Today over at Kelly's Korner, everyone is showing their wedding flowers and bridal party. I was going to skip it, but after a rough day with the baby, I needed to take some time out and do something non baby, non work, non cleaning, non pressure related. So yay!
I got married to my handsome groom May 21, 2005. I was 19 years old and he was 24. The wedding was a whirlwind of drama. We both came from broken families and weddings bring those broken people together. It was really tough to plan, especially since there were so many people who didn't approve.
I really don't remember planning much.
My likes for the wedding:
Yellow and green
vintage garden feel
Noah
And I got it. I don't remember planning any of the details. In fact, I just hardly planned at all.
I woke up the morning of my wedding, fell down a flight of stairs with excitement (for real) then I realized that I had no decorations or idea of decorations for the reception hall, and a variety of other little details missing. I grabbed my Aunt Helen out of bed, she used left over cheese cloth and magnolia leaves. I shucked shrimp in my veil and loved it:-)
I loved my wedding because even though there was drama and unpleasantness, when the day came, everyone worked together to get it done.
My Aunt Nana made my dream wedding cake. My Aunts and Mom and sisters and wives of groomsmen decorated everything and cooked.
I had 550 people show up to my wedding and we (my family) cooked all the food. And there was a lot of it. We also picked flowers from my grandmother's garden, my mother's garden, the side of the highway and random people's yards (with permission of course). I loved that it wasn't matchy, that it was like an old fashioned wedding.
We just basically decorated everywhere with whatever we had. This statue was in my childhood garden and I begged my Mother to bring it to the wedding. Isn't it beautiful?
Notice the mason jars of daisies lining the pathway, my mom did these at the very last minute and it was just the sweetest touch.
I really wanted to fill the space up behind us without using one huge arrangement. So I came up with this idea. We rented columns for very cheap and draped white cheese cloth and my aunts created those BEAUTIFUL arrangements with hydrangeas brought up by some of my Charleston aunts.
My grandfather, who did the ceremony, my handsome groom, and his best man/brother.
This is the whole wedding party.
Here are my bridesmaids. 3 younger sisters, my college friend Rebekah, my friend Meg from camp, and my cousin/best friend Kathrine who was my maid of honor. I also had my little sister Sarah Grace as my flower girl, along with two other cousin's little girls (only one made it down though).
I LOVED my bridesmaid dresses soooooo much! I think I was the only one though. My sisters call them the "lamp shade dresses" .
They were vintage looking, unique looking, YELLOW:-). They were brocade and it looked like beautiful ribbon layered. I got them from Nordstroms for $80. I remember calling them and freaking out because they were on sale, and I wanted to make sure I got the right sizes held for me.
I remember the salesman saying, "Honey, I don't think anyone WANTS these dresses!"
Well I loved them:-) And I think my girls looked like beautiful girls at a garden party.
I will say that this dress did appear in a MOVIE!
Diary of a Mad Black Woman... I don't know what that really means, but it's still cool right?!
As for the bridesmaid bouquets, I realized about an hour from the wedding that I had forgotten about the bridesmaid's bouquets! So we had a lot of daisies left over and someone made some up.
My flowers were the only ones we bought. They were yellow tulips. I loved them.
All in all, the day was truly about the most important thing, marrying the love of my life. I promise you, I love him a zillion times more now than I did that day 4 years ago.
