The Small Details: Pre-Ceremony

I am definitely on a wedding blogging kick.  Now that I have all of my pictures back, I want to try to get them on the blog before I forget some of the details.  I am going to focus on the pre-cermony pictures today which includes all of the small details.  I would say I was a decently organized bride.  I had a step by step timeline of the wedding day and I took every single detail into consideration.  I even had it in a pretty excel spreadsheet in which I listed out what, where, when, and who- hour by hour.  My hairdresser and photographer probably thought I was crazy! One of the most important things to me was that I wanted to pray with Crawford before the wedding without him seeing me.  This was probably the most difficult part because my bridesmaids had to navigate us around the house to get us in place.  We almost saw each other...in fact, I did see him but he never saw me.  I don't know if that is considered bad luck or not but I am one that isn't superstitious so to me it didn't really matter.  I just did NOT want him to see me and that was a success.  Below are some of my favorite pictures taken before the ceremony of all the little details including flowers, getting ready, praying with my family and Crawford, and reading our letters.  Sometimes I can close my eyes and relive every single one of those moments. That day was truly special.

First Look with Dad

On the day I got engaged, I knew two things.  1. I didn't want Crawford to see me before the church doors opened and 2. I didn't want my dad to see my dress until the big day.  Keeping my dress a secret from my dad was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  We kept my dress at my Nanny's house just so I wasn't tempted to show him.  I had in my head exactly how I wanted that moment to go and I must say, it went PERFECT!  I had a tie patch made that said "Dad, I loved you first. 11-8-14" and sewed it to the back of a tie that I bought him.  I told him that I would be giving him his tie on the day of the wedding.  Those that know my dad, know that he is 100% dressed ALL THE TIME! It nearly killed him to not be able to see it before the wedding but I can honestly say he was glad I waited.  It was one of the most special calm moments before the crazy started and I will forever remember that "first look" with my dad.  Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Engagement Pictures

Is it just me or does it feel like I am going way back in time?  I really want to capture every single aspect of our wedding so I feel it is only appropriate to take it all the way back to our engagement pictures.  I look forward to one day being able to look back on these posts and live each moment over in my mind.  

We decided to take our engagement pictures at the place we met- Mount Olive College.  It is now called the University of Mount Olive but it will forever be Mount Olive College to me.  A family friend, and our ring bearers father, offered to take our pictures as a wedding gift. Before I start sharing some of the pictures, I feel that I need to note that the days leading up to the photo shoot were warm, like 70s-80s.  The day we took our pictures, a cold front came through and the temps dropped to the 30s-40s.  IT WAS FREEZING!! I have never been so cold in my life.  Somehow, we made it through and the pictures turned out great! Thanks again Dustin for braving the cold and capturing these awesome images.

Honeymoonin' in Paradise: Part Two

I blogged about the first 3 days of our honeymoon adventure here.  Today, I want to share the last half of the week with you.

Day four: very low key day. I was not feeling well and I think I stayed in the bed until 12. I finally mustered up some energy and we made our way down for pizza and some pool time. We had a complimentary couples massage scheduled for 3:00 so we didn't swim for long. The massage was AWESOME!! For 50 minutes, we laid in complete silence while two women massaged out all of the wedding planning stress that had built up over the last year. 

We ended the day with reservations at the Japanese steakhouse. Their Japanese isn't exactly like our and I am a picky eater so I didn't really care for it too much. The picture above was our "appetizer" and I have no clue what it was.

Day five: my absolute favorite day!! We did the Joe Knows tour as our last excursion and lets just say we ended the honeymoon with a bang!

We started off the day on a boat ride that took us to the Piton mountain where we then got to ride a bus to a volcano. It smelled terrible due to the sulfur in the air.

A picture of some of the people on our boat.

When we got to the volcano, we got to rub mud all over our bodies. It was pretty gross. Keep in mind, it smelled terrible. After the mud hardened, we stepped in to this hot tub-like body of water. It was about 105 degrees so it was pretty warm. We washed all of the mud off but left the mud on our faces.

Just look at those pearly whites. 

We then went to this waterfall and were able to swim and wash the mud off our faces. The water was freezing!! However, our skin was so soft afterwards.

This was us after the freezing swim with our tour guide- Big Al. Funny side note- Crawford and his brothers refer to their father as Big Al so Craw freaked out when the tour guide introduced himself as Big Al.  It made him a tad homesick so we had to get a picture with Big Al.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant and it was surprisingly delicious but I couldn't name a single thing I ate. It all looked foreign.  After lunch, we boarded the boat and set off for the reefs for a little snorkeling.

**insert awwww here**

Craw was ready to see some fish.

The water was insanely clear. This would have been my favorite part of the day. However, within the first five minutes of snorkeling and seeing the prettiest underwater scenery I have ever laid eyes on, BOTH of my contacts fell out. Have I mentioned how blind I am? I can't see my hand in front of my face without contacts so needless to say, I was done snorkeling after 5 minutes. Crawford thoroughly enjoyed it. After snorkeling, we got to chill and swim by the boat and listen to extremely loud music. It was a party boat so people could hear our music all over the island.  We ended the tour by the boat literally pulling straight up on the beach of our resort and hopping off.

Dinner on our last night was at the La Toc. I had filet mignon and it was delicious! Crawford didn't like it quite as much as I did.

This was us on the plane ride home. We were so ready to get home and see Hank! I was getting pretty sick at this point and my ears were killing me. Flying with double ear infections (went to doctor the next day) is no fun at all! We did manage to snag a magnet for the fridge and a new Christmas ornament.  I think that will be our tradition when we travel.

We arrived at my parents house at 12:30 am to the happiest/slimiest puppy kisses I have ever received.

We had a fantastic honeymoon and I will forever cherish these pictures and the memories we created!