Adam & Nicole's Wedding: The Ceremony

Now for photos of the ceremony!

 The Stroudmore Inn has a lot of wedding chapels (five, I think).  Adam and Nicole got married at the Woodland Chapel.

This table that held the unity candle has particular significance.  It is made from the trunk of the willow tree that used to be in my parents' front yard that Adam used to climb when he was younger.  Adam put that chain around the tree years ago...and the tree grew around it...so the chain is embedded in the wood.  The company that my parents hired to cut the tree down wouldn't take this piece away with the rest of the tree, because the chain would damage the equipment they use to grind up the wood.  Adam and my parents had half-joked about turning the piece into a table.  One of my parents' friends from their church (the father of the boy who was the ring bearer for my wedding!) actually had the equipment needed to even out the piece in order to make a table.  So my parents paid him a visit to have the piece cut and the legs put in, and then Mom used EnviroTex to seal it.  It's an amazing table.  It looks like one of those $1000 tables you see at high end craft shows.

 This location was beautiful.  I joked that I wish I'd known about this place when CJ and I got married!

 I loved the woods surrounding it.

My father got ordained as a pastor a few months ago, specifically in order to perform the ceremony.
It's still a little weird to me that my dad is actually a pastor.  He's been a deacon at his church for years, but now he's an actual pastor!  Someone called him "Father" and he replied "Yes...father of the groom!" (my family is not Catholic and I think someone calling him "Father" probably either weirded him out or amused him)

 Here comes the bride!

 Beautiful dress!

 "Mawwiage!  Mawwiage is what bwings us togethah today!"

Yes...that is actually how my father began the ceremony!  Everyone loved it!

(if you don't get it...you really need to watch "The Princess Bride")

 The mothers lighting the unity candles.

 The kiss!

 Mr. and Mrs. Chatfield!
So happy!

Adam & Nicole's Wedding: Pre-Ceremony

I took SO many pictures yesterday!  It's hard to decide which ones to post!  I think I'm going to have to do separate posts for each section of the wedding instead of one HUGE blog post.  This entry is pictures from before the ceremony...

Nicole's tank top she was wearing as she was getting her hair and makeup done.

Mom helping the bridesmaids put on their shoes.

(left to right)
Nicole's grandma, my and Adam's grandma, and Nicole's Mom. 

 The grandmas becoming friends!

 The bride in her beautiful dress!

 Nicole giving my mom a Pandora charm bracelet...and both of them trying not to cry!

 The signifigance of the beads: Love and Faith, Wedding colors, Little Boy, Daughter/Mother Hearts. Service to her Country (Mom was in the Air Force before I was born), and a Snake (referencing a snake ring my dad has always worn and Adam wears one as well...the ring is in reference to a song Dad used to sing in church about a Bible story about Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness).

Adam and our parents.

 Me and my "little" brother. (Contrary to popular belief, I am the older one!)

Not many pictures of me...since I was behind the camera most of the time.  I'm sure there will be more once the professional's photos are available.  I feel bad because I have no pictures of my husband either.  I have no good excuse for that one.  Again though...I know the professional photographer got pictures of him.

A Beautiful Wedding...

It was a beautiful wedding...

This photo is all you get for now.
I'll post more pictures later this week.  I'm a bit wiped out from dancing right now. ;)


It was such a beautiful wedding...and maybe the most fun reception I've ever been to!

Turquoise Fabric Roses Brooch

I made this pin/brooch for my mom's friend's twin sister. Their younger sister is getting married in Venezuela next month. The wedding colors are turquoise and brown (a winning color combo in my book!) and Mandy (mom's friend's twin) wanted something to add color to her white bridesmaid dress. She saw a hair clip I had made for my mom and decided to take a look at my Etsy shop and liked my turquoise fabric rose hair clip, but she wanted a pin, and wanted more than one rose grouped together. No problem! I'm on it!

I'm really satisfied with how it turned out and actually might start offering these in the shop now. This could also be easily converted into a headband or hair clip.

(back view)

I felt the need to model it, so she could get a sense of how it will look. So I busted out my one white dress I own (besides my wedding dress) and went outside to take pictures.

I hope she likes it! :)

Kasey's Wedding!

I had a busy weekend!

The big event was Kasey's wedding on Saturday...

...which I was a bridesmaid in! (or I suppose since I'm married, I was technically a "bridesmatron". Ewwww!..."matron" sounds so...matronly!)

It rained all day, but Kasey's mother had suggested a great idea for an indoor location for pictures that she'd seen on a wedding website...a carousel! So after the photographer took some family photos at the church, we went to a local mall and took pictures on the carousel in the food court!

It was so much fun!...even though people in the food court were staring at us and we were holding up the carousel from the kiddies. We had arrangements with the mall to reserve the carousel for about a half hour for $15... a pretty good deal considering how much some other places charge for taking pictures! I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out! I was in the pictures, so I couldn't take a lot. My mom wanted to come with us (she took pictures with my camera earlier since I had other duties), but she was helping to get ready for the reception...which was a BLAST!

Kasey has 4 younger brothers who are dancing maniacs...and they did a choreographed dance that was a scream! It was absolutely hilarious! There are rumors of video of it being uploaded to YouTube...but I'm not sure when or if it will happen. I'll post a link to it if it does end up on there. I should have thought to run and grab my camera and take video of it myself, but I was having too much fun watching it and didn't think of taking video of anything until later. Even then it was very little. I'll post a link to my vlog (video blog) when I get the footage edited.

Purple Wedding Nubbins

I just finished a new set of custom Wedding Nubbins! (I KNEW it was a good idea to offer them in my Etsy shop!)

I wonder how many odd looks I got from people while I was taking pictures of these on the bush in our side yard!

I absolutely love how they turned out! Especially the groom with his little bow tie!

It makes him so much more groom-like than the first set I did.

They'll be getting sent out tomorrow. Enjoy marital bliss in your new home little Nubbins!

Kasey's "Bachelorette Party"

On Friday I picked up my dress for Kasey's wedding...

That night was also the "bachelorette party". Now, we're pretty conservative, Christian girls, and I was the only one over 21...so this was not what most people picture when they think of a bachelorette party. No drinking, no strippers (DEFINITELY no strippers!)...this was just good, clean fun. We went and got manicures/pedicures, then went to the hotel. The mother of one of the other bridesmaids paid for a hotel suite for the five of us for the night (this was her bridal shower gift to Kasey). She also made us dinner and grilled steak, chicken, and shrimp out on the common area patio at the hotel. There were tables and chairs up on the patio, but we all decided we wanted to eat by the water and watch the ducks.

I looked down at my plate when I was finished eating and asked "Does this look like a tree to you?" What can I say?...I see art everywhere!

There are actually five bridesmaids, but one of them, Kasey's fiance's sister in law, has a baby who is only a couple months old, so she didn't stay the night. But she did come for a bit to hang out with us. At the hotel we also swam, played a game called Things (a really fun game, one of my favorite party games, second to Apples to Apples), and watched The Notebook. I went to bed before the movie was over, since it was pretty late, and CJ was picking me up in the morning at 9:00 to go work on the new house.

We also had a wax skin softening treatment that one of the girls brought where you dip your hands into hot wax, let it cool, then take it off to reveal soft skin. The wax was still pliable when we took it off, so I sculpted mine into a little dog. One of the other girls had coiled hers up, then set it next to the dog...so it looks like...

We had a fun time and laughed a lot.

See? Bachelorette parties don't have to be dirty!