our stylish wedding day

Our wedding day was truly the most fantastic day I can remember in my life! We had the most wonderfully enjoyable experience and we wish EVERYONE could have been there to share in our joy! We sadly couldn't have all of you there so we are going to attempt to take you on a journey through our special day.

We couldn't be more grateful for all the people in our lives who stepped up and made this day happen. Our wedding was surely a Do It Yourself I Do! Through every aspect of our day, so many people contributed; it was no doubt a labor of love!

We could have never pulled it off without the loving help of our family and friends. Who took the time to help us decorate, clean and prepare for the main event, our ceremony.

Orange Balloons were a MUST...

My sweet Aunt Deb and Uncle Mark got us this incredible venue. We couldn't have done any of this without them...

Shaunna, or VBM (Vicious B*#%^ Mom) or in this case VBWD (Vicious B(*$% Wedding Director) did SO much to help us set up and prepare for the day.

I am obviously enjoying the conversation on the phone, but for the life of me can't remember who I would have been talking to here...

My baby sister, with her own baby on the way, stepped up and helped so much despite feeling pretty crumby! Best Lil' Sis in the World....

My cute groom even STEPPED-UP, literally, to help as well...

My aunts were wonderful to help get things set up...

And my new bro-in-law tapped into his feminine side to help decorate...

The room before all the decorating began...

Wait until you see the final result!

Thanks to all who helped us prepare!

Because I am slightly freakish about things going off without a hitch, we had a short little rehearsal, perhaps it's the dancer in me. I may have gotten a tiny bit bridezilla-ish at this point, but calmed down in a hurry.

Cute Story: When I asked Ike to be a ring barer he said to me, "But I already did that at your last wedding!" Made me laugh! :)

My mom taking on the director role...

We had quite a good looking wedding party...

Now on to the real thing...

One of my favorite parts of our wedding day was actually getting ready with my bridesmaids. I loved seeing everyone all dolled up in their bright colors. I also quite enjoyed getting all dolled up myself. 

It takes work to look this good...

My little sister is ALWAYS the expert on hand for hair. She is a natural at it because she is, she's always doing hair...

We were all crossing our finger my lil' sis could zip up her dress with her cute (yet still tiny) little baby belly...

The first thing of the ENTIRE wedding, besides the groom, I picked out were these lovlies...the shoes!

All prettified for the big day! :)

Now to the main event, our ceremony.

The whole thing was magical. It was the happiest 30 minutes of my life. I love how our wonderful photographer, Donna Young, captured every moment of our ceremony. I hope you can get a sense of how truly joyful, and emotional, the whole experience was for all of us.

Kenzee, our cute Junior Bridesmaid & our ring barer, little Ike...

My handsome fiance waiting for me. This is the first time I had ever seen him in his military class A's which was fun because were both seeing each other for the first time in our wedding attire. 

Can I just say? Of course I can it's my blog, What a hottie!

Each guy in our wedding party carried a lit candle down the aisle that they places in a beautiful wood stand at the front of the room that we now have at our dining room table to light when we eat dinner together...

We invited only 50 of our closest family and friends to keep the experience very intimate....

GQ's cute siblings, Alley, Derek & Meagan

Our Family

Each bridesmaid also put a rose in a vase at the front of the room that is now also a centerpiece on our kitchen table...

Our dear friends Kathy & Kevin came from Louisiana for their anniversary and our wedding, we loved having them there.

Jen & Dan are Lucas' and I's couple BFF's. We instantly took to each other when starting Grad school together at Louisiana Tech. They are now getting married in a year. They came all the way from Virginia for our big day...

Brandie, Al & Kathie. Brandie & Kathie are two girls I grew up with and have long since been two of the most unconditional friends to me. Kathie flew in from Baltimore for the big day, which meant so much to us. Al is my mom's sweet husband.

Jessica is another Louisiana friend who's been through a lot of up's and down's but has always remained a sweet friend to me. Randy is GQ's step dad, a Dallas Cowboys fan, but we love him none-the-less.

Laura, Thomas (GQ's dad) and Lynzie. Three people we love!

My cute sister and bro-in-law.

Lucas see's me for the first time...

Bruce has been like a second dad to m.e I was glad he came all the way from Louisiana to escort me down the aisle.

GQ's face cracks me up here...I'd like to think he's thinking, "Oh Baby!" :)

This was probably our favorite moment of the whole day...

We both wrote vows to each other. My hands were trembling pretty good, which is bad when you're trying to read Braille. But do notice the pink Braille paper...

I laugh at some of my facial expressions. But they must be added so you can feel you were there for it all...

People we love...

I'm sure my family with love the following sequence of pictures of them all crying...

I love my GQ's face here...

Ok, this next picture is not my most flattering, but when GQ read his vows I broke down, in a good way. It doesn't get any more real than this...

This was a sweet moment for me. I was so nervous, shaking and reading my Braille vows super slowly so GQ reached over and held my wrist to stop it from shaking, it was a sweet moment for me...

Again, another ATTRACTIVE photo. I was quite emotional...obviously.

My cute cousin Tiff, one of my best friends in the world!

My handsome husband....

Lucas' vows...(I will post our vows soon)

First kiss as Husband and Wife

After our vows we had a separate ring ceremony. The rings were tucked away nicely in a Pittsburgh Steelers pillow, as it should be.

Exchanging rings.

BE WARNED! There are LOTS of kissing pictures. No apologies.

WE"RE MARRIED!!!

It was such a beautiful ceremony. By far, our favorite part of the day. 

Intimate and sweet!

When I started planning our wedding, I only knew two things I wanted for sure:

1. Bright Colors

2. Little Personal (DYI) Touches Throughout

So here are just a few of the little details that GQ and I and many of our wonderfully talented family and friends helped us create to make our day unique and fun...

These boutonniere's were one of the first things I made for our wedding. I spotted something similar to this over at DYI Bride and fell in love. One of my most favorite little details of the day, and something the guys can keep.

Each bridesmaid wore a bright colored butterfly someone on their body, hair, bracelet, corsage or pin. The butterfly became an instant theme for our day when I first spotted these little beauties at Hobby Lobby.

We decided early on that we didn't want a traditional cake. So we got creative and came up with the idea to do my Aunt Vickie's famous sugar cookies. They were adorable and delicious! We topped off the cookie display with a giant chocolate cupcake in celebration of my dad's birthday which is also on March 4th. We started the cake cutting ceremony with a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday. It was a truly sweet moment!

This darling little cube was made by Shonna Clift over at Sweet Stick'ems Custom Vinyl. It was a perfect touch to the cookie/cupcake table and I motto I proudly live by:

"Life's too Short, Eat Dessert First" Amen.

Sweet Stick'ems also created this little quote frame. A favorite quote of ours from my favorite author, Dr. Seuss. We thought the good Dr. Seuss fit in perfectly with our brightly colored nuptials. 

Quote: You know your in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

One of my favorite touches were these darling chair signs that hung on our chairs at the wedding dinner. They turned out to be pretty fun for pictures as well. Again, Sweet Stick'ems made these lovelies for us.

Candles were a major element of our big day, they lined the entire room and adorned the tables as centerpieces. My hope for a romantic and elegant look came together with some soft candlelight.

The tables turned out bright and beautiful thanks to my cute grandma who handmade these beautiful table runners for us in orange and pink. The lanterns were added with some bright rose pedals and the beautiful vase on the sweetheart table made for a beautifully romantic feel.

Second to the button boutteniers was my bouquet. A picture of an orange and pink rose bouquet I found online inspired the entire color sceme of the wedding. The beautiful roses were done by Skyline Floral of Salt Lake City. 

Some of the best gifts we received and one of the most lovely aspects of our whole day were the darling picture frames my cute cousin Kayleen made for us! After having our conversations about how they should look long distance and Kayleen never seeing my wedding colors first hand, they looked so perfect with the theme and vibe of the wedding. 

This a little card/keepsake box that GQ and I made together. The plain box was found at Hobby Lobby.

And one of the sweetest, most heartfelt gifts we received was this gorgeous wedding signing book made by my sweet friend Jaime. Every page was handmade and reflects various sweet moments in our relationship. Each page has one orange balloon on it with a quote, from this very blog, of something I wrote to my dad in my Notes in Orange Balloons. Every page is also tactile so I can feel every detail of it. It is a beautiful gift that we will truly cherish forever! Thank you sweet Jaime!

Every little detail was so sweet and had a personal touch from us or one of the amazingly talented people in our lives. 

We also created a little dream board with a list of each of our hopes and dreams. Something we can keep and have hanging in our home forever. It was a fun project and a sweet personal touch to our day!

At the end of night each guest got a balloon and we released it into the sky before we left. It was a really special moment for us as every year, on my sweet dad's birthday, we release an orange balloon to celebrate. Happy Birthday to my Sweet, Sweet Dad!

This frame of my dad and I walking on the beach in California was places on a special seat for him.

It was a sweet, wonderful day with all the personal touches we hoped for.

Love is in the details.

In between our ceremony and wedding dinner, we took some time to greet each of our guests and to take some photos. I loved that we were able to personal hug and thank each guest. This was actually a fun period of time during the wedding.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again. We are so lucky to have such fantastic people in our lives. We could have done NONE of this without their kindness and love.

My baby sister...

Cute cousin Kenzee.

My most favorite little man in the world. Iszacc.(Notice that its been literally 2 minutes since the ceremony and shirt is already un-tucked).

Cute Kathie.

Beautiful Brandie.

My new in-laws.

Lovely Jen.

Lynzie & Lewis.

My adorable grandma.

Gorgeous Ky.

The new team.

Every Sunday we got to visit Lucas' family and we always end the day with a group hug. It's "our thing" so we certainly had to do it on this special day.

My mom and Aunt Teresa.

We 'snuck' downstairs for a few minute to a little video montage. Our amazing videographer, Davey Orgill of Pointe Digital Photography and Videography, was so sweet and wonderful. He does amazing work so check it out! 

We took some posed photos as well. Not my favorite thing, I'm a big fan of candids, but I'm glad we got some good shots in.

Mom & Daughters.

My bridesmaids.

The Guys.

A little moment with the Ikester.

We shared a lot of kisses.

Family Time...

Mother, Son, Father.

My cute cousin Kayleen who did the adorable frames. Cute & Talented.

Me & My Mother-in-Law

The Lovely Ladies. So bright and beautiful.

What the???

This is our vogue pose...

The handsome guys.

We were surrounded by awesome people! It was lovely!

We topped off the night with a delicious meal, dessert & dancing. All Star Catering served a delicious made-to-order omelet and breakfast buffet. Yes, the wedding was at night but GQ and I have always loved breakfast for dinner. It was delicious and the staff and chefs at All Star Catering were so sweet and wonderful. The food received rave reviews, it was a lovely meal.

My darling aunts who all helped so much.

I love this picture because GQ were in the corner, we snuck away for a little moment together, but we obviously got busted! It was a really sweet moment for us. We are so happy!

Here I am at the table, alone. Because we lost our marriage license, wonderful right!?! So Lucas was off searching for it...

Derek, my new brother-in-law, surprised us a toast. He did a great job and it a very sweet moment.

Because Derek toasted, baby sis was forced to toast too! She did a great job too and doesn't she look adorable in her tangerine dress, you can't even tell she's pregnant. 

We found the marriage license. So now it's official. *grin*

Notice my pink and orange can, which I painted for the special day.

A short cupcake cutting ceremony and a rendition of Happy Birthday to Dad!

My cute grandma, my daddy's mom, got pretty emotional during the Happy Birthday's. She is the best grandma in the world, we love her so much!

It was a great meal with great company!

A special part of our wedding weekend was our open house. When we planned to have a very small wedding, we couldn't get over not seeing all of our family and friends and celebrating with them, so we decided to do an open house.

We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends and we loved sharing our happiness with everyone...

This is my brother-in-law Derek's parents. They are awesome people and we are lucky to have Derek and his family in our family...

My husband and I...

This is my beautiful bridesmaid Brandie! She's as beautiful inside as she is outside. I love her, a lot!

I was so thankful to have people like Sandy help out this night, we couldn't have done it without her and Egbert ladies...

This is my beautiful cousin Kylie. She's a knock-out right. She has been more like a little sister to me. I love her...

One thing I knew I wanted all along was a candy buffet. I loved the idea and knew it would be perfect for our bright wedding...

We loved our bright colored cupcakes...

Miss Amy came from St. Georga to help us celebrate, we love her and it meant a lot to us...

I love this picture! These three men were my daddy's best friends in the world. They are always there for my sister and I at any special ocassion we have. They are three of the most wonderful men I know and make me feel like my dad is around when they are around...

This is one of my former students. It was wonderful that he and his whole family made it for our open house.

-

Ambree & Amy...

Iszacc and Kenzee seemed to enjoy the candy buffet, even though Ike doesn't look like it here. Poor kid, he's so bored!

Kenzee chees-in-it with her lolipop...

This is my cute bridesmaid Jessica. Slating a message for us in our guest book...

Kathie has been my friend since 1st grade! She is now a beautiful mom of two darling boys and flew all the way in from Baltimore for our big day, which meant the world to us!

This is the cute Miss Little E, a pretty dang cute baby. She's easy to like...

She loves me even though she looks like she's crying, I know it.

These are some people from my old work, I really appreciated them making it to my open house. It meant a lot...

This is my good friend Brittney and her family. Brit and I have known each other since kindergarten. We were best buds growing up and now, clearly, she's all grown up and still a great support to me.

My Aunt Kay was a lot of help for our big weekend too, and we love her...

This is my uncle Darrell, I can tell from the hat! I love him and his cute wife Connie a whole lot!

This is my cute cousin Tiff. She is one of the strongest and sweetest people I know. She's one of the most beautiful people I know....

My friend Shaunna made these AMAZING brownies for the reception, I at like 20 I think. She is always there when you need her and one of my all-time favorite people...

Baby Ella and I... She's dang cute right? And look at our matching flowers...

This is Little E's parents...

This is my new father-in-law Thomas! We met for the first time 2 days before the wedding. He's a great guy...

Brittney and I...

This is Jessica one of my cute bridesmaids who came for Virginia. We were so amazed at the people who came from such far distances...

Another friend who flew in from Virginia, Jen and her fiance Dan were are best couple friends in Louisiana, until they moved, they're still the best though...

Kathie and I have been friends since 1st grade but have few pictures of us together for soome strange reason, so we made sure to get a really good one. She's such a wonderful friend to me...

This is the beautiful Maya. Her parents, Sachin and Margee, drown down from Logan to be here and it meant so much to us...

This is McKenzee, my sweet little cousin who is growing up fast. She advanced from flower girl at my first wedding to Jr. Bridesmaid this time. LOL!

My cousin Kylie and I will always be best of friends. She's such a hottie right!?! It's hard standing next to her...

I love this picture of my mom! I sure hope I get her genetics. Pretty, pretty, pretty!

My sister's, Ky and Ambs...

Me, Lucas and Iszacc...

Lucky me...

Enjoy some candy...

LuWanna and I...

Miss Lindsay and I...

My beautiful mother-in-law...

This is the beautiful Madi...

My grandma, the sweetest grandma in the world...

This is the sweet Emeri. She was in my arms for a large part of the night, and I loved it...

This is my friend Emily who has two of the most beautiful daughters...

These three, Emily, Dianne and Kathie have been the best of friends growing up and now all have kids of their own. It was fun seeing them all together, all grown up...

The ladies in conversation....

My new sister-in-laws, Alley and Meagan...

McKinley loved the candy buffet...

Lucas and his little nephew...

Elle and I enjoying a couple of cupcakes...

My step father Al (Owl as we call him) and his daughter and family...

Lucas pointing out his different pins...

Ashley and Brandie enjoying baby Emerie...

My Aunt Pam and her family...

Two dang cute little girls...

The beauties, Ambs and Ky...

We love our little Iszacc.

Kenzee and her candy buffet lovin'...

Thanks to everyone who made our day so incredibly special! Special thanks to Donna Young who did all these amazing photos, it was a wonderful gift to us.

Now on to the rest of our journey....