girl time

While Ryan had a good time cutting up with the guys, we girls had fun being sweet...
L to R - Ashley (friends since 2nd grade, went to GT & pledged same sorority), Beckie (friends since kindergarten), Lauren (friend & co-worker), Holly (my sister & best friend), Meg (sorority sister), Lindsay (college friend & roommate)

And a little sassy :) Think Beckie wins for most sass here:


A long, long time ago I posted about gifts. Well, now you can see what I got the bridesmaids! A former co-worker of mine, Jen, makes jewelry (yes please studio) and she agreed to custom make pearl necklaces. I wanted something classic, and I love pearls. So pearl necklaces seemed obvious. But I didn't want to have just pearl necklaces. So Jen came up with the perfect idea of a pearl flower on a silver piece. She also made earrings to go with them. They turned out so cute and I was sad that I didn't order a set for myself!


While on the subject of girly things, I really loved how our flowers turned out. Ladybugs did our wedding party flowers and they could not have done a better job. Very reasonable pricing for the quality and beauty that we received, plus great, friendly service. Being located right around the corner from my parents' home was also really nice & convenient :) If you couldn't tell by our old website and our save the date cards, my favorite flower is the stargazer lily.

I also love daisies, and these complemented the pink in my lilies so perfectly:

Cutting up with the guys

So sometime before the actual ceremony we had the opportunity to take some pictures with our wedding party. Below are some of my favorites:

Me and all of the groomsmen
From the left - Danny Karnik, Ryan Russell, Matt Duckworth, myself, Jon Straub, Matt Ward, Jonathan Ferro

My brother and me

The guys from Ferro's wedding (2 of which I've known for... nearly 20 years, and Danny since middle school (only because he just moved to GA))

College roommate Ryan - we love to goof around... a lot

Another college roommate, Matt (and I've known him for 20ish years too)

Uh, how does this go again?

Honorary groomsman (also usher) William Welch, who I've known since high school.

gifts to each other

You may have noticed that in some of the previous pictures, I had a necklace on and then some of them, I don't have a necklace on. That's because at some point, we went inside and exchanged our gifts to each other! Welcome respite from the heat. So you already know that Ryan got me a beautiful necklace. Funny story...I had been at Windsor a couple wks before and was looking for a gift for him. And at the same time, I had realized that my pearl necklace was the wrong shade of pearl for my dress. So I wanted a new pearl necklace and found just the perfect one. And I thought...I could just buy it or...I could hint to Ryan about it. Well you can guess what I did :) He went, I think that same weekend, with his mother and looked at the necklace. And lo and behold, it ended up around my neck on our wedding day! Isn't Ryan wonderful? :)


So what did I get Ryan? Silver cufflinks engraved with his initials. I took Ryan with me to Windsor so I could at least get a good idea of what he liked since this would be his first set of cufflinks. He picked out a couple different ones, but I ultimately made the decision so he would be at least a little surprised on our wedding day!



We had talked beforehand about gifts and we both wanted to do something timeless and classic. Something we would still have and use when we are old and gray. I think both gifts fit that criteria and also are a pretty good reflection of who we are as a couple.

bride & groom

So now that I've read what Ryan just wrote...totally tearing up! I don't think that we've ever actually talked about how it felt to see each other for the first time on our wedding day. Everything happened so quickly and it feels like we've just been full steam ahead, never looking back! Our sweet moment didn't last long enough...it was time to take pictures! Lots of pictures. These are just some of our favorites. Remember - summer = hot and I had the swine flu. I think with those 2 facts, Lauren Wright did a fabulous job making us look good! :)


This one is probably one of my absolute faves!

This one probably looks really familiar if you got our Christmas card :)

Surprise!

So it has been a while since I've written anything on here. So in my last post, I was talking about relaxing at our cabin/lodge before going to get ready. We had all sorts of room there, so the pre-getting ready was effortless.

We drove out to the church, and I parked my car front and center. The grooms room was a little tight, but at least it was very well air conditioned. We all took our time, got ready, and just hung out.

Then came time for me to step outside and wait for my bride. Picture this: Late August, Augusta is in the south, late afternoon, not to mention nerves for seeing her for the first time. Oh and yeah, 100% wool tux. Doesn't reading that just make you sweat? Well I sure was.

I was told to stand outside, facing a red side door to the church. I had an idea of what was happening, but I mean, who knows how long I'd have to wait and how it was going to go. The suspense was thrilling in a way. Corrie had spent months and months looking for this perfect dress, and getting everything ready for the big day. She has seen me in a tux before (at least in pictures) so my wardrobe wasn't really of concern. (I did look good though).

I didn't even hear her coming up behind me. Maybe it was my nerves, maybe it was just the sounds of downtown Augusta echoing in the courtyard that we were in. I felt a hand take mine from behind. I turned around and saw, for the very first time, my beautiful bride. In that moment, even with everything going on, I stopped sweating. My nerves relaxed, my body cooled itself, and that moment I just... stopped sweating. It was like all of my stress, worry, nerves... Just gone. Joy swept over me; Time slowed down. Cars in the background moved slowly. That moment of sheer joy was frozen in time. As the moment set in, everything sped back up. I can't remember what was said, just that we both had huge smiles on our face. Everything was taking shape.

reveal

Ok, so back to the wedding. Last time we left off, I was finishing getting dressed & ready. Then it was time to go out & see Ryan for the first time! We debated a lot, whether or not we should see each other before the ceremony. What it came down to for me was just how excited I knew I'd be to see him, and I'd want to see him as soon as possible that day. There was just something about being able to spend that moment, just the two of us. And besides that, it gave us more time for pictures :)

So I snuck around through the front of the church with my bridesmaids...I really didn't know what to expect. Was I surprising him or was he surprising me?

At this point, I was just holding my breath. I couldn't believe he couldn't hear me and I totally expected him to turn at any moment.

Hello! All I remember in this moment is my heart beating fast and a wash of relief, joy and peace. We had been through a lot together and it was all building up to this.



I will never forget this smile :)

summer update

Ah, whoops! Missed a whole summer of blogging. And guess what? In just 4 days, we'll be celebrating 1 year of marriage! Time has really flown. So, now I have a crazy goal. Finish blogging about our wedding before our anniversary! And I have a crazy goal for Ryan - finish writing thank you notes. I am so, so, so sorry if you haven't gotten a thank you note yet. We wanted them to be personal and heartfelt, so we divided them up according to who knew the gift giver best. I guess that wasn't really fair since you could say I'm a professional writer and Ryan isn't :)

I will write up a better, longer update with our goings-on from the summer. For now, just want to express thanks for all the friends & relatives who have reminded and encouraged me to keep blogging. I didn't realize that many people still wanted to read it!