I realized that I've never posted about the wedding. Considering we are coming up on our 1 year anniversary, I figured I would fill you guys in.
I thrifted, yard saled, antiqued, or handmade all of the decorations including the banner, "love sign" and set up above. The daisy picture was 99 cents and the cake pan was thrifted as well.
The old books were a gift from my mother in law were scattered all around the venue, the type writer was thrifted and spotted by my friend Kelsey, of course I snatched that sucker up! Guests signed in on the typewriter instead of a book.
These were the gift bags that matched our wedding invite. Yes... we stamped 180 invites and cut/glued 5 individual triangles to glue on to each invite. And then I decided it would be a good idea to have the gift bags match... haha It took a while, to say the least. Inside of the bags were goodies to make smore's at the fire pits during cocktail hour!
The centerpieces consisted of antique books, with a mason jar on top, all of the flowers were wild and picked just hours before the wedding, my bridesmaids and I are CRAZAY! But it saved money, ya'll! Each table had an old license plate and you found out which state/table you were sitting at by looking at an antique window pane I had written the seating chart on!
My bridesmaid, Julia was a rockstar and helped with hanging the mason jars inside the barn, which we also filled with wild flowers!
Funny Story, I make cakes for a living, but didn't want the hassle of delivering and then hoping it didn't melt in the sun, so I made a fake one! The "cake" is Styrofoam and I "frosted" it with caulking putty! haha! I had planned to serve cupcakes along side of the hundreds of cookies my mom made, but the night before, I was so stressed out, I said "Screw it! Smore's and cookies will do!" And they did. :)
Burlap and lights were throughout the barn to add to the decor!
Both suit cases were thrifted, one for decorating and one to hold cards, the wheel barrow was in the barn and held gifts, and the "eat, drink, and enjoy" sign was painted by me!
Alright... On to the outside! I designed my "arch" and showed my Mom and Step Dad my drawing and they made it! Aren't they awesome?! The hanging mason jars held small candles which looked awesome at sunset.
My dress. Oh! My sweet, dress. I loved my dress so much. The road to finding this dress was rough! I searched and searched thrift stores to find my dress with no luck, I was so sad I didn't find a thrifted one. So I went onto Etsy and special ordered a custom dress, long story short, it was a NIGHTMARE, and we ended up having to get a refund. One week later, I found a dress at the thrift store, I was so excited and then I hid it away in my closet. Fast forward to a couple weeks before my wedding, I tried it on, I had been losing weight and not even realizing it, the intricate knitting on the bodice was so fragile, we didn't have the time or means to fix it. God bless ModCloth, I frantically got on their website and found this baby. I am so happy it worked out the way it did. It was lace, pink (my Mom also wore a pink wedding dress), nontraditional, and had POLKADOTS for goodness sake! It could not have been any more perfect for me!
Our amazing neighbors and friends own this bug and of course I'm in love. Originally, I just wanted to use it as a photo prop, but when I was trying to come up with a way to hide me before I walked down the aisle (since it was a field, no where to hide the bride), I decided that I would wait inside the bug and then when it was my cue, my brother in law opened the door, I stepped out and walked down the aisle!
My girls helped me get in the car so that no one would see me, the windows were covered in lace and floral sheets from the inside, Tanner's nephew who held the "Here comes the bride" sign, peeked in and we giggled, It was a precious memory I will never forget. Then the music started, Tanner's good friend/groomsmen, Gabe played and sang, 'Divine Romance' by: Phil Whickam as the wedding party and eventually myself walked down the aisle.
Back story on how we chose the song. Tanner and I had only been dating a couple months, but had already been talking about marriage. (Tanner proposed to me after only 4 months of dating). We were driving back from a date one night and listening to a shuffle on his iPod. Divine romance came on, I have always LOVED that song and of course, that's what I said as soon as it started to play. We both listened and sang, and in my head, I thought, "One day, I want to walk down the aisle to this song". And then as soon as I thought that, Tanner said out loud, "When we get married, I want you to walk down the aisle to this." DONE! And the rest is history.
Walking down the aisle by myself was hard and felt awkward, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, so I pretty much ran down the aisle! ha! Also, I'll add that I was barefoot, I've said since I was 12 years old that I would be a barefoot bride.
Our vows were sweet and simple, we both agreed that we hate sitting through long ceremonies and wanted to get to the party as soon as possible, ours took all of about 5 minutes, sealed it with a kiss and ended it with a high five!
"Cocktail" hour was awesome! Everyone enjoyed beer and sangria as well as killing time by making smore's and chatting while the wedding party and family took pictures!
The tables were set up right outside of the barn and everything was lit with white lights, the sun was setting and you could feel the love and joy thick in the air. We served, picnic style food. Fried chicken, salad, watermelon, potato salad, and chips. I really did not care if people thought it was tacky! I wanted our wedding to be laid back and for it to feel like people were just coming over for a good time and a BBQ. I still don't regret my food choices!
We mingled as the sun went down and listened to our amazing friends and family give speeches. Then it was time! ... to DANCE!
We danced our hearts out! Did I mention how awesome our friends are? WE HAD SO MUCH FUN. My feet were so dirty by the end of night from dancing barefoot on the dirt floor in the barn, I loved every second of it!
Honestly though, we could not have done any of this with out our friends, even the boys! I can genuinely say that I love every single one of Tanner's friends, they are all great guys! They all looked very dapper in their mismatch bow ties, might I add!
My girls! I couldn't have done any of it without them! I love them to the moon and back!
I had my dream wedding, all of the hard work paid off and I couldn't have asked for anything more. I feel like we achieved a back yard, bbq, family get together, it felt like we were home, laughing, singing, dancing, eating, drinking, kicking our shoes off and having good old fashioned fun. The sunset was amazing and the love that I felt was intoxicating.
Special thanks to our Photographer, Bri Lamkin and her cousin and sister who helped! Deb Stone, our friend who let us use her property, our awesome friends and neighbors, Missy and Brian for letting us use their bug, and ALL of our friends and family. We love you all so, so much.