archived: wedding in review - garter

lauren brooks photo

oh etsy..how i love you! i wanted my mom to make me a garter, but in the end we opted to just buy one. we were kind of busy, ya know?? i found this etsy seller and a garter that i thought looked sexy and vintagy.


purdy huh? i only wore this one and had grant throw it. i didn't like how it felt on my leg so i couldn't make myself wear two (do you know this? people wear two so they can keep one and toss one?).

plus, i put so much effort into every other thing i wore that day i didn't want something on me that was made to 'throw away'. so being the incredibly tackful person that i am i requested that the catcher of my garter return it to me! ha. i know - weird right? whatever it was my day - give me my thing back.

really elliot didn't care.

grant was hilarious taking my garter off...

is there one photo from the reception where i don't have a beer in my hand? anyway. when planning the wedding i really wanted to steer away from some of the more traditional but awkward reception events - father daughter dance, bouquet toss, etc. in the end we did one thing or another to appease my husband or another family member and i'm glad. you see... i've learned that i wasn't the only one who dreamed of my wedding day. when i asked my mom if she would walk me down the aisle she said no - she wanted to watch me walk down the aisle. although i would have loved to have her - i'm glad she got the memory she had always hoped for.

sorry i feel like this post is all over the place. i'm kind of loopy. i've been packing all night, k?

archived: wedding in review - setup

i will stop being a party pooper. back to thinking about fun, cheery wedding bliss...

what it looked like outside my moms rental as we packed up the caravan of cars...

this is the post i've been waiting to show you! for some reason i felt like all of the craft stuff was supposed to come first (i am a chronological thinker), but i'm going for it (even though i think there might be a few things we haven't talked about...).

we are blessed with family and friends who are willing to do anything for us - including get up early on what was already going to be a long (albeit fun) day to help us set up the ceremony and reception site.

i came prepared - i had a master list with everything that needed to be done. it had assignments of who was to start each project and in what order to do them. everyone was instructed to cross off whatever they completed so we knew what was left. i was prepared for chaos, but it actually went incredbily smoothly AND we got done on time!

this post is picture fest 2008 - so be prepared. i'm just so proud of what we accomplished!

we had a lot of **it... it might have filled a whole storage space we had to rent... =)

a blank slate

boys hung the lights first

my aunts took on cupcake duty and grant consults the master list

making some progress! and some incentive to get onto the party

the candleabras came unassembled so this was a big accomplishment and time to get the tablecloths out

me and my girls get the ceremony site all prettied up. mama meendering was good at making it all look right - she was also the genius who got the vases with the branches to stay upright!

gotta have some coffee to add a little something unexpected - smelled so good! look at how long my hair was!

getting the pinecones laid out to act as paperweights for the 'reserved' slips and i think we did it!

bubba finishing up the last of the coffee cylinders - don't they look pretty?? hold on lets see it closer...

if you know my husband then you know he is obsessed with good coffee so these beans were fitting...

they thought they were done, but then the dang bride has to come in and tell them they forgot the runners...

aunt patsy finishing up the cupcakes with the bride and groom picks...can you see the personalized hair and flower colors?

settin' up the bar area

trying to get the table name cards to stand up. ah... these are something i haven't told you much about. LOVE THEM...jon is a genius!

things are slowing down... g checking out a scrapbook

lindz & jess getting outside decorated

diagrams of the venue layout...one for the reception and ceremony... they were to scale. no big deal.

setting up the dessert table

pretty cake and flowers. i am so glad this is how that whole extravaganza ended up. we all know i could have done something more elaboarate or i could have hired it out, but i think this was perfect in the end.

setting up the favor/guest quilt table

gift/card table

"we're getting married today!"

THE list

the last thing we did was decorate our getaway car. these pictures make me laugh...us all crowded around trying to get it done so we stayed on schedule. those are tissue paper pom poms from martha.

cool huh?? thanks to janelle for taking most of the photos...i'm SO glad we have our hard work documented!

archived: style me pretty feature

Our wedding is being featured over at Style Me Pretty today. She posts weddings in installments so there will be several over the course of the day. Fun!!!

installment 1

installment 2

installment 3

installment 4

installment 5

archived: wedding review - jewelery

all photos by lauren brooks

remember way back when i showed you my progress on wedding jewelery? i'm happy to officially show you how it all turned out. this was one of the easiest projects i did for the wedding. i made my jewelery in one night and the jewelery for all four bridesmaids in another. i love the above picture and it happens to be one of the better images in which you can see my earring.

all of my jewelery was made using 10mm freshwater coin pearls and gold chain/findings. for the design i found something i liked online and copied it. it was incredibly intimidating, but once i started it was SO easy. if you decide to tackle this, i recommend practicing basic jewelery techniques using a book or online tutorial for guidance.

here is my necklace. i really wasn't sure if it would all go together well - i was especially worried about the gold - i thought it might look cheap. BUT i really love how it all looked together with my dress. the dress is so ornate the simple jewelery didn't compete with it (in my humble opinion). i included the picture on the right because if you click and enlarge it you can see the pretty little beads and chain that dangles down the back - i think its a sexy and beautiful detail.

Here is Patty modeling the bridesmaid's jewelery. i used brown 10mm freshwater pearls for their jewelery and gold chain/findings. everything was the same as mine, except i did just one chain on the necklace, instead of two.

You can see their little dangly chains here too. LOVE THAT! This ended up being incredibly cost effective - approx $75 for all 5 sets!

and just for fun one of all 5 of us together.

Are you guys liking this way of going over wedding stuff? Or is it better to just put lots of wedding photos up?? Hmm...