Back in October of 2010 my husband John and I took the plunge. He proposed on February 13th of the same year and 8 months later our wedding had been planned and I was walking down the aisle. Life happens fast folks.
I feel ashamed that it has taken me over 6 months to post our wedding pictures online. I honestly haven't had the time, or the energy to sift through 500 images to pick the best ones. Especially considering we weren't very happy with our photographer so looking at said pictures only frustrated me further. I managed to dig up a couple of the ones I felt do well at showing the culture of our event and some of the DIY aspects of our quaint little wedding.
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| The groom and ring bearer, Jin Tao |
We had a very strict budget for our wedding so that we could spend the majority of the overall marriage budget on a 2 week honeymoon to Spain and Morocco. Those don't come cheap so we had to do all we could to cut corners where possible but spend on what mattered. We spent on the photographer, the dress (David's Bridal) and the cake and did everything else ourselves...right down to the invitations.
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| Getting ready for my big day. |
We had our wedding in my hometown about an hour and a half away from Orlando. It was at my mom's church and it was free. The auditorium of the church was set up, reception style, with a little aisle in the middle for me to walk down to the stage. It was great not having to rent out a place for reception elsewhere and kept the whole thing low key. It also cut down on time since as soon as the vows were done we walked right off the stage and into our reception. From start to finish our wedding lasted all of about 3.5 hours.
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| Me and my dads. |
Another really cool aspect of my day was that I was walked down the aisle by not one, but two dads! The dad on my left is my biological dad and on the right is my step-dad. Both have played such huge roles in making me into the woman I am today that I just couldn't leave anyone out. Instead of a bouquet I had a weeping man on each arm, and that was very nice.
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| Prayer time with my ladies. |
I had 3 beautiful bridesmaids- two of my good friends and John's sister. Each had a different color. Emerald, fushia, and plum which corresponded to the ties of the groomsmen. My color was red (red shoes) and John and the kids matched.
I can't begin to tell how privileged I felt to be surrounded by three amazing women of God on my wedding day. They cried with me, laughed with me, celebrated with me, and praised the Lord with me. It was truly the most wonderful experience to have these women walk down the aisle before me, beautiful examples of what it means to be a God-fearing female. We're a force to be reckoned with I tell you.
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| Hooman and Viyan |
My Iranian friends (who just had the baby) did a scripture reading for us. They aren't Christians but the were gracious in doing a special reading from the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. Love is universal, you know. This was my favorite aspect of our wedding. Hooman would read a line or two of the chapter, and then Viyan would repeat in Farsi. Not only was it beautiful to hear, but it struck the heart to hear such lovely words in another language. One foreign to so many. God speaks all languages, and His love can be understood without words. It's beautiful really.
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| The vows. |
John's dad is a preacher and facilitated our ceremony. He did a wonderful job exploring the meaning of Biblical love, the foundation of marriage and the seriousness of the vows we were about to take. We got through the vows gracefully, though with some tears and then did a unity candle and prayed. It was such a meaningful time and before we knew it, we were hitched! We left the stage to "Bleed to Love Her" by Fleetwood Mac.
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| Centerpiece |
For the centerpieces we wanted to bring in a lot of culture and keep it eclectic (my blog isn't "adventures in eclectic living" for nothing!). Over 8 months of planning we scoured TJ Maxx, Pier 1, Ross, and HomeGoods for interesting Moroccan lanterns and candle holders that were dirt cheap on clearance. The idea was to keep it mix and matchy and be able to use the pieces in our home after the wedding was over. Our party favors were M&Ms (thankfully those actually are our initials) and I made little thank you tags out of scrap booking paper.
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| My beautiful cake. |
I loved our cake. Isn't it beautiful? Perfect for a fall wedding. We went with a local cake maker, a southern good-ole-boy with a thick accent and rough hands from chopping trees. When I first met him I was shocked this tough guy baked cakes for a living but he is something else! Best cake I've ever tasted. We wanted something classic, and that looked homemade so instead of fondant we went with a plain vanilla cake with spackled buttercream. The only taste of the cake I got at the wedding was the one John fed me. It is true that you don't get to eat at your own wedding. John and I are having him make us a cake for our anniversary so we can have it to ourselves.
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| An overview... |
Above is an overview of the auditorium. You can see how we arranged everything for a ceremony and reception. In the far left, not pictured, we had a buffet table of snacks and punch which we cooked and prepped ourselves. So I guess you could say that, in a way, I catered my own wedding by making hummus for the guests. :)
We really enjoyed our wedding and hope everyone else did too. We know it was low key and in a lot of ways nontraditional, and that's not everyone's cup of tea, but it worked for us! And we made it to our beachfront hotel well before nightfall to have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the night. Bonus!
Our wedding night was our first time making love, and it was perfect. Having the time and energy to relax instead of using all of it up for a 5 hour reception was the best decision I have ever made. Ever.
Here's some wedding party pics to wrap things up! Aren't they all pretty and shiny?
What was the favorite part of your wedding day or a wedding you've been to?
