It's A Love Story, Baby Just Say Yes Pt. 3

Good Morning Peachies! Welcome to Wednesday. Amazing things are going to happen today just because I believe that they are. I've got nothing special planned but cleaning house, which is basically all day errry day but still, I'm feeling extra inspired today.

This morning, on the way to take my son to school I was listening to my spotify playlist when the song my daddy & I danced out father/daughter dance at my wedding came on. It really got me excited for this post. Not that I wasn't already but it gave me a little extra excitement. Today's post is part three of our wedding story & the actual ceremony. Exciting stuff ahead, so brace yourself for this real life fairy tale.

Before you read on, you can catch up on the wedding story here
Its A Love Story Pt. 1 &
Its A Love Story Pt. 2


Okay! Now that you're all caught up let's move along to the really good stuff.

The morning of the wedding I woke up around 8 & laid in bed for a little while, catching up on Facebook (We're all guilty of this, right?)but as soon as I heard my brother up I got up and went downstairs with him and my sister in law. My son & Drago (now nicknamed The Wedding Dog) were starting to stir on the couch so we went into the kitchen area where my wonderful, super sweet brother made coffee (he's my lifesaver). We sat and drank coffee together and talked quietly until the other members of the family started to stir, too. We were all getting hungry so my brother made eggs and bacon, too. By this time my son and "The Wedding Dog" had joined us in the kitchen. If there are two things my son loves, it's his Uncle Tyler and bacon (smart kid, that one is). Then slowly but surely the rest of the family trickled down to the kitchen, all sleepy eyed and morning glowy (There were 12 of us total staying in this beach house). After coffee and breakfast we all got busy starting on wedding stuff. There were ornaments to be written on, total decoration of the outside to do, food to be cooked, and I had to finalize our playlist. So the girls all sat around the kitchen table/bar area and did our work and talked and laughed while the guys got busy setting up the canopy, chairs, tables, and every last detail of the decor. They were all such a blessing because everything came together even more beautifully than I had ever dreamed of. Around 11 my good friend Crystal came over. (Her hubby and mine have been best friends forever & he was my hubby's best man). She was doing my hair and make up for the big day, she sat and chit chatted with us and helped with some of the decor for a while but then it was time for me to shower and us start getting ready.

The first picture is me giving Crystal, the "are you sure about this?" look because I wasn't sure about the foil method but it turned out beautifully!

We took about 3 and a half hours to get ready, we were just having fun and laughing. In fact, every one who came up stairs where we were said "y'all are having too much fun up here". We were but hello, I was the bride and her Maid of Honor and glam squad. Okay, my glam squad was one person but still. I was hanging out with two of my best girls & my flower girl would pop in and out (she's a riot. I just love her so much).

Around 3 our cake was delivered and I had to run downstairs and approve it. Since we got married out of state, we found a baker on Weddingwire.com and communicated all through e-mails up until then. It was a little bit of a risky move, but to me, the cake wasn't the most important thing, neither were the decorations. None of it was really. The important thing was that, at the end of the day I was marrying my best friend and that was all that mattered. Up until the actual day of the wedding that's what I told everyone who asked about the wedding. I said "I have a dress, a groom and our son, that's all I need" and it was the honest truth. The ceremony was all taken care of by the wedding planners we hired. They took care of the set up of the arbor, chairs, flowers, shepard's hooks with sparkly lanterns & the filing of our marriage license. All we had to do was show up, hand over our license & the rest was done for us. Absolute dream come true, y'all. This was the best way to go. However, they didn't do the reception. After the ceremony, they take the pics and leave. So the reception was up to us.

That's where my amazing family came in. They did all the decorations and food themselves. They were a Godsend. Even though, I told them all it doesn't matter what gets done and what doesn't. It'll be perfect no matter what and it was. (more on that later).

So, after I approved our cake, I ran back upstairs for more girlie glam time and about 30 minutes later my hubby showed up with his best man so it was time for me to stay completely hidden & honestly, it was kinda fun. We were getting read by the big window that overlooked the back deck and beach where we were having the ceremony and reception so it was fun to be able to watch everything being set up. The only time I got a little nervous was when my sister in law and I were looking down at the ceremony set up and I thought we didn't have enough chairs set up. She handled it like a champ, counting the chairs that were set up and then helping me count our guest list (we had 20 chairs and 18 rsvps). I was just worried about the ones who might show up that didn't rsvp, because there's always some. She said she'd talk to my brother and they'd just pull some out from the canopy set up for dinner then add them back after the ceremony. Before she could talk to my brother about that, he came upstairs and said "Sis, i've got the chairs under control." Obviously we had some kind of brother/sister esp going on because he took control of that without anyone saying a word to him. He's the best brother in all the land.

Before I knew it, it was 4:30 and while everyone was finishing getting ready themselves, my sister in law and I were standing in the window watching everyone showing up. It was a sincerely heartfelt moment, to say the least. Family & Friends were appearing upstairs to watch me get into my dress. It was a magical moment surrounded by those who are truly closest to me. My Mom, Sister in law, Aunts, Grandma, my friend Crystal and my friend Jennie and her oldest daughter were all helping me get ready. I felt like a million bucks. We snapped some pics while we were waiting.

Crystal putting my garters on for me

Me and My Mama

Me and My Pretty Girls

Then everyone who wasn't in the wedding party left to go get seated and my daddy came upstairs. I really thought we'd both cry but somehow we both held it together.

Before I knew it, someone was telling us it was time to get lined up to walk down the aisle. It took a small army to help me get down the stairs in my dress and we were all taking small bites of food as we headed out. One by one my girls walked down the aisle. My Dad and I laughed at Emily, my flower girl, because she finished throwing her flowers before she was 1/2 way down the aisle and she thought she was done. She saw her daddy in the crowd and took off to him. He directed her to her mommy (who was my other bridesmaid) and all was right in the world. Even if she had sat with her daddy, all would've still been right in the world. I remember taking a deep breath after Emily got down the aisle and looking at my daddy, trying to fight back the tears. Again, we both did which was amazing. We were whispering to each other the whole way down while mananging smiles, too.

When my eyes met my fiancee's I remembered why I fell in love with him and smiled from ear to ear. I expected him to be crying but he wasn't, he was smiling like he won the lottery which eased me so much.

Then the officiant asked "Who gives this woman" and my dad replied, her mother and I then handed me to my fiancee.

This picture of my Dad and Fiancee is one of my favorites from that day

During the ceremony my Mother in law kept me from breaking down and crying. She kept winking at me, letting me know everything was okay.
Love her!

When the officiant asked if I take this man to be my husband, my response was "I sure do!" Everyone laughed but I knew that without a doubt, he's my one and only.

The exchange of rings

And the sand unity ceremony

Then we were pronounced Husband and wife.

Our beautiful wedding party walking down the aisle

My honey and I watching and waiting on our bridal party to join us.

This picture gives me all the feels. Every time.
Our son was beyond happy to officially have Alex as his Dad.
Alex stepped into the role 3 years ago and has all but legally adopted Dylan as his own (that's coming).
As a friend captioned this one "Love Abounds" my reply was it was the sweetest moment of my life.

After that we did seashell wishes. Everyone got a seashell, threw it into the ocean and made a wish for us.

It was truly beautiful and such a unique part of our wedding.

Later on, while we were taking family pictures, there were people collecting our seashell wishes from the ocean right behind us.
Umm, yeah. What do you say to that?

And then the photographer had everyone turn around and split so Alex & I could join in the middle.

This is the what happened...

When he said "JUMP" my sister in law stole the show.

And that's where I'll leave you because this post is already looong so stay tuned next week to see what happened next.

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