Wedding Diary | Part 2 : Venue + The Ceremony

lifestylewedding

Aug 2

o6/04/2022 - A day I could relive over and over again.

The Venue

Our wedding was held at Blue Vista in Randolph, KS on a warm summer day in June. The sun was shining through the clouds and after a morning of summer showers, everything sparkled with dew. This stunning venue overlooks Tuttle Creek Lake through a wall of glass windows and is surrounded by rolling hills and beautiful greenery!

Bridal Party Photos

To pick up where we left off in my last post, after some pre-ceremony photos just the two of us, our bridal party joined Trevor and I outside for group photos. Both sides of our bridal party were made up of all of our best friends from various stages of life - high school, college, graduate school… all coming together to celebrate us. We both are so lucky to have the best, most supportive friends! Plus, they all know how to have a good time and made our day so memorable. After photos we all waited inside while guests were seated until it was officially time to walk down the aisle!

The Ceremony

Our wedding ceremony took place on a lawn just outside our venue and overlooked the beautiful lake. The lawn was filled with white chairs and at the head of the aisle was a wooden arbor adorned with bright, beautiful flowers. A little side note: I had originally chosen more traditional white flowers and greenery, but a few months before the wedding opted for this vibrant array of pinks, blues, oranges and purples instead. It truly was my favorite decision I made and brought so much life and color to our day! Thankfully I had the absolute best florist who brought my vision to life and even went to several peony farms to find the perfect shade of my favorite flower - hot pink peonies!

Our guests began to arrive and were seated to the instrumental soundtrack from the show Bridgerton. I definitely threw our DJ for a bit of loop with that one! Two of my younger cousins stood at the beginning of the aisle and handed each guest an individually packaged bag of brightly-colored biodegradable confetti to throw at our exit! Such a fun way to add more color.

Our flower girls and ring bearer consisted of my cousin and our nieces and nephew from Trevor’s side. They walked (or shall I say were herded by their parents) down the aisle following our bridal party. The flower girls threw biodegradable confetti from adorable, pearl-handled wicker purses with their initials on them. Their dresses had a big tool skirt, floral appliqués on the bodice and sleeves, and a huge bow on the back - one of my favorite Amazon finds! Our nephew wore a cute little bow tie that matched Trevor’s tie and pocket square and carried our rings in a gold and glass ring box. While it was a little chaotic, we truly wouldn’t have it any other way and we loved having all of them a part of our day!

I walked down the aisle with my dad to an instrumental version of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and, by now you shouldn’t be surprised, I cried like a baby. Once at the end of the aisle, my dad shook Trevor’s hand, gave me a hug and handed me off to my soon-to-be husband.

My husband’s Aunt was our officiant and she made every part of the ceremony so personal to us. It was perfect and something I will never forget! She so thoughtfully curated what she was going to say - it touched on the early dates in our relationship, our long distance journey, my husband’s love for golf, and the future ahead of us. Since we wrote and read our personal letters to each other before the ceremony, we opted for repeating more traditional vows. Even though I knew what the vows were prior to the ceremony, they still made me emotional reciting them.

My sister in law, Toria, read a few pieces of scripture we had selected. Funny story - while she was reading, a bee began swarming the flowers around her head. The most impressive part? She never even flinched! After that we exchanged rings. Leave it my husband to drop the rings in the grass during the handoff with his brother! I could not stop laughing. As weird as it sounds, all of these quirks during our ceremony just made it that much more special.

Finally, we were announced husband and wife! We smooched and then made our way back down the aisle as “Brand New” by Ben Rector played over the speakers and confetti filled the air! I remember feeling so giddy in this moment. All of our bridal party soon joined us and we sang, danced & hugged!

Family Photos

After our ceremony, our guests headed back up to our reception area. We stayed back to take photos with our immediate and extended families. Wrangling such a large group of people isn’t for the weak, but I am so thankful we have these photos to look back on! My husband and I are both blessed with the most loving and supportive parents & siblings.