...and they lived happily ever after!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful Saturday and memories of this weekend one year ago filled my head.  It's hard to believe that in two short days, Justin and I will have been married 1 year.

I know it is obnoxiously cliche to say that your wedding day is the best day of your life...but until you have children, I honestly think it is!  So as I looked through pictures from that day, I started to think about the little things that the pictures are unable to express.  Many of you celebrated with us that day, and I'm sure, have looked through our wedding pictures on Facebook at least once--but there are so many things these pictures cannot show.

Like how lucky we are to have such great  neighbors!  The Wilkins girls (and one soon-to-be Wilkins girl) organized all the food and drinks for the bridal party to have while getting ready.  Not only did they bring the food, but they also brought the dance party! As we were getting hair done, they were practicing their moves for the night!

This may look like the typical "getting the dress on picture" but really, this was when I could finally breath a sigh of relief. After much begging, the bridal boutique still insisted that they could not put a longer zipper in my dress. So it had to be inched up, little by little, to get on! It zipped which is all that matters!

I'm sure most girls would say that their maid-of-honor was the best...but mine really was! Mariana is my best friend from high school AND college! Not only did she help me do so much (especially after receiving frantic emails at 7am) but she also let us use her gorgeous house to get ready and take pictures.  Plenty of girls have sisters that get to stand beside them when they get married---and while she's not my sister, I could not have imagined anyone else standing next to me. (Mariana--stop crying)

When deciding what to get my bridesmaids, my mom mentioned cocktail rings and I thought this was a fabulous idea! I would soon find out that this would be one of the biggest headaches of the whole wedding planning process. I searched the world over for these rings! From Charlotte, to Raleigh, to Greenville, and even Orlando. I was eventually able to find somewhere that had more than 2 of the same ring in stock, and since I worked so hard, I got myself one for the big day too!

From the moment we were engaged--and if I'm honest, all the moments leading up to being engaged--I knew I would get married at St.Paul. It's the only church I have really ever known and I still think is the most beautiful. Not only that, but we were the 4th generation to get married in this church--pretty special! And for that diamond on my left hand...that was its second trip down the aisle! I love so much that my diamond is from the ring my grandmother wore for so many years! 

Ok ok enough of the emotional stuff!! 

Now, I'm sure most of you have seen this picture, but what you don't know is what led up to it.  I had seen many people do this picture on their wedding day and thought it was so cute.  So, I put this on our list of must-have pictures for our photographer. When the time came to take this picture and Christina was putting us in place, I see my frantic mother come running over.  She starts dragging Justin away from the door because it is bad luck to see the bride! After explaining what we were doing---THREE times---she laughs and says, "well that's cute".  A good laugh to keep us from getting too nervous!

I could go on and on about all the little things our wedding pictures leave out, but these were my favorites.  We are gearing up for another wedding season, and this year feels very different than the others. We had our day--and it was everything we had hoped for!  We realize what a blessing marriage is--so as we celebrate with everyone this summer, we know that it's not just one fun night; we are celebrating a lifetime of love, laughs, and (if you're like us) some crazy dancing around the living room!