Getting ready for the wedding went smoothly and was full of fun. But of course we were late. No matter how smoothly things go, don’t expect everything to be on time at your wedding.
The boys waited around at the location – our original heritage orchard wedding site. Original? What? Yeah. Come back next week for the full scoop on all the ceremony drama.
They drank some beer (illegal in a public space…shhh), played frisbee and stood behind a brick wall. Cause ya know, why not?
Finally we arrive. Don’t we look good against the brick wall too? Ryan waits patiently with his back turned while the girls make sure my dress, makeup and hair are perfect. And then, we see each other for the first time on our wedding day.
I am a pretty traditional girl at heart, so at first the idea of seeing Ryan before the wedding ceremony didn’t sit with me that well. But when I really thought about it I realized it not only made sense logistically but emotionally as well. If we had waiting until the ceremony, I wouldn’t have remembered the feeling of seeing Ryan for the first time. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that I was getting married now that excitement of seeing Ryan would have been overshadowed. This way, we were able to have a quite moment, to hug and kiss as soon as we saw each other, and just be together for a few moments before all the craziness begun.

Here are some of my favourite photos from the ‘photo shoot’:
Something Old: Yup, I did the whole something borrowed something new etc etc. My favourite by far was the something old.
My parents grew up on Sao Miguel island in the Acores. In the 50’s and 60’s the lifestyle was very much that of the early 1800’s, only with a bus and taxi that people rarely used because it was too expensive. Instead, they got around on foot or horseback.
Daily life consisted of farming and making everything yourself. Including fabric.
The fabric wrapped around my flowers is linen my grandmother made – from start to finish.
She grew the flax seed herself.
She stripped the flax to get the thread inside.
Then she wove the thread with her loom to create yards of fabric this little strip comes from.
Isn’t that incredible?
It’s so easy to lose sight of how things are made and where they actually come from. I love this part of my family history, and it’s one of the reasons why our wedding theme was handmade. Whether we made it ourselves (flags, decor, invitations, bunting) or it was a family heirloom (linens, table crochet), handmade is so important to us and both our families, and we needed our wedding to reflect that.

Come back next week to see photos from our ceremony and hear about all the drama that went down to make it happen.
…thinking about it still makes me cringe.

All photos by Ameris