This wedding is just so sweet and intimate it melted my heart immediately. That and the fact the bridesmaids wore some amazing shoes perfect for the Miami setting (I am a huge sucker for shoes). Shoes aside, this wedding is full of details so fabulous you won’t believe they are DIY, like the hundreds of beads the bride sewed BY HAND to make her headpiece. True Story. For even more heart melting images be sure to check out the gallery.
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I have known my now husband Aaron almost my entire life. When we first got engaged we knew right away that we did not want to throw a grand event, we wanted to throw an intimate celebration. We surrounded ourselves with only 35 close friends and family. Our venue was amazing. It was right on the water. The view of the ocean went on forever. It was breath taking. Megan from the Grove Isle Resort and Spa was wonderful to work with. We told her our budget, guest count, and what we wanted. She worked miracles with that. I would advise other brides to do the same and work with your venue. Our luckiest find for our wedding was Shannon Mathis our photographer. We really lucked out with her. She was so incredible and amazing to work with. Her pictures are so natural and romantic. I love that she also captured all the little details that we worked so hard on. She was so easy and fun to work with and so creative.
We only started planning our October wedding in June. With only four months to plan I knew right way there would be a lot late of night DIY projects. I absolutely love personal touches and details. My MOH especially is a detail fanatic. I spend hours with her throwing ideas back and forth, needless to say we came up with so many crafts in so little time. With her help we made the tissue paper pomanders, and the petal cones from an amazing pressed floral paper from which I also made the place cards. Her mom made the table runner. I also made the invitations and the venue matched the menu to the invitations. The project that took the longest was my headband. It took about a week or so. Each bead had to sewn by hand and there were hundreds of beads. My favorite project was our ring book. I didn’t want the typical ring pillow. I found the idea on a wedding blog and immediately told my fiancé about it; he actually got very excited about and wanted to be part of the project. It was so much fun taking him to the craft store and planning this project. We picked Wuthering Heights because it is my favorite book; I even used a quote from it in my vows. The most special thing I made was my brooch for my bouquet. I had my favorite picture of my father on one side and my grandparents on another. I also hung my sister’s bracelet on the brooch. This was my way of having them close to me on that special day. Part of why we chose 10.10.10 was also because it was my grandmothers birthday.
I walked down the aisle to “Here comes the sun” it was the perfect song for us. As soon as I saw Aaron I had a hard time trying not to cry….I was just so overjoyed! It was funny because he kept whispering to me “Can I kiss you yet!” Our officiant was incredible! Reverend Calderon knew exactly what we wanted. He made our ceremony very special; almost poetic. He made us laugh and cry.I think one of the most memorable and emotional parts of the day was after the ceremony. We presented my daughter Sophie with a special medallion just for her. She was not expecting this so she got very emotional with tears of joy and surprise. I don’t think there was one dry eye anywhere including the catering staff.
We loved that our wedding was so small and personal. Everyone kept telling us that they felt they we part of something so private and special that day and truly felt that they shared in our love for each other. Our wedding day was a celebration of a lifelong commitment for each other surrounded by all of our loved ones.
Photography: Mi Amore Foto / Flowers: Tawney of Mayesh Wholesale Florist / Ceremony Location: Grove Isle Hotel and Spa / Reception Location: Grove Isle Hotel and Spa / Make up and hair: Michelle Vera / Singing duo: Davis and Dow / Reverend: Michael Calderin / Brides ring: James Allen / Dress: Allure