As you can see we got them all done...the hardest part was not eating all the M&Ms as we bagged them up! :)
Thursday we spent our day picking up some of Matt's good friends from the airport. In the afternoon we drove over and picked up all the groom men's suits...yes together...I borrowed my parents' van. This was a hilarious sight all of us packed into the van! Unfortunately I do not have pictures to document this occasion. Friday morning we picked up more family from the airport and then spent the morning setting up the room for the reception. Below are our centerpieces.
The awesome chair covers and sashes that matched the bridesmaids dresses perfectly!
The sweethearts table with our engraved "Z" champagne glasses! Kudos to my Mama for them :)
I was super excited about our escort board for the reception. Instead of doing place cards, we went with a board. Each table was represented by a polka dot (kinda the theme of our wedding but not really) and the table was associated to a love song. When your table's song played it was time for you to hit the buffet! :)
Shout out to my Mama again for making the board! :)
I loved our guest book, I found it at Martha Stewart. Inside of lines to write your name there were individual envelopes and note cards for your guest to write messages on. My Mama used her amazing talents again and spruced up the front of it to go along with our polka dot theme :)
Friday afternoon kicked off our major festivities...first rehearsal. My Mama and Kateland made my awesome bouquet from the ribbons and bows at my showers using the actual bouquet holder from my Mama's wedding. You can see me holding it in the picture below as we are all waiting to rehearse just one more time.
I think the high light of rehearsal is me asking Sister for the light bulb for "breaking the glass." Previously I'd "borrowed" a cloth napkin from the hotel to wrap the light bulb in for the occasion. When we ask for the light bulb she takes the light bulb out wrapped in the napkin and proceed to unwrap it and lay it on the ground.
We then had rehearsal dinner at the hotel's restaurant...AMAZING! I think the highlight of the wedding for me was all the great food :) My parents gave me my something "new" a pearl necklace along with a note that my Mama wrote for my wedding day the day I was born...no joke I bawled. We followed up the dinner with a cocktail hour for all our out of town guest and family...and we had a blast:
With Uncle Russ (Grandma Hazel's brother) and Aunt Kay who made the trip from Maryland
With the Georgia Bradshaws and Grandma Hazel
With Sister
With Sister and Gavin
Some of my favorite girls
H we missed you!!! :)
With the folks my last night as a Bradshaw girl in name
Smooches :) We were practicing :)
With the Ohio Family! Special thanks to Kim for making the trip all the way from CO!! :)
Friday night Sister, Kateland and I all stayed in the same room just like we always do for important events. It was like Christmas Eve we were laughing and talking the whole night and couldn't sleep. I think I may have gotten 4 hours of sleep. We got up Saturday morning to head to the Spa :) We met all the girls and took a quick pit stop at Chick Fila...OMG if you have never had their chicken mini breakfast biscuits you must try they are heaven! :) Once fed I was much more tolerable to be around :) We had manis, pedis, hair and make up done. This is me getting my hair did...hot!
We got back to the room in time to start getting ready for pictures on the beach before the ceremony. Sister provided me with a pearl bracelet as my something borrowed.
Mama gave me Big Mama's handkerchief that she carried in her wedding as my something old.
So that left something blue...my toes
For those of me that were keeping up with my final countdown know that I was experiencing some issues in the chest department concerning the dress fitting. Well...IT FIT! And here is my celebration of the boobs fitting! :)
We then took some amazing pictures with our wonderful photographer Marirosa (check her out at photographybymarirosa.com) Heres a few of my favorites from the day...sorry I love pictures
We had an amazing ceremony! And we followed it up with one hellava reception! We had personalized entrances for everyone in the wedding party, mind you they did not know what their entrance music was going to be, and here were some of the reactions:
We had our first dance to "I only have eyes for you" by The Flamingos, they are in the Rock Hall. :)
Right before we cut the cake all the speeches were given and toasts were made. I cried at almost every single one. My Daddy went first....bawled. Kateland went...cried a little more. Did I mention I was a mess during the father/daughter dance because I'd put together a surprise slide show of me and my Daddy, mind you now everytime I watched it ahead of time I bawled...so needless to say I was crying there too. Dan gave his speech which was perfect timing for a little comic relief, however I think I laughed until I cried at one point...pattern?! And for a slam bang finish Sister wrapped things up...I cried again. At this point in the night I have cried every stitch of makeup off and I really could care less. The alcohol is flowing, the food was a hit, the dance floor was filled and we're gonna cut the cake! OMG the cake! :) If I hadn't mentioned before Mama Z got our wedding cakes for us from Charm City Cakes, that's right the folks in Baltimore in the show Ace of Cakes! Here is our wedding cake in all its polka dot glory:
I was extremely nervous about cutting this cake, I'd never cut a tiered cake before...and the camera doesn't lie:
Do not let this picture fool you, he was just as violent with that cake as I was:
And now for the after shot...if you look closely you can see the cake all over both our faces sans icing:
So the bottom layer of our cake was banana's fosters, smart thinking to go with that yellow cake and not chocolate! The second layer was brownie...yummy! The third layer was peanut butter cup...sooooo gooood! And the top layer is red velvet cake...which I have been trying to convience Matt to let us eat ever since we put it in the freezer. I think that's a real waste of cake to let it sit in the freezer for a year when I could be eatting it NOW! Matt's groom's cake was carrott cake and here we are with the dinosaur managerie:
At one point in the night Sister grabs me and Matt and proceeds to walk us across the dance floor and seat us in chairs...pissed does not even begin to describ how I felt at that moment. She has that shit eatting grin on her face because she knows that I don't like surprises when it comes to planned out events. Well for once I must admit it was one hellava surprise and I loved every minute of it...the Bradshaw Blues Brothers put in a performance of Soul Man:
Now for details about the chair dance...I was a little nervous to have folks lift my hefty butt up into the air and have my woo hoo potentially on display...so my knees were permanently glued together the entire time. At one point I look over and Matt is already flying high above the crowd and I'm still anchored to the floor...wow am I really that heavy...Drew Merriman and Arthur Bronson to the resue and might I add my Jersey girl came in big. In the pictures you can see the two guys and Megan are the only ones on my chair. At one point I tip forward, I was pretty sure I was gonna land on Drew's head and I yell "Drew don't you F***** drop me!" He didn't however later I found out that he sprained his wrist doing some quick ninja manuevers to keep from dropping me "No way I was gonna drop the bride on her wedding day!" Thanks Drew! :) Then Kiser and Schmalz to rescue Megs from chair duty. I do believe this was one of my favorite moments, I look back at Kiser and he says "Best damn rollercoaster of your life!" :)
Next up....the Honeymoon! :)
Yea!!! love that you love the photos.... you guys are amazing and your love is evident! hugs! Marirosa
ReplyDeletePhotography by Marirosa