Wedding Week!

 Wedding week is one of those weeks you think will never get here yet when it does it feels like it came so fast!  My goal in wedding planning was to plan as much as I possibly could ahead of time to keep the week of the wedding stress free and fun!  Other than the last minute details that couldn't be avoided, it really was a fun week.  

since I was taking off so much time after the wedding I tried to work as much of the week as possible.  My evenings were spent doing those fun last minute things.

Since Dustin and I have both lived in multiple places and it was a distance wedding for both of our families we had ALOT of out of town guest.  We decided to make fun hotels bags filled with goodies and a list of our favorite restaurants in Birmingham!  

One of the early pieces of advice I got was to hire out as much of the details for the wedding as possible.  Thankfully my parents were on board with this and we did our best to make the wedding logistics as easy on us as possible. The only problem was throughout the wedding planning season I kept getting ideas of things I wanted to do to add to the wedding.  Although I love all the personal touches we had at our wedding, I felt like my creative juices were run dry by the end.  All that to say the wedding week was spent doing those last minute things like printing out cute photo pics like the one above and so much more!  

Another great piece of advice I got was to pack for the honeymoon before wedding weekend began.  I am so glad I did this!  It made the night before my wedding so chill!  

My sister gave me the journal below on the night we got engaged.  I journaled in it all throughout our engagement and then took it on our honeymoon to close it out!  I know one day it will be so fun to look back on all my thoughts and emotions that took place during those 5.5 months.  

I got my bridesmaids a monogrammed navy bag as part of their gift for being in the wedding.  After receiving them in the mail I was kind of bummed I didn't order one for myself, so my parents ordered me one for my birthday!  It was the perfect honeymoon carry-on.  

Packing for my honeymoon was one of the most surreal parts of wedding week.  I just couldn't believe that after our big day we were going to get to go on such a fun trip! 

And the best part was Dustin was surprising me, so I had no clue where we were going!  

On Wednesday morning my mom, sis, and I had breakfast together and then went and got our toes and nails done.  It was super fun girl time and another one of those moments that just felt so incredibly surreal!  

Wednesday night we had family night at Catherine and Garys and I gave the nieces their flower girl gifts (baby dolls and monogrammed overnight bags).

It was a fun night as a family and was the last night before everything began!  

On Thursday morning Dustin and I planned a date! We had breakfast at one of our favorite spots, Over Easy, and exchanged wedding gifts!  It was so nice to just sit and look at one another before all the bridal party came in town and the events began.  We celebrated the Lord's faithfulness in our story and bringing us to this point.  It was a really special time together.  

Yet another piece of advice I got from someone was to exchange perfume and cologne to each other and wear it for the first time on our wedding day. Then every time you wear it, it will make you think of your wedding day.  

In addition to the cologne I got him I also made him a photo book that told our story.  It was filled with pictures and thoughts from our 1 year together.  I hope it will be something we will one day show our children and be continually reminded of the sweet story the Lord wrote for us.  I also got him a weekend adventure bag for all the many adventures I hoped we would go on!  

In addition to the perfume, he gave me a Michael Kors bag and diamond earrings that had originally been his mothers that her parents gave her on her wedding day.  They are beautiful!  I wore them on our wedding day and love wearing them as often a possible.  

We parted ways that morning knowing that really the next time we would be together just the two of us would be on our wedding night.  

By the time I came home from breakfast my dad was on his way to pick up the first batch of bridesmaids from the airport!  

Let the wedding festivities begin.....