Wedding Recaps - First Dance

We thought long and hard about what our first dance song would be. 

Nothing too slow. Nothing too fast. 

Then this lovely little ditty made it's debut sometime around that time.... 

And it was fate. ;)

We had a few minutes to ourselves, then our wedding party joined in. 

We had asked them to beforehand... 

Mr. M isn't much for being the only one in front of a crowd for very long... :)

"Honey Bee" Blake Shelton

Girl, I been thinkin' 'bout us
And you know I ain't good at this stuff
These feelings pilin' up won't give me no rest
This might come out a little crazy
A little sideways, yeah maybe
I don't know how long it'll take me but I'll do my best

Don't know what my face was all about there... but Mr. M looks good! ;)

If you'll be my soft and sweet

I'll be your strong and steady
You'll be my glass of wine
I'll be your shot of whiskey
You'll be my sunny day
I'll be your shady tree
You'll be my honeysuckle
I'll be your honey bee

Yeah, that came out a little country
But every word was right on the money
And I got you smilin' honey right back at me
Now hold on cause I ain't done
There's more where that came from
Well you know I'm just havin' fun, but seriously

If you'll be my Louisiana
I'll be your Mississippi

You'll be my little Loretta

I'll be your Conway Twitty

You'll be my sugar baby

I'll be your sweet iced tea

You'll be my honeysuckle

I'll be your honey bee

Your kiss just said it all

I'm glad we had this talk

Nothing left to do but fall in each others arms

I coulda said I love you

Coulda wrote you a line or two

Baby, all I know to do is speak right from the heart

If you'll be my soft and sweet

I'll be your strong and steady
You'll be my glass of wine
I'll be your shot of whiskey
You'll be my sunny day
I'll be your shady tree
You'll be my honeysuckle
I'll be your honey bee

You'll be my Louisiana
I'll be your Mississippi
You'll be my little Loretta
I'll be your Conway Twitty
You'll be my sugar baby
I'll be your sweet iced tea
You'll be my honeysuckle
And I'll be your honey bee

I'll be your honey bee 

****


You can hear and watch the video for Honey Bee here. 
It's a fun song and a cute video.... I highly recommend clicking over. :)
It's exciting to have "your" song. 
Every time we hear it now, we turn it up and dance around wherever we are.
Mr. M even called me up one afternoon and played it for me over the phone when he heard it on the radio. Yep, good song choice. :)


So, what about you?
Did you dance your entire first dance just the two of you?
Or did someone join in? By your request or not?
OR what do you plan to do for your first dance?

Wedding Recaps - Reception Entrance

Wow! I haven't shared a wedding recap in several days!!!

Over a week!!! 

Sorry about that... 

Let's just say I didn't have the CD with the pictures on it... 

And copying and pasting from Facebook takes WAY too much time... haha. 

SO... 

After our lovely wedding ceremony... And some random group shots...

It was time to enter our reception! 

We lined up at a side door into the clubhouse and waited for Miss Tessie to announce each couple...

Cole and Charli

Victor and Megan

Brent and Kayce

Kenny and Meghan Jo

Dusty and Kayli

Mr. and Mrs. M!!!

For some reason, there wasn't a picture of Brett and Tracey... 

Maybe because we all kinda popped in and pretty much ran to our table... 

it was all Karen (our photographer) could do to get these! haha. 

Once we sat down, it was time for dinner and toasts! 

Meanwhile... My aunt, uncle and cousins had started serving dinner. 

There was a HUGE line around the corner and out the front door to eat.... 

Plus all the tables we had set up inside were full. 

That's really when it hit me HOW many people actually came to celebrate our day with us. 

Later I was told they thought they'd served over 200 people at dinner...

That's AFTER some left without eating! 

We are so blessed to have so many good friends and family!!!

What about you? Did you have a large turnout at your big day? 

Or just a small, intimate wedding?

Wedding Recaps - The Ceremony

After our first look and a few random group shots, we noticed that guests were starting to arrive!

That meant it was ALMOST time! ;) 

The aisle. I made the poms following Martha Stewart's tutorial here.
Larger poms where also hung from the cieling of the reception room.

I mentioned before that the golf carts owned by the golf course played an important role in our wedding day.

Well... the entire wedding party drove up to the ceremony site, two by two in golf carts! Mine was a RED golf cart driven by my dad. 

Mr. M swears he was standing up there by himself forever. :) 

The bishop was there with him though!

Then the wedding party. 

They walked in to "You Make Me Smile" by Uncle Cracker and
"Mama's Song" by Carrie Underwood. 

Mr. Chancey making HIS grand entrance! hahaha. 
Didn't realize he was supposed to go with the others, but he still made it! ;) 
And there's a glimpse of the golf carts in the background. :)


Here comes the bride and the father of the bride. 


Love my dad.




Kayli sang, "I Run to You" by Lady Antebellum. SO beautifully by the way. :)




The bishop read a lovely speech. I hope sometime to get a copy of it. 

The girls

The guys

 
We exchanged rings, said I do!...




And we were married!!! Onto the party! ;)

Wedding Recaps - Random Group Shots

We had only a few minutes before the start of the ceremony after our first look photos. 

But we used that time to take a few fun group shots. :)

 

 

The golf carts where a fun party of our day! 

Tessie, our wedding day coordinator used them to run around making sure things were going as planned... 

And they played an integral part in our ceremony arrival... And departure... 

But more on that later. :)

 

 

 I love these sweet girls. 

Our two older nieces where there while Mindy was doing my hair... 

And the stinkers kept telling her to do a good job. :) Love them. 

Arina, my sister in law made the rope baskets that they carried rose petals in as our adorable flower girls. 

THANKS AGAIN ARINA! 

(I have one on my coffee table now and just love it!)

Rose petals... In a bright orange/red color were the only live petals we could get the day before. 

But they worked just fine. :)

 

Remember how I said it had rained and was SUPER muddy. 

Gotta love this shot of Mr. M with the girls in their tennis shoes and sandals. :) 

No... they didn't wear these during the ceremony... haha. 

Just anytime they could get away with NOT sinking in the mud in their heels. :)

 

 

And then with the guys. :) They INSISTED on doing a holding me up picture. Haha. 

But like I said when I posted these to FB... You can see who's doing all the work here. And yep, that's my brother, Brent. He was the one on the far right in this picture.

We had the funnest group of people with us for our wedding party!

If you can't tell... heehee.  I'm so glad we snuck in a few fun pics with them.

Did you make a point to take some fun pictures with your wedding party??

Or strictly posed? What would you prefer to do?

Until next time. :)

A Wedding Party Canvas (From Easy Canvas Prints)

As I'm working through my wedding recaps, I want to take a quick break to share the new canvas I received! I was given the opportunity to review a canvas from Easy Canvas Prints. 
Photos to Canvas
I chose one of my favorite wedding party photos to make into the canvas. 

The ordering process was simple, you choose, then upload your photo. 

Choose your canvas size and layout.

Then order. 

And this lovely is what I received...

When I uploaded my photo, I found that wrapping it around the edges cuts off the two guys on either end.

It was nice to be able to see a preview of that, so I was able to fix it before ordering!

I chose instead of wrapping to just do a black edge. 

There are multiple colors to choose from if you go with that option. 

I decided to upgrade my canvas to an 11' 14' size and I love it. 

The photo is completely clear from a distance and only slightly grainy (i.e. the canvas texture) up close. 

You can see above I chose to display it standing on my mantel, but if I wanted to hang it on the wall, the hardware to do so was already installed on the canvas. 

I appreciated this since in another canvas ordering experience I had to install the hardware myself... 

And let's be honest.. it's hard to get it centered. 

So what do you think? 

I like it there on my western/love themed mantel, don't you? 

*I was not monetarily compensated for this product review and all opinions shared are my own. Thanks to Easy Canvas Prints for providing the canvas in exchange for my honest review. 

Bridesmaid Gifts

So some of my bridesmaids actually read this blog...

And I want their gifts to be at least somewhat of a surprise...

That being said, here's a little teaser for you ladies. :)

I got some of the materials needed in to make up three more bridesmaid gifts. One is already finished.

I need to do 6 total bridesmaids and one for my lovely hostess.

SOURCE

All I'll say is each girl is getting something tailored to her and her personality. And I am so excited to get them all going and hopefully finished soon.

My ladies are getting spoiled, I think! heehee... Tease, tease. ;)

What did you use for bridesmaid gifts? Any good ideas... cause I'm still looking for additions possibly...?

Mason Jar Mug Idea

So I have an idea... You know how you can have champagne glasses personalized for your bridal party so that they all have their own toasting glass???

I'm thinking Mason Jar Mugs... Such as these... instead of champagne glasses.

They fit more with our rustic/western theme. And I'm sure our party would prefer them... heehee.

The darling Mr. M purchased a Silhouette for my Christmas gift... So I can print out the names, etch them on the glasses myself and HELLO wedding DIY!

Oh... not to mention, saved money! And who can say no to that!?!

SOURCE

I kind of have a feeling this little lovely is going to come to GREAT use!!! :)

Thank you, thank you Mr. M!!!



Will you...

My ladies have been chosen! And all have agreed to be in my wedding! Yay! Just wanted to share with you my, "please be in my wedding" idea. I decided that asking a friend to participate in one's wedding should be a big deal! It IS a big deal, I think! In my case I was asking them to dedicate at least a few weekends of their busy lives to share their time with me!! So I wanted to ask each lady in a fun and memorable way. This led me to search online for cards to send, cause I love sending actual letters/cards in the mail. 

I was lucky to discover Greeting Card Universe. They have some super cute cards and really great prices!!! Turns out they were having a sale at the time, so I chose to use their website.

I have decided to use bright Gerber daisies as my main wedding flowers (more on that at another time), so I searched for daisies within the "Will You Be My Bridesmaid" category. Yes, they have a be my bridesmaid category of cards!! Isn't that awesome?!?

I found this card, which I loved!!! The daisies are bright and exactly what I was looking for!

Source

The inside just had something like, it'll make my day if you're a bridesmaid, which I didn't think was personal, or "cutsie" enough... And Greeting Card Universe gives you the option to personalize the inside... So I rummaged around in the other cards and found a poem.

I edited it just a little to my liking and it became,

"We've shared a special bond

That only best friends can do,

A bond that's been a blessing

All the years I've known you.

God truly has blessed me

When he put you in my life.

Will you be my bridesmaid

As I become his wife?"

Each of my 5 bridesmaids received that card in the mail with a little printout from The Knot about their duties. Just for fun! Afterwards I thought maybe it seemed a little bridezilla to be like, be my bridesmaid? Now you gotta do this... But really, when I was a maid of honor for a friend once, my first time, I searched for what my duties were online, cause I really didn't know. So I stand by actually telling your girls what you expect them to do! Then nobody feels confused or left out! The bridesmaid duties can be found here.
Bridesmaids: Bridesmaid Duties in Detail

For my sister, who I asked to be my Maid of Honor, I personalized it especially for my "sister".

"We've shared a special bond

That only sisters can do,

A bond that's been a blessing

All our whole lives through.

God truly has blessed me

When he put you in my life.

Will you be my Maid of Honor

As I become his wife?

I included with hers, a list of MOH duties. Like I said... Something I would've liked to receive when I was an MOH. The list I sent can be found here.
Maid of Honor: Her Duties in Detail

So to those of you who are planning your own wedding... You can definitely steal my idea! Not gonna lie... pretty proud of it. :) My girls really seemed to enjoy getting the cards! And it was a surprise at least for my sister, who wasn't expecting to be the MOH. If you do, please write a post about it on your own blog and link back to me! Sharing is caring! heehee! Thanks!

And to those already married, did you ask your girls to stand up there with you in a fun or interesting way??