we are married! (+ we told a little fib…)

we are officially married!

remember when i told you about our wedding weekend plan? how saturday was our big party, sunday was our family brunch, + monday was the actual ceremony? that was mostly true, except the part about monday…

this whole time, we planned to do a surprise wedding ceremony about an hour into our saturday night party. this included an outfit change from cocktail dress to bridal gown + bouquet for me, addition of a suit jacket, tie, pocket square + boutonniere for honey, our bluegrass quartet switching temporarily to the traditional canon in d, + an appearance of a minister under a beautiful gazebo on the property.

of the 80 guests at the party, only 6 were in on the secret – my parents, honey’s parents, the homeowners/hosts of the party + my wonderful friend tabitha. she, in an awesome coincidence, has a background in event/wedding planning, so she helped orchestrate the surprise, including getting me changed into my wedding gown in record time. other than that, none of our friends or families knew, nor did the photographer, caterers, etc. it was so hard keeping the secret from everyone, but we knew the surprise would be a great gift that we could give to them.

wonderfully, everything went off perfectly. the weather was glorious, in the high 70s, sunshine dappling through the trees as my father walked me through the gorgeous yard + gardens towards my husband-to-be under the gazebo, as our friends + families watched, gasps of awe + thrilled looks of surprise across their faces. lots of pictures will come soon, but for now, i’m off to the caribbean to celebrate with my husband!