Show Us Your LIFE: Wedding Reception

Kelly's at it again this week with wedding receptions and honeymoon pictures.

I'm from a fairly small town in North East Texas and there aren't that many places where wedding receptions can be held. The places that are big enough just aren't that pretty, and the places that are pretty don't hold that many people. The definition of a "big" wedding is different for everybody and I kind of feel like ours was "average" for the size towns we're both from. I was honestly worried that we wouldn't have enough room for people, but it worked out perfectly. I did about 90% of the planning on my own (with my mom's and mother-in-law's help, of course), but decided about two months before the wedding to hire a "day-of" coordinator for the decorating (church and reception) and to kind of run the reception. I showed him my ideas that I'd drawn up, as well as the supplies for decorations we'd already purchased and let him take it from there. I stopped by the reception on my way to the church for about 3 minutes to check in and never saw the finished product until we arrived. IT. WAS. BEAUTIFUL.

Looking in from the outside: (The building used to be a dry cleaners and the stains on the window will not come off. I embraced them because I think it adds character!)

This is the entry table:

We danced ("Everything" by Michael Buble):

Both the cakes were honestly the best wedding cake I've ever tasted. Bride's was bridal white cake with buttercream filling and white buttercream icing

Brad's was chocolate fudge cake with Kahlua filling and chocolate buttercream icing:

We had 3 centerpieces throughout the tables. Brown and gold ornaments in hurricanes (in keeping with the Christmas season):

Large candles with beads in bowls. (And yes, you do see chips and salsa on the table. We had fajitas for dinner!)

And flowers to resemble the bouquets in vases. The tent cards you see are the favors to our guests. Instead of giving out match books or cookies or anything monogrammed, we decided to donate to a foundation we support that was started by the parents of one of my former patients.

Of course, we had to get all the Aggies together to do the Aggie War Hymn:

Such the perfect night!

Honeymoon to come...

Thank God for Girlfriends

I love my husband. I mean, surely that's obvious. Otherwise, why would he be my husband? However, every once in a while, girls need each other to let their hair down, do some girl-talking and just have a night out on the town. I was extra-privileged this week with not one, but two girls nights!


Thursday evening, I joined my friends Ashley and Claire from work at Buca di Beppo for dinner. Since Claire has a new job, we hadn't seen each other since her wedding in March. We had a lot to catch up on, including her new marriage, my semi-new marriage, her new job and both of their new houses. We had a blast and are planning a triple-date so the boys can join in!


Then Friday, the Fab Four reunited in our home away from home -- College Station! Some of you may not know who the Fab Four consists of, so let me explain! When going through a second-degree fast-track nursing school program, things tend to get a little, um, stressful. There are books to read, breath sounds and heart tones to hear, IVs to practice and everything to remember come graduation. So, naturally, we sought out others to study with...and we found each other. We soon began celebrating everyone's birthdays, having study groups and 'rita nights out, and sharing laughter and tears. We have so many fun memories that I will cherish forever!


So, for our reunion, we decided a Murder Mystery Dinner at a Bryan winery (Messina Hof) would be a blast. We made reservations and then later learned that it was a Pirate-themed dinner. So, we donned our best (cheap) costumes and ventured to solve the Mystery Among the Mateys!


Here's Leah, aka Relentless Robbie:




And Lauren, aka Buccaneer Bradshaw:




Shae, aka Amy Bones (Serving Wench):




And myself, aka Calico Shakira something-or-other (lady pirate trying hard to look mean):



The dinner was set up really well. Everyone was assigned a character and given information about him/her prior to the evening. Once we arrived, we were given goals of information to obtain prior to the murder as well as objectives for after the murder. We mingled with the other guests, tried to persuade them towards accusing someone, looked at evidence, etc.

Unfortunately, not many of us had major parts in the actual murder, but we had fun sleuthing around. Actually, Leah and Lauren did the sleuthing. Shae and I decided that because our roles were practically unnoticed, we would participate in thievery to gain as much money as possible (there was a reward, people!).


We had a blast getting to know this couple from Houston (Cap'n Redbeard and the Governer's Daughter in awesome costume!):



None of us solved the murder, but we walked away with two free bottles of wine (one for having the most money)! We are looking forward to our next adventure, wherever that may be! Love you girls!

Show Us Your LIFE: Wedding Flowers

Okay, so now the flowers and ceremony details. I've always wanted a winter wedding. There was just something about summertime that made me think sweat, mosquitos, not-fun bridal portraits because of the two previously mentioned things and I just love Christmastime. Especially in my hometown church. The sanctuary is absolutely beautiful with the poinsettias and I knew I wanted those incorporated. Since they are already ordered and at the church (no telling how many my dad actually purchased this year!), all I really needed to add were candles, pew markers and outdoor stuff.



So just to set the tone for the sanctuary:







I don't have a good picture of the pew markers or outdoor decor, so we'll move on to bouquets.


Mine was a hand-tied mixture of flower types (all white/cream) with lots of greenery and a touch of green hypericum berries






The bridesmaids bouquets were very similar to mine, only smaller and with red hypericum berries instead of green. Instead of wearing corsages, my mom and mother-in-law carried tussie mussies which were identical to the bridesmaids only MUCH smaller (no picture).





The guys' boutennieres were just bunches of berries (Brad with green, everyone else with red to resemble me and the ladies) backed by a Magnolia leaf. And that's my really cute, really nice, really smart, very single brother, Matt. ;)

Okay, the ceremony. My only wish for the ceremony was that it be completely sacred. I didn't want any young children in the wedding because as cute as they can be, sometimes they aren't that well-behaved and I didn't want any distractions. You only get married once in your life and it's a lifelong covenant. Serious at the ceremony. Party at the reception. Oh yeah, and I wanted it short and sweet ;)

As far as music goes, I asked the pianist to play various hymns as the prelude and really only had requests for a couple. We had the grandmother seated beforehand and the parents were seated to "In This Very Room", sung by my childhood (he's still there after 20+ years!) music minister. "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" was played as the men entered the sanctuary. "Prelude in C" accompanied the bridesmaids down then aisle and I entered to the traditional "Bridal March" on organ. During the unity candle lighting, my brother and bridesmaid Miranda sang Watermark's "Captivate Us" with a friend playing guitar. I cried through the whole thing because their two voices blended so well. We exited to "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)".

We had two officiants because while he is no longer pastoring churches, I wanted my childhood minister and very good family friend (and former neighbor) to be a part of the wedding. He said a few remarks about the Scripture read and told a great story about the day I was born. The current pastor of the church did the remainder of the service.

That whole day went incredibly smoothly and incredibly FAST! I love, love, love looking at my pictures over and over again because there are so many things I remember, but don't necessarily remember well. But I know it was an AWESOME day!

Can't wait to share about the reception!

Show Us Your LIFE: Wedding Party

This will be a fun one! Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is doing another carnival today on your wedding party and flowers. This will have LOTS of pictures, I assure you, so I'm actually going to split it into two posts.

For as long as I can remember (okay, so really back to early college days), I wanted my bridesmaids to wear chocolate brown dresses. This was when black was in and I wanted to be different. Flash forward 6-7 years and everybody was wearing chocolate brown. I figured I'd roll with it since it was all I could remember wanting. Besides, it was my idea first, people.

My bridal party consisted of a variety of friends -- hometown (two from elementary school, one from high school), college (both A&M and nursing school) and my then-future sister-in-law.

So here are my lovely ladies:

(L to R: MOH and best high school friend Kasey, nursing school buddy and fellow coworker (sort of) Leah, nursing school buddy and former roomie Shae, me, Brad's sister and becoming a great friend Sara, childhood friend and former neighbor Misty, childhood friend and awesome singer Miranda, Aggie buddy Bekah)

Here's our fun, jumping one. We had lots of these and lots of "throw your hands in the air like you just don't care" photos:

This is one of my absolute FAVORITE pictures from the entire day! I'm not sure what the four of us on the right are all looking at, but the lighting and angle and editing job the photographer did is AMAZING!

Brad's handsome men included several college friends, a work buddy, his brother-in-law and my two brothers. Here they are looking sharp (L to R: Aggie buddy and Navy pilot Kyle, Best Man and Aggie Buddy and Former "Old Lady" Steven, my brother Michael, Brad, my other brother Matt, Brad's brother-in-law Jeff, Aggie buddy Layne, fomer work buddy Glenn):

You know how it's generally hard to get guys to really smile on camera? Well, I have a feeling that with the bunch above, it was really much harder to get them to look angry. Not a mean bone in their bodies (well, except for Michael when we were really young ;)).

This is a pic of groomsmen and ushers:

Brad and the ladies:

Me and the boys:

And here we all are together!

And I can't forget about my two readers. I've known these girls since the womb and have babysat them for as long as they've been alive. (Actually, their parents babysat me when I was young, too.) They are twins (obviously) and completely bright and did an awesome job at reading the Scripture in the wedding.

Stay tuned for the flower edition of this post.....

Wedding Dress

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner does a weekly blog carnival where people have shown off their homes. I've never participated because let's face it, our apartment is not all that showy. 5 clicks of the camera and you've seen it all. If I had one of these, however, I might be inclined to take a few artistic shots and post them. But I don't.

Either way, they've run out of rooms in a house, so this week is wedding dresses and I DO have one of those. I just recently got married in December and I absolutely loved my dress. My mother-in-law actually saw it first on the rack and I honestly didn't want to try it on. One glance in the mirror and I *ahem* was moved to tears. I know, lame, but it's true. And after all the compliments I have received (and still do), I'm so glad I listened to her and tried it on.

Without further ado...the dress: [All photos courtesy of Casey Jay Benson, by the way]

Bodice detail:

Back shot:

Another full-length back shot:

Good lighting for detail of lace/beading:

A goofy [and really quite embarassing] picture from bridal portrait day. I'm laughing so hard because I'm in the middle of the street, in a wedding gown, all gussied up, it's raining outside and I'm getting water in my mouth and down my dress.

And just because I love this picture ;)

Hope you enjoyed!

Not Me! Monday

For the first time, I'm joining MckMama in her "Not me" Monday carnival. It's a way to shamelessly admit to things we've done this week by simply stating that we have not or would not ever be caught doing such things.

So what have I not been up to this week?

On my 4-hour drive to see my parents this weekend, I most certainly did not pull into and then right back out of 3 different gas stations simply because there was a line too long or there was no "pay here with credit card" option. I would not drive on diesel fumes just because I'm too lazy and impatient to wait my turn or walk inside to pay. Nope, not me!

I did not almost lose my breakfast and pass out in a patient's room this past week during a surgeon's bedside procedure. A Pediatric ICU nurse would never get queasy over such ordinary things such as seeing down to the bone of someone's arm.

When in Marshall, I did not walk into Charley and Bella's and start a Wish List knowing that my birthday is coming up. I would never be so vain as to think that many people would want to buy me a gift there (or anywhere else for that matter).

I also did not get the baby itch for about 30 seconds on Sunday when Brad and I went to visit the new Linger baby girl. I would never think that we're actually ready for kids.

And lastly, I most definitely did not tear up during my massage today because the therapist took deep tissue literally. I would never almost cry simply because she used her full weight on muscles I'd forgotten existed since taking Anatomy and Physiology in 2003. Nope, NOT ME!

Venture on over to MckMama's site to see what everyone else is not doing.

"Calories, Calories"

That line from "Steel Magnolias" has been haunting me all weekend long. Because it was the 4th of July, we obviously had to indulge ourselves with steak, baked potatoes and not one, but two bowls homemade ice cream Friday night and then again with fried everything (catfish, shrimp, hushpuppies, fries, etc., etc., etc) and another *ahem* bowl of homemade ice cream Saturday night. But that's okay, because Brad and I were able to spend the holiday with his family in WFalls. And while we did some really neat things like see this thing (1916? WWI training plane) fly in the air:

And this thing do lots and lots of flips and rolls and other fancy tricks:

We were mainly attracted to this cutie pie:

This was probably one of the highlights of the weekend. I put Cal on my shoulders and he immediately began making this hilarious noise and pulling on my hair like they were his reins. Enjoy the video, because I know I enjoyed it live!