Our Wedding Details

Colton and I wanted our wedding to be small, elegant, and a reflection of who we are as a couple. Our wedding echoed each of our personalities and represented special moments in our relationship. Looking back, we’ve agreed that we wouldn’t have changed a single thing! Every wedding has a few details that are special to each couple. Here are a few of our wedding details explained.

All photography is by Sterling Imageworks of Arkansas. A big thank you to Callie Sterling for being such a wonderful photographer!

My Grandfather’s Purple Heart

Let’s begin with the wedding detail that is a little hard for me to write about. My paternal grandfather, Pat, died a few years ago while I was still in school. When I was little, he gave me a couple of his military medals, including his Purple Heart, which I later wore to his funeral. He was a Marine who fought in World War II. He was one of the first waves of soldiers to invade Iwo Jima during The Battle of Iwo Jima, where he earned the Purple Heart for catching shrapnel in his arm.

I surprised my mom while we were getting ready by showing her his Purple Heart. I wanted to take PawPaw down the aisle with me by wearing his Purple Heart inside the bodice of my dress. Needless to say there were plenty of tears shed between the two of us. I wore the lapel pin of the medal on the inside of my dress, right above my heart.

My Something Old

Moving on to the traditional “something old, something blue, something borrowed, something new”. I chose my Nana’s diamond engagement ring as my something old. I never knew my paternal grandmother, Nora. She died long before I was born, but my parents have passed down pieces of her over the years. I have her gold cross necklace, a perfume bottle, and her dainty engagement ring. I found her ring in my mom’s jewelry box while a few years ago and just started wearing it. Over three years later, I have yet to take it off. My Nana was with me on my wedding day, and she will be every day after.

My Something New & Blue

For simplicity’s sake, I combined my something new and blue in my wedding shoes. The Manolo Blahnik Hangisi pumps in blue satin are, quite honestly, the most beautiful shoes I’ve ever seen. I decided to indulge myself and bought these blue beauties on my trip to New York in September 2017. I didn’t wear them until my wedding day (with the exception of dress alterations) so they would be extra special. Best shoes ever!

My Something Borrowed

My something borrowed was a last minute offer from my mom. She lent me the lace-trimmed handkerchief she wore on her wedding day. I tucked the token into the bodice of my dress for luck.

Charms inside my dress

My mom surprised me by giving me two charms that she sewed into the bodice of my dress by my heart. She gave me a shamrock charm for luck and to honor my Irish heritage, and a cat charm to represent our cat, Kaya.

The Father-Daughter Song

The one wedding detail I didn’t agonize over was the song my dad and I danced to for our Father-Daughter Dance. I’ve always known that we would dance to “That’s Amore” by Dean Martin. My dad is the type of dad who starts loudly singing along to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra when their songs are played in Olive Garden. “That’s Amore” is a song we’ve always loved so it was an easy choice for our dance.

Empire State Building cake topper and cookies

I found our cake topper on Etsy right after we got engaged in 2017. Colton accompanied me to New York City when I attended New York Fashion Week for the first time in February 2017. On our last night in the city, he proposed on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. So I knew I had to have this cake topper the moment I saw it! Colton says it even kind of looks like us.

I wanted at least one more reference to our engagement as part of the wedding so I settled on Empire State Building shaped cookies. I bought the cookie cutter online and lent it to our cake bakery to make these adorable cookies. Aren’t they the cutest?! And they were so good.

Photography: Sterling Imageworks Photography
Dress: Low’s Bridal and Formal Shoppe
Hair: Sheena Branstetter of Rock PaPer Scissors Salon SpaBoutique
Suits: ASOS
Flowers: Johnson Floral Company
Ceremony: First United Methodist Church of Hot Springs
Reception: Hot Springs Country Club
DJ: Arkansas’ Best DJ Service
Cake & Cookies: Ambrosia Bakery

2 thoughts on “Our Wedding Details”

That is so sweet that you wore your grandfather’s Purple Heart. Your wedding looked so beautiful!

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Chic Little Honey says:

August 7, 2018 at 10:47 pm

Thank you so much! Including my grandfather in the wedding was so important for me.

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