Wedding Recap: My Parents

It’s Wedding Wednesday and today I’m taking a few minutes to share just how awesome my parents are.

*All photos used in this and all wedding related posts are from Elegant Imagery.

My Parents

I can now officially say I have three sets of parents.

My parents are on the left followed by Scott’s mother, step-father, step-mother, then father on the right.  That’s a whole lotta love.

From day one, we started celebrating together at our surprise engagement dinner in Branson, Missouri.  We started planning the wedding by the end of that trip and reconnected almost exactly a year later on the big day.

Mother of the Bride

From picking out my wedding day accessories to finalizing flowers, my mother was there every step of the way.

She didn’t try to run our wedding planning or overpower important decisions.  She was there for all of the big meetings, hiring of vendors, and through all of the tedious details.

She was there to help secure decorations and put together my DIY paper laterns.  She probably spent just as many hours planning our wedding as Scott and I did, and for that I will be forever grateful.

The morning of our wedding day was no exception, and she showed up with lunch and snacks to get us through the day.

She worked closely with my wedding coordinator, Ashlie to assure our day would run smoothly and that I would remain oblivious to any last minute problems.

(Which, there always are.)

I credit my perfectionist tendencies to her being extremely organized and having a place for everything.  She’s taught me a lot over the years, most recently that cooking isn’t as scary as it seems.

As each day goes by, I realize little things I do remind me of her, but I’m okay with that.

My mom looked beautiful walking down the aisle, and was genuinely excited for me to do the same.

Father of the Bride

Growing up, I had a special bond with my father.  He always knows how to make me laugh, and in a variety of ways I know I got a huge part of my personality from him.

We’re both complete goofballs.

We’re both clumsy.  We both spill food on our clothes (how I managed to get through my entire wedding without spilling on my dress still baffles me), and we’re both out to have a good time.

I will never forget the feeling of having my dad walk me down the aisle to get married.

I was a teary mess – yes – because I was getting married to the man I love, but also because I was realizing I might not be daddy’s little girl anymore.

My father is very artistic and helped with a lot of unique odds and ends for our wedding day.  He surprised us with a 3D cutout of our monogrammed initials for our Engagement Party, which we later used as a prop for our Engagement Photos.

*You can find a breakdown of how he did this in the Wedding Hint #7 video.

When it came time to create our guest seating chart, his talents came in handy by sketching the layout of our venue.

*You’ll find out more about how we entertained our guests during cocktail hour in the next recap post.

My Grandparents

I adore my grandparents.

I lost two grandfathers and one grandmother before our wedding day, but I thought of all of them being with us that day.  My Grandma Joan walked with my Grandaddy down the aisle, and the majority of the flowers were donated by and in memory of his wife – my Nana – who passed away just a year ago.

My Grandma Stahl lives with my parents for eight months out of the year in Longwood, FL.  She is 94 years old and amazes me every single day!

I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such loving people.

Parents of the Groom

Scott has always shared a special closeness with his mother.  Both sets of his parents live in Missouri, so we cherish any time we get to spend with them.

Each of them helped with our wedding in different ways.

His father and step-mother assisted Scott in putting together my engagement ring, while his mother and step-father think more towards the future by asking us when we’re going to start “popping out babies.”

Soon enough… just not quite yet.

To ALL of my parents

Thank you for not only giving us the wedding of our dreams, but for believing in our marriage.  We continue to learn from each of you every day, and are blessed to grow in our faith together, with you.

To be continued next Wedding Wednesday…

In the mean time, see what recaps are coming up on the Wedding Page!