Our Wedding

We wanted to ensure that our wedding day captured the essence of our relationship and neither of us was interested in a traditional wedding, so having an affordable and stress-free wedding was ideal. In order to keep it affordable, we tried to do most of the things ourselves, or with the help of family, and to make it some what stress-free, we decided to make it a surprise wedding!

We invited everyone to a pre-wedding reception to celebrate our upcoming marriage. We told everyone that we were going to get married on our own in the Caribbean after the party. Our plan was to make an announcement during the party that we were actually getting married that day! We decided to fill our parents in on the plan to help us pull it off and I contacted my great Aunt to ask if she would marry us. She was thrilled and immediately got ordained online. She was the one to gather everyone for a toast and the surprise announcement! Everyone was VERY surprised and there were many happy tears!

We knew we wanted to share the day with our family and closest friends so having the wedding at my grandparents seemed to be the best option. They live in a beautiful house right on the lake in Lake Ozark, MO where I grew up. Matt's smaller family flew out to join my huge family! 

The only vendor we hired was a photographer and for that we used Wildflower Wedding Photography out of Columbia, MO. They are a wife/husband team and are amazing at capturing the true feeling and emotions of the day. We couldn't of asked for better pictures and are so happy with how they turned out!

Below are a few of our favorite photos that Wildflower Wedding Photography captured, all credits go to them:

 

My grandparents home where I have many wonderful childhood memories. So great to share that with Matt and his family.

Earrings from my sister-in-law, Lauren, that she had just given me for my birthday. Perfect!

Excited to wear my new $18 shoes that I found at JC Penny's with my mom and sister a few days before.

Instead of an expensive cake, we decided to just make cupcakes ourselves. My niece and nephew were very happy to help and taste test! Matt's mom and sister-in-law iced them the day of.

My mom did most of the decorations herself, she was in on the surprise so she scoured Craigslist and garage sales for goodies.

My mom found a bunch of Ball jars that we used for holding flowers and candles. The flowers are just a bundle of wildflowers from the local grocery store. Matt's ring is made of tungsten and was ordered from Etsy.com. Matt's mom helped look after the custom design and making of my ring. The diamond is from her family and I'm the 4th generation to wear it! How lucky! It turned out so beautiful!

My grandmother and I. She was also in on the surprise and actually surprised me with an 80 year old wedding veil that has been worn by 4 other women in my family. It was so intricate and unique and I was honored to wear it.

Our siblings stood up with us (after asking them only 20 minutes before, after the announcement!) as my great Aunt performed the ceremony.

Matt's family

My family

I wore my great grandmothers diamond pendant that my Aunt graciously loaned me for the day. Also, I wore my blue beads (and added a few of Matt's mom's) that Matt gave me. They are from St. Eustatius and are 350 year old beads that were used by the slaves as a form of currency. As the story goes, after they emancipated the slaves, they all went to the cliffs and through the beads over. They can still be found in the water around St. Eustatius and if found, are proudly worn on necklaces. That definitely qualifies as old and blue!