We feel terrible about not updating the blog with all the weddings we’ve recently shot. Every couple needs their time to shine on our blog and we promise to do a better job keeping y’all up-to-date on all of it.

So, without further adieu, here are the weddings that you’ve missed:

Brandon and Melissa – Country Club at Silver Springs Shores in Ocala, FL

High school sweethearts Brandon and Melissa, together for nine years before tying the knot, had a lovely late evening wedding followed by an amazing Fall-themed reception (think Thanksgiving food and Pumpkin-flavored cake. Mmmmm). They even had a coordinated dance that the entire wedding party took part in! Awesome!

Nick and Alexis – Haskell Building in Jacksonville, FL

Nick and Alexis were such a sweet and funny couple. Nick actually whipped out a wrestling belt after the ceremony and did the “Discount Double-Check”. The ceremony was held on the banks of the St. John’s River with a lovely view of downtown Jacksonville, FL. Alexis is the owner of Alexis Carter Photography.

Chase and Emilee – Bay Preserve in Osprey, FL

Chase and Emilee are actually friends of the amazing Todd and Aimee and they were equally as amazing. There ceremony location was absolutely stunning–it seriously reminded us of our Maui trip for some reason. Chase was such a ham and loved the camera. We also met another couple who we’ll be shooting in July. You’ll just have to wait and find out who.

Ryan and Bianca – Lake Mary Events Center in Lake Mary, FL

Last, but certainly not least, Ryan and Bianca… This was such a beautiful and emotionally-charged wedding. Bianca’s father, a preacher, married them which brought such a touching dynamic to the ceremony. Ryan is so happy to be a part of Bianca’s daughter’s life. He said “I’m so happy to be a father… no, not a father… a dad.” So sweet. And, boy, could the people at this wedding dance! Wow!

Please, please, please let us know what you think! We love to hear the honest opinions of our readers.

“Zomg I say that ALL.THE.TIME. Pinning it!”

“Wouldn’t this be a cute thing to do when we get a house?” -wife
“What?” -husband
“I’ll just pin it so we don’t forget about it.” -wife

If you’ve ever been around me while I’m on Pinterest, I’m bound to have said one of the above phrases. I have so much “When we get a house” pins that I think my husband is actually scared of us getting a house, because he knows I’ll have him DIYing ridiculous projects. Hello salvaged wood pallet walls.

I once spent an hour and a half finding the perfect image of Ron Swanson to pin. Don’t know what “pinning” is? Look it up.

Obsessed. Via Tumblr

If you’re on Pinterest, follow me! My username is MrsGator and I promise to only pin awesome things like this Gator tee:

Imagine a world without Georgia. Amazing.

You’ll also see my LOVELOVELOVE board, which is basically filled with my favorite pins. My husband loves it because when holidays like birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine’s Day roll around, he knows were to look for the prefect gift. “Awe! How did you know? I love it!”

Also, if my ‘rents are looking at my Pinterest, please ignore my “Babiessss” board. I don’t want to freak y’all out, I just need an outlet for everything ADORABLE when all my blogger friends are pregnant. How did I miss that memo?

Bow Tie = Cutest thing EVERRRRRRR

And since I work in remodeling and construction, Pinterest has been a great way to pin ideas I like, or material combinations that make me go “NO WAAAAYYYY” P.S. That’s a good thing.

Hello Gorgeous.

By the way, if there is some herringbone rehab – I need to be admitted. I think I try to convince every client we have to put a herringbone design somewhere in their project, whether it’s a kitchen backsplash or bathroom floor. I’m OUT.OF.CONTROL. I think I actually teared up at a meeting where our client was nixing the herringbone backsplash. 3 days later I had my way and the herringbone backsplash was back in their project. WIN.

And then there’s a bunch of stuff that just makes me laugh out loud or giggle in the corner uncontrollably.

Ryan Gosling says what every DIY women wants to hear. Husband, take a cue.

And the #1 image that I look at the most…
Yes, I actually log on to my Pinterest account just to look at this image.

Everything is Going to be Ok.

Life is a wild and crazy journey. Sometimes you  just have to take it down a notch and remind yourself that “everything is going to be ok.” I can’t tell you how much this one image has helped me over the past few months (shoot – the past year!). Through stress, family medical issues, new wedding biz worry, legal shiznah… this one phrase and print just does wonders for me. I should probably purchase it. Or maybe the hubs will. hint hint.

So there you have it. A quick sampling of what you might find on my Pinterest. If you follow me, let me know! I’d love to follow back. :)

Happy Pinning!

It’s not like Mr. Knight and I don’t have enough on our plates these days, we just had to add one more video to the mix. This week we received our new indiSLIDERmini in the mail, just in time for our upcoming double wedding weekend (so excited!). We wanted to take some time to become acquainted with our little indiSLIDER and thought filming a little pumpkin carving video would be just the ticket. So, Mr. Knight set me up with my pumpkin and filmed me from a gazillion different angles. Here’s his epic concoction. Enjoy!

I love how our little Gator pumpkin turned out!

It was certainly tough and I was kind of giving myself a hard time for choosing such a ridiculous design to carve into a pumpkin. But, Mr. Knight was fabulous emotional support. He was so funny. He had all these cameras on our back porch to film this. Our neighbors must think we’re crazy (or know that we’re videographers!).

Happy Halloween Gator Lovers!

Also, a fun new development, Gator Bride DESIGNS now has a Facebook page! Yay! So head on over and check it out! By far, my favorite part of the new page is the images of Gator Bride DESIGN projects in action! Love it. :)

For other Brides, there are bigger issues at hand. Will my fiance live to see our wedding day? Will we be able to afford a wedding after paying all of our hospital bills? Will we have the strength to be ‘present’ on our wedding day?

Now, I know most of you have probably heard of the Make A Wish Foundation, but what about a foundation that grants wedding wishes?

When I came across the non-profit organization, Wish Upon A Wedding, I was nearly brought to tears by the stories of these courageous men and women battling life-threatening illnesses. These men and women only had one wish, to marry the love of their life.

As the World’s first nonprofit wedding wish granting organization, Wish Upon a Wedding provides weddings at destinations across the United States for individuals facing life-threatening illness.  It is a chance for couples to enjoy a very special day, without any thoughts of existing health issues, and while surrounded by their closest family and friends.

Check out the couple that started it all:

I love checking out the wish fulfilled section of their website and seeing all the happy couples and reading their stories. Seeing what these couples have gone through to get to their special day (and, for many, the hard road they have ahead of them), really puts things in perspective.

If you are a Wedding Vendor and would like to donate your services as a wish granter, please visit the Wish Upon A Wedding website to sign up. The closest chapter to us is the Orlando + Central FL chapter. If there is anything at all that you think you can do to help fulfill a wedding wish, please please contact the Orlando chapter.

So next time your stressing out over something so small and meaningless (in retrospect), remember that you have your health, your loving fiance/husband/boyfriend/family/friends by your side, and that life is wonderful gift. :)

Having an identity crisis in Maui.
Unflattering camera angle by Mr. Knight. Thanks hubs!

Today I was driving to work and heard Rihanna’s song, What’s My Name?, and it got me thinking about the whole name change game newly married women must endure (if they choose to take their husband’s last name). On a side note, I totally believe all newly minted husbands should have to change their name too, so they have to go through the struggles at the DMV (located in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in Gainesville) and the Social Security office. I still don’t think Mr. Knight quite understands my plight.

Anyways…

When Mr. Knight and I were married 8 months ago, I became a Knight, but I didn’t completely drop my maiden name, Gator. Can you follow my “Knight/Gator” code for our real last names?

I wasn’t always a Gator. I became a Gator on my 11th birthday. I will never forget that day (mostly because I was really sick). The local judge who ‘officially’ changed my name even had the same first name as me!

I was so excited to became a Gator that I used to practice writing my new name the whole year leading up to the name change. My 5th grade teacher was pretty cool with me signing my homework with my new last name. She’s awesome. Clearly.

For me, Gator is who I am. In college, my professors often called me by my last name. So, you can imagine I’ve been going through quite the identity crisis these past few months with the new last name of Knight.

I feel like I waited so long to become a Gator (and was so proud to finally be one), that I couldn’t just drop the name completely when I married Mr. Knight. Instead, I chose to drop my middle name and replace it with my maiden name. Doing this makes it easy for past employers, colleagues, and friends to still find me via Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and I still get to hold on to the Gator name that means so much to me.

That’s not to say that I don’t love being a Knight. I love that we have a family name and I can now order a wreath hanger with our last name on it (I know, lame… but I’ve always wanted one of those!), among many other reasons. I love it when Mr. Knight follows me around the house calling me Mrs. Knight. He’s too funny.

What I don’t love… completely? Learning how to write my new name. I often catch myself ending e-mails with my old last name, signing my maiden name when I sign receipts. Even introducing myself, it is hard to say Knight, since I’ve said Gator for so many years. Others have had difficulty adjusting to my new name.

So, even almost 9 months later after the name change, I’m still having some difficulty with the acceptance of my new name. I now prefer to be called by my full name (middle name and all), which confuses people like crazy when they introduce me to someone, and my super long e-mail address makes Mr. Knight crazy, too. But, I’m cool with it. I think 10 years down the road it will be weird to have never not been Mrs. Knight (double negative… yeah, I didn’t learn anything in English class).

If you decided to change your last name, did you have a bit of an identity crisis during the transition? Did you choose to keep a remnant of your maiden name? If you didn’t change your last name, did you still run into problems?

When I started putting together our holiday card for our first Christmas as a married couple, Mr. Knight wasn’t much help. He didn’t want to send out any cards, especially any cards with our picture on them. He said, “everyone has a gazillion pictures of us from this year, this is overdoing it.” So, since I seemed to be the only one who recognized the importance of sending a card our first year of marriage, I got to work designing.

I put together a little postcard with cut images of us from our honeymoon and images of our two little fur-babies. I had a lot of fun putting these together and the response from our family and friends have made the decision to make them all-the-more satisfying.

We ordered 100 postcards through Overnight Prints. 100 seems a bit excessive, but since I was sending some holiday love out to my Weddingbee friends too, 100 seemed like not enough (but Mr. Knight had to pull the plug somewhere). Sending postcards instead of full cards also saved us on postage (about $16 on postage).

We’ve enjoyed receiving holiday cards this year, we’ve received somewhere around 40 cards, and I have the PERFECT project for these cards to commemorate our first Christmas as a married couple. I’ve been meaning to do this project for our wedding cards too, but time seems to slip by and that project seems further and further from getting done. Hopefully I will complete this one within a few weeks of Christmas. We’ll see!

I hope all my Gator-lovahs had a wonderful holiday and are gearing up for the Outback Bowl! Go Gators!

]]> http://gatorbride.com/holiday-love-from-our-family-to-yours/feed/ 6 http://gatorbride.com/decking-the-halls/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://gatorbride.com/decking-the-halls/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:34:49 +0000 Mrs Gator http://gatorbride.com/?p=5477 Last year, Mr. Knight and I went all out and made a video to celebrate the holiday season. What is it about us and making simple tasks become out of control projects?

How to Decorate a Tree in 2 Minutes Flat! from Mrs Gator on Vimeo.

From our wedding album (sneak peek coming soon), to our christmas cards, to videos for family weddings, to simply just decking out our tree with holiday decor – we sure know how to make more work for ourselves!

Anyways, this year we plan to make another Christmas Tree video (which might even become an annual event). We don’t want to do the exact same thing as last year, because that would be boring. Super boring. This year will mark our first Christmas together as a married couple. With that, we want to make this Christmas extra special, and we want our video to reflect this special year in our lives.

The decorating for “Our First Christmas” has already started with this little ornament (complete with stand!) from Nordstroms.

Saw it. Bought it approximately 5 seconds later. Love it.
$8, Nordstroms
Yes, that is a labeled jar in the background. Did I mention I was out of control?

I also picked up the most ADORABLE stocking for Gator Kitty and Pepper to share.

Adorbs.
$12, Nordstroms
Yes, the stocking is hanging from an antenna (that Mr. Knight isn’t even using, no idea why it’s there). Picking up a stocking hanger for the babies is next on my list!

And “Our First Christmas” shopping wouldn’t be complete without stockings for each other.

$10 each, Target
Mr. Knight’s is tan and mine is the green one. We plan to attach something to each for our alma maters. We both happened to choose stockings to match the Knights and the Gators. Imagine that.

Do you see a trend in my decor shopping? I hope so. I plan to go all out in neutrals, greens, and reds. Bold and modern is what I’m going for, with a hint of traditional. Is that even a style?

My next favorite shopping day after Black Friday? The day after Christmas. When purchasing Christmas decor becomes affordable. So excited!

So, the plan for this weekend is to put the tree up and make a video in the process. We brainstormed for about 30 minutes on what we are going to do, lets see how it turns out. Wish us luck!!

Do you have any traditions you started as a couple? I’d love to hear them!

By the way, I’ve missed y’all like crazy. I hope you missed me too! Mr. Knight and I have been busy busy bees and I have tons of things to share with you. I can’t wait! :)

Mr. Knight and I before our Junior Prom, about 7.5 years ago (wow I feel old!). Prom always fell around my birthday. I’m giving Mr. Knight a smooch after he just gave me a ring for my birthday. That’s totally my Grandma watching us in the background… awkward. Want to hear something cool? Mr. Knight’s sister (Sweet Bridesmaid) is a Junior in high school and just got a beautiful ring from her boyfriend for her birthday. Sooo sweet.
Taken from Mrs Gator’s crazy old archives

Every anniversary, I think back to that night and how things could have ended up differently for us if my friends had been on time for the play. It’s funny how things happen. Mr. Knight and I had been eyeing each other for years before that very night. Holding hands in Spanish class, slow dancing at homecoming, and passing notes to each other in Concert Band (yes… we were nerds). What was it about that night, which finally brought us together? Although Mr. Knight never “asked me out.” It was just inherent, we just knew (from that night on) we were a couple.

Oh my goodness, we look so little! This was taken before our Senior Homecoming dance.
Taken from Mrs Gator’s crazy old archives

And you know what’s weirder? That following Friday we went and saw (I believe) the 2nd Harry Potter film. Guess what comes out this Friday? Why, it’s another Harry Potter movie. 8 years later and Harry Potter is STILL in theaters. Crazy.

photo by Starks Photography

After 8 wonderful years, I can easily say I’m more in love with Mr. Knight today then I was ever. Everyday I fall in love with something else about Mr. Knight. He truly is my best friend. I’m so excited for what’s to come in our lives together.

There is comfort in knowing that no matter where life takes us, I need not worry, all I need is my Knight to keep me happy. :)

Happy Date-iversary Darling!

This year, Mr. Knight and I plan to purchase most of the gifts for our friends and family on Etsy. Those who are not familiar with Etsy, it’s a fabulous place where handmade artists from all across the world sell their goods (and services!). Heck, I even have a little ol’ Etsy shop. Anyways, they have TONS of great items on there, and most are one-of-a-kind. How awesome is it to give your loved ones one-of-a-kind gifts along with supporting an artist and their art?

Hens and Chicks Echeveria Succulent Garden, $44
by monkeysalwayslook
This would look so great on a dining room table or in an office. Shoot, you can put this thing just about anywhere and it will look fabulous! Can you believe they sell plants on Etsy?

Dinky Porcelain Hanging Drop Vase, $21
by wendyjung
How cute would these be for a Mom or Grandmother?

Gator Girl Onesie, $18
by fulfilled
For the little Gator in your life!

Open Heart Necklace, $30
by moncdeau
So cute for a sister or friend.

Heart Rose Gold Ring, $260
by zahour

Bear hat for Cat, $24
by xmoonbloom
I feel like Gator Kitty can’t go one more day without this hat. Sooo adorable!

While Mr. Knight and I have most of our Family and Friends gifts figured out for this holiday season, there are still a few lingering. For our Family, this year Mr. Knight and I made something for them. You can probably guess what it is. We love it and it took us 5 months to put together. We are out of control, I know.

Trying to find the perfect little something for the one’s you love can be difficult, but with so many amazing one of kind items on Etsy, your bound to find something that will put a smile on their face. :-)