Our Wedding Celebration

As the summer is coming to a close, I am reflecting on everything that has happened just in the past few months and realizing I haven't blogged about our Wedding DAY! It was for sure a whirlwind and I wanted to take the time to write about some of my favorite moments from that day.

Waking up and finally seeing June 28, 2014 on my phone was a crazy, exhilarating feeling. My friend Sarah jumped on my bed and screamed "YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED TODAY!" I yelled back " IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!!! Really it was though! The girls and I got our stuff together and Holland's dad and My Dad drove all of my bridesmaids up to the venue. Once we were there it was like BAM. Beautification time! Hair and makeup showed up, and everyone began just doing their thing. We sipped on mimosas and we had the freedom to just roam around the venue up until 3 o'clock ish once the guys showed up. I feel like the hours just flew by. Everything was really, really smooth. We had camera view from the bridal room so we could see people working in the ballroom and we could see the shuttle arrive that the guys came in. It was great to be a stalker that day. :)

 The time came to put on my dress and I was SO excited. I mean this was it. This meant the time to get married was SUPER close.  I stepped into my dress and I got a charlie horse cramp in my foot. BAHAHA. Seriously, I am glad that in the photo it looks like I am feeling like " YAY! Look I'm halfway into my dress!" But really I was feeling like " MY FOOT, MY FOOT IS IN PAIN!"  haha. It luckily went away quickly and was fine. 

My cousin PP got married in 2010, and I fell in love with the jewelry she wore for her wedding. Her jewelry was my something borrowed. 

 Raya, our flower girl is the cutest little thing. This photo just melts my heart. It was likes he was thinking "oh yeah, that's gonna be me one day in a pretty white dress"!

 My something old was a beautiful handkerchief made from Hollands Great Grandmother's white dress. Hollands aunt Diane has been making these hankerchiefs for all the family weddings for a while now. Holland Grandmothers name was Alice Bringham Lawrence and Bringham was her maiden name so she and I now share the same initials which I love.

Here is a photo of the beautiful handkerchief. The photo in the middle of it is actually my Grandma Jones who passed away when I was 16 years old.  I put this small photo on my bouquet. 

 My something blue were my shoes which I plan on wearing again because they were so fun and also extremely comfortable!

To save time Holland and I both took photos separately with our bridesmaids and groomsmen. Holland was informed when to not look out the window where he was hanging out to avoid seeing me.  I never worried of him trying to sneak a peak at all. He told me a couple months before the wedding that that was his biggest fear- seeing me in my gown before I was walking down the aisle.  He wanted that moment and so did I! 

My dad's first time seeing me in my gown was on the wedding day. I have no idea why but I just BURST into tears when he came in the room to see me for the first time.  It just brought back so many floods of memories from my childhood, being a crazy teenager and so on.  My dad doesn't say much, but he never has to- I know him more than he knows :)

My mom did not get to be surprised like my dad because she had been with me EVERY single step of the way with the wedding planning. THANK GOD I have an amazing mother who helped in every single which way to help make our wedding day beautiful. She went to every meeting and every fitting.  Although things got stressful at times during the engagement, I knew in the end it was all because she wanted the day to be perfect.

6 o' clock came SO quickly. Our coordinator came in to see if I was ready then quickly came back to tell me that Holland wasn't. She said he was in the restroom and he wouldn't come out and I thought that maybe he had to use the RR before the ceremony. I later found out that he couldn't get through his vows without crying, so he kept reciting them to his brother and he wouldn't come out until he had gotten through them without tearing up. So I apologize to those who were wondering why our ceremony got started a little late and you were outside in the heat!

Once my bridesmaids started to walk out to the piano version of "Love Somebody" I started to kind of freak out. My blood was really pumping and my heart was somewhere in the clouds. It was such an out of body experience to know that everything we had planned and dreamed of even down to each song choice was about to play out right in front of me.  My dad just kept laughing at me because I was breathing in and out like I had a brown paper bag on my mouth.  I started to get teary and I just talked to my dad and I told him that this was one of the biggest anticipations of my life, marrying Holland. He knew that already though. I thanked him for showing me what it is like to be treated right and to be respected and loved by a man. 

At one of my best friends weddings, right before she walked down the aisle, she told me " Oh my gosh, Amanda. I cannot describe this feeling I am having. She then said " I can't wait for you to have this feeling too". Well Allison Baggerly got married in 2010 and now four years later I finally got to discover the feeling she was talking about. My coordinator told me, "It's time, Amanda." and I said "Okay" without moving and then she said very calmly " Your music is already playing".  Holland and I both chose the song that I walked down the aisle to. In High School our song was "Crash Into Me", by Dave Matthews. I walked down to a cello version of it and I still get goosebumps listening to it.  Stepping out of the doors and walking out with the white concrete underneath me may be one of the best feelings I have ever experienced in my life.

It felt like a slow motion movie. My dad and I walked out and I saw Holland and then tried EXTREMELY hard not to do an ugly cry.

I looked out and remember how beautiful it looked just from the quick snapshot my eyes could take in and then I looked ahead and saw Holland finally looking up at me. I saw him say "Wow". I was so anxious to just get down to him and I feel like I may have gone too fast but whatever, I was READY TO MARRY THIS GUY!".  My dad and Holland shook hands and in case you were wondering my dad's words to Holland were "Good Luck" ahahahahaha.

I am sure most of our guests were sweating bullets, but I felt completely fine! Once I was with Holland and the ceremony began I felt calm and I didn't even focus that there were so many people watching us. Our Officiant, Lowell gave us the most beautiful and perfect ceremony we could have ever asked for. I absolutely loved the readings and I especially loved the blessing from both sets of our parents. This journey is going to be something both of our families will always experience together and I love that that was stated in front of everyone that we love and care for.

 We signed our marriage certificate and made it super official!

While our guests ate appetizers and started getting their drink on, we took photos :)

I love the decor that we had. Thank you to Rebecca and her team at A Grand occasion for being able to read our minds with our vision for how our wedding would look.  We used mostly the same flowers for both the ceremony and the reception but we used wax flowers and more greens for the ceremony and for the reception center pieces, Holland wanted for it to have a romantic feel so we went with a bunch of different roses and left the burlap to do its work for the ceremony.

Our favors for the guests was a Wit beer that Holland brewed himself! I love Wit beer and so Holland named this one Wit Wedding. Our dear friend Adam Blair designed our labels for us to go on the bottles. 

 We also had kegs of it so people could enjoy it at the wedding too!

Our first dance was great, but that 2 minutes and 45 seconds felt like 10 minutes! We practiced our dance probably 5 minutes before we were announced and we made it through!

 We played the show game. The DJ asked us questions like "Who said I love you first" and "Who is the better drive" and we had to hold up and respond with each others shoes.

 Man, I love bouquet tosses. For a while it was like an Olympic sporting event to me. I would take out a girl to get a bouquet so I am glad my friends did not disappoint and went all out to try and get it!

 Aggie war Hymn!!!!! WHOOP!!

 I was CRACKING up and Holland's little dance to the garter toss song. It was " I Wanna Sex You Up"

 I also find it hilarious that guys are never as excited about garter tosses as girls are about bouquets.

 All in all it was a fabulous night, even though we got an extra hour so we could celebrate until Midnight, the night zoomed by.

 My sister was hilarious. I think Kurtis should win an award for capturing this photo!

We had an amazing experience with all of our vendors who helped bring the dream to life. In case you are interested here they are!

Decor and Coordinating: Rebecca Pierro with A Grand Occasion.
Photography: Kurtis Kronk Photography.
Catering:  River City in New Braunfels
Makeup: Madame Makeup
Hair: My friend Jacque did my hair and Madame Makeup did our bridesmaids.
Cake and Pies: 2Tarts in New Braunfels
DJ: Holtz Entertainment