After our wedding when I got a chance I typed out some of the best memories and things Kepa and I wanted to remember. I highly recommend doing this as soon as you get the chance after getting married because you will forget a lot of little details. So much happens around your wedding that you will forget a lot of things you want to remember.
Those details I sent myself in an email cover a wide range of memories. Things people said, things that happened, things that I felt during the day. They can be summed up in this that started off my list of memories: The wedding was amazing. So much fun. Really. I can’t even believe how much fun I had and how loved I felt and how well everything went over with people.
Our wedding wasn’t the best wedding ever in all of existence. I’m not a conceited enough bride to say that. But it was an awesome experience for us and those who came. It was a perfect wedding for us and that is what made it amazing.
Most of the compliments we got about the wedding afterwards (and during) were about that – how US the wedding was. We did quite a few things that no one in my circle of friends and family had ever seen at a wedding – a backyard wedding with a ring warming, I walked myself down the aisle, etc. I come from a rather traditional and conservative place and wasn’t sure how our more non traditional wedding would be received. Apparently, it was exactly what people expected from us and they loved that about it. My friend Lauren repeatedly told me it was the exact wedding she had imagined for me.
The Ceremony
The part I loved the most was our ceremony. I wrote it myself based off of our ministers traditional ceremony. I changed so much of it I was worried he would not be happy with me but it turned out that he was excited to do a wedding ceremony that was different.
The ceremony wasn’t technically perfect. The minister forgot a tiny section and our entrance had multiple technical difficulties. I actually ended up pushing play on the song I walked in to because our friend had trouble with the laptop/sound system setup. In the end the tiny mistakes didn’t matter and they just made it funny and gave us great stories to tell afterward.
In the ceremony (which I will post later) we had a lot of personal touches. We did a ring warming where our rings were passed around the crowd so everyone could bless them and our marriage. I loved this because it involved our community and gave them all a chance to be part of our ceremony. We also wrote our own vows which I recited without even crying! And then the cutest of all things was the surprise song from Kepa and the bridal party when they sang the song from the Wedding Singer.
Kepa choked up and cried during his song. I cried a bit when we were exchanging rings. My mom and her friends cried pretty much through the whole ceremony. There were a lot of tears during the ceremony but they were all tears of joy.
The Reception
We had a fun party at our wedding.
We started the night with an amazing dinner. A few friends of the family had been planning to leave after the ceremony but decided to stay once they found out we were having barbecue from my favorite local restaurant (one of the best in Memphis!). Our food was delicious and everyone enjoyed it, from the barbecue to the cupcakes to the snack type foods. The drinks were just as good – including some amazing sangria that caused multiple people to ask for the recipe. It was one of my favorite drinks of the night!
We had drinks and toasts and cupcakes. Then there was dancing. Our first dance was a bit awkward, since we hadn’t practiced at all in 6 months, but it was sweet and short. Then we had a bit of a dance party even though a good majority of the guests aren’t the dancing type. My brothers were out on the dance floor with me and it will forever be one of my favorite memories along with the several crazy dance circles that went down that night. Thanks to Sam, the awesome groomsmen that convinced so many people to get out there and dance and have fun!
The photobooth was one of my favorite activities of the night. Like other things there were technical difficulties with it so some people weren’t even aware of it and left without taking photos. But for those of us that did hop into the space and use the props, the photos and laughs were priceless. As was Kepa and his groomsmen dressed up, wearing props, singing the NZ national anthem at the top of their lungs.
The reception didn’t last into the wee hours of the night, at least not for us. It got cold and everyone headed home around 10. The friends that needed to go home went home, and those that wanted to go out and keep celebrating went out. It ended perfectly without a grand exit or anything silly, just a calm goodbye to everyone with smiles and hugs and quite a few “that was great” comments.
During the reception my brother actually mentioned so someone that he was surprised the wedding was so fun. I overheard him and he explained he meant it as a compliment – like everyone else that came he was so happy that the wedding was not stuffy but very relaxed and fun. It made me laugh and validated the fact that the wedding was in fact just a fun time.
Everything Else
The details of decorations at the wedding worked out better than I could have expected. Everything looked amazing, especially in our pro photos, and all the work I put into the DIY details was worth it. I know a lot of guests were shocked when they learned I had made just about everything there from the tissue paper poms, to the flowers on the tables, to the bouquets. It was worth the time I spent on it and I’m excited to share in the future how I made everything. Yes I will be sharing depth tutorials, because several people at the wedding and on the blog asked, and my friend Chris was shocked and kept expressing his disbelief that I made the flowers (believe me buddy, I did!).
Our photography, as you have seen, was amazing. It’s another thing we have received a ton of compliments on but in this case it was all the skill of our amazing photographers. They were not only the nicest people ever to work with but have mad skills that took our wedding to the next level when viewed through their lens. I can’t wait to get the rest of the photographs back and look through all the things that happened that day as well as the things we missed.
Luckily, we have video of our ceremony. It was a bit of a last minute decision to video the ceremony but our friend Darren did a great job of capturing the important parts. After the wedding Kepa and I watched the video of the ceremony and I saw several things that I had missed during the ceremony, including our minister dancing while Kepa was singing (it is hilarious).
More To Come
I have a ton of stuff to share about the wedding and weddings in general (I’ve been to several around the same time as mine) so I’ll be blogging here for a while. I hope you all stick around, especially if you are planning a wedding of your own!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
What a perfect idea! And everything sounds amazing from your wedding I can’t wait to hear all the recaps and see some more pictures!
Cassie recently posted..Should I change or stay the same?
Personal weddings are so much more fun – ours had some many personal touches. Like you, I didn’t want it to be just another cookie cutter wedding. That just wouldn’t have been us. We did the hand ceremony during our ceremony – it was cool. I couldn’t have written my own vows though – I would have been a mess!
The whole DIY thing doesn’t go away! I was so thrilled for that aspect to be over, but within months I was itching to do something, so I hand-made our birth announcements, then you add in the whole kid birthday party thing and it keeps going and going. People talk about how crazy kids birthday parties have become – I just laugh and I personally don’t think it has anything to do with one mom wanting to out-do another (okay, maybe for some people it is), but I truely think that so much is that all these women discovered all the DIY crafts for their weddings and then needed an outlet to keep doing them.
I agree and think your wedding must have been great! I definitely see what you mean about DIY not going away. I finished a few weeks ago and already I’m wanting to do some new cute projects! I’ve always loved making things and having 6 months of regularly craftiness igniting the desire to do more! Birthday parties are going to be fun… I already like to decorate for parties and holidays. I probably will be a DIYer for life, mostly thanks to the awesomeness of wedding crafts because you discover sooo many ideas and can only use a few for the actual wedding. Gotta use the rest somewhere! :)
So glad I checked into this blog again :)
Great to read a bit more about your wedding day and
it sounds happy,authentic and well…..awesome of course!
Made me smile.
Best wishes jumping into NZ again and now married life-quite the
big changes all at once and exciting and adventurous way to begin a new life together.
Your pictures are beautiful, sounds like the wedding was fantastic! I’m so glad YOU had a good time- I think too many brides don’t actually get to enjoy their own wedding, so it’s great that you did.
I think you said your mother enjoyed it- what did Kepa’s mother think of everything- the wedding, the US, etc.?
I LOVE reading about your wedding! Keep it coming!
nikkianne recently posted..I am worth the sweat
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