A Tribute to One of the Happiest Days of Our Lives

Our wedding day was one of the most special days of our lives.  We began dating 10-15-06 and were engaged on our 3 year anniversary on 10-15-09 and were married on our 4 year anniversary 10-15-10.  (I know... Everyone tells me I made it easy on Raynor to remember our anniversary!)  We were married at the amazingly beautiful Bella Donna Chapel at Adriatica in McKinney.  It was actually still under construction when we got married but it was still breathtaking!  We spent the morning and afternoon getting ready and it seemed to go by so fast! But, I was glad because I couldn't wait to see my soon-to-be hubby! I could keep writing, but the pictures do a better job of telling the story of our wedding day!

We decided to do a "first look" where we saw each other before the wedding.  It was important to us to be able to express our excitement and emotions when we first saw each other in private without everyone watching.  It was such an amazing feeling to see my soon to be husband standing there on the bridge waiting to see me!  I will never forget those sweet moments :)



My sister's horse Lady came to the wedding... ok well maybe she wasn't at the ceremony but she was apart of the pre-ceremony festivities! :)  We had so much fun taking these photos with her.  She is such a sweetie and is extremely photogenic for a horse.  What can I say?  She just loves the camera! :)

We were so blessed and honored to have our wonderful friends & family be apart of our special day!

The Ceremony

My favorite part about the ceremony was when our pastor revealed to us that we were actually standing on the Word of God during the ceremony.  The builders of the chapel buried a Bible into the foundation of the chapel while it was being constructed.  To us, it was very symbolic because as we were building our marriage around the Word of God, so too was the chapel built around it.  Another highlight of the ceremony was when the ring bearer (my little cousin Pierce) threw the baseball that was supposed to be holding my ring!  The baseball was a substitute for a traditional ring bearer pillow because we wanted to get a little creative! Luckily, there was a fake ring glued to the baseball instead of my actual ring. (I didn't really trust a 2 year old with an expensive ring!)

And after 4 years of dating... finally husband and wife!

Then we were off to the reception!!!

So we weren't supposed to smash cake in each others faces... BUT I couldn't resist! :)

After lots of partying on the dance floor.. it was already time to leave.  The night seemed like it flew by!  But, it was definitely one of the most memorable nights of our lives!

And they lived happily ever after! :)

FYI: The AWESOME photographer who took all of these AMAZING photos is Ashley Munn with Ashley Munn Photography!  Check her out!  You wont be disappointed! :)

Our Wedding: The Details

After every girl gets engaged, (lets just admit it... every girl plans out their wedding BEFORE they are even engaged!!) she cant wait to start planning all of the details: date, location, venue, centerpeices, dress, bridesmaid dress, bouquets, garters, food, cake, favors, linens, seating charts, band or DJ?, caterer.... and the list goes on!  Luckily, gals getting married these days have awesome tools like pinterest to organize all of the ideas for the details they love (btw, that would have been extremely useful while I was planning my wedding... just saying..) So, in the spirit of our upcoming year anniversary (yay!!!!) I decided I would share all of the details I came up with for our wedding! Enjoy!

First, we found this amazing chapel that was being built called the Bella Donna Chapel at Adriatica.  I fell in love with this chapel and I did not want to get married any other place! Even though the construction was down to the wire the day before our wedding, I could not see myself getting married at any other place!

 So, I built this happily ever after sign.... yeah right... my dad built this happily ever after sign and I painted on the words! It was super easy and it was one of the many DIY projects of my wedding.

 

The bridal bouquet was made of white hydrangeas, white ranunculus, cream roses and light pink spray roses.  The bridesmaids bouquets were green baby hydrangeas, green mums and cream roses. The groom and groomsmen garters were cream and raspberry ranunculus.

I had these handkerchiefs made for my parents to give them the day of the wedding.

 

I custom ordered the iron-on crystal lettering from Etsy.



I had fun making this wedding date banner using canvas material and attaching it to jute rope!



I made these wedding thank you signs with these chalkboards that I bought from Hobby Lobby and painted on the "Thank You".  I used this picture to order custom thank you cards.



My friend and I made these wedding ceremony programs using cardstock that I ordered online.  I printed the monogram "C" on the cream cardstock and then layered it with the other colors.  The jute rope is tied and holds the program cover and the printed off insert together. 






Raynor loves baseball and fishing so I had to design a grooms cake where they were both incorporated!



I made this fishing grooms cake topper! So fun!



 I decided to do a candy bar and make penants with all of the rhymes my friend and I made for the candy! (I know, it's cheesy..)

I thought it would be fun to have a baseball themed sign in table complete with penants, peanuts, gloves, bats and a "ticket" to our reception!