Wedding Recaps - Toasts

Hello dolls!!! 

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a FABULOUS weekend!!!

Now... Where were we??

Oh yes... The bridal party made our grand entrance into the reception and took our seats at the head table. 

The head table, with a few stragglers.... :)

By this time our guests had started to eat dinner and quiet down....

which was the perfect time for toasts! 

Funny story: 

So... know how its traditional for the groom's best man and the maid of honor to give the toasts?

Not our best man. Dusty isn't a public speaker. 

He begged and pleaded with Mr. M to not ask him to give the toast... 

In fact, I don't doubt that he would've just disappeared if Mr. M had asked him. It's just not his thing. 

And that's ok. :) We had the PERFECT replacement. 

Mr. M's sister, Stephanie. 

The only girl with three younger brothers, she was more than up for the challenge. :)

She began with a tease toward Dusty about how he was Mr. M's perfect best friend.

He can drink beer. 

He can team rope. 

But he can't speak in public, so that's where she came in. :)

Well all laughed and Dusty blushed as Steph called him out on not giving the toast. haha. 

She told stories of Mr. M when he was little... 

How he was the youngest of the four and she had so hoped to have a sister... 

How if he was a girl, his name was to be Kassandra. 

Kassi for short. No kidding! It really was!! 

But then how everyone, especially his new wife (me!) was so glad he'd been born a boy. 

It was the perfect toast for Mr. M. :)

 Then it was Kayli's turn. My sister. My maid of honor. 

And do you know what she did... 

She said she would like to take this opportunity to make a toast. 

She pulled a toaster from under the table. And made. a. toast. 

LOVE the look on her face!!! She was quite pleased with herself! hahaha

It was hilarious. Had the whole room laughing. ;)

While her toast was toasting she did say a few words though... 

She said a few sweet things about having me as her sister... 

And how she was excited to have a new brother that teased her and loved her like the two she already has. 

At that point... I nearly cried. Didn't shed a tear all day.... and almost cried listening to my sweet little sister. 

:) Love that girl. Love you Kayli. 

Up next... the cake! :)

Wedding Recaps - Reception Entrance

Wow! I haven't shared a wedding recap in several days!!!

Over a week!!! 

Sorry about that... 

Let's just say I didn't have the CD with the pictures on it... 

And copying and pasting from Facebook takes WAY too much time... haha. 

SO... 

After our lovely wedding ceremony... And some random group shots...

It was time to enter our reception! 

We lined up at a side door into the clubhouse and waited for Miss Tessie to announce each couple...

Cole and Charli

Victor and Megan

Brent and Kayce

Kenny and Meghan Jo

Dusty and Kayli

Mr. and Mrs. M!!!

For some reason, there wasn't a picture of Brett and Tracey... 

Maybe because we all kinda popped in and pretty much ran to our table... 

it was all Karen (our photographer) could do to get these! haha. 

Once we sat down, it was time for dinner and toasts! 

Meanwhile... My aunt, uncle and cousins had started serving dinner. 

There was a HUGE line around the corner and out the front door to eat.... 

Plus all the tables we had set up inside were full. 

That's really when it hit me HOW many people actually came to celebrate our day with us. 

Later I was told they thought they'd served over 200 people at dinner...

That's AFTER some left without eating! 

We are so blessed to have so many good friends and family!!!

What about you? Did you have a large turnout at your big day? 

Or just a small, intimate wedding?

Wedding Recaps - Post Ceremony Group Shots

After our wedding ceremony, the wedding party walked back up the aisle following Mr. and MRS. M... ;) Got in our golf carts, and zoomed back up the road to the reception site. 

There we had a just a few minutes to greet guests, then it was on to more group shots!

A quick memory though, that I want to write here so as not to forget... 

As we drove back up in the golf carts, Mr. M drove to the little parking lot by the condos. There he just drove around and around in circles!!! 
My brother followed, then all of the wedding party was just cruising in a circle around the lot!! 
(Um... I'm purposefully leaving out the little crash that took place... No one was hurt... but it was way too funny... ;)

SO FUN!!! SO RANDOM!!! SO PERFECT!!! 

Here we are with Miss Taylor, our niece. 

Isn't she a sweetheart! 

You can see after the ceremony she ditched the dress shoes for boots too... haha! 

Girl after my own heart!

We also took pictures with each of our bridesmaids and groomsmen. 

Me with each of the girls. 

Mr. M with each of the guys. 

Did you have a FUN, RANDOM memory on your wedding day??
Or even during your wedding planning??
Next up... The reception begins!!! :) 

Wedding Recaps - The Ceremony

After our first look and a few random group shots, we noticed that guests were starting to arrive!

That meant it was ALMOST time! ;) 

The aisle. I made the poms following Martha Stewart's tutorial here.
Larger poms where also hung from the cieling of the reception room.

I mentioned before that the golf carts owned by the golf course played an important role in our wedding day.

Well... the entire wedding party drove up to the ceremony site, two by two in golf carts! Mine was a RED golf cart driven by my dad. 

Mr. M swears he was standing up there by himself forever. :) 

The bishop was there with him though!

Then the wedding party. 

They walked in to "You Make Me Smile" by Uncle Cracker and
"Mama's Song" by Carrie Underwood. 

Mr. Chancey making HIS grand entrance! hahaha. 
Didn't realize he was supposed to go with the others, but he still made it! ;) 
And there's a glimpse of the golf carts in the background. :)


Here comes the bride and the father of the bride. 


Love my dad.




Kayli sang, "I Run to You" by Lady Antebellum. SO beautifully by the way. :)




The bishop read a lovely speech. I hope sometime to get a copy of it. 

The girls

The guys

 
We exchanged rings, said I do!...




And we were married!!! Onto the party! ;)

A few things...

So! Today is my BIRTHDAY!! :) 

To celebrate we're doing a Birthday giveaway, winner take all over here. 

There's some really FUN stuff up for grabs and it's SO easy to enter!

I got a Birthday balloon and HUGE candy bar today from my office! So that was fun! ;)

*********

AND... In other news... 

Remember this post about the new website, SimplyBridal?

Well, they are at it again! 

From now until October 7th they are offering a 50% discount on all of their dresses!

Simply enter 50SALE at checkout to receive 50% off your entire purchase!!! 

Happy Birthday to you, right!?!? haha. 

Hope you're having a fabulous week dolls!!! 

Wedding Recaps - Random Group Shots

We had only a few minutes before the start of the ceremony after our first look photos. 

But we used that time to take a few fun group shots. :)

 

 

The golf carts where a fun party of our day! 

Tessie, our wedding day coordinator used them to run around making sure things were going as planned... 

And they played an integral part in our ceremony arrival... And departure... 

But more on that later. :)

 

 

 I love these sweet girls. 

Our two older nieces where there while Mindy was doing my hair... 

And the stinkers kept telling her to do a good job. :) Love them. 

Arina, my sister in law made the rope baskets that they carried rose petals in as our adorable flower girls. 

THANKS AGAIN ARINA! 

(I have one on my coffee table now and just love it!)

Rose petals... In a bright orange/red color were the only live petals we could get the day before. 

But they worked just fine. :)

 

Remember how I said it had rained and was SUPER muddy. 

Gotta love this shot of Mr. M with the girls in their tennis shoes and sandals. :) 

No... they didn't wear these during the ceremony... haha. 

Just anytime they could get away with NOT sinking in the mud in their heels. :)

 

 

And then with the guys. :) They INSISTED on doing a holding me up picture. Haha. 

But like I said when I posted these to FB... You can see who's doing all the work here. And yep, that's my brother, Brent. He was the one on the far right in this picture.

We had the funnest group of people with us for our wedding party!

If you can't tell... heehee.  I'm so glad we snuck in a few fun pics with them.

Did you make a point to take some fun pictures with your wedding party??

Or strictly posed? What would you prefer to do?

Until next time. :)

Wedding Recaps - Bride and Groom First Look

We decided to do a first look BEFORE the ceremony. 

Over the summer prior we had attended a few weddings, and even one since, where the guests were left for hours (yes plural) to just wait around while the wedding party was taking photos. 

I get it. Wedding party photos are important. But really, hours?

We did not want that.

And let me just say... At the wedding we went to since ours where that happened... 

Mr. M was THAT much more grateful we did ours the way we did... 

Ok, off my soapbox! haha. 

I distinctively remember holding up the skirt on my wedding dress, plowing through the tall grass, boots on mind you, and walking down the hill to an open field for the first real glance of my hubs to be on our wedding day. He and our photographer had gone down before me and I could see them in the distance as I made my way down. 

Literally and figuratively walking towards my future. 

And there he was. My Mr. M. 

Almost there. 

And then... 

Hello baby! :)

We're not a mushy couple. There were no tears shed. We smiled. We laughed. We hugged. 

Again, life was great!!!