less than 3 weeks to go...a picture post (LONG!)
With only 18 days left until the big day, I present you with my wedding details. This is very long and picture heavy (some pictures are very large for some reason- I aplogize)! I hope you'll enjoy.
The Couple
Jennifer and Jeffrey
The Ceremony
We're having a formal, full mass, catholic ceremony at this church located in downtown Atlanta...
the altar
and a shot from the back. It's the oldest Catholic church in Atlanta.
The priest who will be marrying us was the priest at our church (where we met!) when we were first dating. We're thrilled to have him doing our wedding. He is a funny and thoughtful man who I am sure will keep our non-Catholic guests very informed and interested.
Music for the ceremony will be played on the church's beautiful organ (not pictured above) The organist will be playing traditional music which I will be picking out next week.
The Attire
My Dress
Front
Back
Alterations have been done (see below).
My shoes
My mother had a jewelry set made for me. It includes freshwater pearls and crystals. It's currently with the jeweler who is using it as a visual for creating the bridesmaids' jewelry which I am giving to them as a gift.
My tiara
I ordered this veil from veilsbylana in ivory.
The veil came and it is pretty, but it's not what I wanted. I tried settling for something cheaper because I didn't want to pay $120 for the veil that I really wanted from the bridal store.
I was pretty certain I was going to have to cave and buy the one I liked from the bridal shop (that was $120), but then someone posted the link to militarybride.com and I found this veil.
I bought it on a Friday and it was in my hands by the next Wednesday. I like it much better!
Here I am with the entire ensemble (minus the jewelry). The dress was hemmed, a privacy pannel and bra caps were put in, and the bustle was done.
back
bustle
Hair
These are some styles I like.
I am about 98% sure I'll wear my hair up. I would love to wear it half-up like in this picture...
but with hair as thick as mine in July, in Atlanta, I have been turned away from this.
The Girls
They're wearing this dress by David's Bridal.
Here's the dress on my beautiful sister.
And the details. I swear I didn't mean for this to be a boob shot.
As I mentioned, I'm having jewelry made for them (freshwater pearls and blue crystals). I'm also paying for their hair and possibly their make-up. I have three girls (my sister, Jeff's sister, and a friend from WI) whom I adore, and I really don't want my wedding to become their expense.
They will wear the shoes of their choice.
The flowergirl is my cutie little niece...one of the loves of my life. This is her taking a bath on her first birthday, which explains the purple icing. :)
She will be just 16 months old at the wedding. She will either walk with my cousin (the ringbearer) or with her mom (my sister). It's important to me to have her in the wedding so I'm not concerned about her making it down the aisle in the traditional way.
This is her dress from David's Bridal, but in Ivory.
They couldn't get the sash in the same color as the BM dresses, so we're taking one of the shawls that came with the BM dresses and having my alterations lady make it into the shash for her dress.
The Guys
Fiance will be wearing a tux with this look...black shirt with white tie and vest.
But his tux will be by Tommy Hilfiger.
The groomsmen will be wearing a simpler tux with blue frost vests and ties (to match the bridesmaid dresses). The dads will wear the same tux as the groomsmen but with silver vests and ties. The ringearer will wear the same tux style as the groomsmen, but his look will match fiances with the black shirt, white tie, and white vest.
Our Rings
My engagement ring
My two wedding bands.
(sorry the quality is poor...forgot to turn flash off)
The whole ensemble.
didn't put it all the way on because fingers were swollen
Fiance will be taking my rings in a week before the wedding to get them all put together as one gigantic ring.
This is the ring fiance thinks he is getting.
Fiance wanted something that he could wear at work (he has a very hands-on job) and not have to worry about ruining something expensive. I told him that I'd like to get him a nice ring to wear when he's not working/when we go out, but that I couldn't afford it right now (I just finished school and will start teaching in the fall so I have no income currently). I told him I would probably get him a nicer one for our first anniversary. He has one picked out at our jeweler that he likes. What he doesn't know is that it's his.
I bought this for fiance as his wedding gift.
He will not know about it until I put it on his finger on our wedding day. I'm excited about this! :)
Flowers
My bouquet will be a mixture of ivory roses, blue hydrangeas, and hyacinth.
Similar to this, but with lighter hydrangeas.
The girls will carry a similar bouquet, but with more ivory than blue.
Fiances boutonniere will be an ivory rose with blue hyacinth and greenery.
The groomsmen will have a single miniature ivory rose with greenery.
The flower girl will "carry" a kissing ball of blue hydrangeas with ivory accents.
Save the Dates
Designed by me, printed by vistaprint.com
Invitations
I fell in love with pocket invitations and since we invited a ton of people (about 400) to our wedding from many different places, I wanted to include as much info in the invites as possible, so having inserts was the way to go. I bought the pockets at cardsandpockets.com (They were fabulous to work with! They sent my order quickly and everything was perfect. I also ordered the light blue mats behind the invite from them and glue which was awesome!!). I designed the invite and all the inserts in a paint program I have using an image I found on istockphotos.com. I had all of it printed and cut at my colleges printshop for dirt cheap, and I had the RSVP postcards printed at vistaprint.com
It was a lot of work to make them, but I absolutely love them and have received several compliments.
All the pieces...
RSVP postcard
The final results with everything assembled.
This is what it looks like closed.
The RSVP postcard didn't fit in the pocket, so I slid it under the ribbon on the back of the invite.
The Reception
We're having a four hour reception located at an old freight depot.
We have hired a woman to do chair covers (ivory chair covers and blue organza sashes) and ceiling drapery just like this picture.
It is a very long space, so we tried to make the best use of it.
A white carriage is set out at the entrance for guests to put their gifts in. The venue also has a gazebo (which can be seen at the back end of the picture above). Our cakes will be in the gazebo which will be decorated with twinkle lights and surrounded by plants courtesy of our florist. There will be an area on the far right of the room that will be set up for casino games. The area will be created using trees with twinkle lights that our florist is providing.
We are having a cocktail "hour" (more like 1/2 hr to 45 mins) with hors d'oeuvres (fruit and cheese tray, barbeque meatballs, giant shrimp, and sesame chicken tenders. During the cocktail hour guests will have the opportunity to play cards...we ordered personalized ones like these:
or play poker and casino style games. We were able to work out a deal with our florist so we will now have 2 black jack tables, 1 roulette, and 1 craps table to go along with the cheap table top games we bought.
For dinner, we're doing a buffet which will include fried chicken, baked ham, Chicago Round of beef, Creamed Potatoes, Macaroni & Cheese, Chef’s Mixed Steamed Vegetables, Seasoned Green Beans, Tossed Salad w/dressings, and Dinner Rolls w/butter. Drinks will include sweet tea and an open bar! We're totally southern kids!!
Our Cake
We are getting our cake done at Publix because we absolutely love Publix cake. I designed our cake based on several pictures (taking parts I liked from many different cakes).
It will be most similar to this cake.
It will have four square tiers. It will have light blue icing done around each layer like a ribbon. The second and fourth tiers will have a swirly design very similar to the one on the cake above. The first and third tiers will have dots like this cake.
The top tier will also have a "W" done on it in the same light blue that will be used for the "ribbon."
We will not be putting any flowers on the cake. My uncle is going to make us a pretty ribbon combination similar to what's on top of this cake from my cousins graduation...
but in our colors to top the cake. We may also put this cake topper on it depending how much space the ribbon takes.
The first, second, and fourth tier will be yellow cake with vanilla custard filling (we loved this soooooo much!). The third tier will be yellow cake with rasberry filling. The entire cake will have ivory (and light blue) buttercream icing.
This is the groom's cake:
It will be chocolate with chocolate pudding filling.
Publix has been great to work with so far. I'm hoping my vision for our cake will come to life. Regardless, it is going to be so yummy. I can't wait!
The Favors
Each guest will receive these chocolates:
In these bags from Oriental Trading:
except we're taking the white ribbon out and putting our own blue ribbon in.
With these lottery tickets:
Placed on these cards, also from Oriental Trading:
Centerpieces
Our centerpieces will look roughly like this (obviously one per table though).
This is a trial run I did. We were trying to decide if we liked the roses or the hydrangeas better. We decided we liked them both so half of them will be done with a single blue rose and half of them will be with the hydrangeas.
all lit up
top view
rose
hydrangea
Music
Our dj is from Complete Music . He will be doing our music for four hours for $675.
Entrance Songs: "Beautiful Day" by U2 and "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen
First Dance: "Everything I Do" by Bryan Adams
Father/Daughter, Mother/Son Dance (combined): "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts
Cake Cutting: "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard
Bouquet Toss: combination of "This Ones for the Girls" by Martina McBride and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Gater Toss: "Guys Do It All the Time" by Mindy McCready
Last Songs: "Unforgettable" (this will be our last dance), "Grow Old with You" (as we exit), "Closing Time" (final song of the night. time to go home.)
We gave the DJ a "Do NOT Play list" and a list of songs and artists that we like, but we told him that we trust him to pick music that will keep our guests having fun.
Photography
Our photographers are a husband and wife team- Robertson Studios . For just under $2000 we're getting:
Unlimited Coverage with 2 Photographers
DVD of Photos in a special Renaissance Folio Case (Full Reproduction Rights)
500 Proof Images in a Proof Box
Discounts on enlargements and other options
Choice of Bridal or Engagement Sitting
8x8 20 Page Asuka Digital Album
Additionally, I've ordered two albums for the parents as our gifts to them.
Other Random Details
We're exiting to bubbles. We orderd these bubbles from Oriental Trading.
I'm in the process of tying blue ribbon to them (it's a long process!).
They will be placed in white baskets (there are 2) that I bought for half price at Garden Ridge.
I spruced them up like this.
Here's one basket of bubbles done.
One to go.
We're doing the signature mats as or "guestbook." My grandfather has his own framing businss so he matted two of our engagement pictures for people to sign and he will frame them after the wedding.
We are also having guests write out wishes for us. Fiances last name is Wisz which is pronounced like "wish" so we will have paper out for people to write "Wishes for the Wiszs" and place them in this wishing well that we found at Hobby Lobby for half price.
The well is currently housing the bubbles that don't have ribbon.
I will be adding some blue to the wishing well like I did the baskets.
We also picked this cute box up from Garden Ridge for our cards.
I spruced it up some with the blue flowers we found too.
The Honeymoom
We'll be spending six days and five nights at Viva Wyndams All-Inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic.
This is not where we had imagined our honeymoon would be, but it looks awesome. The honeymoon was booked by my mother using her delta skymile points (it's a delta vacation package) so it's not costing us anything. We're so excited! Fiance and I didn't think we'd be going on a honeymoon. We bought a house in February that needed pretty much a complete remodel. We have spent what little money we had trying to get it ready to move into. We could not afford a honeymoon and had decided we would go on a nice trip for our first anniversary instead. My mom was having none of that so she got us this trip. We're so blessed, and so incredibly thankful!
That's everything I believe!
Still to do:
*Do hair/make-up trial
*Buy alcohol (we've hired two bartenders, but we have to buy the alcohol)
*Meet with the organist to decide on ceremony music
*purchase remaining gifts for bridal party and parents
*get our marriage license
*make table numbers and seating chart
*design, print, and assemble programs (anyone have any examples of programs for Catholic ceremonies?)
*put together information for out-of-town guests (maps, local restaurants and attractions, etc.)
Phew that's it. If you read/viewed all of this you deserve a prize!
The Couple
Jennifer and Jeffrey
The Ceremony
We're having a formal, full mass, catholic ceremony at this church located in downtown Atlanta...
the altar
and a shot from the back. It's the oldest Catholic church in Atlanta.
The priest who will be marrying us was the priest at our church (where we met!) when we were first dating. We're thrilled to have him doing our wedding. He is a funny and thoughtful man who I am sure will keep our non-Catholic guests very informed and interested.
Music for the ceremony will be played on the church's beautiful organ (not pictured above) The organist will be playing traditional music which I will be picking out next week.
The Attire
My Dress
Front
Back
Alterations have been done (see below).
My shoes
My mother had a jewelry set made for me. It includes freshwater pearls and crystals. It's currently with the jeweler who is using it as a visual for creating the bridesmaids' jewelry which I am giving to them as a gift.
My tiara
I ordered this veil from veilsbylana in ivory.
The veil came and it is pretty, but it's not what I wanted. I tried settling for something cheaper because I didn't want to pay $120 for the veil that I really wanted from the bridal store.
I was pretty certain I was going to have to cave and buy the one I liked from the bridal shop (that was $120), but then someone posted the link to militarybride.com and I found this veil.
I bought it on a Friday and it was in my hands by the next Wednesday. I like it much better!
Here I am with the entire ensemble (minus the jewelry). The dress was hemmed, a privacy pannel and bra caps were put in, and the bustle was done.
back
bustle
Hair
These are some styles I like.
I am about 98% sure I'll wear my hair up. I would love to wear it half-up like in this picture...
but with hair as thick as mine in July, in Atlanta, I have been turned away from this.
The Girls
They're wearing this dress by David's Bridal.
Here's the dress on my beautiful sister.
And the details. I swear I didn't mean for this to be a boob shot.
As I mentioned, I'm having jewelry made for them (freshwater pearls and blue crystals). I'm also paying for their hair and possibly their make-up. I have three girls (my sister, Jeff's sister, and a friend from WI) whom I adore, and I really don't want my wedding to become their expense.
They will wear the shoes of their choice.
The flowergirl is my cutie little niece...one of the loves of my life. This is her taking a bath on her first birthday, which explains the purple icing. :)
She will be just 16 months old at the wedding. She will either walk with my cousin (the ringbearer) or with her mom (my sister). It's important to me to have her in the wedding so I'm not concerned about her making it down the aisle in the traditional way.
This is her dress from David's Bridal, but in Ivory.
They couldn't get the sash in the same color as the BM dresses, so we're taking one of the shawls that came with the BM dresses and having my alterations lady make it into the shash for her dress.
The Guys
Fiance will be wearing a tux with this look...black shirt with white tie and vest.
But his tux will be by Tommy Hilfiger.
The groomsmen will be wearing a simpler tux with blue frost vests and ties (to match the bridesmaid dresses). The dads will wear the same tux as the groomsmen but with silver vests and ties. The ringearer will wear the same tux style as the groomsmen, but his look will match fiances with the black shirt, white tie, and white vest.
Our Rings
My engagement ring
My two wedding bands.
(sorry the quality is poor...forgot to turn flash off)
The whole ensemble.
didn't put it all the way on because fingers were swollen
Fiance will be taking my rings in a week before the wedding to get them all put together as one gigantic ring.
This is the ring fiance thinks he is getting.
Fiance wanted something that he could wear at work (he has a very hands-on job) and not have to worry about ruining something expensive. I told him that I'd like to get him a nice ring to wear when he's not working/when we go out, but that I couldn't afford it right now (I just finished school and will start teaching in the fall so I have no income currently). I told him I would probably get him a nicer one for our first anniversary. He has one picked out at our jeweler that he likes. What he doesn't know is that it's his.
I bought this for fiance as his wedding gift.
He will not know about it until I put it on his finger on our wedding day. I'm excited about this! :)
Flowers
My bouquet will be a mixture of ivory roses, blue hydrangeas, and hyacinth.
Similar to this, but with lighter hydrangeas.
The girls will carry a similar bouquet, but with more ivory than blue.
Fiances boutonniere will be an ivory rose with blue hyacinth and greenery.
The groomsmen will have a single miniature ivory rose with greenery.
The flower girl will "carry" a kissing ball of blue hydrangeas with ivory accents.
Save the Dates
Designed by me, printed by vistaprint.com
Invitations
I fell in love with pocket invitations and since we invited a ton of people (about 400) to our wedding from many different places, I wanted to include as much info in the invites as possible, so having inserts was the way to go. I bought the pockets at cardsandpockets.com (They were fabulous to work with! They sent my order quickly and everything was perfect. I also ordered the light blue mats behind the invite from them and glue which was awesome!!). I designed the invite and all the inserts in a paint program I have using an image I found on istockphotos.com. I had all of it printed and cut at my colleges printshop for dirt cheap, and I had the RSVP postcards printed at vistaprint.com
It was a lot of work to make them, but I absolutely love them and have received several compliments.
All the pieces...
RSVP postcard
The final results with everything assembled.
This is what it looks like closed.
The RSVP postcard didn't fit in the pocket, so I slid it under the ribbon on the back of the invite.
The Reception
We're having a four hour reception located at an old freight depot.
We have hired a woman to do chair covers (ivory chair covers and blue organza sashes) and ceiling drapery just like this picture.
It is a very long space, so we tried to make the best use of it.
A white carriage is set out at the entrance for guests to put their gifts in. The venue also has a gazebo (which can be seen at the back end of the picture above). Our cakes will be in the gazebo which will be decorated with twinkle lights and surrounded by plants courtesy of our florist. There will be an area on the far right of the room that will be set up for casino games. The area will be created using trees with twinkle lights that our florist is providing.
We are having a cocktail "hour" (more like 1/2 hr to 45 mins) with hors d'oeuvres (fruit and cheese tray, barbeque meatballs, giant shrimp, and sesame chicken tenders. During the cocktail hour guests will have the opportunity to play cards...we ordered personalized ones like these:
or play poker and casino style games. We were able to work out a deal with our florist so we will now have 2 black jack tables, 1 roulette, and 1 craps table to go along with the cheap table top games we bought.
For dinner, we're doing a buffet which will include fried chicken, baked ham, Chicago Round of beef, Creamed Potatoes, Macaroni & Cheese, Chef’s Mixed Steamed Vegetables, Seasoned Green Beans, Tossed Salad w/dressings, and Dinner Rolls w/butter. Drinks will include sweet tea and an open bar! We're totally southern kids!!
Our Cake
We are getting our cake done at Publix because we absolutely love Publix cake. I designed our cake based on several pictures (taking parts I liked from many different cakes).
It will be most similar to this cake.
It will have four square tiers. It will have light blue icing done around each layer like a ribbon. The second and fourth tiers will have a swirly design very similar to the one on the cake above. The first and third tiers will have dots like this cake.
The top tier will also have a "W" done on it in the same light blue that will be used for the "ribbon."
We will not be putting any flowers on the cake. My uncle is going to make us a pretty ribbon combination similar to what's on top of this cake from my cousins graduation...
but in our colors to top the cake. We may also put this cake topper on it depending how much space the ribbon takes.
The first, second, and fourth tier will be yellow cake with vanilla custard filling (we loved this soooooo much!). The third tier will be yellow cake with rasberry filling. The entire cake will have ivory (and light blue) buttercream icing.
This is the groom's cake:
It will be chocolate with chocolate pudding filling.
Publix has been great to work with so far. I'm hoping my vision for our cake will come to life. Regardless, it is going to be so yummy. I can't wait!
The Favors
Each guest will receive these chocolates:
In these bags from Oriental Trading:
except we're taking the white ribbon out and putting our own blue ribbon in.
With these lottery tickets:
Placed on these cards, also from Oriental Trading:
Centerpieces
Our centerpieces will look roughly like this (obviously one per table though).
This is a trial run I did. We were trying to decide if we liked the roses or the hydrangeas better. We decided we liked them both so half of them will be done with a single blue rose and half of them will be with the hydrangeas.
all lit up
top view
rose
hydrangea
Music
Our dj is from Complete Music . He will be doing our music for four hours for $675.
Entrance Songs: "Beautiful Day" by U2 and "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen
First Dance: "Everything I Do" by Bryan Adams
Father/Daughter, Mother/Son Dance (combined): "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts
Cake Cutting: "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard
Bouquet Toss: combination of "This Ones for the Girls" by Martina McBride and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Gater Toss: "Guys Do It All the Time" by Mindy McCready
Last Songs: "Unforgettable" (this will be our last dance), "Grow Old with You" (as we exit), "Closing Time" (final song of the night. time to go home.)
We gave the DJ a "Do NOT Play list" and a list of songs and artists that we like, but we told him that we trust him to pick music that will keep our guests having fun.
Photography
Our photographers are a husband and wife team- Robertson Studios . For just under $2000 we're getting:
Unlimited Coverage with 2 Photographers
DVD of Photos in a special Renaissance Folio Case (Full Reproduction Rights)
500 Proof Images in a Proof Box
Discounts on enlargements and other options
Choice of Bridal or Engagement Sitting
8x8 20 Page Asuka Digital Album
Additionally, I've ordered two albums for the parents as our gifts to them.
Other Random Details
We're exiting to bubbles. We orderd these bubbles from Oriental Trading.
I'm in the process of tying blue ribbon to them (it's a long process!).
They will be placed in white baskets (there are 2) that I bought for half price at Garden Ridge.
I spruced them up like this.
Here's one basket of bubbles done.
One to go.
We're doing the signature mats as or "guestbook." My grandfather has his own framing businss so he matted two of our engagement pictures for people to sign and he will frame them after the wedding.
We are also having guests write out wishes for us. Fiances last name is Wisz which is pronounced like "wish" so we will have paper out for people to write "Wishes for the Wiszs" and place them in this wishing well that we found at Hobby Lobby for half price.
The well is currently housing the bubbles that don't have ribbon.
I will be adding some blue to the wishing well like I did the baskets.
We also picked this cute box up from Garden Ridge for our cards.
I spruced it up some with the blue flowers we found too.
The Honeymoom
We'll be spending six days and five nights at Viva Wyndams All-Inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic.
This is not where we had imagined our honeymoon would be, but it looks awesome. The honeymoon was booked by my mother using her delta skymile points (it's a delta vacation package) so it's not costing us anything. We're so excited! Fiance and I didn't think we'd be going on a honeymoon. We bought a house in February that needed pretty much a complete remodel. We have spent what little money we had trying to get it ready to move into. We could not afford a honeymoon and had decided we would go on a nice trip for our first anniversary instead. My mom was having none of that so she got us this trip. We're so blessed, and so incredibly thankful!
That's everything I believe!
Still to do:
*Do hair/make-up trial
*Buy alcohol (we've hired two bartenders, but we have to buy the alcohol)
*Meet with the organist to decide on ceremony music
*purchase remaining gifts for bridal party and parents
*get our marriage license
*make table numbers and seating chart
*design, print, and assemble programs (anyone have any examples of programs for Catholic ceremonies?)
*put together information for out-of-town guests (maps, local restaurants and attractions, etc.)
Phew that's it. If you read/viewed all of this you deserve a prize!