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While Mr. Cola and I were doing our first look and taking pictures around the park, my family and our wedding party were headed to our venue.Our wedding seriously would not have happened if it hadn’t been for all the effort on the part of my mom, my aunt, our wedding party, our DOC and her assistants. I still really have no clue how they managed to get everything set up so beautifully in such a short amount of time, but they did, and we love them all for it!Here is just a partial representation of everything they set up in about an hour and a half. I love that we have these pictures--you can literally see our wedding coming together!The flowers on the arbor (the arrangements in floral foam cages on either side had to be assembled on site and then attached with the branches to the arbor with zip ties)
The pew bow flowers had to be hung on the chairs and the ton of petals had to be scattered.
The tall centerpieces had to be assembled (the flowers had been pre-arranged in floral foam, and the vases already had the rocks in them, but water and branches had to be added and the flowers had to be placed on the vases), and the small centerpieces had to have water added and be set in the appropriate places, along with the small cocktail table flowers.
On top of all of this set up for the flowers, my mom and aunt ended up spending some time on Saturday morning replacing some of the hydrangeas in various arrangements that weren’t holding up so well, and repeatedly misting all the flowers to keep them hydrated. That's why buying extra flowers is a must if you're going the DIY route!While my mom and aunt worked on setting up all the flowers, our wedding party and DOC helped with the rest--a whole Uhaul truck full of decor! This included assembling our massive, over 6ft tall cupcake tower, which had to be set up in time for the cupcake delivery person to arrange the cupcakes on the tower.
The purple flowered table overlays also had to be laid out before the venue staff could set the tables.
You may remember this post about how we were going to have ivory table cloths and purple chargers decorating our tables. But then it turned out the vendor we were renting the chargers from had been lying that they even had purple chargers and tried to pawn amber-colored ones off on us. The hive really helped by making a ton of alternate suggestions for us, and in the end we decided to just go $150 over our total table décor budget and rent overlays to add more purple to the tables. Much easier than making chargers and adding another DIY to my plate, and I absolutely loved how the overlays looked on our wedding day! Totally worth the budget overage!
There were also all the LED escort cards to turn on and arrange (I made a spacer guide to help with the set up, so they would all be evenly spaced out on the table. I was also sure to put them all into alphabetical order ahead of time. I can’t even imagine how much longer setting up escort cards would take if they had to be put in order too!).
(Such a shame to have to edit out the last names!)
Plus the LED lanterns had to be hung, table numbers, disposable cameras, candles and the napkins with my DIY napkin rings had to be put on the tables (and the candles had to all be lit).Our fauxtobooth needed to be set up.
And the speaker system had to be set up.
Also ton of signage had to go up (buffet signs, DJ table sign, cupcake signs, fauxtobooth signs, signs on the guestbook table, signs reserving chairs, restroom door signs—not to mention the bathroom baskets had to be set out).
(The above photo is actually from our disposable table cameras. It's the only photo I have of our custom restroom signs, so thanks to whoever took this!)
- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
Since I never got to share engagement pictures with you all (since we didn’t take any), I’m going to over-share on the photos we took around the park after we had our first look!
Mr. Cola isn't a big fan of having his picture taken, so we compromised and didn’t do an e-pics session, but instead we scheduled an hour for us to do pictures of just the two of us after our first look. And I’m pretty happy we did, because if I had to pick, I would rather have these pro pics of us all dolled up in our wedding attire over more pictures in our everyday clothes!After our first look we took a few minutes to just sort of soak in being with each other for the first time on our wedding day.
Then we relaxed on a bench next to the pond.
At some point our photographers told Mr. C to whisper something funny in my ear to make me laugh. Wanna guess his phrase of choice? "Cat butts!" Which I of course thought was hilarious, from a long standing inside joke about our silly cats.
Next we stood by the pond to get a closer look at the ducks! I'm an animal lover, what? (just kidding, nobody would let me go feed the ducks. Luckily I had someone cuter to concentrate on ;) !).
Then we took some close ups.
And got some gorgeous photos of the details on my dress.
Then we tried to look saucy on the path around the pond.
(I’m not sure we succeeded, we were pretty much just cracking each other up!)
Next we took some kissing pictures over a brick wall (which was hard because I’m short and had to stand on my tip toes!).
This is our “Haha, photographers, you just had to watch us make out” smirk!
Our photogs then asked me if I’d be willing to climb up on the brick wall, to which I replied, “OK, but how?” They set up a photo equipment box for me to step up on, and laid out some canvas bags on the wall so my dress wouldn’t get too dirty (which didn’t really work, as we already know).
Then Mr. Cola hopped up on the wall with me for a shoe shot (yup, I was still only wearing my flip flops, saving my heels for later). I still wish Mr. C would have worn cute argyle socks, but oh well, I still love this photo!
And with that we were out of time for pictures in the park, and had to jump in the limo and head up to our venue. It was almost time to get married!
Will you be scheduling any time on your wedding day to take photos of just you and your SO?
Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:
- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
(All photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)
When the limo pulled up to Sharon Park where we were doing our first look, I could see our primary photographer getting Mr. Cola into place over next to the pond. The limo driver came around and started to open the door for me, but I yelled “NO!” so he quickly slammed the door shut. Mr. C seeing me for the first time hauling myself ungracefully out of the limo in a big dress was not what I had in mind for our first look!
The photographer who had ridden over with me in the limo got out, made sure everyone and everything was in place, and then we finally let the limo driver open the door and help me out. I adjusted my dress, walked over to the pond, and got into place on a bench behind Mr. Cola. What follows are some of my favorite pictures of the day!
I had bustled my dress for our first look, in an attempt to keep it clean until our ceremony. But we all know that didn't work!
Time to sneak up on Mr. Cola!
My "trying not to giggle" face.
Guess who?
(Hey look, my DIY french manicure the night before turned out pretty good!)
Now, time to check each other out!
And go in for a hug! It felt so great to finally get to connect with him that day, knowing that very soon we'd be saying our vows and finally be husband and wife!
But wait, Mr. Cola hadn't seen all of my dress yet. A twirl was in order!
Apparently this is my "how do you like the rear view?" face!
Like so many have said before, I absolutely love that we did a first look, and was so glad we did it. Originally I'd wanted to go the more traditional route and wait until walking down the aisle to see each other for the first time, but that wasn't important to Mr. Cola, and it really worked out for the best. We had a whole hour after our first look for pictures in the park, which I'll share next, and were able to concentrate on the bridal party and family portraits after our ceremony. Those took almost our whole cocktail hour, so it's definitely good that we got this time in before the ceremony, or we would have had hardly any time for photos of just the two of us otherwise!Overall, I highly recommend doing a first look if you can. It didn't take away from walking down the aisle at all, and it was so enjoyable to be able to take our time, hug and kiss, and spend some (mostly) alone time on our wedding day!
Now it's your turn to share, will you be doing a first look? Why or why not?
Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:
- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
(All photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)
(Such a shame to have to edit out the last names!)
(Apparently hanging the lanterns in a straight line didn't occur to our groomsmen ;) )
(by Shoot Me Now Photography)
(The above photo is actually from our disposable table cameras. It's the only photo I have of our custom restroom signs, so thanks to whoever took this!)
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