MARRIED - August 12, 2017

VIII · XII · MMXVII. - The day I married my best friend for time and all eternity.

Gant and I got engaged on May 18th and married on August 12th.. both in 2017 and yes, only three months apart! We did it all wrong. We're young, still in school, no idea what the future holds, and yet I just knew everything would all work out. Looking back, I think that is what I love the most about our little love story. We both knew at the end of the day all that we wanted was to be together and everything else was just that- everything else.

My whole life I was never one for "normal stuff." I like different. I am different. When I thought about my wedding day, I pictured a small elopement-type day that was all about the little details. Gant and I kinda hated the idea of a wedding and all the non-sense that goes along with it; so for a while we felt torn because as much as we wanted an elopement, we both come from huge families so a small wedding went right out the door really quick, haha. So when we were planning, we just decided to keep our day to our closest family and friends, and keep all the things that we liked about weddings and scratch everything that we didn't!

We started by picking the day. This was rather simple really, we were sitting on my bed and looking at the calendar and babbling off random dates. Asking if we should get married in one, two, six months or even a year? Nothing felt right until we said August 12th. It was just two months away by this point and Gant agreed because it was the day before the cruise he wanted to go on. haha! Everyone else seemed to think we were crazy but in my heart I knew it was right... we both could feel it. And that is really how we planned our whole wedding. We made a list of things that had to be done, considered our options and just went with what we felt was right.

After we picked the day, it was time for the location. Of course I was saying things like Hawaii? Paris? Utah? (I am not going to lie and say that a Vegas drive thru wedding didn't cross my mind at one point, hahaha) We pondered, went back and forth between different temples for a few days. (read more about a temple marriage and it's very sacred meaning here) Still none of them felt right until we finally considered the Orlando Temple.. something close to home, where we both grew up and all of our families could attend. And again, that "this is exactly right" feeling came over me. So the Orlando temple it was. We called, set our time and now had a place to start planning everything else around.

My dress. This was probably the first moment I realized I was really getting married. I was trying on dresses and thinking I'M GETTING MARRIED. What?? This is cool. Shopping for a dress was challenging, I felt like I tried on a little different version of the same exact lace dress a million times. It wasn't until we stayed in a condo in Melbourne for the weekend and found Olivia Bowen Bridal that things started to change. It is a small one-bride-at-a-time boutique in the heart of downtown Melbourne. I walked in and went straight to an Anna Campbell dress hanging on the rack. It was lace from the shoulders to the waist with a draping silk skirt. It was simple yet different and it had my name written all over it! The owner told me she didn't have another appointment until 2:30 pm and the whole time we were killing time waiting to go back, I knew that was the dress I was going to get married in. When I finally tried the dress on and I turned to my mom, sister and Caryn and said "this is it!" We bought and dress searching was over!

The location. This was one of the hardest parts of planning for us. It seemed I couldn't find anything like what I was imagining.We toured all kinds of barns, restaurants and venue areas. It was either too small, not available for our date, way out of our price range or just plain boring. This is where Emily, a family friend that helped us plan our wedding came in and saved the day (and really every other day of wedding planning, if you're planning a wedding contact her asap!! a real life saver!) She suggested a location in Orlando that was brand new and might be something that I was interested in. Again, from the moment I saw it, I knew it was it. We toured it and I was sold. It was an old WWII Airplane Hangar that had been stripped to its original walls and brought back to life. It had market lights strung, old vintage furniture and rugs, and full of character. It was exactly what I was imagining. We signed the contract for our date that day. (P.S. summer wedding's are the way to go! almost everything we booked had a good discount because no one wants to get married in the summer apparently?? I say go for it! ..unless it is outdoors in Fl, then just book your vendors in the summer and plan a for a fall wedding)

The invitations and the rest. Creating our wedding website, our invitations, and picking flowers were by far some of my favorite parts of our wedding! I love creating and making basically anything so while planning, this was the space that I had the most freedom to create everything just how I imagined it. We picked a white and grey vintage flower pattern, topped everything off with classic cursive writing and wrapped it all in a little piece of crochet type lace. They were perfect and a labor of love. My sister, mom and Gant sat with me one night just gluing all of the lace together to perfectly fit around the invitations.. he's a keeper you guys! For my bouquet, I really just wanted draping flowers. Orlando Flower Market pulled it off perfectly and they also made matching hanging flowers from the entrance as you walked in just to add that perfect dreamy effect!

Our Day. Ahhh, our wedding day! Our sealing ceremony was one of the most spiritual experience of my life. I will never forget how I felt, the words that wore spoken to me, and all of the people who were there supporting us. Walking out of those temple doors sealed as husband and wife for time and all eternity was what it was all about! After that, a few of my favorite moments were walking down the isle after the ring ceremony to my parents wedding song, my dad's and Gant's mom's speeches and just looking around at everyone who what there supporting us. It was a day full of laughter, tears, joy and love. It turned out to be just perfect and I would do it all over again.

THE SEALING