The Wedding, Part 1

**Warning**
Super in-detail post…I just don’t want to forget the details years from now :)
Part 1

I just can’t express how wonderful the wedding went. If anything went wrong, I certainly didn’t know it and everything just went perfectly.

Brad and I drove up on Thursday morning and went directly to the courthouse to get our marriage license. That took all of about 20 minutes (hooray!) and then we went to Wendy’s for our last meal alone as an engaged couple. We went our separate ways that evening and had dinner with our respective families since the next few days were going to be a whirlwind of people.

Friday morning I woke up super early to drive my dad to Brad’s hotel so they could all go play golf. One of my bridesmaids, Cinnamon, and her boyfriend John, had driven up from the bottom of Florida through the night and were asleep in the living room. My brother and his girlfriend (Amanda) met my dad and I at the hotel and she followed me back to the cottage I had rented for two of my bridesmaids. Once my mom and I got ready, the three of us went into downtown Hendersonville to find breakfast and coffee. After we finished (I had the best white chocolate mocha on earth, by the way), my mom went to do some last minute things before the luncheon and Amanda and I ran a few errands for the wedding.

Around 11:30 Amanda and I met my mom back at Savannah’s on Main in downtown Hendersonville to start setting up for the Bridesmaid’s Luncheon. Then everyone started showing up! We had a total of 10 people
- Myself (duh!)
- My mom
- Brad’s mother
- Brad’s grandmother
- Kristi, my maid of honor and best friend since birth – literally, since we met in the church nursery
- Cinnamon, a bridesmaid who I knew in college but we really became close after she graduated
- Amber, a bridesmaid who I didn’t even know in college but lived with Cinnamon and we became close, especially after Cinnamon moved back to Florida
- Tara, a bridesmaid and Brad’s cousin
- Amanda, a guestbook attendant and my brother’s girlfriend (and I was the matchmaker behind this, in case anyone cares haha)
- Tabetha, a guestbook attendant and Brad’s brother’s girlfriend (did you catch all that?)
Savannah’s is a little tea shop that is incredibly cute and had amazing tea and quiche. After we ate, I gave out the gifts. I wrote everyone an individual card (but I actually made the bridesmaid cards).

The mothers all got handkerchiefs – my mother’s said To dry your tears as you have always dried mine. His mother’s said Thank you for raising your son to be the man of my dreams. His grandmother’s just said Grandmother of the Groom.

The guestbook attendants got pottery mugs with hot chocolate in them – courtesy of Leslie Martin Lovin of LovinDesigns.

The bridesmaids got lotion & body wash from Victoria’s Secret, a handbag courtesy of Lynsie Newman McDaniel, and a $50 gift card to a spa in their area (it had to be individualized since Cinnamon is in Florida, Kristi is in Virginia, Amber is in Charlotte, and Tara is in Maryland!). Before you think I’m the greatest bride on earth, I’m going to tell you about the greatest google combination on earth – “half off gift certificates, *town*”. Yep, I just googled half off gift certificates in each of their cities to get their gift certificates for $25 each. Much more affordable. And I did my research to make sure these spa’s weren’t crazy expensive – I didn’t want them to go in for a manicure and wind up with an $80 manicure or something.

After the luncheon, everyone went their separate ways and I went for my manicure/pedicure. There was another bridal party in there already and it backed up my appointment so we ended up only getting my toes done on Friday night – I had to be back at Pinebrook to move in and get ready for the rehearsal at 5.

The rehearsal was pretty quick and easy then we headed over to the hotel that Brad’s family was staying at for the rehearsal dinner. Cocktail hour was outside in a courtyard area and then we moved inside for the rehearsal dinner – lots of mushrooms, Brad accused me of plotting the menu with his mom but I can plead complete innocence here. I gave his two little cousins their flower girl gifts – Build a Bears dressed as brides with their names embroidered on the dresses. Since they’re sisters, I thought it would be best to make sure they could tell the difference between the two :) But it was super cute, the bears came with a veil, a garter, shoes, a dress and a corsage. The girls went around to everyone showing them off!

After the rehearsal dinner, I said good night to my future husband and drove my parents, our officiant, and her husband back to the bed & breakfast. We still had to decorate!

The bed & breakfast had 4 bedrooms upstairs – my parents stayed in one, Kristi and I stayed in another, Nancy & Larry stayed in one (Nancy was our officiant) and the other one was empty on Friday night – my aunt & uncle had to cancel at the last minute. All of us plus Amber and Mike (Kristi’s boyfriend) started unloading stuff out of the cars and bringing it into the living room. We got centerpieces done, favors out, pictures out, collages out, everything you could think of. Finally most of the work was done so I brought down my laptop and my dad and I practiced dancing. Those are some of the best pictures I’ve seen, thanks to Kristi. We were just seriously jamming to Four Tops. It was great!

Before bed I went in my parents’ room and gave my dad “his” gift and then a gift & card for both of them. I gave my dad a double picture frame that was engraved – at the top it said “Always Daddy’s Girl”. I put a few small pictures of me when I was younger in one of the openings (the caption said “Then”) and one of my bridal portraits in the other (the caption said “Now”). Then for the both of them I gave them a gift certificate to a travel agency so they could take a cruise sometime this winter. Or whatever other type of vacation they would like to take – I knew they had been stressed, especially with all the craziness from the house plus the wedding – and wanted to do that for them.

Kristi and I finally got to bed, stayed up talking probably WAY too late and then finally drifted off to sleep.