Our Wedding, Revisited

all images in this post copyright of Andy Armstrong Photography

I’ve been meaning to do a recap of my own wedding for ages, and since it’s almost our third wedding anniversary, I’ve been feeling especially nostalgic and thought now would be a good time to share stories and memories from one of the happiest days of my life to date, and maybe even offer a little insight and advice to any of you brides who are currently in the thick of wedding planning.

Jamie proposed to me in May of 2007. We had been dating for almost two years and were SO READY to get married, but we wanted to get through college first. We planned to set a date for the following May, after graduating, but as we began to search for available venues, we realized that it probably wasn’t going to happen. When we visited the Ramsey House Plantation, we fell in love with the big stone house, and since the first available date they had was June 14th, we booked on the spot. Jamie frequently groaned that 13 months was entirely too long for an engagement, but it turns out that we needed almost every single one of those days to pull off our plan. :)

So again, it was the summer of 2007 when I began to pull together inspiration for the overall design. I immediately knew the feel I wanted: Southern, vintage, colorful, picnic-esque, DIY, personal, sincere, and fun. But here’s the problem: even though this was just a few years back, it was before the age of wedding blogs galore and Pinterest and before Southern vintage weddings became crazy popular. I literally had almost nothing to go on other than a smattering of creative weddings in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine and some input from a forum called Indie Bride (sadly, it doesn’t even exist anymore). But what I did know was that I LOVED anything vintage and had for as long as I could remember, and what was most important to us was that the whole thing feel like an extra-fun backyard cookout with really good food, music and dancing, and spending time with our closest friends and family members.

So I created an inspiration folder on my laptop’s desktop and began cramming it full of photos, and it began to look like a little like this: aqua ball jars (I know, they’re everywhere now, but I loved them then and I still do), red and white gingham, daisies, polka dots, birds (ohhh yes, I put LOTS of birds on it), fried chicken, an almost Wizard of Oz-inspired color palette (aqua, green, red, and yellow), and all sorts of other goodies. And thus the vision was born. :)

When we began talking budget with my parents, I knew what our priorities would be: photography (this was before I was a photographer myself, so I say that without any bias), venue, and food. And that’s where the bulk of the money went. In order to save in other areas, we went the DIY route and had the help of SO MANY friends and family members. Even though many people were skeptical about the kind of wedding we wanted (keep in mind, at this point, outdoor DIY vintage weddings were NOT common), in the end it was so satisfying to see it all come together perfectly, and I think everyone absolutely understood where we were coming from when the day finally arrived. In fact, we were told by many of our guests that it was the most fun wedding they had ever been to, and is there a bigger compliment than that? A couple of people even commented that there were sure to be some copycat weddings. ;)

For now, let’s get on to some photos, and I’ll elaborate on more as we go! Our photographer, Andy Armstrong, was so great to work with, and captured so much of our day in all its fun and colorful glory. Enjoy!

My dress was another dilemma in the whole planning process. I was dead-set on wearing a short, ivory-colored dress with a 50′s silhouette (in fact, something almost identical to what Audrey Hepburn wore in Funny Face, one of my favorite movies), but again, back in 2007 we couldn’t find ANYTHING like that in stores or even online. Luckily my mom is a super talented seamstress, so I begged her to whip me up something from scratch. We found the perfect ivory polka-dotted fabric and a great pattern, and the result is something that I absolutely adored (and still do!). It was so fitting and sentimental that she made the dress, since she made tons of dresses for me as I was growing up, and I was so proud to wear one of her creations. She even surprised me with a patch she had embroidered on the inside with our names and wedding date as my something blue. LOVED IT.

As for the bridesmaids dresses, I wanted them to also be short and kind of retro, and I didn’t want the girls to have to drop $300 on a dress they would never wear again. By some miracle, we found these aqua Isaac Mizrahi dresses on clearance at Target for $25 a pop. They were exactly what I wanted, and cheap enough for it to not be a waste if they were thrown away right after the wedding. :) Once again, Target saves the day!

With such a retro-ish dress, I wanted a hairstyle that would fit perfectly, so I opted for a simple French twist (again, a la Audrey Hepburn… yes, I wish I could be her). My shoes were these amazing yellow patent leather heels with bows that I found on Zappos, and even though I had some crazy blisters by the end of the night, it was totally worth it. :)

The photo below on the right is one of my favorite photos of me ever. Well done, Andy!

And here is my dapper groom. :)

First looks are awesome, y’all.

These next couple of photos of me and my mom are some of my favorites of the day. After so many months of intense planning, hard work, and a few arguments (which we quickly resolved ;) ), it was surreal for us to stand there together and soak it all in. Even though in the beginning she wasn’t sure what to think about my whole vision, and even though she would have probably had something more classic and traditional, it was amazing how she jumped on board 200% and helped me see it through.

Our polaroid guest book setup:

Up until the ceremony began, I was surprised by how calm I had been the entire day. I didn’t stress out, I wasn’t obsessing over whether the decor was being set up properly, and I wasn’t even super emotional. Mostly, I was just having a blast hanging out with my friends all day. But then, the moment my dad and I began to walk down the aisle, I absolutely lost it and sobbed the whole way down. That was the moment when it all just hit me at once… I’m really getting married, I’m a bride, here are all my family and friends, this is amazing.

Another thing that was also really important to both me and Jamie was the music. I walked down the aisle to “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds, which is absolutely one of my favorite love songs of all time and is still just so special. Before the ceremony, as guests were coming in, we played a selection of some of our other favorite modern love songs, including “Two of Those Two” by Maria Taylor, “Til Kingdom Come” by Coldplay, “I Never” by Rilo Kiley, and “Coffee” by Copeland. During the ceremony, my cousin Elisa sang a phenomenal a cappella version of “Be Thou My Vision,” and our friends Britta and Adam performed a gorgeous cover of Over the Rhine’s “Little Did I Know.” Our recessional song was “Such Great Heights” by the Postal Service, which will always be one of my very favorites ever. :)

Oh, and I couldn’t leave my beloved Dolly Parton out of the day, so after the recessional, we played her song “Marry Me,” which is for sure worth a listen. :)

One of my favorite photos:

My grandaddy spoke during the first part of our ceremony, and it was truly one of the most touching parts of the day. Literally an hour before the ceremony began, we had a rain shower pass through (which caused me to have my only bridezilla moment- OUTDOOR WEDDING, PEOPLE!), but it left just as quickly as it came, and the sun came out and the weather was just gorgeous the rest of the day. So first thing, Grandaddy had everyone recite together a verse that couldn’t have been more appropriate: “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I’m starting to tear up just thinking about it. He also talked about how much he loved how “quirky” I am, like my Grandmother (and boy is that the truth- we are two peas in a pod!) and how I appreciated retro things like their green velvet couch that I still hope to one day inherit. :)

My dad’s best friend Eric, who is also a preacher like my dad and grandaddy, did the second half of the ceremony, which was just as beautiful. Here are the vows we recited:

“I promise to be your loving husband/wife; to cherish your love, intellect, and uniqueness; to support and inspire you; to delight in your happiness and comfort you in sorrow; to create with you a home that celebrates good food, passion, laughter, and a growing love for one another. My love is yours now, and for all the days before us.”

It’s something we should reflect on often. :)

Okay, so the aqua car. Is it not AMAZING and perfect in every way? This was actually a really happy coincidence that we even managed to have it. We were walking into church one day and saw it in the parking lot, and I immediately asked my parents whose it was, and it turned out to be owned by a man at our church. He very generously offered to drive it to the wedding, and wow… it made the wedding!

So somehow I ended up barefoot in all our portraits. I guess it’s fitting. ;) Also, helloooo golden hour!

My mom and I spent months scouring thrift stores for items for the centerpieces, because I wanted them to be kind of mismatched, but still look fairly cohesive. So we collected a ton of milk glass vases, aqua mason jars, and metal candleholders and ceramic bird figurines (which we then spray-painted a glossy white for consistency). Then we purchased about 10 different patterns of fabric to sew overlays for the white tablecloths on the table. Some of my favorites were a mini red-and-white gingham, yellow-and-white polka dots, green stripes, and a turquoise color with tiny red flowers. Since I wanted the only flower we used to be daisies, we planned to assemble a team of friends and family the morning of the wedding to set everything up, and we truly could NOT have done it without their help. (Helpful hint: If you’re doing DIY, it helps to assemble what you want the centerpieces to look like ahead of time, photograph it, and then have the photos handy as a guide for your helpers. That way it will look exactly how you pictured it, and no one will wonder what should go where.)

Ohhhh, and the food. Goodness gracious. We knew we wanted to serve good Southern comfort food, and our caterers went above and beyond. We had fried chicken (some of the tastiest I’ve ever had, actually), garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, cheese grits, fruit salad, and looottttsss of sweet tea, of course. The food was a huge priority to us because as we all know, the two things that most guests take away from a wedding are whether or not the food was good, and whether or not they had a good time. So we figured we could at least guarantee that the food would be good. :)

While everyone was eating dinner, we played a lot of 40′s music, especially songs with a distinct Southern sound and by artists like the Andrews Sisters, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and Don Redman. Some of my favorites were “The Tennessee Waltz,” “Chattanooga Choo-Choo, “Got the South in My Soul,” and “One Mint Julep.”

For our first dance, we had originally talked about taking lessons and doing a choreographed number to “Ain’t that a Kick in the Head” by Dean Martin. But as the wedding drew closer and we started to run out of time, we decided to go with our second choice, “The First Day of My Life” by Bright Eyes (another of my favorite love songs). It ended up being perfect. I expected to be really nervous dancing in front of so many people, but I don’t remember looking at anyone but Jamie during the whole song, and it ended much sooner than I thought, actually.

My dad is a huuuuge John Lennon fan (like, seriously), and we didn’t want to pick a really sappy song that we would both just stand there and sob to, so we did our dance to “When I’m 64″ by the Beatles. It was SO much fun.

In keeping with the Lennon theme, Jamie and his mom danced to “Beautiful Boy” (except to the Celine Dion cover since she’s a mama and not a daddy ;) ). I think Debbie cried the whole time. It was really sweet. :)

The speeches were another one of our favorite parts of the day. Bryce, Jamie’s best man, gave one of the most hilarious speeches of all time and had everyone keeled over in laughter. He talked about how when Jamie and I first started dating, I immediately became “one of the guys” and fit right in with their friend group. The only problem was that we had very little in common, what with his manly hobbies and my artsiness (and less conservative political views ;) ). He talked about how horrified he had been when I swooped in to decorate their bachelor pad with a “death and destruction” theme- in reference to a painting of tree branches and a vase of “dead sticks” I put in the bathroom. When I told him I was painting Jamie’s room green, he was expecting “hunter green” or “camouflage green” and was startled to learn it was actually “sinus infection green.” haahahaha Yep, that’s about right.

My dad’s speech was also so good, but with his reputation as an amazing preacher, no one expected anything less. He managed to not cry at all, which he said was his biggest fear. He opened by talking about how proud of me and Jamie he was, and how he really wanted this wedding to be a celebration. He encouraged everyone to relax and have fun, because Jesus’s first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding to keep the party going, so we should too! (Unfortunately, the only disappointment of the day was the fact that several of my extended family members chose not to be present because we served beer and sangria and they found it offensive. It was really hard to see my parents have their feelings hurt like that, but in the end, it was probably for the best, since, as a bride on the happiest day of my life, the last thing I would have wanted would be to offend people with my personal choices and have anyone present who didn’t wish to support us and celebrate with us.)

My maid of honor Megan, one of my best friends who now lives in Colorado, also gave such a sweet speech about how much she loved me and Jamie. There were tears and hugs… we can’t help it, we’re girls.

Finally, Jamie and I wanted to say a few words of our own. Jamie, of course, did a great job of thanking so many people individually and expressing our appreciation and happiness over everything everyone had done for us. But when *I* got the microphone, OF COURSE, I barely got two sentences out before I was sobbing again. (It’s seriously a problem. I have a hard time communicating anything important without getting emotional and losing control.) I just remember feeling so overcome with gratitude and joy and thinking that there would no way to adequately thank everyone present for all the ways they had supported and helped us. So I quickly just ended with a thank you and announced that we were moving on to the cake cutting. :)

Our cake was DELISH, you guys. It was gifted to us by a family friend, and she did a wonderful job. I didn’t want just standard white cake, so she created a cake with a strawberry and cream cheese filling that was so, so yummy. Also, I bought the vintage cake topper on eBay for $50, which seemed kind of pricey, but I do think now it was totally worth it. Plus I kept it and have it displayed in my office now. :) Oh, and we had another dear family friend make a buffet of pies in lieu of a groom’s cake, including Jamie’s favorite chocolate chip pecan pie. (No photos, unfortunately, but I think it was gone too fast! ;) )

I seriously wish we could go back and relive this again and again. The dance floor was packed all night, and Jamie and I were right there in the middle of it. It. Was. Amazing.

Now for some concluding thoughts: Looking back through these photos, I am fully aware that my wedding would no longer be considered “blog-worthy” or cutting edge or anything like that, but that doesn’t matter. In fact, I’m almost kind of thankful that I didn’t have access to a million wedding blogs and Pinterest when I was in the thick of planning, just because I feel like I would have easily gotten overwhelmed and perhaps lost sight of what was most important. So for any of you brides who DO feel overwhelmed or pressured to make your wedding cooler, more creative, or more interesting than brides before you… don’t be afraid to take a step back, shut down your computer, and refocus. Because you know what? At the end of day, the only thing that matters is you getting married and embarking on a new life with your fiancé. :)

And to my husband Jamie: I love you so much and feel so lucky that you married me. I hope we celebrate many, many more happy anniversaries together. xoxo