Oh, weddings. What beautiful, chaotic events. I am at that age now where it seems like everyone I know is getting engaged or married. Some of my friends have had huge, 200+ people weddings and some friends just had their parents as witnesses. There is really no right or wrong way to have a wedding (it’s your day after all!), but I wanted to share my experience with this.
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to get married. I'm not really a romantic person though. I never dreamed about my dress, or what my hair would look like. I never thought about the colors, or what the theme would be. I had no idea if I wanted it on a beach or in a church. My mind sort of glossed over that whenever I thought about my future. I would picture myself getting engaged, something about a white dress, and then I would be happily married. That was about the extent of my wedding planning.
So when the time came, after my wonderful hubby asked me to marry him, I sat down and realized I had no idea what I was supposed to do next. After a lot of hard thinking and wavering back and forth (making decisions is really not a strong quality of mine), I decided that I simply wanted to marry my best friend and have our two families become one.
From that point, it was pretty easy. We only invited siblings, parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Then, Adam and I decided to each invite one best friend and that was it. Twenty people. I had so many women say that they hoped I wouldn't regret my wedding, and ask me if I was sure I didn't want something bigger. But I was sure that I wanted a small wedding with just our families celebrating our marriage. I knew the day would still be magical, but it was better than even I anticipated.
After deciding to get married by a lake, we figured that instead of renting an expensive venue for a day, we should just rent a few houses with a beautiful lawn/lake view and have a three-day vacation where our families could get to know each other better. And it. was. AWESOME. We found two huge houses right next to each other on Smith Lake. Here is the gorgeous view of where we had the wedding and reception.
We spent the first two days at the lake just riding jet skis and cruising around on boats that we rented from a old man with solid advice (As he was giving us waterway directions to take the boat back to our house, he realized he had spent the last 15 minutes showing us the map upside down. This was the point he went. "Damn! Well... all you really need to remember is that at the confusion, go left. You'll make it just fine." To everyone's surprise, we actually did make it there!)
The nights were spent playing pool, charades, pictionary, and other games. On the morning of the wedding, we all had a big breakfast, played in the lake, and then just before noon, started getting ready. While I was getting makeup and hair done and having fun with my bridesmaids, the rest of the family got together to decorate the house. I wasn't there for that, but I know they had a really fun time. I got to hear about all the crazy stories of them goofing off afterwards!
After the set up, and while Adam and I were getting pictures taken with the photographers, the rest of the family got ready for the wedding. Then it was time for the ceremony! All August long it had been blisteringly hot. Yeah, yeah, I know. Alabama outdoor summer wedding.
So, maybe that was not the smartest decision I've ever made, but by some miracle (thanks God!), the temperature dropped overnight and the high that gorgeous day ended up being 82 degrees with just the slightest breeze coming off the water. It was absolutely perfect! We had the most beautiful wedding with my Uncle Scott performing the best ceremony I have ever heard.
After the wedding, we had cocktails on the outdoor patio and then a delicious catered dinner inside. We ate, drank, danced, had cake, listened to speeches, danced some more, then opened gifts from our family. It was so wonderful and perfect. When I look back on our wedding I have absolutely no regrets. I think about three days full of laughter, fun, and two families truly becoming one. Taking the time that weekend to make sure that our families got really close was such a positive way to begin our lives together and has made such an impact on our marriage. Our families are very close now and we do holidays and get-togethers and really enjoy each others company. And that, from what I hear, is a very rare and special thing to have. I am one lucky girl! :)
