These blue mason jars were supposed to hang off the sides of the chairs on the inside of the aisle, but the chairs ended up being different than the ones in the pictures. We were expecting brown wooden chairs but ended up having white folding chairs instead. This was a big "Oh well" moment. I was sad but I had to let it go. My helpers ended up putting them behind the chairs and that worked out just fine.
I was so happy with how the altar ended up! Burlap was a bit over done by the time I got around to getting married but I still wanted to find some unique ways to include it. I found a picture of burlap curtains on Pinterest and loved it. I didn't feel like building a wooden altar to hang them from, but I had experience renting piping from my wedding planning days. It was only $40 to rent the metal piping and it was delivered for free with all our other rentals. It was also a lot easier to move, which is good since we repurposed the altar as a decoration behind the cake table during the reception!
This candelabra was an amazing find!! I wanted something rustic and vintage looking to hang from the altar and found this gem on Etsy for only $60! It will be an heirloom that we hope to hang above an outdoor dining table in our future dream back yard some day. When people ask us about it, we'll just say "Oh, yes. We got married under it!"
Although, the best part of the ceremony decor was the view behind the altar!
Back to the chairs. Note to future brides: make sure you confirm the exact type of chairs/tables etc so this doesn't happen to you. I really didn't care about the look of the chairs, it was the fact that the chairs we were expecting had slats on the tops that the mason jars and reserved seating signs would easily hang off of. The white chairs we ended up with had round tops that didn't hold anything. I think someone is holding up the sign for this picture but the signs had to rest on the chairs otherwise.
Connor holding the ring pillow I made.
I made this pillow out of leftover burlap. I loved the look of the exposed burlap with the inset border sewn around the pillow. I then hand stitched some lace I found at JoAnn's Fabrics and weaved some teal yarn through some eyelets in the lace. I would have preferred ribbon but couldn't find any in the teal I wanted. I asked Liv to make a large boutonneire for the middle of the pillow. The final touch was the mock wedding rings which were my maternal grandmother's wedding rings. They were just for show and were actually gold which is funny since ours are silver!
I had seen pictures of little boys carrying signs down the aisle that said "Here Comes the Bride" and was planning on doing something along those lines. I found this awesome frame at Michael's for only $2 and used some yellow spray paint I had lying around the house to make it awesome! At the last minute, I thought of writing "Here Comes McBride" instead. Pretty clever I think!
I love this picture of Brad preparing for the ceremony! We were so lucky to have Matthew's brother in law do the ceremony for us. We didn't want a stranger to do it, but Matthew wanted it to be someone that we would take seriously so he was perfect! Thanks again Brad!
Matthew walking his Mom down the aisle, so sweet!
My cousin Jeffrey walking my Mom down the aisle. I loved her dress!
Matthew's friend Khoi walking my sister Gail down the aisle.
Skyba was quite the ladies man, walking Melanie and Sarah down the aisle!
Matthew's Best Mate Liv and my Maid of Honor Jenn walking down together. So obviously, everyone saw Jenn's heels get stuck in the grass while she was walking down with Liv. What you all didn't know is that the same thing happened when she walked down the aisle at her own wedding! Jenn and Alex seem very happily married, so I considered it a good luck charm!
Aiden looks so proud and we were so honored for him to be a part of the ceremony too!
This picture just kills me! Look at Ollie's swaggar! He's having a serious GQ moment here, love it!
My beautiful nieces and flower girls! I'm in love with their dresses, although I was sad that I couldn't find one of their dandelion necklaces I bought them for the wedding. I ordered two of them from Etsy but could only find one the week of the ceremony. I may have just finally ordered another one to give them. Perhaps . . .
I love this picture of my Mom watching me come down the aisle! So sweet, I will cherish it always.
My Dad looks so handsome and my flowers look amazing!!
So much to love in this pic! The way my Dad is looking at me is so sweet, but the look on my face is priceless because it was when I caught my first glance of Matthew!
I also love this pic of Matthew watching me walk towards him!
Connor and Aiden were such good boys standing nicely with their Mommys!
One of my favorite shots of the day! Who cares about the kiss, I like the "We did it!" shot after!
Just when you think Matthew can't get any taller, my photographers figured out a way to make him look even taller haha!
Karrie photo bomb! Thanks again for capturing video of the ceremony!
I wish I could go back in time to tell wedding-day-Kelly to put her damn arm down!!
Since I don't have video yet, I wanted to share the music from our ceremony. After months and months of trying to find the perfect music, I finally heard the song "Home" on the radio. Honestly, I thought it was Dave Matthews and was very surprised to see it was by Phillip Phillips, the current American Idol winner. Yes, I'm a bit of a music snob and would probably not have considered using the song had I known before I heard it. Luckily, I fell in love with the song before I found out. I introduced Matthew to the song in the same way, not telling him who it was until he loved it as much as I did.
Here's the video for Home by Phillip Phillips!
The lyrics were just perfect and the music fit perfectly with our rustic vibe we wanted. Another awesome part about picking out the music way in advance is that listening to this song when I got nervous or stressed out really calmed me down because I knew that at least the ceremony would be perfect!
I knew that I wanted my sister Gail to play something on the violin when I walked down, but I was really against the traditional wedding march. Just never pictured myself walking to it I guess. I ended up asking her to learn the melody from "I'll Do Anything" from the musical Oliver for so many reasons. First, the lyrics are really sweet. Second, I was in the play Oliver at the Sunnyvale Community Theater and Matthew proposed to me at the fountain outside of it. Third, I thought it was really sweet that my dad was the first man in my life who would do anything for me and he was about to hand me off to the only other man I've ever met who would do the same. I don't have the video of Gail playing it yet, but she totally killed it! Thanks again sis!
At the end of the ceremony, we walked down to Jackie Wilson's "Your love is lifting me higher." This song is a special one for us. Matthew included it on the first mixed tape he gave me!
Even with all the little things that went wrong, the ceremony was perfect and everything we wanted! After sitting through many long ceremonies in the past, we decided to make ours short but sweet. No readings or candle/sand ceremonies. This also kept the costs down since cutting all that stuff out meant programs weren't really necessary. The one thing we had considered doing was having us blow at some dandelions to make a wish for our lives together, but we couldn't find any around the ceremony. Oh well!
Cheers!
Kelly Smallcombe
