BIG news!

Ya'll. Sooo my wedding photographer called me allll excited on Friday and told me that she had great news for me. Good thing to hear first thing in the morning right?

She proceeded to tell me that Florida Bride magazine wants to feature our wedding in their next print issue AND on their online magazine as *the* feature wedding!  I was so totally shocked! For those of you who know Eric and I personally, you know that we planned and paid for our wedding almost entirely on our own. We did some major soul searching and poured a lot of time, sweat, and tears into the planning to really make sure that our wedding was small, intimate, and personal, just like we always wanted.

Handmade birdcage.

Our awesome violinist at our ceremony.

Our photographer swears that ours was the first wedding where people legit formed a circle and danced around the bride and groom. Gah, we have a great group of friends and family!

I did a lot of DIY things, and made a lot of out-of-the-box decisons to a) make our wedding and reception "us" and b) cut the cost. I won't go into too much detail here because I am currently writing "the story of our wedding" to submit to the magazine, which works out just great because I have been wanting to add that to my blog for a really long time. But I did want to share the news with you guys - we are super excited! It's really just affirmation for me that I maybe I was on to something by not getting caught up in what a wedding is supposed to be, and keeping it to what we really wanted. There were a lot of things that we didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on (both because we didn't have $100K for one day and because we just didn't want to even if we did), and there were things that we strategically chose to prioritize (like great photography). At the end of the day, we are so so so proud of how hard we worked and absolutely thrilled that someone else loved our wedding as much as we did, and as our guests did. Wouldn't change a thing.  And that's a good feeling to have over a year later.

In short, Eric and I had a mid-morning ceremony on the beach in Clearwater, FL with a formal luncheon following at a restaurant on the water, with a live band and dancing. Our favorite part was that we arrived and departed from the ceremony via sailboat...with my 9-months pregnant photographer on board! Delivered that baby less than 2 weeks after my wedding while we were honeymooning in Italy. And ya'll...she rocked our wedding. But you can see that for yourself.  I'll let you enjoy these teaser shots for today, and you can see her 3 blog posts and comments on our wedding here; that's the first one, so start there and work your way up!

My co-worker/captain for the day!

Yes, that pirate ship is real and not photo shopped. Picture perfect day on the beach, literally.

Lexia, of SugarLeaf Photography, was amazing...can't say enough good things about her. And she travels, so call her up! She does awesome portraiture for those of you who are already married too! I have nothing but great things to say about every single one of my vendors, so if you are planning a wedding in this area, shoot me an email and I am more than happy to share. Or you know, check out our story in the September issue of Florida Bride. (smile)!

If we had to pick a favorite, this just might be it. This is about as "us" as it gets! Please note me doing the Eric "finger dance move."

I am by no means a wedding planner...but I am more than willing to share what I learned with you! Shoot me an email :) More to come ladies! You'll be the first to read the story of our wedding when it's finished!