wedding recaps~part 1

omg...the dress!!!









my handsome groom tying his bowtie.












coming around the corner for the first look! and the bouquet....love,

love, love!!!!!

"hello, handsome! come here often?"

the family~doesn't my son look dapper in his tux?

i love this picture of them

three teenage girls smiling at the same time~priceless!

the wedding party

we don't have all of our wedding pictures back but i've been dying to do recaps so i decided to use the ones we have:) we really had the most amazing day. i'm saying everything was perfect but i happen to believe perfection is highly overrated! we got married on may 1, derby day! we wanted the day to have a little bit of a southern feel. our first decision was to have the reception in a renovated barn. it was beautiful and because we could bring in our caterer and own alcohol, it saved us a lot of money. the downside was that it was completely unstaffed. this meant that we had to set up everything the morning of the wedding. this meant that doug and i not only spent the night together before our wedding but we spent the entire morning together...the horror! that morning was amazing! we had a group of family that helped us. we all had breakfast together and laughed and joked. it definitely made us feel like the day was not just about us but about our families too.

i'd prepared a very detailed(umm...three page)timeline that kept everything running smoothly. i also forced myself to leave the venue by 11:30 so i could start getting ready. we decided to do pictures before the ceremony. i was surprised that doug agreed to this because he's so traditional but in the end we didn't want to miss out on our party to take pictures. this is something i highly recommend and trust me it does not take away from him seeing you walk down the aisle. we got ready in the same hotel in rooms right next door to each other. spending time with my daughters, getting our makeup done, laughing, singing....i will never forget how special that was. i think being surrounded by friends and family and spending time with each other relaxed me. i wasn't nervous or anxious at all.

we did a first look at a local park. the car picked him up first and drove him to the park and then came back to get me. i still get goosebumps when i think of how handsome he looked standing on the overlook waiting for me. we spent about an hour with the photographers before the rest of the bridal party showed up. the one thing i wanted from the day was to have a great photo of the kids and one of us with the kids. our super talented photographer nailed it!

next, the ceremony...

all photos courtesy of ashley steele bowyer~shoes in the window photography