Seven long years ago....

All this preparing for my brother's upcoming wedding has got me thinking about  my own wedding day 7 years ago. On June 26th, Christopher and I celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. Since he was home this year and we were up in Maryland visiting we went out to a VERY nice champagne brunch (no kids!) then visited with friends of ours, the Kellers. It was nice to be "dating" again-all dressed up on a Sunday to just hang out and have a glass of wine with other adults without having to worry about naps or bottles or teething or anything else!

As my mom was cleaning out her house to put it on the market this week she found a bunch of CDs with wedding pictures from our wedding on it that the officiant's wife had taken for us. So, I thought I would share some wedding pictures of our big day.

Peeking through the window at everyone arriving.

Me and my brothers, from L-R, Kyle, Seth and Brad.

Pretty in pink! My mother in law, me and my mom. Of course, my mom did have some crazy poodle-type hair going on that day (sorry Mom!).

Really need to figure out that rotation thing on here. Anyway, my dad walking me down the aisle. He was so sad. He likes my husband very much but was not ready to give his baby girl away. I had to practically drag him down the aisle!

Kissy, kissy!

Waiting around for family photos to be taken.

Mr. and Mrs.!

This was our appetizer table. It was AWESOME. Two friends put this together for us, the food (what little I had of it) was excellent and it was so pretty.

Our cake. Ok, so, the cake was NOT supposed to look like this. I wish I still had the picture of what it was supposed to look like but I am pretty sure that she lost it, forgot what it was supposed to look like, and tried to fix her mistake at the last minute. I wish she would have just left it white instead of trying to turn it into an aqua blue (it should have been french blue fondant with white flowers all over it. She got the flowers right). At least it tasted good. And seven years later people are STILL talking about our wedding cake, which usually doesn't happen.

Stealing a moment for ourselves.

Wedding Shower!

This past Saturday I helped host a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law Ashley. I am SUPER excited she is going to be marrying my brother Kyle (and keeping him in line) so I really wanted to make the shower speical for her. She is one of the nicest, sweetest people you could meet and she deserved a special day. The shower was held at her parent's house and I was in charge of the decorations. With some help from the maid of honor, my brother (thr groom-to-be) and the bride-to-be herself we made tissue paper floating orbs, hung up streamers and bells and put together a candy bar. A few weeks ago I was freaking out over doing decorations (mainly because I have champagne ideas on a beer budget!) but we made it work and it was beautiful.

The cake! So yummy, it was lemon cake with butter cream icing.

The Bride-to-be's chair! Like the umbrella? Granny bought it and I thought that she was going to shiv me if I didn't hang it up even though I was not prepared to hang up an umbrella and there was no "easy" way to do it. Luckily I am smart and was able to Macguyver it up there.

 

The Maid-of-honor's chair.

Decorations! We hung these with fishing line, genius! They are still hanging up because they liked them so much!

My brother Kyle decorated the front banister. Not bad for someone with only one X chromosome. ;)

Candy Bar! When I first mentioned this to my husband he thought we were literally going to make a giant candy bar. Then I showed him pictures. This was a HUGE hit and like the decorations the candy table is still up at their house. We had Kyle and Ashley tell us their favorite candies and we tried to get as many as we could.

The Happy Couple!

The party went great, the food was fantastic (he aunt made most of it, it was delish!), the sangria was tasty and everyone had a good time.

Opening up my gift: a chips and dip bowl. The girl is gonna have to learn how to make guac now that she is part of the family! Or at least have something to serve it in when I come over and bring it. :)

My cousin Caroline, the flower girl, my Aunt Karen and me.

SUPER excited over her mixer! She is so cute.

Ok, so picture taking did not go so well because there were 50 million cameras and no one knew which way to look. This is, Amanda (a bridesmaid) Anne (the bride-te-be's mom), Candace and Anna (sisters of the bride and bridesmaids) Ashley, my mom and me (also going to be a bridesmaid). 

 

We had a great day and then Ashley and I had a great time talking by the pool and getting to know each other a little better. I stayed way to late, but then I got to see the special end they have planned for their wedding: chinese lanterns! They are going to have all the guests light them and let them go at the end of the wedding. And for the eco-friendly, they are biodegradeable. :)

Just like in "Tangled".