Sunshine!: Our Wedding Day... Details and Getting Ready

Hi! Is anyone still there? I know it's been nearly 100 years since I even wrote a blog post. How do I do this again? I have so much to update on... my mom's house renovation, our home remodel, and our wedding day are just a few important things I can think of. Let's start with our wedding day...

Our venue was a mansion located on Table Rock Lake. We chose this as our venue because we knew we wanted to have an intimate wedding with a small guest list. We had a lot of hurdles to jump in order for this venue to work for us but in the end everything was great. Our entire wedding party was able to stay in the house with us (as well as both of our mom's) so it made the whole weekend much less stressful for mostly everyone involved. The reception was held here, also, so there was no traveling to and from a church or reception venue. Everything and everyone was right here.

We chose October 24, 2015 as our wedding date for a few reasons. The first reason being that it was literally one of the only weekends we had available in the year 2015. We got engaged on Christmas of 2014 so when we sat down to decide on a date it either had to be 10/24/2015 or sometime in March of 2016. Tyson decided on the 24th. That was also special to us because Tyson's mom and dad got married in October.

This photo is so special to me because I told my photographer, Jared of J Design Studios I would like a photo of our rings on a newspaper that had our wedding date on it. I asked my future brother-in-law to try to find one when he went in to Branson the morning of the wedding. What he didn't know was he got the one newspaper that my dad used to read every single day for 20 years. Any time I see a USA Today I think of him so this photo turned out more perfect than I could have ever imagined!

Our wedding invitations printed by Minted.

Coasters by For Your Party.

My engagement and wedding band from Newton's Jewelers in Joplin, Missouri. Shoes are "Kiara" by Badgley Mischka.

I didn't wear these for the wedding. I ordered them to wear during a few posed photos but they didn't end up matching my dress so we just took a couple photos of them.

These are the shoes I wore. They are by Lauren Lorraine but it looks like they are no longer available.

Tyson actually made himself a wedding band with the machinery we have at the shop. It turned out really good but what he didn't know is that I ordered him a wedding band from Tiffany's. I gave it to him the morning before our wedding. It was really special.

I hired a makeup artist and hair stylist to come to the house to do our makeup and hair. The younger girls were thrilled. They had never had their makeup done before!

Looking on Pinterest, of course, to find cute hairstyles.

I wanted my hair to be a huge bun high on my head. Missy at High Volume Salon was really focusing on getting it right!

It wasn't quite big enough for me. So she started over and teased the snot out of my hair to get it BIG!

Mission accomplished!

This is one of the funniest photos from our wedding day. All the girls were in the master bathroom watching everyone get their hair and makeup done. There wasn't room for 15 chairs so the girls sat in the bath tub.

Tabitha of Makeup by Tabitha did an amazing job making myself and all my girls look beautiful.

I got my bridal party men's button-front shirts from Life's a Stitch to wear as we got ready. They turned out perfect and were so comfy to wear with black leggings and slippers.

My maid of honor had her first baby, Addison, just four months prior to our wedding so little miss Addison got to hang out with the girls for a little bit on wedding day. Here she is with Justine.

Such a cutie girl!

There was the most adorable wet bar in the master bedroom so I put together a fun little mimosa station for the bridal party.

Of course I had to bust the Cricut out and personalize everyone's champagne glasses.

Personalized coffee cups for AM caffeine.

The master bedroom.

Mine and my bridesmaids dresses.

Hangers by Hanger Design Center on Etsy.

I am so glad I decided to do mis-matched dresses for my bridal party. I chose the color and length (and required there be nothing strapless) and let them choose their own dresses. It turned out so beautiful and unique and each girl looked amazing in her selection.

My dress was a Demetrio's v-neck a-line satin gown with a crystal belt sewn on right below the bust. It had a long train and buttons up the back. It was not the dress I imagined myself in. I initially thought I wanted a lace mermaid style gown. Boy was I wrong. The moment I put the lace dress on, myself and all my girls knew it wasn't the one. I left my first dress appointment without buying a dress but my favorite dress from that day was an a-line satin strapless dress. I knew I didn't want a strapless dress so when a strapless dress was the best dress that store had, I knew I better not buy anything. A few weeks later I drove to a store in St. Louis (by myself) and tried again. I found this dress there and ended up buying the dress I wore from Tradesy.com. A girl ordered this dress but never wore it. (She ended up buying a different dress.) So I got my dress for $1,000 less than what it would have cost me had I bought it at the store. Total score! I had to have it altered and the straps lengthened but it was so perfect in the end.

I knew that I wanted to do a few special things to remember my dad on that day. He passed away on January 21, 2013. I took one of his button-front work shirts and cut out a heart. I hand stitched his initials on to the heart and then hand stitched the heart on to the back left inside of my dress so he was right there by my heart. I also printed a small photo of him and made a charm on my bouquet. It was the most perfect way to have him there to walk with my down the aisle.

The parlor. This entire house was incredible.

We served margaritas as our signature cocktail so someone had to cut up about 100 limes and lemons.

Signs were designed by Remember November. I had the signs printed at Walgreens and VistaPrint. Frame from Michael's.

We decorated the mantle with photos of both of our dad's who had passed away. I bought the wooden sign from In the Dust Designs.

I rented my tables, chairs, etc from Branson Party Rentals. They were also my florist and wedding coordinator. They did an incredible job. Everything was perfect.

I got each of the groomsmen and our officiant ties, pocket squares, and socks and wrapped them up in gift boxes.

I went with mismatched ties for the groomsmen, too. I love that they all were different textures and had different designs. All of the ties and pocket squares were from The Tie Bar.