Our Wedding: Bride & Groom Portraits

I knowwww.. I know! So maybe I have been slacking just a bit
on our wedding recap but sharing vacations and delish new recipes wasn't all that bad now was it ? 

Anyyyway, now that no vacations are on the horizon really, let's jump right back into
our wedding day recap with some Bride & Groom portraits, yes? Yes!

Being a Bride was quite possibly one of the best feelings I've experienced to date.
From the proposal, to just being engaged, to wedding planning, to all of the celebrations along the way,
to the actual day of our wedding, the feeling was completely unparalleled and just flat out FUN.
I felt fabulous literally from head to my pedicured toes, had a great group of girls around me,
LOVED my dress, had Mom's diamond earrings in and felt like the epitome of a "Bride."
What was even more exciting was the fact that I was about to say "yes" to the boy
I had been dating since I was 16 years old and officially become his "Wife."

Dress // Alfred Angelo

Hair & Make Up // Beyouty by Brittany Moreau

Bouquet // Morgann Hill Designs

Venue // BG Equestrian Resort

Photographer // Thunderclap Photography

Bryan, on the other hand, woke up EXTREMELY sick on

the morning of our wedding. I'm talkin' coughing, sneezing, swollen eyes,

the whole frickin' shebang. He somehow managed to pull himself

together with the assistance of DayQuil and man did he turn out

to be one damn good lookin' groom.

Once we said "I do" and headed off onto the property of our gorgeous venue for photos, 

I thought I was going to want to rush through them,  knowing 

that we only had an hour before we had to rejoin our guests, but that was so not the case.

We took our sweet time and had so much fun, despite the standing in the ant nest incident. 

Thaaaat's correct. Bryan's first task as a husband was shaking down the 4 foot rosette train

of his wife's wedding dress. Weeeee! 

 

Mark & Leigh with Thunderclap Photography did such an awesome

job of capturing our Bride & Groom pictures. We have pretty dang near a hundred

of just the two of us but these were my absolute favorites. 

I can't believe September 1st will be our 6 month anniversary and I STILL

don't have any wedding canvases on our walls yet.

#slacking

Our Wedding: The Guys

Ohhhhh the boys :)

What would a wedding weekend be without some shenanigans from the groomsmen?

What I probably hadn't previously mentioned were our accommodations for the weekend. 

We were married at BG Equestrian Resort, which just so happened to have the most

GORGEOUS, jaw-dropping, 8 bedroom "house" (for lack of a better term.. can we just say castle?)

on the property that we also rented for the weekend. In the first phases of planning, I knew I wanted

to make a whole weekend out of our festivities and, with 250 guests, a destination wedding

was not exactly an option. With this house we would be able to accommodate our entire wedding party

and some of their dates for both Friday and Saturday evening. This was PERFECT because

we ended up holding our rehearsal dinner there as well. 

I made strict arrangements to be IN my bedroom with my sweet maid of honor (with a glass

of wine of course) no later than 10:00 PM. I. Was so. Wrong.

Shortly after the families left, there we were, 25 individuals between the ages of 23 and 28,

already a little jazzed up over pre and post rehearsal cocktails, left in this massive house

with copious amount of alcohol remaining. I felt like the camera crew from Real World

should have been following us all around for crying out loud. 

Liquor flip cup soon commenced, one of the guys actually got carried up to their

room by none other than the Groom-to-be and the MOH and myself may or may not

have decided to start karaoke. Around 12:30 or 1:00, I FINALLY made it to my room.

I was so worried about not being able to fall asleep the night before but as soon as my little head hit that pillow, I was out. Until around 3:30 AM. When quite a few of the groomsmen 

proceeded to stomp around outside the master bedroom as if they were wearing freakin combat boots.

This house was almost 9000 square feet, why are you doing the A-town stomp

right outside of my bedroom? Go play in the other 8800 square feet of the house!

Bridezilla maaaayyy have come out for a split SECOND, then all was calm. 

Back to sleep and back to happy Bride :)

I still can't believe we pulled off staying in that house without any major injuries. 

Anyway, back to these handsome fools who we got to call our Groomsmen!

Obligatory goofy sock pic, of course.

A quick pre-ceremony cheersies.

Annnddd they're off. Bryan looking totally cool, calm and collected. 

Would ya look at this good lookin' son of a gun?

Holy groomsmen!

And! Wedding Wednesday bonus (or just because I can't do a post

with only two pictures) our group photos of our entire wedding party. 

Weeeeee!

Love, love, LOVE the lighting on these!

Uggghhhh, can we go back in time to March 1st already?!

Our Wedding: The Girls

EIGHT BRIDESMAIDS.

I had EIGHT bridesmaids...

Before our wedding, vendors, family members, friends, etc were all asking

the size of our wedding party and when I replied that we had a total of 18

people in our wedding party (including ourselves), the looks just said it all. 

8 pretty pink monogrammed robes. 8 bedazzled champagne glasses.

8 bottles of bubbly. 8 beautiful bouquets of pale pink roses...

8 best friends who are practically like sisters.

I love each and every one of these girls to pieces.

Our Wedding: Ceremony Details

Itssssssss Wedding Wednesdaaayyy!

Today I'm sharing the details of our actual wedding ceremony. This post,

much like the ceremony itself, should be a quick one because fortunately Dad's catholicism 

did not hold to be the main religion in our house. Thank you, Lutheran Mom.

Don't get me wrong, love Catholic weddings! 

Refer back to this post > Lisby Wedding < which was gorgeous, but I already

have the smallest attention span (Oh, look! Glitter!) and I just don't think I could

physically make it through anything longer than 30 minutes.

I know what you're thinking.. wasn't this suppose to be a short post? 

Yes. However, remember the small attention span thing? 

Anyway! Without further adieu, our wedding ceremony:

 Seriously, could the sky be any more perfect?

 At the ceremony site we displayed pictures of our parents & grandparents

on their wedding day. I was so happy that we were able to dig all of these pictures up!

Another beautiful Morgann Hill Designs creation.

Our Log Arbor Arch that I was dyyyying for!

Bridesmaid Brooke (also Bryan's sister)

Bridesmaid Megan

Bridesmaid Mandy, who was 7 months pregnant & glowing!

 Bridesmaid Tiffany

 Bridesmaid Jill

Bridesmaid Shannon

 Bridesmaid Haley

 Alyson, my Maid of Honor! EVERY MOH's face should look like this.. priceless.

Ring Bearer & Flower Girl - my niece and nephew! They did so dang good.

First Look- holy handsome Husband :)

LOVE this one!

Annnddd the kiss :)

And a second kiss on the way out. Why not?

Seriously best. day. ever. 

Venue: BG Equestrian Resort - Ocala, Florida

Rentals: Party Time Rentals

Florals: Blooming Events

Gown: Alfred Angelo

Bridesmaid Gowns: Alfred Angelo 

Bouquet: Morgann Hill Designs