[a taste] of country elegance.

our photographer snapped 2,000+ of our wedding day.

it's been almost two months, and i still have not made it through them all.

it's a shame, i know.

last night, i nearly made it halfway when my computer decided to gain a low connection to the neighbors internet [we get free internet, thanks to my grandparents living next door ;)]

it must've been a sign for me to give up and go to bed.

fair warning: this post is full of pictures, and more pictures.

every.thing. was unique in it's own little way.

each part represented us, somehow, some way.

i like being different.

i wanted our wedding to be unusual.

something everyone would remember for years to come.

the boutonnieres were made from fresh gerber daisies. we simply pulled the petals off & added a few berries. the wooden C + C = <3 sign, i handpainted. the tutorial is found HERE. the wood came from an my daddy's grandparents farmhouse. the pink C & C wooden letters (pictured in the very beginning image), were purchased from hobby lobby at 50% off. i handpainted them with a sponge brush & acrylic paint.

the flowergirl carried a wooden heart sign stating "here comes the bride" on one side and "thank you" on the back. my maternal grandpa made & painted the sign for me. i attached the ribbon, & wa-la!

the pillows were old pillows laying around our homes. our wedding planner covered them with a pleated brown fabric & placed them upon the hay bails.

the fingerprint tree guestbook(s) was handpainted by my former high school art teacher. she did an absolute fabulous job! she painted two identical ones. hobby lobby framed them.

i loved how they turned out.

looking forward to hanging them in our home.

six doves were released. two signifying our new life together. two in rememberance of cliff's grandfather & grandmother. two in rememberance of my grandfather & great grandmother.

part II coming next week, hopefully ♥

wedding wednesday's: cake tasting & dress fitting

240 days to go! 

There's not much going on in the wedding world around here lately. We've been busy working on guests favors & little what-nots, but that's about it. Our biggest concern at this point is reception catering and the wedding cakes. Last Wednesday we had appointment #2 with a separate cake caterer than previously. The place we went to actually made our engagement party cake and has made several, several cakes for several members of Cliff's family for years now. So, we knew the quality of the cake and how good it tastes already! We were just hunting for the best overall price! If you don't remember, a few months back I went to cake tasting #1 and my total was about $100 over budget.

Cake place #2 was $1 over budget.

I think we will go with the #2 option ;)

As you are currently reading, my Mother and I are on our way to Atlanta for my first dress fitting! Ahh!
It came in a few weeks ago and this is the first day we've had available to make a trip up there.
I truly hope it fits! Wouldn't that be something?!

Here's my checklist for the month of October:

Save-the-dates alreadyyyy?? I was thinking more like 6 months! 

How many months before did you send out save-the-dates?

wedding wednesday's: cake tasting

Last Wednesday was a busy day for me... 

1. It was my LAST day of work. Not only for the summer, but for the remainder of the year and until next May [for the majority]. My co-workers surprised me with a few going away gifts! They are all SOO incredibly sweet and I am going to miss them terribly. Mrs. C got her daughter to hand-make me some beautiful earrings! [2 pair!!] I wore one pair this past Friday. And Miss L. bought me an adorable Mickey Mouse scrub top to wear for this semester in my PEDS clinical rotations for nursing school! How sweet?! Here are a few of my co-workers, including the two mentioned above.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. 
   
   
   It was my baby brother's 18^th birthday! We celebrated that evening at my Grandma's [better known as “Mema”] by grilling ranch burgers & having a bunch of family and Cody's friends over for dinner. He's not a big cake fanatic, so we devoured a Dairy Queen icecream cake instead :) YUM!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. 
   
   
   I had my very first cake tasting appointment with Kerry O'Connor Cake's in Savannah at 11:30 [on my lunch break!]. I brought in a few ideas I had printed out previously in hopes that we could figure something out that would go along with our theme, but also that was in our budget range. Soo, as I enter, the entrace door had a “The Knot Recommended” sticker on it! Cha-ching! So far, so good. She hands me a form to fill out first off with our wedding date/time, wedding coordinator's info, place of ceremony/reception, etc. We began discussing various ideas as far as the individual theme we were going with, our colors, how many guests, and so forth. We came up with a cake that will definitely fit the theme we are going with, but it's $100 over budget. Regardless of the flavors/fillings we decide to go with, there will be no further addition/reduction(s) in cost. Major plus. However, I am going with a fairly basic cake design as it is. Nothing fancy whatsoever since we have chosen to go with a country/rustic theme. We cut down on the slices per guest due to the fact that we will also have a groom's cake that will feed the remainder of the guests. 
   But, here's the problem: I just don't know exactly where I will be able to cut the cost of the cake and still make it presentable, yet beneath our budgeted price. Any suggestions? Should I spend the extra $100, get it exactly as I had envisioned, yet save the $100 elsewhere?

Since I went alone to the cake tasting, I brought home the leftover pieces for the family to sample taste. Before gathering for Cody's birthday celebration, my Dad had the idea of blind folding whoever wanted to taste test, then make them choose the number(s) that they liked best [after tasting of course, but still while blindfolded and without knowing which flavor was what!]. It was fun! And believe it or not, the majority chose pretty much the same flavors! I hope to make a final decision here in the next month or so in order to go ahead and sign a final cake contract and have it well under way! One more thing I can check off the to-do list.

Here are the pictures from the “at home-version” cake tasting, enjoy!