LOTS of wedding detail

The Guest Book {Table}

no book, just two paddles.

I wanted something that I would always see & have visible in our home.

I plan to hang these in above a doorway in our home {and homes to come}

let me take you back to day 115, me talking about how to make your wedding day unique, well this was the perfect idea for us & everything else in this post are more of our "unique" ways.

Also, to the left you see a bowl & pink feather {which is a pen I made}... okay well that is our 10 year time capsule. It had random questions for people to fill out {if that wanted to}.  Throughout our wedding planning & all the festivities I collected certain things that I wanted to be brought back to in 10 years I'll write a post to capture all the details of the capsule later. It's interesting.

The grooms cake, not really. 

Aaron did not want a grooms cake, he stated "I don't want one. I've never seen anything eat the grooms cake, so it'll be a waste." which is not true & this floored me because I just knew he would want something extravagant. Thanks to Pinterest, I saw this idea about a month before the wedding. I already had these old fashion milk jars, so I added some touch & then our engagement party cake had the cake toppers, which is a groom holding a fishing pole with a ring on the hook and his bride reaching up for it.

This idea was p.e.r.f.e.c.t because if I haven't shared it before... here it is.

My husband eat FOUR oreos {double stuffed} with milk every.single.night before we hit the sack. Everyone loved it.. however nobody ate it.

The bags to the right of the cake were the same "favor bags" for our guest which had a picture of us behind a parasol kissing. Awe! How sweet, right? However these bags had goodies inside and a thank you note that was handed out to each of our vendors. :)

Gift Table

Just a small touch of wedding decor that sat on the gift table.

Our Dinner Table Setting
... my favorite thing. We worked very hard on these. At the very beginning of our wedding planning, I said I wanted my tables to be very detailed. I am a detailed kind of gal and I wanted them to show who I was. Pearls, Lace, & Vintage - Those were my main must haves. Being we started from the day I got engaged, we were able to really focus on these.I work next to hobby lobby, enough said. After designing the table, that's when Mom hosted My Bridal Bash so we could all put these together and into boxes, ready to go!One of the Bridal Shows I attended is where my piece of glass raised up on the table was inspired. You should go look. However, I changed it a bit and threw in a twist. :) This made it where I could design decor to fit under the glass without wasting space. The fans were brought in for the vintage look. My hubby's idea! :) I chose 'sticks' instead of flowers to bring in the rustic/outdoors look for Aaron. I was completely in love with my table settings. Our Table Numbersthese were our table numbers, not really but really.I didn't want to just do a number, I wanted to incorporate 'our story', therefore I came up with the idea of pictures... figures? Each table had a different photo with... wellit started out at 'signs' of locations around our hometown; the road of our high school "Camilla drive", the road where it really started, which were the tennis courts {where we played for high school} Courthouse Road, & so forth. Eventually our story got boring and I ran out of COOL roads so for the last like... three tables were just random roads or places in our hometown. On the backside of these pictures were the stories behind the road signs.That too, got boring so to finish up the {30} tables I started to write facts about us or I took things from our table capsule questionnaire. :) This is one of the small things that nobody notices... but mean a lot to me. This picture above is 'Welcome to Pembroke' which was table #1 - the caption on the back shared the year when I moved to this small town & basically how we met. In the picture below is another very special piece of  'us' that means a lot, however nobody really knew. See the music paper? Okay, well I spent countless hours dying 'love songs' with music notes with tea. I bought old music books and made copies of them & crumbled them up and hand dipped these pieces of paper for the vintage look but most of all it was a symbol of the way Aaron and I connect. Remember this post about how important music was to us? If not, take a look. You'll understand it a bit more. The napkin holders holding the napkin together were also handmade. Out of what? Toilet & paper towel rollers.Yes, all 300 were cut & wrapped in the material perfect for our day... it was a lot of work however it was another special touch of our wedding day.  Look of the tables BEFORE anyone got a hold of them The Bride & Groom dinner setting  Favors:Remember April 22, 2011 when I wrote a post about 80's candy? Okay, well thank you for your help because everyone loved our 'Candy Bar' favor table.   

I really didn't like that framed {thank you note} to my guests there... but come the night before, I did not want to have to worry about anything. So I didn't. I also made a {Just Married} pendant banner to hang on this table... didn't make it up there.

----

We were also supposed to have koozies...

Well that was our very first 'Oppsie'

Our Koozies were supposed to look JUST.LIKE.THIS

but with our names & our wedding date.

We kept a handle for shizz & giggles.

 

That's all folks...{for now}

Sure hope you are having fun, I am! Day 129 will take you back and make you see all the things in the making...we handmade SO many things. It's crazy... but worth it.

Ceremony Re-CAP {Vows & such}

The wedding re-CAPS are back! Whoo-hoo!

If you've missed anything you can go to my left sidebar and catch up.

You haven't missed a whole lot.

Today I'm sharing the rest of my ceremony + some.

If you missed my first post {the brides walk} Go back and read this before reading any further. The other ceremony post is so touching... or at least I think it is.

{In order to get the whole feel of things...

you have to listen to the music this song was actually played

during our sand ceremony}

After leaving the salon where all 10 of us {Maids & Me} got our hair done

we ventured back to our venue. This is when things got a little crazy.

What we thought we had a lot of time... went from a lot to NONE.

I handmade made their earrings and due to picking out their necklaces months after making their earrings & them all being different from each other, there were some earrings that I needed to change. Due to this situation... I never got to finish them. Which led me to finishing them in the bridal room with the wrong glue. Therefore I was put behind a little... a lot.

My photographer was there 30 mintues early to look at everything and prepare..

when they were ready for me, my dress wasn't even on. It takes a whole 15 minutes just to

lace me up. It was a little overwhelming.

First time seeing myself as a completed bride.

.....

The Ceremony

As our guests walked up to the venue they were directed to the back.

As soon as they reached the walk way my oldest nephew, Austin & oldest niece

Chloe were there serving lemonade

Aren't they adorable???

Reaching my groom...

I have two sets of parents. So this was tough.

My {step} Dad walked me down the aisle. I did not want the words "who gives this bride"

therefore, I had my Mom, Daddy, Step Mom Diane waiting for me before I got to Aaron.

When we reached all my parents, I kissed each one of them as Aaron can down and grabbed my hand. My Dad handed me to him... instead of who gives this bride.

The ceremony was one of my favorite parts of the day.

It was so special and a lot of fun.

Although... there were mistakes and uh ohs'..

I rented a sound system from our DJ in order for everything to be heard.

Well, he worn his mic... but nothing was heard.

Our Vows... were written by us.

...to be my wedded wife/husband, my lifetime partner, to have and to hold

from this day forwrd. Through our greatest days & our weakest days, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, til' death do us part. 

I promise to love you when we are together, and for when we are apart. I promise to love you when I am proud of you, and when I am disappointed in you. I will honor your goals and dreams and help you fulfill them. For the depth of my being, I will seek to be open and honey with you. I say these things believing that God is in midst of them all. I love you, as I love no other.

After our vows came our sand ceremony.

Aarons cousin sang the song {playing now}. It was so beautiful.

Instead of going back to the preacher and standing there while the song finished out

we took the left over time and give hugs and kisses to our mothers as they accepted both of us as their child. It was special.

Our ceremony was short & sweet.

It was so memorable. I loved every second of it.

The last thing {I had} my preacher say was

"What the caterpillar perceives is the end; to the butterfly is just the beginning."

Then to tell Aaron to kiss his Bride.

At this moment, my maid of honor was supposed to release the butterflies.

1. they were supposed to be behind us. they werent.

2. She could not get the box opened. hilarious.

3. look at my face = PRICELESS.

Then he pronouced us as

Mr & Mrs Aaron ..... Drew

and the party began

Selected song choice to walk BACK down the aisle:

This Will Be {and Everlasting Love}

by Natalie Cole

... and we danced.



FUNNY FACTS:
During our ceremony, I looked at Aaron and realized he hadn't shanved.
I asked him about it and his response was "They were rushing me. I didn't have time."

Also, in the middle of our ceremony, his shirt came completely unbuttoned.
All of a sudden his entire chest was showing... hilarious.
This is him buttoning it back up. Our preacher was about to crack.

Here are a few random ceremony pictures:

{random selection...}

above: Dani getting ready to release the butterflies.

above: ashley singing so beautiful.

above: love this picture. this is my brother holding my bouquet &

my sisters parasol while she fluffs my dress as we pour the sand.

Dani & Kristie

 Jon

Heather

excuse the blury photo of the butterfly, but this was actually taken with a phone.

this also was taken with someones phone

one of my FAVORITE pictures captured.

... I'll post more {random} pictures
of everthing once I'm finished posting all the re-CAPS!

The Best Day EVER! - {The Ceremony -part 1}

press play

Butterfly Waltz - this was actually the song our parents and grandparents

were seated during.

I've always been in love with sappy love movies. I pretty much know all of them BY HEART. Seriously. I wanted to tie in my "fairytale love story movies" into our wedding decoration. So, my bridesmaid, Rach & I painted the boards with quotes from different movies. These quotes related to our relationship or defined us in some way. We used my handmade shower tree arrangements to give these signs a pop! I loved this. This said Jessica written all over it. Also pictured is our lemonade stand. My oldest niece and nephew served cups of lemonade as our guest walked up. It was a big hit!

Our Ceremony was one of my favorites parts of the day.

I thought I'd be ready for it to be over with but really...

it was special & so much fun.

{taken right before we walked out}

{stop right there, don't go any further... Turn OFF the other music,

you have to listen to the music as you read so press play.

everytime i hear this music, i melt completely

and these moments are played over and over in my head.

seriously, one of the best moments of my life, hands down.

The number one photo I wanted was to see his face when he first saw me. This is my most favorite part of any wedding. I always {as all three Moms are doing in this picture above} look at the groom when the bride enters because I feel that's the one true moment it really hits him.
In this case, he teared up  "like a baby", or say they say. Mama said she had to tell Mr. Paul {my FIL} to give him his hanky. Aaron says (and told everyone all night} "The gnats were bad. They loved my eyes." as he laughed about getting sappy.  The first picture is my first eye to eye look at Aaron. As you can see it took time getting to him & the aisle. Everyone could see me and my Dad but I couldn't see him until I turned the corner.  

I remember my heart racing as I struggled to hold my 12 lb bouquet along with the family tradition bible & hanky... with.one.hand but at the same time being extremely calm.
I also remember worrying because as soon as I hit grass my dress felt like as if I were dragging what I thought was my slip falling but really was my train dragging behind us.

I prayed and prayed for months that I wouldn't sob like a baby... because I always do in every movie or special moment, through the ceremony. I got a little teary eyed walking up to everyone and then remember getting super excited once I saw faces that looked fimiliar. As I turned the corner to the aisle and to see my handsome groom I got pretty teary eyed...


{to be cont'd} EXTRA INFORMATION: DIY: The Ceremony/Reception boards were bought at Hobby Lobby
& were marked down to 90%. Orignally had a westen/horse/cowboy look to it. However, I painted it with chalkboard paint & made it our own!

 ALL CEREMONY music was instrumental music
played by my Uncle Joe, our pianist DIY: Not the best picture of the boutonniere, but ALL of our boutonnieres were handmade {by me}. They represented each guy in some way. pictured above {My Dad, Aaron} is NASCAR Racing. It isn't a very good picture, but you will see more. Go to THIS post to see Aaron's boutonniere.  My bouquet: Yes made of broaches. It took LOTS of time to put this together but it was VERY special to me. You'll have to wait and see why later.  

{Re-CAP} Rehearsal Dinner

Rehearsal Dinner

{go here to see rehearsal practice}

Hosts: P & K Drew {my in-laws}

Where: The Mill House, Statesboro Georgia

What: Mrs. K worked very hard to make this perfect.

This restaurant has a huge variety of entrees therefore Mrs. K chose

two of every category of dishes and had The Mill House personalize

a menu for each person {62} who was taken part.

Pasta, Steak, Chicken, or Pork - everyone was served a salad & then each couple

or single had one choice of appetizer. Crazy! It was so nice. So nice that I peppered my salad and ate for shrimp out of my Shrimp Alfredo and then spent the rest of the night

talking to everyone. So nice that Aaron wore his meal down his pants leg. {you'll see in the pictures} On top of that, they had an private bar set up.

Everything was perfect!

{Pictures were taken by a wonderful friend, Shanna}

The Gals + some

1} Maid of Honor, Danielle & boyfriend, Nic

2} My sister, Kim also Matron of Honor & BIL Tommy

3} Brother Brian, also Groomsman & SIL Kerri, Bridesmaid

4}Bridesmaid, Rachel & husband, Bj

5}Bridesmaid, Holly & husband, Matt

6}Bridesmaid, Kristie & husband, Michael  also a Groomsman

7} Bridesmaid, Heather & boyfirend Brett

The Guys + some

1} Aaron's close friend Chad {hunting buddy} from Macon & his wife Pamela

2} Groomsman, Paul & wife Amanda

3} Groomsman, Daniel & wife Candice, also Bridesmaid

4}Aaron's sister, Bridget also a Bridesmaid & BIL Patrick, also a Groomsman

5}Groomsman, Joe & girlfriend Raisa

6}Groomsman, Jon & wife {& rehearsal photographer} Shanna

7} Groomsman, Nathan & wife Ashley and little girl, Lelia

The Parents Table

{& out table}

{My Aunt would kill me for this picture but it's the only one that was taken.

Garrett, another USHER also Aaron's cousin is missing from the picture.}

Opening Presents

{It was crazy busy when the bridal party was opening, so no photographs were

taken as well. Only the parents.}

... last but not least

 after everything was over

we packed up and I kissed my groom husband good night!

For some reason I found this bittersweet. I don't know why.

He went home to our house along with a few guys

&

WE.. Me & a few of my maids went to my parents house.

I knew I wanted to spend my last night single with my mom so...

some of the ladies weren't able to tag along due to family left behind but some stayed...

 At 1:30AM my mother came out and worked her magic on us...

really me.

She demanded I get some sleep!!! :)

I actually sleep like a baby... up at 7:00am to round everyone up for

HAIR APPOINTMENTS! :)

The FUN has just begun!