Tying the Knot: Bouquet & Garter Toss

It was getting later into the night when I realized I had never put my garters on! I don't know why no one thought of them while we were getting ready or taking pictures but all of a sudden I grabbed my new sister-in-law and we hurried to get them put on before it was time for the tosses portion of the evening. 

It's a good thing I realized when I did because it wasn't more than 10 minutes later that the DJ was calling all the single gals to the floor. We didn't end up getting a toss bouquet from our florist so I threw one of the bridesmaid bouquets instead. We played Good Girls Go Bad by Cobra Starship and there was quite the enthusiasm from those ladies. Then it was J's turn. I sat in a chair and J came sliding up on his knees from across the dance floor, such a goof that man is, but thankfully he kept things classy. We played Highway to the Danger Zone and the guys went jumping. 

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: A look into our Photo Booth 

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance

Reception Dinner & Toasts

Dancing with our Moms

The partying begins

Cutting the Cake

Tying the Knot: Wedding Slideshow

So I know I said yesterday that today would be a recap of our Bouquet and Garter Toss but I figured this was the perfect opportunity to show you our slideshow that we played for our guests after we cut our cake. 

I absolutely loved creating this project and did it with the help of my and J's mom to get all the pictures I needed. While we were home for my bridal shower this past fall I sat around at each of their houses and went through albums upon albums of photos from when we were little kids. It was so fun to see pictures of J I'd never seen before and so fun to sit with my mom going through all the memories. When I was creating the section of photos from our entire relationship I was literally bawling like a baby the first time I watched it through. We have so many memories together it was awesome to see them all in one place. 

Once I had all the pictures I needed, I scanned them onto my computer and used a combination of iPhoto, iDVD & iMovie to put it all together. If anyone wants more detail about the programs I used shoot me an email, I'd be happy to share.

So without further adieu....

I'll be back tomorrow with more recaps from the actual wedding.

Tying the Knot: Cake Cutting

By this time of the night everything was going so smoothly! I was walking back from the bridal suite after a quick re-apply of lipstick (from smooching my hubs too much) when I was asked by our catering staff if we were ready to cut the cake.

We chose to go a different route with our cakes and I'm so happy we did. Instead of spending a ton of money on a tiered cake that sure, looks gorgeous, but still tastes like cake (duh!) we opted to do mini bundt cakes and a larger cutting cake. We ordered 21 dozen Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes in 3 flavors (lemon, red velvet & chocolate, chocolate chip) and ordered our cutting cake from Whole Foods. The cakes were displayed on wood rounds surrounded by candles, our cake topper was from Deliziare on Etsy, and our knife & server set was actually a Goodwill find (never opened or anything!)

Our cutting cake was almost pure chocolate so I told J as soon as we ordered it that there would be no cake smashing! I wasn't worried about getting it all over my face or hair or whatnot, I just didn't want it on my dress. So his pay back for me telling him no was to bite my finger instead! Oh that man.

After we cut the cake, our guests got to choose their bundt flavors, grab a cup of hot chocolate and watch the slideshow I had put together. It was a super fun project for me to do and our guests really enjoyed seeing all the pictures and getting a chance to rest from all the dancing!

And if you didn't already know that J and I love to have fun together, here's more proof! 

This photo cracks me up!

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: Bouquet & Garter Toss

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance

Reception Dinner & Toasts

Dancing with our Moms

The partying begins

Tying the Knot: Let the Party Begin

After our very emotional dance with our moms I was happy to have all the stressful/anxious/unsure moments of our wedding out of the way. Now it was time to party! And party we did!

Our wedding was an absolute blast! I loved that we had a small guest list of our closest family and friends because it made the whole night so much fun. The dance floor was packed most of the night and I'm so happy with our choice in DJ as he played great music and took requests from J & I plus the wedding party really well the whole night.

We literally danced all night. J got to sing his beloved "Don't Stop Believin'" at the top of his lungs as we all joined him and his guy friends brought back some high school memories with an awesome rendition of "Wasting My Time". At one point our groomsmen started the infamous conga line/train weaving throughout the room, we had a dance-off circle where people danced in the center (including an appearance of the worm!) and we all linked arms when "Sweet Caroline" played.

Literally such a blast! And we're not even half way through the night yet!

All photos courtesy of Ignite Images.

Next up: Cake Cutting

Need to catch up?

First we got ready

Then it was time for The Dress

Lovely bridesmaid photos

Our sweet Ollie pup

Handsome groomsmen photos

The Bride & Groom portraits

Our First Touch before the ceremony

Small wedding details

The start of our Ceremony (Readings & Ring Warming)

We're finally Husband & Wife

Formal family & wedding party photos

How we remembered missing family

Our pictures as Mr & Mrs

Our First Dance

Reception Dinner & Toasts

Dancing with our Moms

Valentines Day 2013

Source: sarahdawndesigns.blogspot.com via Ryann on Pinterest

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Sure some people may say that Valentines is a commercialized holiday which sure, I can see that point.

Commercials about buy your wife this diamond and she'll love you forever.

Feeling the need to spend excess amounts of money on chocolates and roses. 

But I like to think of Valentines as a day to specifically focus on the one you love. 

Sure, we should all be loving our husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, each and every day. And yeah, we'd like to be able to celebrate with romance and undivided attention all year long. But this is life and let's be honest, that rarely happens. We're busy and tired and working and saving our money etc etc etc. Four course meal that take hours to prepare or special, fancy gifts just aren't happening every day. 

Valentine's Day gives us a specific reason, a specific focus, to show those we love how much they really mean to us. And that's exactly what today will be for J and I. This year marks our first Valentines Day as Husband and Wife, something that we'll never experience again and I hope that tonight he knows how much I love him, how blessed I am to have him as my husband and how excited I am to go through life with him knowing I have him by my side.

Our evening will consist of cooking a dinner together that we wouldn't normally take the time to while enjoying each others company and maybe even some snuggling on the couch while dinner's in the oven. There will be:

+ Delicious Sausage Wonton appetizers
+ Ribs with veggies and side salad
+ A few glasses of wine
+ And these bad boy cookies.

Source

I hope everyone has a good Valentines Day filled with love from those you care about most! And of course, I hope there's a little pink and red thrown in there too ;-)