Our Wedding Day – In a Nutshell

I’ve never shared any pictures from my wedding on social media (except for one or two on our anniversary), I’ve only ever printed one wedding photo, and I’ve yet to order my wedding album. So now, 4 years later, it seems appropriate to share. Better late than never right?!?! 35 days after we were married, 5 days after returning home from an epic honeymoon in Fiji, we were on cloud 9, still waiting to get wedding photos back, when we got a call that my dad was in ICU. This is another story for another day, but the moral is that he was taken off life support and we said our goodbyes 4 days later on Christmas Day. By God’s grace and seamless intervention, my dad’s life was spared. A complete miracle. But it wasn’t without loss. My dad lost both hands and feet to a bacterial infection and septic shock.

This came as a complete shock to everyone. It was totally out of left field. And just 35 days after he and my mom gave me the wedding of my dreams. He walked me down the aisle. Gave the most epic wedding speech I’ll never forever. And danced the night away with family and friends. So my wedding pictures were the last photos our family has of my dad as the dad we’d known for 29 years. He is still the same dad, but physically he is different. And his life, our life, has been forever changed. So when my photographer emailed me the photos while my dad was in the hospital fighting for his life, literally hour by hour, they were something I couldn’t look at. I’m not sure why. They were a reminder of the best day of my life. But they were also the reminder of how fragile life is and how quickly it can all be taken from you.

I went from being on cloud 9. A newly wed who had just experienced the wedding of her dreams. To being crushed, stomped on, trampled, and run over. So for some reason (call it bitter if you’d like), these pictures were REALLY hard for me to look at for a really long time. It seems odd. I know. But that’s the truth.

But over the years those hard feelings have dissipated. And then it just felt odd to share my wedding photos 3 years after the fact. But today we are in a really good place. Everyone is. And these wedding photos are exactly what they should be – a beautiful reminder of my family, our strength, our unwavering love for one another, and the strength of my marriage. So I hope you enjoy this little walk down “Memory Layne” as much as I did. (and now I’m off to create my wedding album…FINALLY)

A Little Glimpse Into Our Wedding Day

Tom and I were married at Wrightsville Beach on Nov 16, 2013. Not on the beach, but at the beach. From the moment we got engaged I knew I wanted to get married at the beach. Tom’s entire family lives in Missouri, which if you’re geographically inept like I am, it’s a land locked state. And when I heard that some of them hadn’t seen the ocean, smelt the salt air, or felt the sand between their toes in 10 years, I knew I wanted them to experience the greatness that is the east coast.

Growing up in North Carolina we would spend every single holiday, long weekend, birthday, spring break, fall break, Saturday or Sunday at the beach.  In the summer most families rent a beach house for at least a week for a family vacation. So when we found out that 45 family members, including all 7 of Tom’s mom’s brothers and sisters as well as his aunt/uncle/cousins from England, were making the trip…I knew they had to experience family vacation east coast style. And being that we got married in November, the real estate situation on the NC coast worked in our favor. We rented 5 homes on the north end of Wrightsville Beach and put the entire family and bridal party in these houses. They were all walking distance from each other and had plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms to spare.

We started our wedding festivities on Thursday night with a low country boil that my parents hosted at one of the homes. Then Friday the rehearsal dinner, Saturday the wedding, and Sunday a brunch before everyone reluctantly headed back home. It was a weekend full of TONS of celebration. It was everything I ever wanted and so much more!! All of our favorite humans on the planet in one location. A beautiful location that facilitates family, fun, and fellowship.

Two of the houses we rented were across the street from each other. One for the bridesmaids. And one for the groomsmen. So we got ready separately and then met for our first look.

The First Look

The minute I put my dress on, I lost my marbles. I was sobbing hysterically. Partially because my dress was too big and I was freaking out. And partially because it got REAL real quick. You put every ounce of your being into planning and preparing for your big day. And then when you realize its all happening, the emotions of the last 6 or 9 months comes flooding to the surface. So as I’m standing there bawling my eyes out, my photographer is begging me to just go do the first look. So my dad walked me to the door to go see Tom for the first time. This was the most special moment of the day. I wish I would have taken more time to spend with my dad in this moment. 5 weeks later our lives would change forever. But in that moment I was rushing against the sun to get the “perfect pictures”. But having my dad walk me down to this most exciting point in the day was beyond special. And these pictures are some of my favorites from the entire day.

Behind the bridesmaid’s house was my photographer and videographer. Waiting to capture our first look. Doing a first look was the best decision we made! Getting married in November at 5pm gave us basically no option. If we wanted outdoor pictures we had no choice. But in hindsight it was the best decision of the day. The moment I saw Tom all the anxiety and nerves went out the window. The moment we were together I was cool, calm, and ready to get this show on the road. I cant imagine taking all of that anticipation to the aisle. We got all of our emotions out in a very private and intimate setting. Hands down, my favorite moment of the entire day.

Bridal Party Photos

After a few minutes with each other – realizing the day was just getting started. Our day. Our big day. It was here. All of our favorite people here to celebrate us. We were ready to get this party started. We walked across the street, behind the groomsmen’s house, and met up with our bridal party for some AMAZING shots.

Now lets make this thing official.

We got married in a non-denominational chapel in a private, gated community. This tiny little chapel only held 120 people, which made the guest list a MAJOR point of tension for months. I’m pretty sure my mom and I fought over this one subject more times than we fought my entire highschool career!! It was insanely hard to narrow down to 120 people. And there was absolutely no wiggle room. This chapel was packed to the brim at 120. So we did what we felt was right at the time. In hindsight you regret some of your decisions.  But I think everyone would do a few things differently after their wedding. So we did what we could and extended extra invitations to about 50 people to meet us at the reception.

Our ceremony was so special! We helped plan the entire thing. We wrote our vows (within the realm of traditional vows). We had some of our closest baseball, Christian example of a marriage, couple friends read scripture together. We had a beautiful soloist sing “The Prayer” – the song I had always wanted sung at my wedding. And then a pianist who subtly ended our wedding with “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as our guests exited the church. And to have all of our favorite people beside us – it was sheer perfection.

Party Time

When we were wedding planning we knew that hands down, the most important thing to us was the reception. A LOT of people were traveling from a very long way to celebrate with us and we wanted them to have a great time. Plus, Tom and I like to have a good time. So we pretty much stayed on the dance floor all night long! After we ate, we danced the night away with everyone there! The dance floor was packed from start to finish.

Cut the Cake Wouldya

And then the cake cutting happened —- after a little too much wine! They asked us to go cut the cake and I proudly took the serving knife like I knew what I was doing. Well they didn’t tell me that you cut the cake on the bottom layer — not the top. And certainly not through TWO layers. As I’m leaning most of my weight into the cake trying to cut it over and over and over again, Tom says sweetly in my ear “hey babe – there’s probably a layer of cardboard in there.” ba ha ha ha. YEP! Too much wine! But we got a really good laugh out of it!!

Something that has since become a tradition in our family – my dad and his 3 best buds (one being my uncle) always serenade the grandmas at the weddings. It has happened at my cousin’s and my sister’s since then. And no….they can not sing.

And just about now the party REALLY got poppin’

We went out with a bang for sure! But let me tell you – post wedding blues are a REAL thing! And they started the minute we left the reception. We climbed into the limbo and the waterworks started again. I think I even looked at Tom and said “I dont want to go home with just you.” ha ha ha ha. He should have known then that something was wrong with me 😉 (just kidding — kinda). So we changed clothes at our hotel room and joined our bridal party back at their house until 2am. Rounding out the best day of my life – without a doubt.