You guys, I married my best friend on February 18th, 2012. Here are just a FEW of the photos from that day. I’ll post more as I share more about our day.

All photography taken by Katelyn James Photography. You can view our FULL wedding gallery here OR our wedding blog post on our photographer’s page here.

Getting ready:

Yep. This was me trying to not be so nervous.

We used a 150+ year-old Bible to carry the rings rather than a pillow.

Our invitations that I designed. You can view the tutorial of how I did them here.

My pink cowboy boots. AND a little fun fact, my “something borrowed” was my birdcage veil which I actually borrowed from my dear friend Emily who blogs over at Oh That Emily.

Had to have a remembrance of my mom – I had her dog tags along with her photo on my bouquet.

My amazing friend Bec and her mom did ALL of our wedding flowers. Aren’t they gorgeous?

It’s a Phi Mu tradition to sew five pearls into your wedding dress – I STILL had mine and was so excited to have them put in my wedding dress.

My gifts from John. You can see the whole post here about our bride and groom gifts.

My dad means the world to me and so I wanted to do a “First Look” with my dad. Yeah, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

John and I also opted for a “First Look” before the ceremony. YEP, we broke tradition and saw each other before the ceremony. BEST DECISION EVER.

We wanted everyone to feel comfortable and casual – so we had the guys wear Old Navy jeans, boots, and vests. I handmade all of the boutonnieres myself.

And for my bridesmaids, I just told them to get a “fuchsia” dress – worked out well!

Now, let me explain briefly… after the bridal party walked down the aisle, the lights went out and a video played. It was like a “wedding checklist” – etc. and then the music built and all that and then I came down the aisle. It was a total surprise to our guests and it was AWESOME.

So, I thought it would be a good idea if I sang a song during the ceremony. Well, it was going great until the awkward instrumental break. I was SO nervous that I deflected by doing a dance. Then I started laughing and everyone started laughing and I couldn’t regain composure. It was hilarious and so very typical me.

Instead of a unity candle or anything like that, we did a God’s Knot ceremony. You can read about that here.

At our reception, all our tables were labeled by locations or other meaningful things in our life.

The sweetheart table:

Husband HAD to have cornhole at the wedding.

Groom’s cake (made by my amazing sister of course)

And of course our AMAZING wedding cake (that matched our invitations) made by my sister!

A mantle to remember our loved ones who couldn’t be there with us.

Our first dance.

The “shoe” game

Phi Mu “picture a girl” sorority sing

Our getaway car…

And finally, us with our AMAZING photographers Katelyn and Jill (and a hilarious photobomb).

It was honestly an AMAZING day. We couldn’t have done it, of course, without our amazing families and our friends. We love you all!

Vendors:

Ceremony Location: newhope Church
Reception Location: The Big Barn, Hillsborough, NC
Flowers: Bec’s Blossoms
Caterer: Jim’s Famous BBQ
Cake: My sister
Invitations, programs, etc.: I made ’em
DJ: Music Makes You Happy! DJs (a great friend from college)
Photographer: Katelyn James Photography