(Photo by She-N-He Photography)

It’s been an incredibly wonderful year full of all sorts of exciting events (like buying our first home, moving back to Austin, and both starting new jobs!) and we feel so blessed to be doing all of this together. I have to admit, though, I think we’re both hoping that year two has a little less excitement and a little more settling in and relaxing.

We started off our anniversary celebration by busting out the top tier of our wedding cake in the middle of the week. We decided not to wait until our actual anniversary because we were going out to dinner on our anniversary and would probably be too full for cake. We also ate it in the middle of the week because that was the day we picked it up from my mom’s house and I dare you to have a cake that amazing sitting in your kitchen and not touch it for four days. I don’t have that kind of willpower.

Yum. Also, we both look a bit silly in that photo because that was attempt number seven or something ridiculous at taking a photo of ourselves with the cake. We just wanted to eat the damn thing and we were getting a bit antsy.

On our actual anniversary we got all gussied up and headed out to our favorite restaurant in the world, one that we’ve been regularly visiting for all of our big events over the last 6 years.

And we, of course, traded gifts! We decided to go the traditional route and stick to a “paper” theme. Our budget was pretty tight this year so we also declared that the gifts must be homemade.

I had grand plans of making several different amazing paper-related crafts, but thanks to a job that has me out of the house for almost 12 hours every day, most of my elaborate plans fell through the cracks. In the end, I decided to keep it simple.

I just printed out two papers that had a few snippets from our vows and attached them to pretty paper – they’re now living on our gallery wall and I smile every time I see them (and hopefully Mr. Cardigan does too!)

Mr. Cardy, as usual, completely blew me out of the water in the gift department. I’d like to blame it on the fact that the real estate business is slow right now and he had way more time than me, but if we’re being honest he’s just way better at this than I am.

Mr. Cardigan gave me a Kindle for Christmas and I’ve been more of less completely obsessed with it ever since. It goes almost everywhere with me and I’ve already read three books on it since I got it.

So Mr. C decided to put a bit of a spin on the “paper” theme and made me a Kindle carrying case out of a Stephen King book (who is my favorite author of all time).

Ah-mazing. He also gave me fabric to sew myself a smaller pouch for carrying it around in my purse, as one of my favorite books in the whole world (I now officially own three different copies of this book!).

He was going to use this book to make my case but was terrified to actually cut into it – it would be tragic to destroy a book this beautiful. Maybe someday we’ll feel adventurous and try it out – but not yet.

I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say we had a perfect one year anniversary. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband, and I can’t wait to see what year two has in store for us!

Sorry – just had to get that one out of the way.

I am so excited to participate in this series – I love the idea of pulling completely random photos from our wedding, especially since I ended up with a couple that I probably didn’t share the first time around. It was so fun to go back and look at some totally random photos from our big day (almost a year ago!) and re-live the experience.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Love this photo of Mr. Cardigan, Bridesmaid Audrey, and I doing the Cupid Shuffle in our Converse. Mr. Cardigan gifted me those yellow beauties on the morning of our wedding, and I still think about our wedding day every time I wear them. They definitely made dancing all night long much easier on my feet!

I love this shot of my bouquet hanging out in the room where I waited for the ceremony to start. I was so in love with my bouquet and I remember being so overwhelmed when I first saw it – it was so strange to me that these flowers were the very ones I was about to carry down the aisle to marry my husband! When I first came in the room to wait on the ceremony, I remember wildly running around dumping the water out of the vases for my bouquet and my bridesmaids’ bouquets, trying to do anything to keep myself busy and keep my mind off the fact that I was about to be getting married. I was such a nervous wreck!

I love how confused our nephews look about why they’re holding up their pants leg. I’m pretty sure they thought Mr. Cardy and his groomsmen had lost their minds – adorable!

Love this photo. It brings me back to the moments after our wedding, when I was still looking around the reception area wondering to myself if all of this was actually happening. Was this really MY wedding? I love that this photo shows off Mr. Cardigan’s shiny new wedding ring, and I love remembering how nice it was to finally sit down and relax, knowing that the hard part was over and it was time to party!

I’m kind of getting hungry just looking at this photo of our cake. Yum! I loved that our bakery added the sparkly powder to our cake – it added a really gorgeous sheen without looking overdone, and it gave our simple cake a bit of glamour. And I can’t even begin to tell you how much I adore our cake topper. The little top hat and tie kill me every time!

Swoon. I absolutely loved mine and Mr. Cardigan’s wedding ceremony, and just looking back at the photos of it make me a bit emotional. I remember being so incredibly excited and in such a fog at this moment – I felt like I was dreaming and took every ounce of energy to focus on what was happening around me and remind myself to truly pay attention to each and every moment.

This photo of Mr. Cardigan and I headed to our limo after the wedding makes me smile every time I see it. We were so incredibly excited to be heading off to our honeymoon, but I remember thinking how quickly it had all gone by. I couldn’t believe that it was already all over – I kind of wanted to run back in there and keep dancing for a few more hours!

I giggle every time I look back on the photos of me putting my dress on. We had a tough time finding the hook and eye at the top of the zipper, and there were a good five minutes where we all thought I’d be tugging at my dress all night to keep it from falling off! Thankfully, Sister Cardy managed to find it at the last second and we were all able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I promise I didn’t cheat! My random numbers just happened to land on some of my favorite photos of the day – including this amazing one of our first kiss as husband and wife.

(All photos by She-N-He Photography)

I adored my all of the flowers from our wedding. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about it before the wedding, because most of the samples we had seen from our florist were much more traditional than what I asked for, but she did a fabulous job and I still smile every time I look back at our flowers – particularly my bouquet and Mr. Cardigan’s boutonniere!

And those are my 10 random photos! I’m really surprised by how the numbers I got really seemed to hit all of the big moments of the day, and it was so much fun to go back and re-live our wedding day. It felt very appropriate, since Mr. Cardigan and I are getting ready to celebrate our one year anniversary (already? really?!)

Thanks for letting this old bee stop by and share a few photos from my day. If you’re not familiar with the Cardigan wedding, you can go here to see all of my recaps. I hope I can find an excuse to pop back in soon – my life is a little bit empty without you guys!

So, tell me, what’s new, hive? I feel so out of the loop with wedding things lately! Also, I have to ask, if you’ve already had your wedding – did it feel as surreal to you as it did to me?

Hive, in the year that I’ve been blogging here, you have been the most incredible support system I could ever have asked for. You were there when I was stressing about choosing an officiant, you cheered along with me when I was insanely excited about our invitations, and you kindly let me vent when my guests wouldn’t send back their RSVPs.

I’ve received countless comments, PMs, and tweets from y’all and I genuinely feel like I can call each of you a friend. Your kind words have cheered me up on bad days, and your excitement over things that I know no one else would ever care about helped me stay positive when wedding planning got stressful. I’m so grateful for the time I’ve spent here, and I absolutely adore you guys.

It’s going to sound cheesy for me to say this, but blogging for Weddingbee has been life-changing for me. I’ve found an incredibly amazing group of friends in my fellow bees and I’ve made friendships that I know will last a lifetime. I’ve gained a ton of confidence as a writer and I have reignited the love for blogging I had years ago. I will never forget the time that I spent blogging here, and I’ll always have a very special part of my heart reserved for the hive.

(Photo by She-N-He Photography)

Mr. Cardigan and I have been married for close to six months now (!!) and it’s better than I ever could have imagined it would be. I find a new reason to fall in love with him every day, and we have settled into a comfortable and wonderful routine that I wouldn’t change for the world. I’m so excited to see what the future brings for us, and I promise to come back and keep you updated on what’s happening in our lives.

I might be saying goodbye for now, but you’ll be hearing from me again. I don’t know if I can stay away from the hive for too long, so I’m sure that I’ll come up with an excuse to pop back in every now and again. And in the meantime, you can always find me over at my blog, Love & Renovations, where I (and sometimes even Mr. Cardigan) blog about life post-wedding. Mr. Cardy and I just bought our first home, and we’ll be moving in in just a few short weeks – so there will be lots of talk of decorating, remodeling, and life in a new town. I’m also on Twitter and would love to chat, so feel free to say hello anytime.

Thank you, once again, for being such an amazing group of people. I love you all dearly and I’m so, so, SO grateful that I had the opportunity to share my wedding with you. I’m going to miss you like crazy.

(Photo by She-N-He Photography)

XOXO

- Mrs. Cardigan

Way back when I first became a bee (which was exactly a year ago yesterday!) I wrote a post about the inspiration board I was using for our wedding.

(Sources can be see in the original post)

Well, I put together another board with actual photos from the wedding, and I was kind of shocked to see how true I stayed to my original inspiration!

So, what do you think? Did I turn my original inspiration into reality? Did you use inspiration boards in your planning process?

The thing I loved most about this shoot was how relaxed it was. Mr. Cardigan forgot his tie at home, so he was tie-less. I left my hair down and curly, and I didn’t care if it was messy. I plopped down on the floor of a dirty bar in my dress and didn’t even worry about whether or not it got dirty. It was fun, playful, and easy, and I absolutely loved every second of it.

We did the shoot in an old house-turned-bar in downtown Austin called Lustre Pearl and I’m so glad we did – even though people gave us crazy looks when we told them the shoot would take place in a bar. The photos turned out spectacularly and I’m absolutely in love with them.

I love looking back on these photos and remembering how giddy we were about the fact that we’d been married for three whole weeks. Towards the end of the shoot, it was about time for the bar to open so there were several people milling around, drinking, and playing ping pong. We got some crazy looks for frolicking around in our wedding clothes, but we were having a blast and we didn’t care.

I’m so grateful to have these photos, and I’m so incredibly glad we chose to do them. I highly recommend doing a day-after shoot if you don’t have a ton of time for portraits on the day of the wedding – it’s so much more relaxing, and I felt like we were able to be much more in the moment than we were on our wedding day.

Did you have or are you considering a day-after shoot?

(All photos by She-N-He Photography)

I could have stood on that dance floor all night and danced my heart out with my best friends, but sadly it was time to go. Our guests went outside, gathered their bubbles, and waited for us to come out.

We ran outside to a shower of bubbles, cheers, and love, and it was one of the most wonderful moments I have ever experienced. I caught quick glimpses of the faces of the people I love smiling at me as I left for my honeymoon with my husband.

We ran out to our limousine, climbed in, and headed off on our surprise honeymoon adventure.

Yes, the wedding is over, but don’t worry – I still have a couple of posts up my sleeve, including our fabulous day-after (more like three weeks after, but whatever) photo shoot with our amazing photographer!

(All photos by She-N-He Photography)

————–

Need to catch up?

The Week Before
The Day Before
The Rehearsal
The Morning of the Wedding

The Gift Exchange
The Makeup
The Dress
The Somethings
The Bridal Portraits
The Family Photos
The Bridal Party
The Ceremony Details
The Moments Before
The Processional
The Bride’s Walk
The Ceremony, Part 1
The Ceremony, Part 2
The Portraits
The Cocktail Hour
The Reception Details
The Dinner
The Toasts

The Cake
The First Dance
The Father-Daughter Dance
The Dance Party
The Favorite Songs
The Photo Booth
The Last Dance

As the strains of Don’t Stop Believing came through the speakers, we all joined together to belt out one last favorite song.

We got almost everyone on the dance floor with this one, even Daddy Cardigan who had never heard the song (WHAT? Yeah, I know, it’s ridiculous). Luckily, he was a good sport about it.

Soon enough, all of our guests had formed somewhat of an impromptu circle, and we all stood around screaming our lungs out and dancing our asses off.

And before we knew it, the song was over and it was time for our exit.

(All photos by She-N-He Photography)

————–

Need to catch up?

The Week Before
The Day Before
The Rehearsal
The Morning of the Wedding

The Gift Exchange
The Makeup
The Dress
The Somethings
The Bridal Portraits
The Family Photos
The Bridal Party
The Ceremony Details
The Moments Before
The Processional
The Bride’s Walk
The Ceremony, Part 1
The Ceremony, Part 2
The Portraits
The Cocktail Hour
The Reception Details
The Dinner
The Toasts

The Cake
The First Dance
The Father-Daughter Dance
The Dance Party
The Favorite Songs
The Photo Booth

However, I am so, so, so glad we did it. Our photo booth photos are some of our favorites from the day, and when we’re looking through them it’s clear that our guests loved participating in it.

As much time as I spent dancing (which was a lot) I spent a ton of time in the photo booth. I wanted to be sure I had photos with everyone I could possibly get photos with, and I’m so glad that I made sure to spend a lot of time there, because I really cherish the photos that we have.

These photos don’t need a lot of narration, so let’s just get to it!

 

The first was Bohemian Rhapsody. Kind of a random song to play at a wedding, I know, but it was played at Bridesmaid Audrey’s wedding because we used to rock out to it all the time with our friends from college. Me, Bridesmaid Audrey, and her other bridesmaids stood in the middle of the dance floor at her wedding and screamed along to the lyrics while everyone looked at us like we were crazy. So, it was only appropriate that we played it at my wedding too.

Our guests didn’t seem to mind.

The photos will be taken to a whole new level if you listen along while you look.

At one point, Daddy Cardigan came out to the floor to ask me what in the world we were doing (his taste in music is questionable, at best), so I drug him into the chaos and forced him to dance along for a few minutes.

The other favorite? A must-have at any Aggie wedding.

The Aggie War Hymn. When our dj started playing it, I happened to be outside trying to cool off, but as soon as I heard the first few notes, I sprinted back to the dance floor because I could NOT miss it.

Of course, if you aren’t familiar with the song, you must play it while you look at the photos. And if you are familiar with the song, I know I don’t need to tell you to hit play, because you probably already have.

(I couldn’t find a video that started from the beginning of the song, so it starts a few seconds in)

These two songs made up just a few minutes of the wedding, but they make up some of my favorite memories of the entire night. We were surrounded by people we love, having the time of our lives. Isn’t that what a wedding reception is all about?

(All photos by She-N-He Photography)

————–

Need to catch up?

The Week Before
The Day Before
The Rehearsal
The Morning of the Wedding

The Gift Exchange
The Makeup
The Dress
The Somethings
The Bridal Portraits
The Family Photos
The Bridal Party
The Ceremony Details
The Moments Before
The Processional
The Bride’s Walk
The Ceremony, Part 1
The Ceremony, Part 2
The Portraits
The Cocktail Hour
The Reception Details
The Dinner
The Toasts

The Cake
The First Dance
The Father-Daughter Dance
The Dance Party

And we were ready to go!

I love, love, love to dance, so I was really looking forward to this part of the night – and apparently our guests were too!

I’m not exaggerating when I say I could probably write 20 posts with photos of the dancing portion of the night. To be honest, we didn’t have a huge crowd on the dance floor, but the people who were there stayed almost all night, and we had an amazing time. These photos are among my favorite of the day, and I love looking back and seeing how much fun we were having.

Of course, there was not only a lot of dancing – there was a LOT of singing along.

And we even got some people on the dance floor that I never expected to see there – like both sets of parents…

And even BIL Cardy decided to join in on the fun (I specifically asked for photos to be taken of him dancing, because I needed photographic evidence that it can actually happen).

 .

.

 .

.