Ceremony

Groomsmen ushering 

cuties:-)

waiting in the wings with Daddy 

taking a deep breath

Andrea singing "Center of My Joy"

Emily singing the Lord's Prayer. She also sang Ave Maria.  

Boys celebrating outside

my father's 55 Chevy

also known as our getaway car

ready to head the reception!

After the ceremony, we did family pictures inside the church and took a few more shots of the wedding party which I didn't include here.  Everything ran pretty smoothly.  It was honestly one of the best days of my life!

First Look

I apologize for the long absence y'all!  Work is killing me.  But I still need to share ALL the wedding pics! More posts coming this week!

Boys pulling up to the Rose Garden...being flashy as always

feeling good I see :-)

Aaron waiting for under the gorgeous wood arches

We exchanged a few words...I was actually too nervous to talk so it was mostly Aaron

<3 

We didn't the plan this. The boys just all had there sunglasses,

sometimes you just got to let boys do what they want to do!

I love the bouquets Dawn did for us. Can you believe we purchased the flowers wholesale and she arranged them all? Money saved and a gorgeous product!!!

All and all, I would recommend anyone do a first look.  We did run a behind schedule getting ready, in anticipation I had about an hour of cushion time in our day of schedule.  I ended up getting to the church 30 minutes before the ceremony, enough time to catch my breath, grab some water and get my make-up touched up (our lady met us at the church for touch-ups, great idea).  Still, the first look was truly Aaron & I's only time alone the whole day and we are both so grateful for that.  After the wedding we were surrounded by family and friends for the rest of night.  It was also a great way to relax our nerves before the ceremony!  I visited the Rose Garden about a year before the ceremony to contemplate as a place for our first look-it was only about 3 minutes away from the church after all.  I eyed the wood arbors as the perfect place for a first look-I can't believe a year later it all really happened! 

It's hard to update your blog after your break your laptop screen

But eventually the show must go on!  The rest of getting ready!

The boys getting ready

I find it hilarious that Aaron shoes cost approximately 8x more than mine. But he's worn them to almost every formal event we've been to since the wedding and I haven't worn my shoes again!

Daddy hanging with the boys

Allison sneaked in to say hi

Tiwa putting final touches on my make-up

Slipping into my dress

Fluffing

Mom placing the veil

And it's showtime

Getting Ready

Okay...now that Southern Wedding's has shown my wedding :-) and I don't have to worry about photo rights or any of that stuff anymore, I'm ready to share photos!

After the rehearsal dinner at 18 Seaboard and afterparty at The Wine Feed, I ended up going to bed  a little after midnight.  Allison (sister), Ebony (bridesmaid), Andrea (singer) and I were staying in adjacent suites at the Hampton Inn on Glenwood-which was really nice by the way!  The hotel opened in November and had a really modern feel.

I woke up around 7:30 to Allison jumping on the bed "you're getting married today!"  Probably the best way anyone could ever wake up. :-)  I took a shower and we went downstairs to grab some breakfast.  Tiwa arrived around 8:30 do make-up; since she was doing 9 faces (me+bridesmaids+mom) she had to start pretty early.  Hooman showed up at the same time.  We designated my suite the hair suite and Ebony's the make-up suite.  The morning started off pretty quiet, the other bridesmaids weren't arriving until 10 and it was a good time just to soak it all in.

More details and pics in part 2!!!  Sorry for the lag in posts, I'm starting my internship year so things are pretty busy! :-)

Registry

My wedding was huge and my family and friends are amazing, so our registries received much love.  Here are some things that I see daily that make me so happy!

 Our kitchenaid mixer in aqua.  My mother's friend bought me this and she hasn't even seen me in 15 years.  AMAZING

Wedgwood China.  We were pretty luck and got 8 gorgeous place settings that now live in my grandmother's china cabinet in our dining room.  

A couple friends noticed we didn't register for crystal and took it on themselves to go in together and buy us red wine, white wine, champage and old fashioned glasses...also AMAZING.  

A juicer...love it!  We juice every morning now.  Today we did strawberry+orange+pineapple+carrot+celery+kale.  As you see I like it healthy but still tasty!  We live near an Aldi so we can get produce for cheap prices so we don't go broke.

Aaron's favorite gift.  A smoker!  It is amazing and gets meat so tender.

Aaron made homemade bacon last week and this was a huge help :-)

Ramekins.  So inexpensive and fun.  I broke them in by making individual peach cobblers.

And when I want to jazz it up we have mini dutch ovens by Tramontina...much cheaper than the baby Staubs you often see.  

And the mama, the Le Creuset 5.5 dutch oven...actually this wasn't given to us but Aaron and I purchased it at Bed Bath & Beyond with gift cards last night during their registry completion event! I cannot wait to start cooking with this!!!

People are so nice when you get married....excuse me now, I need to go work on some more thank you cards!!!