June 19, 2009

Tomorrow I will marry my friend!

Today was a very exciting day! We worked on wedding stuff from the moment we awakened to the moment we went to bed! Many dear friends have been in and out of our house all week, preparing for Ryan and my big day tomorrow. It is hard to believe that it is almost here.

Sally, Sarah, Rebekah, Chris, and Holly Chopping Broccoli

I began the day greeting friends who had come to help. They began to cut fruit and I drove across the road to our neighbor, Teresa Harpole’s, house to go cut magnolia branches and ivy. We drove down the road to a lady’s house to cut branches off her huge magnolia tree.

After cutting the branches, I headed home to unload them and found more friends at the house working, decorating, washing fruit, cleaning, etc. We unloaded the branches and Mrs. Daphne McKibben & Mrs. Wendy Gullett began to construct the arch of magnolia leaves to go around the front doorway.

Mrs. Wendy Gullett & Mrs. Daphne McKibben Decorating the Front Door

I spent the next little while slicing pineapples, cleaning, and answering questions until my friend, Holly Houston, arrived from Nashville, TN. Holly came to help me before and during the wedding time. We were getting dressed to head into town when Mrs. Wendy came in to tell us that she needed more magnolia branches. We swapped from make-up applications to old clothes and ran down the road to fetch some branches. As we were taking the trek to my neighbor’s friend’s house, I spotted about 9 magnolia trees in a neighboring friend, Mrs. Mary Ruth Hill’s, yard. I quickly called Mrs. Mary Ruth to ask if we could cut some branches from her trees to save us some time. She said she would love for us to and asked us to go ahead and shape up the trees while we trimmed. So, we pruned and got a truck bed full of branches and leaves at the same time. As we trimmed, I noticed her beautiful magnolia blooms and asked if we could have some for the wedding cake at the wedding. A few months back, I had thought it would be beautiful to decorate the wedding cake with magnolias but was afraid that there would be none in bloom when it became wedding time. I was thrilled to find some huge, beautiful blooms and my neighbor, Mrs. Teresa Harpole, offered to cut and bring them to the wedding the next morning.

Dad Working Hard

After gathering branches, Holly and I resumed getting ready to head to town to pick up the wedding flowers. We first picked up Ryan at the apartment then headed to the wedding rehearsal dinner location to drop off gifts for our moms for us to present that night. We then headed to the florist and back home for the rehearsal.

The rehearsal went flawlessly. The entire wedding party was there for us to begin at 5pm and each member did great, from those wedding party members who had never been in a wedding to Adam, our ring bearer who has now been in 4 weddings!

After the rehearsal, we headed to Starkville for the rehearsal dinner, located at the Starkville Church of Christ on Lee Boulevard.

The rehearsal dinner was decorated in bright pinks, yellows, and oranges with gerbera daisies on each table and white balls hanging from the ceiling. It was so beautiful and there were about 70 people there to celebrate with us.

We began the dinner with delicious appetizers as we visited. For dinner, we had a cold tomato soup to start us off, complete in cups with “Ryan & Ellen” written on them. We then had a sorbet in small ice cream cones to cleanse our pallet before the main course of grilled chicken, slaw, green beans, rice, salad, baked potatoes, rolls, etc. For dessert we had a delicious banana pudding to finish off the delicious meal. Ryan told me to be sure to mention that he had two servings of EVERYTHING and really enjoyed every bite!

Ryan’s dad gave us a charge as we finished eating then Ryan and I introduced those who had come to the dinner and read hand-written notes to our parents before giving our moms a gift.

After visiting with family and friends, we headed home to finish up a few last minute items and get in bed.