Any-who, back to my story… We were getting super excited leading up to Amber and Josh’s wedding. We were soo stoked to be capturing such a sweet couple, who also happen to be Gator fans (win!). I even featured one of their family photo shoots at the UF stadium on the blog. Seriously fabulous shoot… you MUST check it out. I’ll give you a moment to do so…. I’ll just wait right here….

We had so much fun at their wedding. Amber and Josh were so incredibly sweet and even fed us a yummy dinner at their rehearsal. We spent 9 fun hours with this couple and have so much fabulous footage, it was so difficult to edit it down to a mere 5 minutes.

One of my favorite moments in their highlight reel is at the 2:33 mark, when Amber and her daughter, Bailee, are hanging out together. So adorable! At their wedding we also had the chance to try out some new equipment. YAY!! We got to break in our glidecam and indislidermini. They are the ingredients for some serious epic shots. Don’t take my word for it! Check out their highlight reel below.

I love this video. I really do. Is it sad that I watch our client’s highlight reels all the time? Sad.. I know. They just make me so happy!

We also had the chance to work with Matt Whystell and his team at Matt Whystell Photography. Let me tell you… they are AWESOME. Heart them. Seriously heart them and their quirky/fun/peppy/awesome-ness. He’s located in Starke, FL and the mister and I are already scheming reasons to have a shoot done by him. :)

And I’ll end this little post saying that it’s wonderful meeting so many wonderful professionals in the wedding community. Everyone we’ve met have been nothing but kind to us. Even sharing some insight for us into the wedding vendor world, as we are still sorta newbies. We are so thankful.

But, enough of my jibber jabber, check out their highlight reel below!

My favorite part is when Jeff says “Wow” when he sees Amy for the first time. Also, we though it was super cute that Jeff kept saying he wasn’t nervous, when you can clearly see the nervousness in his body language while he was waiting for his Bride to appear. It’s funny how everything just hits you when you’re up at that Alter. I know it did for Mr. Knight and I when we got married. :)

As for an update on Gator Bride Videography, we’ve been booking up like crazy! At the moment, we are only taking 1 Wedding a month (since we have full time jobs), and are just about booked through next Spring. We feel so lucky to have such amazing clients. We can’t wait to capture all their Weddings. Mr. Knight and I also can’t believe how our little company has taken off. We feel so incredibly lucky and blessed. And thank you all for all your support throughout the past year. It’s been wonderful to have such an amazing community of bloggers, friends, readers and family behind us, rooting us on. Heart y’all!

Our next Wedding is in Marco Island (our first destination Wedding!) and we can’t wait. :)

Whew, so glad I got that off my chest. I’ve seen lots of brides post their ceremony in full and talk about how much time they put into their ceremony script and how important certain passages for them were, or poems they included. Which I think is awesome and I loved reading what they put together, but truthfully, throughout the wedding planning process the ceremony became less and less important for us. We were just so excited to get married and have all our family and friends there to celebrate. We waited 7 long years (and boy were they long) to get married. We sorta just wanted it done and over with. Are we the only one’s out there who felt this way?

So, when it came down to putting together our ceremony, we had no idea what to do. Luckily, our Priest gave us this handy-dandy book giving us suggestions for the order of the ceremony, passages, and vows. Over the 2 years of our planning I did save a few sets of vows that I loved. None too religious, but just the right amount that Mr. Knight and I felt comfortable with. There was no “we promise to bring our children up Catholic,” etc. in our ceremony. We want our children to choose what religion is right for them. We will introduce them to Catholicism, but ultimately we want them to decide for themselves. I’ll step down from my soap box now on that subject.

Really, we just wanted to say our vows, kiss and head over to the party, but since we paid so much for the ceremony site, decor, and chair rentals, we thought, “man we better make this thing a little longer.” We set on a limit of 20 minutes tops from processional to recessional. Hey, it’s hot in Florida in May, we don’t want our guests sweating in their fancy clothes.

We had no idea our ceremony would have such a profound effect on us.

Kyle, do you pledge to love Kimberly and throughout your years together to be honest, faithful and kind to her. Do you pledge to give to her the same happiness she gives to you, and to respect her for who she is?

Even though we didn’t spend an exorbitant amount of time on crafting our ceremony, that didn’t mean the ceremony wasn’t a special moment for us. Saying our vows was the moment it all suddenly felt so real. We were getting married. I had no idea how I would feel up there, how important saying these simple words to each other, would be.

I come here today, to join my life to yours…I pledge to be true to you…to respect you…and to grow with you throughout the years…Time may pass, fortune may smile, trials may come…no matter what we may encounter together, I vow here that this love will be my only love… I will make my home in your heart from this day forward.

It hit each of us like a freight train during the ceremony.

Mr. Knight was the first one to completely lose it.

As soon as his lips started to shake and tears started to come down his face, I lost it. Check out the video below to see Mr. Knight’s mini cry. I edited out my complete UGLY cry. It really is quite awful. Only our family will be subjected to that craziness. Why couldn’t I have have a nice/pretty cry?

♥ Our Wedding // Vow Snippet from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

If you look close enough in the pictures, you’ll see red tearful eyes shining through. I remember trying so hard to keep everything light hearted during the ceremony. I’m always the one crying at my friend’s weddings. At Seminole Bridesmaid’s wedding, someone sang Mandy Moore’s song “Only Hope” and I lost it… did I mention I was the maid of honor? Yeah, I totally lost it in front of an audience. Embarrassing.

Anyways, for our wedding I planned to hold myself together. That’s a little hard when you are saying the words of committing your life to the one you love.

Kyle, take this ring as a sign of my love and respect. I vow to share my life with you from this day forward. With this ring I marry you.

Mr. Knight’s hands had swelled up a little from all the heat, so his ring was a little bit hard to get on. I’m a tough girl though, I managed to cram that wedding band on his finger!

And, voila! We’re married!

Sometimes I think we should have done things differently, maybe wrote our own vows. But, looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. We did what we felt most comfortable with, spiritually and emotionally.

Do/Did you have trouble writing your vows? Was it something you did together with your fiance?

If you would like to see the rest of our ceremony, you can download a PDF of it by clicking the link below.
Simple and Sweet Ceremony

All photos by Starks Photography

]]> http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-our-ceremony-confession/feed/ 9 http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-late-to-the-altar/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-late-to-the-altar/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 20:07:36 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=5280 I’m that person who arrives 30 minutes early for EVERYTHING. I have this fear of being late. Even when it looks like we will be a millisecond late for something, my stomach will start to turn and I will get uncomfortable and jittery. So, it came to a surprise for me that I was late for Mr. Knight and I’s wedding ceremony. I blame Seminole Bridesmaid for making me take off my beloved Skagen watch.

Only kidding! I totally love Mrs. Seminole Bridesmaid but, it was seriously too much fun making this image. I think deep down I’m having Seminole Bridesmaid withdraws.
photo by Starks Photography, culprit stamping by Mrs. Gator

Let me set the stage for a complete Groom freak-out. My bridal posse and I are still at the bridal suite and it’s 5pm (our ceremony is at 5:15PM). We have NO CLUE who is going to take us to the Clubhouse where we will be transferred (via golf cart) to the ceremony on the golf course. So, my ladies and I pile into our cars and drive our butts to the Clubhouse where the staff starts to bring out cheese and fruit trays, along with drinks, for us to pig out on. We cool off and pig out for a few minutes then realize, where are these dang golf carts? Finally, golf carts show up and start whisking away bridesmaids… 1 at a time. Que freaked out Groom.

Look how excited Mr. Knight looks, thinking I’m going to be there any minute. To my defense, I do see bridesmaids in golf carts in the background. We are trying to get there on time. Mr. Knight is walking with our Rent-a-Priest. No, really, we went to Rentapriest.com and found him. We are cool like that.

Out of nowhere my iPhone starts ringing. Yes, I carried my iPhone in my clutch. I’m ridiculous I know. Anyways, on the phone is Mr. Knight. He’s at the altar, the trio is playing, and everyone is waiting for me! He says a quick “You better get your  butt over here right this instant,” then hangs up. At this point, my stomach turns and I start to get jittery and uncomfortable. I couldn’t believe I was late to MY OWN WEDDING!!!

I think by the time I got to the ceremony we were running 15 minutes late (although Mr. Knight will say it was later). I wouldn’t have felt that bad (as weddings do run late sometimes) but our guests were sitting in the sun on a hot May day in FLORIDA. Our poor guests, good thing we provided them with cute packaged water bottles!

Our guest’s LOVED them. You can find this design (among MANY others) in my Etsy shop. Shameless plug, I know but, gosh darn it, it’s hard to find cute water bottle labels!

Needless to say, Gator Dad came to the rescue and got me to altar before Mr. Knight at a conniption. :-)

But, not before these sweet young thangs walked down the aisle. Seriously, Little K and B are the CUTEST EVER. B’s suit and vest combo is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

And the way B helps Little K down the aisle. Adorbs.

Now, it’s Gator Dad and I’s turn. I have to admit, at this point I was getting pretty nervous. Nervous to walk on the grass in 3″ heels without stepping on my dress. Nervous to walk through that crowd of people before finally getting to my sweety. Nervous because the time had finally come (after 8 long years) for Mr. Knight and I to get married, and I wanted it to be perfect (and it was).

Gator Dad helping with some last minute adjustments and, we’re off!

For me, the walk felt like FOREVER. Our aisle was relatively short, but having so many eyes on my Dad and I made me SUPER nervous. I’m not really one to want to be the center of attention, so this was almost more then I could handle. I just held on tight to my Dad, took and deep breath, and walked towards my future husband.

Hello Mrs. Gator’s nervous face. So glad you could join us during this special moment when a GAZILLION pictures will be taken. Gator Dad saves the day by looking so good in his Bond-esque attire.

Nerve racking moment #2 – not being able to see my groom as I walk down the aisle. I blame the SUN for being so gosh darn bright that day (although I prayed for good weather for 2 years, so my prayers were answered and I’m eternally grateful). Seriously, my eyes watered most of the ceremony (okay, so maybe there were a few tears of joy) because I was staring into the sun during our vows, but I’ll save that story for another day. :-)

Gator Dad looked so good on Mr. Knight and I’s  wedding day. Even with all my crazy nervous bride-ness he always managed to keep a cool head (even showing up to a frantic bride at 7 in the morning with pepto, tums and aleve). I’ll never forget him walking me down the aisle (it’s currently my iPhone screensaver). Gator Dad has always been a huge influence in my life. He introduced me to UF and the “order” as he calls is: school, college, marriage, babies. Maybe the new “order” is college, marriage, ARCH LICENSING, then babies. When I would have ideas about doing things out of  ”order,” Gator Dad would always set me straight. And you know what? I’m so glad I listened. 

And finally, it’s time to make this shiz LEGAL!

Are you like me? Obsessed at being on time for EVERYTHING, but found yourself late to your own wedding?

And in case you missed it, this is what’s happened so far:

• Mr. Knight and I were attacked by bubbles
• We had our first look on a bridge
• A special moment with Gator Dad
• We got silly with our iPhones
• The girls and I mastered laughing
• I put on that little white dress
• The boys got full of themselves
• I was hungover while getting our hair did
• We rehearsed with yummy BBQ
• The ladies lunched

All images by Starks Photography

]]> http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-late-to-the-altar/feed/ 10 http://gatorbride.com/our-wedding-lives-on/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/our-wedding-lives-on/#comments Sun, 03 Oct 2010 22:50:56 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=5269 Look what Mr. Knight and I found hiding in Gator Dad and Gator Momma’s pantry…

Gator Dad and Gator Momma have been drinking these babies since our Wedding, over 4 months ago.

And our altar fabric lived on at our cousin’s Wedding this past weekend…

Hello GORGEOUS Casa Monica Wedding. Not only are our cousin’s the cutest couple to get married EVER, but the Bride wore an orange and blue garter embroidered with “Gator Bride.” Can we say AWESOME? Love her.
source Emily E Martin Photography

Mr. Knight and I took TONS of video footage at their Wedding. There was so much love, happy tears, laughter, gator chomps, and down right crazy shenanigans for us not to! Look for a video/photo recap soon… well, as soon as I can get Mr. Knight away from the TV. He has been watching football ALL DAY!

And if you haven’t entered my giveaway for a $25 Olive Garden gift card, then you better get your butt over there and do so!

Have you found your wedding items living on in ways you would have never thought?

]]> http://gatorbride.com/our-wedding-lives-on/feed/ 5 http://gatorbride.com/one-wedding-regret-the-florist-who-should-not-be-named/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/one-wedding-regret-the-florist-who-should-not-be-named/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:03:44 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=4514 Okay, so I loved EVERYTHING about our wedding. Well, just about everything except for our darn Florist. He was ‘the suck.’

Poor Happy Bridesmaid had to carry such an offending bouquet. I don’t understand how a florist can get MY bouquet mostly right but completely mess up the bridesmaid bouquets. Yes, those are rogue daisy leaves left by our florist. You can see more pictures of these bouquets in my beautiful bridesmaids post.
photo by Starks Photography

Every time I think back to our wedding, I think about all the beautiful people and details… then I get to those dang bridesmaid bouquets and I just about want to cry.  Here was our plan: Mr. Knight and I would order/put together all the flowers for the reception (with the help from my AMAZING bridesmaids and day-of-coordinator) and the only thing we were going to order was the bouquets, bouts and corsages from a florist. Saving us some much needed $$$ since Mr. Knight and I were footing the bill for many of these wedding ‘accessory’ items.

A few months before the wedding we dropped by a florist in Ormond Beach near our wedding location. We only had time to visit one location since we lived out of town (2 hours away from our wedding location). We met with the owner, checked out all the beautiful pictures of flowers he had done and then showed him our inspiration (below).

Sweet, romantic and whimsical. Those were our 3 words. What did we get? I cringe every time I think about our bouquets. Cringe with embarrassment and cringe at their heinous weed/store bought/5-year-old craft/ugly-ness.
collage made from: Mtux, David’s Bridal, OnceWed, Project Wedding

He said that he loved my daisy look and thought I should make a big statement by having just daisies. I agreed with him and then we moved forward to bridesmaid bouquets and my bouquet. I was overall happy with our consultation and couldn’t wait to see how all the bouquets looked the night before the wedding.

Fast forward to May 14, the Friday before our wedding. I showed up at our Florist, with my bridesmaids in tow, to check out our bouquets.What did I see? Utter heinousness. From the GOLD ribbon he wrapped MY bouquet with, to the lack-luster bridesmaid bouquets that looked like a package of Winn-Dixie $3 daises were just wrapped in ribbon. Just awful. I was immediately let down. I didn’t really know what to do. I critiqued him, told him what to fix and to add tons more white daisies to my bouquet and my bridesmaid’s bouquets. But those bridesmaid bouquets were just awful and I didn’t know what to do.. and what is even worse is that the florist didn’t even recognize how bad they looked. I mean.. I was basically paying $45 a bouquet for him to drive to Winn-Dixie, purchase a $3 bunch of white daisies and wrap a ribbon around them.

Don’t they look like they just picked those daisies out of a random pasture, or rather WEEDS and bunched them up to make a bouquet? Ahh.. this is such a sore point for me.
Picture taken by one of our wedding guests

I was so busy the day before the wedding, so frazzled, so OVER IT, that I just let the bouquets go. I was just like ‘whatever I can’t handle this right now’ and we left the florist. I’m NEVER like this. I’m that person that has to critique something to the Nth degree. I believe I had just reached a breaking point and I decided… F it… I don’t care (please excuse my profanity!). My bridesmaid’s were pretty silent as they looked at the bouquets in horror. Looking back, I wish they had spoken up to help me (sometimes I try to be ‘nice’ and not tell vendors how I REALLY feel). But if I were my bridesmaid’s I probably wouldn’t have said anything either.

Did I mention the florist forgot to leave me a ‘toss’ bouquet, as outlined in our contract? Details. Details. I ended up throwing my ACTUAL bouquet for the toss. One of my bridesmaid’s offered to give me her bouquet to toss, but I felt bad tossing a bouquet of weeds to our wedding guests.

On a happier note, the reception flowers were AMAZING. I couldn’t have asked for them to be any better! I remember walking into the reception, right before our ceremony, and seeing all the flowers, I just wanted to cry they were so beautiful. Exactly what I wanted in EVERY WAY.

Hello GORGEOUS, cheerful, bright and happy. I loved these arrangements our day-of coordinator put together with the flowers we bought. I nearly cried at how perfect they were.
photo by Starks Photography

Our Guestbook table with the cutest IKEA bud vases ever. Loving the fuchsia and white daisy combo.
photo by Starks Photography

Baby arrangement on the bistro tables during the cocktail hour. These are soo cute.
photo by Starks Photography; you can see what our table centerpieces looked like at the beginning of our wedding video.

We ordered white daisies from Fifty Flowers ,fuchsia gerbera daisies from Sam’s Club, and placed cut up lemons in all the vases. They showed up the Thursday before the wedding, and two of my amazing bridesmaids, Sunny MOH and Seminole Bridesmaid, helped me to cut/hydrate and transport them to our reception site.

3 of the 5 buckets of flowers we had. Sooo gorgeous. And those fuchsia gerbera daisies were beautiful!
photo taken on Mrs Gator’s iPhone

Loading the flowers into Mr. Knight’s truck. The truck was a recent purchase on our part and we are so thankful that we took the plunge and got a new vehicle a few weeks before the wedding. We wouldn’t have been able to transport all our wedding goodies/our honeymoon goodies/gifts/and Gator Kitty without this truck (and my little car).
photo taken on Mrs Gator’s iPhone by Gator Momma

Looking back on our wedding I know, without a doubt, that I could have made our bouquets everything I ever wanted, if I had done them myself. My stomach churns just thinking about how much we paid for those terribly sad looking bouquets. I look back at all my friend’s weddings that I was a bridesmaid in and remember how beautiful my bridesmaid bouquet was. I expected something amazing and I was let down by our florist. If you are looking for a florist in the Ormond Beach, FL/Daytona Beach area, contact me first so I can tell you who NOT to go to. Let me save you the embarrassment!

Our total on reception flowers (not even going to talk about wedding flowers because I despise our florist):

• 23 bunches of Vero White Daisies; Fifty Flowers; $171.19
• 100 Stems of Fuchsia Gerber Daisies, Sam’s Club; $136.58
• Lemons from Publix; $25
• Rectangular Vases from Michael’s $45 (40% coupon)
• Misc blue vases from Target and white IKEA vases; $10

Total for Reception Flowers: $387.77
16 centerpieces and 2 large arrangements; $21.54/per arrangement
Amazingly the price per arrangement above doesn’t even include the many bud vases all over our reception. So ‘technically’ the per arrangement cost is even lower then I calculated! It certainly pays to do your own flowers!

Which I believe to be pretty darn amazing! We paid more on our ceremony flowers from the florist ‘who should not be named’ then for our BEAUTIFUL reception flowers. :-)

Phew… feels so good to get this all out. I’ve had all this pint up anger towards our florist, but I feel soooo much better now! But still… $45/per bouquet for what he showed up with was a little ridic.

Did you have any wedding day regrets? Did you wish you had gone with a different vendor or spoken up about something you didn’t like? Do you give anyone at your wedding/vendor/family member the ‘he who should not be named’ treatment after what they did at your wedding? Please SPILL!

]]> http://gatorbride.com/one-wedding-regret-the-florist-who-should-not-be-named/feed/ 13 http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-our-wedding-video/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-our-wedding-video/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:53:38 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=4581 EPIC

That is the only word I have to describe the amazingness of our wedding video. I love every second of it, every frame, every moment… everything. Watching it takes me right back to our Wedding Day. Since y’all weren’t invited to the wedding (I’m sorry but it just wasn’t in the budget), here’s a taste of what you missed. :-)

Kim + Kyle // Wedding Highlights from Erika Rydell on Vimeo.

Things that I love from our Wedding Video:

• How me and my ‘maids are THE BEST at fake laughing for pictures and video. I love how we totally don’t hide our fake laughing in the video. We were pro, for sure.
• How crooked our altar looks in all video/photos. The wind was INTENSE on our wedding day and our altar just wasn’t havin’ it.
• My ugly cry throughout our whole ceremony. All it took was Mr. Knight choking up and I went into full on ugly cry.
• My Dad’s speech. He had such a sweet speech. ♥
• Mr. Knight’s face after I kissed him during our First Look. Priceless.
• Us showing off our rings and Mr. Knight saying “Now we’re married… just kidding.” What is he trying to say here? Silly Mr. Knight.
• Hello, I have the most beautiful bridesmaids ever, and this video shows it.
• The “Gator Mom” tag on the back of our getaway car. Classic. Y’all can’t see it but, I know it’s there, which is all that matters. :-)
• How sweet, meaningful and very ‘us,’ our wedding video is.

Erika Rydell, our lovely videographer, did an amazing job. She was there (with a 2nd shooter) for something like 12 hours, and made sure to capture every moment of our day. Her packages run from $700-$1600, making her super affordable in the HD wedding videography field. I’ve been dying to tell y’all all about her, since it is incredibly difficult to find fabulous videography on a tight budget (I know, I’ve looked). If you are interested in more information, you can contact her at rydellproductions{at}gmail.com (her website is currently being built, as I type!).

I have easily watched this video 20 times. And you know what is even more exciting? She isn’t done yet. We still have an full on documentary-style wedding video coming our way. Yippee!!

Do you plan on hiring a videographer for your wedding?

I nearly vomited on myself with excitement when I saw that little square envelope in our mailbox from our photographers. I’m having mini heart attacks of overwhelm-ment/excitement/obsession everytime I go through our pictures. While I spend the next 12 hours looking at our wedding pictures over and over and over again (till I’ve memorized every picture), I will leave y’all with a little sneak peek.

♥

Our photographers were amazing to even get this shot without our videographer in it (our videographer is literally probably 1 cm to the right of this picture). I liked her being so close for video purposes, but we had more then a few disgruntled guests who weren’t able to see us get married. Looking back we probably wouldn’t have had her so close, and we would have bought a sound system (we were the only people who could actually ‘hear’ us getting married).

Hello amazing photographers. LOVE Ben and Amy Starks of Starks Photography. I shed a tear every time I think about us being their last wedding. They sent us TONS of sweet/amazing pictures from our wedding. I can’t wait to categorize them and prepare them for posts to share with y’all. There is so much FIERCENESS, GATOR LOVE (and chomp), and all around GOOD TIMES in all our pictures.

95% of the pictures, my mouth is in this position. You think I could have kept my mouth shut for one picture, just once? I was just way too happy that day, I couldn’t stop smiling/laughing/showing you my tonsils. :-)

Happy Saturday Everyone!

{heart}
Mrs Gator

]]> http://gatorbride.com/our-professional-pictures-are-in/feed/ 6 http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-through-our-guests-eyes/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/just-mauied-through-our-guests-eyes/#comments Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:26:43 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=4252 While on our honeymoon, Mr. Knight and I enjoyed seeing all the pictures from our wedding our guests were uploading to a share website we set up (via MobileMe) and Facebook. Since the both of us could barely recollect what happened on our wedding day, it was wonderful to view our day through the eyes of our guests. Many captured moments we forgot about, and details we never got to see. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our special day, captured by our guests. Love them♥ Of course with a little commentary from yours truly.

I was so happy when I saw this picture uploaded on Facebook by a family member. So glad someone enjoyed our water bottles enough to take a picture of them. We have a TON of water bottles left over. Gator Mom and Gator Dad have been enjoying taking the water bottles with them everywhere, and taking a picture of the water bottle wherever they are (sorta like those cat pictures in Buca di Beppo). And on another note, see those chairs in the background?  Totally not the chairs I ‘thought’ I ordered. Oh well, nothing you can do the day of!

Our snazzy Groomsmen. Best Man- Little Knight, Groomsman M and his brother, Groomsman K. See those folks walking in the background? Those are our photographers! Hooray!! Also, incredibly happy that Groomsman K is holding the programs basket. Good job Groomsman K, gettin’ those babies out there!

Cuteness overload. For serious. Our adorable little Flowergirl, KK, and her brother, B. They are too sweet. ♥them

Gator Dad helping a slightly frazzled Gator Bride get to the altar. A few minutes before this picture I had just got a phone call from my groom saying I better get my butt to the altar pronto (we were running a little late and the future husband might have been a little nervous). Yes, I had my phone on our wedding day. Who do you think I am?

Ahh… finally put together. Love those tall pine trees in the background. I didn’t notice it then (I actually didn’t notice ANYTHING except Mr. Knight’s face) but there were all these golfers and cars that had stopped to watch our wedding. We were the first wedding the Club has ever had on the golf course. I like being the first at something. :-)

Currently my background on my iphone. Love it. Thank you to whoever of our guests took this picture. :-)

Mr. Knight and I GETTIN MARRIED. When I got to the altar, Mr. Knight informed me that he had forgot the rings in his truck and that we would be using my engagement ring, and his promise ring for the ceremony. It was the perfect thing to happen as it helped lighten the mood for me, because I was seriously about to bawl with happy tears right there. Lots of laughing, and a few happy tears occurred at that little altar. Our alter had slightly (okay majorly) shifted before the ceremony from all the intense wind, and our preist almost forget to announce us as man and wife (I had to remind him as I was facing our guests… then he franticly started looking through his book FOR OUR NAMES). But it didn’t change a thing. That ceremony was absolutely perfect in our eyes. 

Hooray! We’re married!

Mr. Knight and I loved this photo because it was just too hilarious. We are flanked by our two videographers and are two photographers as we walk away from our guests as Mr. and Mrs. Loves it.

Mr. Knight and I riding off in our golf cart. At this moment, it was so nice to look back and see all of our guests and wave to them. Most of them I didn’t even see at the wedding. I kept asking Mr. Knight ‘Is So and So there?’

Happy Bridesmaid and Gator Bridesmaid being sneaky little bridesmaids, grabbing a golf cart and following us off to our secret hiding spot. They are too funny. It was so nice to get to our little spot and turn around and see my two architecture besties right there with us, laughing and taking pictures. ♥

Our sweet little cake toppers that started it all! From bunnywithatoolbelt.

Cutting the cake, with some supportive help from Mr. Knight. Our cake was perfect. Exactly what we ordered, and BEAUTIFUL!

One of my favorite events… the Bouquet Toss!! I ended up throwing my actual bouquet. My florist forgot to give me a throw-away bouquet. My bridesmaids offered their bouquets to me, but I said ‘eh, I’ll just throw my actual bouquet, it makes it more fun to catch it!’. I have a whole OTHER post about my florist. Basically the flowers that we did OURSELVES were a million times better then the bouquets the florist put together. I was not impressed by their work at all. But, I wasn’t going to freak out when I saw the bouquets, because it was Mr. Knight and I’s wedding day, and marrying his sweet little face was all I wanted to do. Nothing would get in my way!

My two snazzy men. Love them both sooo much. Seriously going to frame this picture.

Groomsman M, Mr. Knight’s brother, and his daughter, little S, enjoying one of our cute little drink flags. How about I have a GAZILLION drink flags left over from the wedding. Note to other Brides out there: if you have drink flags, tell you bartender to PUT THEM IN THE DRINKS. Ours were left in little glasses for our guests to put in their drinks themselves. No bueno. Oh well, now I have drink flags for the rest of Mr. Knight and I’s lives. Next time any of you come to my house, you will be sure to find one of these babies in your drink. :-)

Love this photo taken by Gator Dad’s friend. I had a fabulous time dancing it out with my ladies, and my sweet cousin, C. I danced so much that I was a hott, sweaty mess by the end of the night. Before the dollar dance I made sure to apply deodorant, perfume, dab the sweat off me, and put a mint in my mouth. Hey, nobody likes a smelly bride!

The bubble getaway! One of my favorite moments! Funny, I don’t remember seeing all these people here.

I have to say that I think I barely saw anyone at our wedding. The whole day/night was a blur. I can only remember little moments. Once Mr. Knight and I got into Gator Momma’s hot ride, we were suddenly relieved. We couldn’t wait for it to be just the two of us. Now that our wedding is over, I’m not really depressed, or sad but more relieved than anything else.

Relieved that all our vendors showed up, that it didn’t rain, that the only item I forgot was the flower girl basket, that we had plenty of time (pre-ceremony) to take pictures together, that I got to see just about everyone (if only for a half second), that I got to dance with my Dad, that there were no major crisises (besides my dress coming unzipped all night.. not really a crisis), that everything was in it’s place exactly as I wanted it for the reception, that our DIY centerpieces turned out AMAZING (so much better then anything the florist did), that everyone showed up that RSVPed and that I got to have a moment alone with my sweet husband.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.

Missed some of the Recaps? Catch up!
Just Mauied :: Wedding Photo Peek
Just Mauied :: We’re Married!!!!

Well… on to another DIY.. our programs! I believe our programs took longer for Mr. Knight and I to do then our invitations. It has been, by far, the most intensive DIY project we have had. It took us the better part of 2 weeks to finish them (in between class and work).

The ‘original’ accordion fold program, brought to us by the lovely Ms. Martha Stewart
Blushing Designs Blog

Inspired by Mrs. Cupcake and Mrs. Joey’s fabulous accordion fold programs, Mr. Knight and I embarked on a long and labor intensive journey to create these babies. Wait… I have to stop for a moment and just tell you all how much I love the hive on WeddingBee, so much help and inspiration. When it came to actually getting our programs to sit properly in our little basket, Miss Cola had already come up with the perfect solution and shared it with us. She is so clever!

Okay… back to the programs.

I had been coveting sweet accordion fold programs for MONTHS (should I say years?). But, time and time again Mr. Knight would say ‘no’, deeming them expensive and too much work. I somehow convinced him about 4 weeks ago, and he jumped right on board. We have this saying around our house (especially when it comes to wedding DIYs), if you’re going to do it, then you better do it right.

Following the instructions given by the sweet Mrs. Joey in her post, we made our accordion inserts legal size (so that we could print them on our laser printer). Now, I would reveal the inside of our programs, but I’d rather leave those a mystery for now, as Mr. Knight and I have included a few things in there for our guest’s eyes, and we’d like to keep some part of our wedding a secret (I know… sorta difficult when you blog)!

But, I shall show you the cover, cause I loves it, and it makes me happy. :-)

Mr. Knight and I saved time/aggravation by not gluing our program title/cover/thingy-mah-jiggers but rather ordering labels from OnlineLabels (I swear we must be their new best friends, we’ve ordered so much from them) and printing our cover design on them. It made for super easy and fast sticker-ing of these bad boys to the covers. Mr. Knight was so clever as to suggest we add a notch to each side of the program so that our ribbon would stay properly in place, keeping the program closed, till our guests opened them. But, y’all know my type A, crazy OCD-ness, and that I couldn’t just ‘freely’ notch the sides of these beautiful programs. So I had Mr. Knight pick me up a little scrap booking tool (see the green punch hole thing in the picture below), and he got to work ‘perfectly’ notching our programs. What a sweet thing, he was so careful as to do it right. Love him.

Bought at Michael’s Craft store for $4.99

After cutting, taping, cutting more, tying, and sticker-ing these babies, we put them in a little basket ala Miss Cola.

Yes… your eyes do not deceive you, our programs are on a Gator rug. Yes.. we have one.. and we LOVE IT. :-)

Our programs are rather small, approx. 4″ x 5″, so we had to prop them up by using floral foam wrapped in left over tulle we had laying around. We also followed the clever Miss Cola’s instructions, sticking faux daisies in floral foam and wrapping the foam with left over yellow ribbon from our pomanders. I affixed the little sign to the front of the basket with paper clips taped to the sign and clipped to the basket. Overall, we are seriously happy with how they turned out.

Mr. Knight keeps saying that if we go to anyone’s house who attended our wedding, and one of our programs aren’t prominently displayed, he is going to de-friend them. Silly Mr. Knight!

And what would a DIY project post be without the approval of Gator Kitty?

Gator Kitty making sure the flowers are up to her standards of excellence.

It sort of feels weird not having Gator Kitty at our wedding since she has been soooo involved in all our projects. She will be vacationing with Maxwell Kittnah over at Gator Momma and Gator Dad’s while we are honeymooning. They are going to have  a blast. I secretly think they have a ‘thing’ for each other… but that is a whole other story.

And I simply can not end this post without the image below… what Mr. Knight and I call my ‘bride-slave’ chair.

Mr. Knight set this up for me the week classes ended. He knew I wanted to catch up on all my TV shows I had missed, and he still wanted me to get some of our programs done at the same time. So he moved out our coffee table and set up a ‘work station’ for me to work on our programs at while he is at work. How sweet of him… ?

But the ‘bride-slave’ chair surly did it’s job, and I managed to bust out tons of programs before he got home.

What was your most labor intensive DIY project? Did your fiance help you or did your fiance set up a ‘bride-slave’ workstation?

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