For better or for worse, almost every little girl fantasizes about her wedding. I was no exception. I dreamed of my wedding most of my life, and even more so after I fell in love with my now husband (at age 16). We had a fourteen year on-and-off (and on-and-off...and on) courtship, where I had lots of time to think about my wedding. The wedding I would have planned for myself at age 22 or 26 or even 28 would have been completely different than the one I planned for myself at 30. Instead of princess ball gowns and a big traditional wedding, I longed for a vintage inspired gown and a beautiful outdoor ceremony. During my planning, I fell even more in love with weddings, and became inspired by all of the creative ways you can make your wedding your own. My wedding turned out to be everything I ever wanted, which was obviously important, but even more important was how much our guests said they loved it. Most of our guests had to travel to be at our wedding, so I felt it was very essential to show them that we wanted them to be comfortable, to feel taken care of, and to have fun. And we wanted our wedding to be symbolic of who we are as a couple...to be "us" and to be a lovely day for all. So I designed our wedding from the ground up, became addicted to wedding blogs, and we created a wonderful wedding celebration. Many of the elements I incorporated were do-it-yourself, collected by me or friends or family, or made by my maid of honor.
Now that the wedding is over and the honeymoon has passed, we are settling in to married life and I am expanding my blog addiction from wedding blogs to include those featuring great recipes, entertaining ideas, home design, and...well, weddings. You can turn a single girl into a married girl, but you can't take the bride out of her! So in an effort to satisfy the bride still in me, and to possibly help one other bride out there, I present "Oh Lovely Day"...
Photo by Jennifer Roper
