My Wedding

My wedding was wonderful...I am ready to share thoughts and ideas

Hello all! My wedding was about two and a half weeks ago and it was absolutely the best night of my life. I know that I didn't post a lot, but I definitely did browse on a lot of other people's blogs, so I thought I'd post some ideas from my wedding and some things that I thought went wonderfully and others that didn't go so great.

First of all, the weather was insane. We planned a Christmas wedding because we love the snow...we got 65 degrees and thunderstorms. However, we stayed absolutely positive because that meant that all of our family could drive and/or fly in for the wedding, which is honestly the most important thing.

Without a doubt, the best part of the event is being with family and friends. It reminded me of how lucky I am to have such an amazing family and without a doubt the three most amazing people I know are my two sisters and my brother. As a child, I don't think I understood what a blessing it was to be part of a big (by today's standards) family. My family is definitely what made this event for me.

My ceremony was absolutely beautiful. My pastor had asked Randy and I to write love letters to each other during our time of pre-marital counseling. We never heard about the letters again and wondered what he would do with them. He pulled them out and read them during the ceremony. It was amazing. Several people told me that it was the most touching ceremony they had ever seen. I don't think that Randy and I will be the couple that will forget what the minister said during our ceremony.

Another part that I really loved was that we had a harpist play all of our music. She was great. However, we had my entrance with my father timed to the song "Nothing Fancy" by Dave Barnes. It has been a song that has really defined our relationship together. We aren't fancy people, but our love is spectacular.

The ceremony went wonderfully (except it was TOO hot!). I have absolutely no complaints. We chose to do a receiving line as people walked out of the church. This was a great way to see people who were at the church, as well as getting to say a quick hello to people. It was not as painful as we imagined and we got through it unscathed!

The one, and only thing that I was truly disappointed about was our flowers. The flowers themselves were beautiful. However, the bows that were on the flowers were (1) the wrong color and (2) put together half-assed and ridiculously. I was angry about it. My sister, Renee, called the florist and told them how unhappy I was with the service, but they basically didn't care. Luckily, two of my super-awesome bridesmaids (thanks Jenn and Bett) fixed the ribbons for me, so they looked beautiful. However, if anyone is getting flowers in the Northwest Indiana market--ask me about them and I will gladly tell you one place you SHOULD NOT go.

Other than that, the ceremony and the photographs went off without a hitch. I wished that some more of my family had stayed at the church so that I could have gotten some professional pictures with them. My cousins and Aunt were in town from Phoenix and I wish that they would have stayed. I would definitely recommend to make some itineraries for family and special friends that you want to be a part of the photographs. I was so happy that everyone could be there, but I'm one of those people that likes "proof." LoL.

We had a lot of time between our ceremony and reception, which I think is actually a good thing. We had time to focus on pictures and even go to my parents house and take a photograph with our dog, which was completely worth it to us! :)

The reception was also fabulous...

MORE TO COME!!!