C'est La Vie: We're Married!! Massive update.

So I figured it was fitting to finally update that we were married on the anniversary of Seth's proposal. :-) I guess that makes 1,365 days! Or 1,366 since it's leap year? But yes, as the title states - we made it through our pre-wedding week and wedding without any major hiccups. Of course I'm going to go into massive detail so I can have a point of reference in years to come. :-) It's difficult to type with these annoying ass nails on though!

*********EDITED********* Added the random collages. Some pictures are courtesy of Ashleigh Dees photography (the ones with her watermark) and the others were taken with my Mom's camera since we don't have all of our pro-pics back yet.

Week Before -- this week was CRAZY! It was pretty much business as usual as far as us both working and ya-da-ya-da until the Thursday & Friday before. Besides Mom & I going super-organized-chicks on the packing. We labeled all the totes with exactly what was in them. Yes, you become your mother. Yes, I love that idea. ;-) But you know.. That's when things got a little nuts. Also, I had to try and steam the wrinkles out of my dress which turned out to be a HUGE pain in the ass. In the end, Mom ended up ironing it -- I couldn't be in the room because I was afraid it would ruin it! haha. Anxious. But it obviously turned out okay!! We had to pack all the stuff in the room into the Suburban and still pretend like relaxing was a priority when we had to get our nails done. It took forever and they are annoying! I hate having them long. Lol.

Rehearsal -- So the Rehearsal...Oh, well yeah. It happened. Jackie & Danny met Seth & I at our house. I rode with Jackie and Danny rode with Seth so Jackie could bring me home while Seth & Danny went and got haircuts. I had bags to pack and showers to take, darnit! ;-) We all got to the rehearsal on time...but the person supposed to let us in? Yeah, not so much. That was pretty frickin' annoying, but it was fine. We got in and had plenty of time. Mom & Mark & Nanny proceeded to decorate their hearts out while the rest of us were bossed around by Mrs. Coordinator Lady. Some WP members were not her biggest fans. Lol. But it all worked out, Pastor Doug had a good convo with us, no one got too pissy (though Mom got irritated at a non-related person) and we were good. We went to the Rehearsal Dinner Seth's family had planned and had a nice time. :-) Gave the girls their gifts - Yay! :-) They seemed to like them. I know the bag was super useful! Then Jackie and I had a really awesome conversation on the drive back about our friendship and how we're getting old. ;-) She had to go pack for ENGLAND!! Lucky lady. I went and packed for our mini-moon and made sure everything was in order for the next busy day! Took a sleeping pill and I slept amazingly. ;-) ha.

The Morning-Of -- The morning was pretty nuts. Heather met me at our house and Jackie came to pick us up (this made the most sense logistically since my car needed to stay at our house.) It was 7:20/7:30 in the morning when we went on our merry way. :-) Dresses and bags in tow. Seth got up and showered, went and picked up the rest of the GM gifts, and headed over to his Grandma's where he, Danny & Shane were going to be. We got to my Mom's around 7:45. Mark & Ava were up eating breakfast - they had doughnuts and other yummy breakfast food. It was perfect. Tabitha (aka amazingest hair lady ever!!) got there right on time around 8:00 and got started! Jackie's hair was first - and looked perfect with her new bangs! Then Kellan & Mrs. Jill got there for makeup! Yay! So after Jackie's hair, she moved to makeup and Heather moved to hair. Her hair looked soooo nice and pretty! We shuffled in and out of the hair & makeup seats. I was next for makeup and felt sooo pampered and pretty - ya know, cause I am! ;-) Ava was getting her hair done while I had makeup. :-) She loved it and looked like a doll! Elea was doing her own hair, but stopped to come get some makeup from Jill, Will got a blow-out for his awesome long hair, my hair got done and looked incredible! And then Tabitha did my Mom's hair after she'd had her makeup done. It looked SO good! By then it was around time to leave - the boys (meaning Will & Zach) were handsome and ready and Zach's date Kennedy had arrived. We all packed in to our respective cars in true convoy style and were headed out!!

The Day-Of -- At the venue finally! We got there right around when we wanted to at 11:30-ish. We all headed to our respective rooms. The boys got changed, I got my dress and veil on -- eek! It was amazing! I was like holy smokes who is she?! And then the girls were getting ready during our First Look! :-D
Some detail shots:

First Look -- Okay, so you know what I expected our First Look to be? Us seeing eachother for the first time, all giggly and smiley and telling eachother how hot we were. Reality? It was the sweetest moment of our lives, I think. I basically burst into tears and we hugged and laughed and it was just perfect. He cried a little too just so I don't sound like a nut! Our amazing photographers were able to capture these moments and that is just priceless to me! I will never regret that for two reasons. 1. It was so special and emotional. 2. It calmed us both a bit and made us realize what this was all about Us!

Pre-Ceremony Pictures -- So part of the idea behind the First Look was that we'd get most of our family and wedding party pictures done before the ceremony. We got a lot of great shots, but honestly it was kind of a blur! We haven't gotten all of our pictures back yet (we got 25 because Ashleigh & Amy are amazing!) and they look freaking FANTASTIC! We got some of us, some of me & the girls, him & the guys (yes including some with the awesome car), we got big group shots, some with our family. It was good.

Ceremony --After the pictures, we both freshened up, spoke to Doug (our officiant) for a moment and he calmed our nerves and was very sweet. Then it was time to go! Everyone else started lining up (add in here that I had to go to the bathroom and mom had to help me! hahah. So awkward and hilarious.) and all of a sudden, we were upstairs and the music had already started! By the time Seth & I got settled upstairs, the parents had mostly all been seated and the Bridal Party had already started! We were like, OMG! All of a sudden they shut the door so we could make our entrance, we heard our music start to play and the doors opened. I cried, yes, again. And we walked down together, like it should be. :-) It fit us SO perfectly and was so incredibly perfect to walk down the aisle together to OUR marriage ceremony.

The ceremony itself is kind of a blur! Thank goodness for pictures ~~and video~~! I remember praying and looking over and Ava was still dropping flowers because she hadn't used them all up yet. Haha. It was so cute. I remember making eye contact with Shane and kind of laughing. I remember praying and trying not to fall over, crying through our vows and the ring exchange -- I can't even explain how much my voice cracked or how quiet I was because I was trying not to completely "cry cry." I've heard that Danny, Jackie & Elea cried. I'm not sure about Shane, Will, Zach or Heather? I'll have to ask. haha. Seth's ring wouldn't go all the way on because his hands were swollen because we were both so hot! hahaha. It went by so quickly, as cliched as that sounds. We were pronounced husband & wife and officially kissed and we were out of there! Our music didn't start on time so we got halfway out before there was music. heh. :-)

Post-Ceremony -- After we got out of there, Seth and I hopped on the elevator and went downstairs and had a few moments of "We did it! Omg!" Lol. Then we had a post-ceremony picture session with Ashleigh & Amy and THOSE pictures were just awesome. Seriously we look so good. It was fun to just have a few moments, get pictures of us ACTUALLY married, share some private moments, that type of thing.

The "Reception" -- We entered the reception and everyone started clapping. To be honest, I didn't expect that for whatever reason? hahah. We both felt kind of awkward but it was also nice. We spent the next 20-ish minutes visiting with our guests and trying to say hi to as many people as we could. I know there were some we missed or some that left right after the ceremony. :/ We cut our cake, which BTW was absolutely gorgeous and DELICIOUS! I am not even joking it was fantastic! Debbie (at The Cake House & More!) is excellent! But yeah, so we cut it even though we were, yet again, awkward. ;-) Awkwardly us. We ate a few bites; I was literally about to fall over because I hadn't eaten since like 8 am?? So I had a little food with my cake, I downed like 3 full glasses of water because I was so hot, we took a few more family pictures (mainly the extended family), a few more bridal party, and then.....we danced. Good grief! I hate dancing in public, I really do. This was only the second time Seth & I had danced together and we didn't know what to do. We basically ended up doing what I call the "middle school shuffle" and going in a circle. I mean I know that's what most people do but DAMN! We ended up calling Ashleigh over and seeing if she'd save us from our misery and have the DJ guy fade the song out. For the record, our song was "Never Gonna Be Alone" by Nickelback. I mean, duhhhh. We've seen Nickelback in concert together and the song is perfect. <3

Leaving -- Not too long after the dance we were about partied out. We were tired, we were married, and we were ready to leave for our honeymoon! So at around 5 pm (I think??) we left. People had bubbles and most of the younger people (read: under 30-ish) did them for us. We got into the pretty red car, I believe it was a 1935 Ford 2-Door and after stuffing my dress in there we drove away! :-) Seth liked driving the car, of course! We ended up driving around for a minute even though with my giant dress and us being seriously tall we barely fit in it. We parked it back down near our dressing rooms away from the crowds and went and got out of our formal clothes. I was sad to take my dress off but at the same time I was soooo happy to take the stupid bra off. It left lines all around me! Stupid boning. haha. I was also sad to take my veil off. That thing is SERIOUSLY gorgeous. <3 I love it. We changed into our real clothes and we went back up to make sure everything was being taken care of. By then all the "guest guests" had left and it was mainly bridal party and family. We helped clean up, because we are suckers for helping people and we felt weird not helping, and then we went out to find Seth's truck covered in toilet paper, balloons, writing, putty stuff, etc. Yay? Lol. We had to cut all the TP and balloons off before we could actually leave. Funny fact? Seth got out his knife right? You can tell he's changed me because I then broke out my little pink Browning knife to help! hahaha. It was kind of hilarious.

We're Married! Let's Honeymoon! (or mini-moon) -- We drove away from our wedding happy and cute. :-) We stopped to get drinks and gas, typed directions to Callaway in to the GPS and were off! It took us around 2 hours to get there. We snacked and chatted the whole way there. I haven't been much happier than I was that day in a looooong time, if ever. Once we got there we checked in at the front desk and got the key to our private cottage! Have I mentioned how EFFING AWESOME my mother is?! It was so nice and we are so incredibly lucky that she did that for us. We went in and took our bags and were so thrilled with it. We had our own fireplace! It was in the living room. It also had a kitchen, a patio, and then the bedroom & bathroom. So nice! After putting our stuff down we wanted to find a place for dinner, but since it was close to 9 pm a lot of places were closed. We went to this little restaurant place that I can't remember the name of and ate dinner for the first time as husband and wife. It was nice. :-) We went back to the room and Seth got a fire going while I took a bath. I felt so dirty from the day and I wanted to get all the stuff out of my hair. It was just so nice and relaxing. Afterwards, well *blush* you know... ;-)

We woke up the next morning around 9 am because we didn't want to waste the day! We tried to do EVERYTHING we had access to! We did the scenic tour, we went to the Butterfly Center which was so much fun! We love looking at stuff like that. Got some cool pictures. I swear I'll update this with pictures at some point! We went to the Discovery Center next and looked at all kinds of stuff, walked over the lake, etc. Then we went to the Horticultural Center and were amazed at the flowers, the water falls, the REAL bananas, and the giant koi fish! It is just so beautiful there. We finished our scenic drive and then we had pretty much done all we could do at the actual Gardens. By then it was time for lunch and we stopped at this deceptively amazing southern food restaurant. It looked like a hole-in-the-wall type of place, but as we all know, those are the best! It was seriously good.

Then we went and had a REAL adventure! haha. We went to the Wild Animal Safari and OMG! It was a blast! It is both a walk-through and drive-through zoo type thing with all kinds of crazy animals! We decided not to take Seth's truck, which in retrospect was an EXCELLENT idea. Instead we rented this goofy little Toyota Avalon that was missing a window and was painted to look "like a zebra." Absolutely hilarious! Definitely had to get a picture of that. So you get in this rental car and you can buy food to feed the animals. We got quite a bit of it. The first thing we see is the people in front of us getting bombarded by like a texas longhorn, some bull things, a calf, pigs, deer. It was crazy! We fed them and tried to get away! ha. Then there were some really persistent deer that we fed before we got up to the FREAKING GIRAFFE that Seth fed (it was on his side). Then I got to feed a REINDEER, some more deer and a donkey and others. There was a mean little emu (or ostrich, can't remember) and that sucker was mean! It could take someone's eye out! We drove past the Lions laying out in the sun. Then more deer and cows/calves, a horse, goats, a freakin' BISON! Or was it a Buffalo? It was huge and had a gross tongue. We saw a Rhinoceros, a camel, a gross cow thing, some actual Zebras which were cute, and then back through the Texas longhorn's and others. It was hilariously fun and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Kind of makes me want to go on a real safari. ;-) haha.

There was also a walk-through zoo that had monkeys, lemurs, chicken/roosters, a couple of black bears, goats, a Liger, a tiger, ponies, hyenas, kangaroo, an alligator. Just all kind of crazy stuff! It was so fun! You could feed them too, btw.

After our lovely adventure, we then headed to Roosevelt State Park and drove through there and eventually made our way back home. :-) We got home fairly late that night and the doggies were so happy to see their legitimately married parents. ;-) It was just nice.

I wish our Honeymoon had been a real, long one, but we will make it up later. I am so glad that we got to do something at all because it made the transition a little easier though I do think it would have been easier to have a whole week to relax and bask in the newlywed glow. <3 We'll make it up though! No worries!

We had an amazing wedding and were surrounded by our amazing family and friends. I have no idea how any of this would have happened without my Mom to donate so much of her time, effort, money and love to us. She helped me plan probably 70% of the wedding, helped and did most of the DIY projects because I am so not crafty, was perfect basically. We are just so lucky, seriously. We had a beautiful wedding and while it was certainly a budget wedding it just goes to show that whether you blow $50,000 on a wedding or you are more frugal with your wedding, it doesn't actually matter. Ours was perfect.<3

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PHOTO UPDATE: Mini-Moon Pictures