saturday, may 12
after we were officially officially married, oliver and i went back into the brides house for a quiet moment and to let all the guests go into the chapel to start the cocktail hour and appetizers. this was one of my favorite parts of the wedding day, just saying to each other, "holy cow! we are married!!" soon, the bridal party and our parents all came to join us. we went out onto the back porch of the house, facing the road (the guests couldn't see us) and someone unearthed a couple of bottles of champagne. all of us in a circle opened both bottles of champers and passed them around, the bridal party and our parents, and of course, oliver and i. it was SO MUCH FUN and I WISH I WISH i had pictures of this! my dad, who hasn't had a drink in about 7 years, even drank from the bottles. i loved that moment with our family and friends.
after we were finished with our bottles (classy) we went back to the ceremony site to take our family pictures. this went by pretty quickly, and then the family was dismissed and katie and jason took oliver and i and the bridal party out to a field next to the chapel for more pictures. these were my favorite of the whole day. i loved the field behind us and the soft colors. i feel like we all look so relaxed and happy (buzzed, perhaps?) and i just love all of these pictures. thanks
katie!
during this time, the guests were getting seated and comfortable in the chapel and enjoying their appetizers and cocktails. for that part of the reception, we served:
- crusty breads and a variety of cheeses
- olives
- pesto and olive oil to dip the bread in
- grapes
- red and white wine
- coors original, shiner bock, and miller lite bottles
- pellingrino waters
those are my favorite foods (literally, come to a wine night at my house. thats all i serve) so i really wanted the appetizers to reflect food we love eating. i heard from some reliable sources that it was amazing cheese and that the wine was really quite good! :) the chapel decor consisted of white tablecloths, burlap runners, white place settings, and mason jars, teacups, teapots, and milk glass with pink roses and various light colored flowers in them. it also had a bunch of antiques, some of which came from my great grandma!
lauren and
missy coordinated the whole chapel and styled it amazingly well. lauren also teamed up with emily of
bird dog wedding to create and implement the LOVE sign behind our sweetheart table. its four panels of burlap, each with an L-O-V-E letter on it. it was seriously a show stopper in that chapel. thanks ladies!
then it was time for us to be announced and for dinner to start. we lined up again and each BM/GM was announced and walked into the chapel, followed by the bride and groom. our dinner menu, which was featured on this window outside of the chapel (my MIL bought the window in brehnam, i covered the back with burlap, and gloria wrote the menu with a paint pen), included the following:
- beef roast
- stuffed chicken
- red potatoes with rosemary (rosemary was a theme in our wedding...it was also in the guys garters)
- asparagus with sauce
- strawberry and spinach salad
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| dinner menu window |
oliver and i really didn't eat much, but what we did have was really good. our
caterer did an amazing job! once everyone had their plates and was eating, it was time for the toasts to begin. ian, gloria, and annie did a toast to us, and then oliver and i stood up and thanked everyone for being there again. at this time we also tried to walk around and say hi to everyone who made the trek out to the wedding. thanks ya'll!
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| annie, MOH, toasting us |
once the toasts were complete and dinner was wrapping up, my dad went onstage and toasted us, and then asked that all of the guests make their way over to the pavillion for desserts and dancing. you'll remember in my previous blog, i mentioned that we wanted to use the entire property, so we did something a little different from most weddings and had the dinner separate from the rest of the reception. i think it turned out really well because i didn't want people to get too comfortable in their chairs and not participate in the dancing part of the reception.
so the entire wedding moved to the pavillion for the dessert and dancing part of the wedding. at this point, the girls and i went to change into our boots for the reception. all of the bridesmaids and flower girls had brought a pair of boots so that we could two-step the night away. once we were through with that, the DJ announced oliver and i's first dance. we two stepped to 'wicked twisted road' by reckless kelly, and my uncle sam honored us with a traditional dollar throwing ceremony which is in line with his culture. (it is supposed to bring wealth to the couple). then it was time for our father daughter dance. my dad and i danced to 'deeper than the holler' by randy travis, and towards the end of the song, we told my mom to come dance with us also. this was very emotional for me, as my mom and dad and i are VERY, EXTREMELY close and have been through a lot since i graduated college. the two of them, and oliver, of course, have been my rock in my adult years, and i think they would say the same for me. they invested so much time and money into making this wedding my dream night, and i was really thankful, emotional, and overwhelmed at this point of the night.
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| dancing with two of my favorite people in this world |
after our dances, it was time to cut the cake. i typically don't really like cake, or many cupcakes, so we decided to go with a dessert bar instead of the traditional wedding cake/grooms cake combo. we hired haley from
the muffin top in brenham to bring/set up/design our dessert bar, and she did an amazing job. we had lemon bars, lemon cupcakes, a small strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate cake, raspberry chocolate cupcakes, shortbread dipped chocolate cookies, and i don't remember what else. my hostess cacey also made some additional cupcakes to add to the bar. we cut the white cake in the center, but we didn't get to try any of the other desserts. i heard it was good though ;) i purchased the k&o burlap sign and the sweet love sign on etsy, and made the ribbon bunting behind the dessert bar with my bridesmaids over about 5 months.
after the cake cutting, we danced the night away. a couple of memorable moments were:
the anniversary dance, which gloria's parents won for being married the longest
doing the line dance with my girlfriends to copperhead road
amelia, the littlest flower girl, falling asleep in the brides house, and then coming back out ready to rock in her pj's
the aggie war hymn
dancing with my highschool guy friends
cacey teaching grandma the stanky leg
the garter toss, which oliver got WAY more into than i thought he would
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| war hymn |
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| dancin in our boots! |
at the end of the night, i was getting REALLY hot, so i decided to go ahead and change into my 2nd dress. the 2nd dress saga was a little ridiculous--i bought one from jcrew, hated it, one from victorias secret, hated it, one made online from ebay, hated it, and finally about two weeks before the wedding, found
this one at urban outfitters. it was backless so i had my seamstress put in support for the front. i was still undecided whether or not i would chage up until the moment i did. i was SO glad i decided to change. for one, it made the end of the night pictures different and fresh. i also threw my hair in a bun, which changed up the pictures, and lastly, it made me so much more comfortable. i loved twirling in that dress!
after our last dance to 'neon moon' by brooks and dunn, it was time for us to leave! we went into the house for one last time, and while we were in there, the coordinators/bridesmaids/family got everyone a sparkler and lit them up. we left via the back of the property to a sparkler exit and stopped for a quick picture under the 'happily ever after' burlap sign, also an etsy purchase.
we left in a vintage rolls royce with WILLINGHAM as the license plate cover. it had champagne in it that we toasted to as we drove back to our hotel room in downtown brenham. we stayed at the fabulous
ant street inn, at the san antonio room. it was AMAZING.
we had yet more surprises from the wedding party when we checked into our room. they had left a basket full of snacks and goodies in the room, along with a cute cowboy and indian dress up outfit. ;) and candles were lit in the bathroom over the jacuzzi tub. we debated going out with all of our friends, but we were just too exhausted. i called annie, my MOH, to thank her for the whole day, and we had an emotional best friend conversation before i turned off my phone for the night. it was the end to a perfect day.
the next morning, oliver brought me breakfast in bed (thanks husband!) and when he was out at the little cafe getting our breakfast, he noticed that gloria, david, natalie, justin, and gloria's parents were all out enjoying breakfast as well. so we got dressed and went out to visit with the crew. then it was time to go back to houston and get our stuff ready for our 6AM flight to jamaica for our honeymoon on monday. we had all our bags packed up and went outside to get into oliver's truck, when all of a sudden we saw a silver corvette parked in front of our hotel! ian, oliver's brother and best man, had arranged for us to drive his corvette back to houston. he had put kristin loves oliver, just married, and k&o in the windows. oliver LOVED getting to drive it back to houston.
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holla!
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the rest of that day, we visited with friends and family who dropped in at my parents house, ate wedding leftovers, and opened our wedding gifts. that afternoon, oliver and i ran some last minute errands before we had to catch our early flight to jamaica.
and that completes our wedding weekend! next up, honeymoon!
***if you'd like to see more of dinner and reception, go check out our wedding feature on style me pretty texas. we were SO excited to get featured! also, make sure to watch the short video at the bottom of the post! ***
kristin
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