I can honestly say it has been a crazy, busy week and I am exhausted. The good news is that I have been so busy that the week flew by and it is now time (well, in a few hours) for a bitch to get drunk!
Since I have been pretty adamantly sticking to my new rule of no drinking during the work week, I have started a new routine of driving straight to the liquor store on my way home from work, with my mouth practically watering. I may have also been known to fill up a glass of white wine with ice cubes because after 4 days without the juice, I am too iimpatient to chill my wine. Because I'm super classy like that.
Along with a crazy week with lots to do and a lot of windshield time (I'm in sales after-all), this week was particularly stressful because someone brought several boxes of donuts into our office yesterday. Who would do that to me? Talk about inconsiderate. Fortunately for me, we don't work in a high rise building.
To top it off, several fun-sized bags of M&Ms and snickers found their way into our office kitchen today and will soon find their way into my mouth. Thanks for that. Nothing "fun-sized" about my weakness for chocolate or my ass.
When planning our reception, we knew we wanted 3 things: Great food, great music, and lots of dancing. We figured if we could really nail those 3 things, it was sure to be an awesome time. I don't know about anyone else, but in my humble opinion, we pretty much rocked all 3, with a surprise 4th element which was the scorching heat. True story...it was the second hottest day on record in Louisville the day of my outdoor wedding and reception (106 degrees...), and yet there was hardly any space on the dance floor. That's how rockin' our guests were.
Keeping with the sweet southern venue, and of course, my sweet southern groom, we wanted very simple romantic and southern elements at our wedding. A few weeks beforehand, the boy and me made homemade chalkboard signs to direct people around our ceremony and reception. While we took pictures with the bridal party, our guests enjoyed bottled water and cold washcloths to cool them down along with cocktails and an assortment of veggies, fruits, and cheeses.
Our tables were decorated and lit with mason jars and candles, and hydrangea bouquets with burlap table runners. As I said, sweet and simple was the game plan.
When deciding on our menu, we knew, without question, that we wanted southern food. We ended up using Kingsley Meats in Louisville and set a menu of a full roast pig (the freakin' best barbecue!), citrus chicken, country green beans, roasted potatoes, cold cucumber salad, cheese grits, and of course, fried green tomatoes. And yes, I did eat at my wedding, and it was awesome!
My brother leading the bridal party in
Our plan was to relax and eat dinner, do the toasts, mingle some more, cut the cake around 9:00pm, and then start all the dancing....but alas things change (well, heat changes things) and we moved the cake cutting bit up after the top tier just melted off and fell off the cake. This would have been the point which I probably should have flipped out...but I really didn't care. I pointed at it and laughed.
The cake before...already tipping a little...
Our best man and made of honor both gave amazing speeches that made us both laugh and cry. We were so lucky to have them by our sides that day along with the rest our our bridesmaids and groomsmen. My dad also gave a wonderful speech as well, which was followed up by a surprise dance from my parents and their wonderful dinner club (our extended family).
A must watch video of their surprise dance for us!
For our first dance as husband and wife, the boy and I danced to Ray Lamontagne "You are the Best Thing" and followed that up with a dance with my dad to "Songbird" by Eva Cassidy. Two moments I will remember all my life.
We sang to each other the entire time we danced...
Dad & me
Once our first dances were over, the party officially began. Despite the heat, we had people out dancing and playing cornhole until midnight, which is when the boy and me finally headed back to our hotel downtown to take the most needed showers in history.
My sorority sisters joining in for a Theta kite!
dirty dancing - Aunt Karen & my cousin Summer
Pretty much the pic of the night - wearing my husband's tie, a glowstick, and with my dress pulled up to my waist to air my legs out by the fan!
The fans were a popular spot at the reception....conveniently located by the bar.
Dancing...
Dipping...
I can't wait to show y'all some of the shots of all the bridal party, including me and the boy!
Our wedding week was quite a jam-packed event! On Wednesday (4th of July) Keith and I headed home to my parents house in Louisville with our cars loaded up with all of our wedding clothes and necessities, along with our honeymoon luggage. I gave the pups a few extra treats and some wuv time (love time) before sadly heading out and promising to be back in 12 days.
While I normally quite enjoy the 4th of July, I actually despised it this year because it stupidly prevented me from getting a ton of my wedding errands taken care of (like printing the guest list at Kinkos and picking up gifts for my bridal luncheon hostesses). All was not lost though, because my sister and brother in law and my sweet little Mason arrived around 8pm and we poured some wine and relaxed with my Aunt Sherri, Uncle Ara, and cousin Summer who had flown in the day before from Cali. We had a big time hanging out in my parents backyard while the boys smoked cigars and the gals chatted it up and watched the neighborhood fireworks.
If you can't tell, this is my favorite way to sit...legs draped over the boy. I do it at home, at the movies, and pretty much everywhere, including the gate at the airport while waiting for our flight to leave on Sunday, and on the plane. Can't help myself!
On Thursday, the real festivities began! I woke up early and went on a run with my sister before the boy and I headed down to the County Clerk to get our marriage license. We thought it might be a time-consuming errand, but once we got there, it actually only took about 15 minutes, and I might add that despite some long-standing stereo-types about people from Kentucky....you cannot marry your cousin there (they verify if you are related when you apply).
By Thursday evening, pretty much all of our out of town family had arrived in Kentucky, including a plane with 14 family members on it, flying in from various parts of California, and my aunt Patty & Uncle David from Georgia, Aunt Karen from Texas, and the boy's family from Georgia as well. As has become the tradition, we welcomed everyone to my parents house for a cook-out, some adult beverages, and a little corn-hole. We probably had about 40 people at the house, and with it hovering somewhere around 100 degrees, it was HOT, HOT, HOT inside and outside of the house. Even though we were pretty much melting, spirits were high and we had a great time. I will admit though, that seeing how miserably hot is was had me freaking out all week because our wedding and reception was outside. It was hard to put that aside and try not to obsess about it (which I did anyways) but I tried to just enjoy the evening for what it was.
Cousins Jayme and Summer, and myself
A mix of my cousins, the boy's family, and members of the wedding party
mom and brother
Me and future husband
A little cornhole action
Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike
Cousin Kevin and Uncle Mike
We found some hilarious pics of my aunts in the 80's while looking through my baby pics...we blew them up and made them into fans to use at the cook-out...it was really quite amusing, though somewhat less amusing to Aunt Patty and Karen
Me chatting it up with the boy's mom and looking like I have a baby bump (a just to be clear, I do not have one and won't for a long while!)
The point in the evening where Brynn started just holding her wine in everyone's face while she was talking to them...just for funzies
brothers, cousins, and mom being ridiculous
I will say that of all the great conversations and catching up I got to to with mine and the boy's family, the real highlight of my night was coming out to say goodnight to everyone after I had washed my face and put my glasses on, only to find my mom, dad, sister, brothers, fiance, and several members of the wedding party shotgunning beers in the backyard. Apparently I just don't know how to party.
It was a fun evening had by all, most especially my dad, who the next morning said, "The last time I felt like this after drinking was in college..." And let's just make a round-about guess about how many years back that was, shall we? Unfortunately for my Dad, he had been working on a golf scramble for the last month with about 25 of our friends/family members for Friday morning, and they had 9:30am tee time. Did I mention that it was about 104 degrees on Friday? I'll let you imagine how that went...
Next up will be a recap of Fridays events, starting with my bridesmaid luncheon! Can't wait to share more!
