part III.

Details. Oh details, details, details. In my opinion, the details make the wedding (if you're looking for visual appeal, that is). I love looking at the details of other weddings, but when it came to my own, I had hardly any interest in DIY projects that required any kind of significant effort. Thank goodness my sister and mom understood my vision because they took charge and never looked back.

When I walked into our venue the afternoon of the wedding, I could not have imagined anything more fitting or perfect for our day. It was like these people were walking around inside my brain! We had so, SO much help to make things happen. Our wedding was truly a team effort and a genuine labor of love.

My dad, my brothers-in-law, my in-laws, my SISTER'S in-laws, our friends, my mom, Jeffrey, my sister...these were all people that worked tirelessly on the morning of the wedding to make my vision a reality so that I could just sit back and enjoy. Such amazingly good sports, the people in our life.

One details story and then I'll get on with the pictures, I promise: We decided to order our centerpiece flowers from Trader Joe's (because they're flower prices are beyond reasonable, people!) and Jeffrey brought them to our hometown (where we were married) on Thursday evening. Mind you, we got married on a Sunday. Panic suddenly washed over me as I realized that they would need to make it through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Thursday night, my family turned the air conditioning down to 67 DEGREES, chopped the tips off of flowers furiously and submerged the flowers into a homemade bleach solution so that they could make it to the big day in tip-top shape. We were finding buckets around the house willy nilly just so we'd have someplace to store all the flowers! We were completely delusional and slap happy by the time all the flowers had been cut and cared for, but they survived!! We only had maybe one or two hydrangea casualties along with a few others, but those little flowers stayed strong — bless them!
^ These flowers were recycled from my sister's rehearsal dinner and the cake carrier was gifted to me by my mother-in-law during our rehearsal.
^ Our guest table was filled with wedding pictures from both our parents and our grandparents.
^ We borrowed all the vintage tablecloths from Jeffrey's mom and my aunt. The bottles were collected from family members.
^ We gave our guests a mixed CD filled with some of our favorite songs.
^ What I saw as I walked in. It was amazing!
^ Hand cut hearts for each little cupcake.
^ My brother-in-law (sister's husband) made a ton of these paper chains and we made the tissue paper flowers over the course of a couple months.
^ Our cards basket ended up being really cute (thanks, Mom!) and the banner was handmade by my dad.
^ Jeffrey was given that tie clip by his grandfather. Minutes before the ceremony, we discovered that my dad had the exact same one (with his initial) given to him by his dad. That was a neat moment.
^ My sister gave me the gold locket on her wedding day and I filled it with pictures of my grandparents to carry in my wedding bouquet.


^ The blue bracelet was a gift from my sister (for my 'something blue') and the gold bangle is my mom's . My sister also wore it in her wedding.
^ The ceremony backdrop was completely handmade by my sister, my mom, my dad, my brother-in-law, and Jeffrey. We started it on Thanksgiving and did not finish it until a few days before the wedding!!
^ We had a ton of pictures from different points in our relationship.

^ More tissue paper flowers and some strawberry lemonade.


^ Jeffrey's dad also had pictures taken with a Patagonia patch at his own wedding. :)
^ I changed into my boots after the ceremony.

- J&R

* Ceremony pictures here.
* Reception pictures here.
* All photos by the incredible Kelly Kee of seed&sparrow.