Show Us Your Life Fridays: Wedding Ceremony

At Kelly's Korner today, she's hosting a blog tour on your wedding ceremony, party and flowers. You know I can't resist a good blog tour! Get ready - loooooots of pictures.

Since I don't have a ton of wedding pictures electronically, I figured I would start off with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Plus my in-laws did an awesome job at taking pictures, so I have lots!

Rehearsing:



Becky & Chris. Becky and I were college roommates, and Chris is a childhood church friend of Jeremy's. (Any lingering Superfluous fans out there? How about Ethan Durelle, a band from Waco? Chris was in it!) Chris sang and played the guitar during our ceremony - he did such an amazing job!



Sarah & Lucas. Sarah and I met at the very beginning freshman year in college - she roomed with my suite mate from the summer. We also ended up in the same sorority, and I lived with her 2 years in college. Lucas is a friend from high school (I believe?) of Jeremy's and he's married to Jeremy's cousin, Erin. He was so sweet right after our ceremony - he gave me a big hug and was the first to welcome me to the family!


Behind them you can see Pam and Sean - we didn't get a picture of them from the rehearsal. Pam and I went to high school together, and were even in NCL and Cotillion, but didn't become friends until college. She roomed with Adrienne (see below) freshman year, and then I lived with her our junior year. Sean is a childhood church friend of Jeremy's, and they lived together one year in Austin.



Adrienne and Zach. Adi went to a nearby high school (small world - actually Jeremy's high school and was on drill team with his cousin Erin!) and was also in Cotillion with me, though I had no idea who she was. As I said, she lived with Pam freshman year, so we buddied up when walking to the ADPi house on Bid Day and the rest is history! Zach is a childhood friend of Jeremy's (and actually his parents went to high school with Jeremy's parents AND, as it turned out, my usher Travis's mom!).


Amanda and Josh. Amanda is my little sister and was Maid of Honor. Josh is Jeremy's older brother and was Best Man.


My little brother Tyler was only 8 when we got married, so he was an "honorary groomsman." He had no desire to stand up during the ceremony, so he wore a little tux and walked my mom down the aisle and sat with her. It worked perfectly!


Additional wedding party members were my cousins Anna and Baxter as flower girl and ring bearer, my cousin Brigeda and Jeremy's cousins Amy and Erin as house party, and my college roommate Jennifer read scripture for us. Our ushers were 2 friends from when I was really little, Travis and Adam.


Our rehearsal dinner was at County Line, which was perfect for us! I had such a blast - it's like a mini-wedding with your closest friends and family, and being casual and relaxed at County Line was great! My in-laws did such a nice job of planning it! Judy worked herself silly on centerpieces, seating charts, custom UT cookies, the works!

Groomsmen: Lucas, Sean & Chris

House Party girlies: Amy and Erin, and Amy's husband Chris

Our musician, Chris, and his wife Becca!

Jamie and Josh (They're married now - celebrating their first anniversary on Sunday!)

Carrie and Zach - they got married 2 months after us!

My girls! (Top - Amanda and me; Bottom - Sarah, Pam, Becky and Adi)

Technically we're part of the wedding party! :)

Onto my flowers...I used the best florist! Girls in Houston, if anyone needs a recommendation, he's so great! His name is Jason, with JP Floral. I first met him at Jeremy's cousin Amy's wedding - he was fluffing her train during pictures! If you pay an extra fee (I think 10% maybe?), he acts as a "full-service" florist. Instead of just dropping off the flowers, he makes sure they get to the right people, pins boutonnieres, helps with pictures, arranges everything, transports stuff to the reception. He even ended up closing the church doors for me after the bridesmaids walked down the aisle, and opened them before my grand entrance.

My colors were red, pink, black and white, so Jason used red roses, pink peonies, orchids, some berries, and accented with black ribbon. I loved them! Flowers can be scary because you just don't know what you're going to get until the big day, so I was relieved and happy that he did such a good job!

Picking bridesmaid dresses was so daunting - who am I to tell someone what to wear??! I wanted something long, something with color, and NOT black and red (to be it seemed too casino-night-ish...I don't know!). I took all my girls and we made my little sister try on all the dresses. I liked the color red on this one, the belt detail and it's hard to explain, but it had a little extra fabric on the booty, almost like a mini-bustle. They really were gorgeous dresses! Looking back, I probably would have done a J. Crew, but my wedding was very traditional and the bridesmaid dresses matched that!

Our ceremony was short and sweet, just the way I wanted it. One song, one scripture reading, done! I would have loved to have done communion, but my church required that all in attendance do communion as well, and I didn't want to force that on any guests, nor have to worry about finding people to pass the bread and wine. I don't really remember any songs the organist played - I am pretty sure I used "Canon in D" for the bridesmaids, and we walked out to the traditional bridal march. Chris sang "I Need Words" by David Crowder. So amazing! I was so excited to be finished with the ceremony and couldn't wait to get to the party!!