Weddingbee Blog

Hello, hive! I just thought I would pop in and say hello! Today is Mr. D’s and my first anniversary. It’s really weird for us because we haven’t celebrated a first anniversary in almost eight years! It’s still so completely crazy to us that we were walking down the aisle and sharing our vows to each other one year ago today. At times it has felt like time has been really slow and it was just yesterday that we got married, and others it feels like it’s been forever since this happened:

Mr. D and I have been working some weird hours the last few days, so we are making a point of spending the day together doing some fun things (like catch up on our Supernatural marathon), and will be going out to dinner. Since the first anniversary gift is typically paper, I ordered this for Mr. D from ThriftyMrs on Etsy:

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It was over 17 months ago that I was introduced as Miss Doily in my first ever post “Miss Doily Is in the House.” During that time I flip-flopped over many wedding decisions, grew as a writer, and got to really get immersed in this wonderful community. I have made some lifelong friends out of board members and other bee bloggers. I have been introduced to other cultures and traditions that have only enriched my life even more. And along the way, I married my best friend and love of my life. It’s been such an incredible journey, and I still feel so blessed every day to have been chosen to be a bee blogger. Even more so, I feel so blessed that there were people who truly enjoyed hearing Mr. D’s and my journey and even took some things from it.

When it comes to our wedding, there is really only one thing left to share. Mr. D and I bought Flip cams shortly before the wedding to film the entire thing for his ailing grandmother who was not able to make it across the country to share our day. So we filmed everything and edited it to the best of our ability and shipped it off to her right away. She ended up passing only a few weeks after getting it, but it was a huge blessing to us and to her that she got to see it for herself.

Courtney and Jon 3.24.12 from Courtney Dayton on Vimeo.

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Mr. D and I knew that we were going to pay for the wedding ourselves. So when we set an initial budget, we were shooting for $10k. So how close did we get? Well, let’s find out!

Attire:

Mrs. Doily:

Dress (including bustle, undergarments, and tax—no alterations needed): $1,309

Accessories:

Earrings: $54.60

Bracelet: Gifted

Necklace: Borrowed

Veil: Borrowed

Shoes (Both the heels and the Toms): $87.54

Hair Flower: $5.78

Beauty:

Hair and makeup (trial and tip for both included): $180

Manicure: $50

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I’m so freaking excited for this particular post! This has always been one of my favorite recap posts of other bees, so I’m so ecstatic to finally be sharing mine!

So let’s start with the ceremony details:

This is the backdrop that I created out of coffee filters, poster board, bamboo skewers, and ribbon. It only took me about two hours start to finish creating them, and I love the texture they gave the black curtains.

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Almost all of our wedding guests and all of our wedding party were all staying at the same hotel. This just happened to have a bar attached to it. Naturally, an after party was going to happen. And naturally, all I have to show you are a lot of fuzzy cell phone pictures of the event. A lot of our guests used the free shuttle service to and from the hotel that we had set up, so most of our guests and wedding party were there before us. We entered into a round of applause, both from our guests and from the patrons of the bar. We got another round of congratulations and another round of drinks:

I’m unsure of why GM C looks so concerned and why MOH A is duckfacing, but I do know that they are both awesome.

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Now that the dollar dance was over, it was time to really let loose and get down. Our DJ cranked the music and played all of our favorites to get the guests up on the floor. From this point on, the floor was never empty until it was time to leave:

Can you guess what song was playing?

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There has been many a debate about whether or not couples want to include a dollar dance in their reception. It wasn’t a debate for us, though, as it’s a very traditional thing to do in the Midwest, especially in Eastern Iowa where there is a heavy German/Polish (I myself, am half German) population. Every single wedding I have been to in this area has had it, and no one has ever blinked twice. In fact, I have found that it’s often common practice to hold back some of the money you wanted to gift the couple and save it for the dollar dance. Because of this, when the DJ announced the dollar dance, we had lines immediately form. Most people see it as a fantastic way to get a little extra one-on-one time with the bride and groom.

MOH A and Best Man N both took their positions near us to collect any offerings and also to keep track of time. I noticed that during this time, a lot of people took the time to talk to other people they may know or work on our guestbook pages when they weren’t dancing with Mr. D or me:

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My mom was the first person in Mr. D’s line. She thought it was a hoot when he gave her a turn:

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There was a slight lull in the reception: right after the first dances while there was some generic dance music on, our photographer Jenn whisked us away for 15 minutes for a quick mini-session. I loved doing this because it gave Mr. D and me a few moments of just each other. It also allowed for us to get some beautiful pictures:

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Once we were done with our dinner, toasts, and cupcake eating, it was time for Mr. D and I to do our first dance. If you recall, choosing our first song was quite an ordeal, but we chose it and it was finally time to show off our dance moves:

Hustle, bustle and so much muscle
Cells about to separate
And I find it hard to concentrate and

Temporary this cash and carry
I’m stepping up to indicate
The time has come to deviate and

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Mr. D and I really wanted to make sure that we got individual pictures with each of our bridesmaids and groomsmen. These people are our nearest and dearest, and the fact that they were there for us on the biggest day of our lives (so far!), was a huge blessing. So Mr. D and his merry band of men took the first shot:

I’m going to try and just briefly put a name and relationship to each person, but Mr. D’s best man needs a special introduction since he really hasn’t yet. Mr. D and his best man were roommates all four years of college, played football together, and still carry their bromance long distance to this day. His wife and I have always jokingly referred to them as being each other’s mistresses. Whenever we are all together, his wife and I both know that for at least a several hours, they are going to be in each other’s own little world and we have to deal with it.

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Now that we were husband and wife (hip-hip-HOORAY!), it was time for us take the fun pictures we had been looking forward to. First, there was one quick order of business:

I wanted to make sure that my dress was already bustled when we left because I knew that we would be heading straight from pictures to the reception. I had my childhood best friend and her mom come to my final fitting to learn how to bustle my dress, and they were more than happy to! I really admire how they were so eager to do it, considering I had a 14 point bustle that was kind of a pain to do. I am so thankful for them though, because they were quick and efficient!

Once that was done, we all loaded up into our respective cars (we carpooled to the reception, but our reception site offered transportation from the reception site back to the hotel, it was great!), and headed out to a location that Jenn, our photographer, had picked out.

When we got there, Jenn got immediately to work, getting some individual pictures of Mr. D and I:

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Mr. D and I put a ton of thought into our ceremony. It was very important to us that it was short, sweet and simple. Don’t get me wrong, I have been to quite a few full Catholic wedding masses, and they are extraordinarily beautiful, but they just were not us as a couple. Mr. D has always been a man of few words (when it comes to affectionate things), so I did not want to put him out of his element with a long ceremony.

So, Pastor Marty sent us several documents with ideas and what a typical marriage ceremony looks like when he performs it. From there, we began to carefully wade through the Bible and pick and choose what fit us. Pastor Marty was super impressed when we went to our final meeting and everything was finalized. And so, now that the bride and groom were together and ready, Pastor Marty began the ceremony.

Pastor Marty began the ceremony with a welcoming message. He briefly mentioned my father (who had passed away four months before the wedding) and my brother (who at the time was serving in Afghanistan), and he talked about how marriage is a joining between a couple and God. It was a short little message. He then moved on to the scripture that we chose:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.-Ephesians: 3:14-19

Once he talked a bit about the scripture, he moved onto the intent part of our ceremony:

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I have always loved me some Coldplay. For years I have wanted to walk down the aisle to “Yellow,” so when I found out that our beloved Vitamin String Quartet had an instrumental of that fantastic song, it was a given that I would walk down the aisle to it. I bought it on iTunes right after we got engaged.

How I was going to walk down the aisle, on the other hand, was not decided until about two weeks before the wedding. When Mr. D and I did our final meeting with Pastor Marty, we not only had to decide our readings, our vows, and the general order of the ceremony, but we had to decide who was going to walk when and how. Up until four months before the wedding, I assumed that my father would walk me down the aisle. However after he passed, we obviously had to decide how I was going to walk down the aisle. Pastor Marty came to the rescue and gave us a brilliant idea.

And so I began my walk down the aisle:

I adore this picture of Mr. D seeing me come down the aisle. A lot of guests said that they were surprised that we had a first look, because they said Mr. D looked like he was seeing me for the first time that day.

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I only sat by myself for a moment or two to collect myself before joining the rest of the wedding party. Our prelude music had been playing sweetly when I left the sanctuary, and by the time I had walked out, I could hear the ending strains of “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay, instrumental by Vitamin String Quartet, playing. This was the music that our honored guests and Mr. D walked out to. First to walk was Mr. D’s grandmother, escorted by my step-brother A, who was also an usher:

Next was my grandmother who was escorted by our other usher, my younger brother B:

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Side note: I’m back!! Sorry about the break. I finally took my Dad’s ashes to California along with my siblings, and we let him go in the Pacific Ocean.

Then on my way back to Iowa, I got a cold, and an ear infection, AND the stomach flu (Yay for me!!). I spent the week in bed mostly sleeping, but also writing recaps. I have all of them done now, so there should not be any more breaks! Yippeee!! So without further ado, some more Doily recaps!! Whoot!

Now that the formals were done with, it was time for a little break before getting down to the real business: the ceremony. So we basically just hung out and enjoyed each others attention.

The bridesmaids really wanted a photo of all of our sparkly shoes, so our photog Jen was only too happy to oblige:

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