First off, our day went great.
Our day started at 8:30 when the hair and makeup girls arrived at my hotel room. Our whole morning ran later than expected and we were late getting to our venue. I arrived at the venue and our caterer was setting up everything. I was disappointed with my bouquet when I saw it as it was not what I was expecting or asked for. It was much too rosey, whereas I was hoping for something with more greenery. It was still beautiful though, so I wasn't going to let the flowers ruin my day. I walked down stairs at one point and I overhear and see that our cupcake stand that we brought was missing a tier and was incomplete. I had to run upstairs as I didn't even want to know about anything like that going wrong. They did find the missing tier in the box in the car though.
By the time my MOH arrived at the venue from the hotel and we got my dress on, we barely had any time for the photos we were planning to do before the ceremony. We wanted a first look, but we couldn't do it outside because so many guests had already arrived (very early) at our venue and we didn't want so many people to see us. So instead we did our first look inside by the grand staircase of the mansion. Then we just hung out upstairs and relaxed until it was time to start the ceremony.
We had so many guests tell us how beautiful our ceremony was. We had it on the grounds in front of the mansion with the mansion in the background. We really lucked out on the weather and it was a gorgeous day. We had some clouds so despite being at noon, the light wasn't too harsh and it wasn't too hot. There was a great breeze, so it was actually more comfortable outside on the porticos and terrace where all our tables were during the reception rather than inside.
The food was amazing as we expected it to be, and you best believe we sat at our sweetheart table and were the first to eat. It helped that we didn't spend the entire time during cocktail hour taking photos so we got to mingle with our guests then. That way I didn't feel guilty about spending time eating. I wasn't going to be one of those brides that didn't get to eat on their wedding day haha
The day is a wonderful blur. I had a great time and I felt like a princess. Craig's cousin's 3 year old actually thought I was a princess and was calling me "Princess" all night. She was the cutest thing in the world. There is not much else that can boost your ego more than a child truly believing that you are a real life princess.
Here are a few photos from our photographer. Our photographer was amazing. We paid for her to travel from Tennessee to Maryland to photograph our wedding, and despite the fact that immediately after our wedding she left for a mini-vacation/roadtrip with her boyfriend (who came out to Maryland with her) she has already posted some sneak peak photos for us. I love each and every one of them and can't wait for the rest.
I'm still waiting for pictures to roll in from the guests.







