10 Year Wedding Anniversary - A Look Back At The Bridal Party.

My wedding dress was sewn by my mom. I didn't want anything fussy. I wanted to keep my dress simple. Sleeveless. I picked out a regular dress pattern that we just lengthened, turning it into a bridal gown. My mom made the train of my gown out of lace and carefully sewed small pearls onto it. My "something old" for my wedding dress were covered buttons taken off of my mother's wedding dress and placed on my dress to attach the bridal train to. I had an idea of what I wanted for a veil. One of my aunt's in Canada owned a wedding gown boutique and when I was up visiting for Christmas, she surprised me by having me come to her shop and trying on a variety of styles and then giving me my veil of choice. I chose a simple veil with pearl detail on it.

(photograph taken by our friend Tyler Geel)

Our sweet friend that made all of our wedding decorations and decorated our reception hall and the church sanctuary, also made our wedding bouquets. Each of the girls of our bridal party held a single white calla lily. I carried a long stemmed arrangement of five calla lilies.

I personally feel like there is nothing worse than asking a friend to be in my wedding and then asking her to pay five hundred dollars on a bridesmaid dress she will only wear one time. Back when all bridesmaid dresses matched, I chose a dress under fifty dollars for my girls. From a {said in a whisper} catalog. Because my bridesmaids lived on extreme ends of the continent, and hours away from me, it was an easy way for them to get the same dress without too much hassle.

(photographs taken by our friend Melissa Pritchett)

Since I was born and raised in the Philippines, one of the details we wanted in our wedding was a small piece of that culture. We asked our groomsmen to wear a barong tagalog. We had a family friend living in the Philippines pick out the design and mail them to us.