Our Wedding Day | Pearls & Postcards

On April 11th I had the privilege of marrying the man I call my best friend. The fact that three months have already passed since our wedding day is really crazy to me. I mean, wasn’t I just stressing over details and doing the crazy wedding planning dance!? (By the way, out of state wedding planning is absolutely nuts). Before our wedding, I would pray all the time that our marriage would be far more beautiful and joyful than our wedding. Our wedding was beyond what I could’ve imagined, so this marriage has a lot to live up to. But honestly, I think it’s up for the challenge! It’s been a beautiful three months with lots of challenges, changes and adventures. I see why marriage is such a great thing and how it teaches you so much about yourself, your spouse and life.

Enjoy a few photos and details about our wedding attire, decorations and other ideas! These photos put the biggest smile on my face. Also, stay tuned for posts about lessons I’ve learned in marriage, wedding planning tips and details about our Italian honeymoon.

For our wedding, I went with a colorful, classic and vintage wedding theme. I wanted to have lots of sentimental elements, family involvement and a fun atmosphere for guests. We chose to plan the wedding ourselves and as difficult as that was, I was so glad we did it on our own instead of hiring a wedding planner.

Wedding photo credit goes to the incredibly talented photography duo Trevor + Allison. So, so happy with the way they captured our wedding day. It’s important to love your photographer. Research their style, read reviews and talk to friends about who they recommend.

These girls are the best of the best. I know everyone thinks that about their friends, but seriously. Each of these women have played such a huge role in my life and I was so honored to have them be part of this celebration. Bridesmaid robes are from SunsetToSunrise.

To me, the entire wedding was just really relaxing and wonderful. It’s a choice to be calm or not on your wedding day and I chose to be calm no matter what was thrown my way. I know there were things that didn’t go exactly as planned, but ya know what? None of it mattered. At the end of the day, all that mattered was that I got to marry Matt. To me, the whole day seemed perfect. And I know I have a lot of great people to thank for that.

These rings were hand picked and custom made by a jeweler in the Atlanta area called Brilliant. Matt designed my engagement ring with the help of the awesome owners at Brilliant and surprised me with it when he proposed in NYC last November. Check out our engagement story here. We decided to go with diamonds surrounding a gemstone, because I wanted something different. Also, the aquamarine is our birthstone, which made it extra special.

Besty Johnson ballet flats can be found here. I knew I really didn’t want to suffer in heels all day, so I just had my dress altered so I could wear flats.

Pinning my hair is the only way to make it hold curl. But, guys, why can’t we get our hair pinned everyday!? 😉 Also, a little secret I learned as far as jewelry goes, check out Charming Charlie. They have a great wedding section and you won’t have to break the bank finding something shiny to compliment your wedding dress. I got my earrings there, but it looks like they’re no longer in stock.

A few notes on my dress: I really wanted something that was classic, timeless, lace and not seen on every other bride lately. In the end, I was really happy with my choice and so glad that I stuck to the guidelines I’d set for myself when finding a dress. Make sure you give yourself some time to practice walking and sitting in your dress (haha, it’s harder than it looks).

I was so, so glad we decided to do first look pictures with each other, as well as all family photos before the ceremony. It helped cut out some of the jitters for everyone. Plus we really got to enjoy our day and didn’t feel pressured to get in all of these pictures during cocktail hour.

Dresses were all from David’s Bridal and they were exactly what I wanted. They come in tons of colors and have a super cute ruffle back. Plus, one of my bridesmaids was even able to wear this dress at almost 9 months pregnant and she looked so adorable. The girls wore their own pearls or gold jewelry and gold shoes.

The guys’ suits were their own. Crazy how you can’t even tell that they aren’t wearing the exact same black suit! If you’re going for a classic black tie look, I highly recommend having the guys buy their own suits so they can get something tailored. Just give them guidelines via pictures or details like “2 button jacket and notch lapel” and you’ll end up with a really great look. Ties are from the Tie Bar. Matt’s bow tie is a simple self-tie bow tie that can be found here.

The flower girl dresses were made from my grandma’s wedding dress, which was part of my plan to have a lot of sentimental elements to the wedding. I couldn’t get over how cute they looked in their flower crowns! Boys wore their own white dress shirts, black pants and black shoes. Suspenders and bow tie were bought on Amazon. Also, can I just say that my favorite part of the wedding was having eight (yes, eight!) little people in our wedding. Oh. My. Goodness. The cuteness!

I really liked the idea of tulle bows and white rose petals lining the aisle of the church. I was stumped on what to do to dress up the church, because I didn’t want to overdo it. I wanted the church to be its own statement with its stain glass windows, candles and pews. Also, as you can see from previous pictures, we chose babies breath as floral decorations in the church. And I think it turned out to be exactly what I wanted.

Walking through the ribbon wands turned out to be one of my favorite memories from the day. And I think our guests would agree! So. Much. Fun. (And we definitely got bopped on the head a few times haha).

I love this man so very much. All time favorite picture of us.

The vintage Roles Royce was a surprise from mom. So, so sweet. She was so excited to show it to us, she could hardly contain herself haha!

Mercury glass, elegant flowers, chargers and painted IKEA candles made this table everything I hoped it would be-vintage and classy. More details about the reception in a later blog post. It was one of the hardest parts of planning the wedding and I wish I’d had more step by step tips on how to figure out decorations.

This “Fun Fact” card was such a hit with guests and it allowed both sides of the family to get to know us better, especially with us having grown up in different cities. On the other side, we had the dinner menu listed.

My mom worked so tirelessly on this whole table set up-from the mint bags to the kind of flowers on the table. I tell her all the time that I feel bad for anyone who had to plan a wedding without her.

My bouquet was wrapped with my great grandmother’s handkerchief and my mom’s wedding dress lace.

Jeweled headband I chose was inspired by the one I saw on Downton Abbey (I’m such a lover of all things English) and cathedral veil was also from David’s Bridal. I think they might have been my favorite part of the whole bridal look. It was just too much fun getting to dress up for my wedding day.