This is anewbeginning's Chocolate Wedding!

I just typed out an entire breakdown of our wedding weekend, and I guess I took too long to write it because it disappeared.
So I'll just let you know we're married, ecstatic and here's some pics. I'll come back to go over the details with you! It took so long to type and I'm frustrated that it disappeared!!

?,
Mrs. Harris

p.s. if anyone wants to find me outside of this site, you can also locate me on myspace. I'd still like to keep in touch with you ladies!

http://www.myspace.com/miss_dmarie

Here is our vows, they were just completed and perfected.
I absolutelty love them, I don't think they could be more perfect.

We did a lot of it, with a bit of help from our reverand as far as the wording and the order of things.

But I'm a words kind of girl, so I kept changing things around.
Anyway, here it goes. (it may be long...sorry)

(On a sidenote, I can't believe it's day after tomorrow!!
I'm off work tomorrow and my dad and Aunt are flying in this evening, so I'm not sure if I'll be on again before the big day!! I'm so nervous!! I want it to be perfect!)
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Procession
Garren with Minister
Nicholas & Garren comes down aisle with Adriana
Dawn comes down aisle with Lynn

Welcome & Opening Words
Friends
we have been invited here today
to share with Garren and Dawn
a most important moment in their lives.
In the time they have been together
their love and understanding of each other
has grown and matured.
Now they have decided
to live their lives together
as husband and wife.

We are here to witness the promises of Garren and Dawn
to face the future together
accepting whatever may lie ahead.
The world that God has created for them
with its beauty and grace that is all around
with the strength that it offers
and the peace that it brings
makes them truly grateful.

Garren and Dawn
nothing is easier than saying words
but nothing is harder
than living them day after day.
What you promise today
must be renewed tomorrow.
At the end of this ceremony
you will legally be man and wife
but you must still decide each and every day
that you want to continue to be together
and to grow together as a married couple.

Real love is something beyond the warmth and glow
or the excitement and romance of being deeply in love.
It is caring as much about the welfare and happiness of your partner
as about your own.
But real love is not total absorption in each other.
It is looking outward together - in the same direction.
Love makes burdens lighter
because you divide them.
It makes joys more intense
because you share them.
It makes you stronger
so you can reach out and become involved with life
in ways you dared not risk alone.
In this spirit
you can create a marriage which will radiate to one another and give new hope and strength to all who watch your quest with interest.

Who presents this woman to be married to this man?
(Lynn says “I do”)

Honoring of Family Members
We are all members of one family
God’s family.
Today as Garren and Dawn seal their commitment to each other
they also make a commitment to their children.
We recognize the significant role that Nicholas, Garren, Adriana, and Jordyn play in this marriage celebrated today.
They will now join Garren and Dawn in this commitment to each other
by contributing part of their individual person
into one blended family.
Today this union is symbolized by the pouring of sand
representing members of the family
in all that they were
all that they are
and all that they will ever be.

Garren and Dawn
please come forward and pour your sand together into the larger container symbolizing the foundation you are laying for your new home and your new family with all of your children.
(Garren & Dawn pours sand together)
Now I will ask the children
Nicholas, Garren, and Adriana to gather around and take turns pouring a little of their sand into the family container symbolizing the blending of this new family.
Since Jordyn is not able to be with us today, Nicholas will be pouring tan-colored sand on her behalf.
(Towards the end of the sand being poured)
We will leave room at the top of the container to represent the possible growth of this family
additional children, grandchildren, and sons and daughter-in-laws down the road.
(Once all sand has been poured)
Garren, Dawn, Garren, Nicholas, and Adriana
Just as these grains of sand can never be separated and poured again into the individual containers
so will become the bond with your family.
(Children return to their places – Garren & Dawn return to Minister)

Prayer or Music
I will read now from Corinthians 1
Chapter 13
Verses 4-8:
Love is patient
love is kind.
It does not envy
it does not boast
and it is not proud.
Love is not rude
nor is it self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered
and it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
Love always protects
always trusts
always hopes
and always perseveres.
Love never fails
Amen.

Declaration of Intent
Garren and Dawn
as an expression that your hearts are joined together in love
will you please now join your hands.
(Dawn gives bouquet to Adriana)

Garren
do you take Dawn to be your wedded wife
to live together in marriage?
Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her
for better or worse
for richer or poorer
in sickness and in health
forsaking all others
and will you be faithful to her
so long as you both shall live?
(Garren replies with “I do”)

Dawn
do you take Garren to be your wedded husband
to live together in marriage?
Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him
for better or worse
for richer or poorer
in sickness and in health
forsaking all others
and will you be faithful to him
so long as you both shall live?
(Dawn replies with “I do”)

Vows
Garren, please repeat after me:
Dawn
I promise always
to love, honor, and protect you
to promote your dreams and aspirations
to dream together to create new realities
to share in your triumphs and failures
to lift you up and support you
through laughter and through tears
to be true to myself and to you
to cherish your laughter and beautiful smile
to build a loving family
to grow along with you
to be willing to face change as we both change
inspiring your love for me
and mine for you
and to grow old by your side
as your love and best friend.
I say these things
with all my heart
because in you
I have truly found
the one my soul loves.

Dawn, please repeat after me:
Garren
I promise always
to love, honor, and protect you
to promote your dreams and aspirations
to dream together to create new realities
to share in your triumphs and failures
to lift you up and support you
through laughter and through tears
to be true to myself and to you
to cherish your laughter and beautiful smile
to build a loving family
to grow along with you
to be willing to face change as we both change
inspiring your love for me
and mine for you
and to grow old by your side
as your love and best friend.
I say these things
with all my heart
because in you
I have truly found
the one my soul loves.

Exchange of Rings
May we have the rings?
(Nicholas and Garren give rings to Garren & Dawn)
For thousands of years
lovers have exchanged rings
as a token of their vows.
These simple bands are not of great value in themselves
but are made precious by your wearing of them.
Your rings say that even in your uniqueness
you have chosen to be bound together.
A circle is a symbol of the eternal spiritual truth
love and life
that which has no beginning and no end.
This represents love which is everlasting
which begins in trust
grows through companionship
and deepens with understanding.
Garren and Dawn
may these rings always remind you of the vows you have made here today
and may they always remind you of your love for one another.
Garren
please place Dawn’s ring on her finger and repeat after me:
Just as this circle
is without end
my love for you is eternal.
Just as it is made
of indestructible substance
my commitment to you
will never fail.
With this ring
I take you Dawn
to be my trusted friend
and partner for life.

Dawn
please place Garren’s ring on his finger and repeat after me:
Just as this circle
is without end
my love for you is eternal.
Just as it is made
of indestructible substance
my commitment to you
will never fail.
With this ring
I take you Garren
to be my trusted friend
and partner for life.

Blessing & Pronouncement
And so your two lives are now joined.
May your love for one another go from strength to strength
as you both grow in acceptance and understanding.
May the home that you make together
be bright with the laughter of family and friends
and a place of nurture for all who gather there.
May your home be the one place in the whole world where you most want to be.
Whatever trials you face in the future
may you trust each other always.
Through your marriage
may you bring warmth to each other and to those you love.
Before God and these witnesses
and with the power vested in me by the State of California
I now pronounce you
Garren
and you
Dawn
to be husband and wife.
Garren
you may now kiss your bride!

Presentation of the Couple
(After Kiss)
May I introduce you to MR. & MRS. GARREN H*****!!!

Recession
Ladies and gentlemen
Garren & Dawn would like to invite each of you to join them now for a very special toast……
(lead to champagne toast)

It's crazy for me to think that our wedding is NEXT WEEK!!
I don't know why wedding by color is saying 8 more days, it's 9!
They're trying to give me a heart attack, that's why.
Ok, so we still have so much to do and I'm literally in PANIC mode!!

Here's a checklist of things I/we still need to do.

-pick up my dress from alterations (it'll be ready tomorrow - picking it up 4/2)
-pick out and purchase my wedding band (It's picked out & pictured. We're picking it up Friday morning 4/4)
-get frozen petals and/or aisle runner decided against the runner, the petals look so much prettier
-figure out what other type of decoration I want for the chairs down the aisle...possibly tulle? It'll be three rows of 5 chairs on each side of the aisle. So 30 chairs altogether.
-finalize & pay for the cupcake cake (getting the plans for it finalized tonight)
-finalize the vows (got them emailed to me, I just need to make sure it's all ok and approve this is almost comlete)
-pay the flowers lady (this weekend)
-purchase the cake topperMy mom picked this up!
-purchase champagne & sparkling cider (for the kids & a pregnant friend) for the champagne toast
-purchase the guest book frame
-two more trial run sessions for my makeup (April 1st & 3rd)we got it figured out on April 1st, so this is DONE!!
-food & limited decorations for our party at our home. Did I forget to mention we decided to make this a potluck?
-apply some self tanner to distract from my whiteness!! (ASAP)
-get some crest whitestrips for hubby & I. I said I was going to do this two weeks ago!! (ASAP)
-get my hair trimmed and touched up & get my babygirls fixed up too (We have an appointment Sunday morning)
-mani & pedi's for hunny, me, and babygirls the day before the big day (Friday April 4th)
-come up with a schedule of events for the day of the wedding, photographer is requesting this. (ASAP)
-get in touch with my event coordinator for the winery, need to get a table behind the area we'll be standing at the reception. Needs to be for the sand and jars. (ASAP)
-Get music ready for the walk down the aisle, after they pronounce us as mr. and mrs. and for the music that plays during the toast & cupcake cake eating part. (We have most of the music picked out, I just have to burn it to a disc)

Ok, I think that's it. Wow, looking at it now, that's a lot more than it seemed in my head!

And to think, in the midst of all of this my hubby commutes over an hour and a half to and from work, I commute about 45 minutes to and from work, we have two boys in baseball with practice and games too!!
This Saturday his son's game is at 10:30 am and my son's game is at noon!!! It doesn't help that Easter was last Sunday so we couldn't get some stuff done then either!!

At least I found my shoes!! I can't find a picture though anywhere online, but trust me they're gorgeous, comfortable, reasonably priced, and absolutely perfect!!

Well, I had gotten a link for our engagement pictures last week. It was a slideshow, and there was no way to get the pix off of there. But we just got the disc in the mail last night.
These were my favorite pictures from it.
I spent my entire night last night reediting them. I don't like how the photographer did them, the filter she used on Photoshop made the larger photos look cartoonish, so I'm hoping they print ok. :(
I wish she'd just copy the bare pictures to the disc so I can just do my thing on Photoshop, and not have to bother with fixing (or attempting to fix) something I don't like!!

But other than that, here they are.

Oh, P.S. We got our marriage license yesterday!! Today our officiant is coming to our house to go over the vows and get them all finalized!!

I still need shoes!! Eek! 16 days!!

I can FINALLY scratch this off of our list of things to do!
Last Saturday we went to the tuxedo shop with our boys and my h2b and his dad. My dad is out of state, so he had to call in his measurements.

I LOOOVE the tuxedos. The pictures do them no justice, and everyone looked so handsome in them! Luckily, they ALL look good in brown! :)

The pictures don't really show the pretty color of brown.
My groom will be in the ivory vest & tie. The vest is solid, and the tie is paisley (he loves paisley).
The Jr. Groomsmen will be latte vests, with geometric chaped ties in white and brown and tan.
The fathers will be in a different material latte vest, with a matching latte tie. It has some stripes in it, but it's very subtle and classy.
Not sure if the one I have up for the fathers is the exact one, but if not it's similar.

Like I said it looks a lot better in person though!

I feel like we're finally getting somewhere!
Eek! 17 days!! OMG!

So we took our engagement photos last Saturday. The weather was just beautiful and so perfect. We took them at a park with a lake. We had so much fun!! Our photographer just told us to interact with each other and pretend she wasn't there. At first it was awkward, but my honey is a good actor so he was just talking to me and making me crack up. It was so much fun, I know she got a couple hundred clicks in there. She was also very nice & sweet and made us feel completely comfortable with her. I'm very much looking forward to working with her again for our wedding, she said she had a great time with us as well.

So I figured since my makeup was all done and everything I'd snap a few shots of myself and my lovely ring. So here you go! (you also get to see my makeup skills and my new lighter hair!)

It's a 2.5 carat round solitaire with a simple white gold setting. I love it!!

I feel like whenever I log on here I start having a panic attack because of the countdown and it reminds me of all that we still have to do!! I'm freaking out though, 31 DAYS!!!???

Last Friday I got my hair highlighted for the engagement photos. I'll be doing a touch up right before the wedding too.

Today I'm mailing out the last of the invitations. I still need to figure out what to do with the flowers. I haven't even ordered our cupcake cake, much less gone for a tasting. We went looking at tuxes last weekend but the one in our town that had brown tuxes looked like a big closet with tons of prom dresses and I guess somewhere in there maybe there was some tuxes. But the hubby to be wasn't comfortable with the store and the way the girls made us wait about 15 minutes before they even talked to us. So we walked out. The other store didn't have them, but said they could sublease them...but because of that we couldn't get the groom discount. So we're going to another place not too far from our wedding location. It's not in our town, but I've been pushing to go there. It's a tux shop and they have the brown, no subleasing necessary.
His ring came last week. Fits him like a glove. He loves it. I still think he needs one with some diamonds though, at least for special occasions. Maybe that can be my gift to him for our one year wedding anniversary.

I'm trying not to stress out though, in the end all that matters is that in 31 days I'll be Mrs. Harris and will be married to the best man I've ever known. ?

Our engagement photo session is on March 8th.

OK, so I know we only have 36 days left until our wedding, so why take engagement pictures now? Well, because we want to, that's why!!

LOL, I'm kidding...but I mean we just set our date last month and we're getting married in a little over a month. We finally settled on a photographer recently and it'd be a fun day and a way to get to know our photographer. So I figure, why not?

So I don't like the stuffy smiley face engagement photos in a studio.
I love the creative, photojournalistic style...almost like a magazine. So I gathered some ideas and put them together. The first pictures are my grade-school friend Donna and her now-hubby. I fell in love with her pictures (both engagement and wedding) and I found others online of random people who I don't know.

I also found that apparently I like the sillhouette pictures. Glad I figured that out!

So I figured we'd get the guys tuxes at Men's Wearhouse since they advertised with David's Bridal and that's where I got my dress. They said if we had 4 men in the wedding party rent tuxes the groom gets his free and the 4 men get $20 off. I thought that was a great deal, but the problem is they don't have brown tuxedos.
PANIC MODE!!

So I've been researching this morning and I found a place near us that has most tuxes. Matter of fact, their web site links to Jim's formal wear, where you can build a tux and then see where you can get it locally.
Perfect!! I'm just hoping it's in our price range! But here's a few I built, it's actually a pretty fun tool!

http://www.jimsformalwear.com/

Here's another site where you can also build one, and it includes chocolate tuxes.

http://www.ascotformalwear.com/

I don't know if it's tradition or not, but I thought it was only right if I bought him his ring. My love works with his hands, he's a mechanical engineer so he wanted something that was durable that he didn't have to worry about it getting scratched or losing a diamond. So this is what we picked and I think it's perfect for him. It's a 9mm Tungsten ring.

40 days!!

Well, I've always been good at makeup, so I'll probably just do my own. I've always been the girl who does my friends makeup for them, so I'm not too worried about it, but I wanted to get some ideas together for it so I can practice once or twice before the big day comes and I panic! LOL

So I was looking at my friend LaShay's wedding on Myspace, and I love the natural look she had, but still emphasizing her eyes. I may go with something like this (I also may add more pics later of another friend of mine who got married and I love her makeup as well)

:)

I know I had said in the beginning I didn't want a veil, but I've since changed my mind. I'm getting a very simple veil, I actually found it at Target. We may sew some champagne colored satin to the bottom of it, but I love it for it's simplicity.

The tiara my mom found on ebay, same with the brooch for my dress.

Hooray for online shopping!! I just need to find some fabulous earrings now!

For the past few weeks we've been trying to figure out a way to incorporate our kids into our ceremony without having to say vows to them back and forth.

We're fortunate that we don't have any problems with our kids and our marriage. In reading various vows they explain to be sensitive to the childs needs and that this might not be the happiest times to them.

My kids are stoked!! They love my fiance, and he treats them as though they are his own. My kids can't wait for us to be married and his son loves us too. The kids call each other their brothers and sister.

I'm sure others may have different experiences, but with us we've been a family. This is just a step further for us.

So what we had thought about already was a Sand Ceremony, and then in further thinking about it and researching it we discovered we could incorporate our kids into that. Someone even commented on an earlier entry of mine and suggested it.

I have a million links saved of different vows...but here's some of my ideas with the vases and/or canisters.

I definitely like the ones that come with a cork or some kind of cover. I also like that they can be personalized or engraved.

For Sand colors I'm thinking maybe white, tan, black, and maybe cranberry and green?

Since we're not having your traditional reception after the ceremony, we plan on having a BBQ the next day. That way our extended family and friends that weren't at the ceremony can come and celebrate the special occasion with us.

This brings up the question of what our attire should be. This was one of my first ideas when we started planning.

We'll wear customized bride & groom t-shirts!!

I designed both of these on customink.com

They're reasonably priced and I think they're super cute. My only concern is the material and fit. I'm picky about my shirts, I like longer baby t's and I won't wear a normal t-shirt. So these are my ideas, but we may do something where we can bring in a t-shirt and have them do it locally.

We just got our officiant booked. We have great feelings about this woman, and I'm so excited!!

I've emailed multiple officiants for price quotes and also to get a feeling for them and what they do. My honey and I both have a wonderful feeling from Reverand Mary, and she is reasonably priced as well.

Yayy!

Doesn't she look sweet?

So I've been thinking, and since we're having a ceremony and the reception is a BBQ the next day...when would we do the cake if we got one?

I may have come up with a solution. Since we're getting married at a winery, we had thought about have a champagne toast after our ceremony, so maybe we could do a small cupcake cake with our toast? We can keep the top tier since my honey swears we need to keep it till our 1 year, and eat the rest right there and we won't have to worry about much else other than napkins and a trash cans. No plates, knives etc.
Otherwise, we'd have to do the cake at the BBQ and I can't imagine cutting our wedding cake while wearing a bride & groom t shirt. (those shirts belong in another post!)

So what do you think? I think some of them are pretty cute, although I still love the traditional cake so I don't know. :\

So for our photographer I did some bargain shopping.
We are having such a small, intimate wedding, but I don't want it to seem cheap. Even though we are cutting costs and doing it pretty inexpensively...I don't want it to seem that way. Our venue for the ceremony is absolutely beautiful and part of the reason we chose it was for the photo opportunities.

I absolutely love the photojournalistic style, as well as traditional. I like a mix of black and white and color photos.

Photos are my passion, so of course even though we're having a small ceremony, I want some beautiful pictures of our special day.
However, I hadn't realized wedding photographers were so expensive!!

So I set out on a quest to find the most bang for my buck!!

I checked out craigslist, and found our photographer. She's done photography for a long time, but is trying to make it in the wedding biz. So she will be doing some free sessions, in return she'll use the photos for his portfolio. We get the images on a disc and can print any of them that we want. She does the traditional as well as the photojournalistic style, she does black and white and color. I'm quite a pro in photoshop too, so I can fix any photos or change them to black and white if I want as well. But I'm excited.
The only thing we pay for is supplies and travel fees. So for $160 we're getting an engagement photo session on March 8th, and then our wedding photos on April 5th.

And the Mister and I agree that since the photos will be used for her portfolio, she will most likely be doing a phenomenal job on it since that's her bread & butter! She sent me some photos of engagement sessions she's done, and I am very happy with them.

some shoes I'm eyeballing for my daughter & I.

UPDATE: We got her shoes last weekend. We ended up getting the close toed brown ones on the end of the first row. They're perfect for her, and perfect with her dress. Less than $40 at Nordstrom!!

We came to view it and just fell in love with the location. There's an inside picture too just in case it rains that's our backup plan. No reception, that's the next day when we have the barbeque at our home.

Still undecided on the cake. Not sure if we're getting one, but my soon to be hubby insists it's a necessity because we have to freeze the top tier and eat it on our first anniversary. OK...so here's some ideas.

trying to figure out the specifics of the browns...

Still trying to figure out what kinds of flowers to use. And if I want color or just some cream flowers. It's a spring wedding and Champagne and Chocolate seem like fall colors to me so I'm thinking of brightening it up a little bit with pink and green or peach or yellow? I don't know. I don't want the flowers to not match, but at the same time I want it to look "Spring-y"

Here's some various ideas I have.

This is my daughter's dress. It's chocolate brown with a champagne colored sash, tea length. She looks wonderful in brown and I can't wait to see her in this!!

Just got it last night!! I absolutely love it!!

I will be taking the flower off and adding some sort of rhinestone broach. The flower's just NOT me at all.

Just some ideas for my hair. I know I want it down or half up. I just don't like my face with my hair up, and I wasn't sure of the veil until I went to David's Bridal for my dress and they kind of got me thinking of a veil. Not a fancy veil, I love the flower in the hair look, I need big hair so no straight hair looks here.

What do you think? Which ones seem best for what I'm describing? Sorry, I know there's a ton!

Well, I was searching for ideas for my champagne and chocolate wedding and I found this site. So many girls on here have some wonderful ideas, and I figured I'd sign up. It could be a good place to organize all of my pictures I'm saving from all over the web! So here I am! Less than two months to go. It's a quickie wedding we're planning, we just started our plans a little over a month ago. I know, we're crazy. But we just want to be married already!!

We're planning a wedding at a winery, a small intimate gathering with our family members and a few close friends. Probably about 20-25 people. This includes our kids, who will be standing with us during our ceremony. His son and my son and daughter. We will be finding a way to incorporate them into the ceremony and vows. They are a big part of our life together, so they will be there in place of bridesmaids and groomsmen...and instead of the flower girl and ring bearer.

I can't wait!!