Forever Could Even Start Today, Wedding & Disneymoon Sept 17 update 10/1: Last Day, Budget recap

[pepperandchips]

I was going to ask about your gorgeous ring even prior to the story. I love it! What a touching tribute to those you've loved and said goodbye to too soon.

Is PC offsite? It's lovely! I wish we could have swung a disney wedding but we are settling for some magical disney photos on our mini honeymoon you even inspired me to make an artificial bouquet so it can travel with me for my photos. I love all the parts of your wedding so far! Can't wait to see what happens to the rain! The lunch! Oh the suspense!!!

Ps please send pics of the dressy shorts when grandpa wears them, haha!

 

[monorailsilver]

I have been reading along but I just have to comment the beads, let the water works flow here in CT!

Beautiful dress, the flowers....holy crap, just amazing and a little rain never hurt anyone! I woke to thunder and lightening on my wedding day.

Can’t wait to read the rest.

 

[Lesley Wake]

These next several I had trouble narrowing down, I'll freely admit. I feel very model-esque about them, which I can honestly say is not a feeling I've had before.

They do look like photos you find in a bridal magazine!

I've touched slightly on this before, in random places, but for the backstory on the bead and ring...

Around 5 years ago, my mom and grandma passed away within 6 months of each other. It was unexpected, and it's always hard. We were all close, and I spent a lot of time with my grandma growing up too. I often hung out with her on weekends in high school. Golden Girls, mint chocolate chip ice cream, and shamrock shakes were our go-tos. The ring was my grandma's, it's a sapphire (her birthstone) with small diamonds around it.

I was also the oldest great-grandkid and only one really close to my great-grandma, she babysat me until I was 6 and fostered my loves of reading, drawing, and animals. We ate lots of applesauce together, baked, and she let me choose whatever I wanted for lunch that day (the basic rotation consisted of homemade mac and cheese, fish sticks, waffles, kix cereal...). And she let me keep my pacifier through kindergarten... She passed away when I was in high school.

I had saved roses from all three funerals, drying them to save. But I didn't always have them out since dried flowers are so fragile. When I first got on these boards, reading wedding TRs, I found one where the bride had sent petals from her bouquet into a company which made them into charms. So I finally had a safe way to save my roses. Though it was weird to pick the petals off, I sent some in and had them make the bouquet charm, where they put all three petals in, and also three charms for the Pandora bracelet Zack got me a few years ago. The site is Bellabeads. If you have petals to save, I would highly recommend them. They have lots of jewelry options for men and women, and will also work with cremains.

I told my mom and sister this story and they even got teary eyed!

____________

Also, I keep forgetting to mention, but when you are at Disneyland, if you want to have a dismeet, let me know! I'm there all the time and it's always great meeting up with Disfriends!

 

[amalone1013]

I love the beads! That's very sweet.

I had a locket that belonged to my grandmother that had a picture of her and my grandfather inside of it (the ones that missed the wedding because they were dead.....not the ones who missed by choice >.>). I'd worn it pinned to the inside of my dress for both high school and college graduations, and wore it as a necklace when I was baptized. I tied it around my bouquet for my wedding. There's also a whole long funny/weird story about my cousin from that side of the family dreaming I needed a family charm since it was tradition and arguing with her mom about it, and she had no idea I had the locket!

That's funny with your cousin's dream I love that you've had that locket for so many important moments

I love all the pictures!!!! Everything looks so beautiful and tropical and just downright happy.

And I agree, figuring out the timing was one of the most stressful parts. Especially with travel involved. You don't want to have guests just sitting around, but you don't want to be late for anything.....I'm glad I've done it and it's over with!

I know! And, I don't want things too far apart... but I like this location... and we stressed over transportation since everyone was at different hotels, only us and Zack's parents/aunt stayed at the Dolphin with us - everyone else stayed other places. And we worried about availability with Uber (didn't need to). And you have to pick times so early, like we had to choose when we signed contracts, and it was like, we're a year out, I don't know anything except we'd like to get married! Thank goodness it's done!

And side note... did your Buzz pictures show up correctly? I went to download pictures the other day and it was like... Zack and Joe... empty broken vehicle... I had to send PP to chase our picture down yesterday!

I was going to ask about your gorgeous ring even prior to the story. I love it! What a touching tribute to those you've loved and said goodbye to too soon.

Thanks. I love it, I feel like you don't see a lot of rings in that style anymore... I guess they might be considered gaudy now My grandma used to tell us which rings she wanted us to have, she had several that she wore every day besides her wedding set that had been birthday and anniversary gifts. Of course we were like, shhhh grandma, you'll be around forever! I like to think this was the one she meant for me, though I don't remember

Oh, we stopped in Na Hoku last month and Zack found many things he wants, including a watch

Is PC offsite? It's lovely! I wish we could have swung a disney wedding but we are settling for some magical disney photos on our mini honeymoon you even inspired me to make an artificial bouquet so it can travel with me for my photos. I love all the parts of your wedding so far! Can't wait to see what happens to the rain! The lunch! Oh the suspense!!!

PC is on Lake Bryan, basically across I4 from the Disney Springs hotels. I was so happy when I found it. I didn't necessarily picture getting married somewhere lakeside/beach-y looking, but it was perfect. I don't know if you stumbled across the Escape packages Disney does when you were looking, but PC does packages like that - that's what we did, but I cut ours down to bare bones to bring in my own flowers, officiant, photo... Of course they do big weddings too - I told Zack that I wish we had found it after getting engaged and just planned a destination wedding from the start at PC! But alas, family drama.

I've seen lots of amazing photos on property for honeymoons and anniversaries and such, so I'll be (im)patiently awaiting yours! And anything else wedding related for you I'd like to do some for an anniversary or something in the next few years. I will be very excited to see your bouquet! I bet it will be as amazing as the ears you make Every time I see some when I've been to WDW, I wonder if they're a pair of yours!

Ps please send pics of the dressy shorts when grandpa wears them, haha!

I will try! I don't know if I'll realize that's what they are when I see them though...

I have been reading along but I just have to comment the beads, let the water works flow here in CT!

Beautiful dress, the flowers....holy crap, just amazing and a little rain never hurt anyone! I woke to thunder and lightening on my wedding day.

Can’t wait to read the rest.

That would be an exciting start to the day! I think everyone I know who has had rain/weather at some point on their day... has not had it really effect anything!

Thanks for following along Hopefully not too many waterworks.. though I was full of them I hope to get the ceremony up this weekend!

They do look like photos you find in a bridal magazine!

I felt so fancy when I saw them! I felt a bit silly when the took the photos because I'm not usually fancy

I told my mom and sister this story and they even got teary eyed!

Aw

Also, I keep forgetting to mention, but when you are at Disneyland, if you want to have a dismeet, let me know! I'm there all the time and it's always great meeting up with Disfriends!

Yes! Disfriends are the best Barring anything changing with the wedding, we should be there the weekend after Easter and that Monday for sure.

 

[amalone1013]

Oh no! That's so disappointing. But I guess it made your decision for you. It would have been a great surprise, but an easy way to save money, too.

Yup. I ended up taking the money, which was around $700ish at that point, and putting it into our travel fund to use towards our Dec and Jan trips. The car would have been neat, but I think we enjoyed it more going towards trips

Love this!!

I don't think anyone knew what to say, No one said a thing about our attire

Such a great idea!! Your photos are all so beautiful!

Aw thanks I was pretty determined from the beginning to take most beforehand, and I had to talk Zack around

Oh my goodness, yes!!! I get that these are huge moments and everyone wants to have the right picture to remember it...but I only ever look at about 5 of the photos we took with everyone. One with the bridal party, one with my whole family, one with my mom and grandmother, one with Nathan's whole family, and one with the whole group. We really didn't need every possible combination. "Okay, now let's get one with everyone from that group except..hmmm...eenie meenie miney moe! Okay, without uncle Dan!...good!....now Uncle Dan come back in, and Aunt Andrea can leave...okay, now let's take those two photos again, but everyone turn in the opposite direction and change your facial expression..." uggh. It's a process!

Yes! It is crazy to me. And really, who looks at them the most? The couple. And as you say, only at so many... even though we paid lots of money to end up with 1500 photos But honestly, it's so silly to get worked up over! At least our guests weren't too demanding with photos, though I think a lot of that was just because the only traditional wedding Zack's family has really been to.. was his parents Though they're not demanding people. It makes me glad we had a small destination wedding though. When my dad remarried there were so. many. photos. with all the family and stuff. I'm pretty sure the only ones who have any copies are my dad and stepmom, and I have a photo of me and Zack from cocktail hour that my aunt took - I don't keep any of the wedding photographer photos around from that

Though I loved that N's parents were very concerned about your pictures having life-sized mice...

Nathan's mom was like this, too. She was very particular about what to wear. I guess that makes sense because there are more traditions around what the bride and groom's mothers wear. But we told her just to be comfortable and wear something that made her feel good, and was cool for the weather. I really didn't care what shade of purple it ended up being. Glad your grandpa found something he was comfortable in!

Zack's mom was very concerned about what to wear... and is again about his brother's wedding coming up. It was pretty funny as she's not a dress person, and she came home with two and wanted me to choose! I just kept telling her whichever she wanted - I was pretty touched she picked them out in the first place because she has not worn a dress in YEARS. And then when she decided on that one and looked for shoes, she ended up finding little aqua with white polka dots bows at Michael's and attaching them to her sandals. She was so proud!

This is soo cute!! And even better that it was free, because it looks like the kind of personalized thing you could have spent a lot on.

I never would have guessed it would come in an adorable box, it was so handy! It was like a bit of good karma to make up for how busy everything had been in the months leading up to the wedding.

As much as it looks pretty to have a nice bright blue sky in photos, it's actually much worse in terms of lighting on the subjects when the sun is out, so this probably worked out great in your favour! Direct sunlight can look really harsh (some of our wedding photos that weren't in the shade ended up looking like this, like some of the family photos and our first dance photos.) And overcast has the added benefit of nobody squinting in the pictures!

I was so pleased with the weather that day! We lucked out, and it didn't get terribly warm until later in the day.

Oh, this is heartbreaking, Alyssa, but also so beautiful! How special that you could carry them with you on your wedding day. I'm sure it was a tough day without all those special women physically there with you, but you must have still felt their presence.

I was so thrilled to find that company... it was the perfect way to have them there, and I love that I have the Pandora charms too so I can wear them, and not have to worry about something happening to fragile flowers

Wow!!

Yes! It was so weird because one side was perfect and the other, the awning over it was at a 45* angle and the dock itself looked like someone had pushed down on one side. I'm not sure if that's just what happened, or if they fixed up one side immediately.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Yes! It is crazy to me. And really, who looks at them the most? The couple. And as you say, only at so many... even though we paid lots of money to end up with 1500 photos But honestly, it's so silly to get worked up over! At least our guests weren't too demanding with photos, though I think a lot of that was just because the only traditional wedding Zack's family has really been to.. was his parents Though they're not demanding people. It makes me glad we had a small destination wedding though. When my dad remarried there were so. many. photos. with all the family and stuff. I'm pretty sure the only ones who have any copies are my dad and stepmom, and I have a photo of me and Zack from cocktail hour that my aunt took - I don't keep any of the wedding photographer photos around from that

Though I loved that N's parents were very concerned about your pictures having life-sized mice...

I totally agree!! And yes, real wedding photos are NOT to contain mice! Not even the cutest, most famous mice in the world.

And then when she decided on that one and looked for shoes, she ended up finding little aqua with white polka dots bows at Michael's and attaching them to her sandals. She was so proud!

That's so cute and DIY!

I was so thrilled to find that company... it was the perfect way to have them there, and I love that I have the Pandora charms too so I can wear them, and not have to worry about something happening to fragile flowers

I bookmarked the page because I feel like this would be a beautiful way to preserve memories. Not that I hope for a reason to use it, but it's so good to know about.

 

[SoccerDogWithEars]

And side note... did your Buzz pictures show up correctly? I went to download pictures the other day and it was like... Zack and Joe... empty broken vehicle... I had to send PP to chase our picture down yesterday!

They did. I've just been lazy. I keep meaning to post them on Facebook so you can have them. But I have both vehicles (though, be warned, it's not an attractive photo of either of us )

 

[mdsouth]

The setting of your wedding is beautiful! Paradise Cove looks fantastic!
And as someone else mentioned, the cloudy/rainy day probably made for better wedding photos due to the lighting for photographs. Your pictures are amazing! I just love the palm trees and the boat and sand. You were a beautiful bride - not one bad photo! There were so many that would make wonderful model photos for a bridal magazine.

The beads were a wonderful tribute to your mother and grandmother. And I love your ring. And knowing it was your grandmother's is so sweet and a great reminder to you each day that you are surrounded by your family's love -figuratively and literally!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Aly just told me that she and B switched a couple flowers out with the BM bouquet. I didn't notice anything really when I reattached it, so I think they were mostly being overprotective about it, which is sweet.

That is a good Bridesmaid!

The bouquet is beautiful!

So thanks to the other wedding for our photo prop...

Ha! I love it.

Zack details his plan for stealing the car

I love the look on your face looking at Zach. Awesome

It was worth it. Great photo and different!

Zack's dad calls this look, the eyeballs. As in, Ohhhh you're getting the eyballs! What'd you do??

We call it the stink eye in our house. Beware, my youngest gives a mean stink eye. That eyeball will be looking back at you one day. (maybe)

Now hurry up and get married already. I'm sick of this engaged couple

Ha! I almost forgot they weren't actually married yet! Funny.

Great photos again! Just beautiful!

 

[amalone1013]

Hi everyone!
​

This is exactly why I can't say, I'll have the next post up at this time - because then it doesn't happen!

We've been scrambling a bit as my cousins are hosting a party for us back home, so I sprang into action the past week trying to get scrapbook supplies together for a wedding album. Scrapbooking is a big hobby of mine, so I was planning on doing one for the wedding anyways, I just finally got my butt in gear looking for an album, trying to cut down pictures, buy paper, etc etc.

We got our video back and watched it, so that was fun to do. There are some things on there I didn't even notice happening

Anyways, just wanted to check in and say I haven't forgotten! Just busy days as usual around here.

 

[amalone1013]

The setting of your wedding is beautiful! Paradise Cove looks fantastic!
And as someone else mentioned, the cloudy/rainy day probably made for better wedding photos due to the lighting for photographs. Your pictures are amazing! I just love the palm trees and the boat and sand. You were a beautiful bride - not one bad photo! There were so many that would make wonderful model photos for a bridal magazine.

The beads were a wonderful tribute to your mother and grandmother. And I love your ring. And knowing it was your grandmother's is so sweet and a great reminder to you each day that you are surrounded by your family's love -figuratively and literally!

We lucked out with the weather! I had heard that before, but I didn't even think about it day of until we were talking about it with our photographers.

And I'm glad I had the bead and ring with me on a special day.

The bouquet is beautiful!

Thanks!

It was worth it. Great photo and different!

Probably the only time I get on an escalator in a full length gown...

We call it the stink eye in our house. Beware, my youngest gives a mean stink eye. That eyeball will be looking back at you one day. (maybe)

I will keep this in mind!

Ha! I almost forgot they weren't actually married yet! Funny.

Great photos again! Just beautiful!

We're working on it... this is just turning into a long process, like the actual wedding planning
Thank you!

 

[SeptemberGirl]

We are on the same FB group and you recently posted pics and in my head I was like, wow, it’s so nice to see these - like I actually had met you! All from stalking your report!

Can’t wait for another update - I will try to go and find the pics now and comment on them on FB!

 

[amalone1013]

We are on the same FB group and you recently posted pics and in my head I was like, wow, it’s so nice to see these - like I actually had met you! All from stalking your report!

Can’t wait for another update - I will try to go and find the pics now and comment on them on FB!

I hope your hunt was successful for pictures! I haven't put much up since we are having our family celebration in two weeks, and our photographers did not tag us in the sneak peeks originally since we had the family drama going on. And I haven't shared much in the group because my photographer is not approved by them.

I feel like I've met you all too! I've met a few people from these boards in the parks, and it's so fun because I feel like I've known them forever, since we've been chatting here! I was worried about it being weird - mainly me being really awkward, but it's not at all. The only problem is everyone lives in the wrong part of the country

 

[amalone1013]

In Our Secretest Heart, It's Our Favorite Part of the Story
Part One

Here it is, what everyone is (probably) waiting for - the ceremony!​

I'm going to give a little background to kick this off, and then it'll be mostly photos with some thoughts or ceremony pieces added in.

First, we chose not to do a religious ceremony. My dad was raised Catholic but stopped going before my parents married, but my mom was raised Lutheran and raised me and my sister that way. We went to our little church every week with her and my grandma, and were involved in some of the music groups, the sunday school program, etc. My church was even little for the size of my hometown - it's definitely an 'everybody knows everybody' type of place. Zack's parents were both raised Lutheran, and his grandparents all attended the same church. From the stories I've heard about this church, it's your stereotypical old-fashioned, women have no say, if you don't give enough you're harassed, unscrupulous things going on, etc etc... so his mom's parents got booted for not donating enough when she was a kid. I think all the boys got baptized but that's the extent of their religious upbringing - I had explain to Zack the Christmas story, Easter story, etc Since we weren't getting married in a church, it was an easy decision to stick with simple and personal, and skip the religious elements as they don't really fit us as a couple.

Our officiant was B's dad. I've known her and her family since middle school, so it was really a no brainer to ask him and have someone personal do it. It felt weird to pick a random officiant off the internet, though I'm sure it would have been completely fine because I've seen so many fabulous things about the officiants people tend to use for DFTW and such. B's dad got officiated (is that the right way to put that ) online several years back for a friend's wedding, and now he's 6 for 6 No splits yet! If he hadn't been able to make it for some reason, Zack's brother also got officiated just in case.

I found our ceremony script on Offbeat Bride and tweaked it. It's here: Offbeat Bride Ceremony Script if anyone is just that interested or (more likely to be interested) planning a wedding themselves. There were just some parts to it that really resonated with us, which are probably the bits I'll sprinkle in with the photos. Along with some ad-libs from B's dad The original script also has everyone grabbing a glass of champagne on their way in, and then toasting the couple at the end of the ceremony - if we could have pulled that off I totally would have done that.

Phew, now that that's over, let's get this show on the road!

I can't remember if I spelled this out, but you guys are pretty smart and have probably figured out, our ceremony was on a lake. And as we were about to begin, we were rudely interrupted by a boat!

Wait a second...

​

As we've not done anything very traditional up to this point, except maybe the outfits, let's keep that going with a non-traditional entrance!

​

To get the true feeling of being here, go ahead and put on the Mission Impossible theme song. No joke.

This was something like $80 to add, and I'd say worth it. Everyone got a kick out of it, and really, how often does someone arrive to their wedding in a boat? While we were taking photos before, the guys were out on the lake already, and our coordinator kept radioing them to tell them we were on a rain delay, but it wasn't raining out on the lake at all!

Look out!

After the boat was safely beached... please note that the stairs are not supposed to be so far underwater, so... #thanksirma

They look pretty pleased with themselves.

And then they headed to stand on the wrong side originally, so they had to fix that

Now that I used 1/3 of the post photos on the boat...

From my vantage point, I couldn't see the boat entrance. So when Zack was telling me how deep the water was, I thought he was exaggerating until we got our photos back

We just had one entrance song for me and B. With just one bridesmaid it seemed easier. For the music, we used Paperman, from the Disney short. I don't see a good version online anywhere, but I highly recommend it. It's one of my favorites. I even had a paper airplane on my shoes I spent a bunch of time editing the music down, because it's just one track for the 5min short, and there's a part where the music builds that I wanted to use. I'm sure I was the only one to notice or care, and I don't even remember it much in the moment.

I see you!

After the first few steps, there was lots of looking down and trying not to cry...

I got my Mickey Balloons put on either end of the chairs.

While we were waiting to walk down the aisle, my grandpa told me that "She (the coordinator) told me I could give you a hug when we got down there but I'm going to give you a hug and a kiss on the cheek"

Today is a celebration. A celebration of love, of commitment, of friendship, of family, and of two people who are in it for forever.

You don't have to have a ceremony to have a marriage. And when you think about it, the whole thing is kind of weird, right?

All of us here today have our own love stories.
Here we wrote our own love story.

We had a line about having a special connection when we met, and B's dad added that he thinks it was Zack's van. When we met in college, Zack was driving this old orange full size van - it had shag carpet all the way up the walls, very few windows, all it was missing was the free candy sign in the window.

I'm here — we're all here — because we want those moments for you. We're here to hope with you, to support you, to be proud of you, and to remind you that love isn't happily ever after, love is the experience of writing your story. It's not one moment — not even this moment. It's every moment.

And now we have Zack's brother, the great philosopher K, to read a little about love to us
(something like that, ad-lib haha)

He got up there and B's dad goes, "You'll have to speak into my neck" since that's where his mike was. K started to, and then was like, Nah I'll just yell

Our reading was, Love is Friendship Caught Fire, by Laura Hendricks

Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.

As K headed back to his seat, B's dad complimented him on his choice to wear his magicband to the wedding, and decided that that would be his new thing for the next time he marries someone.

Next up was the vows.

You fell in love by chance, but you're here today because you're making a choice. You both are choosing each other. You've chosen to be with someone who enhances you, who makes you think, makes you smile, and makes every day brighter.

Will you, [Partner 1], keep [Partner 2] as your favorite person — to laugh with her, go on adventures with her, support her through life's tough moments, be proud of her, grow old with her, and find new reasons to love her every day?

I will.

Will you, [Partner 1 and 2], be each other's partners from this day forward? Will you bring out the best in one another, share your happiest moments together, and love each other absolutely — for the rest of this lifetime and for whatever may come next?

We will.

Here B's dad added a bit about how his wife makes him a better person, and how he knows that we will be the same for each other.

The ceremony had a passage I liked about the rings. The first paragraph I thought about cutting a teeny bit, but didn't know how and ended up leaving it. But I really liked the second part.

You’ve both chosen to wear rings as a reminder of these promises. People often say wedding bands are a perfect circle, with no beginning and no end. But these rings did have a beginning. The stones were formed a long time ago deep with the earth. Eventually, a series of lucky events caused them to rise to the surface, where someone dug them up. Metal was then liquefied in a furnace at a thousand degrees — molded, cooled, and painstakingly polished. Something beautiful was made from raw elements.

Love is like that. It comes from humble beginnings, and through a combination of serendipity and effort, imperfect beings shape it into something extraordinary. It’s the process of making something beautiful where there was once nothing at all. As you look at these rings over the years, I hope you remember that. You’ve created something invaluable, and just as I know you’ll protect these rings, I’m confident you’ll protect the commitments you’ve made to one other today.

Zack was having trouble getting my ring on. I didn't have my rings soldered (still haven't, on the to do list...) and they were just in the box together, since my wedding band is a funny shape to fit my engagement ring. He was having trouble getting it over my knuckle - it goes on easily, he just always worries about being too hard on things B's dad warned him this was only the first quiz of the day.

This is my look of superiority, yes I got your ring on in one try



​

 

[amalone1013]

In Our Secretest Heart, It's Our Favorite Part of the Story​

Part Two

​

As I mentioned earlier, at the end of the ceremony we used as the base for ours, they had a toast to the couple. Even though I couldn't work in the champagne, I liked their toast/blessing passage, which was adapted from Blessing for a Marriage by James Dillet Freeman. So this isn't exact, but our ceremony finished with something like:

And now, a blessing as you begin your marriage:​

May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring.​

May you need one another, but not out of weakness.​

May you want one another, but not out of lack.
May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

Skipping from that straight to the kiss the bride part felt awkward, so I found a short passage about how even though we'd kissed before, today the feeling was new and had a new promise to it. A bit cheesy, but nice. But since I don't have my ceremony copy on me, that's all you get

Ladies and gentleman, may I present for the first time Mr and Mrs B (or it might have been , The Bs... I'm fuzzy now) You may kiss the bride.

After shaking Zack's hand, B's dad gave me a hug... and we were on our way!

To the tune of Ever Ever After by Carrie Underwood, which is the song at the end of Enchanted.

We did it!

​

And we were married!


Oops, I put in the super giant pictures. D'oh!





And I can't forget...

Behind the Scenes

I like that in this one, you can see Michelle taking the shots through the balloons. It also reminded me of a story I forgot... When we were looking through, most people didn't take too many photos on their phones during the ceremony. Really just a few at the beginning and the end, that went to one of Zack's grandmas via text right away. But when we got the photos back I thought hmm, it's strange that Zack's brother's fiance didn't send us any of these pictures, she has an actual camera out... And then I realized, it was my grandpa's camera!

He showed up with a brand new digital camera he didn't know how to work So not only was it nice of her to take some photos for him, but our photographers were really good sports too - when we were taking photos before the ceremony, Steve took my grandpa's camera and took some of the posed photos on their after he took them on his own camera.

These two are too photogenic.

I like her expression, she's so happy for us strangers That is the venue coordinator.

Then there were many hugs...

And also tissues

Alright... now what? Where's the cake?

And we make it legal! Good thing they were on top of this, because it didn't even cross my mind.

​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Such a sweet ceremony! I didn't even know there were special offbeat bride ceremonies online; if I ever get married I'll have to search for some!

 

[wrestlingchick26]

Amazing ceremony. And what a way for the guys to arrive.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Yay! What a beautiful ceremony! Sounds like it fit your personality as a couple perfectly

​

To get the true feeling of being here, go ahead and put on the Mission Impossible theme song. No joke.

Amazing!!

For the music, we used Paperman, from the Disney short. I don't see a good version online anywhere, but I highly recommend it. It's one of my favorites.

Excellent choice

I love this.

While we were waiting to walk down the aisle, my grandpa told me that "She (the coordinator) told me I could give you a hug when we got down there but I'm going to give you a hug and a kiss on the cheek"

What a sweetheart! I love your grandpa!

When we met in college, Zack was driving this old orange full size van - it had shag carpet all the way up the walls, very few windows, all it was missing was the free candy sign in the window.

Our reading was, Love is Friendship Caught Fire, by Laura Hendricks

Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.

This is such a nice reading. Very fitting.

As K headed back to his seat, B's dad complimented him on his choice to wear his magicband to the wedding, and decided that that would be his new thing for the next time he marries someone.

Yes! This is awesome!

This is my look of superiority, yes I got your ring on in one try

but really, you look awesome.

To the tune of Ever Ever After by Carrie Underwood, which is the song at the end of Enchanted.

Great pick!!

But when we got the photos back I thought hmm, it's strange that Zack's brother's fiance didn't send us any of these pictures, she has an actual camera out... And then I realized, it was my grandpa's camera!

He showed up with a brand new digital camera he didn't know how to work

This is the best thing!! At least someone got pictures for him.

These two are too photogenic.

This is sweet! I love the prominently displayed magic band, too.

 

[Raeven]

Such a beautiful and sweet ceremony! I love the boat entrance

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

First off, those were amazing posts on the wedding!

We're working on it... this is just turning into a long process, like the actual wedding planning

I was going to say take your time, but you beat me to the punch!

This was something like $80 to add, and I'd say worth it. Everyone got a kick out of it, and really, how often does someone arrive to their wedding in a boat? While we were taking photos before, the guys were out on the lake already, and our coordinator kept radioing them to tell t

Def an awesome way to start off the ceremony!

They look pretty pleased with themselves.

They do, they look like little boys! Love it. Looks like money well spent!

This is my look of superiority, yes I got your ring on in one try

Ha! As you should be!

YEAH!!!! Married!!!!!

And we make it legal! Good thing they were on top of this, because it didn't even cross my mind.

Kind of the whole point.

Congrats again! It looked like a perfect ceremony! Thanks for sharing it all with us!