Since Garrett and I got married in San Francisco without our families and friends (with the exception of Garrett’s aunt, uncle, and best friend who all reside in CA), we both wanted a way for them to be part of the marriage and we knew we wanted to have the marriage blessed, because God is the important part. We decided on the chapel of the church Garrett grew up in, a side portion of the sanctuary with its own altar and a more intimate setting.

I love this image, by Kristen, of us walking in. You can see the priest’s white robe as we follow him in, walking together, hand in hand. It was really nice to go in together, I was only thinking about Garrett the whole way. We decided on having the church’s music director play organ for our entrance and exit which was lovely. Once we got up to the altar I remember Garrett asking if it was okay that we were holding hands. (”Yes!” I said, “we’re married!”) Either way, I wasn’t letting go.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

The moments (how short they were!) before we ran (walked briskly) into the church to be blessed by a priest (Epsicopal, not civil, if you’ve been keeping up):

This was fun. Somehow, in my rushed and mildly freaking out state, I got the task of pinning on Garrett’s boutonniere. I’ve pinned on lots of boutonnieres at weddings where I was photographing, but never with the pressure of it being a few minutes until our ceremony, with a husband who dislikes all things sharp and pointy, and with an uncooperative pin (that was probably too short in retrospect. So yeah, I stabbed him. Can you believe that? No wonder he’s afraid of needles! Luckily he did not bleed and does not have a nipple ring hole now. Very glad he wasn’t in a white shirt.

I’m pretty sure Garrett hates most pictures of himself (unless he took it in a mirror with some ridiculous hat or sunglasses on, or, if he has a beard and hair that make it look like he’d been lost in the woods for 6 months), but he does seem to like the one on the right with the tree, so we have success! And I like them all, of course.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

So, on the big day (third big day if you’re counting), I had a bridesmaid tea with my ladies and our mothers & grandmothers and then we were off! And running behind. I think I took the whole “getting married beforehand means less stress” thing too seriously, and the tea didn’t get kicked off right on time so we were a little rushed but once we made it to the chapel things felt great.

Yes, I committed the coat hanger sin. I had changed the coat hanger after san francisco just to make sure it would stay on the hanger and forgot to change it. Ugh. You really can’t see it though, so I’m thankful for that.

That’s right. Three pictures of my shoes. That’s what you get when you’re dealing with me. I really like the white on white and kind of want to incorporate it in my house when/if I get one.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I realized I haven’t posted pictures of our invitations yet! And I wasn’t even paranoid about wedding crashers. Anywho, I really wanted letterpress invitations more than anything else and it was my big splurge. But really, not that bad. I used someone local, Jenny Barry from Press Charming, and I brought in some art nouveau books I’d bought to try and figure out a design. Jenny sent me back so many possibilities and this is what we finally decided on!

We got a 5×7 invitation with a postcard size reply card (saved on postage for the envelope and the reply! One regular 44 cent stamp was enough for the invitation (we liked the king & queen so that worked out) and we used polar bear postcard stamps for the postcards (not my favorite but we didn’t really have an option and the colors didn’t clash).

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I really like the idea of out of town welcome baskets and the like but they were never really an option in my mind due to the cost & organization they require (knowing who is staying where, knowing who is coming –the rsvps were giving me enough trouble as it was). Garrett’s parents decided to get a block of rooms at the Embassy Suites solving part of that problem and Garrett’s mom wanted to make welcome baskets, so I lucked out. She used a “taste of Alabama” theme and the bags included goodies only to be found in the yellowhammer state. Here’s what they included:

Golden Flake Chips (in a variety of dill pickle, original, bbq, and cheese puffs).

(image from country living, they have a list of the best local chips in a lot of different states so if you are stuck for an idea check here! Zapps from Louisiana, Cape Cod from Massachusetts, and Kettle chips from Oregon are all ones I recognize)

Priesters Pecans (in little mini bags, divinity and pralines I believe, but they have a really tasty key lime pecan there as well)

(from Priester’s Pecans)

{Read the rest of this entry…}

(photo by my sister, ashley merrill, while frosting cakes in a kitchen that reminded her of the shining)

Things didn’t go according to plan with our wedding. I feel/felt like it was a huge fail on my part, not dealing with stress well and not delegating or getting things done ahead of time. I’m a huge procrastinator and I also was so stressed about the other people involved in the wedding that I didn’t get focused. I’ve gotten over it for the most part, but I’m sure at least someone could learn from my mistakes.

(photos by Kristen M Stewart Photography unless otherwise noted.)

I wanted a cake buffet instead of just having one big cake, and I liked the idea of having homemade cakes instead of bakery cakes, because then they would mean something personal to us. The main problem with that is that it required work from people other than me. I wish I’d made them all myself two days before, taken them to our venue for them to have in their cooler, and been done with it. My sister makes an amazing cheesecake though and my mom and sister were willing to make cakes, freeze them, transport them from NC to AL, and frost them here.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

(photo by kristen stewart photography –no she’s not from twilight but she’s just as fun)

One of the most fun things Garrett and I did the few weeks before our Oct. 3rd reception was to suggest music to our unbelievably talented DJ, Mitchell London.

I hadn’t really thought about the music at all, and hadn’t even decided to have a DJ until July. I thought we’d manage with an ipod reception, but I started realizing all that such would entail. Picking the songs (and the stress of trying to make it danceable! I would’ve died if no one danced), having an ipod and backup ready, having someone there to troubleshoot [I didn't like the idea of forcing any of our friends into work during the party, I wanted them to enjoy it!], what if it stopped working, did we need anything extra to hook up? So I twittered about needing a DJ, not expecting a response, really just to complain, and Mitchell messaged me to say he’d love to. Seeing how a lot of things went wrong in the course of our planning/doing, the music is something that went very right.

Even if you have someone you really trust doing your music, you need to suggest and request in advance. It will help the DJ out tremendously and increase your enjoyment of the night tenfold. Garrett absolutely loves music and has played instruments, formed bands with his friends, composed quartets and orchestral pieces on and off for years so I definitely wanted him to get involved. I had no idea how I was going to organize a list, and get Garrett actually interested in adding to it.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

(this one is by me, all the rest by Matt)

After our Blackberry Nuptials, Garrett didn’t really feel married. I don’t blame him at all, it’s hard to feel married when no one would recognize you as such, except for the room service guy who referred to me as “Mrs. Cummings”, which was delightful and made me quite giddy.

The morning of the 14th, we waited around for our overnight package with Garrett’s passport in it and got ready for the day. I ditched the long dress for the short Jessica Simpson number I purchased the day before we left for San Francisco, with the intention of changing into it after our ceremony to go to lunch on the 13th. I left my hair down, straightened it with my new straightener (apparently appliances go bad right before you get married, because my hairdryer passed on about a week before the reception), and opted for the same makeup with subtler lips. I was a little more incognito, and Garrett dropped the tie and jacket.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

(We were just at the point in our saga when it was discovered that Garrett’s driver’s license was expired)

When someone finally came out to talk to us it was to tell us no. Nothing they could do, this kind of thing had happened before, they couldn’t make exceptions, blah blah blah. Our only option was to make an appointment for the following day, have Garrett’s passport overnighted, and try again. Garrett’s parents were out of town and the passport was at their house so they had a neighbor get it for us and ship it off. I wasn’t really satisfied, I’d put on a full-length wedding dress, Garrett’s aunt had flown in from LA, Olivia was heading back to Chicago, Garrett’s uncle and his best friend had taken off work and this wasn’t repeatable for tomorrow.

I still wanted a ceremony. That day. Not to mention, my wedding invitations included an announcement that we would be getting married on August 13th! We weren’t going to have them reprinted. Garrett had a tie on that said 13! I wasn’t going to spend the rest of that day single, no way.

We had plans for lunch at 12:30 so we decided to head that way. I’d intended to change before lunch but we only had so much time after sitting in the City Hall for so long. So we made do and headed towards the piers where the restaurant was. We stopped in a wine shop and split a bottle of champagne between all of us, which definitely made the morning more bearable. I’m a lightweight, and two glasses was plenty enough to give me rose colored glasses.

(photography by olivia leigh photographie)

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Ahh, where were we? Olivia had just arrived, we finished getting ready, and we were off.

-I had Garrett wait in the bathroom while I put my dress on since he’d never seen it and I wanted to have that moment. Then, I tried to have him help me bustle it but the hook was all but invisible and I ended up taking the dress off, finding the bustle, and putting it back on. I was glad I practiced tying the sash before we got there, I was able to get a decent bow by myself and I really like the look of the sash.-

(all photos in this entry from olivia leigh photographie)

It was only about 5 blocks to the City Hall so we figured we would walk and get some pictures along the way. Little did I know one of my shoes was prone to slide off my foot (When I first got the shoes they were too tight but apparently my attempts at wearing them in had some negative side effects, and I need to buy some kind of inserts before our reception), so I was slow and annoyed.

{Read the rest of this entry…}