We chose readings from the Old and New Testament, and the Gospel. My college friend JD read the passage from Ruth and my friend from DC, Madeline, read the passage from Ecclesiastes. Steve’s father read the Gospel.

Wedding Planning: I did almost all of the planning myself for several reasons: 1) I had plenty of time on my hands and 2) I tend to be a control freak. Thankfully, my dear friend Maddie was always around to help smooth over a crisis or provide input. My mother was also a huge help; running errands and checking in on things since she was in Alabama and I wasn’t. We only hit a few snags, most notably prom season. I didn’t even factor prom into the equation and every limo/nice cars within a 2 hour radius was booked. Since there weren’t any limos/nice cars available, the bridal party ended up carpooling and we ended up leaving in an interesting ride, but I’ll get to that…

X-rated: I bought a cute garter with a fleur de lis on it, but after 5 minutes in the thing I just couldn’t stand it. I took it off and didn’t even wear it during the ceremony. We also totally forgot to throw the garter or bouquet at the reception. Oops.

Your Getaway: Oh goodness, here we go…I was in search of a vintage car to leave our reception in but they were all booked up due to prom season. I was discussing this issue with my Mother and Nana, when Nana decided to make it her mission to find us a car. She found one – a 1951 convertible Mercury. I googled this car and found all kinds of beautiful pictures; cars in red, black, teal, blue. At 5pm the Thursday evening before the wedding, she tells me that she’s seen the car and it’s beautiful. Then she tells me it’s yellow…with purple flames. I lost it and started freaking out; of course Steve didn’t consider this to be an issue. I was still upset about it on the day of the wedding, but there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. Everyone, except me, got a kick out of the car. Hopefully in 10 years it’ll be funny.

Zzzzz: After staying up well into the night hanging out with old friends, we finally got a little sleep before heading out to Maryland. We got home from Alabama around 2am on Monday morning, got some sleep, unpacked and repacked, then left our house at 2am Tuesday to head to the airport for our 6am flight to Punta Cana!