Wedding Pictures

Photos by Kate Crafton:

Talking to Laura from The Eventful Planner catering who did a fantastic job at our reception!

Sherita Leslie doing my hair & makeup

We bribed Little Man with M&M's and cartoons.

The beautiful Anna Bonick

Anna in action

My "something old", a pearl necklace borrowed from my grandmother that was originally given to her by my great grandmother.

my "something blue"

Our guest favors were these jars of salt that I infused with Rosemary, and beach sand and seashells. They also doubled as place card holders for the reception dinner. (If you are using corks for your place card holders, BE CAREFUL when cutting a slit in the cork. I was working on these a few nights before our wedding and was in a hurry, and I sliced a deep gash in my middle finger - on my left hand! Thank goodness for the ability to edit out ugly scars in Photoshop!)

Anna's Veranda

Our reception table - flowers & decor by Christina at Nouveau Flowers, crocheted doilies provided by me

Steel drums played by Art & Mary of Pensacola Steel (www.colasteel.com)

I was so calm and peaceful all day until I walked down these stairs. Everything became so real at that moment!

Our sand ceremony vase & shells - this is a trend that is beginning to replace the unity candle in many weddings, especially beach weddings. Jason and I both scooped sand off the beach where we got married and poured it into the vase together and then Little Man poured some sand in with a shell that he picked out, and we all held the vase together and shook our sand together as a symbol of unity.

Jason's (and now my) nieces were our flower girls. They were so beautiful and did such a good job. I was so proud to have them as part of our wedding.

The M&M bribery worked wonders. Little Man was in a fantastic mood all day & night!

Little Man was our ring bearer.

We used a ring bowl (from etsy seller palomasnest) instead of a ring pillow. Little Man made it a little ways down the beach and wanted to set the rings down, then turned around to run back to me. I think our planner handed the rings off to one of the flower girls, and my dad carried Little Man down the "aisle" with us. Somehow the rings made it back to him for the ceremony and his "Poppy" helped him give the rings to us.

Jason reading a card I gave to him along with his wedding gift. He had given me diamond earrings (my "something new" for our wedding) earlier in the week - he can never keep a surprise!

Christina at Nouveau Flowers created my beautiful bouquet, the flower girls' pomander balls, nosegays for the mothers and boutonnieres for Jason and our fathers. She is also the genius behind our gorgeous ceremony arbor and reception decor.

This could not have turned out any better. I had seen circular seating arrangements done before and I'd seen these "tree branch" arbors, but the idea of putting them together like this was a vision of mine that only Christina at Nouveau Flowers understood. I tried describing this to other florists and they wanted to talk me out of it. Christina understood immediately the look I was going for and made it more beautiful than I'd even imagined.

Since heels & sand don't mix and my dress was too long to go barefoot, I wore 4" flip flops for the ceremony. They were comfy at home so it never crossed my mind to practice walking in them in the sand. Turns out, barefoot is the only way to go!

Stealing a moment with my Little Man

Mr. & Mrs.

Paint brushes for our guests to dust sand off their feet after the ceremony.

My hair got very flat after braving the wind for an hour. *sigh* I didn't want an "up do" though so that was the risk I took!

I asked for white orchids possibly mixed with other white flowers. Christina @ Nouveau incorporated the other types and I love how they all worked together!

Our FABULOUS wedding planner, Robyn Bomar of Mix, Mingle, Glow

The year was wrong on our iteneraries! LOL

Our menus designed and printed by Amber of Sweet Life Designs Funny story... As everyone was seated for dinner after the cocktail hour, Jason's oldest brother asked why his menu was for the "happy meal". I guess whoever set out the menus didn't realize the adult & children menus were different, or maybe Bruce was just confused as one of the kids.

Heidi at Bake My Day made our cake which was inspired by a cake I saw on the Pink Cake Box blog. I asked Heidi to use buttercream instead of fondant, and she did a great job making it look just as flawless as fondant but much tastier! The white stripes mimic the ocean waves and the two fish kissing was my favorite part of the cake. The bottom tier was genoise cake with a middle ribbon of chocolate ganache and two layers of vanilla creme patissier. The top two tiers were coconut genoise cake with creamy coconut custard. The coconut was my favorite!

When I heard about the new trend called "Trash the Dress" I was instantly in love with the idea! I didn't actually ruin my dress, although I did snag a few beads off and tore a tiny, unnoticeable rip. The thrill of possibly ruining it though was, for me, a symbol of commitment to my husband. I won't ever need the dress again and it's unlikely my daughter (if I ever have one) would want to wear it 20+ years from now.

I love the movement of the sand in this picture.

Kate told me "hold one side of your dress up and twirl in circles". If she had told me to hold my nose and wiggle my ears, I probably would have because she's just that good at what she does. I do regret not getting more shots IN the water, but the fabric on my dress was really heavy when it got wet. It began wrapping around my and Jason's feet when the tide came in and out, and we were getting trapped in the wet sand. It was a little bit scary!

Photos by Anna Bonick:Little Man loved playing with our rings before the ceremony.

Both my parents and Jason's parents are still happily married, and I really wanted to do something to acknowledge that and possibly have some of their luck rub off on us. So I used some of the lace and buttons from my mom's 1984 wedding dress (my "something old") to wrap around the stem of my bouquet and I made these bouquet charms using an old picture of Jason's parents and a picture of my parents on their wedding day. I really thought my bouquet was personal and special. It's still sitting on our counter (dead flowers & all) and I've yet to take it apart.

Little Man watching TV while I got my makeup done

I love the details Anna captured on my wedding dress... these details are what I loved so much about my dress!

I adore this picture so much.

Jason and I gave each of our parents a frame with one of our engagement pictures. The gifts to the left were for our flower girls... an American doll dress (to match her own flower girl dress) and a Strasburg doll.

Jason's mom and my Nana watching me get ready

Content with his M&M's

Looking at my bouquet for the first time. I loved it!! I was so excited to see that Christina was able to use all of the things I gave her for it.

I wanted Kate to take some pictures of Jason and Andrew alone together, and Jason said Andrew was so hyper with all of the commotion and the only way he'd calm down was to go in the backyard (where I had forbid anyone to go since it was supposed to be a surprise) and blow bubbles. Whatever makes him happy!

My dad and I before our walk down the "aisle"

I saw a picture several months before our wedding of someone's ceremony about the same size as we anticipated ours to be, and their chairs were arranged in a circle around the bride & groom. I loved the idea and thought it would feel so much more intimate that way.

Our signature drinks were a frozen version of Blue Hawaiians, and we gave them a special name that rhymes with our last name

Our ceremony programs designed & printed by Amber at Sweet Life Designs

Little Man on the left; cutest snaggle tooth flower girl ever on the right

Anna's Veranda in Inlet Beach, FL

Our gorgeous reception dinner table created by Christina at Nouveau Flowers

Our signature drinks were a frozen version of Blue Hawaiians that we gave a special name to rhyme with our last name

I *LOVE* these "seaworm" vases! Another perfect example of Christina at Nouveau Flowers having impeccable taste and knowing exactly what I wanted.

Jason's dad and my grandmother getting to know each other

Jason and I wanted to do something different for our guestbook. There's a pottery painting place (Third Coast Clay) at The Factory, where we got engaged. We purchased a platter from TCC and Jason drew a picture of The Factory onto the platter and we then painted it and had our guests sign it at our reception. We have it displayed on a plate stand now and anytime we see it, we can think of both our engagement and our wedding.

My Papa Bill singing a "childhood" song on the left; our champagne flutes (from Tiffany's!) on the right (a wedding gift from Jason's brother & sister-in-law).

More pictures from our Trash the Dress session...

I feel so lucky to have had both Kate and Anna shooting our wedding. I feel like we got two for the price of one, and it is so fun to look at two different sets of pictures!

**I don’t have a picture of my “something borrowed” but thought I would add that I pinned my mom’s original engagement ring & wedding band to the inside of my dress. My dad has since replaced her ring with a beautiful diamond/sapphire band, but I was honored to wear her original rings.