Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day, and many memories were created with family and friends!
It is the last wedding post! Here is a list of my favorite things from the wedding.
Our invitations:
I spent the longest time trying to decide what I wanted our invitations to look like. I wanted them to be US, and nothing I saw really spoke to me. I found this idea, and that is what I based our invitations off of. I LOVE our invitations.
We included an "anniversary letter". The thought behind this was that it would give everyone we invited the opportunity to write us a letter that we would open on a future anniversary. I had a rubber stamp made that said "Do not open until ______", where our guests would fill in a date – so they could pick an anniversary of ours when we would open the letter. Since the wedding was in Alaska, I knew we would not have a lot of people attending. I thought this would give everyone a chance to send us well wishes, even if they could not attend. (I put a stamp on the envelope, so they did not have to pay postage.) However, we got less than 10% of them back! These invitations were expensive to send out, partially because we had so much information in them, and the paper we used was relatively thick. We really had so much included in them - maps of all location, and all the major hotels and car rental places in Anchorage! But, I took a lot of joy in them, so I think it was worth it.
Our dessert table:
Our homemade cupcakes, butter mints and chocolates, and my BFF Julia's incredible chocolate chip cookies! Cut out yellow and white vellum hearts decorated the table, as well as the wooden "R&J" made by my sister. I love the layout of this table! The milk glass 2 tier tray was something I purchased off EBay, and it was so perfect! Sadly enough, it currently is in Alaska ... I hope I will see it again! Although you can't see it, the plate with the cookies on it has sunflowers on it (purchased from Etsy). I loved that plate!
Our wedding cake:
Our cake was a lemon cake with lemon filling and lemony frosting! This was so delicious! It was simply decorated with sunflowers on top, which I thought it turned out so pretty! I also put some edible pearls on the edge of the cake. I wanted to make the cake so that I can continue to make it every year for our anniversary. After a lot of testing, this is what I came up with. Mmmmm!
Our music playlist:
I spent HOURS picking out the songs I wanted played for the wedding ceremony and reception. I would listen to Pandora, take note of the songs I liked, and bought them on iTunes. I bought an IPod dock, and played all the songs directly off my IPod. We had some problems with the dock not playing the songs, but all in all I think it was a great decision. I still have all the songs on my IPod and listen to them! All the songs were special to me in some way.
My dress:
Believe it or not, I did not go to a single bridal store! I spent so much time looking at dresses online, trying to figure out what style I wanted. When I found "the" dress, I debated over it for over a month. Many thanks to my friend Cassie, who really is the only one who helped me find my dress! I ordered it online, and pretty much immediately sent it to Alaska. This was about 3 months before the wedding, so as it got closer, I was so nervous the dress would not fit! However, I think it was perfect! I love love love the gloves – so glad I decided to get them! Not only did they keep me warm, I really think they added to the dress. My veil was purchased off EBay --- simple but perfect!
Can you believe I don't have ANY pictures of just me in my dress?
Our flowers:
I knew from the beginning that I wanted sunflowers for my flowers. Not being local to check places out myself, I really relied on the internet to do all my research. I could not find many bridal bouquets available with sunflowers, but when I saw this one, I knew it was what I wanted. The flowers arrived on time, and were gorgeous!
The package included 3 boutonnieres, and 3 corsages. I had planned on giving a corsage to each mother, and the 3 boutonnieres were for my hubby, my dad, and the pastor.
About 15 minutes before the ceremony as I was finishing getting ready, I made a frantic call asking where the flowers were. We had driven in separate vehicles to the wedding site, and I did not come with the flowers. I was told the flowers would get distributed, and I would get my bouquet. I had thought I had made it clear that only 2 corsages would be used, and who would got a boutonniere. However, somehow Rob's brother ended up with a boutonniere, and my DAD ended up with a CORSAGE! Looking back, that is one part I did not plan for --- who would distribute the flowers. (Considering I had a 15 page spreadsheet planning every detail for the whole weekend, I can't believe I overlooked that!)
However, despite the mess up with the flowers, I loved my bouquet! (Oh yeah – and my yellow shoes!)
My jewelry:
Although it is hard to tell in the pictures, I wore a small gold chain with a heart on it. I loved it! It was simple – it just wasn't me to wear a big necklace.
My earrings were another story -- in July, I had ordered 2 pair of earrings from Etsy seller Lulu Splendor. She is located in Australia, and her site claims "*My experience from customer feedback is that 97% of international post arrives within two weeks. The rest within 3-4 weeks."
Well it got to be the end of August, and I still didn't have my earrings. I contacted her, and she basically told me that if I didn't have them in a few days to let her know. It was well beyond the "3-4 weeks". Bottom line, the earrings did not arrive. I frantically contacted Etsy seller Plumb Crazy, and she sent some earrings to Alaska for me, that arrived the day before the wedding! I loved the earrings so much; they were so much better than the first ones I had ordered! She even sent a second pair of earrings that I wore for the Pre-Wedding Celebration Dinner! I gave up on Lulu Splendor. She has not returned my messages, and I have not received the earrings, or been refunded. I dropped it a long time ago – but obviously it still bothers me! LOL! Whew! Long story! Bottom line is that I LOVED my jewelry and think it complimented my dress perfectly!
Our programs:
I really loved our programs! As we were cleaning up after the reception, I saw all the programs sitting by the guest book, so I'm not sure if they were even looked at! I spent a lot of time figuring out what to put inside them. I wanted something our guests could look at from the time they arrived, to the start of the wedding. We had a "Sammy says" section with random facts about the both of us, a heartfelt thank you letter to everyone who attended, and a section devoted to our loved ones on both sides no longer with us. I thought they turned out nice!
Sammy:
Our dog is such an integral part of our lives. Sammy is a rescue dog, and he came to me at a time that I needed him, and he needed me! Of course we wanted him at the wedding. Since the wedding and reception was outside, it was not a problem.
For our Pre-Wedding Celebration Dinner, I had a bow tie collar made for him.
The bow tie was a little big on him, but adorable!
For the wedding, my sister made him a tux!
I just love how his ears directly correspond to his mood! Ha! We put Ashley in "charge" of him during the ceremony. She was so excited! (Maybe he wasn't as excited …)
"Why am I here and what have you done with my mom??"
After the ceremony, we processed out of the pavillion, and then came right back in. Right away I went and picked up Sammy! :)
And this is the end of the wedding recaps! Overall, if I could go back and change anything, I don't think I would. I took great pride in creating so many of the little details for our guests. All my hours and days and months of planning paid off, and it really was everything I wanted it to be!
Miss a recap?
Team Bee gets married: Pre-wedding preparations
Team Bee gets married: Arriving in Alaska
Team Bee gets married: Boys fishing trip
Team Bee gets married: Pre-Wedding Celebration Dinner
Team Bee gets married: Wake up! It's your wedding day!
Team Bee gets married: And the two become one
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