Posts Tagged ‘Weddings’

This past weekend, Chris, Bean, and I drove up to our hometown for the wedding of one of my sister’s oldest, best friends.  Even with everything that is going on, I wouldn’t have missed this wedding for the world.  For as many friends as my sister has – and she has a boat load – no one comes close to the friendships that she has with Michelle and Evan.  She’s known them since middle school and while the three of them have grown up and gone on to live very different lives, their friendship is never shaken.  I’ve always loved that about them.

In fact, their friendships are so tight that somehow all three girls managed to convince three different boys to marry them within a few months of each other!

That’s Michelle (the bride) on the left, my sister in the middle, and Evan on the right.

Michelle’s wedding was beautiful.  Both Ginny and Evan were bridesmaids (of course) and so they spent the day at the salon getting ready together.

This is Ginny’s hair.  Isn’t that gorgeous?!?!

But as pretty as I always think my sister is, it was Michelle who really stopped the show.  Which is exactly how it should be on your wedding day.  Wasn’t she a beautiful bride?

What I loved most about Michelle on her wedding day was that she had two something’s borrowed.  She wore the earrings that my sister wore on her wedding day…

…and she wore Evan’s veil from her wedding day.

I just thought that was the sweetest thing.  And as they all came down the aisle, one right after the other, I smiled as I thought how wonderful it was that these women were still standing side by side after all these years.

Michelle lives in Australia now, where she met her husband, Max, while backpacking for a year just after college.  I know my sister misses her more every day and being that far apart is really hard for them.  But even that kind of distance hasn’t diminished their friendship.  They Skype, they email, they send packages, and whenever there is the chance, they visit in person.

To me, that is true friendship.  The kind that can withstand anything.  I’m glad my sister has that in Michelle and Evan.  And I’m so happy to have had a front row view of such a friendship.  They are wonderful, strong women and I couldn’t be happier for them that they now get to experience their next big adventure as wives together.

When Chris and I were married five years ago, we got traditional wedding proofs from our fabulous Pensacola photographer Barrett McClean.  And, of course, we ordered a ton for ourselves and our families.  But we have never had the electronic versions of the photos so I have never been able to share them with anyone (unless you count the ones we scanned in, but those are pretty crappy quality).

On our fifth anniversary last week, my mom surprised Chris and I with the perfect gift.  She had tracked down our photographer and bought the rights and the digital photos from our wedding.  A lot of the photos were film and we haven’t had those digitized yet, so some of them are still missing – like my bridal portraits.  But I am too excited about them to wait and I thought I’d share a few with you today.  All this talk about our marriage and our family and our relationship, I figure you should see where we started.

The room where the bridesmaids and I waited in the church didn’t have the air conditioning turned on for some reason, so all the girls danced to air out and keep from sweating through their dresses.  It’s one of my favorite memories from that day.

My bridesmaids (left to right): Emily (my BFF), Abby (my cousin), Annie (Chris’ sister), Ginny (my sister and the Maid of Honor), and Sarah (one of my closet friends since 6th grade)

After the wedding guests had been seated, we moved over to the sanctuary and slipped into a large mirrored bathroom specifically designed to hold waiting brides.  We waited here while the groomsmen and Chris came into the church.  And this was where my mom and sister helped me adjust my veil before I headed down the aisle with my dad.

And before I knew it, I was walking down the aisle of my hometown church towards my hometown sweetheart.

See those big plants on stands up there?  We moved those closer together for portraits before the ceremony and no one moved them back afterwards, so through the entire service, the wedding party had to peer around these giant plant stands.

See what I mean?

20-minutes later, they pronounced us husband and wife and we were off!  This is my favorite picture from my wedding day.  I just love how happy and hopeful we look walking out into the world together.  Since my wedding, this is the picture I love from all weddings.  Such happy, happy people when you walk back down the aisle together.

After the ceremony we waited around the church while formal portraits were taken.  Most of those were done in film and so we don’t have those yet, but we have a few…

See that handkerchief in my hand?  That was carried by my mom, my aunt, me, and my sister on our wedding days.  We each have our monogram on it with our wedding date.

This one is almost a good one of the groomsmen, but they cut off Gary on the right. The groomsmen are (from left to right): Joe (one of Chris’ college roommates), Scott (another college roommate – the three of them lived together for a long time), Justin (the best man and Chris’ best friend since elementary school), Brett (one of our closet friends since high school), and Gary (another close friend since high school).

After pictures, the wedding party took a trolley over to the wedding reception.  Our reception was at the Pensacola Cultural Center in the lobby and banquet room of the theater where Chris and I first started dating when we were 15 years old.  We were both in a school play and we started dating during one of the rehearsals for the show.  It just seemed like the perfect place to get married.

That’s my Mom and Dad being announced at the reception.  Don’t they look so good?!?!

That’s the Best Man and the Maid of Honor coming in together.

That’s me and my Mom celebrating that the wedding planning is OVER!

We ran out of the reception and into our getaway car through a sea of sparklers.  Those pictures are gorgeous, but they are on the film so we don’t have them yet.  But I do have this one last cheesy picture taken of us as we were about to drive off.  I would say that my smile is just ridiculously corny, but that is the same smile from all of my pictures when I was a little girl – just perfect, complete happiness.

When we get the film pictures digitized, I’ll do another post with all our formal portraits.  But at least you can see what our wedding day looked like.

It’s been five years since then and I think I still have that corny, ridiculously happy smile on my face.  Even on days when I’m upset or mad or homesick or frustrated – that smile is never far beneath the surface.  I guess that’s what you get when you marry your best friend.

I posted this on Twitter and Facebook, but I thought I’d put it on my blog, too.  My latest column is up at Southern Weddings Magazine.  Hop on over and check out my thoughts and ideas as I answer the question, “How do you keep the spark after you’re married?”  Be sure to leave some comment love so I know if I’ve got some friendly faces over there!  And while you’re there, flip around the site and take a look at some of their wedding profiles.  Holy moly do they have some beautiful weddings over there.  My favorite so far was a wedding in Georgia whose theme was birds nests.  It was gorgeous and I loved where they got married.  Breathtakingly beautiful to me.

Also, now is a great time to point out that I usually use Twitter and Facebook to share these kinds of announcements with readers, so if you aren’t already a member of the group, then click on over and join!  I have been known to also do giveaways strictly through Twitter or Facebook before, so membership comes with its perks…

Hope you all have a fabulous Hump Day today!  Pictures coming tomorrow of Bean’s birthday party and I’ll just go ahead and save you the suspense – he enjoyed his cake.  The End.