our wedding day | throwback ch. 6

Missed Chapter 5? Read it here.

I just want to warn you right now – this post is going to be very picture heavy. Like how can anyone choose a few pictures of out HUNDREDS of amazing ones?! I actually shared a wedding day post before but when I transferred sites, that post didn’t make it! So, I thought it would be appropriate to add into my throwback series.

Cody and I were engaged for almost two years. In that two years we did a ton of planning! I’m pretty sure I booked my venue more than a year in advance. I had so much fun picking everything out but it was also really stressful because I was still going to school and working. I continued to Pinterest my little heart out and made sure everything was perfect!

September 19th, 2015

We started out the day by getting ready. The boys all stayed at our house, while the girls went down the street to my in-laws house.

While our wedding party continued to get ready, Cody and I met up for a “first look”. I loved doing this! We exchanged gifts and got to talk in private for a minute.

After our first look, we met back up with our wedding party. We jumped on the bus and drove around to get our wedding party shots.

I am OBSESSED with mismatched bridesmaid dresses. I gave all my maids the option of any long dress they liked as long as it was within the shades of blues I wanted. I didn’t see all the dresses together until this day. I LOVE how it turned out!

We hopped on our party bus (which was a converted school bus!) and headed to our wedding venue — The Goei Center.

The Goei Center was the first and ONLY place we looked at. I knew the second I walked in, that it was where I wanted to get married. We decided to have our ceremony and reception in the same location simply because it was easier for our guests. When we got there, everything was set up and I was starting to get really nervous! Everything looked beautiful.

When you first walked in – we had the bar, seating table and guestbook table. For our signature drink we chose Butterbeer to go along with our Harry Potter obsession. It consisted of a couple different kinds of alcohol, butterscotch and cream soda. The guest book was actually just a Shutterfly book with our engagement pictures.

I made all the seating cards and probably one of my favorite things about our reception was our table names! Every table was a location from Harry Potter. We had Hogwarts, Borgin & Burkes, Ollivanders, The Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid’s Hut and MORE!

I especially loved our cake table. The cake and cupcakes were made by Blue Girl Bakery. We added some flowers, candles and some Harry Potter touches with the “H” sign and “always” cake topper. Fun fact: the tulle and lace tablecloths were reused from my bridal shower!

The tables were set up so beautifully! We had a variation of floral arrangements on each table. Some had the shorter arrangements and others had the tall ones. I also framed the table names. If you didn’t know – I use to have a small candle business on Etsy, so I thought I’d make a small candle for each of our guests! We had them sitting at their seat when they arrived.

After we checked out how everything was set up, we went into a dressing room and waited for the ceremony. The whole time I thought I was going to throw up because I was so nervous. I could hear people starting to arrive and I was SO anxious. To calm my nerves we all took a group shot! 🙂

We lined up and got ready to WALK DOWN THE AISLE. I can still remember my exact feelings during that line up. I couldn’t believe the time was finally here and I was about to have a husband! I walked down the aisle to the Piano Guys version of A Thousand Years (#basic).

It was SO important to me that we wrote our own vows. I think that makes a wedding more intimate and special. I think we both cried and had lots of guests crying too. My little daughters were even crying! The ceremony was my favorite part of the entire day. Every time I hear “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers I get goosebumps because that was the song that was played as we walked back down the aisle – husband and wife!

After the ceremony we did all our family portraits. I won’t bore you with all of them but here is my little family 🙂

We got back on the party bus for the last time to cruise around downtown. We stopped at a bar for some drinks. We had fun while all the guests enjoyed happy hour back at the venue.

It was finally time for the reception!! We had such a great time eating, drinking and dancing the night away! I have to say that the speeches from my mom, brother-in-law and best friend before dinner were another favorite part of my night.

Our first dance was to I’m Gonna Be by Sleeping at Last. If you haven’t heard it then you need to! I’m obsessed (obvi). The shot of us dancing with the girls is one of my favorite of the entire day. I loved that special moment!

The rest of the night went by SO fast. Well, who am I kidding – the whole day went by fast.

Is there a photo max on blog posts? If there is.. then I’m sure I just went over. Sorry for the photo dump but I can never figure out which ones to share from our wedding day! This was a day I’ll never forget and can easily go down as one of the best in my life (so far)!