Our wedding. I can’t believe I’m FINALLY sharing pictures!! EEEEK!! I am in love with our wedding photos by Niki Marie and it was too hard to narrow down into one post so I’m going to split things up by the time of day! I’m going to share about planning, details, and how things felt as I can remember! I’m thinking of it as a wedding day journal. Starting things off with details & getting ready!
I have always known that I wanted a Christmas wedding. . .I mean, I’m obsessed with Christmas. We got engaged on Christmas Eve and immediately started looking at dates for the following year. Once we had the venue, photographer, and date locked in, I began planning the design aspect. I had a vision in my head of how I wanted the day to feel: festive, formal, yet cozy, like the giant Christmas party that you’ve always wanted to be invited to so that you could buy a fancy dress and drink cocktails while dancing to Burl Ives. The part I struggled with was how I wanted it to LOOK. I wanted Christmas, but not cheesy.
It all came together in my mind the second I saw these bridesmaid dresses. We had ordered and returned several different options in varying shades of red and green, but nothing felt right. I didn’t think that I wanted black but as soon as I saw the two toned beading of these Adrianna Papell dresses I knew they were the ones. The problem was the price tag. I immediately disregarded them (thinking they were too expensive to ask 6 girls to buy) but couldn’t get them out of my head. The next day my sister convinced me to show her a picture and when I pulled them up on the Macy’s website they were 60% off. Totally meant to be! I ordered 10 different dresses that night so that we could figure out sizes later!
The invitations were hand drawn by Dan’s sister Jenny. She is insanely talented and had the idea to draw each location on each card of the suite. Our invitations were truly one of my favorite pieces of the entire wedding featuring the church on the ceremony card, the McKay Tower (the reception venue) on the reception card, and Rosa Parks Circle (the ice skating rink on the corner of the venue) on the details card. She even created a custom wax seal for us. I addressed everything in gold calligraphy and even used a Christmas stamp.
I knew I wanted a pair of Katie Spade Keds for dancing at the reception, but I ended up wearing them almost all day! So much more comfortable than the heels! Ha!
I had not just one, not just two, but THREE pairs of shoes. I mean, if you are getting married at Christmas how can you NOT wear red Hunter boots under your dress? I wore them as we exited the church!
Dan gave me this ring with my new monogram as a birthday present and I immediately knew I had to wear it on our wedding day.
My heels were from BHLDN and my hair clip & earrings were from Ali Nicole Bridal! As cheesy as it sounds, as I picked each detail I kept thinking about what I would pass down to my granddaughters some day, the shoes and jewelry felt just timeless enough to do so.
Getting ready looked like Christmas jammies from J.Crew Factory, coffee, Christmas music playing, and lots of giddiness! I can just remember how anxious and nervous and excited I felt looking at these pictures! This part of the day was SO FUN! We all did our own hair and makeup and I must have practiced a dozen times leading up to the wedding.
I love this picture so much because it feels like a representation of life in a family of all girls – all helping each other get ready!
Gabby not only rocked it as a bridesmaid, but was also our videographer!
These girls make me so happy!!!
This picture makes me weepy every time and I’m pretty sure a few tears were shed as we took it! We got ready in the house we grew up in (now my oldest sisters house) and I can’t tell you how many pictures we have of us all sitting under the tree on Christmas morning! This picture means so much to me!
My dress. I loved dress shopping so dang much. Most people say not to go too many times, and that it might make it harder to decide, but I went to over 5 dress shops and didn’t regret it for a second! I ended up at Beckers Bridal and this was the first dress the consultant brought me. When I started shopping I knew I wanted sleeves, glits, and a big train, but I couldn’t find anything along those lines. Beckers to the rescue – they have everything! This dress was everything I dreamed of and more! As soon as I put it on I knew it was the one and never wanted to take it off! It reminded me of the movie Anastasia which made me love it even more!
I was obsessed with the detail in the top. It was a mix of both pearls and crystals and was perfect.
I always knew I wanted to wear a crown of evergreens and Nathan with Green NV made my vision come to life. We had the flower girls wear matching ones as well.
And just like that I was off to the first look. . . photos coming soon!
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