Wedding Chronicles...Part 3:The Guys and Gals

 This picture sums up exactly how our wedding day was. Full of great laughter and memories.

When you plan a wedding, the first thing you do is think about who you want surrounding you on that special day.  For us it was simple. Or not so simple. You see, if we had included J's brothers our count would have been 5 each...and I didn't have 5 super close friends...so when we talked to his brothers, who were 16 at the time-they didn't exactly want to be involved in all that goes with a wedding. So-these 6 people were our constants.

I knew that I wanted to be surrounded by girls who would keep me laughing, make sure I didn't turn into a Bridezilla and were constants in my life.

Dena (lf) my Maid of Honor, was my first friend in college. We were fast friends and kept getting mixed up by all of our teachers. Even when she moved to Florida, we remained close.
Rachel, is my oldest friend, we met in the 5th grade.  She and I like to share "juicy news". She definitely kept me laughing the whole day!
TJ(rt) is my cousin, and friend. She is my secret keeper...I always call her with my news, good or bad and she's never told any thing I've told her in confidence. She is hilarious and super witty.

J's guys are equally as great and funny. Since this is my blog, I won't talk as much about them, as I did my gals!
Daniel (lf) is married to TJ. They were our youth pastors at ECC and we've spent many a night on their couch until 3 in the morning talking about life.
David met J at church around the age of 16. One of my favorite stories is how J and David would sleep with the windows open because David's mom would keep the heat up so high!
Breck (rt) is J's oldest friend.  They met when they were little. Breck and I met in college when he joined the speech team with me. We were friends, who happened to be best friends with the same guy. Breck gave one of the sweetest and most touching Best Man speeches I've ever heard at our reception.

These little cuties are my nephew, JP and my niece, AnnaMae. They were super cute and fun to have at our wedding. I joked that AnnaMae would probably end up rolling in the grass before the wedding...she didn't do that, but one of my sweetest memories was her bringing me her sweater, because she was hot, only to see a little mud spot on the back of it! I'm still not sure where that came from!

JP, looked very serious at the wedding. I later learned it was because he thought the wedding was "Like a funeral". I didn't know until later that he felt that way because he wasn't too keen on me getting married! :-)

When the day was done and all the primping and dancing was done. I was so happy that we had all of these people with us to enjoy our big day.

Speaking of AnnaMae.... this might be my favorite picture of the whole day. Something so sweet about her looking over at the big white tent. Perhaps, she was imagining her wedding...  One day, in the distant future when she gets married I hope to have this framed for her. 

 ~Just a few more reasons, why I love these people~

Wedding Chronicles Part 2...The Dress.

Little girls spend hours cutting and pasting and looking at what will one day be their dream wedding dress. And girls who are getting married, aren't any different. It took me countless hours, 4 states, and at least 5 different stores to find THE DRESS.

When I finally found it online, I was sure that it was too much money. So I tried on countless other dressing, trying to convince myself that this strapless one or that one with cap sleeves was just as good as my 3/4 dream dress.  But they weren't.

Finally, after trying on for months, I called Bridal Warehouse in Evansville, IN.  I gave the sweet girl the number off the website, she told me they had it in a size close to mine, and surprise on the day I wanted to try it on they were having a trunk show for Allure. Which meant, 20% off!

My momma and I went in, I put it on and I was instantly in love. I tried on a few more dresses, then put mine back on and cried. I knew this was the one.

 One of my favorite parts of the dress is the back. I had always wanted a dress that was lace with buttons in the back and that had sleeves. Thanks to Princess Kate, everyone in the world started designing dresses that were lace, modest and even some with sleeves!

I wanted a birdcage veil, but let me tell you they are expensive! The ones mom and I looked at were upwards of $100.

So...we made one! I bought the hat from online and then the netting at JoAnn Fabric. We spent an evening, after I had my first and amazing hair trial, pinning and sewing the netting onto the base.

 My daddy bought me that beautiful pearl and crystal bracelet you see on my wrist.One of my of my favorite things from my dress, and my girls' was our make up! My cousin Micah married a wonderfully fun and happy gal named Chantel, who just happens to be a makeup artist. As part of her present to me, she did my makeup, my momma's and all three of my girls.

  The girls all chose their own dresses. I had always wanted a mismatch of dresses for my wedding, even before it was popular! 

We searched and searched for the perfect color, finally finding it at David's Bridal in Truffle.  All of the dresses were chiffon. A material I originally hated, but loved once I saw it on the gals.

TJ and Rachel went to Evansville with my mom and TJ's mom to pick dresses. They tried on about 20 each, ok...that might be an exaggeration...but we finally narrowed it down to these two.

TJ had just had her 3rd little girl about a month before the wedding, but you certainly can't tell it!

Rachel is one of my oldest, and best friends. I was very glad to have her share my day with me. In true Rachel fashion, she wore what my momma told her looked best! She's always been like my sister, so when Mom told her this was the dress for her, she bought it on the spot. It truly was a great fit.

Thank God the weather was perfect, otherwise they might have all been freezing. But our 70 degree day was perfect for chiffon and sleeveless!

                                                                 Dena's dress was one that I had originally picked out for all the girls to wear. But when we, myself included, tried it on...it didn't look right!

Dena lives in Florida, so she wasn't with us when we went to sort through the dresses. However, when she sent me a picture from her trying on spree in Florida, we both knew this was her dress!

She was the only one who didn't have sparkles or beading, so I purchased a vintage amber and crystal brooch for her to pin on her dress. Each of my gals ROCKED their chosen dresses. And they were loose enough that they could eat and dance their hearts out!

Of all the pictures of me in my dress, this one is my favorite. A little bit sassy... :-)

Wedding Chronicles...The Flowers

A wedding is the biggest day of a little girl's life. Mine was no different. I planned and pinned and repined and schemed for months. Then I planned and dreamed and talked some more. Finally it was time to actually DO something. My momma and I made mountains of homemade jam, marmalade, and apple butter.
Then I printed tags and tied and cut...until we had about 90 or so of these delicious little homemade lovelies.

One thing that I learned about planning a wedding of your dreams, was that it's so much easier with an amazing venue to start with. Ours was to die for! Even without all the little details and fresh flowers and freshly planted mums, it was gorgeous. I can never thank our friends enough for letting use it for our big day!
For a girl who dreams in vintage, being surrounded by reclaimed brick. Old wrought iron and vintage church pews, was all I would have ever dreamed.


One of my favorite wedding planning moments was the evening I spent with my cousin Jamie, my florist, explaining and dreaming and throwing out every flower I had ever dreamed of. Which resulted in tons and tons of fresh flowers!



When Jeffrey came home from Cali I asked him to drive with to to deliver the blue Mason jars to Jamie for her to put the centerpieces in. She took us into the cooler at work to show me all the wonderful flowers that were waiting for us. When we left, Jeffrey looked at me and said, "Are ALL THOSE flowers ours?" Haha!!
The centerpieces were mainly ivory hydrangeas, sunflowers, and button mums. 

My bouquet was so beautiful that when my cousin Micah brought it in for me to see, I cried. Mine was a mix of ivory hydrangeas, green hypericum berries, wax flowers, orange calla lilies, purple status, wheat (which my mom thought was crazy, but ended up loving) and some other random leaves, berries, twigs!!

Here it is, with a sneak peek of my dress....sigh!

The bridesmaid's bouquets, were equally as beautiful and just about as heavy! They were a mix of dahalias, purple status, sunflowers, hypericum berries and wheat.  Each bouquet was wrapped in some of the same lace that we used for the table runners.

The Guy's boutonnieres were all different. Jeffrey's was the only one that had wheat. The mothers, grandma, flowergirl and guest book gals all had little wrist corsages. With the exception of my mom, who pinned hers to her clutch.

The flowers couldn't have been more gorgeous. Including the two that went on our arbor in front of the church. My cousin Jamie worked for days on these and everything else. She wrapped anything that would stand still in honeysuckle vine and topped this arbor with sunflowers, button mums, eucalyptus leaves and my favorite...Cattails!! A simple reminder to me of my grandparents very country roots!

It's been awhile!

Hello Friends!

It has been a while since I've written. My last post was a simple chronicle about how excited I was to sit down and eat at our wedding off all the wonderful china we collected!
Let me tell you, it was a WONDERFUL DAY!!

I'm currently working on a little overview of that great day, so until then, you can check out my Guest Post that I wrote for my friend Jordan at her LilyWhite blog here.