A Tea Party Wedding

In my last post, which, let's be honest, was a VERY long time ago, I complained about how terrible and horrible the whole wedding planning process was and how difficult it was to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for marriage and so on and so forth, yada yada yada. Well, THIS post is going to have a bit of a happier tone since it will be focusing on none other than our actual WEDDING DAY. Yes, folks, all the hard work did indeed pay off and the wedding went off without a hitch (Except for the creaky windmill during the ceremony!). It. was. PERFECT. Beautiful weather. Delicious food. Beautiful bridesmaids. Handsome groomsmen. Happy friends and family. Celebratory dancing, Gangnam style. A surprise sing-song toast from the Best Man and Matrons of Honor. Oh, and let's not forget that I got to marry the love of my life! So without further ado I give you the Taylor Wedding Extravaganza....in pictures.

Here are a few of the day's highlights and some detail pics. I got the shoes from Shabby Apple (because I just don't do heels), the dress from I Do Bridal & Tux (Clearance rack, no alterations needed. A dress made in heaven!), and my Aunt Becky made the jewelry herself out of repurposed vintage jewelry. Keep your eye out for her jewelry company, Babs & Sparks. A website will hopefully be up soon!

My handsome husband and all of the groomsmen wore bow ties made by my VERY soon-to-be sister-in-law, Mary. She's kind of a domestic goddess.

For our first look we wrote each other love letters. I'm so glad we had this moment together before the wedding as it was both intimate and emotional. I will forever be grateful that I got the crying out of the way beforehand so the mass amount of people didn't have to witness my running mascara and blubbering sobs. I am not a pretty cryer, people.

We kept the ceremony short and sweet. (At Fulton Valley Farms, which is seriously GORGEOUS.) My Uncle John married us and our friends Josh & Dianne sang Phil Wickham's "Beautiful" while we took communion and put together our unity cross. We absolutely love our unity cross. Not only is it beautiful, but it's particularly special because it was hand-carved by my Grandpa. We keep it on display in our living room and plan to keep it there for the rest of our lives!

Have I mentioned how amazing our photographer was? Yes, she took all of these particularly impressive photos. You should check her out at Beautiful Isolations Photography. She's sweet, talented, affordable, and always looking to travel!

Now what would a wedding post be without some amazing detail pics? 

My mom worked unbelievably hard on the teacup flower arrangements for the tables and aisles and they turned out beautifully! She had quite a bit of help from me, my MIL, and a few friends, but let's just say she was the creative genius behind it all and put in way more hours (and money) than the rest of us! It really, REALLY helps in the wedding planning process to have a mom who has previously worked as both a florist and antiques dealer, and who is a master organizer and crafter.

For our tables we intermittently placed vintage doilies and handkerchiefs (which a massive amount of friends, family, and church ladies loaned to us) to form the table runners. We then of course put the teacup arrangements and vintage cake plates we rented from here on top. I loved having the food on each table (which by the way, was delicious.) Not only did it look elegant, but it was so much more convenient for everyone to have it there right in front of them instead of having to get up and wait in line. We ended up serving tea party finger foods from Truffles catering, a menu which included cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad on a croissant, and the absolute BEST blueberry scones I've ever tasted! 

For drinks we served coffee, water, and of course, a rather large variety of tea from World Market. 

For wedding favors we gave away the adorable honey bears pictured above, sold to us by some friends of ours at OakSchmied Honey. Seriously, they were the cutest honey bears EVER...and the honey tastes delicious.

My wedding cake was done by a woman who donated a wedding cake to our youth auction at the church, and instead of a groom's cake we had donuts from The Donut Whole, where we had our very first date! I'm still sad that I didn't get to have a donut at the wedding. :-(

 Turns out we were cake smashers. Who would have guessed? ;-)

A pic of my side of the family, his side of the family, and the wedding party. Yeah, I know. We're all really, really ridiculously good looking. But seriously, Seth likes to joke that his family should be the spokespeople for transition lenses. Ha!

And to end the post, just a few goofball pics! It's really hard for us to be serious, even on our wedding day. Let's just say there were a lot more moments like this!

That's it, folks. And let me just end by saying that marriage is seriously AMAZING. I don't know what I kept freaking out about. I get to spend every day with my best friend---who is pretty much a comedian---and it just doesn't get any better than that. :-)