Wedding Day - Bridal Party Pictures

We took the wedding party photos at Colonial Williamsburg, between the ceremony and the reception.  It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful setting!  All photos by Modest Monkey Photography.

First we took a carriage ride - Brian had made sure to buy the tickets the night before:  

Did I mention I felt like a princess in my gown?

We shared the carriage ride with another couple - they were celebrating their seventh anniversary!

While they were waiting for us during our (very lovely and relaxing) carriage ride, Stephen took photos of the wedding party: 

The groomsmen all had matching vests and coordinating ties.  Since the bridesmaids all had different dresses, there was no need for the guys' outfits to all be exactly the same.

The bridesmaids' dresses were all based on fashion icons of the past!  Most of the patterns came from this book, which Brian had given me for Christmas the year before:  Famous Frocks.

From left to right we have Diana Ross, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Jackie O., and Marilyn Monroe

The girls all wore silver shoes in different styles: 

My mom made her own dress, in addition to making three of the bridesmaids' dresses, the flower girl dress, all five groomsmen's vests, and bow ties for the ring bearers!  Oh, and the cake.  That'll be in the next post.

 Family photos: 

The whole bridal party (minus the ring bearers):

 Me and the girls: 

Brian and his entourage:

After the group photos were done, my sisters helped me remove the train of my gown (and the train of the petticoat) so I could move a little more easily.  I celebrated by twirling! 

Have I mentioned that I love this dress?

Then we parted ways with the rest of the bridal party and went off to take some photos of just the two of us.  We have a few favorite spots when we visit Williamsburg where Brian likes to take photos of me for my costuming blog.  Most of these spots are located behind the Governor's Palace, so we bought Stephen a day pass so the three of us could get the photos we wanted. 

Wedding Day - The Ceremony

I'm going to let the pictures tell the story - all photos by Modest Monkey Photography: 

Brian escorting our mothers

Groomsman Ryan and Bridesmaid Melissa

Groomsman Nick and Bridesmaid Pamela

Groomsman Aaron and Bridesmaid Laura

Best Man John and Matron of Honor Elise

Best Man Jordan and Maid of Honor Gretchen

Dad and me

Brian surprised me by singing "You Send Me" just before I walked down the aisle.

My beautiful bouquet was done by Morrison's Flowers.

The bridesmaids' dresses are all different styles, same fabric.

Reading our vows

I kept my lace-edged handkerchief handy - I'm a bit of a crier. 

My dad made this beautiful memories keepsake box, where we placed our vows. 

This is us waiting for the surprise recessional music...

Which was the Star Wars theme.  See those grins?  We were very pleased with ourselves. 

Mr. and Mrs. the Engineer