A wedding post!

Since Sarah's wedding was 2 months ago I figured it was time to blog about it!  Ha!  I was waiting on pictures from the photographer and that took a little longer than expected.  So I know you've  been on the edge of your seats but here is a picture overload of the super fun wedding!  

Sarah and CJ got married at a place here in town called The Royal Ridge.  It is really neat and they have only been doing weddings there for about a year.  Basically they live on a ridge and the views are absolutely beautiful.  They built a large barn where they hold the reception and you get married outside.  

Their setup is really great actually.  They live there but the entire bottom floor of their house is where the girls get ready.  They have huge mirrors and a great place to get your hair and makeup done.  There are a few different rooms and plenty of space for 10+ girls to primp.  So we spent the whole day there getting ready and drinking champagne.

pre hair and makeup.  not pre champagne.  

post hair and makeup :)

Bless Hannah.  She came out with a friend to do all of our hair.  She cut and colors all of us anyway and she did such a great job!  

Lonnie brought Blakely up after her nap so I could get her dressed and fix her hair.  She was so not having pictures that day so I don't have any great ones but she was sure looking cute!

We took a few pictures before the wedding and then some after.  

being silly

Love this one of Sarah and her mom.  

Can we talk about how awesome that brooch bouquet is?  Her friend made it and she worked in pictures of Sarah and CJ as a baby as well as a pic of Sarah's dad and CJ's aunt...super special peeps.  

Right before it was time to start all of us girls had to go upstairs so we could make our grand entrance walking down the outdoor steps.  Lonnie was staying downstairs with Blakely and was going to tell her when to walk.  I had a little moment with her just giving her kisses and telling her how beautiful she was.  Lonnie snapped this pic and it is my favorite of all time.  Then she wanted to give Aunt Sarah some good luck kisses too!

the men making their way to the ceremony

Blakely and Kyndal were to walk down right after me.  We had practiced throwing the flowers and walking numerous times but she would never do both at the same time.  I was a little concerned but just thought if I can get her down the aisle then she can go off with Lonnie and he can handle her for the ceremony.  No way was she going to stand up there with us during the thing!  When they started walking I could hear her talking.  Then the talking got a little louder.  About a quarter of the way down she was full blown yelling ME SHROW FLOWERS while throwing them like baseballs.  Quiet giggles went around the crowd.  Then she made them all full on laugh when she stopped and yelled FLOWERS ALL GONE! UH OH! and proceeded to start picking them up.  I knew she would do that so I walked a little ways up the sidewalk and got her and Kyndal's attention.  All I had to do was say one word and they both booked it down the aisle.  Marshmallows.  

Then of course beautiful Sarah made her way down the aisle and the ceremony got started.  It was beautiful and we all got a little teary.  

And then the stressful part was over.  It was time to party!  We all went back into the house and popped the champagne before taking more pictures with the photographer. 

this girl was super happy to have the "standing in front of a crowd" thing over with!  

It was dreary all day but right when the ceremony was over the sky opened up and we got the most beautiful sunset.  I have to think that Sarah's dad was watching over her and gave her that sunset that she wanted.  It was beautiful.  

You know we had to play a little football....

We were all announced into the reception soon after that.  I didn't know that part was happening so there was pressure to make a grand entrance. 

nailed it  ;)

The rest was just all fun and dancing and more champagne.  

I don't even know what's going on here.  

or here... 

Blakely had the time of her life dancing.  She would shake her booty for a while and then come over and get someone to come dance with her. 

 I love kids dancing at weddings!  Lots of ring around the rosie..

My mom took her home when she was worn out and Lonnie and I stayed with our friends until the wee hours of the morn.  And I can't believe this but we did not get a family picture or even just a picture of me and Lonnie.  Total fail.  

I am so thankful for great friends.  We had such a great time together celebrating Sarah and CJ.  I feel like we need to do it again soon!  

And let's be honest....I have about 20 outtakes juuuuust like this one.  ;)

If you made it to the end of this super long post then you are my favorite reader by far!  ;)  

A party, a concert and a rehearsal.

Ahhhhhh.......  The weekend is over.  Wow.  What a wonderful (and busy!) few months we have had leading up to this weekend.  

The wedding turned out perfect.  We cried.  We laughed.  We danced.  We drank champagne from the bottle.  It couldn't have been better.  But it deserves its own post.  

I want to back up and share a few things that I haven't had time to share before I get to the wedding. 

A couple of weeks ago me and a few of my friends hosted a couples shower party for Sarah and CJ at my house.  We wanted to do something that would involve CJ a little more than you average "wedding shower".  Our theme was "Brats, Beer and Months of the Year".  I assigned each couple a month and they were to bring a gift that correlated.  My thought was that people would be able to get gifts geared more towards CJ with that theme than just something off their registry that, let's all be honest, most men don't really care that much about.

Sarah and CJ

We cooked a few different types of brats and had lots of toppings for them.  I made sauerkraut and we had a few other side items (potato salad, baked beans, etc).  You know, manly food!  Ha!  We had a few tubs of different types of beer (always a hit) and I made some cider.  It was a great time and the gifts were so cute!  Lonnie and I had April so we got them a picnic basket and filled it with wine, personalized wine glasses and a water proof picnic blanket.  

Katie and Tommy

This theme was perfect for a "non-traditional" shower.  They got things like a turkey fryer for November, a heavy duty ice chest for July, tailgating stuff for September and champagne flutes for January.  I think my favorite gifts were a jar full of money for March and the August gift my friend Jenny put together.  She looked up all of the days in August that were "national" days.  For example, she got them stuff to make s'mores for Natio.nal S'mor.es Day, a picture of all of us for Nati.onal Frie.ndship Day, matching socks for wiggle your toes day and her favorite board game for Nat.ional Just Bec.ause Day.  There more more but how cute and original is that?   

Jenny and Matt

Then we played a version of the newlywed game and, as you can imagine, it was pretty hilarious!  

Mark and Casey

It was a great night celebrating a great couple.  I actually think we should do this more often!  Although Lonnie may kill me if I plan any more parties at our house in the near future...Ha!  And would you believe I didn't get a picture of the two of us.  Sigh....

All the girls...

Moving on.  A few days after the party some of us girls went to see Mr. Timberlake in concert.

The concert was in Memphis (about 3ish hours away) and since he is from there they declared it Nation.al JT day.  

We dressed up and even made our own little bow ties!  The concert was great and he put on a great show for his hometown.  

This past Friday night we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  

Lonnie was on call and ended up having a TERRIBLE day Friday so he couldn't make it to the actual rehearsal but was going to meet us at dinner.  It was just me and B.  Let me just set the scene for you.  It is dinner time and she's starving.  We are outside and it is cold.  The wedding was on a ridge (also known as a cliff...) and it was dark out.  I was wearing 5 inch heels.  So here we go practicing our entrance.  The plan was for me to walk down some steps (about 15) with Blakely and Kyndal holding my hand.  Then when we got to the bottom I would walk down the aisle and they would follow me.  So we start walking down the steps.  B immediately screams NO HELP!  NO HELP MOMMY!  She wants to do it herself.  Then when we finally make it to the "altar" (it seemed like an hour) she bolts right to the cliff.  I am running around chasing her in soft grass with heels on while she screams ME SWING NOW (there was a swing set)!  I mean.  It was stressful.  I told Sarah there was no way the girls could walk down the stairs so we made another plan.  That plan was much better.  But you can imagine my stress about the ACTUAL wedding when Blakely was such a tornado at the rehearsal.

But, honestly, these two could scream the whole time and still be adorable, right?!