Bride Wars: February 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Wedding Week: Our Ceremony Part 2

Our ceremony was a traditional Methodist ceremony without song and had one reading that I ended up finding and thought it was the PERFECT piece to have read to us by one of my dearest friends of life. We pretty much followed the outline for the Methodist ceremony to a T, with the giving away of the bride from her parents and a blessing from the congregation and the Lord's Prayer at the end which was one of my favorite parts. So let's see some of the action shall we?!

My mom and my brother looking very dapper.

One of the cutest things you ever did see!
The flower girls walking right up to their uncle!

And then it was my turn!! EEK! I literally shook the whole time down the aisle squeezing my poor dad's arm with excitement and anticipation. A few tears welled up in my eyes as I focused only on my husband to be who was smiling radiantly at me. One of the things I remember most is that I didn't notice ANYONE other than hubby during that whole ceremony except for a look at the reverend and my friend Lee during the reading. I wish I had caught a glimpse of my mom at least!

I loved getting the opportunity to have a blusher veil, it wasn't something we planned on but I'm glad it worked out in the end that I went with a multilayer veil. Love the added drama a blusher adds. Also once my father gave me away, I started to lose my cool. I definitely teared up a bit when my daddy kissed my check to say goodbye to his little girl. It was such an emotional experience. I knew I'd probably be somewhat of a mess but I was hoping to keep it all together, but I heard that a few people also wear tearing up too!

Like I mentioned before my dear friend, Lee, read a reading by James Dillet Freeman called "Blessing for a Marriage" and it goes like this:

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.

May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.

May you want one another, but not out of lack.

May you entice one another, but not compel one another.

May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.

May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.

May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence - no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.

May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.

May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

I absolutely LOVED this reading and thought it was perfect for us. I loved the words and how it sounded coming from someone else. It flowed so freely.
We also asked our reverend to elaborate on two of our favorite bible verses instead of having someone else read them because we preferred the word of God coming from him.

Ecclesiastes 4: 9-1

⁹Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.

Colossians 3:12-17

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Finally it was time to exchange vows.. And BOY was this emotional!! Hubby started his first and while he was repeating the vows my eyes started to well up with emotion and tears from his words and by the final vow that he had to say, he choked up too with tears in his eyes and a quiver in his throat. It was a beautiful, memorable moment that I'll never forget. Probably my favorite moment of the day. It was just so real, raw and beautiful.

Our reverend was a family friend of hubby that blessed our marriage and I was so glad he did. He gave a short homily and it was beautiful and funny at the same time. Hubby is a golf pro and so his homily included references to golf that were humorous and fun as well as memorable so I really appreciated his time and effort into crafting a beautiful ceremony for us. I loved that he wanted to hold our hands and bless them in the name of God and our family and friends. It was beautiful.

Then it was time to seal it with a kiss!

And then we were pronounced husband and wife! Love our enthusiasm in this photo below.

You may remember a while back how I posted about our ceremony "surprise", the a cappella group from NC State singing "Stand by Me" to signify our exit as husband and wife. Here are the photos but be sure to catch the video here again!

I think this may be my favorite photo from the wedding!

And we're hitched y'all!!!

In case you missed it:

Wedding Video!

Bridal Luncheon

Rehearsal Dinner
Wedding Timeline
Getting Ready
First Look

Portraits

Our Wedding Ceremony: Part 1

xoxo,
mrs. a.

Photographer: Meredith Perdue / Videographer: Simile Productions / Flowers: Aldena Frye / Hair: Kari Berry via Marigold Parlour / Makeup Artist: Fiquet Bailey Swain via Luxe Apothecary / Bride’s Gown: “Lauren" by Amsale / Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin from Coplon's / Bride’s Earrings: ED-1D-261 by Bounkit from Coplon's / Bride’s Veil: Veils of Art via Etsy / Wedding Invitation: Palm Papers / Bridesmaid Dresses: “ G558C" and "G660C" in Charcoal by Amsale / Groom’s Attire: Custom Tuxedo by Indochino / Groom Bowtie: Ralph Lauren / Groomsmen Tuxedo: Vera Wang from Men's Warehouse / Groom’s Cufflinks: Nordstrom

Monday, February 25, 2013

Wedding Week: Our Ceremony Part 1

I'm so excited to finally share with you our ceremony. It's funny because I didn't give the ceremony THAT much thought but it ended up being the highlight of our day. Per my awesome timeline, we arrived at the church with plenty of time to take family portraits on the stairs before guests arrived. I even made sure family arrived 10 minutes ahead of schedule so that we could get the ball rolling and it couldn't have worked out better. It was so fun to get out of the car and see all the family!

Love these two quick portraits with hubs and my mom. Mom grabbed me at that point and said "I don't have enough pictures with my baby, I want more!" and so we took this one.

I'm glad we had a few extra minutes to spare after photos so that we could really take in what our ceremony setup was to look like. Mom didn't want me to ruin the surprise but I wanted to see it since I wouldn't be seeing much during the ceremony. Our church came pretty bare bones and although beautiful, we wanted to add some special touches to our ceremony to make it uniquely ours. And since it was a fall wedding we included pumpkins! I love pumpkins and the color orange so naturally fall is one of my favorite times of year and that day was a perfect day of fall in NC! Our florist Aldena Frye supplied the flowers but my mom found a local artist to carve out pumpkins for us. Hindsight it might have been a little too much but it was fun and unique!!

Another route where we went a bit nontraditional was our wedding program. I knew I just didn't want to have a program because printing is so expensive and half the time it's just wasted so I decided to go the chalk board route and I LOVED it! I did it all myself so I was a bit nervous and it took a while to actually get it going and make sure it looked good and the chalk dried correctly, etc. I also painted it with a brush and that made the paint a little uneven (lesson learned). With that said, I think it turned out pretty good and we even have it in our house now.

After getting to admire the awesome decor we spotted our first wedding guest driving by and decided it was time to go our separate ways until our ceremony started at 5pm. Those last thirty minutes were like a lifetime.

I went downstairs with mom and dad, my bridesmaids, flower girls and sister and mother in law, were already down there snacking since we had not eaten since that morning. My mom graciously thought to bring wheat thins and candy for us! When I got down there everyone was forcing me to eat but I just couldn't! I became overcome with nerves full force. I could hear the guests through the thin wood flooring because the church is over 100 years old and the more footsteps I heard the more my nerves clenched my stomach. I kept feeling my stomach turn and turn. I think I did manage to down two peanut butter crackers that my sister in law forced me to eat along with her girls. Also by this time my feet were killing me from standing so long for portraits, dang heels.

This girl, was somehow a nervous wreck all of a sudden. I swear I really didn't have too many emotions during the day because it just felt so surreal, like I didn't quite comprehend that I was getting married and it was happening to me until we got down into that room. My dad was there and my mom and I was just freaking out a bit, so many people there to support hubs and I! I, was about to get married!! What?! Like I said I didn't even get that feeling at our first look.

My mom had also supplied us girls with mini bottles of champagne to celebrate and get the party started but having two sips of that made my stomach even more queasier! Bleh! I in turn, let the girls finish it and calm their nerves instead.

Quick side note: I decided that I wanted my wedding band to go on my finger officially and not over my engagement ring so I switched them by this time to the same hand. I'll never forget after the ceremony when hubby told me he was so nervous he knew only to put the ring on the finger that had the ring and come to find out I had switched it on him! Good thing I knew which hand to hold out.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to the mom's and bridesmaids as they lined up at the top of the stairs and I at the bottom with my father. It was such a surreal moment. I'm actually getting a little teary eyed just thinking about it. I literally started shaking and my stomach was still flipping, I was breathing heavy knowing it was almost my turn. I was going to marry the man of my dreams at the end of this aisle while holding on to my daddy. It was such an overwhelming feeling. Remember how I mentioned the first look takes NOTHING away from this moment?! I didn't even cry at our first look but this moment standing next to my dad was so joyous and exciting, I just didn't know what to do!

My dad asked me why in the world I could be so nervous, and said the only thing I had to be nervous about was that this wasn't the right thing that I was doing. I said it was the contrary, I was just so excited and knowing that my husband was at the end of that aisle and all those people there who love us watching just overcame me with emotion. My brother in law stayed behind to open the doors of the church because we wanted them closed before my entrance and even he was so excited to be the last one to see me and how beautiful I looked, it was such a special moment.

I stood there behind the door with my dad as our dear friend, Wilson, played acoustic guitar to Ave Maria to signal my entrance, and I don't think I heard anymore of it after my dad asked if I was ready, and then we started our entrance. Here is the acoustic inspiration for our rendition of Ave Maria, isn't it just lovely?! Now you can get the feeling of being with us on our special day.

Stay tuned for part 2! Sorry to drag it out but like I said, I didn't put too much planning into the ceremony so I never shared any details before now, so I'd like to divulge if you will.