Steve and Jill's Wedding in Wilmington, North Carolina

My uncle is a minister and since I was a little girl I knew that I wanted him to officiate my wedding ceremony. Our bridal party was massive; 10 groomsmen, 9 bridesmaids, 2 flower girls, and 1 ring bearer. A coworker of mine had joked saying that isn't a bridal party, that's a parade! All I could think of was blessed we were to have THAT many people so important to us to have a part of our special day. Steve and I spent our wedding day with our respective groomsmen and bridesmaids. A day that could have been stressful but what so full of love and laughter. I remember thinking that I needed to take time to soak it all in because I knew it was going to go by entirely too fast.

Before I knew it we were lining up to proceed down the aisle, but not without a beautiful "Wiley” chant from the bridal party to get us amped up. My mother walked me down the aisle. I had never seen her so genuinely happy before in my life. In front of 183 people we became husband and wife.

A few months prior to the wedding Steve and I had taken dancing lesson for our first dance. We had chosen "There Will Be Time" by Mumford & Sons. We wanted it to be memorable, and we saw it as our first task completed together as a married couple. We did our entrance after the shenanigans of our bridal party and absolutely perfected our dance. The rest of the night flew by with toasts, dancing, and overall happiness.

The night ended with us boarding the yellow school buses back to the hotel where most of our guests were staying. The entire ride consisted of everyone on the bus singing at the top of our lungs. Some of the songs included; The National Anthem, The Eagles Victory Song, Bohemian Rhapsody, and whatever else we could squeeze in before getting back to the hotel. We were exhausted, but so happy and filled with love from the most perfect wedding day.