The date was pretty easy to decide. We knew we did not want a long engagement but needed at least 6 months to plan it. We got my pocket calendar out and said April would be a great month. His parents were going to be overseas so we decided on the weekend of April 11. We had originally decided that a Saturday wedding would be better but learned early to be flexible in the wedding planning.
I knew I was going to get married at Lake Shore Baptist where my dad has been the pastor since I was in fourth grade. He was going to do the ceremony also.
I did most of the researching of the reception sites on line and made a few calls. We were amazed at how expensive some of the sites were especially the food. We knew we did not want a sit down dinner or a formal reception. For the amount of people we were going to have at the wedding and reception we wanted to keep it simple (and affordable!). One weekend at work, I was doing some more research and telling the other ladies how hard it was to find a place. One of my coworkers, Anissa, lives in Oak Leaf and mentioned their clubhouse does weddings and receptions. She showed me the website and I fell in love with it. For one it was way cheaper than anywhere else and we could bring our own caterer in so we had more say in what we wanted.
For the food we had decided to get Dan Engelhardt, a member from our church who does a bunch of the cooking whenever we have a big church function. I have been eating his food for years and knew he would do a wonderful job. The one thing Jason and I both wanted at the reception that everyone thought was a little different were pigs in a blanket! We loved them!
The very next day Jason and I drove out to Oak Leaf to see it. It was all set up for a wedding and we both were very impressed by it. I called later that week to book it for the Saturday of the weekend we had hoped to get married. It was booked for another wedding but the Friday night before was open so we decided on April 11 was going to be the day!
I got my dress ordered from The Simple Bride in Jacksonville Beach. The ladies there were fabulous and I realized how much they spoiled me when I went to other shops! I just tried on whatever the girls brought me and did not get to see the dress until after I got Stephanie and Diana's reaction because of how it was set up. Finally when I tried on "my dress" they were out of the room so I got to see it first. I thought that it was so simple but gorgeous. I was waiting for them and they walked into the room and it took their breath away!
The bridesmaid's dresses were beautiful as well. It was really funny how most everything I picked out online was not what I ended up picking once I saw it at the store. We got the bridesmaids' dresses at The Bridal Shop at Orange Park.
The most shocked we got while doing wedding planning was the cost of the cake I had originally picked out. The price was going to be $1200 for a CAKE. We decided there was no way we were going to pay that much for cake which we probably wouldn't remember anyway. I went to Publix where an old church member was the head of the bakery and picked a cake out that was similar to the original one. It was fabulous!
The one thing we splurged on for the wedding was the photography. Estes Photography was our choice. Steve and Brenda did my sister's wedding and her friend and her sister's wedding as well. They do a fantastic job and we knew what we were getting in them.
For the music, I absolutely did not want any singing. I just could picture myself laughing at the corny songs at the alter. We went with simple and just had an awesome guitarist at the beginning. Jason's sister Jennifer had a wonderful idea. She is a fantastic flutist so we had her play as well. Jennifer mentioned that she had played Somewhere Over The Rainbow as the flower girl walked down the aisle. Hannah loves The Wizard of Oz so I thought that Hannah would love to walk with that playing. It turned out really pretty!
For the flowers we went with Gladwell's Florist. They are within minutes from the church and the lady who runs it is in Jason's parents Sunday School Class. I had originally wanted calla lilies but once I saw the simple roses bouquet I went with that. Plus it helped matters that they were a tad cheaper! A funny story about the flowers is the day before the wedding I got a phone call from the gal putting them together. She was worried that I would be upset that they had a pink tint to them. I didn't mind and they turned out beautiful!
The part of the wedding that had the potential for being the most stressful was the decorating. I don't have a decorating bone in me so I really needed someone to do that! We didn't get that settled until probably two or three months before the wedding. One of our former church member's does decorating for weddings. Mom had run into her one day in the store and Mrs. Angie had mentioned she was decorating for fun and making jewelry, too. I met with her so I could get the bridesmaids' jewelry for their wedding gift. The necklaces were so pretty! Thankfully Mrs. Angie put everything together in record time!! Also, with Oak Leaf we were only going to be able to decorate the day of the wedding. There was no way or so we were told that we could get in there any earlier than about 4 hours before the wedding was to start. Thankfully the event scheduled before us canceled and it worked out to get it started after the rehearsal!
While I planned the wedding Jason planned the honeymoon. All I knew was we were going to Hawaii and he took care of everything. He did a ton of research and planned out the honeymoon
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