Wedding recap #3- Photos and the ceremony

 (All photos shown are from our fantastic photographer- Andria Watha) *these recaps are photo heavy! Can't help it I love them.*

 After everyone had a break to eat some subs, chips and drinks... all of us gals locked the door to our room to get me dressed and ready to go see Geoff.

 During the craziness of wedding planning, we had decided to exchange gifts at some point during the day. Our bridesmaids and groomsmen set it up so we could get our gifts right before we did our first look photos. Geoff got me a beautiful necklace and wrote me such a lovely note that almost had me in tears (I tried hard not to cry and mess up my makeup). I got him a watch that I hoped he would love and wrote him more of a funny card. After reading his words I was so excited to see him and I felt nervous for the first time the whole day. My dress was the only thing left that I had kept a secret from him and I couldn't wait to see him and spend the rest of the day together.

 The most amazing thing happened right before I was ready to walk outside to see Geoff and have our "First Look", it stopped raining and the sun came out. I was so happy and we couldn't have asked for it to be any prettier.

We had a few hours before the ceremony set aside for photos so our photographer snuck in some family photos while we got everyone ready for some wedding party shots.

My mom cried while my Dad and I laughed... this is typical in my family. :)

My awesome brother Kyle.

It was still a little cold but I came prepared with blankets for all of us girls to wrap up in between photos. Everyone was a real good sport about it and we had a good time anyways. :)

The handsome gentlemen.

My beautiful ladies!

This is my favorite photo of the two of us for the day. :) 

As much planning and time management you think you have while planning a wedding, there are always something that just happen. I was very worried as I was planning with our jam packed schedule of falling behind and running late. As we photographed and videotaped our day we ran a few minutes behind schedule. Blame it on the love of photography in me but at the end of the day I wanted a few more photos before the day was done. So we kept clicking away. We ended up heading back about 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. At our location, the ceremony was just outside the doors to go in for the reception. We had to "sneak" me by a window full of guests surrounded by my bridesmaids and half covered under a blanket while we all laughed. I had arranged for the girls to have champagne and some chocolate covered fruit before the ceremony began since we had budgeted about a half an hour for me to touch up, calm my nerves and relax with my girls. I was a little frazzled until our coordinator came in to nervously tell me we were running a little behind schedule because my grandma was late. :) Couldn't have been better timing. An extra 10 minutes later we were ready to go and get married!!!

Our ceremony was officiated by a pastor that I had grown up with through my church in Cincinnati. He has married many of my friends that were in attendance and I was so blessed to have him travel 4 hours to be a part of our special day. He really did a wonderful job and the ceremony was exactly what we wanted. Short, sweet and full of love. It only lasted about 20 minutes but being short took nothing away from the meaning behind the whole day. I worked hard to make sure our day was a fun one but I didn't want the reception to overshadow the ceremony either. There would be no celebration without the commitments we promised each other before our friends, family and God.

I knew that my wedding day was going to be a special and happy day for both of us. However, I was not prepared for the emotions that took over me after we were married and we turned to walk back down the aisle. We stood there hand in hand... I was married to my soulmate and best friend, surrounded by all the people in our life who love us (and who we love dearly). It was by far the most amazing and overwhelming moment of my life. I was so full of happiness I thought my heart was going to explode. I remember looking over at Geoff and thinking how I could not be any luckier.  

After we walked back down the aisle to U2's Beautiful Day, everyone headed inside for Cocktail hour while we took a few more photos of family. Excuse the photo dump again but this was the best day of my life and I love to remember everything about it. :)

For those of you still with me, I promise my next post will be the last. :) Reception to come.