Wedding Day Part 1

6AM came too early!

Lord have mercy - that was a quick sleepless night!

Because our church is just down the road, we decided it was a good idea 

to have all of the bridesmaids come to our house to get ready. When I signed off on this, I did not realize that meant that hair and make-up would begin at 8AM! We also decided to have the groomsmen come here after getting ready because Brittany and B wanted to do their first look

here and then we wanted to do as many wedding party photos as possible. 

I am very traditional and was not sure about the first look.  I thought it took away from the anticipation of the whole wedding day. Now that I have the photos to look at and have lived through

the whole experience,  I am a fan.  

There was a whole other layer of work added to wedding day prep because of 

having everyone come to our house.

Just think, I had a photographer and videographer in my house all day! 

(Lord have mercy! ) 

Now I had to worry about the house being (somewhat) cleaned AND picked up. 

(Those are two completely different things.)

Also, the hubs and I had to make sure the yard was ready for photos.

We had a lite breakfast ready when the girls showed up. I made quiches and cut up fruit the day before.  We catered lunch - sandwiches, potato salad, deviled eggs, small bags of chips and chocolate chip cookies. 

Brittany worked with the hair and make up girls and had the schedule perfected to work with the photographer's timeline.  We successfully squeezed a lot into this day! 

Napping while watching Father of the Bride

The hubs spent his day asking me what he needed to do next and when he wasn't being an extra pair of hands for me he was either

washing dishes or looking for something.

 He also worked really hard at hiding and staying out of the way, but Jill found him!

When Mr. B showed up, he opened his card and gifts from Brittany. 

She gave him a Brackish Bowtie, bumble bee cuff links and Sasquatch (Bigfoot) socks. 

Brackish Bowties is a southern company that makes bowties out of feathers.This one is made out of guinea feathers.  Since their names both begin with a B - the wedding was loosely themed around "Meant to Be" and bumble bees became the significant symbol throughout the wedding.

 I plan on doing a blog post on this later. 

This was like a moment in the movie Cinderella. Brittany couldn't get her shoes on - I think her feet were sweaty or something,  so Brooke and Barrett had to help her. They pushed and twisted, but couldn't get them on her feet either and then they all got tickled and couldn't stop laughing

As a surprise for Brittany, I had this added to the inside layer of her dress.

When my mom passed away, I saved some of her favorite jeans just for this reason. 

I had a patch made to be her "something blue".

"Something Blue From Grandma to You"

BON

10-29-2016

(britt's monogram and the date)

Daddy's first look!

Brittany and Mr. B's first look.....

After the first look, it was time for the wedding party photos. 

Brittany's bridesmaids wore black dresses

and they were so excited and thankful that they could pick out their dress from anywhere.

We only asked that the dresses be floor length, not form fitting and church appropriate.

I loved seeing everyone's personality come through. 

What about that bouquet?

And how about those colors?

Family photos were taken in the front of the house.

this is one of my favorites

magnolia leaves!

My favorite picture!

Another southern tradition Brittany and Mr. B really were excited to do was 

"burying the bourbon".  

According to southern folklore, if a bottle of bourbon is buried upside down exactly one month from the date of the wedding, you will have good wether on your wedding day.  

Right before leaving for the church,  the bourbon was dug up and shared with the bridal party. 

I guess we were having too much fun at home and forgot that we had a wedding to get to -

there was a bit of a scramble towards the end and we had to smush Brittany

 into the back of the car very quickly.

When we got to the church we had only a few minutes to gather ourselves

before it was time to walk down the isle.