Wedding Recap

Well, this is pretty long overdue considering I’ve been married for just over 5 months now. Ryan and I got married on July 9, 2011. 
 

Our wedding was at lake in the middle of a botanical garden. We reserved the gazebo for the ceremony and an adjacent shelter house for the reception. From the pictures, the day looked absolutely beautiful. It was a bright sunny day with very few clouds in the sky. There was very little breeze to speak of, so no crazy hair in the photos. It was, however, quite warm. Okay, incredibly hot. But considering the oppressive heat wave that began the day following our wedding, one might say it was relatively cool. 



 As you can see, the temperature on my wedding day was 93 degrees. The remainder of July averaged 101 degrees, with 17 of the 22 days over 100 degrees. Did I mention the wedding was outdoors?

 Ryan and I, and the bridal party, did all of our pictures before the wedding, so we were all pretty hot by the time the wedding began. The pictures turned out great though! I will share the majority in a separate post. On the bright side, many of the pictures look like I’m “glowing” instead of sweating my rear off!

 We tried to keep our guests in mind when planned and set a ceremony time of 5:30pm, hoping that it would cool down somewhat. I’d say it was probably in the upper 80’s around that time so it was still very warm! Luckily I made paddle fan programs (tutorial coming soon!) to help keep them cool!

One of the program fans!

After the ceremony we headed to the shelter house for some cool relief. 

I’m SO glad there was air conditioning in there! I played it cool for a few moments over in the corner (while standing on an A/C vent). Before you say anything, you have to know – wedding dresses are hot, especially so in 90+ degree weather, especially when you’ve been outside for several hours! 

Just cooling off :)

After everyone filed in the building we began the dinner portion of the reception. We had Oklahoma Joe’s BBQ catered and boy was it fantastic. Ryan and I just love that place! I couldn’t have imagined better food! BBQ food isn’t your typical wedding fare, but it suited us perfectly.

Once everyone finished eating, it was time for the party to begin. A few of our good friends are in a bluegrass band called “That Damn Sasquatch” and they did us the honor of playing our reception. It was so much fun! Again, bluegrass is probably not typical wedding reception music, but hey, it was our wedding and that’s what we wanted. We had our first dance, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, did the bouquet and garter toss, and then we all danced the night away. A couple of the guys in the band also played the ceremony music. There was an acoustic guitar and steel pedal to welcome me down the aisle. It sounded great and I wish I could have heard more of it.

The band playing on the deck outside the reception house, over-looking the lake

The grand finale of the night occurred at the end of the last song. Unbeknownst to me, several of our friends had brought over our stockpile of fireworks (we have friends in the fireworks business), took them down to a nearby dock and lit them all off. It was amazing! They couldn’t have timed it better either. The fireworks began just as the last song was ending. So perfectly choreographed! I wish someone had gotten pictures of it.

Well that about sums it up. I know there are many details that I’ve left out, but I didn’t want to go on too long about it. Inexpensive and fun weddings are very doable. We felt like our wedding suited us to a tee! Doing a wedding for less money does mean that you have to do a lot yourself. I’m so thankful that my Mother helped me every step of the way with planning, decorating, and anything else that came up. Plus, there were some very gracious relatives who helped get the reception area and ceremony area set up the day of the wedding. I don’t know what we would have done without all that help! 

The Bridal Party - Left to Right: Riley (my brother - who walked me down the aisle), Kelsi (my sister), Me, Ryan, Robert (Ryan's brother)

Stay tuned for some of our professional photos and a recap of our Jamaican Honeymoon!