The Day We've Been Waiting for...The Ceremony

Once the chaos of getting dressed had passed, I was more than ready to walk down that short aisle to meet Matt.

Thanks so much Mary Alise for your help coordinating our families in the chapel!!!


Jackie Gaut of Dana's Floral Designs did a great job capturing my vision of the chapel.




Matt and I have both lost grandparents in the last few years (he lost two this year) so I thought it would be nice to have them be a part of the ceremony. We included framed pictures of each of them on the piano at the front of the chapel.


The ceremony was short and sweet- just how Matt needed it to be. We simply exchanged vows and rings and it was official...and over! Matt is SO not into PDA and everyone knows it so we decided in advance instead of a first kiss that we would bump fists (and THEN kiss). Well, that was the plan. Matt decided on his own that it was a serious occasion so it warranted the kiss. So we kissed; the whole time I am saying "hey...what about the fists?" The pictures document it pretty well.







And the audience gave us the expected laugh!

The much awaited presentation of Mr. and Mrs. :


Can you see how thrilled I am????? You can't even tell that we just exchanged vows in the midst of tornado warnings and a tropical storm/hurricane!



Mama and I- her hair is not bad considering the sacrifice she made helping me get in and out of the rain!



Matt and his mom.


Because of the torrential rain, we were obviously limited to the tiny chapel for pictures. After all of the family groups were taken care of, Matt and I stayed for some of just the 2 of us. Here are some of my favorites from the indoor session. (I'll do the outdoor session in a separate post)


Matt looks particularly serious in this one for some reason! Did I mention he is not exactly a fan of having his picture taken?

(Notice the raindrops on his shoulders)




Not a typical pose for us, but with limited options we got a little bit creative.




And finally, we were off to enjoy the reception!!!

Stay tuned!

All photos provided by Kim Box Photography.

The Day I've Been Waiting For...

I started the day by waking up at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Montgomery. It is so beautiful and was such a comfortable room. I woke up super early, so excited. I texted Wendy first thing, thinking she would not be up yet. She and Anderson stayed at the hotel too. She responded immediately with a text "How 'bout that train?" Apparently the train across the street is what woke me up at daybreak! It was just as well since Wendy and I (Wendy) have a tendency to be REALLY late for everything and we had massage appointments for 8:00. Kristin met us there and we had the most relaxing start to the day.(Thanks girls...I owe you!)

Overnight, Tropical Storm Faye had made her arrival in the Capital City. It was FLOODING. I had expected her to make an appearance at the wedding so I wasn't tragically upset. Just a little disappointed. It mostly affected my schedule for the day as it was really difficult to drive at lightning speed in torrential rain.

Kristin played driver. We ran to Nails by Elizabeth at East Chase first. Next stop- Van Leez and the incredible Winston. The girls ran to get my rings cleaned as I got my hair done. (They spent a little extra time at the jeweler "playing". They had no intention of me finding out but when they came to Winston's to get me they received a phone call from the jeweler letting them know someone had left their diamond stud in one of the jackets they were trying on...busted!!!) So, after a quick trip back by Cronier's we were on our way to Lake Martin!

I drove the 45 (or so) minute drive because I had too much nervous energy at that point. I think I scared the girls to death. We hurried to Willow Point Villas where my Chanel makeup artist was meeting us. Elizabeth from Chanel did a great job putting up with me! It was a little chaotic by the time we got there so I was all over the place while she was trying to do my makeup.Matt's mom loaned me HER mother's jewelry:

The hairpiece was actually a pin that she wore with the set. She wore it to one of the inaugural celebrations for Eisenhower and when she arrived, Mamie Eisenhower was wearing the same pin! I just love history and to be able to wear a family heirloom with such an interesting background was so meaningful. Thank you Rhea!

The earrings were the kind that screwed on and we had quite a time getting them on.

I tried to put them on by myself, but required help from Mama to put one of them in.This one was so loose and I was really scared of losing one; Mama got a little carried away...
Don't worry, I recovered quickly:
My favorite bottle of Pinot Grigio, Santa Margherita!


Matt was in another part of the villa getting ready. Kim (the photographer) ran next door in time to see him open his wedding gift from me.


I gave him his first pair of cufflinks, a monogrammed sterling oval set from Red Envelope. He loved them!



My favorite from the "getting ready" shots:

and the Dress:

Due to the hurricane, there are no shots of me putting my dress on. I waited until everyone was seated in the chapel (and facing forward) and ran in the back door in my sundress with a Dillard's bag over my head! Mama carried the bagged dress in (and got herself soaked). The Dillard's bag and the weather overall are responsible for the stray strand of hair that DRIVES ME BONKERS in so many of my pictures.

Dressing was a little tricky since it was a ONE ROOM CHAPEL! I dressed in the stairwell to the balcony with Mama's help. Have you ever gotten naked in a sanctuary??? The stairs were only as wide as my dress and we could see the top of Matt's head from where I stood in the stairwell. He was seated in a pew, thank goodness. I was laughing so loud that Mama shushed me. Not exactly the easy, laid back day I had intended to have...but it all worked out!

Up next, the ceremony!

(all photos, except the dress, from the oh so talented: Kim Box Photography)

APRIL, I will have to get you to help me return to the normal background after all of my wedding posts are complete, the solid black just looked better than my pretty background!

Gobble Gobble and ROLL TIDE ROLL !!!

We had a great Thanksgiving! First, lunch with my family and afterward, dinner with his! If there are an estimated 3,000 calories in a Thanksgiving meal, we had DOUBLE! Yuck! I mean, YUM! I have a LOT of running to do this week.
My mom and my sisters after lunch:


We went to the Alabama/Auburn game yesterday. It was the BEST Iron Bowl EVER!
36-0, the streak is over!!! Now... on to Florida!

GUESS WHAT?!?!?

PROOFS ARE UP! (the 2nd set)
YAY!!!!!!!

I seriously couldn't be more happy! And it couldn't be at a worse time.

I have a HUGE deadline at work (took a 2 minute break to post this) so I can't PLAY with my pictures right now! I am not posting them until I have the actual negatives because my maneuvering doesn't do Kim the justice she deserves. She did an incredible job!

But I will give you another sneak peek (understanding of course that this image is distorted from my manipulation).

Now I can be happy!

Whew, where did the weekend go?

Since I don't have any wedding pictures to post, STILL, I'll just bore you with my busy weekend.
I went to an office friend's birthday dinner Friday night. Matt went to Atlanta to our nephew's 2nd birthday party. I stopped at Blockbuster on the way home and rented girly movies that I would otherwise not get to see- P.S. I Love You and What Happens in Vegas (is that the name?). I fell asleep pretty early on in P.S. I Love You but I'd read the book so I wasn't upset that I missed anything and would have to try again Saturday.
I got up pretty early and went to Home Depot. Miss Xena has become quite the wanderer.


She has been disappearing into the woods for 15 minutes at a time. So, tired of arriving late to work in the mornings and freaking out at night, I decided to "build a fence". It's one of those little iron garden fences- she won't put any effort into getting through it- she just needs something to block her way. They didn't have any black ones, just green and pink so I bought some spray paint too. It took me all weekend but it's up. We'll see if it works!

After spending the entire morning spray painting (my glasses lenses, my fingernails, my forehead, etc) and not being anywhere near finished with my "fence", I decided to go watch the UA vs. LSU game at the Henderson's. Wow, was I nervous. I mean, being #1 the week before going into THAT stadium was not exactly what I would call ideal. BUT, they managed to win. ROLL TIDE!!!

On another Bama note, People has a photo of Sara Evans and Eva Longoria (theirs is without Jay) at the game last week. (Most of you probably won't see it in People unless you have a subscription because it has Obama on the cover and you wouldn't have purchased it.) They were wearing #7 Bama jerseys with Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Barker on the back. I have to admit when I saw the email picture floating around last week (see below), I was kind of impressed with being in Bryant Denny with Gabby Solis...but the writers at People are idiots- I mean, do your research PEOPLE! They captioned the photo they used with "sporting Alabama wide receiver Will Oakley's number". OK- maybe it is Oakely's number now, but that isn't exactly why they are wearing the #7 jersey!!! Geez.


Sunday I helped give a baby shower for my friend April. Her little fella's name is Trent. I ordered the cake from Batter Up and was so nervous that it wouldn't look as good as a Cake Designs cake. But they (unlike Cake Designs) did EXACTLY what I asked for; it matched her invitation PERFECTLY and the white cake with cream cheese icing was SO YUMMY! I will definitely use them again!

Beth made the diaper cake centerpiece- isn't it fabulous?


My only regret is that if I had known about that CUTE fabric, I would have had them do the T in baby blue to go with Beth's centerpiece fabric instead of the aqua stripe in the invitation.
Isn't April looking WONDERFUL???

This week will be WORK, WORK, WORK, checking for proofs, and painting the rest of the fence!

Have a great one!!!

P.S. Matt is home safely and Football has taken the TV back! I sure did miss him!

Miraculous

I just wanted to encourage everyone to read Jay Wolf's journal entry on Katherine's Caring Bridge site from 10.29.08 if you haven't read it yet. I've known from the beginning that her survival was a true modern day miracle, but the details of the surgery confirm it. The link is in my blog list section.
God is so good!

BOO!

We had a great time at the now annual Halloween bash at the Steen's.

They go all out for this party and it is worth it!

Matt and I went as Colts. He was Receiver #11 Anthony Gonzalez and I was a (much more covered up) Colts Cheerleader.

The food table is probably my favorite part of the decor. There were Eyeballs (Sweet and Sour Meatballs) Bat shaped chicken salad sandwiches, Brains (jello mold), ghosts (white chocolate nutter butters), "finger" cookies and carrots, snakes (ham crossaints) jello shots, and some pregnancy friendly punch (there were quite a few soon to be mommies there).

There were some fabulous costumes. Everyone gets so creative. Elvis and Priscilla came, Mickey and Minnie, The guys from Talladega Nights, "Miss" Talladega (she was preggo) Julian McPhillips- "the People's Lawyer", the Geico Caveman, Snow White, an outlet and a plug, a cartoon character milkshake, a VERY pregnant bride, a pregnant "Miss Elmore County" in a full length gown, the Tooth Fairy, Twister, Jailer and an Elmore County Prisoner.

My favorite couple of the night was Matt's "dear" friend, Jason Head...he came as MATT ALFREDS and Lindsey was Peyton Manning because Matt is his biggest fan! Jason wore a UK hat to symbolize Matt's love for KY basketball over a "bald" cap and he painted a beard. He also carried the Alabama hugger from our wedding since we are Alabama football fans and wore a suit and tie like Matt's wedding suit and tie. His opening line was "Go Cats, Roll Tide, Drink UP...here's my card". (Matt is a DUI defense atty but doesn't ask people to drink up I promise)

I was in tears! Matt handled it well, it was a complete surprise though!

Here is a picture of Matt on our wedding day:

Isn't that hilarious?

We got up this morning (very carefully) and went to Tuscaloosa for the Homecoming game against Arkansas State. A 35-0 victory for the Tide (thank goodness!). And Texas just lost....will we be #1???? Good gracious, if we are I hope our boys just noticed how fast #1 can fall...

Matt and I after the game:

Mama and I:

Still waiting on proofs...