Part 2: The Reception and Honeymoon!

So...after a lovely ceremony it was time to party at B&A Warehouse! Loved the atmosphere, loved the food, and especially loved the company! It was exactly what Brad and I had imagined plus more! Like any great rock star, Brad got on the stage and sang a few songs. I tried really hard to soak in the time during the ceremony and reception. I remember at the ceremony thinking, "Pay attention to the details and the words being said. Remember this. Remember the people, the faces, the feelings." Then at the reception in the midst of seeing all of our guests, my sweet bridesmaid, Lia, made sure to remind me to soak in all the details. Some parts of the day were a blur, but for the most part I remember all the people I talked to and danced with. I remember being so happy that everywhere I looked I could see someone I loved. Whether it was my new husband, sweet family, PphiG, the peaches, old roommates, friends from college, or new friends from Raleigh, I felt so blessed to be surrounded by all these people. Looking back I would not have changed a single thing...except getting more of the cheese from the appetizer bar. Am I the only one who could eat that stuff with every meal? 16 weeks to the day after Brad proposed we were married and proved to ourselves and others that you can have a perfect wedding and reception and still have a short engagement!

Sunday, began the honeymoon in Hot Springs, NC. Since we were driving to our honeymoon, we were able to take our time leaving the next day. It would have been better, though we would have left earlier than we did had we known what awaited us. Parts of I-40 were closed due to a rock slide. Since we were taking 40 for awhile, this made for some interesting detours. We did not think anything about it until it became dark outside and the roads started to freeze. So, here we were. Newlyweds driving through the mountainous highways, without a care in the world. But as the roads became rougher, steeper, and very curvy (Brad liked the word 'serpentine'), my grip on the car became tighter. We had to drive up a private driveway in order to get to our cabin, which meant the car had to drive up a steep, curvy, black ice and snow covered road. I have never been so happy to reach a final destination in my life. Since we got there by a different route than we had planned, we did not stop by the Ingles grocery store to get essential for the week. Thankfully, I had suggested we stop at Target along the way where we picked up some non-perishable items (and to get my last fix of Target for a week).

Monday, we ventured out to Ingles where we were able to get the rest of the food for the week. Since where we were staying was no where close to restaurants, we had planned on cooking all but one day, which was when we traveled to Asheville. Now, when I say we weren't close to restaurants, what I really mean is that we had to drive 40 minutes to get to Ingles and an hour to get to the "local" Wal-Mart. This was great because we hadn't planned on attending any social gatherings, but it caught us off guard when we did return to civilization and realized we had missed some important happenings in the world (ie Haiti earthquake). Monday night it snowed a lot so we stayed in the cabin all day Tuesday. Wednesday we woke up early and traveled to Asheville to tour the Biltmore Estes. Brad and I loved touring the home and highly recommend going but make sure you also pay for the audio tour. Yes, you will look like a tourist, but the other people walking around without the headset will have no clue about the cool stories behind the really tacky curtains or velvet walls.

The people who owned the cabin we stayed in offered us a free massage and "hot soak" at the Hot Springs Spa and Resort. We decided to use our voucher Wednesday night on our way back from Asheville. Call me a snob, but the spa was nothing like what I had imagined. After checking in we were told to go outside to a trailer type thing and talk with a guy who would instruct us what to do regarding the hot soak. The guy who helped us told us to go change clothes in another trailer type thing and to come back outside. Now, this would have been fine if it were, oh I don't know, not 20 degrees outside. But it was and there we were standing in our robes and "bathing suits" waiting for the hot soak outside. The guy, who by the way looked like he just got back from deer hunting, took us to a hot tub where we were supposed to soak for an hour. This was nice for 5 minutes, but since we already had a hot tub in our cabin and the water was anything but hot, we decided to leave our hot soak before our time expired to get our massages. This meant that we had to get out of the water and walk back to the main building soaking wet when it was 20 degrees outside. It was very funny to us that we seemed like the only people who thought there was something odd about having to do this. Then we got our massages, which were fine, and filled up our nalgene bottles with water from 2 miles underground. So, the water was really hot. I thought that was pretty cool....hot springs.

I forgot to mention that while we were at Target on Sunday we bought movies and the most recent season of 24 to watch throughout the week. So, Thursday we finished watching 24 and enjoyed our last day at the cabin. We also decided to drive around another side of the mountain that we had not seen yet. During our driving we passed a building called GRITS. For those of you who aren't from the south, bless your heart, it stands for girls raised in the south. We weren't really sure what the building was but there was a sign for a restaurant so we decided to grab a dessert, or two. As we pull in the parking lot, we figure out that this place is a school/day care/grocery store/city hall/ restaurant. As we walk into GRITS, a man is running the whole place. Grocery store clerk, waiter, cook, and I'm sure he was the school principal, too. Obviously, nobody had ever told him what GRITS stood for. The walls were decorated with school uniforms and baby quilts. We were in the country and there was no turning back. So, we enjoyed some blackberry cobbler(warmed in the microwave, thanks) and a questionable strawberry milkshake and were on our way.

Friday we left Hot Springs and traveled to Winston Salem where we stayed at Brookstown Inn for the night. We walked around the city and indulged in Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme, and Ben & Jerry's for dinner followed by a diabetic coma. That week marked the end of our P90X diet. Supreme thin crust pizza had been our final destination and we made it!

It was a great honeymoon filled with wonderful memories!

Part 1: The Wedding

I apologize for waiting several weeks since my last post. I had every good intention to blog about our wedding and honeymoon shortly after the first post. I was waiting on our CD with the pictures form our photographer. The CD arrived in the mail yesterday, so now I can share the pictures with you! But first, let me share the stories with you!

The Wedding!

Brad and I are so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful friends and family members. I have the best Mom. I know most everyone says that, but I really do. She has sacrificed so much for my brother, Brandon, and I over the years, and my wedding was no different. Thanks to Mom, I was able to have a dream ceremony and reception. My sweet brother walked me down the aisle and his calming touch on my hand helped me to relax when the tears started to pour...but I am getting ahead of myself...

When Brad and I got engaged I knew exactly where I wanted to have the ceremony. Dawson Memorial Baptist Church was the only church I knew from the time I was born until I went to college. It is the church where I came to know the Lord and was baptized. Besides having wonderful memories at Dawson, I have always loved the beauty of the sanctuary, especially in the past few years when they replaced the lovely blue carpet with hardwood floors. I am so glad Brad and I got married there and even more happy that all of her family and friends where there to help us celebrate.

If you didn't read our wedding website then shame on you...but if you did you learned that Brad and I had an amazing wedding party. Brad and I were so glad to have our rather large group of friends and siblings standing beside us on that day. Thank you Katie, Audra, Dana, Elise, Jenna, Kristin, Lia, Meg, Rachel, Sarah, and Stephanie for being my bridesmaids. The day would have been incomplete without your sweet faces laughing with me. I still laugh when I think about a certain bridesmaid's husband walking in our room about an hour before the wedding with a large paper bag full of carbonated beverages. It would not have been a big deal if we did not have Pam as the wedding coordinator. Pam said no carbonated beverages should be consumed the day of the wedding, but that did not stop some anonymous bridesmaids from getting their much needed fix prior to the wedding. It was so funny to me and there was no way I was going to object, because I needed caffeine too! I love you, girls!

Brad's groomsmen were great, too! Brad had mixed emotions about our car not being decorated/written on when we left the reception. I was pretty happy we didn't have to find little gifts in the car or drive awkwardly through Birmingham with words and phrases displayed for the fellow drivers to see. Glen, Ben, Brandon, Bryce, Jeremy, Jeff, Ken, Luke, Mat, Nathan, Sterling, thanks for making my man look good on the day of the wedding.

Brad and I decided not to see each other before the ceremony once we were ready. Brad came to my house early the day of the wedding to pack the rest of my things into his car and to calm a few nerves before the ceremony. It made us both feel better to see each other then although not for long, but I was still a little nervous by the time 2pm arrived. I can be a pretty emotional girl at times so I was proud of myself for holding myself together prior to ceremony. In fact, I thought I was going to make it down the aisle without crying until it happened. As I walked towards my groom on my brother's arm I decided to look at our guests instead of making eye contact with Brad. I knew the second I saw how handsome and sweet Brad looked while watching me I would get emotional. Just as I made eye contact with Brad, my journey towards him took an abrupt stop as the end of my lace train got snagged on the wood siding of a pew. It literally took my breathe away and kind of scared me as I tried to continue to move but was obviously not going anywhere. Thankfully, my mom came to my rescue and unhooked me so I could continue towards Brad. By then the lump in my throat had surfaced the the tears were flowing. Brad looked at me helplessly and Brandon comforted me through his sweet patting of my hand. Once I started breathing again I was okay. I tend to get red spots on my chest and neck when I get upset, excited, and/or nervous. Brad told me later that the red on my skin went to a whole new level because the red had spread around my shoulder to my back. Lucky for him, I can't hide my emotions.

To be continued....Part 2: The Reception and Honeymoon!

Happy Valentine's Day!