Details of Our Wedding

Hey people! I recently went through the albums put together by my photographer uncle Robert Peek from our wedding day three years ago (tomorrow) and I noticed that there are a lot of great photos of our venue from that day and I don't think I shared them!

So today is a little bit of a picture overload, but it's been so fun for me to reminisce about my wedding day which was seriously the best day of my life, followed closely by the birth of our daughter. While I can say with certainty that our marriage and especially our love and affection for one another has grown sweeter since that day three years ago, I honestly feel that those short moments in a temple of God, where Dalin and I knelt across from one another and were sealed to each other (and our future children) for time and all eternity, was so amazing that I can't possibly think of a moment that compares. I have never felt so much peace and joy in my life at knowing that we had made it possible for our family to live together forever. We're so blessed!

The reception was ocean-themed, but subtle--like East coast beach. We mostly had a lot of pretty and colorful wildflowers (with plenty of yellow roses, which are my favorite), smooth ocean rocks, soft gray Atlantic sand, and a colorful assortment of antique glass jars and bottles. It was perfect and so exactly illustrated me. I don't think Dalin or I really cared much about the details at the time though. Regardless, I was really happy with how it turned out, almost entirely by the efforts of my mother. She is amazing at pulling these things together--especially on a budget. It probably helped that I cared so little for how the day looked at the time, I just wanted to be married! ;-) I remember going flower shopping with my mother and aunt and being completely unhelpful because in spite of them wanting my opinion, all I specifically requested were yellow roses and a variety of other flowers. Unluckily for me, the flower people wanted to know the exact flowers I wanted but I remember just wanting my mom and her sister to choose for me! I guess my heart was in the right place, though I'm sure I was a difficult bride-to-be up in those moments. ;-)

Anyway, here are some photos of the various settings we were in on that wonderful day:

The Boston LDS temple where we were married for time and eternity

Dalin is six foot and I am five foot (with heels here). Our colors were blue and yellow because we both love blue (we wanted something we both liked) and we chose yellow as a complement because it's happy and goes well with blue ;-)

My dress--an A-line full-length (I swore I was going with a tea length dress but there were so few tea length dresses available to choose from!) with lace trim at the bottom, beaded decals, and cap sleeves. The dress--originally $700--was talked down to about $300 by my mom. Over the phone. After I failed to get it cheaper in person. It was pretty sweet and I guess I'm a pushover. But anyway, my favorite part is my veil! It has this pretty beading around the edge and I probably care more about my veil than I do my dress. My bouquet, put together by my Aunt Carolyn, includes three yellow roses (my favorite flower) and I think white carnations and green hydrangeas. I'm probably forgetting some.

My shoes for most of the day were these cute sparkly gold flats with ivory lace socks (other than pictures in which I wore heels to make me look taller and so my dress wouldn't drag in the dirt). 

The Common Man--a very sophisticated inn and restaurant where we held a family luncheon after our sealing in the Boston temple!

Love the old-timey, vintage look to everything. We had a large room to ourselves. 

Outside our luncheon room, taking a few couple photos (it felt so strange being newlyweds!)

Our handmade boutonnieres, made by my talented Aunt Carolyn. The aqua napkins from the reception center were really the blue we had in mind in our color scheming.

My Aunt Dianne, the baker and decorator of our wedding cake! Doing some last minute touch-ups.

The finished product with three yellow roses and surrounded by heart rocks my family has collected over the years. 

Our awesome aqua blue, confetti, and yellow inner cake! Aunt Dianne did an amazing job making it look perfect (and it tasted incredible).

We kept the food simple and made it clear we weren't serving dinner, just appetizers and treats but we received so many compliments on the food! My mom put this all together by herself. 

Fancy cheeses, crackers and grapes (huge summer staple in the Searle family, especially on trips to the ocean)

Outside our reception center on Lake Winnipesaukee. I curled my hair myself for the temple in the morning then had my hair styled in the hours before the reception by Barbara Gumbs from my LDS ward

I love this photo of Dalin :-). Plus I guess you get a cool side view of my reception hair.

I just love Lake Winnipesaukee and New Hampshire. Such a beautiful place. I loved our venue for the reception.

Our guest book and wedding favors (my mom and I filled all of these ourselves;-). It was fun. 

We had pineapple jellybeans, blue rock candy, and blue and teal shades of M&Ms

Our tables. We were going for an East Coast/Atlantic ocean theme so we have gray sand (that we collected from our favorite beach in Maine) in Mason jars with a candle, smooth ocean rocks (that we also collected), three yellow roses, and an assortment of wildflowers (like what you would find at the ocean around here). We used an assortment of different sized colored bottles that we collected at garage sales and used some that we have had for years.

The dance floor. You can see the head table with the parents and my maid of honor on the right. I loved the dim lighting. It was perfect for dancing:-)

And then, after introductions, greetings, cake-eating, dancing, and pictures--us getting sent off to our bed and breakfast suite with sparklers from all the guests.

It made for some pretty pictures :-)

All of the flowers and ocean sand jars collected from the tables. We had such a beautiful variety (again all arranged by my Aunt Carolyn!)

In case you were wondering where we stayed for the first night of our honeymoon (we went all over from Maine to Portsmouth, NH to Boston for the week that it lasted), it was a lovely place in Dover, NH called the Silver Fountain Inn. It has several Victorian-style rooms and a tea parlor for breakfast! Anyway, it was a lovely place. Even though we did miss breakfast so we'll never know how that was ;-)

I hope you enjoyed reading about our favorite day, three years ago on August 19th, 2011, and if you are planning your own wedding I hope that we provided you with a little inspiration of your own! For the guests, it's all in the details ;-) Even so, it is so fun to look back and be able to admire those details and the hard work that my family members put in to contribute to that day. It makes me feel so loved when I think of all the time sacrificed to make our day incredible.

As for Dalin and myself, we are so blessed and grateful for these last three years we have had together. I know I would not change a single thing about my decision to be sealed to Dalin Gunnell forever. He is my best friend, my provider, my protector, the father of our two babies, my loving husband, and most of all my eternal companion. I am forever grateful that we chose each other.