Today is a photo-heavy post and I don’t even care.

One year ago today, February 18th, 2012, I put that white dress on, walked down that aisle, and said the most important words of my life: my vows to my husband.

I know every cliche in the book like, “It was the best day of our lives” and “I married my best friend” etc. etc. etc. You name it. But every cliche in the book couldn’t be more true.

This has been, by far, the most amazing year of my life, and I am so blessed to be married to a man that loves Jesus so much and tries every day to love me just as much as Jesus loves His bride, the church.

John makes me laugh, he challenges me, he pushes me to be a better woman, and I love every minute I’m with him even more than the last. He is honestly more than just my best friend, my husband, and my partner, he is my everything and I can’t imagine life without him.

John Stillman, I love you more than words will ever be able to ever describe. Thank you for putting up with my quirks, laughing at my nerdiness, and telling me I’m beautiful every day. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Happy Anniversary.

So, on this our anniversary, I had to relive our wedding day through images. And I wanted to share some of them with y’all. (It was SO hard to narrow it down! But hey, it’s fine, right? Right.)

Our Wedding Day – 02.18.12

All photos by the AMAZING Katelyn of Katelyn James Photography. (Original wedding blog post here)

Getting ready:

Yep. This was me trying to not be so nervous.

We used a 150+ year-old Bible to carry the rings rather than a pillow.

Our invitations that I designed. You can view the tutorial of how I did them here.

My pink cowboy boots. AND a little fun fact, my “something borrowed” was my birdcage veil which I actually borrowed from my dear friend Emily who blogs over at Oh That Emily.

Had to have a remembrance of my mom – I had her dog tags along with her photo on my bouquet.

My amazing friend Bec and her mom did ALL of our wedding flowers. Aren’t they gorgeous?

It’s a Phi Mu tradition to sew five pearls into your wedding dress – I STILL had mine and was so excited to have them put in my wedding dress.

My gifts from John. You can see the whole post here about our bride and groom gifts.

My dad means the world to me and so I wanted to do a “First Look” with my dad. Yeah, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

John and I also opted for a “First Look” before the ceremony. YEP, we broke tradition and saw each other before the ceremony. BEST DECISION EVER.

We wanted everyone to feel comfortable and casual – so we had the guys wear Old Navy jeans, boots, and vests. I handmade all of the boutonnieres myself.

And for my bridesmaids, I just told them to get a “fuchsia” dress – worked out well!

Now, let me explain briefly… after the bridal party walked down the aisle, the lights went out and a video played. It was like a “wedding checklist” – etc. and then the music built and all that and then I came down the aisle. It was a total surprise to our guests and it was AWESOME.

So, I thought it would be a good idea if I sang a song during the ceremony. Well, it was going great until the awkward instrumental break. I was SO nervous that I deflected by doing a dance. Then I started laughing and everyone started laughing and I couldn’t regain composure. It was hilarious and so very typical me.

Instead of a unity candle or anything like that, we did a God’s Knot ceremony. You can read about that here.

At our reception, all our tables were labeled by locations or other meaningful things in our life.

The sweetheart table:

Husband HAD to have cornhole at the wedding.

Groom’s cake (made by my amazing sister of course)

And of course our AMAZING wedding cake (that matched our invitations) made by my sister!

A mantle to remember our loved ones who couldn’t be there with us.

Our first dance.

The “shoe” game

Phi Mu “picture a girl” sorority sing

Our getaway car…

And finally, us with our AMAZING photographers Katelyn and Jill (and a hilarious photobomb).

It was honestly an AMAZING day. We couldn’t have done it, of course, without our amazing families and our friends. We love you all!

Vendors:

Ceremony Location: newhope Church
Reception Location: The Big Barn, Hillsborough, NC
Flowers: Bec’s Blossoms
Caterer: Jim’s Famous BBQ
Cake: My sister
Invitations, programs, etc.: I made ‘em
DJ: Music Makes You Happy! DJs (a great friend from college)
Photographer: Katelyn James Photography

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NOW it is time for the #YOLOmondays LINK-UP with my awesome co-host Carly from Lipgloss & Crayons! If this is your first time here, #YOLOmondays is a chance for us to link up anything we want (as long as it’s a blog post…). You know, cause it’s Monday, and what better way to jazz up your mundane Monday than to link up and meet some new bloggers? Carly and I love seeing y’all linked up every week!

• The Rules for #YOLOMONDAYS Link-Ups: Follow your hosts Molly @ still being [molly] and Carly at Lipgloss & Crayons!
• Grab a button and / or post a link back here in your BLOG POST (NOT your blog’s main page) so your readers know what all the #YOLOMONDAY-ness is about. We love you guys linking up and we do go through and read all your posts… so if you do not give credit, we will have to remove your link. That’s no fun, right? Right. So be nice and share a link! Pretty please?
• Link your blog post up using the linky tool below! It can be ANYTHING! An outfit post, a giveaway, a story, a recipe, whatever. Why? Cause it’s #YOLOMONDAYS!
• Visit a blog or four that you’ve never been to before and leave a #YOLOMONDAYS comment – you never know, you might “meet” someone new that you will lurve!
• Have fun! Cause #YOLO!