Well we’ve been married for a little over 3 weeks now, so it seems time to write about the big day before I forget all the little details.
Corey and I tied the knot on October 20 at a historic venue called Highgate Carriage House in the rolling mountains of West Virginia.
We knew we were risking it a bit with having a fall wedding outside, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to get married in front of the huge stone double staircase that leads up to the gardens at Highgate. The venue really was like something out of a fairytale!
After a morning of non-stop drizzle and cool temperatures (about 50 degrees — pretty chilly for the bridesmaids’ sleeveless dresses!) the clouds finally parted and we had a partly sunny (and most importantly dry) afternoon for our ceremony.
The day ended up being perfect.
But it was far from stress-free.
Throughout the planning process, I had my heart set on a very-homemade wedding day. I had heard the stories of people spending tens of thousands of dollars on their wedding day (which is great for them!), but I knew I wanted to do something a lot a little bit cheaper and family-oriented.
I’m a historian, of course, and had high hopes of a homemade, historical wedding day.
This worked out great for me, but not so much for our family and close friends who were tasked with setting up the day and making almost all of our decorations (shout out to my Aunt Kerri who is by far the best decoration I’ve ever known).
My family and friends really made the day happen, and for that they deserve their very own blog post. So keep your eyes out. Until then, I want to give a quick run down of the earlier part of the day so I can revisit this page in the future when the memories become a bit more distant.
First things first.
I might be the only bride in the history of brides to be trapped by a parade on her wedding day.
My bridesmaids and I had our hair done at a local salon less than a block away from the wedding venue because we wanted to get in, get out, and get over to Highgate to help our families with setting everything up.
The best laid plans…
We went to leave the salon and to our surprise stepped outside to see not only a drizzle of rain, but an actual PARADE. The local university was for some reason having their homecoming parade at 10:00 in the morning on a Saturday.
And since the salon didn’t have a back exit, we were trapped for the duration of the parade. Outside. In the cold and rainy drizzle.
So we did what anyone would do. We grabbed our phones and started taking videos, narrating the parade as if we were newscasters.
Little did I know Corey and his friends were ALSO stuck in the parade traffic since they were also on their way to the venue to help with the set up. Apparently one of them even drove past us after he snuck into the parade route.
After about 20 or 30 minutes of waiting, the parade finally ended and we were able to go help out at the venue. Corey and I even managed to avoid seeing each other (we were EXPRESSLY forbidden by one of the bridesmaids to see one another because it’s apparently bad luck — here’s looking at you, Shawna).
We set up the venue and got ourselves ready for a few hours (more about all this on my next wedding post) and then were finally able to relax a bit. Highgate has a separate dressing room, so I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in that room with my bridesmaids and a few family members.
And just like that we were ready for the ceremony and reception.
The whole day really was amazing and there isn’t one single thing that I would change. Everything was perfect.
Who else can say a whole town helped them celebrate their wedding with a parade? 😉
All photos are by the AMAZINGLY talented Hannah Hicks Photography
SparklesAndSpiceAndEverythingNice 