I have just been hanging out, lounging, enjoying some time off here in North Carolina before I make my way back to MT for a full summer of fun! I’ve been so relaxed on myself and business these past three (3??!!!!) weeks, it has felt like a real chore to get back into the swing of things. Once my fingers hit the keyboard and I started planning out my next few weeks of blog posts it slowly became easier & I felt my heart tug to get back into my passion of sharing and creating moments. 

 Sooo here we are! And you are some lucky ducks!! With this time away from MT I actually am probably going to blog consistently for at least four weeks! (See what I did there with the actually probably 😉 – I cant ever be too sure while on my vacation hiatus ;D ) I am aiming for just once a week with a tip, trick, or note for budding photographers or mom(person)-togs who just want to snap better photos of their kids/dogs/life and once a week sharing some of my sessions from this past summer….But for right now I am going to bring you a blog post about a little life of Mrs. Ohm update and a whole lot of wedding photos of #evangetsmaryed!

I am currently living here in NC with my really wonderful husband. I spend most days waking up way later than I am going to admit, going to the group fitness classes offered on base, and then sitting in my PJs most of the day trying to knock some things off my to-do list (including some really fun projects that will knock my brides’ socks off!! But that is “super-secret-squirrel-stuff”, as Evan would put it 😀 hehe I also am trying my hand at cooking dinner four nights a week, since I kind of do have a lot of free time on my hands. SO if you have a fabulous, beginner-ish level recipe you think I should try, please let me know!! Basically I am going for the whole “not-so-desperate housewives of Fort Bragg” thing for the next five weeks ;D

I also, got the opportunity to meet up with the Fayetteville Tuesday’s Together group last week and met some really amazing boss ladies. (Thanks, Rising Tide Society!!) They gave me a LOT of tips and tricks for living near a military base, what I can expect from the market, some of their favorite locations, & their kindness and friendship. It felt so nice to meet some people and get my toes wet in making friends. 

 

Disclosure: I love making friends! I love people! I am fairly outgoing! But I get VERY anxious about meeting new people in a friend setting. It is so intimidating!! Anyone else with me?!

 

Okay, now onto the photos and the good stuff:

Last week Evan and my wedding photographer/friend/boss lady/rockstar, Sara, blogged our wedding on her blog (see her post HERE) – but I wanted to share some of my favorites with you all too!

 

Now I know you aren’t sitting there really dying to see my wedding photos, because let’s get real. We, our families, and close friends are the only ones who really get THAT jazzed to see photos from our wedding day. So instead of just boring you with photos from one of my favorite days I thought I would bore you AND provide you some information on where and who I used to help create our magical first day of forever and some tips from me so you can learn from my mistakes! So if you are freshly engaged, I hope this helps your planning just a little bit!

 

When planning our wedding, Evan told me he cared about two things: having a live band & getting to wear jeans. The rest was up to me! I knew I wanted the base colors to be pink, gold and navy – and ran with that. I hope you can kind of tell from me that I am a little all over the place all the time. I’m the kind of girl who never has matching socks & it looks like a Hobby Lobby threw up in my house. I love color. So I went into my planning asking for some serious help from my more creative brained friends who visualize a final product better than I do. 

  

Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask for help and advice!

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DETAILS:

I wanted strappy gold heels…so I googled “Strappy Gold Heels” and bought these for like $60 on Amazon. 

I wanted handwritten invites, so I asked my best friend and maid of honor, Haley, if she would be willing to make them for us. She knocked it out of the park!!! She made one hard copy of the invites & RSVPs – all by hand – flowers and all!! We then got them copied and printed at Floren’s Printing. I ordered gold linen envelopes from Amazon for them too. 

I thought this route was going to save us money, but after comparing to an online shop we were basically the same. My only regret with these is I ordered WAY too many! I counted roughly 350 bodies that would come to our wedding if everyone came – so I ordered that amount. WRONG!! I needed 3/4 of that. A lot of those “bodies” come in families! 

Tip: Count how many invites (families) you are inviting before you order your invites!

GETTING READY:

We got ready at BEYA Salon in the mall. I had a huge bridal party so we had 11 bridesmaids that all had to get ready. BEYA was perfect for this because there were four hairdressers who were able to tackle all of that hair! We had a lot of fun dancing, drinking mimosas, and laughing! 

I highly recommend getting your makeup done professionally. I know I wouldn’t love my photos as much if I would’ve done my own makeup because it wouldn’t of been enough. I felt like I was wearing 3lbs more makeup than I usually do on my wedding day when it was applied, but I don’t remember that feeling when I look back at our photos. I feel like I look incredibly happy and beautiful! It was bold and exactly what I wanted. 

Need recommendations for makeup artists? HERE is a blog post on that! Cesilee Storkson was the mastermind behind my wedding day look & Ces? I was in LOVE!!!

 Tip: This part of the day goes by so quick! Don’t forget to drink water during this time and eat real food. My parents brought up homemade tacos and I scarfed one down before I put my dress on. I wish I would have ate earlier and more, because I got hungry shortly into pictures!

My bridesmaids teaching my 2 year old honorary niece how to “Make it Rain”….hahaha Thank goodness she didn’t take that knowledge home with her!This makeup was my Grandma Betty’s. My sister, Kate, wore it at her wedding and so did I <3

FIRST LOOK & PORTRAITS:

I officially know what my brides are going through right before they see their fiancé for the first time on the wedding day. I couldn’t stop nervous giggling! But the minute he turned around I basically melted into butter and all the nerves were out the door.  I was worried my brain would go into photographer-posing mode, but I was so hung up on how hot Evan looked and the fact I was wearing a wedding dress that before I knew it the bridal party was there to celebrate with us!

 Tip: Breathe and enjoy! And have water near by!

I seriously thought he was going to drop me!!He is such a STUD!! All the heart eyes <3

BRIDAL PARTY:

We were lucky enough to have all these beautiful and wonderful people by our side on our wedding day. I can’t speak for Evan but my bridesmaids are seriously the greatest women I know. Every single one of them has impacted my life for the better and I am crying right now just thinking about how lucky I am they wanted to be friends with me! 

Their dresses were found originally on LuLus.com but when we went to buy they were out of some of the sizes. I was crushed because they matched my dress PERFECTLY! Thankfully, my best friend, Karlee (the beautiful curly red head) found them on Nordstrom’s for the same price and saved the day!!

We rented the boys’ tuxes from Cavaliers. I let them wear whatever jeans they wanted (because that was a detail I cared very little about).The only thing I really wanted for the boys were their mismatched floral ties that we found on dazi.com. I am obsessed with these!! They turned out 1292984109x better than I could have imagined!!!  Every groomsman wore a different color/florals and to save $$ on flowers, I skipped boutonnieres and my Mama made the boys pocket squares that matched the decoration at the venue! I just thought it turned out perfect & the boys looked daaaammmn good!

Y’all know I love my little munchkins!!! My two smallest best friends were the best flower girls! I am so lucky their moms are my best friends & that I get to love these little twinkles too!

I found their dresses for $13 on sale at Target and their amazing sparkly pink bomber jackets at H&M!! I was super sad when they didn’t have it in a Child XXXXL for me, but I figured I’d just let the girls shine!

Tip:The number in your bridal party doesn’t matter. Have one, have none, have twenty. It’s YOUR day and this is YOUR tribe. Let it be whoever you want it to be!

I just can’t get over how funny this set is!! The photographer told me to look at them & I panicked because I didn’t know who to look at first! I guess I chose wrong according to Kate’s face hahahaAnd these just crack me up!

FAMILY PORTRAITS:

I am really blessed with the family I have. This is our first family picture with all of us in it! My sister’s, their husbands, and my parents! <3 

I am also really lucky to have married into such a wonderful, caring, loving and amazing family. They are some of the best people I know, hands-down. 

TIP: Try to just have fun with these. They are pretty posed but you will be so thankful you have them all! We did every combination in our immediate family and I am so thankful we did! Those few extra minutes in the timeline are nothing now that I have the result.

RECEPTION/CEREMONY DETAILS:

Ahhh my reception details. One of my favorite parts. 

 When deciding what to do I was all over the place. The only thing I knew for sure was I wanted a wood farm table. Evan’s cousin, Layne, his fiancé, Kayla, and our friend, Damon whipped up three AMAZING blue pine tables. I mean they knocked this detail out of the park for me. They are incredible and more amazing than I ever expected. 

Three 8 foot long, 4 foot wide blue pine beauties my friends. These bad boys are high quality and top of the line. If you are interested in getting a quote for your own please call Kayla at 406-390-4543 or email her at sunnyshippichick@aol.com!!! You seriously need one of these in your home!!! We were gifted the head table and I CANNOT wait to get it to NC!! 

Our MR & MRS chairs were hand painted and crafted for us by Coffee Crafts. They always give me amazing quality of work & these chairs are super adorable! The other mismatched chairs came from my crazy huge collection, my parents house, and our friends & family who let us borrow their chairs.

Kimmi Boyce with Boyce and Berry Flowers did our flowers. My bouquet was out of this world pretty! The bridesmaids’ flowers came from Gary and Leos. Thank goodness for Maggie in the IGA floral department for saving my butt the Monday before our wedding!

Tip: Ordering bulk flowers from a place like IGA was more affordable when it came to my bulk flowers for the tables and the bridesmaids’ flowers. I cared less about what they looked like so we went that route. I would definitely trust a professional florist for your bridal bouquet and boutonnieres.

And a big thank you to my aunts and all those who helped distribute the flowers on the tables!!!! I love you!!

The mismatched fine china idea kind of fell out of the sky. I found a tea cup I liked and then started to run with the idea. Thanks to my Aunt Holly, Kathy, countless friends and family for collecting and finding these beauties! In all we needed 24 big dinner plates and 75 teacups and teacup saucers! ….and I was picky – they had to be cute! hehe But I am overwhelmed with the result – better than anything I dreamt of! If you know of anyone who needs teacups or teacup saucers – I know a girl with roughly 50 sets….they don’t match (well some do)….but they are PRETTY! 😀

Tip: Just do you. I kept saying, “None of this is going to match or look good” and kept being reminded that the whole thing looked like me, so it didn’t matter. On the wedding day I was not stressed about what everyone else was thinking it looked like, I was just thinking about how much I loved it! So even if it was a little wild for a few guests, I don’t care. It was OUR day and WE loved it!

CEREMONY:

Our Ceremony was officiated by my Uncle and Godfather, Stan. He did a beautiful job. I don’t think I have laughed, cried, laughed, cried, in one position more than I did during our ceremony! Evan and I chose to write our own vows because it meant a lot to us to share our own words to each other. 

We also made a milkshake instead of a unity candle or any other ceremony. It was a last minute decision to do this and I didn’t recognize how hilarious I was going to think the situation was until we were blending it and I had tears rolling down my face because it was so silly stupid. So funny to me in fact that the moment we sipped our milkshake together I spit laughed all over Evan. Like milkshake spit all over his shirt and face!! It was too dang funny, I couldn’t control myself. Definitely made a good memory there! (Photo pictured below)!

Also, my sweet friend since kindergarten, Holly, sang with her grandpa as we walked down the aisle. It was so beautiful and really memorable for me since she means a lot to me!

Tip: Long ceremony, short ceremony, traditional, not traditional. Whatever feels right for your relationship is what you should do. We mixed traditional with non-traditional and it is super memorable to us! Always keep in the back of your mind that the majority of your guests will not remember a single thing from your Ceremony. So don’t stress about it too much! Just do what you love for you two – and get that paper signed 😀

RECEPTION:

To be completely honest our reception is kind of blur to me! We came back from taking sunset portraits and we were both starving. And in between combusting from hunger and trying to see your 200 guest thats came to celebrate with you is exhausting! I seriously just kind of see a blur of things when I think back. 

So big TIP here: Slow down. The time is going to pass anyways, so just take it table by table or dance by dance! Talk to your guests, thank them and then move on. I feel really guilty I didn’t see half of my guests because I just didn’t have time for all events and seeing the guests. As a photographer, I dislike receiving lines because they take up too much time into sunset portraits. But now since I’ve been a bride, a receiving line would have made me feel a lot better about seeing everyone who came to support us!

The amazing Oriah Pratt, wrote us a song and performed it for us. It was beautiful. We also had the awesome Plowed Under Band there to rock out with us and it was totally fabulous!!! 

My sisters gave one epic speech basically in sync & my bff Haley sang her toast to “Wannabe” – it was awesome!

I also may have done the worm in my wedding dress….nbd

All in all – we were dead tired at the end of the night. My eyes were bright red and burning because I was so tired. I have never cried more happy tears ever (and boy, did I cry. Like the whole day basically)! I also have never had so many of my favorite people all in one room. That definitely makes your heart want to burst. And the best part? I got to walk hand-in-hand with my super hot, driven, generous, giving, and extremely loving husband out those doors as Mr. & Mrs. Ohm!!

Tip: THAT is what the whole day is about. You and your fiancé and starting your adventure together. Nothing else really matters. Seriously. Nothing else really truly matters except for that you get your honey pie at the end, forever and ever, amen. 

Did you even have a real wedding if you didn’t take off your shoes and do the worm in your wedding dress? (I wish I could blog emojis because I would have had three hundred laugh cry faces inserted here)

Basically my all time favorite picture right here!!! vvvvvvvvvvWhat a photo shoot with Evan actually looks like is the next four photos…….dork…

 Final thank you’s go to Sara Jeanne Photography and Justin Hutchinson Videography for being amazing all day long! Thank you for making us laugh. We LOVE our photos, Sara & Brandon!! And Justin, we cannot wait to see what you do!!

Also, big high five if you are still reading this! 😀

Happy planning to the brides out there reading and big hugs to you all,

Mary