10.22.16

Celebrating my one year anniversary has me reminiscing on our wonderfully, perfect for us wedding day. I spent two (long) years engaged, planning our wedding down to each small detail; in today's Wedding Wednesday post I'm recapping my favorite small details from our big day!

We celebrated our nuptial ceremony on October 22, 2016 with Fr Norman Fischer at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Mt. Sterling, Ky, followed by a reception at Indian Creek Restaurant. Photography by Catherine at Serendipity Shoots and Stories.

Groomsmen wore Navy Blue suits from Generation Tux, an online rental service for suits/tuxedos. This service worked perfectly for us, as all our groomsmen were spread across various states. I was able to choose their outfit and all they had to do was input their measurements! We were able to create a look that included the suit, shoes, belt and shirt for a very reasonable price. I would definitely recommend! We gifted each groomsman a fun pair of socks to wear on the wedding day in our colors. I purchased these from The Tie Bar.

For my bridesmaids, I wanted each girl to choose their own dress in which they felt prettiest in! My best friends have all different skin tones, preferences and shapes and I wanted each of them to feel comfortable and confident! I provided my parameters (had to be metallic, some form of detail- lace, beading, sequins, long, warm neutral or blush), and let them choose the rest! I loved the dresses my girls chose and I was so happy with how the "mismatched" look turned out!

I purchased my dress from Wendy's Bridal in Cincinnati - style is "Florine" by David Tutera. I later realized, my great-grandmother's name was Florine! Love that I was able to carry a little piece of her with me that day. I chose a chapel length veil, pink glittery Kate Spade sneakers and a hairpiece to match my bouquet to complete my bridal look.

Let's talk flowers- I am a huge sucker for fresh flowers. My bridal bouquet consisted of white lilies (my signature flower), pink and cream garden roses, red amaranthus, blush peonies, berry and cream Cala lilies, dusty miller, and a hidden pink carnation symbolic of my Gamma Phi Beta sorority sisters. I added a Rosary purchased at the University of Notre Dame, my mother's wedding garter and a piece of lace from my grandmother's wedding dress. Our altar flowers and table arrangements were created to mirror my bouquet.

Prior to the ceremony, we chose to do a ring warming. One of my attendants stood with both of our rings by the entrance, allowing guests to "warm" our rings prior to the ceremony with their love, well-wishes, and prayers. I created this graphic (and all graphics used throughout our big day) in Adobe Illustrator.

Rather than use traditional guest book, we asked our guests sign quilt squares to create a keepsake we could display in our home for many years to come.

We chose a sweetheart table over sitting the bridal party together (in fact- we chose to not use a seating chart at all). Our sweetheart table was set with my great-grandmother's wedding china,

A local stringed orchestra entertained our guests during cocktail hour and Bedford (local band) played live music throughout the rest of our night, including our first dance, "Forever Like That" by Ben Rector and my father-daughter dance, "Daughters" by John Mayer. I selected Daughters, which *is a little bit of a stereotypical father-daughter dance to pay homage to my first concert, which was a John Mayer concert that my dad bought me tickets and took me to.

We ended our amazing night with a sparkler exit - what beautiful photos this made for!

Here are a couple of my favorite shots - Cat did such a wonderful job capturing our perfect day.

Cheers to many, many more years spent reminiscing on our day!

xoxolauren