Wedding Weekend Part 1

Back in June, one of my closest friends got married. I've mentioned on here several times before that I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and Brianna was the flower girl. Being a bridesmaid and the mother of the flower girl was pretty stressful at times, but everything ended up being great. 

Our major prep for the wedding began on Thursday, June 20th. Chris was out of town most of that week with work - and we were in the middle of a fertility cycle - so things seemed pretty hectic. On Thursday, Brianna and I spent some time practicing her "walk" for the wedding and also playing a bit with makeup for her. I wanted her to wear a touch of makeup for pictures, but obviously I wanted it to be very subtle. We ended up going with a bit of mascara, blush, and a touch of lip gloss. 

Later that afternoon, we went to get pedicures. They only charged me $5 to paint Brianna's toenails, and it was so worth it to me! She sat perfectly still while they worked.

I was sitting in a pedicure chair while her toes were drying. I asked her if she was okay and she gave me this thumbs up, haha!

Because Chris wouldn't be home from his business trip before the place closed for the day, I had Brenson with me as well. He was such a good boy and sat on my lap for the entire pedicure. He wasn't necessarily happy about it, but he did it :-).

Toes ready for the wedding!

Friday, June 21st ended up being a super CRAZY day for me. Chris took the day off work to stay home with the kids as I had already committed to helping decorate the reception hall before the 5:00pm rehearsal. Well, that morning we ended up {unexpectedly} having an IUI. I was too anxious for the IUI to eat that morning, then I drove straight from my doctor's office to the reception hall to help there. I thought I would grab something to eat after we were done decorating, but Amy, Kendall, and I ended up going to get our nails done instead. We were going to grab food after that, but ended up running out of time. So, by the time I got to the rehearsal, I hadn't eaten ALL DAY. Ugh.

Like I said above, Chris stayed with the kids all day, then they met me at the church building for the rehearsal. He's a keeper!

We had a few minutes before the rehearsal began, so we snapped a some photos. The bridal party:

Besties for life :-):

Me and my girl. Love her.

Brianna decided she needed a photo with each of us individually. Sweet girl.

Brianna and Kendall:

When we started actually rehearsing, I was in the bridal party and Chris was taking photos. This left Brenson just kind of running around by himself. So, I carried him down the aisle with me and held him while I stood up front.

Brianna did SO well. She's a bit of a wild card, so I didn't know if she would dance down the aisle or what.

However, she followed instructions perfectly!

Cutie!

The bride and her dad:

The whole wedding party:

Notice I wasn't holding Brenson anymore in that last photo? Well, he was super-squirmy (this was after the second practice run) so I let him down to run. Not too long after this, he smashed his little fingers in the door and was SCREAMING. I felt horrible. I wanted so badly for my kiddos to be perfect that night and not be a distraction, and we ended up making a big scene. His fingers did swell a bit, but we iced them and they were fine.

After the rehearsal, we headed across town for the rehearsal dinner at Ti Amo. Of course, food a nicer restaurants is often a bit slower than what we're used to, and Brianna was kind of over it. She behaved well, but she was unimpressed with the venue :-).

So, we took photos to entertain ourselves!

Wes (the officiant) and Kendall:

Angie and Jesse - bride and groom!

The food was delicious (and I ate a TON - I was starving remember?), and the dessert was pretty yummy too!

We were the first ones to leave pretty quickly after dessert. Our kiddos were had been so good, but we had been at the restaurant for over and hour and a half and we didn't want to push our luck. Before leaving, I did have Kendall snap this family photo for me:

I absolutely cracked up when I saw it on the camera after getting home. No one prompted the kids to do this . . . it was all on their own! This is honestly one of my favorite photos of our family. They had both been so well behaved the whole evening . . . I guess a nice photo was just asking for too much :-).

I'll be posting about the actual wedding in a couple days, so stay tuned. I know you're excited :-)!