Yep, we sang that song the entire time on our honeymoon...but technically only that line as neither of us really knew the rest of the song by heart. If you've been following along, you probably know we were engaged on September 19. And then we got married on December 1. And yes, I did plan a wedding in two months. Which is really kind of a short time period for planning a wedding, but we were trying to keep the stress to a minimum (hahahahahahasob). So, two months to plan a wedding may seem like a very short amount of time, but it was the perfect amount of time for us. By not having a lot of wiggle room, there's no time for hemming and hawing. You make a decision and it stays made because there's just no time left to do anything else.
Thankfully, I had some really amazing people in my life helping me plan. I work in a very small office with mostly women my age, so they were all to willing to help me. Two of them even went with me to try on wedding dresses and even helped pick out the dress that I wore for the wedding. The dress was easily the easiest part of the entire wedding planning. Thankfully one of the few J. Crew shops that have wedding dresses on site just happens to be in Atlanta, so I was able to try on dresses there. And yes, I wore a grey dress. Several people have asked, why grey. For one, I didn't want to do the whole "white dress" thing again. It obviously didn't work out so well for me the first time. And, honestly, this might be the most important part, but the grey one was about $600 less than the white one in the same version. I think it worked out pretty well to be honest:
The food was probably the second easiest part. My friend Terry is the executive chef at Wrecking Bar Brew Pub here in Atlanta. He has helped us a lot with Crop Mob food, so I knew that he would feed us well. And whoo lawd, did he ever. We had some of the most amazing food and all from local farms. The cake was from the darling Layne at Sweet n' Sinful Bakery. Not only did she make the most delicious cake in the whole entire history of wedding cakes, but when I freaked out about not being able to find a cake stand in the right size, she came to the rescue with a cake stand! She is an angel and will forever and always be my go-to for cakes for special occasions.
The flowers were designed by a dear friend of Jeremy's. She did an amazing job and worked so well within our budget. I knew what the flowers looked like before the ceremony and I had a general idea of how the flowers would be arranged, but the finished project for all the flowers was kind of a surprise. A very happy surprise. In the planning stages for the flowers, she asked if I had any ideas. I sent her a link to my Pinterest wedding board. I'm amazed at how she took the ideas posted there and came up with original flowers for us based on those ideas.
My dearest friend Alisha did the photography for the wedding. Alisha and I have been friends for probably around eight years. The fact that we've been friends for so long and the fact that she was there with me through some of the hard spots in my life, made the wedding photos so much more personal and special. Every photograph she took meant something to her and to us and created a wonderful visual memory for us for years and years to come. She is an amazing photographer and I am blessed to call her my friend.
Oh, and the location of the wedding was one of the best parts! We got married at Oglethorpe University, a private, liberal-arts university here in Atlanta. The buildings were built in the 1920's and they all look like castles! We were married in the library which is very fitting for two bookworms. The reception was held in the Great Hall of Hearst, one of the classroom buildings. It was a fairy tale wedding location. The fairy tale theme was greatly helped by the music during the ceremony. An Oglethorpe student played the violin for the wedding. And honestly, we didn't even hear him play a single note until the day before the wedding. If he hadn't been amazing we would have been in trouble, but alas, he was an incredibly talented musician, and we couldn't have been happier with his performance.
December 1st marked the start of a wonderful new life for us. It was the perfect wedding for a perfect start to our life together. We are so blessed.
