casting my cares: Mr. & Mrs. !!!!!! - Part 2

Okay, so I lied. Twice.

The first lie was when I said that these Wedding Re-Caps would be short - ha! What was I thinking? How can I pick only a few pictures to post. I waited 31 years for my wedding and by-golly, I'm sharing ALL the details!! Sorry, but these will be long posts!!

The second lie was when I said there would only be 5 wedding posts. I broke up the Pre-Ceremony stuff into two posts (Getting Ready and Pre-Ceremony Photos). But I can't promise there will only be 6 posts total now......we'll just have to see how the rest goes.

If you missed the post about the Rehearsal-Dinner - click here.

So, with all that said, we move on to the morning of May 28, 2011 -
Our Wedding Day!

7:00 AM: As is usual for me, I overslept! Those that know me well expect nothing less, but this was definitely not the day for this! I was supposed to have showered and dried my hair by the time my friend, Jamie, arrived to do my hair. But instead I was barely out of the shower when she arrived - Yikes!

That's me at the hotel, in my pink sheep pajama pants, hair dry, finally ready to get ready for the Big Day.

Oversleeping meant that the very detailed and scheduled-to-the-minute itinerary that Brandon and I came up with would be off a little. Good thing we built in some ~~running late~~ flex time though.

Here's the long-version of my Wedding Hair Drama: There was a hair dresser in Shelbyville (where the wedding took place) that I had made appointments with for me, the Matrons of Honor and the Flower Girls. Well, I went for my run-through about 2 weeks before the wedding. I showed her some pictures of what I wanted, talked about the style of wedding I was having (outdoor, casual, relaxed), talked about the placement of my hair (low, near my neck), I used the words 'simple', 'natural', 'swept-up', 'loose.' I told her that I'd like the hair side parted and covering part of my forehead with some whispy pieces left down......unfortunately she basically did the complete opposite of everything I asked of her.

My hair was in tight curls, up high on my head, and all my hair was pulled straight back off my forehead. It was very formal, didn't fit the style of the wedding, and just not 'me'. And unfortunately, since I'm not a very confrontational person, I left without telling her to her face that it wasn't what I asked for. I called her later and left a voicemail stating that I wanted to try the run-through again. After not hearing back, I called 2 days later and left another voicemail. She never called me back. When I finally called the hair studio after the weekend, I explained to them the situation and they had her call me. (Keep in mind this was a little over a week before the wedding). She was fairly snippy with me, explaining that she hadn't called me back because she was off work (even though she had given me her cell number). Then to top it off, she was hesitant to schedule another run-through. But I was a Bride on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a week before my wedding, thinking I would hate my hair come my wedding day and wasn't too thrilled at her lack of communication.

Obviously if she didn't care enough to call me back and get this to a point I could be happy, she probably wouldn't care if she got my hair right that day either. Now, mind you, I'm not normally this demanding or hard to please or whatever, but seriously, this was my wedding day for crying out loud!!!

So, with little time left, and the fact that our wedding was over a Holiday weekend, I scrambled to figure out something different. Somehow (God?) I remembered that my friend, Jamie, had done some updo's for one of her friends and called her up. She was happy to help me out and so gracious as to do a couple run-throughs to get things right beforehand. I was so relaxed about it all on the day of and having her be a part of it made it all the more special. I had already asked her to be there all day to be my right-hand-gal for when/if random things came up or I needed something, so this added a whole new level of responsibility to her for the day. She handled it like a Pro though. We also had a friend of the family, Ginger, that did the Matrons of Honor and the Flower Girls hair and both Jamie & Ginger came to the hotel to do so - seriously - awesome!! That was a really long story, I know, but was such a major fiasco at that point in time, so I had to share my one of very few Bride-zilla stories. ;)

Needless to say, Jamie got right to work on my hair.

Ginger was working on Shannon's hair (back left), while Alisha (right) waited her turn. We had a fun morning....with only a tiny bit of stress about the schedule.

Ginger was so sweet to come at the last minute and help with hair!

My nephew even hung out with us girls for a while. My sister-in-law was busy getting my two nieces and my other nephew ready for the wedding so she plopped him in my lap and I got in some good time with him. He was so content, just watching and listening. Isn't he a darling?

Ginger did my nieces hair too (the Flower Girls)

Here's Goose:

And Boo:

Meanwhile, while the girls were primping, the guys were working! We were having our reception in an old barn, so the picnic tables inside the barn had to be moved out and the rented tables and chairs had to be moved in.

We had a Dessert-Only reception and all the desserts were served out of a tent that was right up next to the door of the barn. It took lots of set-up too:

Friends helped to decorate the 'altar' area for the ceremony. And I heard that Brandon's dad meticulously arranged each chair for the ceremony so that they would look just right and be at the perfect angle.

We have so many wonderful Friends and Family that helped us out that day. From directing parking, to picking up desserts, to setting up tables & chairs, to decorating, to serving desserts & beverages, to tearing down & cleaning up (and everything in between) - there is no way we could have done it without their help!!

10:00 AM: Once the preparations were underway at the wedding site, the guys headed back to the hotel to clean up and get ready too.

I LOVE this picture that our photographer got of Brandon buttoning up his shirt.

Brandon picked some really cool shoes to wear for the wedding. I would be wearing bright yellow shoes, so he went for the black and white Spectators. I loved them!!

Brandon and Barrett

Brandon helping Brian

Isn't he so darn cute? I just love the pictures our photographer got!

10:30AM: Next up for me was make-up

And again, Jamie stepped in and did an awesome make-up job!

Brandon had a card delivered to me and I had one delivered to him too - here we are, reading them....the one he gave me was short & sweet.....the one I gave him was practically a novel!

11:00AM: After the hair and make-up was done, all the girls headed over to the wedding site. We had a staging tent where I could put my dress on (and gave me a good place to hide from Brandon!). It was pretty toasty in there though.....

Alisha (Matron of Honor) is also a very talented cake artist! She has won several awards and even appeared on The Emeril Live Show with her baking. And she just happens to be one of my best friends! We met on our very first day of college (at band camp!) and have been best friends ever since....sharing an apartment, many, many memories and even more laughs. She graciously did not only one wedding cake for us.....but three!!! (One large, two small) So, she drove in from Owensboro to be a part of the wedding, and she brought all these cakes with her and set them up before the wedding. And did I mention that she's got a one year old to keep up with too? She's a beast, I tell you - and so awesome at what she does!! And to top it off, she did it all these cakes for us as our wedding present!!! I tried several times to get her to let me at least pay for the materials, but she all but middle-named me when I tried. Such a sweet, generous friend.

My mom was running all over the place the morning of the wedding putting finishing touches on everything and making everything look perfect. I love her very much. She's one of the kindest, most giving and empathetic people you'll ever meet and she was so willing to help me pull off my 'vision' for the wedding. I was definitely a Bride-zilla to her on more than one occasion (even though she said I didn't quality for that title - she called me Bride-monkey!), but she stayed by my side, helping me calm down about things (planning a wedding in 3.5 months, selling a house and moving to a new city = insanity at times), and just loving me for who I am. Through the whole wedding process, I realized more and more just how special she is and how glad I am that she's my mom!

Time to put on my dress - Eeek!!!! It was kinda hard to dive into the dress and keep from messing up my hair, but with the team-effort, we pulled it off.