Surrounded by Love the Morning Of

Getting ready on the morning of the wedding is so much fun when you are surrounded by people who  you love and who love you!  I had some amazing girls helping me to be beautiful in preparation for the big day.

I was in one of my friends weddings, and the photographer had each bridesmaid help the bride with one thing, the shoes, the garter, the veil, etc.  When I brought this up to my maids, they all just wanted to jump in and help me.  I loved this idea!  The look of multiple hands on zipping up my dress, and putting on the belt.  Sure one girl helped me with my earrings, but those photos are all staged anyways.  She actually put them on me.  I felt so much love from each and every one of the girls.

Anyways, here are some pictures of us getting ready on the big day!

My best friend helping my gorgeous sister.

Vanessa helping my mom get ready

So happy as I got my hair done!

Helping me into my dress

Gifts of Love

My future husband and I wanted to get each other gifts before the wedding, but we wanted them to be meaningful.  This was such a hard secret to keep, and even harder to pick out something that he would like!

His main gift from my heart, was the "52 Reasons Why I Love You" where you take a deck of cards and glue on 52 reasons why you love your partner.   I love him so much, but I will be honest, I did look up some suggestions.  All of them were true, I just needed a little spark in my memory.

I tied them to the top of another present and my Maid of Honor Sister delivered it for me!

Inside the gift was something practical that I knew my future husband would really use and appreciate.  He is a writer and always has his computer and tons of writing accessories to lug around. I found a Cole Haan leather messenger bag which is was very impressed with.  (I did pat myself on the back for this one).

When it came to my gift, he was amazing!  We both grew up christian and have made Christ the center of our relationship.  Ted knew that I wanted a family bible to symbolize our commitment and future together.  Like I said, he is a writer and has always written me such beautiful letters.  This was no exception.

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

I love wedding traditions, and was so excited to pick out what would work as my "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something New."  I went without the penny in my shoe since I planned to wear sandals.  I did however plan to add a few other pieces.

I had read about an idea where you get a new fragrance for your wedding, and then every time you wear that fragrance again, you think of your big day.  Scent memory is amazing, and I fell in love with this idea.  My future husband and I searched for the perfect scent, and finally found one that we love in Marc Jacobs called Oh, Lola!

Draped around the fragrance you can see my "Something Borrowed" which is a pearl necklace that belongs to my mother.  I'm not sure if it counts as "Borrowed" still because I have yet to give them back. (I love pearls.)

For the Old and Blue, I chose a few different pieces.  I had a lace garter which my sister bought me on Etsy.   It is hard to see in the picture, but there is a blue jewel in the middle.  The other blue item was a necklace pendant that my future husband had bought me only a few months into dating.  It is a silver pendant with a silver cross at the top and three pieces of blue pearl.  This was attached to a broach that belonged to my grandmother along with her vintage ring that I inherited.  These three pieces were pinned to the inside of my bodice right above my heard (cheesy, yes, but this is the time to be cheesy).

Along with these items, my mother found one of my grandmother's old handkerchiefs which fit in perfectly with the vision of my wedding.

I had a custom made vail, which I did not plan to wear during the reception, so I got a ribbon with some sparkles for my hair instead.

It was so pretty, and I got a lot of compliments, however it was constantly coming untied.  Luckily I had an amazing Maid of Honor in my sister who was always there to fix it whenever I needed her to!

I was so happy that my photographer took pictures of all of my accessories!  While small, they had so much meaning to me and my family, especially the items that belonged to my grandmother.

Shoes

You can't walk down the isle in just a dress.  Well, you can, but the ground was hot and I wanted shoes.  So, I decided to get some shoes for my big day!  

On a whim, I bought a pair of Badgley Mischka 'Thora' Pumps for only $60 at Nordstrom's Rack.  Can you blame me?  They are gorgeous!  Unfortunately, just trying to break them in was too painful.  I mean really painful.  I knew that I wanted a pair of flats for the reception, but even for that hour during the ceremony, I wanted some kind of comfort.  The Badgley's were out.

I decided to go with a bridal staple of Nina and ordered the 'Crista' Pump from Nordstrom.  I liked the shorter heal because my husband and I are the same height, and I didn't feel like bending my knees in every picture.  These shoes were much more comfortable and I was so happy with my choice!

                   

Next came the flats!  I have been in love with Toms Shoes for years, and fell in love with the Crochet Classics.  I chose the Natural Crochet Women's Classic to wear for the reception.

While I was incredibly happy with my choices, one word of caution.  After the ceremony, we went down to the beach to take some picture.  I immediately took off the heals from the ceremony, but the Toms were no where to be found.  My mother had them, but she was busy chatting with guests during cocktail hour.  So, if you would like different shoes for the more "fun" pictures, make sure that someone knows when and where to take them so that you do not burn your feet on the sidewalk outside the hotel!