the day i married my best friend

I had some time to blog today and thought I'd share some pictures from the day I married my best friend, William Hudson.  How's that sound?  Good?  Ok! (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

My mom made this rickrack fabric banner with her own two crafty hands!  I adore it!!  This will be hanging above our bed.

I love grapevine wreaths.  Always have.  My mom had them in every window of our house growing up with an electric candle in the center.  It reminds me of my childhood and that makes me smile.  Re-purposed owl ornaments from my Christmas decoration collection!  My mom collected a HUGE garbage bag full of pine cones.  I also LOVE pine cones.  There is something so cute and woodsy about them!

I found this awesome candle holder at the flea market for $1 folks!  $1!  It is beautiful.  We actually ended up putting moss at the base of the candles too.  Must have happened after the picture was taken!  The invitations, as well as these programs, were printed (for free!) on recycled kraft paper with a vendor that shall remain nameless (many thanks though!).  My good friend, Kelley hand tied the raffia bows.

I was going to make the pin-on corsages and boutonnières myself, but I lost the creative desire there at the end.  I just gave my ideas to my florist (and some already purchased supplies) and they whipped 'em up for me! Green button mums wrapped with eggplant ribbon...simple, cheap.  Voila!  My headband was custom made by a local Nashville "crafter".  She sells through etsy.  I told her what elements I wanted included in the band and then I told her to have fun with it.  I was VERY satisfied with the outcome!

 We did our wedding on a budget, and William's attire was no exception.  The shirt, vest, pants and shoes all came from Burlington Coat Factory with a grand total of $125!  Plus, now he has a really nice shirt, vest, pair of pants and pair of shoes! ha!  The tie was about $7 from a great website, okay don't laugh, called solidcolorneckties.com.  Check it out!  I wanted solid burnt orange ties...and this was honestly the only place I could find them for this cheap!  The boutonnières may be one of my favorite details of our wedding.  I love everything about them!

 I loved my bouquet.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on fresh flowers and my florist really worked with me to keep the costs down.  I sent them a picture of something I liked and then told them to figure out a way to do it for about $50.  They did just that!  It didn't start out drying very well though, so my sister created a vase full of dried flowers from my wedding including pieces from my bouquet, her bouquet and the altar arrangement.

I moved back to Nashville in September of 2008 and William and I began dating that October.  We started visiting Blakemore Church of the Nazarene.  Almost as soon as I entered the church, I thought, I want to get married here.  Done and done.  It was just what I'd always envisioned getting married in.  My #1 choice would have been an outdoor wedding, but that would make me anxious (too many unknowns), so this quaint little chapel with wood floors and wood pews would be it!  I love everything about this church.  It is absolutely perfect!  We didn't do much to embellish the inside.  We just hung wreaths in the windows and put up some lanterns at the front.  Simple and natural.

William's long time family friend, Pastor G.W. Harrell, Jr. conducted our ceremony.  He's like another grandpa for William.  It was very special to have him as part of our day!  He did a beautiful job.  We had sheet backdrops for our guests to have their pictures taken in front of.  Just about every "handmade" wedding is doing this now.  It's all the rage, don't you know?  I love the idea of having more in a guestbook than someone's signature.  Our guests wrote us notes on blank index cards which we'll be using to create our wedding guest scrapbook!  We took a turn getting a picture taken too!

My mom knows of this awesome locally owned fabric/crafting store in historic downtown Worthington, OH.  The store is called Sew to Speak.  It's run by a mother/daughter duo and I commissioned the daughter, April Rhodes,  to custom make this cute little felt owl cake topper to match us!  I absolutely love it!!  It's sitting under our Christmas tree now on top of another element from our wedding...tree trunk cake stands made by my amazing grandparents!  We had a dessert reception and asked family and friends to participate and bring desserts.  Everyone really got into it and we endless options!  There was so much dessert left over!  I wish we would have thought to get to-go containers for ourselves to take with us or for our guests!  That is THE one thing I would add to our day.  We bought the fabric for the table runners from Sew to Speak and my mom sewed 'em up!  They are so adorable.  There is one on our dining room table now.  

William and I had our engagement pictures done (by the fabulous Christy Montoya) at one of my favorite places in Nashville: Sevier Park.  We wanted to go back there to do our wedding shots as well.  Will Knowles did a fabulous job documenting our day and I would recommend him to anyone!  I bought my dress (it's Mori Lee) from Glitz Bridal in Bellevue, TN.  The shop was recommended to me by a friend (thanks Rebekah!) and I was able to strike a deal with the owner to stay within my budget.  Growing up, I never really gave my wedding much thought.  I just knew I wanted a unique dress, and one that had lots of intricate, vintage-like detail.  This one fit the bill!

My wedding day was the happiest day of my life and I would re-live the day over again and again if I could!  Everything went smoothly and just the way I'd envisioned it to be (thanks to so many friends and family members!).  I married my best friend and I was so happy to share the day with our family and friends!  (This is my family by the way...aren't they purty? I mean, the littlest one is in a suit!  SO cute!)

Almost two months in and I'm still surprised at how all of this could have happened to ME!