The Ceremony

When we started planning, I had told David I wanted two things: a fall wedding and an outdoor ceremony.
I found out that "fall" in North Carolina means November if I don't want my guests sweating thru their clothes! I'm pretty excited about a November wedding though. The trees will finally be turning down here, and my northern guests get a nice mini-vacation from winter!

So after looking at calendars we settled on a date:
November 14th, 2009

The next step was to decide where we would get married. I just recently joined David's church. We come from the same denomination, so I've felt at home there since I moved back to Charlotte.
His church has always been a large part of his life having grown up just across the street from it.
Knowing I wanted to get married outside, he suggested the park just down the street at the corner...

I give you Independence Park!

It's the oldest park in Charlotte. You can't see it in this picture, but if you stand under the arch you see here (where we'll be married) you can see the tops of the buildings downtown. There's a rose garden on the other end of the park, but as soon as I saw this arch in the fall I fell in love with it. There's also a stone wading pool with stone benches behind the arch.

The best part? It's literally a block and half from our church! We're having our Pastor perform the service and the church's coordinator will be helping us out also. But pending unreliable weather, we've also reserved the church. Should we need to move to our "rain location" our guests will only have a short drive/walk to the church.

I'm not planning on needing much to decorate because it will be so beautiful outside already.
But to dress the stone arch (and possibly chairs) for a wedding, I've been planning on including lace.
On a side note-- I hate hate HATE tule/netting/all things cheesy-wedding, so there will be none of that at my wedding! But keeping with my love for all things antique, I'll be searching out things like lace.


Pretty much, my whole wedding has been inspired by my beautiful engagement ring. The detail in it looks almost "lace-like" so I want to incorporate that into both the ceremony and the reception.

The downside? I went to a giant fabric warehouse type store with my future mother-in-law the other day to brainstorm and see what they had. Turns out, lace is NOT cheap. Don't tell David!
It'll be the one thing I think I have to splurge on, but I think it'll be worth it! It'll lend a little class and romance.

I'm very excited about being married outside. The times I've been fortunate enough to travel, I've always been drawn to the natural beauty of the great outdoors, and I feel like there is no better way to honor God than to ask his blessing on our marriage surrounded by His beauty.