Rather than tell you all the details of what flowers I chose and what our cake flavors were {well, they were amazing} I want to share a few details that made my day extra special to me. From the outward point of view, they probably aren't noticeable and that is a-ok with me. These details are what made my day all my own...hope you enjoy!
Something Old
My "something old" was our Ring Pillow, which is made from the satin from my Grandmother's wedding dress. Her dress was so pretty, made from the very first bolt of satin available in the US after World War II {Grandpa fought in that!}. When my Grandparents were moving a few years ago she had her dress in a box to be donated, but when my parents heard about this, it was saved. I remember I actually tried it on for fun after we got engaged. We wanted to incorporate the dress somehow, so we had parts of the satin made into a ring pillow, with a monogrammed "H" for our family name. The idea was that not only me, but my other siblings and cousins could use this pillow for years to come. It is quite stunning! The scalloped and beaded edging is original to the dress, just pieced together on this pillow.
I also wore a necklace that has the engagement Old World diamond that has been passed down in my family for generations, last given to my Mom from my Dad. They had the diamond made into a necklace....I couldn't have wanted to wear anything more than this piece!
Something New
We kind of came to conclusion I had plenty of new things going on, so my dress was the official "new" thing for my day. Stephen also gave me a wedding present of a Mikimoto ring that I am wearing in this picture.
Something Borrowed
Lucky for me, my Mom has a beautiful set of diamond studs which she let me borrow for the night. Yes, it was hard to hand them over the next day.
Something Blue
My "something blue" was my garter that my Mom made for me. She made it out of lace with a gorgeous blue ribbon, that coordinated with our wedding colors.
I love the crystal heart in the center, and I love it even more that my Mom made it for me, as a surprise. I also had a second garter to toss, which was a story itself. I bought a tacky NCSU adorned garter way before the wedding, forgot about it, then remembered the day of that I didn't have a garter to toss. My aunt stitched up a garter that afternoon with a red ribbon to toss instead. This one however is in Stephen's safekeeping!
A few other fun details I want to mention. I was obsessed with our invitations and our save the date. My Mom and I spent a ton of time planning this out and wanted them to be perfect. I'm so glad we spent the time to pour over invitations on Saturday mornings and late evenings after work, because in the end we got what we dreamed of.
Our invitations were quite a process and if anyone is interested I can tell you the in depth details- to make a long story short we had a calligrapher create a manuscript which was sent to our invitation company- this paper is thick with a gold beveled edge. A family friend got it framed for us, which is what you see below.
I went to the club the morning of the wedding to see how everything came together and to take a few pictures...these are daytime lighting so no pretty lights or finishing touches but you get the idea!
Where we live, we make a coozie for any celebration there is, so of course we had coozies made for the wedding day.
Luckily, my sister took this because I never even got to see it at the wedding, but I had a grooms cake made for Stephen, which was a putting green and NCSU cupcakes!
We placed family photos of our parents and grandparents from their wedding day in the lobby of the Club, a personal touch to an otherwise normal room.
Bottom left is my grandmother in her dress that the ring pillow was made from.
Behind the bar
The ceiling that was draped with fabric- this was a really big deal to me! I wanted the ballroom look...
We also had a custom monogram made for our cocktail napkins, which we used my initials for. Some would argue that the couples monogram should be here but after long discussions we decided the brides new monogram should be on them.
A few other details:
-Rehearsal dinner band: Band of Oz- they still talk about our party to this day it was so much fun
-Reception band- We had a steel drum band for cocktail hour outside but it was chilly and no one stayed out there! The reception band was Liquid Pleasure- hands down, my FAVORITE party band and let me tell you they will make your wedding an absolute blast if you book them. We see them frequently too and they have become somewhat friends!
-Dress: My dress came from Traditions of Raleigh, NC, designed by Lea Ann Belter
-Shoes: Kate Spade
-My parents hosted a brunch the next day which was a great way to recap the wedding and see your close family and friends before everyone parts ways
-Transportation was an old English bus as you may remember, and our getaway car was a 1971 Oldsmobile 442 that was specifically chosen because of the red color {state fans} I originally wanted an Old Rolls Royce but this was so fun and everyone loved it when he reved the engine before we pulled away!
I hope you all enjoyed these past two weeks of wedding recapping, I have really loved getting to share with you all this special time in my life. Big thanks to the ladies of Ultimate Wedding Week that hosted it, if it weren't for you I might not have shared these!
What is everyone up to this weekend? TGIF! xoxo.
