More of Michelle's wedding pictures...

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my wedding, which took place on July 12th. As we are starting to get more and more photos sent to us from all of our friends and family and our professional photographers, I can't help but notice the BEAUTIFUL flowers that surrounded us on Dana's and my BIG day!! I need to commend the absolutely fabulous staff at Ann's Flower Shop at the Taylor Brook Mall on Minot Ave in Auburn, with a special thank you, in particular, to Kathy Lare from Ann's! They did the flowers for my sister Renee's wedding and my girlfriend Michelle's wedding too, and I knew that I wanted them for mine too.

Not only did Kathy and her sister personally deliver all of the flowers to all of the venues, but they met our entire wedding party at the church. They came out to the limo and brought in our bouquets and pinned on flowers and straightened them out and handed us our bouquets just as we were getting set to walk down the aisle, so we didn't have to worry about a thing. I couldn't have felt more relaxed! I won't speak for Dana though.

I couldn't believe it was only a few months before the big day that I walked into Ann's armed with a 3-ring binder that had a couple of pages of pictures with basic color and flower ideas that I liked. I went in to meet Kathy, and with her expertise and eye for floral design, she guided me through our plan for the wedding. I knew that I wanted a tightly bound lime green bouquet with just a splash of raspberry color for me, and I wanted it to coordinate perfectly with the girls' lime green dresses. And for the girls, I was hoping for tightly bound raspberry colored bouquets that would add the pop of color I was hoping for.

If you know about my love for the occasional margarita, then you probably aren't shocked to know that I was really hoping to have centerpieces that looked like oversized versions of Dana's and my favorite cocktail! Kathy tracked down the perfect sized margarita glasses, and from there, she created the tastiest-looking (yet, still very classy-looking) centerpieces I had ever seen. The tables either had a lime colored or raspberry colored centerpiece on them.

Throughout the day, we were swamped with compliments about how beautiful the flowers were! Let me tell you, there were more than a few aunts who were deciding which one of them was going to be one of those lucky enough to take a centerpiece home with them. They were one of the hits of the wedding, for sure!

So, thank you, again, Ann's Flower Shop! Dana's and my wedding day was the happiest day in our lives, and you helped make it even more perfect than we ever imagined it would be.

www.annsflower.com



We're showing off our BEAUTIFUL bouquets for a photo op!







The girls' bouquets and a lime green margarita centerpiece make for a nice splash of color at our table-for-two "Sweetheart Table" at the reception.

Since everyone in our wedding party is married, we decided to have a table honoring them. We had framed photos of all of their wedding couple photos, including our parents' wedding pictures on display for all to see while they signed the guestbook. We were in or at all of their weddings (except our parents' weddings, of course)! The lime green and raspberry margarita centerpieces decorated the table perfectly!








Here is a close-up of one of the gorgeous centerpieces!!













Here is close-up of my sister, Renee's raspberry colored bouquet...just mesmerizing with the big plump roses and perfect hydrangeas. And check out the lime green dragonfly and butterfly bling hiding in it too...SASSY!






And this is a close-up of MY bouquet! My breath was just taken away when I got my first look at it. It was more beautiful than I imagined it would be! It is filled with raspberry and lime green colored roses, lime green hydrangeas, green berrie and the gorgeous green cymbidium orchids that have just that perfect splash of raspberry color in them.





This is one of the pieces that decorated the church for the ceremony. We wanted to make sure they were shown off, so we put them on display at the reception too. I love the spider mums!!














We had Ann's work with our cake creator, so we could have green cymbidium orchids adorning our fabulous cake too!







Thank you so much to Debbie Hall who owns and creates the gorgeous and TASTY cakes at "Cakes By Debbie" in Windham. I showed her a couple of pictures to give her the basic idea of what we wanted, and she made us some samples so we could pick out the perfect flavor, but we obviously didn't know what the cake would be like until we walked into the reception. I think that my eyes watered when I saw it. It was just so beautiful! She made us a raspberry cake with raspberry filling as well as a second sheet cake that was coconut flavored with raspberry filling...so moist and yummy!!! I can't wait for my anniversary, so we can enjoy it all over again! I highly recommend Debbie to any brides-to-be who are dreaming of their perfect cake. Here is her website. www.cakesbydebbie.com.