Happily after All: The Pre-Processional

After we got to the church and did a little switcharoo, and once all of the guests had arrived, it was time to get this show on the road.  I hid out in the fellowship hall while everyone was arriving, because I wanted the first time most people saw me to be while I was walking down the aisle.  As time drew near, Mr. T and the pastors snuck into the front of the church and hung out in a little closet sized room, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

 The guests had all taken their seats, including the little ones...

...and it was time to begin.

We were actually surprisingly on time, given all that had gone on that morning.  The guests were all able to find their ways to the church, and most had allotted themselves enough time to get all the way out there on time.
While that was all happening, we were starting to line up in the fellowship hall.  I finally got to come out of hiding in the kitchen, and said hi to a few stragglers who were on their way in.

(personal photo)

I gave myself a once over in the mirror, and my mom made sure my dad was good to go.  It was nice to see them both alone for a moment before everything got going.  My mom was already crying at this point, and it took a lot to keep the tears from flowing myself.

(personal photo)

And then my dad and I practiced with my veil to make sure he didn't mess up my hair!  I couldn't tell him about it the night before at the rehearsal, because I was trying to keep as many details about my attire a secret from Mr. T.  At first I was totally against it, but I'm glad I changed my mind and decided to wear the veil as a blusher.  It felt so bridal to me!

(personal photo)

Then we all got lined up in the hallway to the church.  It took me back to my highschool cheerleading days, when we would line up on this big ramp at State, getting ready to go out on the main floor to perform.  That was the only point of the day that I really got nervous.  And I've have to say I was probably more anxious than nervous.  I was SO ready to get the ceremony started and finally marry my man.

The ceremony got started with the moms being walked in by two of the ushers.

Mr. T's mom was first, and she waited at the front of the aisle for my mom.

Then my mom followed, and they both walked up to the altar to light the two sides of the unity candle.  I could tell you what music was playing right now, but I honestly don't remember, and it wasn't included in the program for whatever reason.  I think I just had the organist transition from the music he had been playing while guests were arriving, into a new song.  I might have been specified, but not sure!

They walked up the stairs together and took the side candles, lighting them from the candles that were already burning on the altar.  And then they took their seats.

After that, the two ushers that walked them forward, rolled the aisle runner towards the back of the church.  I learned afterward, from hearing it from others that this was quite the task.  The plastic was never taken off the runner, so first it had to be taken out of its package.  And then it wouldn't unroll because it wasn't pinned well enough into the ground.  So as an afterthought, future brides, I would definitely say to you, make sure your runner is ready to go so it doesn't take forever, and make your ushers look silly.

I don't know if I ever told you guys, but I had planned on doing a custom aisle runner, but  few things led up to the decision not to do it.  I originally wanted to lay down the runner and close off the center aisle so that only the wedding party would walk down it, but the side aisles were way too small to seat the guests with.  And I wasn't sure that it would hold up nicely with all of the guests walking all over it.  Then I thought about painting it and rolling it back up, but that just seemed a little too daunting as it would have to be totally unrolled to get to the section to be painted.  So I just gave it up.

Then it was time for Mr. T and the pastors to come out and the processional to begin.

At any given time, Mr. T has on what I and all of our friends like to call his "angry face."  I don't think that he realizes he's doing it though.  But there he is, angrily waiting for me to walk down the aisle =]  Just kidding of course!

Next up:  The actual processional (I know I've said it like 5 times now!)

Unless otherwise stated, all pictures are by Brandy Swartz of Photography by Brandy.

In case you've missed anything...

The Church Details
Heading To The Church
Slipping Into My Dress

The Flowers

Getting Pretty
A Crazy Lady The Morning Of
Decorating the Reception Hall
Honoring Our Family
The Rehearsal

Happily After All: The Church Details

I decided to do a quick recess from the order of recaps, and instead of jumping right into the processional and ceremony, like I had promised, I'm going to take you on a tour of all the church details.  This way I can go into depth about them a little before you get a chance to glance at them during the ceremony recaps.  I gave you guys a glimpse into the decorations when I set up the week of the wedding, but there were things that weren't quite finished yet, and detail pictures always look better when taken by a professional with great lighting =]

We'll start with the outside of the church and work our way inside.

The wood sign I made pointing our guests in the right direction.  You'll see this sign again in future recaps...

The new wood sign a member of the congregation made just a couple months before the wedding.

The wreaths and painted letters I made.  These wreaths recently underwent a transformation and were used for the wedding of family friend.  She added some purple flowers into the mix and took off the letters.  They were gorgeous, and now the work is done for me for my cousin's wedding in October.  I was planning on adding in purple for her, and now I don't have to!

The "Quaker Marriage Certificate" that I designed and had printed through UPrinting.com  They offered me a poster print when I hosted a giveaway awhile back.  I touched on it briefly here.  You can get a glimpse of it fully signed in the picture below.  It was a nice alternative for a guestbook at the church.

This picture worked out nicely too, since we don't have any pictures of us signing our marriage certificate.  Our pastor had us sign it the night before at the rehearsal and we didn't think to take any pictures.  I really wish we would have done it on our wedding day, all dressed up, and gotten a couple pictures.  But that's okay!

 Here is the finished program.  Even though I hated them at 2 o'clock in the morning the week of my wedding, I'm really glad I put in the time and effort to pull off what I initially wanted.  Our guests loved them, I got to keep one, and the back page actually ended up being extremely helpful in getting through our family portraits.

These are the two baskets of bubbles we used for our exit.  I bought all of the bubbles from the Dollar Tree and tied little green bows around each one.  The baskets were on sale from Hobby Lobby and the ribbon tied around it was left over from other projects.  It was very easy, just a little time consuming!

These reserved signs were another last minute project in the week leading up to the wedding.  I think I might have done them on Thursday possibly?  I stuck them on the first four pews on each side of the aisle.  Since the church was so small and we were expecting such a large turnout, I wanted to make sure that all of our family members got a good seat up front, and didn't end up standing or in the balcony.

And here is the altar with our unity candle, altar arrangements, and the "table runner" I made as well.  I never did do a DIY post on that, but it was very easy.  I printed out the design on my printer and laid it under a piece of white material.  Then I traced and painted the design.  Then it was just a matter of hemming the white material and attaching it to the green material, and then hemming those edges as well.  I actually used Heat N' Bond instead of sewing it together.  It held up wonderfully throughout the day, but it never made it to the reception hall like I was originally thinking.  It just wasn't worth the hassle of taking it over there and finding a spot for it.  Anyone have ideas of what I should do with it now?

And as a sneak peek to our ceremony, here is a picture of the whole church decorated and filled with our friends and family.

Next up:  This time I'll actually do the processional!

Unless otherwise stated, all pictures are by Brandy Swartz of Photography by Brandy.

In case you've missed anything...
Heading To The Church
Slipping Into My Dress

The Flowers

Getting Pretty
A Crazy Lady The Morning Of
Decorating the Reception Hall
Honoring Our Family
The Rehearsal

What We're Doing This Weekend

Lest you think all I do is sit around writing recaps, we're actually out enjoying life this weekend!  So instead of a wedding recap today, I'm going to give you a different kind of recap.

Right now, we're in Warrens WI enjoying a weekend of camping with family and friends.  Every year since I was a little girl, we've spent 10 days at Yogi Bear in Warrens.  It has always been with the same group of people, and it's always been the same week every year.  Over time we've added more people, and the park has definitely changed, but one thing that hasn't changed is the great time we always have.

Our camping group consists of about 60 people, and it's always growing when you add into the mix husbands, children, girlfriends, and friends.  None of them are actually related to me, but they're all related to each other.  Remember my bridesmaids Brittany and Brianna (the cousins?)...

 (personal photo from 2006)

 It's their entire family.  They're what I like to consider my extended family.  They were also ALL invited to my own wedding.  That was one of the reasons our guest count climbed up above 300.  Mr. T didn't really get it at first, but after spending more time with them than my own family, he gets it now.  Lucky him, he had the pleasure of learning all of my family's names AND all of theirs.  He still doesn't get who belongs to who, and how they're all related.  (We've started adding in family members from other sides of the family.  Like for example, Britt's aunt's brother and wife and kids.  They're not actually related to Britt.)  So the group just keeps on growing.

But anyways, hopefully I haven't confused you too badly.  When we were growing up, it was always 10 full days of beach, sun, water, volleyball, swimming, and dances.  Now, as we're all growing up not everyone can make the full trip anymore.  So all of us youngins come and go on the weekends and it's usually the grown ups who are there the whole week because they can afford to take off a week stretch.  It's definitely changed some, but it's just as fun.  Now our weekends are full of different games like beer pong, and flip cup, and drinking around the fire.  But we still go to the dances every weekend, and head down to the beach to work on our tans.

So that's what I'll be doing this weekend.  Hope you'll all be having fun as well!

I'll end with some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of years.  These first few are from the summer of 2006.

We put together a little act for the talent show one year.  The singer of the group needed a little back up act for her performance.  Needless to say, we won first place and some free pizza!

This was a fun little dice game called "Mexican"  It involved lots of tequila shots.  This was the summer after my senior year when I was finally allowed to drink with the older kids.  Great parenting huh?  Although, did you know...in WI it's legal to drink underage when you're with your parents?

We're not too old to take pictures with Yogi Bear!

The following pictures are from the summer of 2007.

With some of my favorites, watching a friendly game of beer pong.

And speaking of beer pong, this was the summer that it all started.  It has now become a staple at all family functions, including Christmas!

The year before, we snuck into a building that housed all the water balloons used at the Water Wars station, and stole a couple bags of water balloons.  Just in case you were wondering, each bag had 10,000 water balloons.  We're still using them years later.  The summer, we filled as many as we possibly could, and loaded them in tupperware containers and laundry baskets, and anything else we could find.  We put them all on a flat trailer that usually carries four wheelers, and we took off through the park, throwing water balloons at innocent people on the road and at their campsites.  We made it all the way down to the beach before we got yelled at.  Now the boys just launch them out into the beach or straight up in the sky trying to catch them on the way down.  Do you have any idea how much a water balloon hurts coming out of a launcher?  It leaves bruises.

We had a full out, four course fitness competition between these two guys.  They made a bet at Christmas about who could lose the much weight and get in shape, and this was the determining factor.  It included pushups, situps, log holds, and a run.  There's even a video montage.

We always close out the dances with a little version of "Stand By Me" once the DJ stops playing.

Did I mention we do a Margarita Night every year?!  Everyone brings a bottle of tequila, mix, and some strawberries, and we blend up margaritas all night.  We also all bring food and have a big potluck.  Something has to soak up all that booze right?

There are also regular volleyball tournaments.  We even set up spotlights at night and play in the dark.  It gets a little intense.  One year there was even a torn ACL.

Here are a couple from 2008.

Every weekend is a different themed weekend, and this particular one happened to be Halloween.  So the boys "dressed up" to head down to the dance.

A shot of all the girls before starting up Margarita Night.

So as you can see, it's a fun time had by all! It's a great bonding weekend for the kids and the adults, as they all get involved in our drinking games too.  You should see some of these moms play flip cup!

So that's what I'm doing.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll see you again Monday for some more wedding recaps!