Home is wherever I'm with you (Wedding Details Link-up!)

I love the idea of this link up, especially because we just celebrated our first anniversary!!!

My wonderful husband and I talked about marriage after only dating for a few months. We weren't in a hurry, but we knew that it might be on our horizon at some point. We are both the kind of people that weren't scared to be serious about our feelings for each other. After dating for 10 months and planning to move in together, we found out that I was pregnant with Molly. This wasn't in our plans, but we accepted it and each and every day, I am so grateful to have my daughter. We got engaged a few months after I found out I was pregnant (April 5, 2011), but decided to get married after the baby was born (set our date for June 9, 2012).

Here's a few of our engagement pics taken in April 2011 by Brian's talented cousin:



It actually snowed when we took these pictures and I was freezing, but I love them. I was about 4 months pregnant in these pictures but you couldn't (really) tell yet (I was still wearing my normal clothes).

We planned our wedding at the Catholic church closest to our apartment, and the reception at a very large hall close to my aunt's house about 20 mins away in Lr. Sackville. We invited 250 people, and I believe about 170 people were in attendance. We both have very large families, and many close friends who are engaged/dating/married. We had a full Catholic mass, which I was a bit nervous about because a lot of our friends aren't practicing Catholics, including Brian's family, but it was beautiful and I wouldn't have it any other way. It didn't feel too long at the time, except probably for my in-laws who were tasked with watching Molly: 

We had beautiful music at the ceremony courtesy of my cousin Brad (violin), my brother in law, my aunt, and my sister. My sister in law and my godmother did readings at the ceremony. One thing that Brian and I were both really disappointed about was the priest who conducted our ceremony. He was not the priest that we knew (ours was out of town) and he didn't speak English clearly. I know in many ways this shouldn't matter, but I felt like the non-Catholics at our wedding did not get the most out of the ceremony.

Here's the church all set up for the wedding (isn't it beautiful?):

 

With my Mom

Walking down the aisle with my dad

Our wedding colours were navy & silver. We had planned to include some green as well, but honestly, some of those details got a little bit lost in the shuffle of caring for an infant. We had a difficult time deciding on our bridal party because Brian could have easily had 5 attendants and I could really only settle on about 2, so we ended up with 2 (winner! haha just kidding). Brian had his 2 closest childhood/grade school friends, Scott and "Dub", and I had my beautiful sister and a friend from university, Laura.

We ordered the bridesmaid dresses from Modcloth.com and I loved them. The girls have both already worn them again. We had to make some minor alterations, but they fit well considering they were ordered online! The men rented tuxes for the wedding.

We took pictures after the ceremony with the bridal party and then met up with our families for pictures with Molly before the reception.

here's a funny moment where Brian almost dropped me ;)

the boys had some fun too...haha

The Bridal Party :)

 Us with our munchkin

(A pinky swear :D)

Everyone was at the reception when we got there. Here are a few glimpses:

Memory table of those who could not be with us

Game to get us to kiss - throw the frisbee through the hoop - did not go quite as planned!

Head table listening to my parents' speech

Many, many people at the reception

Our first dance to "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (we took dance lessons and choreographed it!)

If I were to do the whole thing again, there are definitely things I would do differently...like not be as stressed the week of the wedding. Overall, we had a very easygoing approach to the day, but I think it could have been better organized for our guests' benefit. However, everyone said that they had a great time and were happy to be there. I was disappointed not to get to talk to everyone at the reception, but there were simply TOO many people.

I was stressed about the people caring for Molly during the day and that night. It is very stressful getting married with a newish baby (she was almost 9 months). She woke up once or twice the night before the wedding and I was awake with her. I had to plan all of her food and pack all of her stuff the morning of the wedding. Etc. etc. BUT, all of that being said, it was a beautiful day, and I will never forget it. It was special in countless ways. 2 weeks after the wedding, we went on a "mini-moon" an hour away for the weekend. We stayed in a B&B and relaxed and went to wineries. It was amazing.

SIDE NOTE - the girl who made our wedding cake got married the week before outside on her property. Half of the people who attended her wedding got this disgusting flu (let's just call it similar to Norwalk). She baked our cake that week that all of her guests were sick, and lo and behold, many, many people at our wedding got sick days/weeks after the fact. REALLY weird. That didn't stop me from trying the cake again this year ;)

Can't wait to read about other weddings!! I should also mention that I was addicted to Pinterest when my daughter was a newborn, so I pinned MANY wedding ideas to this board if anyone is looking for any tips! I also found Wedding Bee to be an amazing wedding planning resource!! Bloggers will especially appreciate that site.

Also...my family is a bit crazy, so we actually had two weddings last summer. My sister got married in August! Here's a picture from that lovely occasion, at which I enjoyed being a matron of honour and relaxing at the reception! haha!