Our Sweet Wedding

Well,
It happened!
We got married!

It went a little something like this.
The morning of our rehearsal I had breakfast with my daddy.
I got my nails done.
I got a hug from Meredith.
We went to Probate Court for our marriage license.
We picked up CJ's dad from the airport.
CJ saw his dad for the first time in almost five years.
I saw his dad for the first time ever.
We took him to lunch.
We dropped him off at CJ's sister's house.
We checked in to the Hyatt in Birmingham.
We put on some fancy clothes.
We met with my cousin (officiant) to discuss the ceremony.
We rehearsed at the gallery.
We had the best rehearsal dinner and time ever at Dodiyo's in Homewood.
We talked and toasted with family and friends.
We gave gifts.
We bought boiled peanuts and champagne on our way home.
As the door to the room shut I excitedly said, "I'm done planning!"
We crashed.
The morning of our wedding my family from MS came over to help and spend some time with me.
Meredith and Adam brought us breakfast.
CJ went to hang with the guys at his brother in law's house.
My best friend, sister in law, and niece came to pick me up.
We got our hair done.
I got my makeup done.
We rushed to the hotel.
Madness ensued.
We checked out and left the hotel.
I rode with Meredith and said, "Meredith.  We're on the way to my wedding!"
We got to the gallery and I put on my dress.
The gallery was cleared.
CJ's back was turned.
I walked down the isle to him.
I've never seen such joy in his eyes.
I've never felt so proud.
We cried.
We cried a lot.
We took pictures.

The music started.
The guests arrived and were seated.
The bridal party stood in line.
The mothers were ushered to 'Trumpet Voluntary' (The Prince of Denmark's March) by Clarke.
The processional began to 'Autumn Allegro 2' by Vivaldi.
Then...
On December 10th at approximately 6:15pm I walked down the isle at the Matt Jones Art Gallery to a piano/violin version of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow'.  It was magical! 

We said a prayer.
We listened to my brother read a bible verse.

We said our vows.

We cried.
We exchanged rings.
We kissed.
We were introduced for the very first time as husband and wife!
The recessional started to 'La Rejouissance' (Music For The Royal Fireworks) by Handel.
CJ and I sat in a private room. 
We ate.
We cried.
We cried a lot.
My uncle prayed over the food.
The guests began to eat and drink.
We were formally introduced to 'This Will Be' by Natalie Cole.
The bridal party was introduced.  Each had their own song!

"Little Bitty Pretty One"

"Life Is A Highway"

"Rico Suave"

"Dancing Queen"

"Wild Thing"

Golden Girls theme song, "Thank You For Being A Friend"

"Hound Dog"

"Mississippi Girl"

"Sexyback"

"It's Raining Men"

We danced our first dance to 'Mama's Song' by Carrie Underwood.

I danced with my dad to 'Ballerina Girl' by Lionel Richie.

CJ danced with his mom to 'Forever Young' by Rod Stewart.
Everyone danced!

And danced.

 And danced.

We toasted with champagne.

We ate cake to 'Love And Marriage' by Frank Sinatra.

And danced.
Our last song was 'What A Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong.
Our departure song was 'Firework' by Katy Perry.
We left in a 1952 Buick Deluxe.

We crashed.
We woke up late.
We jumped on a brand new twin engine Barron.
We flew to New Orleans...and that will be the next post!

Oh.  These are my brand new sisters...

The wedding was absolutely perfect. 
It was better than I could have ever imagined.
I've dreamt about it since I was a little girl and it exceeded every expectation I've ever had. 
I felt beautiful, lucky, and so incredibly happy.
I loved my dress.  I think it made the wedding! 
We had a blast celebrating with everyone!
Now that it's over, we are thoroughly enjoying newlywed bliss. 
I have a husband!
I'm a wife!
And I'm more in love now than I've ever been before.

8 Days!

It was wonderful being off of work for four days last week!  We enjoyed our little vacation!  We spent Thanksgiving in Mississippi with my family and had a really great time eating all of the yummy food.  We had dinner with some old friends at Jefferson's and watched the Iron Bowl with more old friends:)  Supurb.

This week has been absolutely exhausting.  I have had something wedding related to do every night after work and in some cases before work.  I haven't slept in what feels like ages.  Suddenly there are a million and one things to do and there's not enough hours in the day to do them.  I have been going over and over all of my lists of what not to forget to bring to our hotel, the honeymoon, the ceremony, etc.  You name it, I have a list for it!  I've emailed our vendors, wrote checks, made last minute appointments.  I can not and will not write about my wedding dress fiasco on here...that started Wednesday night.  Oddly enough, I'm ok with the craziness.  I am not ok with the sleep loss!  Luckily I have a super great doctor that prescribed me something to keep my eye lids closed for the next week...well, at night anyway:)  I should mention that I never go to the doctor, ever.  All of that said, I am soaking in every second of being a bride and am very excited to celebrate with friends - but most importantly to become a wife to such a wonderful man.

Last night we had dinner with Meredith and Adam at Slice and it was incredible!  We really enjoy spending time with them.  I feel like I say this too much - but I have no idea what I would do without her.   We oredered the cheese platter with fruits and nuts, two different pizzas to share, then the smores calzone for the four of us to split.  Uh-May-Zing. 

Tonight we're putting together our new book shelf and watching movies.  I am really looking forward to my date with the couch!  I hope we spend the rest of the weekend completing some wedding chores and enjoying each other at home. 

Sidenote:  We watched Christmas Vacation this week!  It's officially Christmas time and my most favorite movie ever.  It took us three nights to complete:)  I could quote the movie all day:

Russ: "Dad, this tree wouldn't fit in our back yard."
Clark: "It's not going in our yard, Russ.  It's going in our living room."

I'll stop myself there.  After all, I've got emails to write, phone calls to make, checks to put in the mail, a guest book to order... 

Our Boyz

It seems to have been a while since I've posted much about the boyz.  Besides eating, chasing, hiding, and seeing who can get the most attention - here's what they've been up to...

Acting pitiful while being snuggled.

(excuse Dale's chub roll covering his left eye)

Shopping and watching videos on the internet.

 

Making funny faces.

Napping.

***



(or a cat)

18 More!

Our world is becoming increasingly busy!  18 more days until I'm a little wifey married to the most kind, funny, respectful, hardworking, loving, thoughtful, animal loving man I know.  I am beyond excited and my heart swells when I think about how special our day will be and what our journey together will hold.  There is no doubt in my mind that God knew what he was doing when he brought us together.  All roads lead to Rome. 

Now, onto the most important ladies in my life.  My mom, CJ's mom, Meredith, Staci, Katie and Jill all came to the most beautiful lingerie shower thrown for me last week at Meredith's house.  Meredith, Katie and Jill were the hosts.  Everyone was so generous, I got so many nice things...but my favorite was all of the advice and the memories we made.  We all sipped on delicious vino and nibbled on cheeses, crackers, fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, petit fours, and chicken salad.  Yum!  I felt like such a (tired) bride that night, it was wonderful!  I'm so lucky to have such incredible women in my life.  My mom is the world's best, I'm thankful for CJ's family loving me like their own, for his older sister who is now like my older sister, and I have the three best girl friends in the entire universe.  That's right, THREE!  



Staci, Jill, Momma, Me, Katie, Meredith.

It took me almost 28 years to realize how important the relationship between women is.  I've always been a little too independent to appreciate the value of a friendship or what it means to really have a best friend.  Throughout this wedding planning process I have been amazed by the amount of love that my girl friends have shown me.  I've even at times felt guilty for my behavior years prior.  I am very thankful that I realize now instead of any later how valuable each of these ladies are to me.  I know CJ also loves their company and the company of their sweet husbands/boyfriends.

Over the weekend we celebrated Meredith's birthday at a Japanese steak house, spent Saturday night at my mom's with homemade pizza and vino, and were just about worthless on Sunday....except for the cookies I baked.

 
(Side note:  We had planned to make sausage and turkey pepperoni pizzas at mom's.  Dale came with us to visit his grandmother and decided to break into the bag holding the pepperoni, busted the package they were in, and ate every last one of them.  Heifer.) 

Ahhh, Thanksgiving.  So many delightful things to be thankful for.  This has been a sweet, sentimental year.  We'll be spending turkey day in Mississippi this year.  I don't care how long we've lived here, it still feels like home as soon as we cross the state line.

Random Rambles.

Why do people enjoy camping?  We seem to have several friends who look forward to camping this time of year.  I've tried to understand what would be fun about sitting by a fire in the middle of the woods, sleeping in the elements with insects, and waking up without warm running water or electricity...on purpose.  Being without modern technology is something that happens on accident, like when the power goes out or you find yourself stranded in the middle of nowehere because something terrible happened.  To me, camping sounds like punishment...right up there with water boarding. 
What is going on with the fall television line up on Bravo?  I remember the nights when Bravo played constant Housewives reruns.  Now there's cooking and clothing design shows smeared all over their channel during the week.  I'm not sure how to entertain myself with mindless television until the 25 days of Christmas returns!   

I told CJ last night that I intend to catch all my favorite Christmas cartoons on tv this year...

Charlie Brown's Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

Frosty The Snowman

We had another great weekend.  I wish they would stop flying by!  We spent some time with Katie and her boyfriend watching football on Saturday.

On Sunday I woke up to a sweet note in my nightstand, followed by breakfast in bed.  I have a sweet future hubster.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching movies.  It was pretty amazing.  I'm loving this season!

I made French toast for the first time Saturday morning!

I had my first cup of hot chocolate yesterday.  Mmmmm.

Our weekend consisted of...

A final walk through with our caterer, event design company, and florist at the gallery.  Eeeek!

My ears getting pierced for the first time.

A sweet date night out.

A combined surprise birthday party and LSU/AL football party...with GiGi's cupcakes!

I made white chocolate covered pretzels.

Beer bread.

Spinach and artichoke dip.

Breakfast in bed prepared by my sweetie.

Homemade chex mix.

A wonderful Sunday dinner that consisted of lasagna and garlic bread.

Several Sunday movies.

Looking back, no wonder my skirt is snug this morning.  That was a lot of food! 

I suppose I'll run it off all week! 

Black Tie Accepted?

We sent out our wedding invitations this week! 
I've gotten a few questions as to what 'Black Tie Accepted" means. 
No, men do not have to wear a tux.
No, women do not have to wear an evening gown.
Relax! 
More or less, the request for black tie accepted on the invitation was made to encourage people to get dressed up and feel fancy.  We want our guests to feel just as special as we do on our day!

Here is an excerpt from an article that may clarify the definition for you better than I can:

For a black tie optional event, guests can always wear the same attire as for a black tie event. For guests who want to go a bit more casual, gentleman can wear a dark suit with a white shirt and conservative tie. (Note: Not every etiquette expert thinks the "optional" phraseology is necessary, but it does serve to emphasize that a tux is not required.) Women can feel free to wear dressy separates if they choose. *women can wear cocktail attire, the longer the dress the more formal.

Basically, you wear whatever you want just as long as you've got some comfortable dancing shoes to keep you on your feet all night!  We are so excited to celebrate with you! 

A few more notes -

Yes, the reception is following the ceremony at the same venue.  No driving!

Parking will be on the (well lit) street.

No, we aren't having a sit down dinner.  Hors d'oeuvres.

We are registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

We have reserved a block of rooms at a hotel near the gallery for any of you that may be interested.  The accomodations may come in handy for our out of town friends.  There is a discounted rate available if you make the reservation within the next two weeks and mention the 'Bynum-Ewers' wedding.

If you need directions or have any other questions, please feel free to ask away.

205.567.7928 - call or text

ewers81@yahoo.com - email