Finally!! If you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to all year… here we go — we got married!! Our wedding day was perfect for us… be prepared as the wedding takes over the blog for a couple weeks as I recap what I was doing all this time! 😉
Who knew that planning a wedding would take up so much time?! I spent the past year creating every last detail, making sure everything was personalized to fit Alex and me — this meant a geeky themed ceremony, book flower bouquets and centerpieces, carefully picked wine and beer menus, homemade favors, music lists… It really didn’t seem like much when I was doing it, because I had SO much fun, but looking back, boyyy was it a lot!
Today, I’ll just share a brief look into our day, and I’ll be following up with more posts to go more into the finer details of our day! All photos (except for a few of details I’ll be sharing later) were taken my the amazing Mandy Brisco of Amanda Brisco Photography. If you are looking for a wedding photographer in the Pittsburgh, PA area, look no further. Mandy was so amazing to work with, and you could not get better quality photos. She knows how to capture your day in a way that really stays true to you, capturing your raw emotions, rather than posing you like crazy! She did give us a little guidance, which is good, because Alex and I are totally awkward together anytime a camera comes around, haha! Now, BE PREPARED. You’re about to see A LOT OF PHOTOS! 🙂
We got married at Armstrong Farms Fieldstone in Sarver, PA, with our ceremony outside on the grounds and our reception in the barn. It’s a beautiful barn venue with farm houses on the property so you can stay the whole weekend! It totally fit with the vibe we wanted, which was just relaxed and casual… we wanted to focus on celebrating us as a couple, and we’re totally simple people. Good food, good music, dancing, and a fire to finish the night were just the ticket! They also have some farm kitties roaming the property, so you know… it couldn’t have been more perfect for us. 😉
My two sisters and my best friend were my bridesmaids, and Alex had three of his closest friends as his groomsmen. A smaller bridal party was definitely super simple to coordinate. I’ve grown up with these three girls, so we had such a fun time getting ready together and managing all the final touches of the day of with no problem!
I will share more of the details of what we wore etc. in a later post, so for now, just enjoy the photos!
We kept everything very personalized by having my brother-in-law, Mark, marry us, and my other brother-in-law, Bill, created a reading for us and ran all our music. We all laughed SO much during the ceremony because of all the book and TV show references… which I will also be sharing further details into later!!
We did a first look before the ceremony, and I have to say, this was SO nice to have all of our photos done beforehand, and it definitely did not affect the emotions we felt seeing each other when I came down the aisle. We were able to go straight into our cocktail hour and ENJOY!
After cocktail hour, we went right up into the reception, beginning with our first dances and then going into dinner. We picked a song that I spent most of the time just rocking out to, while the mother-son and father-daughter dances were a little more emotional!
We had ice cream in lieu of cake, which was SOO our style. We even did a first scooping together! 😉
All my bridesmaids gave speeches, with my sisters’ being more of a roast with a performance of “Sisters” from White Christmas with my aunt and mom. Only Alex’s best man gave a speech on his side. 😉
We then snuck away for some photos as the sun went down… another thing I HIGHLY recommend, as the lighting is totally beautiful in these photos. We were also a lot more relaxed at this point, so I think they ended up a little bit more candid than our other portraits!
AND THEN the dancing and FUN began!
…and THAT is the overview of our wedding day. I’ll be back soon with details about vendors, decor, stationary, music, the ceremony, etc!
For other wedding posts, here is the complete list:
Overview
Stationary
Getting Ready and What We Wore
Flowers + Decor
Food + Drinks
Ceremony + Music
Favors