Our Wedding: The Details

It's been a long standing tradition at Peace College to fill the fountain with bubbles when a big celebration is to occur. This was done when I graduated and I've seen it done when a new president joined the Peace College family. Weddings are a big celebration so it was only suitable to request bubbles in the fountain for our day and our wish was granted!

I love details. They always seem to make the ordinary things feel a little more extraordinary. So when it came to planning our wedding day, this area was really fun for me. My mom and mother-in-law are DIY-ers through and through and went out of their way to help Will and I save money in a lot of areas. For one, these two busy bees helped make the signs used at both the ceremony and reception, helped me paint all the mason jars and items used as centerpieces at the reception, and helped print and prepare all the wedding programs. On the wedding day, they also took charge in making sure everything was transported on time and was good to go. God bless them.

We were able to cut more costs by providing our own vases for all the flowers, as well as reused the altar flowers and aisle markers from the ceremony for the reception on the bridal party and cocktail tables. I mean, why waste flowers that are used at your ceremony when you can designate someone to help transport them and have them reused at the reception? Instead of leaving them behind, you can also give them away to guests or donate them and have them taken to a local nursing home.

When it comes to details, I don't want anything to go unnoticed. Most people put a lot of time and effort into wedding planning, so I knew I wanted the details to really stand out as much as possible so I took a lot of time thinking of how I could achieve that. The idea was simple. Make the details personal. Include photos and use things that people are familiar with such as baby's breath flowers which everyone in the South knows of. And don't go overboard. Find areas where you can go BIG and make a statement. We did this by using gold sequins table clothes at the reception, and went subtle on details for the rest. That way nothing felt overpowered. I think this worked in our favor.

That's all for today y'all! What did you think? Are you caught up on my other wedding posts? If not hat's okay! You can read about our preparation on the morning of our big day and see some of our formal photos here, take a peek inside our ceremony here, and experience a fun filled night at our reception here. What's your favorite part of a wedding? Is it the ceremony and the sweet vows that are spoken? Or is it everything at the reception, from the food, to the music and dancing?

Our Wedding: The Reception

Happy Wednesday, y'all! If you missed Monday or Tuesday's blog posts you can read them here and here if you want to get caught up on my past wedding posts! Today I'm excited to share our reception with you as it was one of the most fun parts of our whole wedding day! For our reception venue, we knew we wanted to find a space that had a rustic feel to it, with exposed brick, floor-to-ceiling windows, and had an open floor plan that we could customize to our liking. The Cotton Room in Durham had all of the above and more. It was just what we had been dreaming of and ended up being the perfect reception venue for us.

We also put a lot of thought into our menu selections. Some of the most talked-about items were the pimento cheese sliders with fried green tomato and BBQ pork puppies that were passed out during cocktail hour, along with the goat cheese smashed potatoes. Will's favorite item of the night was the beef tenderloin which was one of the main dish items. I'd have to agree that it was defiantly the fan favorite of the night!

Our wedding cake and desserts were just as delicious and came from The Cupcake Shoppe. We decided to go with one small cake to cut, along with four different mini cupcake options for all to enjoy. The choice to have a smaller cake and cupcakes saved us money in the long run and allowed our guests to have multiple options to choose from which I think they appreciated. If you are wondering, the flavors we went with were called Big Red, Black and White, Cookie Monster, and What's Up Doc.

Our first dance was to Ray LaMontagne's You Are The Best Thing. Doing our first dance was something we both really looked forward to because we had been taking dance lessons weeks leading up to our big day, and even had it choreographed so it was fun having something to "perform" for everyone! My dad and I danced to The Way You Look Tonight by Frank and Will and his Mom danced to My Wish by the Rascal Flatts. Dancing occurred from the minute we arrived, all the way up to our sparkler exist. I think this had a lot to do with our amazing band, The Troupers. They did such an amazing job, played all the songs we asked them to and were interactive with all of our guests. They defiantly brought the party to life!

Our Wedding: The Ceremony

"I Melissa, take you, Will, as a gift from God, to be my husband. Through tears and laughter, sickness and health, hardship and plenty, I will love you faithfully, constantly and prayerfully. As God as my witness, I give you this promise now and forever".

Our wedding ceremony was a dream come true. We held our ceremony at Dinwiddie Chapel on the Peace College campus, where I attended college when it was an all-girls school. One of our requirements at our school was to attend chapel every week. Over the course of three years while at Peace, I grew very fond of the chapel's charm, and have many memories that were created there. Which is one of the reason's why we decided to hold the ceremony at this location.

Having a ceremony that was both intimate and inviting was very important to Will and I. The venue allowed for both of those things to take place. The large windows brought in lot's of natural light and the organ when played sounded heavenly. Regarding the songs chosen for the day, we decided on the following:

Prelude (Air from Water Music by G.F. Handel)

Processional (For Grandmothers: Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel)

                       (For Bridesmaids: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by J.S. Bach)

                       (For Bride: Trumpet Voluntary in D by Jeremiah Clarke)

Recessional (Hornpipe from Water music by G.F. Handel)

Scripture is also very important to us and we wanted to have read something that showcased God’s intent for what a strong Christian marriage should look like. After narrowing down our choices, we selected Mark 10:6-9 and Colossians 3:12-17 to be read by one of our bridesmaids and groomsmen. For our homily, we asked our officiant, Tyler Jones  from Vintage Church to focus on Ephesians 5:21-33. I highly recommend these readings if your planning a wedding.

All in all, I can't tell you how amazing it felt to have all of our family and friends surrounding us that afternoon. At one point while we were praying, I looked out at everyone sitting in the pews and couldn't help but smile knowing that they were there for US. That was a powerful moment for me. I've never felt so much love then I did throughout the ceremony that day. It was magical and very moving.

If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it here! Tomorrow I'll be sharing our reception which is defiantly one you don't want to miss!

Our Wedding: Preparation and Formals

The hours leading up to our wedding ceremony were some of the sweetest, most intimate, and memorable moments I've ever experienced with my best friends and family. And If I'm being honest with you, it's was no easy task trying to pick which photos I wanted to share. If I could though, I would post every single one of them but that would not be a wise decision since there are hundreds! However, I previously wrote about my wedding day morning and shared photos that were snapped on my phone that I'm glad were taken!

A handful of people have asked if I was nervous the hours leading up to the ceremony, what all I did the morning off and if I had any regrets with how I utilized my time. For starters, I don't recall being nervous one bit! If anything, I was excited to spend my morning with my favorite people in a gorgeous space, the Whiskey and White bridal suite. I also made sure I got a good night's sleep the night before, so I woke up energized and excited to see all the planning that had taken place months prior.

When I got to the bridal suite that morning, I made sure to have some quite time to get my thoughts together and to read my devotional before all the girls arrived. That was vital for me. I also spent as much quality time as I could talking with everyone who came to get ready with me. When I was getting my hair done, that's when I wrote out the prayer that I read to Will before our ceremony.

We are both pretty traditional, and one of the things Will really looked forward to was seeing each other for the first time at the ceremony. Instead, I did one with my dad. I'm the only child and daddy's little girl and thought it would be special and mean a lot to him. Will and I did however pray together behind a tree after I did my first look with my dad. Jesus was very present in those moments as we held hands and soaked in that time we had together. And as it turned out, the look on his face as I walked down the aisle was absolutely priceless and made me laugh so I'm glad we decided to wait.

Below are some of the beautiful formal photos that our photographer, Callie and her crew took. These are just a few of the ones that we plan on printing out and displaying throughout our home. And how dapper do all the guys look in their gray suits? I will say that all of my girls looked stunning and I loved the hairstyles they each choose to wear for the day; all unique and perfect! 

Future bride's, treating your girls to a "pampered session" on your big day is one of many ways you can thank them for all they have done for you, such as planning your bachelorette party if you had one.

Hope y'all enjoyed seeing some of our preparation and formal photos. Tomorrow I'll be sharing our ceremony with you so stay tuned!