Just over six months ago, my alarm went off at 4am, and I opened my eyes to the best day of my life. Giddy excitement mixed with peaceful contentment— it was our wedding day, and I couldn’t wait to marry my love. Since Buck and I just celebrated six months of marriage, and because today is Valentine’s Day, I think it’s a good time to finally post some of our gorgeous wedding pictures and share a bit of our story. Our wedding was absolutely perfect, and our photographers captured our day exactly as I wanted it captured. You can read Gina’s sweet blog post here, if you want to read/see from her perspective.

Buck and I love being married. Some people told me that the first year is hard, and I should be prepared for that. Lots of people told me marriage is wonderful and that I would love it. No one told me that I would wake up every morning and pinch myself, because surely this can’t be real life… it’s too sweet. It’s not without it’s difficulties or moments of frustration, but that’s a natural part of loving another human being— we’re sinners, and we sin against each other (sometimes intentionally and sometimes ignorantly), but there is a sweetness that comes from showing grace and walking in committed love— knowing that I’m in this for life, and he’s in this for life, and we love each other and we’re not going anywhere. Our wedding day was the first step in a lifetime of loving, serving, and giving to one another,  with joy and excitement and a whole lot of laughter.

Our greatest desire was that the Gospel was proclaimed well at our wedding, and that the way that we went about both planning and engagement would accurately reflect the glory of God. That desire was a great filter for us— it realigned a lot of our priorities, especially mine. We didn’t emphasize (with time or budget) things that many people would, or choose things toward which I naturally lean. And that was a good thing for us. We did our best to keep a balanced perspective— that our marriage was more important than our wedding, and our wedding itself more important than all of the little details that go into it— and I think we achieved that goal. We wanted to emphasize relationships— to be surrounded by our families and closest friends— and to be married at the place that meant so much for us, our relationship, and our individual walks with Christ— Capitol Hill Baptist Church. And to enjoy our day. 🙂

Jeremiah 31:12— “And they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord.”

A few random facts about our wedding:

• We got engaged in May and married in August. We got engaged and planned our wedding in just 100 days!
• We had somewhere between 400-500 guests at our ceremony!!
• We had two receptions— one for all of the ceremony attendees at our Church, and the second at McLean Gardens Ballroom. The second one was for our family and closest friends, which numbered roughly 140.
• We had our First Look at the same spot where Buck proposed 100 days earlier.
• We shared our first kiss at our First Look— my first kiss ever! Feel free to ask more questions about that one. 😉
• We had 5 different coordinators for the different parts of our wedding. That might sound like overkill, but we didn’t want our families or our wedding party burdened with too much, so we broke up our tasks into manageable chunks, wrote job descriptions for each of those chunks, and then found volunteers to handle each of those chunks. It relieved SO MUCH STRESS for everyone involved!
• My wedding dress has an amazing story to it. I only paid $38 for it!! I’ll write more about that in another post. 🙂

I’m sure there are questions you might have about some of these points, or about our wedding in general. I’d love to do a few Q&A posts about our wedding, so please leave questions in the comment section below, and I’ll answer them in upcoming posts!

Enjoy a bit of our story. 🙂

xoxo,

Sarah Bradshaw
The girls got ready at a friends’ house just 2 blocks from the Capitol. It was large, and spacious, and gorgeous. So thankful.The day started early. I got up at 4am, arrived at the house at 5am. My hair was at 6am, my makeup at 7am, and our First Look at 8am. It’s a grand understatement to say that coffee was necessary!!So thankful for the many friends I’ve come to know through my business. Kirsten Eike did my hair (we’ve worked several weddings together), and Laura Bateman Reif did my makeup (she’s also a past bride of mine! so fun to have her there!)The guys got ready over at the Church. Holy cow, my husband is handsome.

Buck and I chose to do a First Look, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We both agree (and say it again, often) that next be being pronounced “Man & Wife,” this was, by far, THE best moment of our wedding day. It was early (8am), so there weren’t many tourists out yet. We were both nearly bursting with excitement and anticipation for the day, and seeing each other gave us the time to calm down and just be with each other, before the rush of the day began and we were surrounded by people. Having the time to connect and be together in quietness and solitude allowed us to enter into the remainder of our day as one entity, in “togetherness,” and that was important to us. And it gave us time for more pictures, which was a plus. We wanted to spend as much time with our guests as possible, and this allowed us the freedom to limit the time between ceremony and reception(s). We did our First Look, about 30 minutes of portraits of us, and then we did our wedding party pictures before showing up at the Church.

Another reason why the First Look was so important to us was this— the First Kiss. This was the first time that Buck ever kissed me, and it was perfect. When we first started dating, we talked about physical boundaries, and we both knew that we were committed to waiting until marriage to have sex. That was a personal decision that we’d both made as individuals, long before we ever met each other, and we were both thankful to be on the same page with that decision while dating. In order to help us keep that boundary, we both had boundaries for kissing, as well. Before dating Buck, I thought I would be okay with kissing during engagement, but as soon as that ring was on my finger, we both realized that in order to keep our first boundary (no sex until marriage), we were going to have to keep up the second as well (no kissing). It was hard, but it was absolutely worth it, and absolutely the best decision for us.

Why was it worth it? Because I got to see my darling husband fight to love me selflessly— with his words and with acts of service, when all we both wanted to do was make out or more. His commitment to self-control built up so much trust in my heart, and helped us to both love each other, pursue each other, and get to know one another with our minds and our souls before ever knowing each others’ bodies. This built a foundation of trust, selflessness, and respect during our engagement that paved the way for sweet intimacy in marriage. I know it’s not the decision for everyone, but it was definitely the best decision for us, and we don’t have any regrets. Feel free to message or comment below if you have more questions or want to hear more about this decision. We’re happy to talk about it. 🙂

I’m absolutely obsessed with our gorgeous flowers. Veronica Rogers of Fleurish Events is amazing!
So thankful to have Korie from The Weekend Type do our calligraphy!
Reception #1! This was a brunch reception at our Church, open to all who attended the ceremony. Sweet friends bought or made brunch foods, we had a coffee bar and a ceremonial “first coffee as husband & wife,” and enjoyed seeing many old friends.
Next onto the National Cathedral for more portraits. This is Buck down on one knee, asking me to marry him all over again. And again. And again. Oh, so happy to say yes every time!Reception #2. This was at McLean Gardens Ballroom, which I consider to be one of DC’s hidden gems in terms of reception venues. Here’s a review I wrote for them shortly after our wedding:

We discovered McLean Gardens Ballroom in a random Google search, looking for venues for our wedding day. We became interested in the Ballroom first based on price and availability, but the more time we spent planning, talking with the staff, and preparing for our wedding day, the more we realized just how perfect our reception venue was for us. They were incredibly professional, thoughtful, gracious, and accommodating to our every need. They worked with us on a menu that was sensitive to various food allergies and sensitivities among the guests; they cared for our elderly grandmother with grace and gentleness; they were efficient in set-up and clean-up; and were willing to bend over backwards, if necessary, to give us what we wanted, to help us stay at/under our budget, and still provide an elegant atmosphere and experience. I would highly recommend them to anyone marrying in the DC area.SOOOOO happy to be married to this man!