Our Wedding Day Part 1: Courthouse Wedding Ceremony

Mr and Mrs!

Sorry it's been almost two weeks since our wedding day, but we've been busy.  Honeymoons and relaxing at the house for a few days took priority over this giant blog post, sorry!!  I want to go through all of the details of our very special and perfect day so I'm going to focus on our day through our Courthouse Ceremony in this post and the rest of the day in a following post.  There are far too many details to include in one post, I'd put everyone to sleep!  I can also include specifics for the courthouse ceremony that could be helpful to others out there - something I couldn't find when doing my own research.

Friday, August 17, 2012 began at our regular morning wake up time of 7:00am.  I jumped in the shower, not washing my hair because it needed to be "one-day-dirty" for my hair stylist to work with it.  Stephen got up with me and played with the dogs.  After a quick breakfast I headed off to Mariemarie Salon to get my hair done.  Yes, I saw my fiancee on the morning of our wedding.  I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

My stylist was the only at the salon so we had the place to ourselves most of the morning.  I didn't bring anyone with me so it was very peaceful and relaxing.  I found myself taking a lot of very deep breaths while I thought about the rest of the day.  I left the flower I was going to wear in my hair at the house and luckily Stephen was able to bring it to me.  I have the best husband in the world.  I loved the way my hair turned out.  I was a loose, low bun with a braid for some added detail.  I left the front pretty loose, like I normally do because it felt much more like me than my hair style did on my hair trial back in July.  

When I pulled into my driveway our photographer, Jenn Hopkins, was pulling in at the same time.  I was so lucky to have her at the house while I finished getting ready, she definitely kept me relaxed.  She had us pose for some "getting ready" photos and taking that extra 10 or 15 seconds together was priceless.  These pictures are typically the ones you take with you mom and bridesmaids, but because I was home with Stephen, he helped me into my dress and we have some special moments captured together.  I can't wait to see them.  I've known Jenn for close to 12 years now and we were truly blessed to have her there with us capturing the pictures of our day.  I absolutely wouldn't have had it any other way.  We actually checked with her before we set our wedding date and she was the first to know Stephen was planning on proposing - we had to make sure we picked a weekend she wasn't already booked!

Once we were ready to go we said goodbye to the pups and headed out the door to the courthouse.  I have to say, driving yourself to get married to the man of your dreams with one of your favorite people in the backseat of the car was a pretty awesome way to start our day.  

This section, I'd like to call "What we learned about Courthouse Weddings"

We knew it was a first come first served situation at the DeKalb County Courthouse and we were ready.  We got there two hours early to sign in on sign in sheet, but there isn't one.  We met the judge who would be preforming the ceremonies and he said there was no where to sign in, he'd be taking care of it.  Note to others out there: get to the courthouse 45 minutes before they start taking couples, being there first didn't matter one bit.  

We had time to kill so we went outside to the old courthouse and took a bunch of pictures.  Taking these pictures really saved time AFTER the ceremony when we were tried.  We even had time to stop for some frozen yogurt before heading back into the waiting hallway.  

When we got back, around 12:30pm the hallway was PACKED with people.  Some were there for something else (a lot of people disappeared into a courtroom at once and we never saw them again) and there were about 10 couples there to get married.  Some had groups of people there with them, some were there on what could have been their lunch break.  It's a very small hallway, not much seating.  Our family really packed out the place.  The judge came out of his little room and asked all couples there to get married to bring him their marriage license.  Note to others: have this ready!  We got ours to the judge 4th, so we assumed we'd be 4th to get married.  You know what happens when you assume...

Before the judge started with the marriage ceremonies he asked if anyone there was there just to make it legal.  "No fuss, you have to get back to work, back to your kids, pay the parking meter."  Surprisingly, quite a few people raised their hands.  What happened next was something that I never thought in a million years actually happened.  I wish I had pictures of the faces of my family over the next 3 minutes.  It went like this:

Judge to couple #1 - Do you want to marry him?

Woman - Yes.

Judge - Do you want to marry her?

Man - Yes.

Judge - Great.  You're married. 

Then he signed the license and they were on their way.  THAT QUICK. I'm not joking.  You can't make that up.  He even preformed one of these quickie ceremonies in Spanish when he realized that they didn't speak English.  After each couple the rest of the crowd who was waiting in the hallway would cheer and then it was time for the next couple.  Amazing doesn't even come close to describing these hallway weddings.  Some of these people were a little dressed up while one couple was in shorts, flip-flops and he was wearing a baseball cap.  He didn't even take it off to get married!  There isn't a dress code for the courthouse - news to me.   I didn't want a lot of "ceremony" for our actual wedding, but getting married in the hallway of a courthouse is far from what I ever thought could actually happen.  I don't think my sister's jaw closed the entire time this was going on. 

Once the quickie weddings were over it was time to start calling the couples to the back room for their ceremonies.  I was thinking we'd be #4.  We were somewhere around #6 or #7, I don't remember, but getting there at 11:30am was pretty pointless except for the picture taking.  When we were finally called around 2:00 we headed back down a hallway to the tiniest room in the entire building.  No joke.  The picture below is when we were pronounced husband and wive.  I'm pretty sure this picture was taken in the opposite corner of the room from the judge.  It was small, I don't think all of our family was able to fit inside.  It will be fun to see the pictures from Jenn.  

The entire ceremony was about 3 minutes long.  I don't really remember a thing the judge said, Stephen doesn't either.  I was so caught up in the moment and was so happy to be standing there across from my best friend, the rest of the world sort of faded away.  We were ushered out of the room and the next couple was called.  That's it!  We took the family back to the old courthouse for pictures on the steps and then the two of us headed off with Jenn for pictures in a few other select locations around our neighborhood that mean something to us.  I don't have any pictures of this period, but I'm dying to see what Jenn captured.  We went to Grant Park to a gorgeous, stone amphitheater, to a Coca-Cola wall mural outside of our favorite Grant Park coffee shop and to Turner Field.

When Stephen and I agreed on a Courthouse Wedding I searched the web for a place where I could find information on how the day would go.  I didn't find anything helpful which is why we were soooo early for our wedding.  Here are some tips for a courthouse wedding in DeKalb County Georgia.

TIPS:

1. Get your marriage license sometime before your wedding day.  We went to the DeKalb Co Courthouse so we would be able to see where we needed to go on our wedding day so we wouldn't get lost.  It was comforting knowing where to park, etc.  You can get a marriage license in any county if you are getting married in GA, it doesn't have to be from the county where you will be married.
2. Arrive to the courthouse 45 min to an hour before 1:30pm when the weddings begin.  Getting there early doesn't mean you'll be first.  It may be different with other judges, but with our judge, he determined the order. 
3. At 1:30pm, have your marriage license ready to go for the judge!  He started exactly at 1:30.  One part of our government that wasn't running behind.
4. Dress how you are comfortable.  We weren't the only ones in a dress and suit, but we were the only ones with a photographer.  Do what makes you comfortable - anything goes.  Baseball caps included.  Ugh.  
5. If you plan to take pictures after your ceremony, don't hang around the new courthouse, head over to the old county courthouse, the pretty stone one, around to the opposite side of the building from the gazebo for your pictures.  There is NO crowd and plenty of space for a photographer to back up to get the full building in the shot.  It's MUCH nicer than the current building.  
6. Take MARTA if you don't want to deal with parking.  The parking garage is $6 and MARTA is just across the sidewalk from the courthouse.  
7. Relax.  Be happy about your decision to get married in a courthouse where it is free!  We aren't going to have pictures in a giant, cathedral like church for our wedding pictures - but that wasn't important to us.  

There you have it - our wedding ceremony.  The rest of the day was a whirl wind and I have so much to detail, I'll do a full "Reception Only" blog post.  While I don't remember the exact vows that I said at that moment in the teeny courthouse room, I know that Stephen and I vow to be with each other everyday for the rest of our lives.  We will be with each other in good times and in bad when we can laugh and to cry together.  I will raise our future children with my best friend.  

I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  

Wedding Planning - Post #18 - Guest Book

If you have read any of the other 17 posts about planning our wedding you'll have noticed that we're doing things a little nontraditional.  Because we were only engaged for four months before our big day we didn't see the need to do any engagement pictures.  They would have been nice to have, but with a 6-8 week turn around on getting any edited and back to us, we would have had to take pictures right after we were engaged if we wanted to use any of them in the ceremony.

One of the places I wish we had an engagement photo is for our guest book.  One of my best friends used her engagement photos and turned them into a book with a lot of white space to be used as her guest book/sign in book.  Check out this page from Jenn Hopkins Photography so you can see what I mean.  How awesome right?

Well, we don't have a full set of professional pictures so we decided we wanted to have a large mat around an 8x10 picture.  During the reception at SweetWater Brewery we'll have a fun picture of the two of us in the frame and then when we have the wedding pictures back we'll replace with a wedding photo for the house.

Source

I found a frame and mat similar to the above at Michael's for about $25 on sale and we were set!  I'm not sure how many times we'd flip though a book to see what our friends and family wrote to us, especially years down the line when we have kids and life gets crazy, but with a frame on the wall we'll get to see the names of our friends everyday.

One of my good friends was kind enough to take a picture of Stephen and I so we would have a nice, new one to display for the first time at the wedding.  You know, something that hasn't been seen on Facebook yet.  I'd add it here, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having an unseen picture doesn't it!

We ordered our picture from Costco which was the easiest process ever!  They have a one hour photo center at the location by Stephen's office so he can pick it up on his way home from work.  That's quick service!

We are officially at one week from our wedding day.  Right now, it is 1:40pm as I type this sentence.  We'll either be getting married right now or will be next in line next Friday.  I hope the next 6 days fly by.  

Wedding Planning - Post #16 - Our venue: DeKalb County Courthouse

Stephen and I are doing things a little out of the ordinary, if you haven't noticed from my 15 other posts about wedding planning.  We originally wanted to elope, but decided to keep the ceremony here in Atlanta and have a party that night with friends and family.  We were never big on a church ceremony so after a few short discussions we easily decided that the courthouse was for us.

We live in Fulton County, GA so we checked with their courthouse first.  For several reasons we decided against the Fulton County Courthouse.  First, and most importantly, they don't do private wedding ceremonies with judges.  I wanted nothing to do with a large group wedding ceremony with total strangers.  Negative.  Nine.  No thanks.  I've seen some of Fulton County's finest, Lord knows who would be in there with us.  Secondly, when we looked at parking around the courthouse, there wasn't much and the downtown streets can be complicated with parking rules.  Lastly, we wanted pictures on courthouse steps, the Fulton County Courthouse isn't very pretty.  So, next we went to DeKalb County, the closest county to us.  In DeKalb County private wedding ceremonies are held Wednesdays and Fridays from 1:30pm - 4:00pm.  It's a first come first served system, but we're okay with that.  The current DeKalb County Courthouse is pretty ugly, it looks like what I hate from 1970s architecture.  I have no idea if that's when it was built - but you get the idea, see below.

DeKalb County Courthouse, Decatur, GA

The good thing about the DeKalb County Courthouse, is that the old courthouse is just across the Square from the new courthouse.  Bonus, there is a gazebo in the middle of the two.  After we got our Marriage License at the courthouse we took a walk to take some pictures of the gazebo and the old courthouse to send to our photographer so she'd had an idea of the locations since she's based out of Jacksonville.  Sadly, this is what we found.

Construction around the gazebo

So sad, we can't get to the gazebo.  Doesn't look like work will be done in 3 weeks.  You can see the man in the white hat on the left side of the picture, he is shoulder deep in a trench.

Not only is the construction blocking us from getting to the gazebo, but the fence is really close to the old courthouse so we can't get any distance in our pictures if we're standing on the courthouse steps.  It's not the end of the world, but things aren't as perfect as I had imagined them to be.  Here is the Old DeKalb County Courthouse.

Those three pictures above are as far back as I can get in a photo from the stairs.  Pictures are definitely still do-able on the stairs and they will still be gorgeous, but we can't do the long distance picture that I wanted.  Maybe the construction will be done in time.... maybe.

Old DeKalb County Courthouse.  You can see the fence to the left of the sidewalk.

While we can't take picture at the gazebo right now, we found City Hall not too far from the two courthouses and it can be another location for our photos with our family.

I love the red brick of the building and the dark wood doors.  If I can't have a gazebo, I'll take some red brick.  We'll take our family pictures around the courthouse at these locations and then Stephen and I will take some time with our photographer to some of our favorite places around our area of Atlanta - Grant Park, Turner Field and the Highlands.

The Marriage License process in DaKalb County was really easy.  The forms you need to fill out are online so you can do them in advance.  The ladies behind the counter the we dealt with were friendly, happy and very helpful with all of our questions.

Wedding Planning - Post #15 - Makeup Trial

I urge everyone to do a makeup trial, whether you are having your makeup done by a professional on the day of your wedding or if you’re going to be brave and do it yourself.  I’m part of that latter group, but I’m still building up the confidence so that come the big day in less than a month, I’m ready to go. 

I did a lot of research on make-up artists who could come to the house to do my make-up and I also found someone who would be able to do it at the salon where I’m getting my hair done.  I found that the make-up artists that came to me were well outside of my budget.  Hundreds of dollars outside of my budget, as a matter of fact.  The lady at my salon was totally reasonable, but because of timing the morning of the wedding there wasn’t enough time to get hair and make-up done if I started at 9:00am.  I’ll have to go to the salon with some of my makeup already on and finish the rest after my hair is done.  It will be just like a work morning. 

My Bridal Look

I decided that if I was going to do my own makeup I wanted to use products that I am comfortable using in my everyday makeup wear so that I wouldn’t be wasting money buying things I’ll need that special day.  I went with MAC Cosmetics since I already had a few lip colors and some eye shadows.  I made my appointment at MAC counter at the Nordstrom in Buckhead at Phipps Plaza versus going to the MAC store because I was recommended the artists at Nordstrom.  I believe if you go to the actual MAC store, they may charge you more – but don’t quote me on that, I never called that location.  The Nordstrom cosmetic department is really close to the parking lot so it was an easy choice. 

My makeup artist was running about 15 minutes late which put me in a bad mood, but I told myself that I wouldn’t let it get me upset because I would need to focus and trust the woman there to help me.  Once we got started I was totally comfortable and enjoyed the entire experience.  I was in the makeup chair for about an hour and then it took an hour to get everything organized and for me to check out.  The best part was that I got to go home with the sheet of paper, above.  The paper shows all of the different products and colors and what goes where.  I wanted something that would still look like me, but better.  

Close up of my eye makeup - look at all the colors!

Check it out, there is pink AND blue eye shadow going on!  I even bought fake eye lashes for the wedding day.  The bonus to the entire day was that that evening was my bridal shower, so I got to ask all of my friends what they thought of my makeup and it was unanimous, they loved it.  

I've been using some of the products I purchased the past few days so that I can get used to using all of it, and quickly.  I've been using the eye shadow (not the blue, and definitely not as smokey), foundation and powder.  I have new eye cream, foundation, cover up, powder, blush, 5 different eye shadow colors and I even learned how to gently and barely fill in my eyebrows, which makes a HUGE difference.  

I can't wait for the big day, especially knowing that my MAC cosmetics will last all day.  

5..4..3..2..1..Happy New Year, San Diego!

One of my very closest and dearest friends, Lindsay, planned her wedding for New Year's Eve in San Diego.  There was no way I was going to miss that wedding or the party that I knew would follow.  For those following along in December I went to Las Vegas, Orlando and now San Diego. That's the right way to finish 2011 if you ask me.

This was Stephen's first trip to SD.  I'd been a few times but there was still so much to see!  We were staying at the Holiday Inn, Downtown San Diego.  Not to be confused with the other Holiday Inn just  a few blocks closer to the bay.  The hotel had just been updated, but it is still a Holiday Inn.  There isn't a bar and there isn't a restaurant, but it's in a nice, central location and you can get most places.  The hotel shuttle was great and took us to quite a few places on our trip.

We arrived in San Diego at 9:30pm and immediately headed out to the bar, Princess Pub, to meet up with everyone after checking in to the hotel.  It is a cute little English pub in the heart of Little Italy.  Doesn't make perfect sense, but the place was great.  Apparently there are some new vodkas out there, flavored vodkas.  I know what you're saying, flavored vodka has been around for a long time, but not CAKE flavored vodka.  It tastes exactly how it should - like a birthday cake.  Cake vodka and some sprite = the easiest drink in the world.  Try it, but be careful, they go down super easy.

The following day we had all day to sight see and play tourist.  Planner-extraordinaire, Jenn, heard of GoCar Tours and we quickly signed up.   We booked a couple hours for Friday morning and chose to the do the Point Loma tour of San Diego.  Looking back, I wish we had time to do the Downtown tour too.  They were so much fun!  Yes, they look ridiculous and they are.  Yes, they are tiny.  Yes, they drive like a motorcycle.  BUT they also have a GPS system that takes you on a guided tour with info along the way.  The directions were easy to follow and we learned a lot along our trip.

The cars can only go 30 mph so you have to be aware of the other cars around you, but driving on the roads was never an issue.  

This was our first stop, a park overlooking downtown San Diego.  Amazing view.  We were dealing with a little fog that morning, but downtown is definitely still visible.

We took the tour all the way out to Point Loma and stopped in a bunch of places.  That was the beauty of the GoCars, you could stop where you wanted to and take as much time as you wanted to along the way.  The first, panoramic picture at the top of the post is the view of the bay from the lighthouse on Point Loma.  The cliffs in Ocean Beach were also a long stop for us.  Just breathtaking.  Not pictured are the crazy, hippie chicks who jumped off the cliff just to my right in this picture.  You couldn't have paid me to do that!  The water was freezing, the waves were crashing in and to get back out of the water they had to climb a rock wall covered in wet moss.  No thanks.

The GoCars were the best possible decision we could have made that day.  I took a TON of pictures and we laughed the entire time.  You have to wear helmets while in the GoCar and you're in such a tiny vehicle there is no way you can't enjoy yourself.

After the GoCar tour we stopped for lunch at Filippi's Pizza Grotto.  It was recommended to us by the GoCar people and they even drove us to the restaurant since we didn't have a car.  Added bonus!  There was a pretty long wait to get in to Filippi's for 2:00 on a Friday, but it was worth it.  The pizza was amazing (even the next day, according to Stephen) and the wine was strong.

If you order a bottle of the chianti you get to write on the bottle and they hang them around the dining area of the restaurant.  Now, I'll have no way of knowing if they really do or how often they change out the bottles, but it was delicious.  

After lunch, off to the USS Midway.  The ship has been docked in San Diego for years and was decommissioned in 1992.  It was involved in the first Persian Gulf War.  We were lucky enough to have along with us a friend of mine from high school and one of his co-workers, who both fly Ospreys for the USMC.  They had inside knowledge of aircraft and what it was like to live on an aircraft carrier for a couple of months.  We only had an hour on the ship, but it was plenty of time to walk around and look at all of the parts of the museum.  We didn't get to see everything offered because it was closing time, but I think we got a good feel for the ship.  We were also able to see our first west coast sunset from the flight deck.  

Once it was dark it was off to dinner with more friends and out to a couple of bars in Pacific Beach and we called it an early night around 11pm.  It was nice to hang out with a few locals.

Saturday morning we woke up to another beautiful day and we took a ferry across the water to Coronado.  I have a friend who used to live on the "island" and knew it was going to be a must see for Stephen.  The town of Coronado isn't big so we rented bicycles and hit the road.

Along the way we saw all of the beautiful houses on Coronado and the gorgeous views of San Diego.  We stopped our bike trip once to just look at the Pacific Ocean and then again at the Hotel del Coronado.  The hotel was built in 1888!  If you're in San Diego and you don't take a trip across the bay to see this hotel, you're missing out.  We stopped at the hotel to walk around and have a drink out on the sun deck that overlooks the beach.  What we didn't expect to see was an ice skating rink!  Outdoors in San Diego - who would have thought that was possible!?!  

Ice skating and palm trees - never thought you'd see that did ya?  

Back on the bikes we continued our tour of the city and found my favorite little spot.  The little park, I'm not even sure it has a name is the size of a house's lot and it has the most perfect view of downtown San Diego.  We stopped for a few minutest to take it all in and even witnessed the first of our 2 weddings that trip!

Back on the ferry, back to San Diego to get ready for the night ahead of us - the wedding!

I don't have too many pictures from the wedding but don't worry - the bride was beautiful, the groom as happy as could be and the party was what it should have been for a New Years Eve wedding.  The ceremony and reception took place in Balboa Park at the Hall of Champions Museum.  

It was such a special night for the bride and groom and such a fantastic night for me to spend with so many great friends.  And who wouldn't love to wear a sequins dress!  

Happy New Year!!

I finally caught a bouquet!  I guess that means I'm next :)