...and we're gonna get married

We had quite the weekend and I think I have just now recovered.  My sister Bekah's wedding was this past Saturday and so we traveled to my hometown for a long weekend.  Sadly, as we were packing on Thursday, we found out that my uncle had just passed away and our trip would be extended.  So we traveled home to Florence for a wedding on Saturday and a funeral on Monday...quite an emotional roller coaster. 

The wedding was beautiful and my sister was a gracious and beautiful bride.  We started the wedding festivities Friday evening with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Hannah did a great job at the rehearsal practicing her flower girl duties and I was quite confident that the wedding ceremony would go off without a hitch.

After the rehearsal, friends and family met for dinner at a wonderful little restaurant in Florence.  Here is the happy couple, just hours away from their big day...

and here is a rare picture of us sisters all together...

Now I think I will take a moment to introduce a few new faces to the blog...

This is Holly, Hugh's sister...

She is super sweet and has a beautiful smile.  Holly lives in Birmingham and has offered us her babysitting services (even after seeing my children in all their glory over the weekend).  I love her dearly :)

Here is my cousin Jessie and her husband Matt...

They live in Birmingham with their two girls Ruthie and Elsie, some of Hannah and Lily's favorite playmates.  Jessie is the daughter of my uncle who passed away last Thursday so please keep her in your prayers. 

I would also like you to meet Jack and Mary Morgan, aka the ring bearer and other flower girl.  They are relatives of Hugh and Mary Morgan is Hannah's new best friend.  Hannah loved her and followed her around all weekend. 

Lastly, I am going to introduce you to the wedding weekend wild child posse.  You might have seen some of these faces before.  Here they are in action...notice the blurs at the bottom of the photo...

The posse was headed up by these two....

They were up way past their bedtime and having way too much fun to slow down...

Here is another member of the crew...Cousin Ella...

There were many other members of the group and I really should have gotten a group shot.  I could go on and on with my introductions but I think I will stop here.  It was quite a memorable evening full of friends, family and fun.  I think we all collapsed in our beds that night from exhaustion, but it was worth it.

The next morning we were up with the birds with last minute wedding preparations.  I realized after the fact that I didn't take many photographs of the day, but there was just too much to do.  Trying to juggle mommy duty, sister duty and bridesmaid duty was quite a task.  Thankfully there were professionals around snapping pictures all day.

I did manage to get a few pictures of the bride before the ceremony including this one...

So beautiful and remarkably relaxed at this point!

You might wonder how Hannah did with her flower girl duties.  Well...she made it to the end of the aisle sprinkling her flower petals just perfectly.  She was almost to the spot where she was supposed to stand.  Then she paused, literally inches away from me and the other bridesmaids.  Her little index finger popped up - like when you make the number 1 - or in this case like you are saying "wait a minute."  She then turned around and headed back up the aisle perusing the flower petals.  Prior to the wedding I had handed her a single flower petal to hold and it ended up in her basket with all the other petals she sprinkled.  So Hannah decided to go back up the aisle and look through all of the petals in search of the single petal I had given her (which looked exactly like all the others).  Thankfully Matt intercepted her at the back of the church and brought her around to me just as the Trumpet Voluntary began and Bekah made her grand entrance.  Oh my sweet Hannah!  Never a dull moment!

It was a special weekend that we will never forget.  Congrats Bekah and Hugh!  We love you!!