Wedding Inspiration: Yes, we served BBQ at our wedding...

... and loved it. So did my dad's wallet.

Being from NC, BBQ is kind of a big deal. And if prepared right, one of my favorites! (I'm a NO FAT in my BBQ, please and thank you, kind of girl).

This is my little plug for a local BBQ restaurant in Concord, NC, called R&R BBQ that serves it up the way I like it which is why I called them to do the catering for my wedding.

My husband's side of the family is either from the New England area or Ohio/PA so I thought serving BBQ might give them the southern experience they traveled hundreds of miles for. Well, I think we accomplished that goal with the white, southern plantation home as a backdrop for the ceremony, but the BBQ and Sweet Tea was the icing on the cake!

One of the best things about BBQ, other than the taste, is the ability to feed lots of people for a great price!

Another must-have at my wedding was serving North Carolina's own George's BBQ sauce with the BBQ sandwiches. R&R has their own sauce but I had to package up some George's days before the wedding in some cute ramekins.
 
My father's tearful speech led us right into the dinner portion of the evening so before he said, "let's eat"... he told everyone how I would bring back BBQ in a cooler to Arizona or Pennsylvania and have George's huge gallon size containers shipped as well. I'm a sentimental person so I'm glad I didn't think twice about serving BBQ at our wedding!

Has anyone else gone the BBQ route?

Uploaded our wedding photos to facebook...

I have to multi-task. I just can't sit and watch sappy tv...

...so I'm finally getting around to uploading our wedding photos over a year later. We purchased the DVD to our photos to have access to all of them for our anniversary back in May so technically I've only procrastinated for 2 months. I've also wanted to keep them to myself but I know that we have friends out there who would like to see them also. It's nice to finally share our special day with those people!

When you have over 600 wedding photos, it is quite the task in uploading all of them, tagging everyone and writing captions. This is quite the chore!

More of our Wedding Details : The Dessert Table

Since my Rehearsal Dinner Groom's Cake blog is one of my most popular, I thought I would share with you our Dessert Table at the wedding.

Initially I thought about having a traditional wedding cake, and then I saw how expensive they were. And of all the fancy looking wedding cakes I had ever tasted, the delicious cakes I grew up on.  I wanted my wedding cake to be delicious, not just pretty. I knew just the person to ask. My Aunt Betty is the go-to person for baking cakes in the family whether it be for birthdays or holidays.

She's an extrordinary baker and I wanted to feature her best work. I decided to have a dessert table to include all of her southern classics that we love so much.

I wanted all of her best desserts including my absolute favorite: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting. The ones on the top two rungs have regular cream cheese frosting and the bottom rung have crushed pecans mixed in.

Red Velvet Cupcakes w/ Cream Cheese frosting.
Some had crushed pecans in the cream cheese.

Another southern favorite: poundcake. This one is covered in her homemade chocolate frosting.

Yum... Homemade Traditional Poundcake w/ chocolate icing!

Carrot Cake cupcakes in Gingham cupcake wrappers from Bake it Pretty!

These are also my favorites, it's so hard to choose just one favorite...

Vanilla & Chocolate Cupcakes with festive decorations

We also incorporated some of the traditions and favorites from my husband's side of the family with a Kransakaka cake (a Norwegian tradition) and Buckeyes since he spent his middle and high school years growing up in Columbus, Ohio.

K-Cake made courtesy of the groom's aunt & The Buckeyes made by the groom's brother 

There were also cookies and candy on the table. Our dessert table was definitely a group effort to pull it all together. It was one of my favorite things about our special day!

For more on my aunt's cakes, check out her blog: Betty Bakes

Photos Courtesy of Rachel Barker at Millie Holloman Photorgraphy

Recycle your wedding

Ruffled, a great wedding resource blog, recently launched Recycle Your Wedding. This is great for a newlywed like myself who still has things sitting around a year later from the wedding (unused candles, vases, and other decor). Instead you can list them on here to make $$ from current brides in need of affordable items for their wedding.

You can also list a used/unused wedding dress. Before the wedding I thought reselling my dress after the wedding would be easy. Now that I've worn it, the dress just has so much more meaning and I've really been thinking of keeping it. As every bride should, I loved my wedding dress! I'm not sure if I can part with it.

Any other newlyweds out there sold their dresses or have you kept it around for sentimental value? Anyone used Ruffled yet? Or found it beneficial when planning your wedding?



Happy Anniversary to us!

Along with being Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!), it's also our first anniversary!

I love you, honey!

DIY Contest on Ruffled

For my bridal friends and fellow bloggers out there, Ruffled Blog is doing a DIY Contest with some great prizes! I'm planning on entering my "last minute wedding programs" which bridesmaid Callie finished for me while I worked on other projects.

Here she is at the hair salon providing moral support while assembling the programs just hours before the wedding:

To enter the contest, you must have at least 4 images and list all of the materials and instructions. Everyone has until October 3rd to enter. Good Luck!!

Here is the final product along with another DIY project I put together which adorned the aisle:

When to Say Yes to the Dress

As I'm watching "Say Yes to the Dress," I thought it might be time to start blogging about my own wedding dress and how I knew it was time to Say Yes to the Dress. Yes, I still watch this show even after the wedding has come and gone. Watching the show prior to the wedding actually made me feel more confident about my dress despite seeing all of the gorgeous dresses in Kleinfelds.

We were living in Arizona at the time that we got engaged and I found my dress. Knowing how indecisive I would be, I thought it would take me forever to find the right dress. I thought I was going to be one of those girls that had tried on 100 dresses and none of them were good enough.  Everyone's in search of the perfect dress. Some get it right the first try and some on the 100th. Luckily, it didn't take me 100 dresses but I would say with 4 shopping trips under my belt (including the final) I averaged about 10 dresses per trip so I may have tried on about 40 gowns before finding the one.

It was during a Melissa Sweet Trunk Show at my favorite bridal boutique, Destiny's Bride, located in Scottsdale that I found my wedding dress. I invited my friend Leslie to go along with me even though I told her it was probably just going to be for fun. I really did not think I was going to find the one that night.

The Melissa Sweet rep was there from New York and we had about 10-12 dresses of her dresses in my dressing room including 1 Monique Lhuillier, just to dream (really expensive). My dress was one I actually hadn't picked off the rack, the rep did. And it was the last one to try on too. Actually, I almost didn't because I was tired of getting in and out of all of those dresses. The rep said, "you have to try this dress on, you'll thank me... it looks way better on than on the hanger." She was right. Some of the bright white dresses I had tried on made my fair skin look pale and drab, this one didn't. The ivory actually complimented my skin tone. The soft A-line defined my thin waistline. This one also made my flat chest have a bit more volume than what was actually there (always a plus, right ladies?) thanks to the higher cut and draping across the chest and torso. And the silk shantung felt amazing against my skin. When I put it on, I knew it was perfect and I didn't want to take it off.

It was exactly what I was looking for considering our wedding was going to be outdoors and simple. To some it would be very plain, no beading or sparkles but for me... it didn't need any of that. It had a bow in the back, something I thought I would never like but I actually loved it.

So I took the plunge on the dress exceeding my budget even with the Trunk Show discount. Luckily, it was a done deal and I couldn't do anything about it. I just kept thinking the girls I know who have gotten married never spent more than a $1,000 on their dress. I kept thinking thoughts like what if it's too plain? What if my future husband doesn't like it as I'm walking down the isle? Why did I pay so much for a dress that I'm going to wear once? Buyer's Remorse started to set in...

...especially looking through the bridal magazines. So many gorgeous dresses to choose from , it was easy to start questioning my decision. I decided to not look at the dresses anymore when flipping through those magazines. I told myself that I actually tried on some of these fabulous dresses and they didn't look right with my body type. Of course, they look good on the models in the magazine but they're not made for everyone. My dress fit my body type, my personality and my wedding. And I began to feel much more comfortable with my decision.

I also began watching the show "Say Yes to the Dress." Not every girl chose a dress that in my opinion was gorgeous but that didn't matter, she thought it was. It was what looked best on her and what she had invisioned looking like in a wedding dress. So, that's why I say it helped me gain a little confindence in my choice. And the buyer's remorse went away considering most of those dresses on the show are at least $5,000. Luckily, mine wasn't close to the 5K mark.

So, here are my thoughts on choosing a wedding dress for all of those brides-to-be out there... You want to feel like You in the dress, you should be comfortable, and you should pick a dress not by what it looks like in a magazine but how it looks on you!

And guess what, My Groom Loved my Dress!!

For those brides out there, any advice you would give to those looking for a dress??

More of our Wedding Details: the Groom's Cake

While we're waiting on those wedding pics, I thought I would share the Groom's Cake we had designed by the Chef at our rehearsal dinner location. We originally booked Soiree in Mooresville, NC when we were planning on having our wedding in the area. When we changed the location about 30 mins. away, we kept the Rehearsal Dinner location because we really loved the food and atmosphere. Unfortunately, the night before my wedding... I could have cared less about food and atmosphere. I could barely eat from all of the nerves... and I had to get back to the house to finish programs and other last minute details to really enjoy the atmosphere. I hope our guests enjoyed Soiree! One thing we did get to enjoy was the Groom's Cake...

UConn Huskies, New England Patriots & Hartford Whalers

If you'll remember my blog about Groom's Cakes from my former site Something Carolina Blue, I blogged about how I wasn't even sure about doing the Groom's cake or having it at the rehearsal dinner. Personally, I loved this idea and we had an amazing pastry chef who accomplished exactly what we were looking for. My husband having grown up in Connecticut (with New England sports teams) and also Columbus, Ohio (Buckeye country)  has quite a few teams he roots for depending on the season. I wanted a way to include all of them.
The chef took the logos we sent him via e-mail and transformed them into fondant. They even asked if we wanted to take them home with us afterwards. We declined but took pictures to remember it by.

Red Sox (the only team we can agree on) & Celtics

Ohio State Buckeyes

I still can't believe I allowed a cake with the Patriots logo on it.... oh the things we do for the ones we love!

Sneak Peek!

I wanted to start previewing some of our wedding pics on the blog and decided this picture was a great place to start as it was sort of a sneak "peek" for us prior to the ceremony.

Our photographer, the amazing Rachel from Millie Holloman Photography, suggested the idea to me and I was all for it! My husband-to-be was hesitant and nervous that he would accidentally see me. I had to send messages through Rachel to convince him, and luckily he conceded. It was such a special moment and made for a beautiful picture. I could tell even without seeing him that he had some serious nerves and emotions going on. Holding hands for just a few moments while Rachel snapped some pictures eased off some of the nerves we had been having throughout the day. It was just one of those special moments we will remember forever!

This picture also provides a glimpse of my dress which I wasn't able to reveal (for obvious reasons) in my old blog prior to the wedding. More on the dress in my next blog!