Pellucid Love: I'll Never Desert You: The Bridal Party

And now it's time to officially introduce our bridal party -- those amazing friends and family members who stood by us on one of the most important days of our lives. All the ladies were asked to choose their own dresses within a certain color range. This worked well for us as my bridesmaids live in various states across the country. We also had a slightly unconventional bridal party. Mr. C wanted his three little sisters to be "groomsladies" for the wedding. I asked that they wear mismatched dresses in dark gray in order to match the groomsmen suits which were custom ordered online from Studio Suits. Mr. C's oldest sister, seen below on the far right, was pregnant with twins at the time, so giving her freedom to choose her dress certainly made her life a little easier. She gave birth to her fraternal twin boys, Finn and Beckett, in early August!

The bridesmaid/groomslady bouquets were made by my mother the day before the wedding. I ordered baby's breath in bulk from Fifty Flowers which was used for the bouquets, boutonnieres, and the aisle baskets. This semi-DIY option saved us a lot of money. Ordering even modest bouquets and boutonnieres from our florist would have cost a small fortune, so I was happy enough with this economical solution. My mom added sheer blue ribbon to the bouquets for a finishing touch.

All photographs are by Christopher Helm Photography. The venue is Cloverleaf Farms just outside of Athens, Georgia.

I love my bridesmaids! I loved the fact that getting married gave me a great excuse to spend time with these ladies who happen to live all across the country. I blogged about how I asked my ladies to be my bridesmaids, but I never really introduced you to my wonderful friends.

I bought these adorable parasols (which were chosen to match the color of their dresses, if you can't tell) from Lunar Bazaar.

And here they are, in order from left to right (in photo above):

Bridesmaid S and I met in 4th grade when I moved to Georgia. She was one of my first new friends after adjusting to a new state and a new school. We instantly bonded over our love of horses: both real and of the toy variety, specifically Grand Champions and Breyers. We remained friends all through high school and both attended UGA together. She's an amazing and multi-talented artist who draws, paints, sculpts, and creates her own amazing jewelry. She moved to California a few years ago to follow her husband who is a legitimate rocket scientist at JPL. Her and her husband just welcomed their first child to the world in March and she's busy being a new mama!

Bridesmaid AM is one of my "newer" friends. We became close after I moved back from Japan and was attending graduate school at UGA. She was dating one of my high school friends at the time and after he moved to Singapore to pursue his PhD, we ended up becoming a lot closer! She's one of the most outgoing people I know as she seems to know everyone in Atlanta these days. She loves zombies and special effects make up and the Rocky Horror Picture Show -- she even plays a zombie in the interactive haunted house called the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse.

Matron of Honor K and I have known each other since we were five years old! We quickly discovered that our names rhymed and became instant best friends. We actually have incredibly different personalities. She was a bit serious and taciturn while I was obnoxious and could easily talk your ear off. I moved away from K when I was nine years old, but we always stayed in contact and usually spent a few weeks over the summer together. She attended Auburn and I attended UGA (which are only three hours apart) so we were able to keep in touch during our adult years as well. Now K lives as a vet in Baltimore. We don't get to see each other much anymore, but whenever we hang out it seems like

Bridesmaid J is my extremely extroverted, outgoing stepsister who recently returned home to California after living in New York City for the past year. I first met her when she was seven years old (I was 16) when my dad flew me out to California to meet his future wife and her children. I don't remember much about the visit, but I do remember that J wanted to "play" with my hair and ended up braiding it into knots! I still tease her about this! But she is girl with a huge heart and a big personality to match it!

Bridesmaid M and I met in middle school. She was somewhat quiet and reserved which was an odd match for someone like me who was very outgoing and outspoken. She was always game for our weird plans and schemes though, including making avant garde movies and commercials. Now she lives in California with her husband and one year old daughter.

Bridesmaid AH and I met around the same time as Bridesmaid M. She was definitely my mischievous partner in crime and it seemed like we were always up to something. I know we drove a number of teachers crazy with our antics, and I realize that now that I am a teacher I am getting the ultimate payback in the form of annoying students. She recently returned to Georgia after spending two years living in Colorado. It's nice having another friend living back in Georgia and she seems a lot happier to be back home.

I miss my friends so much. I wish we all lived closer to each other so we could spend more time together. Also, can you tell I'm the only one not wearing heels?

A few weeks before the wedding, Bridesmaid AM said that we should try something called "Vadering" at the wedding. Apparently it was a new meme floating around the internet, similar to "planking" that was popular a few years ago. Basically one person poses as Darth Vader while everyone else jumps in the air pretending to be force choked. As a huge nerd, this definitely appealed to me. Our photographer was totally on board as well! So we got a few funny shots like the one below (and one more to come). Mr. C had his dad bring an old Darth Vader helmet back from their attic in Michigan just for these photos. It was a nice touch!

And now for the groomsmen and groomsladies! Mr. C chose his brother-in-law (father of the recently born twins) to be his Best Man. He also chose my brother (seen below on the top right) and our coworker to be included in our bridal party. The three ladies are his little sisters: H, E, and K. K is the youngest at just 21 years old.