2 years ago: Reception

I promise this is the last post in the "2 years ago" series.

Ok, maybe I'm biased, but our reception was the most fun I have EVER had at a reception!

After the ceremony, us and the wedding party stopped at a local, little bar on the way to the reception site.

Married!!!

Then it was off to the reception site, which was a local ski lodge. I loved this Mr. and Mrs. idea that I got and found the pieces at a local Michaels store. We still actually have them up above our kitchen cabinets by a wedding photo :)

Our welcome table held the alter-memorial vase, the wedding cake, the guest book/frame, and these old wedding photos from our parents and grandparents. These were one of my FAVORITE decorations. Matt's sister also had an amazing surprise for us: she (and our moms) gathered TONS of photos and made a slideshow for us! What we didn't know was that right before the wedding party arrived, the moms and the reception site staff were furiously running around trying to get the equipment to work and actually project the slideshow up on the big screen tv. It didn't end up working that way but the laptop was able to run all night for people to watch it. It was an incredibly sweet gift, one that I still cherish!

Best "appetizer" ever! And "old fashioned" popcorn machine that was going all night. It was great for snacking before dinner and late night (aka sobering up).

The tables all had frames with photos (our engagement photos and our puppies' photos) and these "love" quotes from all different movies.

Our 1st dance was to Lady Antebellum's "When You Got a Good Thing"

We decided to combine the Father-Daughter and Mother-Son dance into one "Parent-Child" dance to Rascal Flatt's "My Wish", such a GREAT message in the lyrics!

Abby loved dancing with all the guys (I think it's because they all would pick her up and twirl her around)

I should've known the night was going to get a little crazy when our DJ jumped up on the speakers wearing a wig! He was hilarious and kept the energy level up all night!

Matt broke out some moves I had NO IDEA he had!

Even the wait-staff got in on the fun (notice the empty champagne bottles? yep, that was only a few of them!)

No wedding is complete without a conga line!

Cousins! (we were all born within a few months of each other)

Me and my daddy

2 years ago: Ceremony

Our 1st look

I LOVE how genuine his smile is in this picture

One of our favorites!

Me and all my girlies

Matt's parents, sister, brother, his girlfriend, and our new niece

My parents and sister (her now ex-bf was in the pic too, but he got photoshop'd out)

Us and our cutey flower girl

The alter-memorial flowers and our unity sand vase

My beautiful mom!

LOVED the ceremony location

Yep, I got completely choked up! I couldn't say a single word, but then Matt leaned in and whispered "it's ok"

Another of our favorite pictures

2 years ago: Getting Ready

What with the recent holiday combined with the usual busy-ness of the summer, I've gotten a little behind in up-to-date postings. So I'm going to do my best to get things up to date around here. Starting with where I left off with our wedding posts (I know, I know it was 2 years ago and now a few weeks late, but whatever, it's my blog lol)

The morning started off with all the girls at my house. They all slept over, minus the moms and our flower girl (who is one of the cutest little girls I know!)

Although there was tons of food...I didn't realize until later that day (after I had downed a couple cocktails) that I hadn't eaten anything!

My bestie was not only the best Personal Attendant I couldn't asked for, she is also my favorite hair-magician :)

 These ladies were awesome and came out to my house to help all the girls get ready! Sooo convenient and helped to greatly minimize my stress!

I LOVED my make-up!

My beautiful mom

Lots of last minute beautify-ing going on

My beautiful sister!

Who was also my maid-of-honor

Abby, our flower girl. Isn't she adorable?!?

LOVE LOVE LOVE her dress. Her dad helped her pick it out (without me) and I couldn't have been happier! Side note: when Matt and I were choosing colors for our wedding, he had one request: no pink. Well technically he said no pink for the bridesmaids and groomsmen...but I never heard anything about the flower girl ;)

She had brought 2 options for her hair: a plain headband and a headband with a big, sparkly flower. After seeing that I had put a flower in my hair, she wanted to wear the flowered headband :)

Of course I HAD to go over the checklist one more time before we left. I was so paranoid about forgetting something.

And what were the guys doing this whole time??? They were at Matt's parents' house, down the road from the ceremony site, hanging out. It's so unfair that guys have less to do when getting ready!

Matt's dad loves card tricks, so he was their entertainment :)

Our niece, Lillie, was about 8 weeks old then. I forget how small she was!

Someone thought it would be funny to write out the itinterary that I had given them

Because I really wanted to capture each "getting ready" location one photographer went to each house and then met up again when we went to the ceremony location. What I didn't know, until we arrived at the ceremony location, was that the photographer (who was at the house with the guys) was now 8 months pregnant! She hadn't come to our engagement photos 3 months prior and no one mentioned she was pregnant! So there was one of our photographers, 8 months pregnant, on one of the hottest days of the summer walking around, squatting down, kneeling, and basically doing anything to get great photos!