Our wedding story
Holy smokes, where has the time gone?! I cannot believe it has been three years since Rhett and I got married! So today, I thought I would share our wedding story! How about a little back story first!
We started dating when we were just 14! My mom always joked that we couldn’t say we were “going out” since we couldn’t actually drive anywhere by ourselves! We dated through high school and college except for a couple small breaks. (Does anyone else think of Friends when I say that?!)We had basically grown up together, so you can understand that we changed over the years and had to figure out how to grow in love as well. Anywho, when I graduated college in May of 2016, we had just bought our first house together and were beyond excited to start our “adult” life together! We had decided buying a house was more important to us than doing the whole wedding thing, since we had already been together for so long. Of course, we always talked about the eventual wedding we would have, but in my mind we had a year or two before that would even cross our paths. I was definitely shocked on Christmas Eve of that year when Rhett popped the question!
We had been talking about and planning a spring vacation to Maine at the time. I had always wanted to visit Maine, because it was one of those magical places in my mind that just couldn’t possibly be as pretty in person as it was in pictures. So when Rhett asked me to marry him, my second thought (of course the first was “Yes! About dang time!”) was “hmm should we just take our wedding to Maine?! I knew that I didn’t want a long engagement. I mean we had already been together for 11 years! Soo after very little conversation, we decided to make the future vacation our destination for our wedding! Rhett and I both have small, close families, but were raised in a small town where everyone knows everyone. We didn’t want a large wedding where we would be stressed and feel the need to make sure everyone’s ideas had to be brought to life. We are pretty simple people and wanted to keep the wedding about us and our journey. So our families booked our tickets and started the planning!
The key was simple! We picked a small town outside of Portland that was the most charming place! We got my wedding dress and the the wedding parties outfits in Oklahoma City, but the rest of it (flowers, cake, photographers, wedding officiant, etc.) was all found in Rockland! It was way easier than I initially thought it would be. I’m definitely a control freak, so I loved that I got to plan my wedding and take care of all the little details! I let the moms take care of the reception in our hometown the following month.
The Wedding
We got to Rockland a couple days early to get everything squared away and to finalize wedding venue. Up until this point, we had just looked at pictures of beaches, lighthouses, and outdoor venues, but weren’t able to really nail anything down without seeing it first! Rockland was so dreamy. We had the most beautiful weather to check out all of the sites and to wander through the quiet town.
We finally decided on one of the amazing lighthouses in the area (it’s actually the same lighthouse from Forrest Gump, you know the one he runs to?!). The morning of, Rhett and I went into town to get our Marriage License before meeting up with our families for a little pre-wedding brunch. Rhett and I walked the town and stopped in for my flowers and to get some ice cream before we went our separate ways to get ready. The whole day was a dream. It was so special to have just our family be a part of the ceremony. We did a first look in downtown Rockland, before heading to the lighthouse to say our vows. It was everything we wanted. Simple. Joyful. Besides the colder weather that had made its way to us by then, it was my dream wedding! (Everyone was absolutely frozen, so we had to fly through the picture part of the day!) We had dinner and celebrate the start of our married lives with the our important people. Plus, there was cake and a ton of laughs. My sweet sister in law made a video of Rhett and I through the years (all 11 of them!).
We had a wedding reception in our home town a month later for every one to celebrate with us. I love that we had our small intimate wedding and then a big old fashioned party to celebrate with friends! Best of both worlds!