Michelle ~ aka Lovestruck

We got married (eloped) in October, 1998. On September 24, 2011 we renewed our vows and finally had the wedding we had been planning for so long. The day had it's ups and downs for sure, but in the end it was a beautiful day in which we all enjoyed ourselves. The biggest problem we had was our teenage daughter started a fight with us first thing in the morning and decided to hide our music...causing us to be about 45 minutes behind schedule. The second problem was that due to the warm temperatures the frosting on the cake began to melt and some of the roses slid off. Thankfully I had the forethought to bring the frosting and did a quick touch up. It would have been nice not to worry about it since we were already running behind, but oh well. It still looked great and was sooo delicious.  Everything else was wonderful! With the weather being not only in the 90's but also rainy in the weeks before, we were very worried it would be too hot or worse, that we would be rained out and have to use the back up room. Thankfully we were blessed with an absolutely perfect day....slightly cloudy, temperatures in the high 70's and a light breeze. The food was delicious. We had roasted chicked which we ordered from our nearby grocery store; awesome ham (that Lance made); roasted potatoes; macaroni salad; pea salad (with cashews - yum!) a vegetable tray; a fruit tray; and stuffed baguettes that were fantastic and a huge hit  with everyone; then some nuts and mints (and cake of course lol). Everyone had plenty to eat and we still had lots left over. We prepared everything in advance that we could, so all that needed to be done the day of was baking the ham and potatoes and stuffing/slicing the baguettes. Lance took care of that while I got ready (and made new CD's :/ )  My mom did the flowers for us and they were gorgeous. She came to our house the day before the renewal and made all the arrangements. Between the flowers from her yard and my MIL's yard  we only needed to spend $60 for the greenery and extra flowers needed.  We had a friend take all the pictures for us as a gift and though they may not be "professional quality" we think she did a fantastic job. I love them. If I had it to do over, I think the things I would change would be to wear something more "wedding-ish",  (Because we had a more casual event I just wore a nice outfit, but looking back I wish I would have gone ahead with more traditional wedding attire. I would not have worn a full length, formal wedding dress, but I would have worn the tea length dress I had originally planned to wear.)  and I think I would have gone ahead and had it at home. Even though I absolutely LOVE our venue,  I think we could have done a wonderful job setting up our yard to be gorgeous and then we would have had more time (which equals less stress lol) to set up all the decor.  But after all is said and done it was a beautiful event and we finally had our wedding.  Of course we couldn't have made it happen without the help of our friends and family. Our oldest daughter and her fiance truly made it happen for us. They went far above and beyond what was expected of them. They were absolutely amazing! Thank you so much Briana and Jeremy, we love you! And thank you Mike and Leah for all of your help as well!