Erratic Project Junkie: Our Love Story: Part Three

©Broken H Photography

Once we set our wedding date, it was time to start making some plans. I've never really been a girly girl and wedding plans weren't things that I dreamed of as a little girl. I really didn't know what I wanted. All I knew was that I wanted something. I wanted an actual wedding. I wanted to walk down the aisle with my father and I wanted a dress.

We didn't have a lot of money to put towards our wedding, so a LOT of DIY plans were in the works. I'll show you how I did some of the projects over the upcoming weeks.

Finding a venue was our most difficult decision. We needed somewhere close and somewhat inexpensive. We wanted somewhere pretty. We looked at a few places around the area, but none of them seemed right. They were either too expensive, prettier on the website than in reality, or already booked for the date.It was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In the end, it was Collin's decision that led us to our venue. Our friend Jeff was going to be performing our ceremony (we talked him into getting ordained online) and Collin thought that the country club Jeff belonged to would be the perfect place. Turns out, he was right. The spot was pretty, easy to find, and in our budget. We booked it the next week.

With the venue in place, it was time to send out the invites. I figured that I could handle it myself, but making invitations meant that the colors needed to be solidified. I've never really had a "favorite" color, but I've always liked purple. It's girly without being over the top. I decided on dark plum because of the richness of the shade and picked gray as the complementary color.

My dress was the next stop. I knew I wanted lace. I like vintage style dresses and Collin's a big fan of the 40's, so I wanted something along those lines. Not quite authentic, but still a bit retro. I found a lace overlay dress with a keyhole back and knew it was the one.

©Broken H Photography

Part of the enjoyment of our wedding was the people we had involved. In fact, a couple of pieces of our wedding are a testament to the power of Facebook.

All of the photos you see in this post are from Broken H Photography. Broken H is owned and operated by Jessica. Jessica and I went to college together. I hadn't seen her in about ten years when we found each other on Facebook. It is because of her that I found Annie as my hygienist. Annie happens to be her sister-in-law. Funny how life works, isn't it?

©Broken H Photography

My hair was done by Michelle at Graffiti Hair Salon. Michelle and her husband own the salon. Michelle and I went to high school together. Another connection remade by Facebook.

My makeup was done by Nikki at MAC. I was referred to her by Michelle and she did a great job.

Funny story about the day...as I was sitting getting my makeup done, my cell phone rang. It was Collin. He was in a panic and just kept telling me that he wouldn't make it in time. I had already been over and finished the decorations at the country club. I had already packed the majority of our bags for the honeymoon. I had left him a list of a few things to gather (seriously...like 5) and told him to be at the venue a half an hour earlier than he really needed to be there because I knew he would be late (he's late to everything). And yet, he still freaked out. Isn't that supposed to be the bride's job? Hilarious. I just laughed at him, told him to get his stuff together and get over there. It would be fine.

He made it. But he forgot our jackets. We had to buy some on our honeymoon.

My favorite thing of the day (thing...not moment) was my shoes. I had originally picked out some vintage style two-tone heels in red and brown. I wanted some color to pop under my dress. But...I changed my mind when I realized that I needed my something blue. Why not make it my shoes? So I wound up with 4" turquoise heels. I love these shoes. Unfortunately, I managed to trip (being the klutz that I am) and scuffed them when we were taking pictures. I'm still sad about that.

©Broken H Photography

So my something new was the dress, my something blue was my shoes. I still needed two more items, right? My mother gave me the last two bundled up in one idea. She had my grandmother's wedding ring, my great grandmother's wedding band and my great great grandmother's wedding band. Together with her engagement ring, I tied them all to my bouquet. My something old and my something borrowed...that was the most special thing I had in my possession that day. What a great idea my mother had.

©Broken H Photography

Oh...and you'll notice that those are not real flowers in my bouquet. We actually had zero real flowers for the entire wedding. I made all of our flowers out of paper. Yup...full on origami wedding. It took a TON of time, but turned out pretty cool. Don't worry...I'll be talking about them in a future post.

To keep the vintage feel, we kept the boys in something fun. No tuxedos here. The guys wore gray pants and white shirts with purple and gray ties. Darian and Owen (Collin's best man) wore suspenders. Darian wore a bowtie and a cute dapper hat. Collin wore a gray vest.

©Broken H Photography

My girls wore purple. Patti wore a purple dress with a silver gray sash and silver shoes. Cute little Abigail wore a purple dress with adorable Mary Janes.

It was a small wedding party, but it was just right for us.

©Broken H Photography

We had our ceremony outside overlooking the 18th green. After being rainy off and on for the last two days, the sun came out for our afternoon. It was beautiful.

©Broken H Photography

Our ceremony was different. It was us. We walked down the aisle to Love is All Around by Wet, Wet, Wet (from Love, Actually my favorite movie).

Jeff was a great officiant and worked his own personality into his speech. Collin & I wrote our own vows. I included the story of how we met and how he initially turned me down. Collin included the wolfpack speech from The Hangover. Fitting.

©Broken H Photography

Our recessional was Lovely Donna by Collective Soul (one of my favorite bands), but we rickrolled ourselves. We thought it was hilarious, but I'm still not sure how many people really caught the joke.

My boys are goofballs. ©Broken H Photography

There was a rainbow after our wedding ceremony. Wonderful. We were able to get some beautiful photos with the rainbow in the sun setting sky.

Our cake was made by Collin's mother. It was white cake with a huckleberry filling. Holy crap it was delicious. Oh...and Collin stepped on my train and popped a button off the back of my dress on the way to cut the cake. He can be a klutz too.