I've been meaning to do this post for a while and am finally getting around to it! Those of you who follow me on social media have probably seen that I've recently gotten married! I want to share the details of this special day with you all. I'm the sort of person who has never been attatched to anyone or any place, someone who second (and third and so on) guessed all of my decisions...however, the easiest decision I've ever made was to spend the rest of my life with Gavin. From the moment I met him I knew he was different and I've since been the happiest I've ever been. Now, choosing to say yes to marriage was the easy part...the hard part comes with planning a wedding (especially in secret). When we first begain to plan, we decided it would be a June wedding, outdoors in Ottawa, with a guest list of literally four people. One thing we knew forsure was we didn't want a big wedding with alot of people...we wanted to keep it intimate with people who are a part of our daily lives and bring a positive atmosphere. We had a location picked and began to plan, it was when we told our parents that things began to change. First of all, the guest list got bigger, we realized we at least wanted immediate family there to share this day with us...from there plans were being made left and right by everyone, and before we knew it we were getting married 6 months earlier than we planned. A winter wedding was never the plan, but all in all, it was exactly the day we wanted.
Now for the wedding details. As we did not want a huge wedding, we wanted to keep the cost minimal and had alot od DIY projects within the wedding, with the help of some amazing people. For example, I had made my own flower crown:
My dress was probably the least expensive item in the wedding (other than the things which were homemade). I bought it for 35$ from Oasap and used a sparkly liner and sewed it inside the lace, and added some to the open back area as well for a sheer sparkle.
I aslo added the antler broach on the belt as well.
My bouquet was homemade as well, Gavin's aunt did an incredible job in matching it to the crown, and added some loose vines which I love so much.
My shoes were these simple gold flats from Urban Outfitters.
As for Gavin, the only things that were new were his suit jacket from Forever21 and tie. His Cardigan and shoes he'd already owned from Urban Oufitters.
His broach was handmade by his aunt as well, and he was just the handsomest of grooms! I'm so lucky!
The ceremony was held in my childhood church, again not something I'd ever pictured (I'd always dreamt of an outdoor wedding), but it was really nice in the end and felt very special. Our wedding party was very small and had alot of very small people (my nieces Rayne and Harlow and Gavin's nephew and niece Noah and Brianna were the darlings of the day, and we are so happy they got to be there). The ceremony was incredibly intimate, which was exactly what we wanted, and we feel so blessed to have had our perfect day to celebrate spending the rest of our lives together. Exchanging our vows was the most significant part of the whole day, and I will remember it for as long as I live.
Vows:
Gavin To Stephanie
Love can't be planned, Love can't be scheduled
Love can't be fake or forced;
It can be broken, but rarely fixed...
Love just is-
And I knew when I first saw you that I loved you.
When I sleep at night, I close my eyes and naturally I see darkness;
but when I am with you and I touch your skin, your energy illuminates my thoughts.
I start to see worlds and galaxies; universes more beautiful than I could ever imagine.
When I am with you I literally see beauty in darkness.
Love doesn't have a set time line. Some people spend years together not sure of who the other is.
When I first met you I couldn't believe how quickly I loved you. A lot of moments happened that some say happened too quickly and at tims I may have been nervous about it too. But looking back my only regret is that they didn't happen sooner. On this day I make a promise to you. I promise to love you with every ounce of my soul. I promise to work towards earning your love that inspires me everyday. I promise to be patient and communicate with you. I promise to make our time together an adventure and find ways to make you fall in love with life every single day. I make these promises with one simple request. That you lie, cheat and steal. That you lie next to me every night for the rest of our days. That you steal my sorrows as you already so easily do; and that you cheat death for I can't bear the thought of a world without you. I'd like to end this with a quote because all of the good things have already been said: "The moment I heard my first love story I began seeking you, not realizing the search was useless. Lovers don't meet somewhere along the way, they're in one anothers soul from the very begining."
Stephanie To Gavin
Since I met you, my life has been full of charm and adventure,
fire and sweetness--there is no one like you and no love like ours.
The only thing I'm certain of in this world is that forever with you could never be long enough,
and yet I could have loved you but one day and have lived a full life.
And so I promise forever to encourage your dreams,
for they are the sparkle in your eye that I hope you never lose.
I promise to nurture your soul,
in hopes to keep your honesty and humble spirit always a part of you.
I promise to help shoulder any and all challenges we might face,
for there is nothing that we cannot accomplish together.
I promise you my love and understanding at all times,
because you deserve all that is good in this world...
and I would do anything to keep this life shiny and bright, if only for you.
I promise you my patience and respect,
to bring light into your life when you feel there is none.
To live happily by your side in a fog of surreal enchantment as we have been.
I promise to remind you everyday what you are to me:
love of my life, my sould mate, my equal in all things.
This is my sacred vow to you.
We had two seperate locations for the wedding photos. One was under a beautiful waterfall in (one) of my hometowns, and the other was a forest hidden behind the college where we met. We didn't have an official wedding photographer, which was fun because it was a combination of Gavin's friend chelsea, my mom dad and me taking the photos throughout the day. It was really great.
We ended the day in a greek/italian restaurant which my dad put together...it was really lovely, the food was great, there was a live piano player and later we got to cut our gorgeous cake and share our first dance. You know, all that typical wedding stuff ;)
All in all, it was truly wonderful, and I'm happy to have this to look back on every year to re-live my favorite life experience.
It just goes to show that you don't need alot of money to make a wedding happen...all you need is the love of two people and the people around them who make life great!
