our wedding: pre-ceremony

I am so excited to have received our wedding pictures in the mail to finally be able to post about them! Our wedding day included so many personal touches that made our day unique to us. Cody and I wanted a intimate wedding that reflected the relationship between us and more importantly, with Jesus. We could not have had the wedding day that we did without the help of family friends who went above and beyond to serve us and make every detail go perfect. Photography by jimmages


For Cody's wedding gift, I got him a brown and copper watch that I thought he'd like. I also gave him a journal I had been writing to my husband for years before I even knew him.  He was very surprised and happy!

 ^^i love this picture of Cody getting ready :)

Cody had 10 groomsmen and 3 ushers:

 ^^this is a view at our venue. This house was one of the cabins that the boys stayed in and got ready in. Us girls rented out another one of the many at the venue.

 ^^here is Cody's best man planning what each guy should say as they walk down the aisle and past Cody. They each said, one word at a time, "Stephanie has a really bad case of diarrhea"....good idea, Hadden ;)

Here I am writing my last journal entry to Cody on our big day :) 

(I am wearing shorts, btw!)

 ^^Here I am reading Cody's letter that came with his present to me. It was so sweet. Then I opened my present to find a box for the mason jar drink despenser that we already have. I smiled and thought "well, he knows I like mason jars...". Then his best man instructed me to open the box and I was SO SURPRISED to find the Canon Rebel camera that I've been wanting for so long!

I wrote in a previous post, but Cody and I both got perfume/cologne to wear only on our wedding day/honeymoon/anniversaries. We believe that even scents can remind us of special moments so we would have a special scent for our big day!

 I did the first look with my dad. (Even though that nervous silly man barged in that afternoon with my dress obviously hanging up, grabbed someone else's starbuck's snack and started munching...we'll blame it on his nerves. Love you dad ;)). I think there's definitely pros and cons to the first look but I wanted the first time Cody saw me to be down the aisle, so I was able to have a special moment with my dad...this being the first time he saw me in my dress!

 I had each girl pick out their own navy dresses. I like this idea because a) it saves a TON of money. Since it's up to the girl to pick it out, she can use something hanging in her closet or go buy one at her own discretion! b) everyone's styles, body, age, etc. are so different! I have some girls who are big on lace style while others are not, a bridesmaid that is in high school and 2 of them were 25 years old (not to mention one of them being 5 months pregnant ;)). I absolutely loved how everyones dresses came together!!

these are my bridesmaids/house party girls that I was in RSC with in college :)

my bouquet. I did the same bouquet as the bridesmaids, just a fuller version. I wrapped mine with cream satin ribbon and tied a lock around it in lace. Cody's boutinerre was the same as his groomsmen, but had a key tied around his, so ours matched :)