Alayna and Sean's Little Rock Wedding

 One of my best friends, who happens to be my cousin, got married this past weekend!

 It was my debut as a Matron of Honor too, which was very exciting!!

Alayna and Sean make their home in Little Rock so that's where all of the wedding festivities were held.

On Friday it was a balmy 80-degrees but late that evening the rain started and the temp dropped to 46 and never got higher than 50 the rest of the weekend!

BRRRRR!!!

Even so, everything turned out beautiful!

Friday evening, the rehearsal dinner was held at Cotham's in the City.

 

My parents traveled in for the event.

My Mom's sister and my Aunt Jane, was there with bells on too giving Alayna is her granddaughter.

 A lot of people made their way to the Capital City for the big weekend!

 

Saturday afternoon, wedding preps began with hair and makeup.

 Gorgeous dress!!

 Funny story..

The hairdresser was the guy who use to do my hair when I was in beauty pageants back in high school.

I suggested him after Alayna struggled to find someone to style her hair the way she wanted it for her big day.

He did a GREAT job and it was fun to see him again.

Alayna's hair looked the best I had ever seen it!

Mandy and I were the only two attendants in the wedding.

Of course, when Alayna set her wedding date last September, I had no idea I would be pregnant.

I actually, hoped I would have given birth by now giving we were undergoing fertility treatments at the time.

Then, of course everyone has FREAKED me out in the past few months saying there is no way I would make it to the wedding being 32 weeks pregnant.

Well, guess what?

I did! and I was feeling good!

God is GOOD!

 

 I feel so honored to have been there for the little moments that will forever be remembered.

Like this one.

A mother pinning the veil on her daughter.

 And, the moment right before she walked down the aisle.

 Alayna and Sean got married in the Catholic church where Sean grew up.

Very special and sentimental.

 And, the happy couple right after they said "I DO!"

After the ceremony we all made our way back into downtown Little Rock for the reception held at The Peabody.

 It's hard to capture just how beautiful the room was with pictures.

Our cousin Terry, who is a florist in Hot Springs, did all the flowers.

 

The groom is a die-hard Cardinals fan, hence the cake.

It was a delicious Italian cream.

 

Everything turned out GREAT!

(even my spray tan...LOL!)

 Cousin Dana.

 Me and the Bradster.

 Aunt Jane

I'm so happy for Alayna and Sean!

Here's to a lifetime of health and happiness!

 They left for their honeymoon this morning, their destination?

Niagara Falls and Canada!!

Congrats again!!!!!

Josh and Katie's Baltimore Nuptials

We've been to nearly a wedding a month this year with our last being in the last days of 2011.

Our Charlotte friends, Josh and Katie got married on 12.30.11 in the Charm City!

Baltimore!!

They've been engaged for over a year giving the bride plenty of time to pay attention to every little detail.

I was impressed!

When we checked into our hotel we received a welcome box full of Maryland goodies.

Love the pretty ribbon and sticker!

We were shuttled from our hotel to the church, all in Downtown Baltimore.
The church looked gorgeous decked out with poinsettias.

A lot of people were taking pictures during the ceremony but Brad is totally against that.
So, here's the picture of the bride I got afterwards.

Her dress was Priscilla of Boston.

Gorgeous!

To match the beading on her dress she had bling added to her bouquet.
I didn't get any good pictures of the bridesmaid dresses but they were simple and elegant and most wore big rhinestone earrings.

Perfect for a New Year's Eve weekend wedding!

Sparklers as they left the church.

Then we were all shuttled over to their reception venue.

The historic Belvedere.
For all you Mad Men fans, they recently filmed a couple of episodes here.

This place was impressive!

It's an old hotel they've converted into condos with a ballroom venue on the 12th floor and a bar overlooking the city on one of the top floors.

When we stepped off the elevator there was a table set up with family wedding pictures.
I did this too, but only had our parents wedding pictures.

She had pictures of great grandparent's weddings!

That's impressive as well!

For me, it was like an act of Congress getting our parent's pictures.

Name cards for the sit-down dinner.

Their favor was a donation to two causes close to their heart.

Josh's brother suffers from a spinal cord injury due to an ATV accident several years ago and Katie works with children who suffer from autism.

Their cocktail hour, of course included Maryland crab dip.

And, these yummy chicken taco bites among other food.

The newlyweds at the cocktail hour.

Then, we were ushered into a separate room for the dinner.
One word for this room.

AMAZING!

Brad even took a video with his phone to capture just how gorgeous this room was.

Love all the little details.

The meal consisted of a first course of salad and then a second course of salmon and beef.
Yum..

Katie has two sisters and Josh has two brothers so they had two best men and maid of honors.
Cool or what?

This is one of Josh's brother's giving his toast.

They all did a great job!

We were one of three couples from Charlotte.

We finally got a chance to meet their friends Erin and her husband Craig for the first time.
We're already making plans to all do dinner very soon!

One of the best parts of the reception for me was when I met two guys from my hometown!
(Well, where I went to high school and all my family lives)
The groom is from Arkansas so two of his good friends are from Hot Springs.
Of course, giving it's not that big of a town, we know a lot of mutual people.
They know a lot of my family too!
They're a few years younger than me, so of course, I didn't know them.
Very fun though!

Their wedding reception was one big dance party!

I can't remember the last time I saw so many people dance at a wedding!

Kids, parents, everyone!

Brad said he thought he was at a rave at one point!!

HAHA!

The bride and groom both did such a great job!

What a lovely event and we're so glad that we were included in their special day.

The party didn't end here though.

A big group from the wedding spent New Year's Eve at a fun restaurant on the water in Downtown Baltimore.

More on that tomorrow!