We interrupt these recaps with an important announcement...

Aah!!!

I have an introduction to make...

This is my brother and HIS FIANCEE!!!

He asked her to marry him last night by scavenger hunt!! What an awesome brother I have! So now, my parents have a married child and TWO engage children (remember this post?)!! Poor parents!!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program. :-D

When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

Just food for thought. :-D

After we all got dolled up, it was time to get our pictures taken...separately of course! We hadn't seen each other yet!! We were hoping to get out pictures taken at the lake in town, but because it had been raining for a week, the ground was really wet so we didn't want to chance getting muddy. Bummer.


Smiley girls


Sexy girls


Aren't we all pretty? I love how all of the dresses match, but are so different! Only two of them were purchased from the same designer as my dress; one is homemade, and the other two were purchased from different companies.

When I first tried on my dress, before I had ordered it, we took a picture with my cousin who would be my flower girl. It was such a cute picture, we wanted to duplicate it.



For being three, she did very well before the wedding even though she missed her nap.


All of the handsome guys, including my dad!


The weather was nice enough to have some of the guys pictures taken in my grandparents' backyard (no fair).


This is my favorite picture of Nick. He was(is) so handsome!!

Next up, our first look! I can't wait to show you!!

Note: All pictures were taken by our photographer, Jessica Lemmons, and her assistant. Check out her amazing work here!

Getting ready-macho style

While us girls were getting ready at my parents'/the church, the guys were hanging out at my grandparents' house. They were all dressed by the time the photographer got there, so I'll show the pictures that I have.


My handsome brother


My handsome (at the time future) husband putting on his boutonniere


Dad in the tux we had to pull teeth to get him to rent


"Can I put the tux back in the bag yet?"


"I'm hott"


Nick's brother

Unfortunately I don't have any single pictures of the best man or ring bearer, but you will see them later.

Note: All pictures were taken by our photographer, Jessica Lemmons. Check out her amazing work here!

Getting ready - girly style

*Ring ring ring*, okay, that's not what my alarm sounds like. I have a random song on my cell phone for my alarm that I don't hate yet (note: do not make a song that you like be your alarm because you WILL grow to hate it).

After eating breakfast (don't remember what it was, I think two bites of cereal or something), my hair & make up artist showed up along with my photographer.

I spent the time I had while getting my hair and make up done trying to memorize my vows. Didn't really work, but it was a good thought at the time (good thing we had hard copies of them during the ceremony).



Look at all those curls!


Texting my soon-to-be-husband!!


Checking out my new do in the mirror


Getting made up


Putting on my mascara (thanks to my sensitive eyes, only I can do it)


Junior bridesmaid getting her hair done

After getting hair and make up done, and eating lunch (Subway sandwich platters) we headed over to the church where the wedding was being held to get dressed. The youth room where we were getting ready also serves as a dance studio and has a wall of mirrors that the flower girl (and me too!) enjoyed spinning in front of.

My mom helped me get dressed and it's a good thing because there was no way I could dive into that dress by myself! I was so happy that I was finally getting to put it on for longer than 15 minutes!!

No brides were harmed in the making of this wedding. Haha!




Sucking in to get it zipped up that last inch! Thank you Lord for Spanx and corsets!


Two beautiful bridesmaids!

We had out girly formals while the guys were getting ready, but you will have to wait for those!

Guys are up next! Stay tuned!!

Note: All pictures were taken by our photographer, Jessica Lemmons. Check out her amazing work here!

Preparing for a wedding (reception)

Setting up our wedding locations took the whole day before the wedding, minus when we were rehearsing. Good thing I was so prepared with diagrams and drawings of what I wanted. Let me tell you, it was chaos even with the diagrams, can't imagine how it would have been without.

If you get a chance, MAKE A DIAGRAM OF YOUR CEREMONY & RECEPTION LAYOUTS. Makes things SO much easier. Here are my diagrams, I made them in Excel, although it was a pain in the butt so if you have a better idea, than use it!

Ceremony location


Reception location


Guest tables


Family tables


Head table


Anyway, those definitely helped in setting everything up. The following are pictures of us doing the setting up (again, taken by my uncle). I don't have any ceremony set up pictures, but you can see what it all looks like in the actual wedding pictures.




My two favorite men, look how strong they are!


Untangling white light strings


Haha, still untangling


Best Man helping decorate tables


My awesome aunt (and many other people) helped iron 12 tablecloths and 28 table runners. Wow




Brothers awesome girlfriend was a BIG help too!! We had her running all over town for two days!


Brother sneaking a kiss from awesome girlfriend


My uncle, Dad, and brother strung lights all around the room and after all of that, we finally decided to test them. Oops, one string didn't work, so this picture and the next are of my brother and dad taking down that string and putting up one that does work.


Hilarious


In the kitchen pre-prepping food (I have a funny story to tell you in a later post)

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of a finished table, but you will see them in the reception pictures, so hold on tight!!

Up next...getting ready on our wedding day!!

READ THIS BLOG!! Seriously!

My sister wrote this on her new wedding blog (check out the whole blog, it'll be awesome). She is very wise beyond her years to be able to see this at the age she is (19).

If only all newlyweds/engaged couples/dating couples could figure this out.

Time to rehearse

My photographer uncle was gracious enough to take pictures of our rehearsal and set up, which I am very glad of or these next couple posts would be very sparse and wordy.

I'm not going to go through the timeline of the rehearsal because you all know how it goes (or will) and I will be doing the timeline of the wedding. Seems kind of redundant to do both right? Exactly my thinking. Most of the rehearsal pictures are just going to be fun, goofy pictures.

I am starting, however, with our processional because we don't have pictures of everyone during the processional of the actual wedding.

So here we have all of the guys up front waiting for the girls


We had my sister/MOH walk up first, I know, not the norm, but you will see how it all makes sense later.


Then bridesmaids with invisible bouquets




Ring bearer and one junior bridesmaid (did it this way because they are siblings)


Other junior bridesmaid and flower girl (they are cousins)


Then Dad and I with my lovely ribbon bouquet







Okay, see how the girls are standing? Made much more sense to have MOH walk up first then walk up last and have to shuffle the other girls around to get to her spot. Where she stood also made it difficult for her to adjust my train during the actual ceremony, but she had other MOH duties to do instead.




Jokingly greeting everyone as "Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Thompson", haha.

And leaving...



Love the parade wave


What a nut!


Mom snapping at Dad to hurry up

Okay, so the rehearsal is over and we're waiting for food. We just had pizza brought to the church so we could eat and then head over to the reception hall to set up (next post). So the next pictures are just everyone hanging out.







Love the facial expressions...




Threw this one in because, again, my sister's lovely expression.