Wedding Part 4: The Ceremony

I'm going to dive right into the wedding ceremony. I have quite a few portraits that were taken before the wedding, but I'm not sure if I'm going to post them (maybe a few)....

They both looked so handsome!

 My 3 flower girls.

 Melaina

 Thanks to Molly for making the adorable wreaths for the flower girls' hair. She was hot-gluing it up just days before the wedding to get these perfect!

Mia

 I was so blessed to have the man that did my baby dedication marry us!

Looks like the Father of the Groom was ready to get the show on the road :)

THE CEREMONY

Reuben's Mom

My Mom

We all lined up to head down the aisle. You can't seee it but my bridesmaids were ahead of me :)

My friend Stephanie came all the way from CA to be in my wedding :) I'm going to be a bridesmaid in her's in Nov - so excited

My friend Molly (who I go to grad school with) came up with me from Tally. She was there helping me a whole week before the wedding! She was Ms. Crafty.

Sarah came from Pensacola, FL. I was also in her wedding.

My older sister Rachel

My younger sister Anna. She was such a big help!

My matron of honor - Becky.

Molly totally posed for the camera lol

Here comes the bride!

I was totally trying to keep it together so that I didn't have a bunch of crying photos, but I only slightly succeeded. At least the far away pictures you can't tell lol.

I think Reuby was happy to see me. Not sure what Riley's face was for lol.

Although I am the 3rd daughter, I am the first that my Dad got to walk down the aisle. I think it meant just as much to him as it did to me :)

I think we had the whole "stare into each other's eyes" down pat for the ceremony

I think the flower girls were a little bored, but they did really good!!!

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony - when our parents prayed over us and blessed us!

About to say "kiss the bride" - clearly I wasn't excited at all!

Look at Anna's face lol.

THE KISS!!!!!!

 

The new Mr. and Mrs. REUBEN Cope!

I believe the recession music was "kiss the girl" by Colbie Caillat! So perfect :)

Had to steal another kiss before we headed out to hug our guests!

I'm going to skip all the hugging pictures. I also will probably skip a lot of the portraits too. Maybe in the future I will do a post about them. But next up, I'm going to do the fun ones - the reception!

Wedding Part 3: Getting Ready

THE DRESS

Dress shopping was by far the best (and easiest) part of wedding planning

This is what no make-up and no sleep looks like lol. Thanks to Molly for making me the shirt and my sister Becky for making the pants.

And jacket :)

Time for hair and make-up

I took the time to write Reuben's wedding card.

Rachel joined us a little later in the day, but still in enough time to enjoy in the fun

My turn for hair and makeup:)

This shows the back of the shirt Molly made for me.

One of my *favorites*

The Jewlry

THE BLING

Reuben's ring has some diamonds in it, but I think they are on the other side of the ring. So it doesn't show up in the picture...

Getting ready is a lot of work and dinner wasn't to be served till around 7 pm, so Dad stopped by with lunch for all of us ladies. I honestly think it was the only thing I ate like ALLLL day. Dad and I went to breakfast, but I was too sick/nervous to eat. And then I didn't eat at the reception and I am pretty sure we stayed at the only hotel in Traverse City that DOES NOT have room service...

The guys got ready off sight, so they showed up to the castle in their tuxes. :)

Does he look excited to be marrying me or WHAT? lol

But the photographers got some pictures of them getting their boutineers pinned on.

My Dad's parents. My Grandma and my Aunt did all the flowers. They did such a good job.

There are no words lol.

Clearly the groomsmen were busy

Putting our dresses on :)

Watch and learn

 Sarah taught everyone how to corset the back up.

All the bridesmaids had corsets (which means it took us like over an hour to get into our dresses). My dress was also a corset. *I tried to tie in all the gowns. Like my wedding dress has a corset back with cap sleeves and a bunch of pick-ups (where the fabric gathers). I picked the bridesmaid dresses for the corset back and cap sleeves to go with my theme. Then the flower girl dresses were supposed to be kind of a like a miniture verion of my dress - they had quite a few pick-ups in their gowns.* 

The flower girl dresses. Kallie was the first one there because she came in with Rachel. 

Putting the earrings on 

Shoes

I wanted to make sure to have fresh breath for the KISS :)

Next step was getting me into my dress... which was... errrr... intersting. It took 3 people. My Mom, Becky and Rachel. Mom put it over my head. Rachel held my veil and hair (so it didn't get messed up) and Becky did something underneath (she basically had her head buried in my dress lol). I think she was pulling the dress down. Either way it was hysterical. Then it took a 4th person (Sarah) to corset my back.

I think this may have been the point when my Mom told me to lift my hands up... Rachel started giggling because my hands were already up... my Mom just couldn't see them. I felt like an infant with people putting me into my clothes. But unfortunately you just can't do it yourself.

I am so glad that they also helped me "get out" of it... cause it might have been a little discouraging for Reuben lol. Its quite a work out getting in and out. I've only had it on once since my wedding day.