The Wanderlust Wedding June 2014

[MmmBlondie]

Hey everyone & welcome to my wedding
journal

Index

The Venue & Ceremony
The Color Scheme, Theme & Some Décor
The Flowers & Photographer
The Bridesmaids, Their Dresses, My Dress & My Bridal Shoot
The Cocktail Hour & Reception Dinner
The Cake & S'mores Bar
The DJ Projects & Wedding Favors
The MiniMoons

Technically I am not having a wedding in/around Disney but I am having the big day in Florida, and as I wanted to write a journal I thought The Dibb would be the perfect place. So let's get this wedding ball rolling...

Who We Are, Our History & How The Wedding Came About

I am happy to introduce to y'all myself (Vicky), 24 years old, training to be a real estate agent & lover of all things sparkly and my 25 year old, US Air Force Aerial Gunner husband Josh. For those of you who caught that, yes I said husband and not fiancé. We are in fact already actually married and this will be our 2nd wedding.

This is us last year at a friends wedding.



And on St Patricks Day 2013



Unfortunately for me he is currently deployed on his 7th Trip to the middle east and has been gone a little over 2 months. As the wedding is set for 28th June this year I just hope he makes it back in time! This is us on morning he left back in Feb...sorry for the quality, it was dark lol.



I miss him terribly but we've been very lucky and keeping in touch hasn't been too much of a problem. Anyway back to our history! It all started back in late April 2012 when a friend of mine and I went to Vegas for her birthday. Out there on our last full night we met 2 lovely American men, had a blast and decided to keep in touch. One of those guys was Josh. Neither of us ever imagined that we would be where we are today but upon keeping in touch with the help of technology we fell in love. He had always wanted to visit London so in August 2012 he came and stayed with me for 10 days plus a cheeky trip to Paris he had organized.

This is us keeping cool at the Trocadero Gardens.



While in Paris, Josh took me to a lovely restaurant named Laurent. This is where we unofficially got engaged. We knew we wanted to be together and without any doubts decided to get married. To some it might seem crazy as we had only known each other since late April and had only been in each others company twice (Vegas and his visit to me) but we knew we were making the right decision. The atmosphere at that restaurant, the food quality and overall experience was just amazing. The bill came to 500 Euros (it was so worth it), but we can't wait to go back. I mean just look at it...




Let's fast forward to October 2012 where I visited Josh for a week. He was due to deploy to Afghanistan a few days later so we had all my paperwork for the K1 fiancée visa printed/signed and sent it all off. During this deployment (4 months total), my petition was granted/visa authorized and come March 12th 2013 I moved from London, UK to Navarre, FL USA leaving all my family, friends and even job behind. It was an emotional morning sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow with no one but my iPhone and my starbucks but I knew that in no time at all I would be back in the US, this time for good, with the man I loved

One small glitch with the K1 fiancée visa. For it to be legal, you have to be married within 90 days of arrival otherwise its Bye Bye America, Hello England. Because of this, plus both our families being in the UK/different US states, my emigration and a few other things we decided just to have a simple courthouse wedding. This was the best plan of action for us as it meant I was legal to stay in the US and file for my green card/gain my military spouse benefits but it also meant we could plan a bigger 2nd wedding later and actually have all our family and friends with us.

We got legally married on April 2nd 2013. Here is a picture of my engagement ring, Josh asleep with our friends cat the morning of our wedding and a collage of us just after we got married.







Apart from getting married, we bought a house, all new furniture and then 2 puppies. Buying furniture before puppies was probably a bad idea but oh well . I started studying to become a Floridian Real Estate agent, we had my family visit for Christmas & New Year and oh yeah...we started planning our wedding

NEXT UP...THE VENUE & THE CEREMONY

[MmmBlondie]

As this wedding was all about having our friends and family with us on our big day, the date was extremely important. It had to be changed a few times due to deployments and other military/family issues but finally we settled on Saturday 28th June 2014. So at the time of writing this...it is a mere 60 days away and I cant wait!

The Venue

We checked out a few venues including a gorgeous place right on the bay. It was absolutely beautiful with a dock perfect for photos and a grass/decking area that would have been an amazing backdrop for our wedding. Unfortunately it was at least a 1.5hr drive from where we live, you had to vacate the premises by 10pm and the icing on the cake...they wanted $4000 for 4hours with $500 for every other hour. We decided against this venue and went for our second choice instead.

That said second choice venue is The Club at Hidden Creek Golf Course, in my town of Navarre, FL. Its a beautiful club house and for our wedding day we have the whole place to ourselves. We will be getting married outside under a pavilion looking out to the golf course. There are palm trees, lakes and fountains, 2 different sized lounges, a large bar area plus 2 outside areas.

Below are a few pictures from the venues website.











I will be changing a few things within the venue like all the chairs but once the décor is sorted, and the lights and drapes are hanging I think it will all come together perfectly.

The Ceremony

Although we are already married, we will be treating our ceremony as if its our first.

Neither of us are religious so there will be no mention of God, no prayers or hymns. There might be a reading but more than likely not as that's just not us. We are sticking to the traditional vows and exchanging of the rings but we will be doing a sand ceremony.

Instead of pouring our sand into a vase though we will pouring it into a picture frame I found the idea on Pinterest (I'm an avid pinner so feel free to follow me if you want, my username is mmmblondie), and then found a sand frame when I was out shopping



Were hoping the ceremony wont last too long as its going to be outside, in the June Floridian heat/humidity. Were aiming to keep it light and humorous but with of course some romance.

When it comes to walking down the aisle though only 2 of my friends & I know what I'm walking down the aisle too. I plan on keeping it a complete secret...apart from sharing it on here of course.

I didn't want to walk down the aisle to the traditional wedding march and only one song kept entering my mind. The Jurassic Park theme tune Some might call me crazy but this has been my favorite film for years. Every time I hear that song it gives me goosebumps, especially at Islands of Adventure lol. I decided to go for a string quintet version of it though and its beautiful. I honestly cant wait to walk down the aisle to it, and see everyone's reactions as they realize what the song is. My husband is going to love it!

Just click here, skip to 5.25 and judge for yourselves...

I'm in love with JP so much...I have the shirt to prove it lol, and yes this is a shameless selfie



NEXT UP...THE COLOR SCHEME, THEME & SOME DECOR

[MmmBlondie]

The Color Scheme

The color scheme for our wedding is black, white & "Malibu" blue. We quite liked the idea of having a blue theme but didn't want it to seem cold as the wedding is on a June day and certain blues can be quite icy. I feLl in love with the Malibu blue color and decided it would be perfect.

If you're not sure what "Malibu" blue is...its pretty much this





We have followed with this color in our flowers, the bridesmaid dresses, napkins, chair bows and some of the décor. The rest of our décor will tie in nicely with our theme, which is...

The Theme & Some Décor

Traveling! Traveling is a big part of both my husband and I's lives. I'm not ashamed to say I am well traveled and have been lucky enough to visit a large chunk of the world. With the US Air Force Josh has been just as lucky and visited some beautiful places. He has also been sent to/stayed at some not some safe places but lets not be a Debbie downer and leave all that traveling out.

This is one of my favorite quotes just because its so true.



We have both traveled separately, traveled together, would like to travel some more and of course were both from separate countries and met while on vacation so the theme fits perfectly with us!

Even my newest tattoo fits in perfect with my wedding lol. Can you tell its a cover up



As not to stray from the theme, a fair size of the wedding has the element of travel incorporated into it.

Our tables will named after places. As we have 11 tables including ours we have decided on:

• Las Vegas - Where we met
• London - Where I'm from
• Atlanta - Where Josh is from
• Naples - Where my dad is from
• Paris - Our unofficial engagement
• Reykjavik - Josh has been but I want to visit
• Auckland - I loved traveling around NZ and Josh wants to visit
• Melbourne - Loved Australia too
• Singapore - Amazing city
• Tokyo - Neither of us have been but we want to go
• Bora Bora - Where we hope to honeymoon

I found this on pinterest, loved the idea and have asked my photographer to make up something similar for each table but on 8x10 sheet metal. We will write the table names on ourselves in a white sharpie so afterwards we can wipe off the table names, hang them in our house and have 11 beautiful photos.



Our dining room area where the reception dinner will be held, will be closed off during the ceremony and cocktail hour. No one will be able to enter that area or see it but so they know what table they are sitting at I will have this out in the foyer.



The end product will be a world map, mounted on an easel, with the names of our guests printed or written on those luggage tags. Those tags will point to a place...that place is their table

Once people have found their tables they will find their place cards. These place cards are going to be boarding passes and look a little like this.



Carrying on with the travel theme, instead of a guest book I will be having a globe for all to sign. I have already bought one but I haven't taken a photo yet so here's one I found on...yup you've guessed it...Pinterest!



I will have this journal from Barnes & Noble next to it in case anyone wants to write a longer message.



And I bought this trunk to be used for cards.



We didn't want to go overboard with the theming so hopefully with the extra added touches with the rest of the wedding its just enough.


NEXT UP...FLOWERS & PHOTOGRAPHER

[MmmBlondie]

Flowers

The florist we have chosen to do our wedding flowers is amazing. We sat down with her a little while back and explained our color scheme/what we were after. Straight away she knew exactly what would work, what was nice and I couldn't be happier.

For my bridal bouquet I am having a hand tied clutch, utilizing white and turquoise dendrobium orchids, white roses, babys breath, football moms, mini white calla lilies and white gerber daisies...all tied together with white satin ribbon stems.

Here's a few inspiration photos I found...





My 4 bridesmaids are also having hand tied clutches with white football moms, white gerber daises and babys breath.
My florist is also providing me with a wedding arch that will have fabric and flowers. Hopefully it should look a little like this.



Right now I'm still deciding on what aisle flowers I want and what flower arrangements I will have around the venue but the table centerpieces have been chosen. Were having 3 staggered glass cylinders, each filled with water and with different colored dendrobium orchids (blue boms, white and turquoise) inside with a 3" floating candle on top.

The tallest cylinder will be about 18" and should be looking similar to this but with blue.



The Photographer

My photographer is an amazing woman named Ashley. She's professional yet fun and is very talented.

Her website is ashleyhelen if anyone wants to take a look at her work

For our wedding day we have chosen the wedding collection 2 package. This package has been customized to us slightly as each package includes an engagement shoot. As we are already married and weren't looking to have an engagement party or shoot we changed it so I could have my own bridal shoot instead.

Along with the bridal shoot, we will be having Ashley for 6 hours on our wedding day but if we want her to stay longer she will. Were hoping the 6hrs will cover us getting ready, the ceremony, our bridal party photos during cocktail hour, a few shots of cocktail hour and a large chunk of the reception.

Were always having a photo booth! For 4 hours Ashley will have her assistant manning the photo booth which will have on-site printing so our guests can take away their photos with them if they want.



Were hoping this will be a big hit especially as the night goes on and the guests get drunker! Trust me when I say the Air Force likes to drink haha.

Last but no least Ashley will always be providing us with a 10x10 coffee table book in a ruby silk cover after all our photos have been finished and a high resolution CD of images with printing rights.

NEXT UP...THE BRIDESMAIDS, THEIR DRESSES, MY DRESS & MY BRIDAL SHOOT!

[MmmBlondie]

The Bridesmaids & Their Dresses

My bridesmaids are 4 of my best friends. Cristina, Emma, Helena & Hailey.

Three are from the UK & my 4th, Hailey, is from here. She is another military spouse and my husband and I are basically aunt and uncle to their child. Cristina is my Maid of Honor and were like 2 peas in a pod. I've known Emma since I was 15 and Helena is my newest friend but our friendship has lasted the distance of my move.

It's been slightly difficult trying to plan a wedding almost alone, while my husband is deployed, across 2 different countries but oh well I'm a trooper!

Here's a few photos of us...











This is a photo of my beautiful Maid of Honor Cristina trying on her bridesmaid dress.



DOESN'T SHE LOOK AMAZING!

As only Hailey could be with me when choosing the bridesmaid dresses my iPhone camera was in full force messaging the girls all sorts! I was looking for a short dress that wasn't strapless but I wanted my bridesmaids to be comfortable.

I chose the above dress that Cristina is modelling and once I had all the girls measurements they were ordered.

They arrived perfectly on time when my mom was visiting. Haileys dress fitted like a glove and when my mom took the other 3 back to the UK...every dress fit them perfectly!

The Dress

Now as every bride knows, the dress is one of the most important factors when it comes to getting married. Unlike some brides who try on 10+ dresses before they find "the one", I knew which dress was my dress from the start.

I was casually browsing the Maggie Sottero website when I saw her...and she was called Reagan.



I searched on the website for the nearest bridal store near me that carried the Maggie dresses and found Simply Elegant in Fort Walton Beach.

I cannot praise this bridal store more than enough. They are amazing and helped cater to all my needs. As they didn't have the Reagan sample in store they ordered it in for me.

Once it was in store, I waited for my mom to visit and Hailey, my mom and I went in. This was the only time I went dress shopping as I'd fallen in love with my dress more so in person. Hopefully on my wedding day I'm going to look as good as the model lol.





They took my measurements and I ordered my dress there and then!

My Bridal Shoot

On the 10th April my friend/bridesmaid Helena came to visit me for 12 days which was amazing! She helped me out with a lot of wedding stuff especially on the 17th April when my bridal shoot was taking place!

I thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone and get my hair/make up trial done just before my bridal shoot. My hairdresser Kattie is awesome and we've been speaking weddings for months! I loved my hair & make up so much that come 9am on the wedding day my mom, my bridesmaids and I will be in the salon getting pampered with a few mimosas!

Anyway, after my hair and make up trial, Helena and I drove back to mine to grab my dress & shoes and made our way to downtown Pensacola.

If any of you dibbers ever come to my part of Florida I suggest you check out Downtown Pensacola. It's a beautiful part of town some amazing museums breweries, parks, shopping facilities and bars/restaurants.







My photographer Ashley has her office/studio located in Downtown Pensacola. We met with her then made the 5 minute walk to my shoot location. One of my favorite places...Seville Quarter.



Again if you ever come to my neck of the woods then head down to Seville Quarter. Its a gorgeous place with 7 venues in one. You can literally start the night off with a meal, have a few drinks in one bar, have a few in the dueling piano bar and end the night in the club without ever leaving the premises. And its only $5 cover!

The below photos are the "sneak peek" my photography sent me while she works on finishing the rest of my photos. I absolutely love them and cant wait to finally upload them to fb and hang them in my house after the wedding.













If any brides out there ever get the chance to do a bridal shoot then do it! So much fun & it means you get to wear your dress twice

NEXT UP...COCKTAIL HOUR & THE RECEPTION DINNER

[Guest]

Yay amazing plans, we are colour twins! My girls dresses are Malibu blue from David's bridal and we have the same flowers!

For your sand ceremony if you haven't bought one already we got our frame from Forever Frame, it has a block that holds the sand in place and you can still add in photos and knick nacks into the box

Looking forward to more!

[blondie]

Aww lovely , love how you both met ,when you meet the right one doesnt matter how long you have been together if it feels right its right .
Love all your wedding plans your photo shoot and dress are beautiful , you look like a princess ! :-) .
Looking forward to the next instalment x

[Jesslydevie1]

Ohhhh lovely I can't wait to hear more , I love your bridal shoot .

[MmmBlondie]

Originally Posted by TabZ

Yay amazing plans, we are colour twins!

For your sand ceremony if you haven't bought one already we got our frame from Forever Frame, it has a block that holds the sand in place and you can still add in photos and knick nacks into the box

Looking forward to more!

See more...

Thank you You're a Malibu blue girl too. I love it I do have a sand ceremony frame but I actually dropped it yesterday and it broke so I will be getting a new one. I will check out forever frame though.

Originally Posted by blondie

Aww lovely , love how you both met ,when you meet the right one doesnt matter how long you have been together if it feels right its right .
Love all your wedding plans your photo shoot and dress are beautiful , you look like a princess ! :-) .
Looking forward to the next instalment x

See more...

People are always surprised when they hear how we met. They assume that as he's military he was stationed in the UK lol when we tell them Vegas there's always a surprised reaction.
Thank you I actually felt like a princess on my bridal shoot. I had so many people stop/stare/talk to me/shout out nice things to me & one guy even thought we were taking photos for a professional magazine! I think every bride should do it. So much fun.

Originally Posted by Jesslydevie1

Ohhhh lovely I can't wait to hear more , I love your bridal shoot .

See more...

Thank you I'll be putting up the next installment soon.

[LaurenYorkshir]

Great start and a lovely story