BAM!!! Long and detailed commentary and a bunch of pro pics!

I spent Friday night at my mother’s house with my step daughter while my husband stayed home with our step sons. I stayed up until around 2 am lying in bed talking to my aunt. It was super de-compressing and helped me completely relax enough to fall asleep. I woke up at 7am ready to go. My mother cooked a huge country style breakfast. My hair and MUA was a friend that flew from California to attend our wedding. She insisted that she do my Hair and MU as her gift to me and I do not regret it at all. She was so amazing and literally was my right hand woman the entire day. She fought everyone off of me that caused any stress and was always by my side all the way till the end. I love her to pieces. We started getting ready around 9 am. Our first look was scheduled for 2pm and we didn’t want to have to rush….it gave us a perfect timeline. We originally planned for all the bridesmaids to get ready together but unfortunately, there were too many and not enough room. We also had a couple bridesmaids that were getting their hair done at a salon that morning so logistically it didn’t work that way. My photographer showed up at 1pm to get pictures of us getting ready and my mom helping me get my dress on.

Once we were ready, we went to the park near our venue to meet my husband and our kids for the first look and pictures. This was the best part of the day by far! My husband has four children with his ex-wife. These kids are just absolutely amazing children. I wanted to make sure they were there for this special part of our day. They stood a far off while we did our first look and I could see our daughter crying out of the corner of my eye. It was such an emotional time and we just stood there for about ten minutes staring at each other. We then did our bridal pictures and we also got some really good pictures with the kids. It was so much fun! Some advice, get as many pictures as you can before you meet up with the wedding party because once we got around everyone, it was hard to sneak away for more bridal pictures of just us.

More of the first look....

Omg....you're STUNNING! And the way he's looking at you...amazing. Congrats!!...and moarrr!!

More pics of us after the first look and our kids.

More of just us....

OMG you look so beautiful! I love the first look pics!

We then traveled to the venue where we met the rest of the wedding party. Everyone was already there and they all look freaking fabulous! As you can see, we did a 1920’s wedding. I was very skeptical on how it would all blend together but the end result was JUST what I was imagining! A piece of advice, if you let your bridesmaids choose their own dresses, give them strict guidelines. It took forever to get all my girls’ dresses and because I basically only gave them a color palette and style, a couple of them went a little crazy and I had to reel them in a little. This was really the only big stress I had with my wedding party. Anyway, once we got to the venue we got all the wedding party pictures out of the way and I got to relax and hang out with our wedding party. Our venue had a big dining room area downstairs away from the ballroom so we all hung out down there and drank and talked until the guests started arriving. This relieved a lot of jitters and we all got comfortable.

You look SO BEAUTIFUL!!! These are awesome pictures.

Omg gorgeous !!!

You look beautiful! I love love love your dress !!!

F5 f5 f5

Now for the ceremony, it was AMAZING!! It was longer than I thought it would be and I really got to soak it all up! I remember every moment of it and I loved our vows. There was a portion of the vows that I wrote to my husband’s kids. I basically thanked them for sharing their father with me and told them I would try my best to be a loving, caring step mother to them the rest of their lives. During this, I heard my stepdaughter start crying behind me (she is 9). I also looked over to my step son and he winked at me and smiled so big. This broke me down! When I looked at the video footage later, I noticed the whole wedding party was crying along with the crowd. I had so many compliments on our vows and how personal and honest they were.

After the ceremony all the wedding party went outside for a picture really quick...I LOVE these shots!

Holy!! Wow! You look absolutely beautiful. Your dress... WOW

Now for the reception….it was amazing besides the DJ! I lost my DJ about a month before the wedding. In turn, I had to book a replacement. I spent hours with my husband listening to songs and wrote the most extensive list of songs for the DJ…all at their request. When my DJ arrived, they sent their SONS! There were two boys that couldn’t have been over 18! One of the boys was like 12 years old. They played all the correct songs at the correct times, but nobody was in charge of the timeline (this was their job and this was discussed at length during our meeting beforehand). I couldn’t even get them to make any announcement loud enough to get everyone’s attention. I had to constantly check the time and tell the DJ when to do what. This stressed me out and dragged our timeline out way further than I wanted. By the time we cut the cake, most of the older guests were gone. Oh well, in hindsight all was well but I wish I wasn’t stressing over it so much during the reception. Our food was amazing, the drinks were pouring, and the cake was excellent! So all in all, it turned out amazing! By the end of the night, I was so sleepy I needed my bed in a hurry! I was so glad we decided to sleep in our own beds the wedding night. By the time we got home, we crawled into bed and passed out!

Oh my god I'm tearing up at my desk for real. You are absolutely STUNNING, and the way your husband is looking at you...wow. More pleaaaase

You look sooooo beautiful! Love the first look and ceremony pictures, congratulations !!!

Wow!!! Beautiful! I love your whole look, the dress and everything. And the pictures with your stepkids are so sweet. You have a gorgeous family! I don't know why it didn't occur to me to have my two stepsons witness our first look, but now I think I am going to steal your idea lol ;-)

We spent Sunday with our kids and packing for our honeymoon. We also had a couple OOT guests that we met up with for dinner and drinks that night which was nice since we didn’t get much time to hang out with them before the wedding. We flew to Maui on Monday morning at 5am so we actually didn’t sleep AT ALL on Sunday night. By the time we got to Maui we were exhausted.

As for our honeymoon, it was the most amazing week of my life! We did adventures together that neither of us have done before. We bonded so much during this week and we really had a chance to let the marriage and wedding sink in. Advice to others, take a couple days after the wedding to let it soak in if it is possible. If you can’t afford a honeymoon try to get away even if it is nearby and take a few days alone together. Our honeymoon really made it all come together so amazingly.

PS...the rest of the pics are from our honeymoon