Looking Back: Part I

It is April 1st, Spring is in the air, and that makes for one happy girl!

It also takes me back to everything that was happening at this time last year. On April 1, 2013 I was about 5 weeks away from graduating college and 6 weeks away from being a married woman - two HUGE milestones. It would be a complete understatement if I told you I was overwhelmed. I wanted life to speed up and slow down at the same time. I wanted to remain a happily engaged college student living in an apartment with 3 of her best friends, but also just be married already and begin my new life with my future husband.

Regardless of how fast or slow I wanted time to go, everything happened anyway. I graduated college, and I got married the next week. Was it crazy? Absolutely. But it was awesome, and everything fell into place by the grace of God. We would not have had it any other way. I encourage all brides to embrace the current season they are in. Whether your wedding is 10 months or 2 weeks away, take a moment to enjoy it. Fight the urge to long for the future or dwell on the past. You have better things to do with your time and energy!

So, on to the actual wedding day. The whole day is still a blur, and it is difficult to pinpoint moments and remember instances that particularly stick out. But there are things that I had planned to do on that day, and was SO thankful that I had once the day was over.

1. A First Look/Pictures Before the Ceremony

Okay, I know that this is already a pretty popular thing and that most brides don't need any convincing. But y'all, I was so against this for the longest time. We were NOT doing a first look. However, as months passed and we were in the process of planning the actual timeline of events for that day, I began to realize something: My husband and I would have NO time together until the car ride to our hotel after the reception! None. Wasn't this day about us? I wanted to be with my husband! Although brides usually do the first look for the sweet pictures that result, I just knew I couldn't go until 4:00 without seeing my man - on our WEDDING day. Besides the fact that our first look pictures turned out to be some of the absolute best from the entire day, it had so many other benefits. It truly helped calm my nerves and I was reminded of how much I loved him the instant he turned around and saw me. This made me even more excited for the ceremony to begin and gave me that sense of assurance and peace in the midst of a crazy day! I highly recommend the first look, especially if you are having a late afternoon or evening wedding. You can still make that walk down the aisle so special! We did our first look at 1:00 and proceeded to take pictures of us and our wedding party (also a plus of doing a first look - no posed pictures after the ceremony!) We finished our pictures by 3:00 and had an hour before the ceremony when we parted ways and didn't see each other. We didn't kiss in any of our pictures, because we wanted to save that for the ceremony. I also wore a blusher veil when I came down the aisle, but I didn't have it on for our first look, so that gave me a totally different look when the doors opened and my husband saw me walking towards him in the ceremony....

Part II will be posted soon where I will share more things from my wedding day! Stay tuned, y'all!