Marrying McAfee | First Dance & Cutting the Cake

When planning the wedding day's events, I so desperately wanted everything to go smoothly of course, but also cohesively. It was really important to me to make sure my guests felt engaged and involved, and to minimize the amount of wait time if possible. There's always some wait time of course, but having a structured cocktail hour alleviated some of that.

Our picture session as a couple coincided with the cocktail hour, where guests enjoyed fruit, cheese and crackers as well as our signature drinks: pink cotton candy and champagne for me, and a Tom Collins for him! Once we were done with pictures, we had the grand announcement of our wedding party by our awesome DJ, followed immediately by our first dance to Shania Twain's "From this Moment" and the cake cutting to Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion."

Christopher and I did not do the cake smash...getting messy is never my style. Our cake was a delicious wedding cake with raspberry preserves in the middle and buttercream icing. As soon as the cake was cut and the traditional toast was done, we began feeding the guests so they could fuel up before the party truly began!

The funniest moment of the cake cutting definitely came with Niki, my matron of honor, went to pop the champagne for us, which for some reason had never been iced down. I had specifically picked a special bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne for us to enjoy on the day of in our monogrammed ice bucket. When she pulled the cork, it exploded all over the place due to the heat of the day. I love the expression on our faces from that moment! 

Photos by Ari Merrit Photography

Marrying McAfee | The Littles

For our wedding day, we included two very important "littles" in our lives as our ring bearer and flower girl. The little ones in weddings are always my favorite part: I love the tiny versions of the outfits they wear! Both of our young attendants took their jobs very seriously throughout the day, with our ring bearer Jax cutting loose at the reception by dancing with all of the girls!

He is what I like to refer to as my "little boyfriend," and was very sad to let me get married. One of my favorite surprises of the wedding weekend was the set of rules he wrote for Christopher to follow, which Jax's mom Kim read during the rehearsal dinner. I keep the framed list on top of my jewelry chest in our bedroom for easy reference should Christopher need a little reminder now and then!

10 Rules for Marrying My Piper

written on April 7, 2015 by Jax

1. Smooch

2. Be kind

3. No food fights

4. Wear deodorant or else you'll be stinky on your armpits

5. Take care of my Piper

6. Protect my Piper from danger

7. If the power goes out, make my Piper a fire and get flashlights out and lanterns and sleep with her

8. Lots of hugs

9. Give her flowers

10. Wash her hair and body when she needs help

And most importantly, love my Piper as much as I do, forever.

Jax :)

Marrying McAfee | Mr. & Mrs.

I've been slacking a little this week on blogging due to feeling a little under the weather after a super long, super fun work weekend. But yesterday marked four months of being married! And hopefully CJM will be a fully licensed pharmacist by the end of the week. It really is still a very exciting time in our lives, and I'm loving it.

After the wedding ceremony and family pictures, my groom and I took some time by ourselves to regroup, focus, and take some pretty pictures with our photographer, Ari. Here are a few of my favorites: 

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
P.S. I have a could of "Being the Bride" spotlights lined up for the coming weeks. If you'd like to be a part of that feature, email me at piperellice at gmail dot com.

Marrying McAfee | Family

All Photos by Ari Merritt Photography

After our wedding ceremony, we waited for guests to clear the courtyard so that we could take our immediate family and full bridal party portraits. I'm incredibly thankful to have all of these pictures of our families, and those so very special to us. Our bridal party has become like our extended family as well! We also took special pictures with Christopher's grandfather who married us, and our sweet friend Emily who gifted us with her beautiful voice during the ceremony.

These pictures are going to make excellent Christmas gifts for our families this year! 

My mother's side of the family 

My father's side of the family 

Christopher's mother's side of the family 

Christopher's sister & husband; my matron of honor

The Reese Family 

Beautiful Emily, our singer. Read about her wedding here! 

Our wonderful bridal party! Not pictured is Christopher's best man Elijah, who was deployed overseas.

Marrying McAfee | The Ceremony

Some of my absolute favorite pictures of our wedding day came from the ceremony. I'm thankful, because that is truly the most important moments of the day. I had been getting teary eyed at every wedding we'd attending leading up to our big day, thinking about the importance and meaning of each word spoken of the vows. 

I'm thankful that I didn't sob down the aisle like I thought I would, but the tears were still there. It's funny to think back about which faces I remembered seeing in the crowd while walking towards my groom...I honestly couldn't look at Christopher that much, because I knew between him and my crying bridesmaids, I'd be a total mess! 

One of my favorite memories of this part of the day are the delay of the start of the ceremony due to a train which decided to stop across the tracks in the middle of town, delaying a good majority of our wedding guests. People were so worried about me freaking out, that by the time I was told all I could think was, "Thank goodness for a few more minutes in this air conditioning!" We started ten or so minutes late, once everyone arrived. 

On the walk down the aisle, I stopped and gave my mom an impromptu hug right before my dad gave me away. It's some of my favorite pictures of the day. Christopher walked down the stairs of the platform to greet my dad, and escort me up after my walk down the aisle. That was a really special thing for me, and was a great visual of what was happening as I became his wife. 

Two "embarrassing" moments: I got a coughing fit once under the microphone. The kind of coughing fit where every breathe of air feels like a knife sharp and deep in the back of my throat. Never saw that one coming. Luckily, it subsided quickly. The other was the lipstick left on Christopher's face after our planned first kiss...I did not want our arms blocking our faces so I made him practice with me weeks before, to keep our arms low. On the day of, I had to wipe the pink of his lips before we came back down the aisle, but again...loved those pictures and the video of it especially! 

Photography by Ari Merritt Photography; Videography by Zac McLendon. 

Sneaking a peek during the prayer!