It was time to cut into that gorgeous cake. The cake-cutting was purely ceremonial–we had tons of other desserts (including other kinds of cakes) so we weren’t actually going to eat any more than this one bite.

Going against our poll results on this website, we did not choose to smash the cake. :) Well–Erick started to, and then I pushed his hand away, which led to cake falling down the top of my dress…! Lol.

Then it was time to go outside for the bouquet and garter toss. Erick and I wanted to do something a little different here. We didn’t have TOO many single people among our guests, and we didn’t really feel like “singling” them out (haha so punny), so we decided to open this up to everyone. To give them a little incentive to come out and take part, we gave away $25 Amazon gift cards. It was definitely great to see all the aunties and recently married ladies all excited to catch the bouquet. (Check out the aunty in the photo below, wearing dark blue. She is READY!)

In the end, it was my cousin Julie who caught the bouquet!

On to the garter toss. What better way for Erick to deliver the garter than on a football? Totally him. Erick has caught a lot of garters in his day–in fact, my toss garter was actually Ashley’s. He even caught both of his sister’s garters. Haha.

My cousin-in-law (and our pianist) Chris came out of nowhere to catch the football–he was in the back to begin with! It was truly epic.

Mmm, don’t you love that backlight? I just LOVE this picture.

As the sun was setting, Niki wanted to sneak off for just a few more photos, and the Minimos had a few other things they wanted to do with us for the video. The mosquitoes were out in full force at this point–Erick was not as happy as he appears in the shots below, poor guy. For some reason, the bugs left me alone (except for getting caught up in that big fluffy skirt). Sorry, Erick! I still love these photos anyway.

A lot of portraits typically focus on the bride, and I’m sure I have plenty of those, but these next couple of shots are my favorite because they focus on Erick. He looks so handsome… I am just so proud to be his wife.

What better place to take pictures than in a blueberry field? Blueberries are Erick’s fave. :)

We ended the night by taking photos with our friends and family.

And just like that, our day was done! It’s still crazy to me how fast the day went. As a bride, you spend months and months planning and dreaming (and worrying) how the day will turn out, and then when it arrives, it just races past you and you’re just trying your best to take it all in. Erick and I were so thrilled with our day from start to finish, and we are so grateful to all our friends, family and vendors for helping us put together a wonderful event to celebrate the beginning of our lives together. Even almost six months later, we are hearing from our guests how much they enjoyed the food, the venue, and the special spiritual touches we worked hard to incorporate into our day, and that makes it all worth it.

A wedding is a big deal (sometimes too big of a deal for some people, haha), and Erick and I definitely wanted to make this day something to remember and look back on with happy memories, but what planning this wedding taught me is that Erick and I work best together as a team. He is my rock and my inspiration. The amount of effort we put into our wedding day is just reflective of how much effort we want to (and already are starting to) put into our marriage. The other thing we learned is that when we have faith in God, He will work out everything according to His plan. I can’t even begin to tell you all the things that I worried about, and God just proved to me time and time again that He had everything under control. Many prayers were said over this wedding, and I honestly can say I felt God’s presence there with us throughout the whole planning process, and especially on our special day.

Just like planning a wedding, in a marriage there will be rough days and times when you’re just not sure what to do, but what we’ve learned is that if we lean on each other and trust in God, we can enjoy this journey together and hopefully be a blessing to others. Our journey is just getting started!

All the Wedding Recaps!

• Getting Ready
• Details
• First Look
• Wedding Party Photos
• Family Portraits
• The Ceremony
• Reception Details
• Bridal Party Portraits at the Farm
• Just the Two of Us
• Refreshment Hour
• Reception!
• Final Events

Don’t worry, friends…We will be back soon to share photos from our honeymoon in SPAIN!