Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope it finds you well and well-loved, be it by your family, friends, husband or boyfriend, I hope today is something extraordinary for you.
In honor of the day of love, I thought I would {finally} share with you some of our wedding pictures. I had big plans of hosting a "wedding week" with a daily post on each section of our wedding day, followed by a linky party for you to link up your own weddings, but as usual life has gotten in the way. Things are a bit crazy here what with opening a
new shop, and some big/exciting/scary changes in my professional life as well. No worries...I am superwoman and can run a brick and mortar shop, online shop, handle a major career change, blog, keep my home gorgeously decorated and spotlessly clean, workout like a celebrity and have a healthy dinner on the table by 6....NOT. Needless to say, I'm a little behind at life in general so I'm thrilled to be getting this post up at all : ) Tell me...how do you keep your life in balance? I'm sure my duties pale in comparison to some of yours, especially to those of you with children!
Ok, enough of the life-dump and on with the show : )
Our Wedding: June 17
{Getting Ready}
My maids of honor, my best friend and sister, helping me into my garter. I think the top right picture is so adorable- my cousin/flowergirl mimicing me putting the garter on. Bottom picture: all my girls' hands on me as they prayed for me before the ceremony. That was such a special moment.
My mom helping me fasten the string of pearls my dad gave her on their wedding day. Bottom left: my handsom groom getting ready. The guy behind him is our dear friend Stephen. We didn't think he could be at the wedding because of a conflict, but he surprised us at the last minute and drove overnight to be there for the big day. That was one of the very best presents we received!
I love the shot of my dad holding the mirror for me so I can touch up my lipgloss.
{Formal Portraits}
All the guys. I loved their dove gray tuxes! Plus I love the picture of my mama, sister and me...so special!
I loooooved my bouquet! It was made up of my three favorite flowers, peonies, ranunculus and hydrangeas, and hand wrapped with lace and pearls. Aren't our flower girls and ring bearers so sweet?
All my girls! They were gorgeous!! My mom looked amazing too, as you can see!
{The Ceremony}
The ceremony begins! plus a few shots of our stationery.
Here I come! I walked down the aisle to a pre-recorded song, All Creatures of Our God and King by David Crowder Band. It took longer than we thought for everyone to get down the aisle so I had to force them to open the doors for me before the song ended. In this picture my dad is still asking me if we really are going now...I knew we had to : )
Matt's looking very serious in that top shot : ) I think our ceremony was pretty laid back though, and we had lots of fun.
I so love this shot of us praying together after lighting the unity candle. So gorgeous.
Our first kiss as husband and wife!
Leaving the church as a married couple. We couldn't be happier!
{Outdoor Formals}
This was our Christmas card pic and the one we got our largest print of. I love it!
I die every time I look at this picture. It's like Pride and Prejudice, right?!
Fave picture of me...and the one you guys probably recognize from blogger/pinterest.
He's just so handsome : )
I love this one because it was totally candid...just us squealing to each other that we're finally married!
This one hangs above our couch. So romantic.
One of my very favorites from the day. A sweet moment captured.
Our super sassy wedding party. Love them!
Celebrating!
The guys look so awesome in this one!
This might be one of the best wedding pictures ever taken. Matt loves this one!
My sweet girls in their dove gray dresses.
{The Reception}
French Macarons! It was a very big deal to me to have these there, though I never got to taste one.
The dessert table. I wish we had a better pic because of how much time and energy was spent planning and decorating it. It included vintage cake stands and tableware, a cupcake tree, our lace-trimmed wedding cake (handmade by my best friend who is a total rockstar!) French macarons, a mini-candy bar with white candies in apothecary jars and treat bags with our monogram hand-stamped on them, as well as napkins I spent hours painstakingly stamping with a custom Eat, Drink and Be Married stamp. Shout out to my bridesmaids and my mom's best friends who helped me with the stamping/prep and putting it together!
Our whole wedding party "rocked it" into the reception, and I love this picture of two of our closest friends Kevin and Megan breakin' it down. They made such a fun pair for the evening!!
I have come to really love this picture, and it's currently framed on top of our dresser. This is just before we cut the cake. The cake topper was my grandparents'.
We had cupcakes for our guests, as our cake was just a small cutting cake for us. I love cupcakes and think they are so charming so I was excited to do that for the wedding.
Laughing out loud at the hilarious toasts!
Tossing the bouquet
And my bff caught it!
I totally love the looks on our faces here! Too cute!
Success!
The best idea ever...tie the garter around a football with a $50 in it. The guys won't stand there and stare when the garter is thrown anymore!
This might be my favorite picture from the day. It was snapped during our first dance.
So sweet.
Dancin' with my daddy.
Such a special, meaningful pic of Matt dancing with his mom.
Well, there it is, our wedding! This wasn't even half our photos or half the stories and memories behind the day, and I wish I had the time to share them all! It truly was the best day of my life and every detail was perfect. But the best part isn't the wedding, it's the days, months and years that come after, and I couldn't be more thrilled to see what comes next on the ride called marriage to my very best friend! Love you babe!
Happy Valentine's Day!
{live beautifully}
Courtney