My favorite pictures from my wedding

These mirrors hung in the basement of the chapel. My photographer didn't pose this, so I'm still not sure how it happened.

Us in front of the church bell

What a good hubs, holding my flowers patiently

I just loved how Aub's belly hung out all day

On mom and dad's porch

Looking quite Amish isn't he

I love these grasses, every year they are bigger and more beautiful.  Unfortunately Zacman had stopped smiling and I couldn't stop squinting

Signing our marriage certificate

The reception

The reception took place inside my dad's machine shed....doesn't look much like a barn though does it

Some of our delicious food

Our beautiful flowers....

with directions asking each person to fill our a little card which we put into a time capsule.  We had them write predictions for 1 year, 5 years and 25 years.  I really can't wait to open them!

Flowers from Zac, along with the guest book

Mom and dad

Zac's grandparents, Dick and Betty

My grandparents, Connie and Ron

The family had a great time in the huge yard at my parents' house

All of Zac's brothers and sisters

Our Ceremony

My uncle Steve just so happens to be a preacher, so when it came time to find a preacher, the choice was pretty obvious.  He did a great job and here are just a few pictures from the ceremony itself.

Being given away

The vows.

  

Of course, everyone was enthralled the entire time

The Kiss

Mr and Mrs Ballard

I love this picture though I'm not sure exactly why.  I just find it so endearing.

The super hugs from everyone, including Aubrie

Us in front of our quintiessential country chapel.

Zac and I with my parents, Stu and Janie

Zac's parents, Jim and Lolla

The big day

I woke up early on Saturday morning knowing that I had a few hours before everything really started to become a blur.  The first order of business was getting myself ready.  (Zac and I decided to do some of our pictures before the ceremony so we would have more time with our family before we needed to leave for the airport.)  I went to town to Maggie’s salon, Hair MD, and we got started.  I wanted my hair down, but we had the hair piece and the sisters insisted I needed my hair on the side.  Mag curled away as I ate a nutritious breakfast of little powdered donuts.  After my hair was up I took off to the chapel to put on my dress and wait for the photographer. 

Zac and I took a few minutes together before the pictures started.  I had a card and a little gift for him (tickets to a Cubs game) and he, of course, didn’t have anything but a hug and a thank you for me, but oh well.  We took a few dozen pictures, then it was time.  Zac, Uncle Steve, Dad and I went to the basement and we waited for our cue. 

I was fretting by this point.  Two of my three best friends were riding together and they hadn’t made it yet.  Dad, being the hard ass that he is,  said "Sis, they knew what time the wedding started, we're not gonna make everyone else waith cause those guys are dumb asses.  They'll get here when they get here, but we aint waitin on them."  I accepted that he was right and shortly thereafter, Ben Folds' song, The Luckiest started to play and dad and I walked up the staircase  and into the chapel.

Preparations, preparations!

I stayed with mom and dad the two weeks before the wedding to help with preparations.  My best friend came to help.  We went to the little church and cleaned and organized.  There wasn’t a ton to do really, but this is what it looked like when we finished it up.   Very simple, but nice. 

Adorable isnt’ it. There is a wooden handicap ramp outside that we wrapped with grapevine and added a few things to, dressed it up a bit.  When you little chapel sits in the woods, there’s not a ton that you need to do. 

The Friday before the wedding everyone was there to help.  Zac’s parents came down and spent some time with us.  Lolla and I made cakes, Maggie and Courtney scrubbed potatoes and a whole slew of aunts and friends decorated my dad’s machine shed.

My dad is a great dad!  He is so fantastic that when I said I’d like to have the reception in our barn, he didn’t just clean up the barn.  He built an entire false wall that was 8 foot high to hide the stuff that couldn’t be moved and painted the entire thing white.  

Add some lights and a little tulle and it was as nice a reception hall as either of my sisters had.  It was amazing.  We had a giant feed trough that we put all the food in, old quilts to hide the ugly garage door and a variety of antique, chippy painted tables to hold the desserts, plates, drinks and presents.  We had an old mailbox to hold our cards.    We finished up everything on Friday and it all looked great.  It was turning out to be the quaint, intimate little wedding I had hoped for.  Now all we needed was for Saturday to get there!