the flowers...

...my beautiful mom working so hard and quickly to finish the bouquets...

...huge table full of buckets of flowers...

My mom was in charge of creating wonderful green and white bouquets for us girls to hold and for the mason jars on the tables. I found a local florist who would order flowers in bulk..as long as we told them how many stems we wanted and of which flower. Not only did we have to come up with the design from scratch but we also had to estimate how many stems we would need. This was a little daunting for me... but my whole life I had grown up with my mom cutting and arranging beautiful bouquets from our backyard so I knew just the person to ask for this project...my mom. She was able to take my inspirational flower pictures and make some phenomenal bouquets.

...my mom making my special bouquet to hold the day of the wedding...

...the tables with wine bottles full of water and lemon slices...

I wanted simple bouquets with only white flowers and all different types of greenery. Throughout the whole wedding I only had shades of green and turquoises...then the natural browns and whites.  Matt and I had collected jars throughout the year for the tables.  My mom chose: white peonies, white snap dragons ( which actually weren't fully opened...so they looked like adorable little green buds), cut leafy green stems from the yard.  She had ordered sugar snap peas also, but they died...so the florist substituted them with more peonies. My mom recruited help to make the bouquets the morning before the wedding...anyone who happened to be walking through the living room put together at least one arrangement. She also made boutonnieres for the boys....but we forgot to put them on and ultimately it felt more like us-a little less formal-not to wear them...so that was perfect. All together the flowers ended up costing $600.00. We were able to pick them up from the florist's refrigerator the morning of the wedding, which eliminated the stress of all of the flowers wilting before the big day. It was incredibly convenient...and budget friendly for us to do our own flowers...plus in the end I had beautiful bouquets that were exactly what I had dreamed of.

What did we do with all of these awesomely beautiful bouquets after the wedding? We gave about 8 of them to the cute little coffee shop in town that let our guests borrade their little shop using their internet throughout the week and the rest went to the hospital that I work at to any patients the volunteers felt like needed them most. It was a great way for more people to enjoy the creations... I imagine it put a smile on their faces...perhaps not as big as mine though.

...my lovely sister holding my bouquet and her own during the ceremony...

[all photos from Kevin Apparetti, Matt's talented uncle and professional photographer]

a corral ceremony and some rings...

...Matt and I before the wedding preping our vows...

So on our wedding day Matt surprised me with a new set of rings. I did not know this was coming and it was wonderful. And fit perfectly with the unbelievably perfect and emotional ceremony. Perhaps I should back up a bit... I was an emotional wreck at our ceremony in the best way possible. I thought I would be able to hold it together and not cry, that I would be the strong dry eyed type...not so. As Matt and I rehearsed our vows at the pond as to what we were going to say so that we wouldn't be overly nervous I started crying at the part... Matt, I love you because you are a phenomenal man. That was it...I was going to loose it. I was marrying a phenomenal man in front of all of our incredible friends and family who support and love us soo much....and that day was today. Unbelievable.

...us girls walking up to the stairs...

So all of my best girlfriends/bridesmaids and matt's best friends/groomsmen and I all gathered up at the stairs above the corral to walk down into the corral for the ceremony. As soon as we hit the gates into the hay-baled, friends and family laden, love filled corral, with logs covered in vines straight out of sunset magazine, and I heard our very special Andrew Bird song (one of our favorite musicians...and a non-traditional beautiful wedding song), and saw my future husband who I love more than anything...I started sobbing, not crying, sobbing. I literally couldn't see I had so many tears in my eyes.

...my sister-maid of honor, and ryan- best man, finding it hilarious that I was crying...

Once I was at the start of the hay bale rows, I picked up my mom and dad to walk me down the rest of the aisle. It was incredible. My mom has MS so the fact that she was able to walk with me down the aisle meant more to us then we could say... and I needed them by my side to clear the tears, and to be strong and present. Then they gave Matt and I an impromptu group hug, it was perfect. They both give me away to Matt...forever, for keeps. It was very sweet. Matt's uncle, Bud, married us...which was awesome. We asked him back at Christmas if he would do the honors...making our ceremony actually ours. We do not have god as a part of our lives, so we wanted a ceremony that bound us to reflect that...which is exactly what he did and it was powerful. We had a little bit of a quaker-feeling to it, where some friends and family said their blessings, then Matt and I read our vows. Thank goodness we wrote them down, because it was nerve wrecking to say something so personal in front of everyone...and loudly.

...in disbelief of the new rings...

Then Matt pulled out these new rings. I looked at them, and they sparkled soo much in the light...then I looked at him and said... those aren't my rings! We had planned on me just taking off my bands and he would place them back on my hand...because I loved my rings we designed. But these were sparkly! They were beautiful.... I was so excited I almost kissed him right then, Bud had to tell us to wait, it was funny that I completely forgot in that moment that we had a real wedding going on. As it turned out he had one of my grandma's (who isn't with us any longer) diamonds placed in the center, with two smaller ones on the side, which is so incredibly meaningful to me that she is with me all the time. Then the ring has my same textured bands but now everything was in white gold and pallidium (the pallidium makes it so it stays white, and you never have to rhodium-ize them...which we like the idea of low-hassle, and our rings were designed on Etsy, from a super talented artist, Justine, and we love her work. I bought Matt's ring from her...and both of my sets came from her). Before I had the same style rings with white sapphires and recycled argentium silver- for budget reasons, and I loved that it represented us and where we were in life...but now I feel like a wife, with these wonderfully sparkly rings from my husband... its quite simply great.

...my rings, with the lovely bouquets my mom made...

[all photos were from rob hart]