Happy Anniversary to Us!

For the first time ever, I’m blogging my own wedding! Given that Larry and I are celebrating our eleventh (!!!) anniversary tomorrow, I figured it was about time. I’m going to share just a few of my favorite photos, plus some details so you can see what weddings were like in 2006! For somethings, it looks clearly dated already. But I’m OK with it. I wouldn’t change a thing!

We got married at a hotel that allowed pets, so our pup Nikki was with us on our wedding day! At that point we had adopted her about a year prior, and she was 7 years old. We tasked an aunt and uncle to feed her and walk her periodically through out the day, and between the ceremony and reception we stopped to snap some pics with her.

dog at wedding bride, groom and their rescue dog

This is my favorite wedding photo. This was taken in my hotel room after our impromptu first look but before the wedding ceremony. Wearing my wedding dress was giving me major anxiety, so I was taking it off anytime I could.

bride relaxes before her wedding ceremony

This was moments after our first kiss. Larry promptly wiped my lipstick off his face and here we are laughing about it.

wedding ceremony

Here is our good looking wedding party! We had 3 on each side plus 2 ushers, 1 junior usher and the ring bearer and flower girl. The groomsmen’s ties matched the fabric of the flower girl’s dress. Our dominant flower for the personal flowers was the cymbidium orchid – green and white.

wedding party group portrait

bride and groom entrance

My baby brother, who is now 20, gave the blessing before our wedding dinner. One of my favorite moments.

wedding blessing by bride's brotherbride and groom

My bridesmaid/bestie designed all of our stationery. I love our escort cards – guest names printed on petite vellum envelopes with the table number on a small card inside. This allowed me to change the seating arrangements around at the last minute, which I definitely did as a few guests cancelled in the days before the wedding.

wedding reception escort cards

I like to think that we were on the cutting edge of wedding centerpieces with these modern submerged trio. Here we used the more economical dendrobium orchid, also in white and green.

wedding reception dinner table

Larry thought I was absolutely crazy for wanting a chocolate wedding cake. Sometimes I just have to be different.

chocolate wedding cake

I loved my dress. I still do. At the time, everyone was wearing strapless dresses, and I knew that was not my style. And even more I loved my 14 point bustle. This (I was shopping in February of 2005) was before they started building pick ups right into the dresses. Best. Bustle. Ever. (this is a screen grab from our video, which is why it’s a little blurry.)

wedding dress bustle

I hope you enjoyed this trip back in time! I’ve enjoyed picking out these photos to share with you!

Venue: Dulles Hilton

Photographer: Rick Martin

Florals: Petal’s Edge