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.

Wedding Part 2: Venue

THE LOCATION

Castle Farms

This place was definitely a fairy-tale come true for me. I had my heart set on it, but I was so nervous about convincing Dad lol. After one trip there (in December with A LOT of snow), he was all for it. :)

 The balcony in the picture is where the cocktail hour and hor d'oeuvres were located.

The party favor. I had a really hard time deciding on this one. So instead of doing something "castle themed" I chose something that I love... COFFEE!

My seating chart. *A friend of the family did all my invites, seating chart, table placement cards, programs... pretty much any stationary you can think of. I also had "advice for the bride and groom" cards that served as my guest book. All of which were FABULOUS!*

THE PROGRAMS

This is the ceremony site before we did anything to it. And I don't know if I have a picture with it completely decorated (outside of the actually wedding ceremony). But just to a paint a picture for ya... We had a program placed at every seat. We had candelabras up front (one on each side) and 2 beautiful floral arrangements by the platform (again, one on each side). We also lined each side of the aisle with ivory rose petals.

The programs on the chairs

This is what it looked like after the rose petals were put down.

*The reception and ceremony location were the same. It was just two opposite ends of a room that was divided by a curtain.*

Thanks to my bridesmaids for taking the HOURS to tie every single bow for the chairs. And my Mom for making the centerpieces. All of which turned out to be fantastic.

After the awful  catering staff arrived and did the place settings. 

THE CAKE

arrived sometime in the afternoon.

 

Reuben's Aunt did our cake for us - it was such a blesssing!

She also made CAKE POPS

Can you say YUMMMM

My Grandma and Aunt did my flowers. Here are a few pictures of them.

In my bouquet alone there was 18 roses. I know the bouquets had roses and hydrangea. Not sure what else - I'm not very good with flowers. The bridesmaid bouquets were exactly the same as mine, just smaller. They were gorgeous. Super heavy, but gorgeous. I was actually really thankful that Becky had to hold mine during the ceremony. I'm sure her hand was about ready to fall off by the end of it, especially because she was holding two...

Wedding Part 1: Rehearsal Dinner

I just received my wedding photos in the mail, so I am going to be doing a lot of wedding picture posting. So if you aren't interested in these pictures, I would suggest skipping the next couple posts...

Rehearsal

Dad kept telling me I was shaking... encouraging right? Maybe because I hadn't really eaten in days and what I did eat... I threw up. Talk about bad nerves.

Glad I wore a slip... 'nough said.

All the handsome boys

 And some of the girls... not sure what happened to the other 3 lol

Here they are... So pretty :)

DINNER

The pretty flower girls. How cute are they?

The Groom's Parents

The gifts...