Hey guys! I hope that you are all having a happy Monday! I just wanted to pop over to let you all know that we are so excited that our wedding is a finalist in the Charleston Grit DIY Wedding Contest. The grand prize is a trip to Asheville (and you know we would blog all...
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Wedding Gallery Wall
After the wedding, we found ourselves with a lot of photos. Clearly. We plan to make an album (get on that already!) but I wanted to display some as well. So, we decided to hang a gallery wall. So unique, I know, but it was the best way to display a lot of photos. The...
#HereComesMcBride- Wedding 20/20 Hindsight
Looking back at our whole wedding planning process and wedding day, there are lots of things that we are glad we did and things that we wish we hadn't done. This is the same with any big events or decisions you make in life. Hindsight is always 20/20 so we thought we'd take a look...
#HereComesMcBride - Budget Breakdown
Wedding budgets are a very personal thing. They vary based on a lot of factors - location, time of year, day of the week, who's paying, and most of all, what you can or are willing to spend. I normally don't go around shouting out how much I spend on things, but budget posts are...
#HereComesMcBride - Vendor Reviews
We were lucky enough to work with a lot of awesome vendors and wanted to take the time to give them some shout outs. If you are getting married in Charleston and have any questions about any of these vendors, please feel free to leave a comment below! Wild Flowers Inc - Beth served as both...
#HereComesMcBride - Our Grand Exit
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Our wedding and reception were amazing. Everything was wonderful and absolutely beautiful. All the aspects of the evening, from the ceremony to the cocktail hour to the decor to the food to the toasts and the dancing, went off without a hitch and made our special day perfect. The...
#HereComesMcBride - Let's Dance
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Once all the formalities were over, it was time to party! We had a great layout for our venue with a few different options for the dancing. One of the best parts of our venue is that we were able to get some awesome pictures from above the dance...
#HereComesMcBride - the Photo Booth!
Images of booth by Ava Moore Photography. Photo strips from Remember the Times Entertainment. Photo booths have become a bigger and bigger trend for weddings and events. Even though you are spending thousands of dollars on professional photography, people still love to go into a photo booth and put on the silly props and make funny...
#HereComesMcBride - Toasts and Cake Cutting
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. After dinner, it was time for the toasts. This was really the last formal moment of the wedding before people started to dance and let loose. Up first was my dad. He's a quiet guy, but he wrote out his speech and practiced for weeks leading up to the...
#HereComesMcBride - Reception Decor Details
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. I thought that I'd interrupt the posts about the sequence of our reception to give you a closer look at some of the reception decor details. A lot of the decor is DIY (I'll link to projects as I show the final product) but none of it would have...
#HereComesMcBride - FOOD!
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Hope you're not hungry if you're planning to read this post! If you remember, we did our food tasting at the end of last year. We were very blown away by the different options that our venue had and didn't really think we could go wrong with any of the food...
#HereComesMcBride - Grand Entrance and First Dance
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. After the cocktail hour was finished, everyone headed inside to find their place. We finished our private photos and then got in line for the grand entrances. The bridal party paired up and entered first to the announcement of their names. We wanted to get the party started right...
#HereComesMcBride - Cocktail Hour Star Wars Surprise!
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. So, there was one thing that I didn't tell Sean about before the wedding. When the coordinator heard that he loved Star Wars (he told her about his socks and chose the Cantina Song for his garter toss) she contacted me and said that she had a friend who...
#HereComesMcBride - Cocktail Hour
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. We really didn't get to experience the cocktail hour at our wedding at all since we were off taking pictures, but we made sure that our guests had a good time. Right after the ceremony, guests migrated approximately 50 feet to the open-air portion of the deck to...
#HereComesMcBride - Bride and Groom Photos
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. We've started to share some of the great photos we took with our bridal party and our parents, but, of course, we also got some wedding photos of just the bride & groom. We took these around the venue including on the dock, on the path I walked...
#HereComesMcBride - Family Photos
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Of course, it was important for us to get photos with our families after the ceremony. While we were taking bridal party photos in front of the venue and on the rooftop (and our family was enjoying the cocktail hour), our coordinator removed the chairs from under the...
#HereComesMcBride - Bridal Party Photos
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Immediately after the ceremony, we dispersed to take bridal party photos. I wanted to get them over with quickly so they could enjoy the cocktail hour. We got them done in 15 minutes! We took some pictures in front of the venue and some on the rooftop of...
#HereComesMcBride- Wedding Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. It rained... it rained SO HARD! But it doesn't even matter, our wedding ceremony was still so perfect. Three years of dating, a year of planning this day, and it was all coming down to 30 minutes where we became husband and wife. The forecast had changed all...
#HereComesMcBride - We Exchange Gifts
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Prior to the ceremony, Sean and I exchanged gifts. I got my gift from him before the girls left the hotel and Sean opened his at the wedding venue. He made these stickers with our wedding logo for the wedding welcome bags and was so proud of them....
#HereComesMcBride - Groomsmen Photos Before Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. I wrote a couple days ago about what my groomsmen and I did on the morning of the wedding and about how suave we looked while getting ready at the hotel. Well, at 4:15 on the dot, our transportation arrived and picked us up to deliver us to...
#HereComesMcBride - Bridesmaid Photos Before Ceremony
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. Prior to the ceremony, we took Bridal + Bridesmaids portraits. It was great to get some pictures of just us girls at the venue. We wanted to take quick group & family pictures after the ceremony so they could enjoy the cocktail hour, so it was great to...
#HereComesMcBride - I get into my Dress
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. This is kind of a wacky thing to have as it's own post, and it's made all the more anti-climactic by the fact that I already showed you my bridal portraits, but my photographer got so many good pictures of me getting dressed that I just had to...
#HereComesMcBride - The Groomsmen Get Ready
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. When I woke up on the morning of our wedding, I was very calm. People talk about stories of grooms and brides having some sort of mental breakdown on the day of their wedding and freaking out about getting married. Why would I do that? I was in...
#HereComesMcBride - The Bridesmaids Get Ready
All images below by Ava Moore Photography. So, our wedding was awesome. I had a fantastic time. But I almost want to say that I had more fun getting ready. And I mean that in the best possible way. My bridesmaids arrived at the hotel suite around 10am. I had been awake since about 7 (I...
#HereComesMcBride - Welcome Party Activities
It was important to us that we had something going on at the Welcome Party other than just food. Food will get people there, but we wanted something to keep them around for a little while (other than the keg). We decided to have a big group trivia game. Trivia is one of our favorite...
#HereComesMcBride - Welcome Party Food & Decor
Pretty early into our wedding planning, we made the decision that we did not want a small, formal rehearsal dinner. We knew that so many of our guests (over 80 percent) were travelling in from out of state and we wanted to extend our time hanging out with all of them. Before we get into...
#HereComesMcBride - First, We Rehearse
It's a good practice to rehearse your wedding ceremony before the fact, so everyone knows what to do. Our officiant and coordinator recommended it (and included it in their fees) so we decided to hold a rehearsal for our bridal party the day before the wedding. Unfortunately, our venue was booked for a wedding that...
Wall Mounting a Rolling Pin
I was so excited to get the rolling pin off of our wedding registry. Every time that I have needed a rolling pin, I've had to borrow one from a friend! It was about time. Unfortunately, all of our drawers are getting pretty full and I couldn't come up with a good place to store...
How to Cut a Pineapple
There is nothing sweeter than fresh pineapple. I just love the juicy and sour flavor of the fruit, but buying pre-chopped pineapple at the grocery store can be really expensive. Publix, our grocery store, sells a container of chopped pineapple for over $10 - while a whole fresh pineapple is only $4 right now! However,...
May in Review
May's almost over, which means June is here and summer is in full swing. For us that means beach days, grilling out at the pool, and lots of visitors. We've been a bit wedding heavy around here and will continue to be for about a month more. I hope you are enjoying it, but if...
Italian Honeymoon: Glad We Dids and Wish We Hads
As with any trip, there were things that we were really glad that we did and things that we wish that we had done to prepare for our trip to Italy. This was a major trip - we were gone for two weeks immediately following our wedding. It was Sean's first trip to Europe and...
Italian Honeymoon Day 13: Rome to Charlotte
We had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. today to get everything done. We packed last night, so no problem besides our last few things. We washed up and ate croissants for breakfast. Then we started our trek 20 minutes to Roma Termini train station for a 30 minute express train to the airport. We...
Italian Honeymoon Day 12: Rome
Rome wasn't built in a day... but you can definitely explore it in a day. Neither of us really care much about museums or going into places, especially two weeks into our trip and on our last day. Sad face. We just wanted to walk around Rome and take it easy. We slept in this...
Italian Honeymoon Day 11: Naples to Capri to Rome
This morning when we woke up, we overwhelmingly did not want to head to Rome. We really preferred the smaller stops on our trip to the big cities and did not want two full days in Rome. I'm sure that some people will think that is crazy, but it's the truth. Meghan had to leave...
Italian Honeymoon Day 10: Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast
We woke up bright and early this morning and Josh made us eggs- a nice change of pace after all of those pastries we've been having! Meghan drove us about 45 minutes to Pompeii where we parked in a camping parking lot and bout tickets for a self-guided tour of the ruins. The weather was...
Italian Honeymoon Day 9: Florence to Naples
After a really long day doing Tasty Tuscany and the Fiorentina soccer game, we slept in until about 9 a.m. We ate breakfast at the Strange Uncle. We finally met the owner and talked to him for a few minutes. Interesting fellow named Breditz. We packed up all our stuff and walked to the train...
Italian Honeymoon Day 8: Florence and Tuscany
Today was a HUGE day. I can't express that enough. When we were planning our trip to Italy, we only booked two things to do. We had our plane tickets and our places to stay through AirBnB, but we only had two activities booked... and they were both on the same day. That day was...
Italian Honeymoon Day 7: Cinque Terre to Florence
We got up early on this Sunday morning for breakfast once again downstairs at Bar Centrale. We went down to the Coop (the grocery store) to buy souvenirs. We were still worried about having to carry anything we buy on our backs, but there were certain things here that we wanted to buy from this...
Italian Honeymoon Day 6: Hiking Cinque Terre
We woke up on our full day in Cinque Terre early and went downstairs to Bar Centrale's breakfast bar and had pastries and cappuccino for breakfast and planned our day. We had learned from our AirBnB host (who happened to work for the Italian National Park Service) that ¾ of the Lover's Trail was closed...
Italian Honeymoon Day 5: Lake Como to Cinque Terre
On Friday morning, we sadly had to bid farewell to Lake Como. We were really sad - Lake Como was like a dream. I grew up visiting the mountains a lot and just felt at home there, and the towns were so friendly and beautiful, I truly feel that we could have stayed for weeks....