Road to Bliss: The Reception

...and that brings us to the reception. We had our reception at the lovely Courtyard at Steve's Cafe -- also known as Tapas 12 West, one of the most fabulous restaurants in the area (alright, I might be a little biased). Here's a shot of the outside:

The guestbook. Like I said, nothing fancy, but simple and sweet.

The centerpieces. This was a bit of a vision went awry. It started with a vision of tall curly willow branches with tea-light candles hanging all around at different heights. Some of that is achieved, but the florist went a little overboard (more than discussed) with the flowers. And, yet again the cherry red roses (instead of burgundy, like they were supposed to be) make another debut! (More on that later.)

The favor boxes. Inside were chocolate covered fortune cookies (delicious!) from Fancy Fortune Cookies. They got rave reviews for weeks!

The cake. Probably my favorite detail of the whole day. What's funny about that? Probably the least amount of thought/stress went into it. We found a cake design we liked. We found a baker who passed our taste test and we booked it. Done and done. And, the results? I couldn't have been more thrilled! Oh yeah, and we're dying for our one year anniversary topper. We keep telling ourselves... just a few more short months!

The first dance. We danced to "All I Ask of You" by Phantom of the Opera. Don't know it? Have a look-see. Most people didn't cry during our ceremony. But, our first dance, well, people (myself included, when I wasn't grinning from ear to ear) got a little teary. Heck, the song makes me teary all the time.

My first dance with my Dad. We danced to "Over the Rainbow," the Ray Charles version (the best version, if you ask me). This song is incredibly meaningful to us because growing up I was convinced that I was Dorothy. I watched the Wizard of Oz so many times the tapes, literally, wore out.  Seriously, it was the only song for us. And, it was a total surprise to my Dad. You can tell it made him happy...

My Dad's hilarious toast. He was kidding around that it was going to be ridiculously long so he taped his notes together and make it look like a scroll he was unrolling. He had the laughs rolling in. You can tell my expression is a little bewildered (in my defense he had just unrolled his scroll).

This one you may have seen. Here we are eating that gorgeous cake. It would have been painful to cut into if it didn't taste even better than it looked (if that's possible!). Mmmmm fondant!

And we're off! The sides of our car said "Greg -- Gangsta of Love" and "Amanda -- Fairy Princess Bride." Our friends are so silly! Oh yeah, and the "Honk We're Newlyweds" certainly got us a lot of attention over our honeymoon!

*All photos courtesy of K Gallery.

Come back next week to see all the mishaps (believe me, there are plenty!) and hear my take on them along with a few more surprises!

Road to Bliss: Glamour Shots

Here is a highlight of the glamour shots of our day -- you know, those shots between events. Some posed. Some not. But these are the good fun shots.

These first two are of my girls sans my maid of honor, Cameron, who couldn't be with us in the limo (see below). Seriously though, I couldn't have prettier bridesmaids, could I? I like to think they made me look better!

Me and my gorgeous maid of honor who means the world to me and roughed it through the wedding so she could be by my side on the most important day of my life. See a brief summary of her story in my previous post here.

Here are the dashing groomsmen. In planning the wedding Greg and I went back and forth as to whether the groomsmen were exclusively "his" and the bridesmaids exclusively "mine." Ultimately we decided no. And I'm so glad for that. From left to right, Greg (my husband), Ryan (the best man), Steve (Greg's brother), and my two brothers Adam + Ryan. I couldn't have been more happy to have them all up there with us.

This photo makes me crack up every time. You see, posing beneath the "Soul Train" we were supposed to be completely ridiculous. Apparently, my awesome friend (and former roommate) Jackie and I share a brain -- we got the memo while everyone else stands around looking confused. What's best about this? This totally represents my relationship with Jackie -- we're always laughing about jokes no one else gets. We march to the beat of our own drummer... if you will.

And I love this one because check out those eyes I'm making at Greg. Everyone is smiling. It's all just good fun.

Amazing how a dirty alley can be transformed to something romantic. I just love the colors.

Just before heading into the reception to be announced. I don't know what it is about them but staircases make such great wedding photo backgrounds, don't you think?

*All photos courtesy of K Gallery. 

{Freebie} Roundup

It seems like lately everyone is giving away something. And, while I don't have any thing to giveaway just now I still think I can help you out. Afterall, we do roundups of everything else, right? So, why not a roundup of the giveaways? Without further ado...

To start, Junebug Weddings is giving away an iPod nano. All you have to do is "tell [them] about all the other songs you're excited to hear at your wedding. The processional song that will be playing as you walk down the aisle, the father-daughter dance song that will make your daddy cry, the dance floor tune you most love to rock-out to..." For more information and to enter check out the original post here. 

Lucky Designs (whose work I can attest to from personal experience) is giving away one free custom monogram! All you have to do is comment on what you like most about the new Lucky Me! blog design. For more information and to enter see the original post here.

Southern Weddings is giving away Susie Coelho's book Style Your Dream Wedding. To enter all you have to do it take a "Style Quiz" and then comment on your style and how it relates to your dream wedding. For more information, pictures of the prize, and to enter see the original post here.

What aren't they giving away over at Weddingbee? Enter by midnight tonight for a rehearsal dinner dress or Ralph Lauren perfume. Enter by midnight tomorrow (Thursday, January 26) for an iPhone! See more details at the original post here.

And last but certainly not least, the fabulous It's a Jaime Thing is giving away 4 signed copies of Christina Friedrichse's amazing book Intimate Weddings. To enter, see the original post here for more information and contest details.

Road to Bliss: The Ceremony

We'll start off with our beautiful (if I do say so myself... I love this place!) ceremony venue -- The Baughman Center in Gainesville, Florida. You can tell the weather was definitely short of ideal.

Here are the dashing groomsmen. But, I'll introduce you to our bridal party further later. This photo was posted mainly so you could see the gorgeous giant wooden doors at the front of the chapel.

MISHAP NOTICE: Check out those red bouts! Yeah, those were definitely supposed to be burgundy. The clash of the red flowers against their burgundy vests makes me cringe a little bit, even to this day. (On a close-up photo you can see this much better.) If it had been this alone it'd be no big deal but oh no the mishaps get worse.

The aisle. Can't you just imagine how much prettier it would have been had it been sunny with all the rays streaming in and lighting that place up?

I call this Greg's "Superman Photo." He looks so deep in thought + contemplative here. I think this was just before I walked down the aisle.

My Dad gives me one last kiss on the forehead before we head over to the entrance doors. Definitely one of my favorite shots.

 I kid you not. My Dad and Greg didn't hug or shake hands. They did a fist bump. Totally goofy and totally them. I love it! Even better, check out Greg's mom (in the center of the shot) who looks like she's about to crack up laughing.

Lighting the unity candle. I was so happy that everything went smoothly with this. My normal klutziness had me stressing that I would drop a candle (can you imagine the flames!?) or something worse.

The vows. How cute is Greg's face here? It makes me melt every time I see this photo so much so that I'm almost able to overlook my football player back. And, I love the little things about it too like the face of concentration Uncle Mark (who is marrying us) is making and that you can see my brother, Ryan, just beyond me looking at me.

My maids of honor, Jackie (on the left) and Cameron (on the right). They have both been my rocks over the years and they couldn't be making more endearing faces in this photo.

The recessional. I now pronounce you "Mr. and Mrs. Young!"

WE ARE MARRIED! Walking away from the chapel...

I love this photo because you might not notice unless you look real closely but my mouth is gaping open. This is my face of true excitement. I think shortly thereafter I clobbered him.

*All photos courtesy of K Gallery.

Still to Come:

Us and Our Bridal Party

The Reception

The Details

Vendor Mishaps

Related posts:

Road to Bliss: Where to Begin?

Road to Bliss: Getting Ready

Road to Bliss: Getting Ready

And so it begins. Here's a glimpse of us getting ready.

Who knew you had to get up at 8AM to start getting ready for a 5PM wedding? 

I know I didn't!

Remember when I said I obsessed over my makeup a bit on my wedding day? 

Here's me reapplying after the makeup girl had just left. I only wish I was kidding.

And, I'm in the dress! Kristin helps me by cutting off the hanging loops.

I scramble to not forget anything and shove everything humanly possible into my (relatively) large bridal clutch. I picked the biggest one I could find and I still struggled!

My Mom and my wedding coordinator extraordinaire, Melissa, giggle at my ridiculousness.

I'm reminded here why my husband, Greg, insists quite frequently that I need glasses. I am so close to my purse that it looks like I'm blind!

One last shot of me with my parents.

And we're off to the ceremony location (all three blocks down the road -- I'm not exaggerating!)! 

But, check out my parents in the reflection of the glass!

I only wish you could see my bridesmaids (who were in the limo with me) in the background.

*All images courtesy of the fabulous K Gallery.

Road to Bliss: Where to Begin?

Honestly, in preparing posts on my very own wedding I am at a loss. Where to begin? How much to share (I don't want to bore you!)? How to break things up?

Let me start by saying that our wedding was simple. It was planned long before I knew anything of the blog world and I actually even used the internet very little as a source of inspiration. So, our wedding isn't "striking" like so many of the creative wedding ideas you see circulating the web. But you know what? It was us. We hand-picked each detail with no bias.

What I didn't love? Our vendor mishaps. There are several details about our wedding that were NOT how we planned them. But, there were enough of these that I would like to devote an entire post to facing these, dealing with them, and getting over them.

So, to start off (my future posts will have less text + more photos, I promise), here is my very favorite photo of myself on the day. I love it surprisingly (I don't like photos of myself very often) for so many reasons. It's soft and romantic. I look composed + deep in thought. But mostly, I think I love it because you can't see my face so I'm not grinning goofily into the camera or trying too hard to be serious.

Photo courtesy of the wonderful, incredible, ever-spectacular K Gallery.

Inspiration: Wine and Dahlia

So I had every intention of posting this at the beginning of February, mostly because of the Valentine's-appropriate tones. But, since I missed the boat, I decided that waiting an entire year just wasn't an option. 

Since I have been blogging, I have done a lot of blogging about other people's weddings. About ideas for weddings. Inspiration for weddings. But, the questions I get most frequently are about my very own wedding. This made me realize that I haven't shared (almost) anything about my day with you, my very special readers. So, this week we will rewind a year so I can share with you all the nitty-griity details that went into planning my day. 

The images dancing in my head were romantic. Rich tones of deep burgundy mixed with a softer rosey pink (almost peach) tone. It all started with an image from David's Bridal. One that I can no longer find in the vast expanse of the web. But, I think you can get the gist from a mixture of these images so, without further ado, here is the inspiration board for the event...

Two More

...beauties to send you off into your weekend. I think that WPPI has all the photographers pulling out their most amazing pieces of work. Love these.

You may remember my slight fascination with Bethesda Terrace, which is where the photo above was taken. Naturally, I love this shot. 

And, who could possibly resist those gorgeous yellow shoes? 

I would love to see the rest of the photos from this wedding. Fabulous!

Amazingness by Susan Stripling.

Come back next week for a lot more photos in a series I am very excited about!

One Lovely

You know how some photos just make your heart skip a little beat? This one did that for me yesterday. Simply breathtaking. 

Photo by the fabulous Jennifer Skog.

And so we ate cake. Lots of it.

Now that I've been taunting you with Let's Eat Cake! for days I suppose you might just be ready for all the amazingness that this event was. But be prepared, this post isn't for the faint of heart. If you are just skimming, well, let me apologize in advance for the lengthiness of this one. 

First off, there were so many of stunning cakes. As a volunteer for the event, I sadly didn't get a chance to snap photos of them all. The ones I did get photos of were mostly because I found an opportunity where people were not standing in the way. Nevertheless, these photos (below) give you a taste of the kind of talent that was present Tuesday night.

 

{Please note: Let me apologize now for not knowing who any of these cakes are by. If you are really in love with one and need to know just e-mail me and I'm sure I can find out for you. Also, clicking on the image should make it larger for you.} 

And, you'll never believe this, but that cake on the right was done by an amateur. 

Tell me that isn't unreal! People were ready to hire her on the spot!

As you can tell from these three cakes above, there were so many different styles and flavors. Practically everything you could imagine. It was truly inspiring to see so many ideas come together in the room!

The lovely ladies of MasterPiece Weddings working hard to put on such a beautiful event. 

(That's Melissa, the planner extraordinaire, in the center.)

Kari (also known as my personality twin) of Kee to Your Heart on the left and the amazing crew of Unique Designs on the right. How adorable are they!?

The beautiful silent auction table that Kari and I manned for the evening with the assistance of the lovely Kenya, from Unique Designs, and Maggie (below).

Maggie (in the photo above) was my hero of the evening when she managed to track down the person who accidentally stole something off of the silent auction table and retrieve the missing item. 

Seriously Maggie, major kudos!

That's Kerry Vincent on the left (yup, the Kerry Vincent) and the impressively fast-talking cake auctioneer on the right. I thought that I talked fast until I met him.

Sorry these photos are so small, but that is Kerry Vincent on the left with the winners and Melissa + Kristin of MasterPiece Weddings with the judges on the right.

Whew! That was a lot of photos. And it's even scarier that I have oodles more on my computer. But, I think that provides a reasonably good recap of the beautiful evening. I can't wait to hear how much Melissa raised through this event!

With that, I would like to say to Melissa, I am so impressed by your ability to take a dream and make it become reality. The evening couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone I met and spoke with was awestruck and had a fabulous time. And, best of all, it's all for an amazing cause. You are truly an inspiration.

And to Kristin, I'm so incredibly sad to see you leave us in Gainesville, but I hope you visit often and I know many girls will be thrilled to have you as their planner, wherever you are. You truly have a gift.