Three Presidents and a Lady: friends

I'm speaking for both Ben and myself when I say that our wedding day couldn't have been more perfect. We truly were and are blessed by how special the day was for us. When we decided to get married in November, we went into it thinking that we'd most likely have pretty cold temperatures and possibly even snow by that point in Indiana. We prepared to be cold for pictures. My mom made a beautiful jacket to go with my dress, Ben wore a long-sleeved Under Armor shirt under his dress shirt for extra warmth, and neither of us really needed either when the 9th arrived and we found ourselves having an absolutely perfect, sunny, 60 degree day! How awesome is that? I think it's pretty special that my mom made my jacket and Ben's mom made his vest. I'm glad that we were able to incorporate both of their handiwork into the day!

Sugary wedding deliciousness

Most TV shows portray brides to be a complete disaster on their wedding day. Thankfully, this does not describe me (Ben confirmed... I don't think he was just being nice ;). I really had a lot of fun getting my hair and make-up professionally done that morning, and I even had some time to sit and chat with my family for a little bit while eating lunch (my little brother Eric flew home from California and my Grandma Mavis came down early too). One of my long-time best friends, Kristin, showed up early, treated me to Starbucks. and then traveled with me to all my appointments. I am just so blessed to have amazing friends like her who would give up their whole work day to hang out with me. Ashley did an awesome job with my make-up and graciously loaned me extra lipstick so I could touch-up throughout the evening, and Adrianne came to my house to do my hair so we wouldn't have to travel more! They're so sweet!

A former parent from teaching at ZMS started her own floral company called Accent Floral Design. She worked with me to create my bouquet and I LOVE how it turned out. Many of you know that yellow is my favorite color, and so the golden orchids were the perfect choice. Hydrangea is a favorite of mine too... Ben even bought me a hydrangea plant last summer and it's now planted in our backyard. Linda did such a great job piecing together a bouquet that really was significant to me.

Beautiful and GIANT bouquet of flowers
I received from Ben on our wedding day

Ben and I met up with Stefanie and Brock Childs for our pictures starting at 3pm. Conner Prairie is such a beautiful setting in the fall; we were so glad that we chose that location for our wedding and reception! We were able to walk around the grounds taking our pictures. We're so excited to see the rest of our pictures soon! On top of being a talented photography team, they're really personable and easy to work with. Ben and I felt very much at ease snuggling and being lovey in front of them (in this case I think that's a good thing... in any other circumstance that might be an odd thing to say about a couple). After our pictures, we met up with my family to take family pictures out on the deck! I'm so thankful that both sets of my grandparents came to the wedding. Grandma and Grandpa McClew flew up from Florida and Grandma Church came down from Fremont. I'm so fortunate to have them in my life!

Looking back on the day, neither of us had butterflies until the 30 minutes of "down time" between pictures and the ceremony. You feel like you're in hiding for that little bit of time, so I was thankful that I had Dad to hang out with until we made our grand entrance. ;) And it was good to have that time to refocus on the real reason for all the glitz and months of planning. Ben and I were able to pray together before it all started too. I'm so thankful to have a spiritual leader in him. We want Christ to be the center of our relationship for the rest of our lives, so I'm glad that we started it off thanking Him and praising Him for our blessings.

I think all of the hours put into the pumpkins were worth the effort. The tables and room decor looked great! Our family and friends that attended were very complimentary, and I think they were pleasantly surprised by a few things they didn't know were coming too. Since Ben and I chose to keep our wedding very small and intimate, we wanted to make sure that our guests had a way to know each other. We also wanted to ensure that these people knew how much they mean to us and thus the reason why we wanted them to be part of our wedding day. We spent HOURS on this "document" but I think it was worth it. We titled it "Who's Who", like those silly yearbook things you can get in college, and in it we described each person. Sometimes it was about how we knew the guest, interesting facts, why we love them, what makes them unique, etc. There wasn't a formula to describing each person, but I think it was a fun way to connect the dots between the tables. If people were at a table with someone they didn't know, it was an easy conversation starter to get to know someone new.

The fireplace mantle

The ceremony was beautiful. Dave Cheatwood married us (his son Tony is Ben's- now mine too- brother-in-law) and did a great job. In case you couldn't tell, we didn't really want to have a traditional wedding. Some aspects were traditional, yes, but we worked very hard to make sure that this day was what we wanted and would be proud to retell memories for the rest of our lives. Keeping in theme with the "Who's Who" books we made, we wanted to involve our guests in the ceremony. We wrote a little note on the back of our Thank You cards that shared with our guests that part of why we wanted them at our wedding was because at some point in our lives they've played a significant role in who we are. Ben and I served communion to each of our guests during our ceremony so that we could share with them that we are looking forward to serving with them in the future. Our vows were stolen from Trader's Point Community Church's marriage series that they did last spring. When Ben and I first started talking about getting married, he shared the card with me that had both vows on it (groom on one side, bride on the other) and I'm so glad we chose them for our wedding. I love our vows, they were (once again) perfect!

After the ceremony, we served a full meal. We added a few twists by providing gray striped straws with mustaches. I found them to be pretty comical and was glad to see they even made their way into a few of our photo booth pictures! ;) (Thanks LIFE groupies!) The meal was super yummy too. We had prime rib and chicken and lots of other delicious treats. Speaking of treats, I didn't get to try them, but I heard from several people that the cupcakes were a huge hit. (That's why I didn't get to try them! They disappeared FAST!) My best friend Kelli made three different kinds for us and seeing how she's an amazing chef, I knew they'd be spectacular. Ben made our cupcake stand (an Etsy idea I "stole" and he created) and I wanted to tie in my love for music, so we had cupcake wrappers that had sheet music on them. Love the details! :)

3 kinds of cupcakes! YUM!

Our wedding cake and groom's (SURPRISE!) cake!

My sweet friend Mary made our wedding cake. I did get to try this one and it was super yummy! The BMW car cake was a surprise to Ben. Ben's sisters, Karen and Becky, helped me get this made and delivered. There is a family friend from their hometown who makes cakes, and Ben has been raving about Jim Hamilton's cakes since we started dating. I felt bad that I had already secured our wedding cake and cupcakes before we could even ask Jim, and then I was sad to find out that he has retired from cake making. I'm not sure how much begging Karen had to do, but Jim ended up making the surprise cake for Ben and it was so fun to see him get excited about it. Ben used to have a red BMW that he loved and sold to get a car that wouldn't have a monthly payment, so the cake was a fun detail to incorporate some of Ben's passions too (he loves cars!).

Our first dance was to Etta James' "At Last". My birthday present in July came with a hand-made card from Ben with the lyrics to that song written on it, so it was the perfect song for our first dance as husband and wife. The big surprise came after our dance was done though! Ben surprised me with a serenade/dance to One Direction's "One Thing". Ben memorized the lyrics, showed off his crazy good dance moves, and even got his life group guys and one of my brother's involved in holding props and dancing with him. It was an awesome moment... I loved every second of it! Have I mentioned yet how awesome our DJ was?? Shawn Liller KILLED it! Shawn and his wife Beth are friends of mine from Northview. They didn't hold back on the fun... Awesome song selection, he brought great lighting for the dance floor and up lights for around the room, and just did a spectacular job. We were so blessed to have them.

A big wedding trend right now is having a photo booth. I researched for quite a while to find a good price for one, but couldn't bring myself to justify $600 for 3 hours. Being the Pinterest addict that I am, I knew there had to be a DIY for this project. If you search, there are quite a few different ideas on how to do your own photo booth, but I ended up doing a slight twist. Robert's Camera in Indianapolis does rentals, so my sweet friend Erin took pictures for us and I rented a backdrop and lights. (Check out Erin's business page... she's so creative!) I purchased an instant download on Etsy for props on sticks and made a prop sign using my projector at school to trace the letters and Erin painted it for me. All Pinterest ideas, but I only spent $80. We put all of the pictures on our Shutterfly page, so people can download and keep them as a memory from the evening.

Last but not least, we ended the night with sparklers! We had a lot of them, and I probably put my hair in jeopardy considering how much hair spray was in it, but it was so cool. :)