The Big Day!

The. Best. Day. Ever.

We didn't do separate formal bridal portraits.  Taking some pics just prior to the service was much more my speed :)

With my parents

My brother/groomsman and sister-in-law/bridesmaid

Steve had ummm...a lot of opinions about the guy flowers, and since the gals had gerbers and hydrangeas, it was a little tricky to find something 'masculine' enough to suit him, but I LOVE the way these turned out!

Groomsmen were Steve's nephew TJ, (well, then my dad's in the pic), Steve's brother Tony, and my brother

I just love this shot :)  Not sure why!  Headed into the sanctuary...

One of the best decisions we made was to spend some quiet time together before the ceremony and then to have our photographer join us and do some pics together.  It was AWESOME!

These are a little out of order, but after we did a bunch of shots of the two of us, the girls joined us :)

Pre-wedding with my parents

The bears were a surprise gift from a dear friend of my mom's who spent months creating replicas of all five of our outfits :)  They were set up on a table going into the reception

Our cake topper was my grandparents' cake topper, used again at their 50th anniversary and then at my brother and sister-in-law's wedding - we had pics of all the weddings/cakes on display

Inside the church just prior to the service

The ring bearer and flower girl...

Cheryl carried the cross in as Katie, a member of my church, sang Surely the Presence of the Lord as a choral call to worship.  No "Here Comes the Bride."  Sorry.  The wedding party, myself included, came in to the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty.  The organist (and harpist and flautist) were awesome and did a really beautiful job before the last verse when I came in.  Wouldn't change a thing :)

We had communion.  And yes, Steve and I served :)  And yes, all FOUR of the women in robes and stoles are female minister friends ~ two presided and two were acolyte/crucifer and communion servers

We had about an hour of flute/harp/organ/piano pieces prior to the start of the service and then they played together throughout.  I didn't have to plan much of anything.  I know them well, trust them completely, and they are used to playing together, so I knew I could just tell them to go at it and it would be amazing!  They also played throughout serving communion since, well...that took a while ;)

The post-game show...

Of all the pictures, this one I think is just about my favorite...because who else has one like it?!  I have so many minister friends and minister mentors, but this just worked out awesome :)

My side of the family

For Steve's birthday (in September) I got this one printed for him on a big canvas ~ I love it!

With Nana, our only living grandparent between us

And what event would be complete without a guatetot group photo?!  It was actually one of the ONLY pics I specifically asked our photographer to get at the reception!

Katie, post-minister attire and her son Micah

My dear friends Phil and Beverly

And did I mention we had a candy bar?!  Mom wasn't sure about it, but boy you should have seen the LINE!  And I'm not talking about the kids either!

Our florista was amazing!  Yes, that's sliced limed in the vase :)

 The sanctuary flowers ~ we had matching arrangements on either side of the altar

We wanted to do something a little bit different for the flower girls since Megan and Belle were both flower girls.  At 10, we weren't sure Megan would be into dropping petals, and Belle is just WAAAY too neat to be able to handle that, and these worked out great!  Hydrangea pomanders

I LOVED my bouquet!  I wanted it to be mostly gerbers because they are my favorite, but I also knew that a bunch of just gerbers wouldn't let you see the details of each flower.  This worked out great!  hydrangeas poking out from underneath all around it.  It was perfect!

Bridesmaids bouquets were also the centerpieces at the reception!

Our treat boxes for the candy bar...complete with an address stamp with our new address on them as the favors :)

Isabelle's foster sister Isabella and her parents Alecia and Keith

I love this one!  I have framed it and it is in our downstairs bathroom :)  Steve wouldn't let me put up any pictures with people in them in the bathroom.  He thought it was creepy!

Sooo...since our "first dance" Friday night was a bust, we ended up with an impromptu first dance at the reception to "Blessings," which was just funny because we'd talked about using that as our first dance but really the words are kind of depressing, so it didn't seem appropriate!  Ended up that way anyway!

Aaannnd...that's all folks!