Special Wedding Details

With our anniversary over a little over a week away, I wanted to take a minute to talk about my favorite personal touches from our wedding day!  Our wedding day was pure magic.  As cheesy as it sounds, this past year combined has been more magical than that wonderful day---really I am sorry for the cheesiness.  But, we really are just so freaking happy.  And every element of this year was exciting, even with all the puppy messes and chaos!  The icing on the cake is definitely that Ryan has agreed to do a joint post with me for our anniversary—so you know he’s excited for it, too! 

We are going away to Tilghman Island in Maryland  next weekend and even though there are at least 2 reasons we can worry about the location (there are only 3 restaurants and no one around here has heard of it)…I am super excited! 

Back to my favorite personal touches!  The first wedding decision I ever made was the summer after my freshman year of college when I was living with my grandma.  She was showing me everything she had saved from her wedding and pulled out a gorgeous scalloped pearl crown that she wore on her wedding day.  I immediately told her I wanted to wear it and knew right when Ryan proposed that I was going to get my chance J  It was one of my favorite details of the day and it also was a wonderful way to have my grandpa’s memory included on our special day.

Speaking of my grandpa, it was important to me that he would be as present as possible on our special day.  I know he was with us in spirit during the wedding celebration (and every time I smell a cigar or snuggle with Murr—dogs were his favorite).  To remember him throughout the day, I had bracelets made in our wedding colors for all of us Isom girl cousins.  We used to have yearly sleepovers at my grandparent’s house just for us girls and would have ice cream sundaes and we always always made bracelets for ourselves, my grandma, and my grandpa.  And he would always wear it. 

When my sister got married, she had bracelets made for all of us to wear and it was important to me to include that aspect as well.  It means so much to continue the tradition of those cousin bracelets while being able to keep the memory of my grandpa Larry so close.

Another special element of our wedding and marriage is my wedding band.  I always loved my mom’s original band and engagement ring (which was upgraded on one of their anniversaries) and when I thought about the band I wanted to wear with my engagement ring, I couldn’t help but think of hers.  Although we are best friends, I was nervous to ask because that felt like a humongous favor.  But, both my mom and dad were excited and so sweet when they said yes!  So, my wedding band is my mom’s original wedding band and Ryan got one to match!  It was so important to me to have elements of two marriages that have really shaped Ryan and I’s relationship already and will continue to shape our marriage!  We have been so lucky to have my parent’s, ryan’s parent’s and our grandparents’ marriages and relationships as examples of unconditional love.

And to end on a really fun note!  Originally, we were going to replace our champagne toast all together with a tequila shot, but then our venue totally pulled through and included the champagne toast as well.  So, for sure the most fun moment of our wedding was the tequila (other than the dancing of course)

Tequila is significant to both my dad and Ryan.  When I was in college, my dad and I started a long term taste test to compare tequilas—we would take a shot of a different tequila every time I was going back to Milwaukee after a visit home.  And now, anytime we have a reason to cheers, or want a reason to cheers, we have a shot of tequila together.  My dad and I thought it would be a really great and special way for him to end his toast—by having every single wedding guest join us in our shot! 

Tequila is also the first drink Ryan and I ever had together—which is insanely ironic because not only does Ryan rarely drink—we also are not cool enough for that to be ‘our’drink (HA). 

Oh!  All the feels!  After this post, I am feeling even more cheesiness than before.  I am so excited to celebrate this first year of marriage with Ryan next weekend.  And I truly cannot wait to see what’s to come!