Wedding Pictures!

Hello, all!
It's been a bit of an adjustment for me, trying to remember to post on the blog, as it's been so long since it's been a regular habit! ;) My apologies on that. 

Since we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary on October 12, I decided to do a post with some of our wedding pictures. (Thank you for the suggestion, Grace! :) If you aren't a fan of wedding photos, no offense taken if you simply pass by this post. ;) Especially since I had a very hard time picking my favorites, and probably posted more than necessary. Oops. Oh well, I had fun reminiscing while I did it!!

We had my cousin, Kailyn, do our wedding pictures for us. She is from California and has a photography and videography business that she runs jointly with her fiance, Eric. She was gracious enough to come up to Washington for our wedding, and I honestly could NOT have been more thrilled with our wedding photos!! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves in a minute, but WOW...Luke and I were blown away with what a lovely job she did!

I'll go in sections throughout the wedding day, so it's easy to see how things flowed. The first thing that happened was that the groomsmen got ready at our church building and had their pictures taken, and then my girls and I showed up to trade places with them and start getting ready ourselves. Before the guys left, however, Luke and I did something very special that I am SO glad we did! Kailyn took me out behind the building to a little alcove and had me wait there while she went and got Luke. Then, so as not to have him see me, we held hands around the corner and prayed together. It was about 3 hours before our wedding, and this was our first time ever holding hands, so it was a really special moment!

Some handsome groom and groomsmen photos...

And some photos from our prayer together, as well as a moment of incredibly overwhelming joy for me...after Luke walked around the corner, I ran to catch a glimpse of him before he got in the car to go to the park where our wedding was going to be. It suddenly hit me as I looked after him that this was it. This was the day that the long wait was over, and I was marrying my best friend. :')

My heart is pounding fast again just looking at these pictures. ;) Here are some from the getting ready process with my sweet bridesmaids--all powered by Starbucks, of course. ;P

I was so blessed to have some of my dearest friends by my side to celebrate this happy day! :) Here are some from our bride/bridesmaid shoot after we were all ready for the wedding. The area around our church building really provided some pretty cool backdrops!! :D

I was thrilled to find the dark orange door, since our wedding colors were a kind of dark rusty orange and dark teal. (Though in some of the photos they look black, the bridesmaids' dressed are actually teal).

Here are a few pics of the decorations at our outdoor ceremony...I was SO thankful for absolutely beautiful weather on our wedding day!! God was so good to give us that, since we really didn't have a Plan B if it had been rainy or bad weather. 

We actually just reserved a portion of a public park (for FREE, no less!) and it worked out perfectly!! There was a nice section that was more or less closed off with trees, and any passersby were very respectful and didn't disturb us at all. It was really nice, because a lot of the "real" venues we'd been looking at were wanting to charge us up to 2 grand....as it was, we ended up spending less than that on the ENTIRE wedding total, simply by being careful, using what we had or borrowing from friends, making nearly all our own food, and letting God's creation cover most of the decorations for us. ;) I was so happy we decided to go with an outdoor ceremony, because it really fit the "feel" that I was hoping for perfectly. :) 

Up next are some photos from the actual ceremony. We had my little brother Kebron as our ring bearer, and a little friend, Ruth, as our flower girl (though every time I call her that, she insists that "They were NOT flowers, they were LEAVES!!" ;P We had her toss real leaves of different fall colors instead of petals). Luke and I sang together, and opted for the threefold cord for our unity ceremony. 

We took a very non traditional approach to our first kiss, (which to this day I am SO glad we did!!!!!!). After the preacher pronounced us husband and wife, and introduced us as the new couple, Luke picked me up and carried me off down the aisle! :D We went across a small stream to a secluded area by the riverbank, and shared our first kiss in private with just the two of us. (We didn't even have our photographer there for this, we just wanted to have our first few moments as a married couple to ourselves. :) While this may not be for everyone, I personally didn't really like the idea of sharing that special first kiss in front of 150 people...even people I knew and loved! It just made it that much more memorable to have it be just the two of us. Besides, it's not like they missed anything--we kissed plenty more times at the reception! ;P

Our reception was tons of fun, and we shared so many sweet memories with our friends and loved ones who were able to join us. One of my favorite moments was the bouquet toss...and I LOVE the pictures Kailyn got of that!! :D

The goodbyes at the end of the reception were kind of a blur for me, honestly...it was very surreal to be actually taking leave of my family there at our wedding! (Our honeymoon was on our way back to Missouri where my new home would be). 

Ok, this post is getting way too long, but I have to add a few of my favorite pictures from our sunset couple photos in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth has some very dear memories for us from all throughout our relationship, so it was super special to be able to take our couple pictures there!! The scenery is so stunning, and by this time the lighting was absolutely perfect. This photo session was actually one of my very favorite memories from our wedding day. Kailyn did such a great job making us feel comfortable and letting the photos be real. 

That last picture series with the lamppost is SO special to me. :') My best friend Kimberly and I had taken pictures by that lamp back in 2016 when she came to visit me in person for the first time. Then when Luke and I were courting, we took a photo by the same lamppost...and then on our wedding day, we got those sweet shots. And my heart melts every time. ;) 

I know this was rather a lot of pictures, and I apologize...like I said, I will not be offended in the least if you happen to have just skimmed through, or just skipped this post altogether! I know a couple of my followers are planning weddings of their own in the semi-near future, so if there are any questions about anything, just let me know in the comments! :)  I found it super helpful when I was wedding planning to talk to gals that had recently been through the joys of doing it themselves, and get their tips and ideas. 

I hope anyone that's still with me at this point is having a great week, and that it will just keep getting better from here! :) Happy Fall!
Love,
Mykaela