Wedding Series Part 1 - My Special Day

Every little girl’s dream is to grow up, find her prince and have a fairytale wedding. All of the attention is on the bride (and groom, but mostly the bride) and she gets to be as “bridezilla” as she wants to be! It is the bride’s day so don’t get in the way!

I don’t think I was a bridezilla. I hope not. My special day was perfect and I would do it again and again. It’s funny because I hate being the center of attention and having all eyes on me, but for whatever reason my wedding day was different. It was MY day and I loved every minute of it!

Saturday, April 25, 2015 was my fairytale wedding. The sun was shining and everything was flawless. It was literally a perfect day. My sister (MOH), my cousins (bridesmaids) and my mom were with me all day as we were beautified. You know I am a huge family girl so I loved that I had my sister, mom and all of my cousins with me the entire day.

Shane came with his groomsmen around lunchtime where they hung out in the groom’s quarters until the girls were ready. We chose to do our pictures before the ceremony so we could enjoy cocktail hour and the reception with our guests. Shane and I spent the afternoon with the photographer walking all over the country club grounds, which included a golf course (Shane’s favorite – I’m terrible!).

Rocco even popped in to say congrats!

We were married in the ballroom by my grandfather’s longtime friend who was a judge. I was cool, calm and collected the entire day, but I got butterflies as soon as we lined up to walk into the ballroom. I remember the moment when the doors opened for me and everyone turned around and stood up. I had nervous giggles all the way down the aisle!

Our Officiant had his own speech, Shane and I said our vows, and we had one of our cousins read a poem. The ceremony was short and sweet and I was glad to get down from the altar so all eyes went elsewhere! The recessional walked down the aisle to a string trio playing Taylor Swift’s Love Story, which was amazing!

We barely got two feet into the cocktail hour room before everyone swarmed us. It was overwhelming but great to feel so loved. Unfortunately, Shane and I didn’t even get to see the food for cocktail hour! We literally spent the hour in the entrance.

Finally it was time to party! The ballroom was transformed from the ceremony to the reception. We had an awesome DJ who kept everyone on the dance floor all night. I have never had so much fun dancing in my life! Every bride probably says her wedding is the best but, sorry not sorry, MY WEDDING WAS THE BEST!

Our first dance was magical. We were dancing on the clouds. Well, that’s what the DJ called it. Our first dance song was Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years.

One of my favorite memories from the night was the bouquet/garter toss. My youngest cousin caught the bouquet and Shane’s best friend caught the garter. Instead of the next obvious step where Shane’s friend should put the garter on my cousin, we swapped her out for Shane while his friend was blindfolded. His friend ended up putting the garter on Shane (like ALL the way up his leg) without knowing who it was. His reaction when taking the blindfold off was priceless.

Another great memory is when my sister sang her MOH speech! It was such a surprise and it was perfect.

We also added a lot of personal touches here and there, which made the night more special for our guests and us. We even made our own party favors. Everyone raved about them and it eventually turned into a business! You can read about that here.

We were so sad at the end of the night because our awesome day was over. Shane describes the feeling perfectly – it was the only time we would have ALL of our friends and ALL of our family in one place at the same time. I love looking back at pictures and videos. Our local newspaper even featured us! I wish I could go back in time and relive the night over and over. It truly was the best day of my life and now I get to spend the rest of my life with Shane. Lucky guy!