Our Fairytale...and The Finale- Our Wedding

We have finally come to the end of the "Week of Love".  

This is my final installment of "Our Fairytale" *TEAR,sniff, sniff*

{to catch up visit Chapters 1-5 Here }

Sorry that I'm posting this a bit later than I expected, but with the long day/night yesterday and then with our anniversary brunch this morning, it had to wait ;) I can't believe I got to celebrate the best year of my life today...Cheers to us!

When we got married April 24th, 2010, not many people knew we were getting married...about fifteen people to be exact.  We had started planning "the" wedding and we both realized that it wasn't what we really wanted or even had time to plan, as we only had two months before Will went to Basic Training.  We decided to go ahead and get married our way and then have the "big" wedding later.  The only problem was that we didn't want our small ceremony to steal the thunder of the "real" wedding, so we tried to keep it under wraps.  Yeah, I know...probably not a good idea right? Part of me wished that we could just wait and avoid all the hassle, but we wanted to get married before Will went off to the big Army.  The military does not recognize girlfriends and fiance's, so if I wanted to be with him during his A.I.T (Advanced Individual Training), then we had to be married.  Plus, we had waited more than two years to get married already, so I didn't want to wait any longer!!

  As a female, I've always wanted that- "fairytale" wedding, but I think I've realized that I was probably just conditioned to want that.  What did I need to spend a ton of money and plan a whole shindig, that wasn't really for us.  Weddings are more for your family and friends than it is for you. It's like Christmas- they've become so commercialized that they've lost their true meaning.

So basically, we booked an officiator, reserved a gazebo on our lake, bought a few decorations and had the most perfect day of our lives without all the hassle getting in our way.  All I wanted was to look into my lover's eyes and declare my dedication for the rest of our lives, and that's just what we did ;)

Awaiting the big moment with my Bestie:

My wonderful Step-father and lil' Sister:

The girlies walking down the make-shift aisle:

The Officiator giving the boys a pep-talk:

Does he look nervous to you? Not to me!

"We are now gathered here to unite this man and this woman..."

I still remember how he gently rubbed little circles in my palm as he looked into my eyes, and I could see more love in those eyes on this day than I had ever seen in my life.

The Officiator had us laughing the ENTIRE time!

The rings <3

Isn't he just dreamy?

"You may now kiss the BRIDE!"

Aaaannnd the waterworks start.

Will and his new family!

{Whether he likes it or not}

In case you were wondering, Will picked out what I was going to wear ;)

Now let the fun begin!

My flowers were so pretty!

And then you just toss 'em.

The boys wanted in on the action too!

We fight a lot, but I do love my lil' sis.

After that we adjourned to our pool, ate lots of yummy food that my mom prepared, toasted with champagne and savored the day with our lovely friends and family!

Who doesn't want to drink champagne in a fun floaty on their wedding day?

I wouldn't have had it any other way ;)

Not long after, we realized that hiding our marriage was ridiculous and EXHAUSTING!  When we finally shared the wonderful news with the world, it made everything even more real and felt so good to have the family supporting us and happy about our decision.  It was funny, because honestly- they weren't even surprised...I guess they know us better than we know ourselves...

One year later, we are thriving, growing and blissful.  I am happy to say that I am Mrs. William Bogert and can't wait to spend the rest of my life as his wife.  We are a team and together- we will tackle the world and all the adventures that it holds.