Albums

It is a common goal to have the wedding album done by the first anniversary. Excitingly, Lane and I should meet that goal. A few weeks ago I bought Groupons for photo books from Picaboo. I have always used Blurb before, but gave Picaboo a shot. We bought three and already used one for our ceremony photos. We will use the other two for our reception and day-after pictures. I will probably end up buying one more for family portraits. I thought we would be able to fit the portraits in with our ceremony pictures, but we ended up with way too many photos. 

I love making albums to keep memories together. Our Engagement pictures look amazing. I really hope the Picaboo book will look as good.

For the back cover of our ceremony book we used a picture of us walking back down the aisle. I love that both back covers will be us walking away together. 

I also made an album or our letters from Ranger School. I love that I will have all these letters to remember this time years from now. 

It may be a very boring looking black album, but inside holds two months of letters.

I also have letters from his parents and Army buddies in the album as well. 

 I bought those Airmail style envelopes off Etsy before he left for Ranger School. Lane told me that he liked being able to recognize my letters before they even called his name. 

I alternated between long letters and short little silly postcards like the one above.

I can't wait to make the other two (or three) albums. The Groupon expires in July so we have a hard deadline. The hardest part is choosing the pictures. We have so many gorgeous photos that it is really hard to pick 20-30.  

. So have y'all managed to get albums done by the 1 year anniversary? Did you use a service like Blurb or Picaboo? 

Wedding Link-Up: The Details

Today I'm linking up with Fresh & Fancy for the last day of The Ultimate Wedding Week. Today is all about the details. There were some details I spent a lot of time on, and others that I completely delegated. Lane's mom did our flowers with one of my family friends. The only guidance I gave was that I wanted white flowers and thistles in my bouquet. They did an incredible job. My dad took care of the music. He plays with a few different bands as a fun second career. He put together his favorite musicians, and I couldn't have been happier. 

Here are our wedding details, followed by some detail shots. 

Dress: Saja 

Bridesmaid Dresses: 3 were Amsale and I don't remember the other two

Flowers: Mother in Law and Family Friend

Photography: I Love You Much Photography, Lauren 

Band: Friends of my dad/ Family members ( I have a crazy talented family)

Location: Tate Mountain Estates, Jasper Georgia

Catering: Saba Restaurant, Atlanta Georgia ( I was a waitress there for years)

Cakes: Southern Sweets Bakery, Decatur Georgia  ( Best decision ever)

My bouquet was white roses with thistles to bring in the Scottish influence.

My bridesmaids flowers were similar to mine, but were mostly mums with some purple and pink for color.

 

My garter was the same tartan as Lane's kilt. I couldn't wear this the whole time because it would have shown through my dress. We had another white garter for the toss. 

Oh my shoes. I lusted after these for months before I finally purchased them. They are Florina by Kate Spade. I knew I wanted flats, and these were perfect. They were comfortable the whole day, but did get fairly beat up. 

My bouquet was wrapped in one of my paternal grandfather's ties. He passed away a few years ago, and I wanted to have something to represent him. He was a huge Southern Democrat, so the tie is actually covered in donkeys. My MOH, who is a die hard Republican, wore an elephant ear stud to even out the politics. The badge is my maternal grandfather's firefighter captain's badge. He passed away when I was five, but I felt like I should have something from each of my grandparents who had passed away. My grandmother also wore the same veil as me, so I felt like she was represented. 

I bought these Anthropologie mugs for the bridesmaid's table. I love how they turned out with the all white flowers. The reserved sign is made from scrabble tiles. We had a bit of a scrabble theme throughout the wedding. Our save the date also had a scrabble theme, so it all tied together. 

We had framed poems on each table. I bought the super cheap Ikea frames and printed out the poems on white card stock. The tables also had mason jars full of white flowers on each table. The location is so gorgeous, we really didn't need to add that much. 

This was on the buffet table. Lane and I are huge book-lovers, so this and the poems represented that aspect of us. 

I made this signs for about $7.00 dollars a piece. I bought the letters, and simple wooden frame from Michaels. I painted them white, and glued the letters to the frame. I attached ribbon to the top, and hung them from our chairs. 

I made this banner using burlap, white paint and white ribbon. It was pretty easy once I got the right shape for the pennants. I wish I had backed the burlap with something though. When the sun shone though it was difficult to read. 

I have already posted pictures of our cakes, but this was one of my favorite details. I hot glued scrabble tiles  to lolly pop sticks to spell out various phrases. This was so easy, and I got a ton of compliments. 

We love Doctor Who, and this was another cake topper. I really wanted to take every chance possible to infuse our wedding with personal touches. The cake toppers were definitely one of these chances. 

Our good family friend drove us from the wedding to reception site in his vintage roadster. 

So I know this post is supposed to be the details, but I wanted to include some of the funniest pictures from our wedding. When you take thousands of pictures, a few will end up being ridiculous. 

I can't keep a straight face sometimes

Ok, a lot of the time

Lane is not amused

During our day-after pictures we decided to play on the diving board

I thought we were going to fall in

He was wearing a kilt. The danger in this sitting position should be evident.

Not sure what happened here

Wedding Link-Up: The Reception

I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at our wedding photos. I have such wonderful memories of our wedding day, and all the pictures just bring those back. I feel like the majority of planning was focused on the reception and it completely paid off. Our entire wedding took place at my parent's lake house in the north Georgia mountains.

While the ceremony was on a hill overlooking the lake, the reception took place directly next to the lake. We wanted a relaxed garden party feel, and I think we definitely achieved our goal. We covered the trees in white Christmas lights, and had mostly white flowers. The area is so gorgeous, we barely had to add anything. I loved seeing all of our work come together. I feel like I put details from our relationship into every detail. It felt so personal and was exactly as I imagined.

Hey everybody!

The print we used as "guest book"

Reception at the dock 

The lake 

Lake 

Hello husband =) 

Army buddies on the diving tower 

One of our cakes

Sabre for cutting the cake. This is the only military tradition we included in the wedding. 

Laughing during toasts 

Oh and now crying during toasts

Love the black and white, but it does weird things to my hair 

Dancing with my daddy 

Throwing the bouquet 

My Maid of Honor and best friend caught the bouquet

Garter toss

The best man also caught the garter. I love that it was the maid of honor and best man.

My daddy sang a few songs. 

High school buddies. We have all known each other for almost 10 years now. 

Getting down 

Best friends =) 

I love him