Wedding Planning and the WEDDING!

So as usual I have a lot to catch you up on!  Our wedding was over a month ago...so you guessed it over a month of wedded bliss!  We got married on Sunday October 19, 2014!  It being over is bitter sweet, I'm so grateful that it did go successfully and that I have so many memories to look back on.  However, I was sad to see all of our family leave.  But the process was...well an interesting one.

Ok so I take a lot of pics with the ring!

Notebook, wedding magazine, colorful pens and coffee...
Let the Wedding Planning Begin!!!

Beginning Stages of planning!

Mom Came to help me plan and look for a dress!!!

Took her to the beach and she just had to go swimming!
But she is still smiling even after getting knocked over.



First dress I tried on and purchased. 
I went back and got a new dress a few weeks later.
It just so happened to be my Mom's original Choice.

While I loved this dress, I dropped 10lbs in a week
and needed a dress that would lace up so I could
make sure it would fit day of!

But I was thrilled to have my dress none the less.

Love that she came and we could share this day together!

Celebrating a successful day dress shopping!
I was still in awe of the fact I was gonna marry the man
of my dreams!

Cheers to the dress

After lunch!

Enjoying the beach with Mom while she was here.

I am grateful that Matt (my hubby...yes I love saying it) came home a little earlier than expected, about two week earlier, which helped ground my sanity for all the wedding planning.  I had previously been doing all the leg work (with the help of my mom and now mother-in-law).  After we got engaged on Friday December 27, 2013 our plan was to have a wedding in the Spring of 2015 down in Key West Florida.  However around I think April (right before Matt went TDY) we decided that we were going to have to push up the date of our wedding due to the Military, between possible orders, deployments, TDYs and deployments for my dad, we were concerned that if we planned that far ahead someone would not be able to make it.  Our first concern was my friends had gotten engaged right before us and had already set a date for November 22, and us looking at the weekends we could make work...were limited at best.  There were two weekends in November and one weekend in October which was the 25th.  I didn't want to have our wedding in November since James and LK had already picked their date and I didn't want to hijack their special month so we went with October. 

Round 2 on the Dress.  Yes Mom's pick!
She knew!

Picked up my dress!

Got a new beach bag too!



A bag I put to use same day and many days after.

Pictures Matt Sent while TDY. He saw this all the time!

Oh I had a count down going! Couldn't Wait!



And again! Love it!



Our Home Coming!  Best Day EVER!

First Family Trip after his homecoming!

So our date was set and we were excited to be getting married on Saturday October 25, 2014 (hmmm yes I notice the date above is different...I told you our wedding planning was an interesting one).  We decided we wanted a very small wedding on the beach, just family and a few friends.  Planning a wedding on such short notice our budget for our wedding was altered and we were ok with that since we really wanted something simple.  While we were both a little disappointed to not be getting married in Key West (our favorite place), Matt and my Mom helped me see the sentimental side of getting married on what we like to refer to as "Our Beach".  Key West is where I was living when we started dating and where we have visited together falling more in love, not only with each other but with the town itself.  Having lived there for almost a year myself, and then being able to share that with Matt, has made it that much more special. 





Headed to Check out the spot for our wedding, but breakfast nearby first.

Family Trip to the beach!

But Matt and my mom had a point about Navarre Beach, FL, its a very special place for both of us so it made our wedding day that much more memorable. 

Our DIY online announcement so to speak.

Our Engagement Photos done two weeks before the wedding! Lol it as awesome but a blur.

The Plan:

Get married on the beach with our family and a few friends.  Have a small reception at the pavilions, a little bit of food a few drinks and a great photographer.  Simple wedding dress for me, khaki shorts and white button down for Matt, do my own hair and makeup, and DIY my bouquet.  Email invitations since its going to be a small wedding, not do any of the dances since we didn't plan to really have music. Seems like a breeze!

We spent so many mornings headed to the Pavilions we were getting married at to fine tune details.

This was our own rehearsal.  Picking out the exact spot we wanted to get married so he could get the coordinates for
our Established Wedding sign he was making us.  Our feet in the exact spot, and me walking towards him
for the first time, I cried! hehe

One of our many other playful trips to our wedding site.  Me taking a look at how far I will have to walk. 

A fun trip to the beach after his return home! I totally wanted to snorkel on our wedding day too!

The Reality:

50+ guests, large reception, wedding on the beach with arbor, chair rentals, chair covers and isle of mason jars and shepherds hooks.  Light, chandeliers, music, two cakes, signature drinks, favors, beautiful bouquet prepared by a local florist, mani-pedi, pre-hair and makeup appointment, hair and make-up day of, gorgeous wedding dress, khaki suit for Matt, music: first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, Father-in-law and bride dance, a dance for both parents and us together, appetizers, two pavilions,  hand painted wine glasses as favors, linens on all the tables, sign in canvas, kids favors and drinks, chalk board signs, air fresheners in the bathrooms, table runners, candles, painted conch shells, satin ribbon for each pylon, hand made sign for pavilion, last minute DIY invitations and home made lasagna (my mom even made the noodles, sauce, bread and croutons from scratch).  Not so breezy!

Wedding Prep is serious Business!

Our DIY Wedding invitations, better late than never!

The Struggle is Real:

Well if I have to look back at some of the more humorous parts of the wedding planning it would have to be my hair loss, being sick, having to change the date of the wedding almost a month out, and oh yeah not having an officiate till last min!  Ok so the hair loss thing is only funny now because I managed to still have some hair for our wedding day.  Seriously though two weeks out from our wedding and my hair was falling out daily in clumps, I can't really say why, because at the time I didn't really feel like I was stressing, at least not until my hair started falling out, then it me stressing even more.  I was sick for those weeks prior to our wedding and I was sick day of also, but thankfully I had most of my voice left so those attending the wedding weren't asking themselves "Was that Matt or Chrystal talking?"...cause that would have been awkward, but honestly as stuffy as I was...I totally sounded like a man to myself!  So the whole Military TDY/Deployment issue we were worried about if we planned a wedding over a year out, well we had to move our wedding date up a week for that very reason, only goes to show what I have always known, things don't always go as planned in the Military and no matter how much you plan things will come up that you can't plan for.  But I am grateful that in the end it all worked out, our photographer was available on Sunday, her husband was an officiate and was available that day also. 

More Working.

Wedding Morning, such a great start to the day!

Seriously SOOOO much work.

The Families:

So I know many couples stress about their parents meeting each other, but thankfully that was never a stress of ours.  I was excited for our parents to meet, I knew our mom's would get along wonderfully.  And it was even better than I had imagined, they were fast friends; the week prior to the wedding they were here to help and these two amazing women planned all the food so I wouldn't have to make any more decisions.  I have heard horror stories about jealousy amongst the moms, but I am so blessed that in our family this is a non issue, I count my blessings that I have two amazing ladies in my life to learn from as we start our new family.  And our wedding would have NEVER been successful with out the help of his two amazing brothers.  Granted after all the work they did to make our day special I'm sure they don't want to see us any time soon.  But seriously I could never repay them for all that they did for us that day.  Matts dad helped in so many ways from helping make all the mason jar chandeliers, to filling our zillions of jars with sand and candles, to wrapping all our silverware to hands on day of.  My dad made the archway we were married under and helped set everything up.  One thing I realized early on was that no matter what happened the day of, everything was going to work out.    So throughout all the fun and crazy things that came up I wasn't really stressed...well those around me may beg to differ...hehe.

Getting Ready! Just before the I Do's

My point of view!

Friends at our Wedding!

The after party!

Things Learned:

1. It is stressful to DIY your own wedding and you will probably spend a little more money than you plan.
2. Don't think you will be able to do all the things you see on Pinterest because all those projects take ALOT of time.
3. Be flexible
4. You find out how well you work with your partner during this process (I must say Matt and I learned a lot about each other, and we work amazing together)
5. If you are DIYing, realize that set-up day of will take double the time you think it will
6. Certain tiny details will not matter in the end (I was fortunate to go into the wedding process knowing this and it saved me lots of stress)
7. Your grooms opinion not only matter, but will probably turn out amazing.
8.  Work with your strengths and know your limitations.
9. Enjoy the process and take as many pictures as you can documenting the process.
10. Don't stress over other's opinion of your wedding, its your day and whatever you want is what is most important.
11. Make sure someone takes pictures of everything once it is all set up, because you will be busy rushing off to get ready.
12. Your family is your greatest asset!  They will go far and beyond your greatest expectations and you will enter into marriage feeling like you will never be able to repay them.  But it will be more special than you could ever imagine!

How it all turned out: Special Thanks to Callie Gardiner Photography for the following wonderful images!

 

 

 

WE ARE MARRIED!!!!

 

The biggest THANK YOU possible

for all who came out and

supported us!