Hello, my name is Christina Van Yperen.
Well so far it's been Christina Chapman - Van Yperen, but I haven't officially decided yet.
After more than a year of planning, my wedding has come and gone in what seemed like a flash. Although I do not have the professional pictures yet, here are a couple we have received from friends to give you a visual.
I have to say, it really was the perfect day. The weather was a nice 75 degrees with a breeze, the rain held out until after the ceremony, pictures and outside cocktail hour. About 70 of our closest loved ones came and truly appreciated the beauty of Door County, WI and why we made them drive hundreds of miles to witness our I Dos.
The details were everything I envisioned from the girls turquoise accessories popping with their black dresses to my luminary-lit dock shining bright off the lake at the end of the reception. My touches of Door County were greatly appreciated by my guests, and more importantly everyone had a good time.
I'm pretty certain every guest danced, mostly due to my husband making sure he danced with every lady there.
Both my fathers made me cry during my two father daughter dances and my husband and his mother stopped my heart as they graced the dance floor to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man." My father-in-law, who by all accounts has never been seen dancing in public, even honored me with a spin around the dance floor.
Two weeks before my wedding I was literally convincing my recently engaged-girlfriend to elope because I was convinced the stress of planning was not worth it. The work that is put into making your vision of the day a reality just didn't seem all that it was cracked up to be.
And then I was sitting at my reception eating ribs and my husband looks to me and says "I have to do my thing," and walks up to the front of the room with the microphone. I'm thinking he's going to thank all our guests for coming all this way for our special day.
He proceeds to tell the room full of people we love that his wedding was everything he could have wanted and that he did not do one thing. "It is all thanks to my wife." As if I hadn't cried enough that day, the tears were rolling again.
All I wanted was for it to be everything we wanted it to be, and it was. He told me all night long it was perfect, and I cried each time.
It really was worth every sleepless night, every freak out, every dime and every tear.
But I do have to say my husband was wrong. I didn't do it all alone. It was the sweat and tears of all seven of my bridesmaids, some handy groomsmen, my patient mother and father (and really patient husband), my crafty mother-in-law, and many dedicated friends who helped make the day everything we ever dreamed it would be.
One would think my wedding blog would come to a close now that the wedding is over, but I will spend a great amount of blogs sharing the specific details of our day as the blog continues.
So stay tuned.
