Things have been hectic lately after the wedding so I haven't really had a moment to write it all down yet. But since the wedding details are being asked for, I'll do my best on a spur of the moment summary.
Wednesday we had our rehearsal at the Bellamy in downtown Wilmington. And it was POURING! We sat in the car for about half an hour hoping for the rain to stop, and it just got heavier & heavier. So finally we all made a dash for the inside of the mansion trying not to get too soaked since we had dinner afterwards. After that we pretty much just planned on moving the whole thing inside, sadly. I had wanted the ceremony at the bottom of the stairs out back. But the Thursday weather didn't look any better than Wednesday. So Thursday we made the call to move the ceremony inside & put the tables around the wrap balcony.
Thursday we began setting up around 3pm for the ceremony (at 7pm). It was really overcast, so we were afraid it would just start pouring any minute. But the rain actually held off through the entire ceremony & reception and the clouds kept the weather on the cooler side, so in the end it all worked out and we had a really nice breeze blowing through.
The only drama was from one of DH's grandma's who refused to try to go up the stairs into the mansion. So about 10 minutes till 7pm people had to leave to go back to their hotel & pick up a wheel chair to carry her up the stairs (even though she made it up much more stairs for the rehearsal dinner the night before). She was constantly complaing about us not getting married in a church prior to the wedding night, so this may have just been part of her protest. That delayed us just a little bit in starting, but all in all I can't complain since everything else went so smoothly.
The ceremony was short & sweet. And I actually got DH to dance back down the aisle with me to Hall & Oate's 'You Make My Dream' as our exit. It was a lot of fun and lots of people commented on it being a cute wedding exit.
The food (catered by Bon Appetit) was beautiful and delicious. They did an amazing job setting up the buffet and making it look beautiful. We made some flower arrangements to go on the buffet table & they were great about incorporating our decor & colors. The cake (Carolina Cakes & Confections) was also beautiful and delicious. The only thing I was a little dissapointed about was my bouquet - it was supposed to have purple hydrangeas in it but they ended up coloring hydrangeas white & then spraying them purple and it left a lot of white showing when I wanted a fully purple bouquet. It was still beautiful, but not exactly what I had pictured and I had such high expectations. The rest of the flowers they did were gorgeous (especially the boutonnierre for DH), though.
I had such a great time. It went by so fast - I can't believe it's happened. Everyone has called and let me know they enjoyed it, which made me so happy since we got a bit of grief for having the wedding so far from where most of the family was located. When people say cherish each moment - DO IT! The whole thing is almost a blur of happiness & love.
That night DH and I stayed at the Graystone Inn which was just a few blocks away. It was so gorgeous! We had chocolates waiting up in our room, but we were both so full we ended up just taking them home with us.
Once I get some of the edited pictures back, I'll be sure to share. That's enough for now - this is becoming a small novel!