No longer Newlyweds

Today marks one year of wedded bliss! I can’t believe it either.

As most couples would be pulling out a year old,  half eaten, semi freezer burnt piece of wedding cake, we are going to be toasting our first year with this lovely wine given to us at my bridal shower last year signed by our loved ones.  This seemed like an easier option with all of our moving adventures this past year.

I can’t even express how amazing this past year has been for the two of us.

We’ve been through ups, downs, army stuff, and moving across the country but through it all it has made us even closer. And I honestly couldn’t imagine our life any other way.

From the moment of our first look one year ago…

To now… I am thankful and blessed for this happy little life we have built together.

Happy one year anniversary J. Alabama! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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Just for fun…a few fun “Wedding Wednesday’s” from last year.

• The Wedding
• The Unity Vase
• Just Dance!
• Playing in Playa Del Carmen
• Adventures in Mexico
• And let’s not forget the amazing & hilarious MOH/BM speeches…

Our First Look

It’s been fun sharing all these wedding experiences with you over the last few months.  And as it somewhat saddens me that todays Wedding Wednesday post is the last, it’s definitely been an amazing journey.

I thought it would only be fitting to showcase our “First Look” session that took place just hours before our “I do’s”.

It was intimate, beautiful and so full of love.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Here are a few of my favorites…

  

  

 

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us!

Photos by Greg Hoskins

Three Generations

Every time I walk into my grandparent’s house I’m in awe of the beauty of this collection of photos that hangs on their wall.

As a gift to my grandmother one year, my Mom and Aunt had these photos framed with a lovely poem to go with.

The photo displays all three of them putting on their garters on their wedding day, wearing the same wedding dress.

As you know, I was not able to wear the dress that my Aunt, my mother and my grandmother all wore on their wedding day. Well at least not in its entirety.

But a piece of the wedding dress was still with me as I walked down the aisle on my wedding day.

Wearing the garter made from the dress that all three of these women have worn for their weddings was such an amazing gift to me.

It felt like their blessings of love, happiness, and a long lasting marriage were with me as I wore that garter.

It was nice to be able to take part in the family wedding tradition, even if that meant only wearing part of the dress and taking the garter photo.

Last time I visited my grandmother’s house, I noticed she had stuck my garter photo in the edge of the photo frame. It definitely made me a bit weepy.

Three generations of family, love and tradition.

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Next week is the final Wedding Wednesday post! I will share some of our favorite “first look” photos, and then will be calling it a wrap on any and all wedding stuff.

My next project is to put all my Wedding Wednesday posts into some sort of bound book as a way to remember all the feelings and thoughts about our wedding.

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Happy hump day! Tonight we celebrate our farewell with our friends at a local brewery. It’s a mixture of emotions over here for sure.

Just Dance!

My favorite part about any wedding is the dancing part.

We really wanted the vibe of our wedding to be fun and decided early on that fun equals lots of dancing.

Lucky for me, J. Alabama and I think similarly when it comes to the dancing fun. So the more dancing the more fun!

When it came time to discuss our first dance song we toyed with a traditional first slow dance, but knew that wasn’t quite us.

We needed a little bit more action…so we worked out a remix with our DJ to surprise all of our guests.

Our first song & dance together as husband and wife began to a Damien Rice song. We danced slowly and gazed lovingly into each other’s eyes….

Then BAM! Our song quickly switched into a song that was a little more us — Outcast’s “Hey Ya!”.

Because it’s dancy, happy, fun and we both love it.

At the time we had been obsessed with the Wii game ‘Just Dance’ and spent many a night practicing “Hey Ya” in preparation for this big day.

Nothing like a choreographed dance to get the crowd excited.

And my favorite  part was that it ended up coming full circle and we ended our first dance back with the slow Damien Rice song. Had to keep a little traditional with all the fun. 😉

Our fun first dance was a great way to kick off the night!

And as you will see from these photos there was no lack of dancing or of fun being had.

A little bit softer now…

If there was any question about how much our friends and us love to dance, you can just ask our DJ –we ended up extended the dance party an extra half hour because we just weren’t ready to quit.

Now that’s something to dance about!

From the looks of these photos (and the hundred others) lots of dancing does equal lots of fun.

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What’s your favorite part about weddings? Do you dance at weddings? 

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Photos by Greg Hoskins

Wedding Party Pics

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve kind of drug this “Wedding Wednesday” thing out for quite awhile now. (I started my WW series just two weeks after the start of the year, and have been going strong ever since).

I’ve absolutely loved it. I look forward to each Wednesday as a way to capture my feelings and emotions that revolved around such a special and life changing day.

Though I admit, I’m drawing real close to the final WW post, but today’s not it. YAY!

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Today’s post will be a happy post showcasing the fun pre-wedding, Wedding Party Pics.

Here is the color pop teaser photo…

The vibrant pink and yellow color combo definitely made me smile.

And so did my lovely (& handsome)  bridesmaids! 😉

Now all together with the flower girl!

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Here are the guys, all tuxed out! Yeah!!

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No photo shoot is complete without the crazy fun photos. Am I right?

We gifted a pair of rockin’ aviators to all members of our wedding party. And had our photog snap some silly shots.

J. Alabama and the ‘maids. Yeahhh!!

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Serious shot of the boyz and I.

There it is… all smiles!

So much love and awesome in these photos!

Well I maybe dragging out my Wedding Wednesday’s,  but the feeling I get when I write these posts and then later look back on them make me more than smile.

They make me feel happy, loved and all sorts of awesome!

Happy {Wedding} Wednesday from J. Alabama, I and the Gang!

Love is Sweet…

So let’s talk wedding cake for a moment, shall we?

When it was time for us to talk cake, my head was a flurry with ideas, types, size, and flavors.

We knew we wanted something simple, yet bright and happy to reflect the feeling of our wedding.

Oh yeah, and there needed to be some sort of lemony flavor. Hallelujah for Lemon poppyseed.

I’m pretty sure that we ended up just giving our cake person a whole bunch of pictures of different cakes, and said “do something like that, or whatever you want. As long as it’s pretty and happy.”

Pretty and happy it was!

I may have mentioned before that I’m a huge Pez Dispenser collector. I’ve been collecting them since I was little, when my mom gave my first one as a joke.

And I knew that I needed the Bride & Groom in my collection, so it was a perfect excuse to get my bridesman to hunt them down on the internet and use for our cake toppers.

When it was time to cut the cake I was nervous. Mostly because J. Alabama and I talked about how the cake eating part was going to go.

Moment of truth friends…

The DJ kept chanting in the background “naughty or nice”. And I was first up….I kept it nice and sweet. 

He on the other hand looks like he is force feeding me half of the cake!

This picture make me laugh every time I look at it. He was still nice about it, as in no cake in the face. 🙂

Oh and the Groom’s cake is my FAVORITE!

He didn’t want to wear his Army blue’s for our wedding, and I knew that the Army was going to be a big part of our future. So I sneakily had our cake lady whip up something Army-ish.

Uh yeah, she did me one better and made this tank cake with brown sugar sand!

His job in the Army will involve tanks, so this was more than perfect. And was even a surprise to me when I saw it!

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Now let’s talk Candy Bar!

Not even a few days after I was engaged my Aunt was asking me if she could create me a Candy Bar for our guests.

I had only seen a candy bar done in a few wedding blogs, and was over the moon about the idea.

The mini pez and lemon heads were a great addition to the mix!

When I saw the table in its final I was practically in tears at how beautiful it was.

And when they opened up the candy bar towards the end of the evening our guests were just as excited.

I mean I had pretty much died and gone to candy land heaven! 🙂 It was such a hit.

And the cute little candy boxes worked out great too! Notice the label we created from our wedding invitations?

Love & Sweetness was in the air at our wedding –which is a feeling and vibe we want for the rest of our lives together.

And I couldn’t end this post without a bang.

There is definitely a lot of happy & love going on!

Happy Wednesday my friends! Hope you have a SWEET day! 🙂

Getting Polished!

Amidst all the crazy & fun wedding activities leading up to the big day, I was gifted an extraordinarily thoughtful & amazing gift.

My Aunt & Uncle gifted my bridal party + myself & mom to a day at the spa for pre-wedding pedi’s & mani’s.

Upon arrival I was adorned with a pink boa! Every bride should get to wear a pink boa the day before their wedding. 🙂

Our spa day was complete with a special Peach Delicious spritzer concoction, of the alcoholic variety of course!

It was a tasty mix of champagne, fresca, and peach schnapps that my Aunt made up special for our ladies day! Cheers!

It was great fun being pampered before the big day.

And I’ll tell you this, my poor feet needed it with all the marathon training beating I was giving it all summer.

It was such a relaxing way to kick off the wedding weekend.

And I couldn’t have been more grateful for this chance to bond once more with my bridesmaids, aunt & mom as my last day as a single lady.

Us ladies definitely had a blast getting our toes and nails done!

Wedding Teaser…I gifted the girls with these fab aviators to wear during our wedding party photos.

You’ll have to wait for a future post on how they looked with the bridal attire.

I think they liked them! And the champagne drink too! 

And a huge thanks to my Aunt & Uncle for this great gift. I will always remember this gift as it was such a very special experience.

I am still in disbelief that this fun day happened two months ago! It truly is amazing how time flies when you are having fun.

The final foot photo…check out those lovely toesies!

I appreciate this gift because of the time I got to spend with these special people in my life. I will never forget it!

Thank you Uncle R & Aunt B! You guys are the bestest!

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What is a memorable wedding gift you have given? Or for the married peeps…What is one memorable wedding gift  you’ve received? 

I’m asking because I was invited to two more weddings next month and would like to think outside the gift registry box if possible. I loved the idea of a gift that was an experience/memory that I will never ever forget!

Wedding Shoe Showcase

Okay — So doing a whole post on wedding shoes seems a bit redundant since I’ve already featured a few pics of my wedding shoes.

But I still thought it would be fun to put it all together, so you could see the vision as a whole.

I had several ideas on what I wanted me wedding shoes to look like. I was thinking sparkly, pink, funky & fun. Try finding all that in the middle of January!

I decided I wasn’t going to worry about my wedding shoes until closer to the date. That is until a girl’s weekend landed me in Salt Lake City, Utah. And of course we had to find The Nordstrom’s Rack.

One pair of these glittery goodness, were sitting alone on the clearance rack. It was seriously like the sky above parted, a light was shining down and them and angels were singing.

These weren’t the shoes I had in mind, but once I saw them I immediately knew they were my wedding shoes!

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Now let’s talk about J. Alabama’s wedding shoe choice.

It was about three weeks into our wedding planning and I had shot down quite a few of his ideas. Red flowers? What? That totally doesn’t mesh with my pink, yellow & silver vision.

Anyways, he joked with me about him and the groomsmen all wearing Vibram FiveFingers with their tuxes. I felt bad about nixing the red flowers, and laughingly said sure…why not?!

That pretty much opened up Pandora’s box…and the toe shoe theme continued.

We even went so far as to incorporate the toe shoes into our personal first look photos. We both love running, and thought this would be a clever way for us to show that.

And we even decided to take them for a little spin. It sure helped with the pre-wedding jitters.

We only had to do a few re-takes of this shot. Can I count that in my mileage?

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Now all together..the boys + the bride

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Time for the bridesmaids shoe wear!

Since I opted to let the bridesmaids each pick a different style of dress I thought having the same shoe would bond them together.

Cute Target shoes…which I think were only like $25 bucks. I love how they looked with the whole bridesmaid ensemble.

(Which you will have to wait for yet another post to see the whole look all together!)

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The shoe’s of the parent’s of the bride…woah that’s a mouthful!

My mother was over the moon about her fabulous pink shoes! They matched perfectly with the wedding colors, and helped bring a pop of color to her black Mother of the Bride’s dress.

Mixed in with my Dad’s wing tips…it was rockin!

I wasn’t sure how the wing tips would look with my dad’s pinstripe suit until it was all put together. And man, oh man, was I almost in tears when I saw him and my mother.

They looked absolutely gorgeous together. And the wingtips gave my dad the ultimate mobster Italian look! Since we’re Italian that was definitely the look I was hoping for.

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The shoes were a small but fun detail of our wedding, which all came together better than I could have imagined.

My wedding advice to any bride-to-be…have fun with your wedding. And make it YOURS. The toeshoes seemed silly, and I’m sure got a few scoffs from people who didn’t “get” it, but we didn’t care. It was a symbol of us and something we both love to do, and that was super important to us.

I hope you enjoyed the wedding shoe showcase. I know I did! 🙂

Happy Hump Day Friends!!!

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Photos by Greg Hoskins, of Boise Idaho.

My Wedding Look

I am really happy with how my wedding look came together on the big day, but I was even more proud of how I managed to get my perfect look without breaking the bank.

Of all the things I spent money on for the wedding, my wedding ensemble ended up being the least of my expenses. Which I still think is crazy, but it also makes me realize how blessed I really am.

I also had the help of family & friends to make my wedding look as perfect and cost effective as can be. Their contributions were honestly priceless, and  I truly appreciate them for everything they did to make my wedding the most special day of my life.

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♥The Dress | David’s Bridal ($399)

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♥The Veil | Do-It-Yourself Veil ($14.00)

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♥The Shoes | Nordstrom’s Rack ($30)

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♥The Jewelry:

♥Earrings |  Nordstrom’s Rack ($10)

♥”My Something Blue” | A blue bracelet gifted to me by my Bridesman

♥”My Something borrowed” | Aunt Bobbie Jo’s Wedding Ring (not pictured)

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♥My Wedding Headband | Chic Bridal Boutique ($30)

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♥Hair & Make-up | My lovely bridesmaid Ashley (Priceless)

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♥The Final Look: ($483)

I was a bundle of nerves here. 

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My whole wedding look came together more perfectly than I could have ever even imagined. Everything pictured above (dress, shoes, jewelry, hair, make-up, even alterations) came in under $500.00.

The Veil: You may remember a panicked post a few days before the wedding on how the veil I borrowed was actually white and not ivory? Well my mother’s friend happened to be sitting in our living room as I was freaking out and offered to make me one. Yup, just three days before the wedding she made me the perfect veil. And the supplies needed to pull it all together was roughly $14.00.

Hair & Make-up: My friend & bridesmaid Ashley has been my hairstylist since she was back in beauty school many years ago. So it was very special for me when she offered to style my hair and do my make-up on my wedding day.

The Dress: And the final touch was when I went to pick up my dress after the alterations had been done, and the woman who has been doing my alterations since I was in High school handed me my dress and wished me a happy wedding day. She gifted me the dress alterations.

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These small acts did not go unnoticed, and in fact will always be remembered as beautiful and special gifts to me.

And though the money I spent on my wedding look seemed like a small amount, my gratitude to everyone who helped make our wedding perfect is immeasurable.

Happy Wedding Wednesday!!

The Fun Box

Now I truly understand why it’s called  “The Funbox” ….because it’s literally a box of fun!

In an attempt to save a few bucks (and kill two three birds with one stone) we opted for a photo booth at our wedding.

Our vision was that the photo booth would provide some sort of entertainment during the reception, especially for those of the non-dancing variety.

While also providing our guests with a nifty little souvenir from our wedding, in return providing us with a fully animated guest book!

See…three birds…one stone! Brilliant I tell ya!

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So here’s how it all went down.

The guests would make a trip to the kickass props table where they could pick their mustache-on-a-stick, their write-your-own-comment-bubble, or pick from a plethora of delightful props.

The Oh snap sign says it all!

OH Snap!

Choose your disguise

Say Cheese

One for your fridge

One for our book

Once they picked out their preferred prop it was into the photo booth!

After a ton of laughter & kookiness it was over to the crafts table, where each guest was asked to make a page for our guestbook/scrapbook.

They were highly encouraged to leave us a little message.

Some of our guests had a little too much fun with it!

Remember this couple? They got married three weeks before us!

Next up!

And now this adorable couple is next …I’ll be hearing wedding bells with them this weekend in Las Vegas! 😉

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The photo booth was worth every single penny spent.

Just looking through our guest book from our wedding night provides us with hours and hour of pure laughter and entertainment.

It was truly a funfilled night and the proof is in the pictures!