wedding recap: friday rehearsing

after the trip to the courthouse, we headed up the mountain to the lodge where the wedding and reception would be held the following day. some key wedding party memebers were still in transit, so i went over the details with cheryl, friend and coordinator extrordinaire. i gave charlie her flower girl basket;she collected leaves and nuts, so she could practice dropping things on the ground. eventually, everyone arrived & we were able to do a couple run-throughs...i won't say that everyone really knew what they were supposed to do, but at least they had a general idea & cheryl took good notes.

while we were doing the rehearsal outside, a group of people were setting up for an even being held at the lodge that night. the lodge was full of autumn decorations including mums which was a key item we had yet to purchase. my sister spoke with the woman in charge & asked if we could have the mums and a few other things for a donation to her charity (can you tell she negotiater for a living?). deal!

by the end of the rehearsal, i was reaching my wit's end. i knew the questions and answers were important, but everyone was asking me some kind of question..."what time do you want to cut the cake?"..."what time do you want to leave the reception?"..."what time should i get here tomorrow?"..."when do you want to do the first dance?"..."is it okay if i wear this?"..."what should i wear?"..."you asked for a wooden sign, do you still want that?" i couldn't take any more. i was tired of being the only one who had answers, so after that moment, i was done with questions. i told people if they weren't sure of something to either ask someone else or make it up. i honestly wasn't a bridezilla kind of bride, so i was fine with whatever they came up with. that moment was my only "freak out," and i was totally fine once my no-more-questions decision was made.

from the lodge, my maids of honor, flower girl, and mother of the flower girl, and i made our way down the mountain to the small nail salon i go to to have our nails done. yes, even charlie. she picked a fabulous shade of yellow for her fingernails & gabbed away with while the rest of us took our turns.

next on the schedule was the rehearsal dinner which was held at a local mexican restuarant, casa blanca. we convinced them to let us reserve the patio for the 50 or so people we were expecting. it was so much fun! we had our closest friends and family there, & they were there to celebrate us. it was wonderful.

















one favorite moment that was not at all embarassing was when my dad made everyone (yes, everyone) stand up and introduce themselves & explain who they were in relation to the bride and/or groom...there was speech giving. some of which was helped along by some margaritas beforehand. my little brother gave a very sweet speech that even got him a little choked up.



my sister gave one too, in the style of a lawyer presenting to a jury.



an unintentional effect from her speech was that part of it made danny's grandmother feel like she had to stand up for her family & me a little taste of the threats my siblings (who really love danny) had been doling out to danny...oops. my maid of honor, natasha, gave a wonderful speech that i'm sure was lost on some family members, but it meant so much to me.



all in all, a basically perfect night. from there, it was off to gather all the stuff we needed for the next day & head to the hotel to rest up for the big day!

wedding recap: friday legalities

friday was a very very full day. it started with a trip down to the court house to make this whole thing legal! you see, the state of alabama does not recognize wayne as someone who can perform a legal wedding, but it was very important to us to have someone who realy knew us to perform the ceremony. we didn't want some random judge or minister, so we decided that we would get legally married the day before our ceremony.



i don't know how many people couples getting married usually take with them to the court house, but we had a crowd of 10 people plus us. danny's dad was, of course, in jean shorts and a heather gray t-shirt, my brother-in-law was on crutches, and there were about 4 cameras going around. our group felt that every moment had to be documented...including filling out the paperwork. :)



my sister was the first to burst into tears and demand a tissue during the legal ceremony. parents soon followed.



what would a wedding be without a reception? we headed across the street to sam & greg's to celebrate with some pizza and gelato. yum!

wedding recap: thursday

our wedding weekend began the thursday before the wedding. my parents, little brother, and "aunt" brenda (my mom's best friend since childhood) were the first to arrive. we immediately hit up bandito, a diet staple in our world, & then spent the afternoon finishing up last minute projects. my sister, her husband, my 2 aunts, wayne (our friend and officiant), and brett came into town that evening, and it was so much fun to have everyone together and feel the excitement building.


kevin, aunt jeannie, & aunt lady


dad, brenda, & mom


me & wayne


jim, sister, & brett

i am in awe

i have been out of town this week for business travel and then vacation, so i have had the chance to write about the political happenings of the week. i was going to post something the night of the election day, but i fell asleep watching cnn into the wee hours of the morning (yes, i am officially a news junkie). so, wow, i am in awe. despite the fact that i have been incredibly hopeful and the polls assured me i was right to be, i was still surprised when obama won. when things have been going the way they have for the last 8 years, you just get to expect to have the rug ripped out from under you whenever you start to feel like change might be coming. but, this time, change did happen. barack obama is our new president.



this is such an exciting time in our history. i had never been so excited to vote. i could actually feel the change when i voted. it is huge that we have finally elected our first black president, but i also think we have to make sure this doesn't turn into a completely racial thing. obama would have won even if he hadn't been black. he won because of his ideas and the change he represents. i am so proud of my country. we have embraced the future & i truly believe things are going to get better. america will be better.

there are still a couple issues that i do feel the need to address.

#1 - despite having an uncommon name, obama is an american citizen. believe it or not, someone's status message on facebook was calling this into question. this floored me; i thought i was missing out some joke. i wasn't. for the record, obama was born in hawaii which is a us state. in fact, he could not be elected president if he wasn't born in this country.

#2 - proposition 8 passed. other propositions banning same sex marriage were passed in other states this actually makes my heart hurt. these propositions are culminations of hate. HATE. why do people want to deprive people from their right to be happy? gay americans are entitled to equal rights as citizens of this country which means the right to marry whomever they chose. this is a constitutional issue. it IS unconstitutional to not allow gay citizens to get married. there is no question about it. none. your beliefs about whether being gay is a sin or not or if gay people make you uncomfortable is not the issue.

have we forgotten that fifty years ago it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry? this is the same kind of mistreatment. i hear people use the argument that if the majority of people believe in a ban, then that's what we should do, but they seem to have forgotten that it is the government's job to protect the rights of minority. 150 years ago slavery was legal & the majority of people in the country believed it was right. should we have therefore not had the emancipation proclamation? black people were treated like second class citizens and that is how the country is treating gay americans now. if they want to marry, f'in let them! it does not affect anyone else besides the two people entering into the marriage.






#3 - this is related to #2, but if i hear about protecting "traditional marriage" one more time, i'm going to throw up. protecting traditional marriage? really? do heterosexual couples really protect marriage and make it sacred? are they really such good examples? half the heterosexual couples who marry divorce. is that protecting it? if britney spears can get married, then why can't the gay couple who has been committed to one another for 50 years?

#4 - arkansas passed a proposition that denies the right to adopt to unmarried people. this prop was created to target same sex couples who wish to adopt and raise children. i actually heard the argument that gay people shouldn't get married because they shouldn't have children because a child has to have both a mother and a father. so, according to this argument, when a heterosexual couple divorces or a parent dies, we should take the children out of the home because they shouldn't be raised by only a mother or only a father. that is ridiculous. families come in all different sizes and shapes. a family is love, not specific roles for each member.

we have some work to do, but we're on the right track with a new president. we can do it, but we all have to work together. we are the united states of america.

a video clip

if you listen closely, you can hear danny choke up a bit...which really helped my tears, let me tell you.

sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters

we wanted our sisters to play a role in our wedding. we decided early in our wedding planning that we'd love for them to do a reading as part of the ceremony. funny thing is that we forgot to ask them about it until about 2 weeks before the wedding...oops! luckily for us, they both agreed. we wanted them to pick their own reading b/c we wanted it to have a special meaning for them as well as for us.

my aunt captured a clip of part of my sisters's reading during the ceremony. she chose love by roy croft:



I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

Perhaps that is what being a friend means, after all.


danny sister chose to read an excert from owl sight by mercedes lackey and larry dixon:




A joining is a partnership, not two people becoming one. Two minds cannot fuse, two souls cannot merge, two hearts cannot keep the same time. You are two who choose to walk the same path, to bridge the differences between you with love. You must remember and respect those differences, for they are part of what made you come to love in the first place. Love is patient, love is willing to compromise - love is willing to admit it is wrong. There will be hard times; you must face them side by side. There will be pain - but pain shared is pain halved, as joy shared is joy doubled.Now you will no longer fear the storm, for you find shelter in each other.

Now the winter cannot harm you, for you warm each other with love. Now the darkness holds no danger, for you will be the light to each other's path. Now you will defy despair, for you will bring hope to each other's heart. Where there were two paths, there is now one. May your days together be long upon the earth, and blessed with joy in each other.

a wee bit o'celebration & new hair

because our wedding was small and out of state, we weren't able to invite a lot of our extended family and friends. so, we decided that after the wedding, we would have a casual reception in cookeville in order to celebrate with the people who weren't able to come. it was important to me that they knew that they knew how important they were to us & that we wanted them to be included in the celebration. so we whipped out some invites that resembled our wedding invitations



and divied up food between our moms & voila - a party is born. we had it at my grandma's house & had a good amount of aunts, cousins, and friends show up. it was a lot of fun. lots of food and lots of chatting. it was so great to see everyone.

in other news, i have taken my first step in my go-crazy-because-i'm-married-now plan. i colored my hair last week. i was pretty nervous/excited going into it. i have never had my hair professionally colored before. i've only colored it once in my lifetime. i have always been afraid that once i start, i won't be able to stop...which is probably true b/c it was so much fun & i love it!



i was also going to cut it short but decided that it could be too much change to do the color and length all at once. so i started with the color & just trimmed and thinned, bangs included. the change in length might be happening soon though...

they're here!

the professional photo photos are done! allison took 469 pictures. crazy. i can't post any here because of copyrighting, but you can view a slideshow of some of them. they're great! allison is a great photographer & great to work with, btw. we get 4x6s of all of them which we're going to pick up this week. then we're going to try to pick some to get bigger prints of...that decision is going to be very very hard....

bon bini!

(that means welcome! in papiamento..the language of aruba)

we had an amazing time on our honeymoon in aruba. we spent 7 days not working and not planning a wedding. it was wonderful. we left early monday morning and flew with a plane full of newlyweds on a 4 hour flight from atlanta to aruba. one couple in paticular caught my eye - a couple wearing bride and groom tshirts. yes, that couple. and guess who got to sit next to them on the plane? danny! the bride actually woke danny up to ask him what our wedding colors were. oh yeah. i think danny really enjoyed their conversation. ;)

we were greeted with champagne as we checked into bucuti (resort).

we immediately passed out once we got into our room. the first night we ate a little restaurant within walking distance from bucuti called pizza bob's....very good food & danny's first taste of the local beer, balashi.

we went downtown one day & had lunch at iguana joe's. we had some awesome spinach/artichoke dip & danny had a dish that was basically just cheese & a very good mojito.


we wondered around downtown for a few hours. there are lots of jewelry stores and designer shops.


we managed to find a grocery store where we stocked up on some hot & spciy chex mix, combos, crackers, gouda, diet coke, and balashi which were our staples throughout the entire week.


we rented a jeep another day and explored the island.


we drove from one end to the other. we drove to baby beach which is a sort of lagoon where local moms bring their children to teach them how to swim. we stayed on the less crowded side & danny went snorkeling.


a huge portion of the island is a national park, so we drove all over the park. we even did a little bit of off-roading to get around some fallen rocks

and then almost got stuck in the park, but we eventually found an exit & made it back to bucuti.

one evening, we took a sunset sail down the coast of the island. we met a couple from long beach. it was beautiful & the sunset itself was amazing.


we went horsebacking riding at rancho notorious another day. we went on a 2 hours ride through the state park to a cliff overlooking the ocean. there was only one other couple on our tour with us, so it was basically like having a private tour. me and pocohontas (my horse - awesome, huh meg?) took up the back of the line & definitely moved at our comfortable pace. when we got to the ocean, we took a short break & then we got to gallop through the sand (just me & danny and our guide...the other couple was too scared). it was so much fun.


the rest of the time was spent laying at the beach, eating, or sleeping. we spent a lot of time just laying around the beach and relaxing. the sand on their beaches is amazing; it's so soft and white. the water is gorgeous.

i have never seen water that color before. we had perfect weather the whole time. it rained one night, but the sun was shining by the time we got up for breakfast.

the food on the island was really good. we didn't have a bad meal while we were there. madame janette's was beautiful with very yummy food. wacky wahoo's was recommended by a girl who worked at bucuti & then we ended up seeing her there! wacky wahoo's had the best seafood i have ever had. it was all cooked perfectly. perfectly. just about every one of my meals contained some kind of refined carbohydrate...pasta or croissants...so good! we did end up at taco bell one night. it was late & everything was closed. it was a great experience though. danny ended up speaking way too fast for the guy working the window...he rattled off our order & the employee's response was, "...yes....hello." danny had to start all over. it was hilarious.

i also discovered a very yummy drink called a brown lady. it's like a mudslide but with coconut. it was basically a chocolate smoothie with alcohol. yum!

sadly, we had to leave eventually...we were told to get to the airport 3 hours before take off, so we got there four hours early & then ended up having to wait an hour for the delta desk to open (they were precise about that 3 hours), but we were the first ppl in line when the desk opened! we had to go through mutliple security check points & then had to get our shoes thoroughly cleaned because we went horseback riding. luckily, my suitcase did close again after being opened. we landed in huntsville around 10 &, of course, immediately went to pick up the pup from jeff & heather's where she'd been staying.

we had a fabulous trip & would highly recommend a visit to aruba to everyone. it was really hard to adjust to having to go to work the next week...hell, it still is.

one month!

believe it or not, today is our one month anniversary. danny and i have been married for exactly 30 days. it's hard to believe that much time has passed. of course, a week of it was spent on the honeymoon & the next week was spent adjusting to not being on a honeymoon anymore. it's been a very good 4 weeks & we're enjoying the whole husband/wife thing. :)



still no professional photos yet but hopefully soon!

i've got a new last name

i realize it has been weeks since my last post, but i had no idea how busy and exhuasting the weeks leading up to the wedding would be. i couldn't concentrate on anything. the only thing i could think about was what i needed to do before the wedding. but we survived with no major mishaps & i now have a new last name!

the wedding was fabulous. the ceremony was wonderful. i think we really succeeded in having a wedding and ceremony that was truly us. the entire weekend (starting thursday) was so much fun. it was amazing to have almost all the people i love and care about in one place at the same time celebrating our marriage. i mean, really amazing. everyone was there for us; everyone was willing to help and actually wanted to help. it was so sad on sunday when everyone had to go home...i've been trying to think of a way for everyone to live in one place, that place being wherever i happen to be. guess maybe i need to start a commune?

weddings are surrounded by so much love, and i just want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped with planning, setting up, crafting & assembly, moral support, time, thinking, food, wine, coordinating, baking, shopping, keeping me calm, and making sure we had the very best wedding weekend possible. thank you.

stocking the bar before we walk down the aisle

a few weeks ago, our friends were sweet enough to throw us a shower. well, officially, it was not called a shower in order to prevent a freak-out by the boys...it was deemed a pre-wedding throwdown which went over much better.

the theme of the throwdown was stocking the bar which if the great friends and food weren't enough makes for a very fun party! stef made the invitations. so cute! complete with a little poem.



the spread...




rachel who provied the location for the party


josh, rachel's husband, & an excellent stirrer.


stef taking pictures of her own.


audra and patrick working on their mad lib.


dave who is incapable of looking normal in any picture i take.


the lovely jeri who made a very yummy salad for the party.


cake!


we played a "how well do you know your fiance?" game...danny and i were not good at it (uh oh!), but i won! i got the most questions right. go me!




and the result: a filled to capacity home bar...


i still haven't sent thank yous for this party (i'm a slacker, i know), but i can't thank our friends enough for throwing this party for us. they went to a lot of trouble and planning to make it happen, and it makes us feel so loved. it was so much fun to have so many of our friends in a room together. it gets me that much more excited about the wedding and seeing all our guests. weddings result in so much fun!