Wedding Pictures, Part Two: the boys, and the ceremony

There aren’t nearly as many pictures of Mr. Owl before the ceremony, sadly, because he got ready in a different place and I only had one photographer. But there was a little of Mr. Owl pre-ceremony in the wedding video, so that’s good enough.

Mr. Owl’s younger brother was his best man, and their nephew was our ringbearer.

He’s pretty adorable. IT really was a family affair, because Mr. Owl’s dad officiated the wedding; I was very happy about that. It made the whole day so special to have so much family involved!

My second set of parents are pretty fantastic, and I love them.

For the decoration of the sanctuary, we decided to hang paper lanterns everywhere and string white lights across from wall to wall; it turned out exactly as I had hoped! My future sister-in-law (soon to be married to one of Mr. Owl’s older brothers) and one of Mr. Owl’s good friends made that fantastic paper lantern chandelier, utilizing tulle, fishing wire, and cardboard of all things. They’re pretty darn creative!

I really loved how the decoration turned out. I might have wanted more branches everywhere, but overall… it didn’t matter too much. I just absolutely LOVED the paper lanterns (I got them here for an awesomely low price.)

I also made little bouquets of the flowers I picked last summer and some branches from trees outside to line the chairs along the aisle. Thanks to church, there was a ton of free tulle, and voila! The aisle was done. It’s amazing how easy and inexpensive it was to decorate, and how well everything came together.

My dad started crying as soon as we began to walk down the aisle, and I’m told he didn’t stop crying all the way through the ceremony. I totally forgot (and so did he) to give him a kiss or a  hug when he gave me away, because I was too focused on Mr. Owl.

And I was too focused on trying to convince myself that this was all real and it was really happening. The only part of the day that seemed tangible was my toes going numb during the ceremony.

To make the ceremony special, Mr. Owl’s dad used a little quote from Lord of the Rings, because he knows we’re both LOTR nerds. It was pretty funny, and I loved having that extra special touch to the day. Nothing is complete without LOTR!

Afterwards, we scurried away for a private moment between the ceremony and reception, where Mr. Owl gave me the leaf brooch the Hobbits wear on their capes, and I gave him some cologne that I find irresistible.

It was the only moment in the entire day that I cried; I think once we got to that room, then I felt the reality of the whole day and a burst of joy hit me. It was such a great moment.

I have so many more pictures to show you; next week is going to be full of wedding, too, because we’ve still got reception pictures and our alone-pictures (my favorite ones!)

Don’t forget, tomorrow there’s a giveaway from the lovely Simply Bridal (and if you feel like it, you can enter even if you’re not a bride.)

I hope you all have a beautiful Thursday!

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