Hi. 🙂 Before you get into this post, check out my posts on preparing for our wedding and getting ready for the day if you missed them!
I was so excited to write the recap of our wedding ceremony, because it was definitely the part of the day that I was most looking forward to. Originally we had thought that we would do a “first look” before the ceremony, but after thinking about it a little deeper I realized that I really wanted the first time we saw each other that day to be when I was walking down the aisle. It gave me goosebumps to think about then, and it still does today. Anyway, here’s what happened:
Once the song started to play that all of the girls and my dad and I would walk down the aisle to (White Dress by Ben Rector), I got so excited to be with Chris. I could actually see him outside waiting for me and could also watch the girls walk down the path through the garden, which was really cool. When it was my dad and I’s turn to go, I jokingly said to my wedding planner that I didn’t have enough hands! I didn’t know how I would hold my dad’s arm, hold my flowers, and not trip over my dress. It didn’t seem possible. So my dad and I were laughing and joking about that pretty much our whole walk, trying not to fall. I’m pretty sure I swore a couple times, too.
When we got to the front of the aisle, my mom jumped right out of her seat and gave me a huge hug. That was actually what made me start to cry. That and seeing how much my sister Olivia was absolutely bawling while she stood under the gazebo. It was so sweet. We were pretty adamant about people not taking pictures during the ceremony, but I am happy someone didn’t listen to us and got these wonderful shots.
It felt so crazy to finally be with Chris! I think from the time we started dating, we were never apart for more than a day, so it was truly the longest I had gone without seeing him. I was trying so, so hard to pay attention to our pastor (and friend), but it was really difficult. I just wanted to look around at everyone, talk to Chris, hug my sister, and I had a million questions haha. But Matt did a great job taking us through a personalized, simple, yet meaningful ceremony. My best friend Hannah read a beautiful excerpt from Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist. We wrote our own vows and tried not to cry through them (and did fairly well!). Then we signed our marriage license, and before I knew it Chris was putting the ring on my finger and we were being told that we were husband and wife! It was crazy!
Our ceremony turned out exactly how we had hoped. It was very fitting to our personalities and wasn’t over the top. I am so happy that we chose to hire a videographer so that we will be able to watch it all over again and hopefully pay more attention to the words this time. 😉 When we were walking down the aisle, I realized I didn’t know where we were supposed to go! We knew we were doing a receiving line, but for some reason I just kind of forgot what to do. So Chris and I giggled and held hands and hugged and kissed and I started complaining about how hungry I was and that I finally felt like I could eat.
So we did our receiving line (which flowed very nicely) and then God bless Chris’s groomsmen and our photographer’s assistant for getting us a cheese plate, champagne, and my oyster crackers to snack on while we started to take some pictures. After our formal family and bridal party ones, it was time for Chris and I to go off and do some on our own! That part of the day was so much fun. It finally felt like the pressure was over and we just got to be together – married!
Here is one more sneak peak of a professional one from our photographer:
It was so much fun to walk around the property in my wedding dress and have people congratulate us. We felt so special. We also felt so special that the weather really could not have been more gorgeous. I wasn’t cold and Chris wasn’t hot, which is a hard feat to pull off. We were so content.
And here is another stellar shot that one of my friends got of us returning to our cocktail party after our pictures were finished when I was stuffing my face with crackers. 🙂 It was very necessary at that point. I literally felt like my stomach was caving in on itself. As you can probably tell, I don’t do very well for too long without food.
We only had a little bit of time to spend at our cocktail party, since we wanted to have time to go upstairs and freshen up quickly before dinner. However, we were able to talk to a few people and see our yard games being played and everyone having a good time. That was all we wanted – a fun, easy party for the people we love. And it seemed like we had accomplished that, even though the reception hadn’t even technically started yet! It was a great feeling. Here’s a picture of my gorgeous mother and I from the cocktail hour.
Before I knew it my mom was ushering me upstairs to bustle my dress and touch up my makeup. I also got to change my shoes into some white Toms, which made me very happy. I felt so much more comfortable with those shoes on and my dress tied up a bit. Chris also got to come upstairs and see the bridal suite, which he was very jealous of! The guys had a cool room to hang out in before, but it was nothing like ours. I loved that short period of time upstairs with my mom, sister, and Chris. It was quiet and a good time to just reset and talk about how perfectly things had gone so far.
The next post will go into a recap of dinner!
Thanks for reading – I love writing these posts so much. 🙂
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