The Wedding Day

My MOH's and I woke up around 7:30 on the morning of the wedding. We were all very excited to start getting ready and just enjoy the events of the day. Everyone had told me that the day went so fast, so I was trying to soak up every moment of the entire day.

Around 8:30, Kelly and I headed out to Enterprise to swap out the regular rental car for the luxury rental. We hopped in the Jag and took off.......into the ghetto. Okay, so maybe it wasnt really the ghetto because Lex doesnt really have one, but still, we ended up in a very shady part of town. I looked at her and said "We are seriously drving a Jag through the ghetto." We both began dying laughing as I was picturing a shoot out occuring outside as we drove a $65,000 car past (because with everything else that happened pre-wedding, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary by that point), but we managed to get back into the part of downtown where the hotel was located. Then, in true *my wedding has been one crazy event after another* fashion, the roads leading to the hotel were blocked off due to a race. We circled, and circled, and circled, and there was absolutely no way to get into the hotel, unless we drove the wrong way on a one way street.....so, we did.....with a policeman seeing the whole thing and pointing his finger and yelling at us. Kelly was like, "You're going to go to jail on your wedding day." Ha! He saw us turn into the hotel so I'm sure he realized that we only went the wrong way out of sheer despiration and must've had sympathy for us. Thank you, Mr. Policeman.

When we got back into the hotel my hair and make-up girl, Amanda was already there working on Em's hair and the girls had fresh Starbucks  waiting for me. Is anyone else addicted to iced skinny carmel machaittios? I think I had one per day the week of the wedding :) Anyway, shortly after we arrived back, the hotel had the suite cleaned and ready, so we packed up our items from our regular room and moved over to the suite. M and I had planned months prior to stay in the suite for our wedding night, so they went on and let us move to the bigger room around 10 that day. It was great because it was much larger and had a seperate sitting. Once she was done with Em's hair, she did my hair and make-up and then did the other 2 girls. During this time, my mom and Kelly's mom and daughter (flower girl) arrived. Despite as crazy as it may sound, it was such a "chill" environment. Everyone was so relaxed, happy, and we were all socializing and soaking up the moments. Around noon, we ordered Jimmy Johns (Yum!) and our photographer arrived and began doing some of his artsy shots of the rings, shoes, etc.

LOVE the one of us jumping on the bed! Childhood memories

Wearing our matching robes, and the girls in their wedding jewelery.

We then headed down to the hotel lobby and began taking my bridal portriats. The hotel is very old and historic, so their lobby is perfect for those mansion style pictures. Again, the hotel was beyond amazing, letting us move furniture etc so we could score the perfect picture. We moved outside to take some more pictures for about 45 mintues until my honorary bridesmaids arrived and then we took some more pictures with them. It was a BEAUTIFUL day- 72 and sunny...quite rare for this time of year.


After our pictures were done, I actually got out of my dress and back into my "Future Mrs. Kinney" robe to relax for a bit. By this time everyone was at the hotel and I had each girl sign the bottom of my shoes with a silver sharpie. We relaxed, touched up our make-up and then headed over to the chruch around 4:30. At the church, we snapped a few more pictures with my nephew, grandparents, etc and then we headed to the bridal area to wait for the ceremony. During this time, I got handed a little teal box with a white ribbon (Helllloooooo Tiffany and Co) and a letter from M. I opened the box to find the heart tag toggle necklace with my new monogram inscribed on it. His letter was sweet and reading it made me even more excited to know that we were just moments away from being Mr and Mrs.
My dad walked in shortly after I opened my gifts and we got to spend some QT before he walked me down the aisle. Around 5:30, they moved me up to the hallway and I was listening to the music and such from the stairwell. My legs were shaky so my dad got down on one knee and let me sit on it like a chair (a special moment that will forever be etched in my mind). After one song ended and before the video was supposed to play, I heard Cannon in D being played. I was like "No, no, the video! The video!" He said "It wouldn't work. Something is wrong with the system. We've been trying for 2 hours to get it to work and it just wont. It's okay. It's okay. Just enjoy it and don't worry." I went through a few moments of sheer heartbreak as I worked on that video for weeks. However, as I walked up to head down the aisle, I forgot all about it. The doors opened, Clocks by Coldplay began playing and I saw my man- for the first time :)




I remeber seeing a few faces as I walked down the aisle-not many, but a few. I kept focusing on looking at M and not tripping over my large and in charge dress. As we made it to the front, I felt so calm and relaxed. I had both my dad and M there with me, my friends in front of me and family behind me- what more could a girl want?! My other uncle prayed and then M and I moved up to the stage. Having one arm hooked in M's and the other holding my boquet presented a problem since I needed to hold up my dress to make it up the stairs. I looked up at Jules and was like "You've gotta take these." She took my flowers, we made it up to the stage and my uncle began by saying "Just breathe. You made it" M and I took deep breaths and I scanned the audience to see everyone during this moment. I kept telling myself to soak it all in and.....I did. I enjoyed every moment of our ceremony and surprisingly, we both made it through our vows sans tears. One of the sweetest moments during our ceremony was when we took communion and then prayed together over our marraige. Right then and there, we gave our entire marraige to God-what a comfort and no better way to begin our new life together :)
After the ceremony, we walked out and headed downstairs to wait until everyone lined up for our flower petal toss. After about 10 minutes, everyone was out and we came out, down the stairs, and into the car.

I had petals EVERYWHERE- I mean EVERYWHERE. My train caught them all and M and I spent the 3 min ride to the park picking out petals and laughing. As we arrived at the park another wedding was taking pictures under the archway we got engaged under, so we headed to another area and took some pictures while we waited for them to be finished. We snapped our pictures and headed back to the chruch to meet back up with everyone. At the church, we spent a few more mintues taking pictures and then we headed to the reception.



We arrived at the reception and we had a little wedding party toast and then we walked in the reception to "Forever" We immediately had our first dance and then we began socialing with our guests. We sat down for about 5 minutes and grabbed some food and then we cut the cake and my dad and I had our dance. And thats when I lost it. I cried like a baby the whole song. I just couldnt help it. I was overcome with emotion throughout the entire song.

Crying. Of course :)

We LOVED our cake!!! Notice the chalkboard cake topper? 2 teachers :)

We headed out to the runway to take some more pictures as the sun was setting. Because of TSA laws, we could only have so many people out on the runway at a time and we had to be quick. We snapped some family pictures and then we took some more with our wedding party. The sky was beautiful and our runway pictures are some of our favorites.

Taken from Tiff's iPhone. We cant wait to see Nelson's pics!

The rest of the night was spent dancing, socializing and photo-boothing! We had a blast, especially with the old school dance party the wedding party had (I cant wait to see the pics from it) and then around 10:30, we had a sparkler send off and we headed out....as husband and wife :)

With my silly parents

      



If you read this far, congratulations! Ha!
Honeymoon posts coming next......

Bridal Tea and Rehearsal

The day before the wedding, I had my bridal tea for my 3 MOH's and my 7 honorary bridesmaids. Because 3 of the girls in the wedding came from out of state, the only day to have the tea was Friday morning. We chose the Gift Box Tea Room for the tea because it was in town, has good food, and they had a little party room we could use. On the invite, I asked all of the girls to wear fascinators since it was a "tea" & because I l-o-v-e fascinators!  I thought it was a fun idea to incorporate and turns out, it was also the start of the Queen's Jubilee that day, so it fit the day perfectly!

We had a little "spray tan party" the night before so we could all get tanned, where I was reunited with my long lost college best (who I hadn't seen in over 2 years), Krista, who flew in all the way from Hawaii and with my MOH, Julia, who lives in NC! If you live in the Lexington area, call Jessica @ MobileGlow for spray tans. She's so fun and the tans are great, long lasting and super affordable. Plus, its a fun way to have a little girls night :) We had wine, chocolate covered strawberries and other snacks, thanks to my friend Ashley who hosted last minute after the house disaster! I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't- whoops!

My wonderful mamma! My dress was a $15 steal from Marshalls!

My beautiful and amazing Matron's of Honor!

You can't even tell she just had a baby!!

I was so blessed that every girl was able to make it to the tea, including our matchmaker who had literally had her baby a few days prior! My other OOT bridesmaid from FL also arrived, so it was great to be reunited with her as well. We snapped LOTS of pictures, drank tea, ate sandwiches/quiches and I gave each girl her gifts.

My 2 lovely Kappa Delta pledge sisters, Krista & Jane

For my MOH's I gave them a champagne colored Coach wristlet, their necklace and earrings we made (I couldn't find anything I loved, so my mom's friends helped us make some), and their reception flip flops (Old Navy flops tied with a navy ribbon).
For my BM's I gave them a monogrammed bikini bag (bought from the same company we used to order our invites), a Vera Bradley green and navy sunglasses case, their earrings and bracelet we made, the Thirty-One pink flower for their hair (I had to incorporate my 2nd job in the wedding somehow!), and their reception flip flops. Of course, I used my mad bargain shopping skills when purchasing their gifts and I am SO pleased at the amount of items I was able to get each girl while staying in budget. They said they didn't expect any less from me! Ha!

Thanks, Tiff, for taking this picture :)

After the tea, we headed to mine and mom's favorite nail shop, Lovely Nails, and got manis and pedis. We've gotten to know the employees their quite well and they made sure to take extra good care of us that day! Again, if you live in Lex, I highly recommend them :)

My 3 MOH's and myself went to the reception venue after we left the nail shop to check out the table set up and such then went back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal. We headed over to the church, which was only a few blocks from the hotel, and had the traditional rehearsal. It was the first time I had seen all of my family that had come into town for the wedding and during the rehearsal is when it really hit me that we were getting married. Because of the sheer craziness after the house flooded, I never really had time to sit and soak in the fact that it was all real and about to happen- we were about to get married. As we were standing up on stage, looking out to where everyone was going to be the next day I was like holy cow, this is real, we are finally tying the knot! It was almost a surreal moment for me. I tried right then and there to soak up every minute of everything that was about to happen over the next 24 hours and to not think about the house or anything else that may distract me. My dream day was about to happen and I was SO excited :)

As soon as we did our final run through, we headed to our lovely rehearsal dinner, which was held at the Equestrian Woods Country Club. We had a fun night of eating a delicious dinner and spending time with everyone who was so near and dear to us. M gave his groomsmen their personalized Louisville Sluggar bats and we also gave out our gifts to our parents and others involved in the wedding as everyone ate their desserts.

The fellas with my hubs and their bats- M's best buds from college :)

Some of my maids/matrons and guest book girls!

After the dinner, about 15 of us headed out to downtown Lexington for a night out on the town. After finding several overly crowded places, we ended up at Chase Tap Room where we spent a few hours (but just a couple, we had to get our beauty rest) having drinks and socializing. It was an absolute and total blast and an excellent night before the wedding outing! M and I kept remarking how our ENTIRE wedding party got along like they were best friends. Many of the people had never met until our wedding weekend and it was like we were one huge group of lifelong friends. We were/are beyond blessed with amazing friends and our amazing wedding party!!

Around midnight, me and my 3 MOH's headed back to the Gratz Park Inn and crashed-but not before being the super annoying bride and updating my fb status that it was officially wedding day. ha!

Wedding Day post coming next......

A tour of our poor little casa!

I made this video the other day since so many people were asking about the house. I posted it to my fb page and wanted to share it with y'all as well. We are now residents of Marriott's Residence Inn and will remain here until the house is deemed livable again. Since we are selling M's house, it was just too much to try to keep it in sell able condition with all of the extra things that had to be moved in since the flood, plus us living there, plus 2 dogs. So, our insurance agreed to pay for us to stay in a hotel! We have a cute little one bedroom apartment, plus daily maid service, free breakfast & supper, wi-fi, and they'll even do our grocery shopping for us!  Of course, we'd MUCH rather be settled into OUR home as husband and wife, but this will have to do now.

I'd be lying if I said this was all a ton of fun and we were loving it, but.....we aren't. It's been rough and I've been pretty bummed out all week that we are starting off our married life in such limbo. I mean, I always planned we'd return from our honeymoon, use all of are new stuff, and spend the summer getting settled. Instead, our wedding gifts are still in boxes and bags in my parent's house and we are living in a hotel. I do think I'm going to bring some of our new monogrammed dishes over here so we can at least pretend. Ha!

We are off to Chicago in the morning (and getting to see one of my sorority sisters, yay!), then onto Wisconsin Saturday-Monday for M's cousin's high school graduation.  I've never been to Wisconsin, and I most definitely cant wait to eat cheese there. Seriously-it's on my bucket list "eat cheese in Wisconsin" Ha! Don't judge :)

Here's the house! I pray none of you ever have to deal with this in your own home! It's amazing how much damage water can cause!


http://youtu.be/hV3jticO4Ms

We'reeeee Baaaaack! And Married :)

Hubs and I returned from our honeymoon yesterday afternoon. We had a great time (honeymoon post coming soon), and are now back at M's house for awhile until my house is deemd livable again after the great flood of 4 days before "I Do." The plus side to it all, we are getting a virtually new house on the inside -Helllllooooo my wanna be HGTV side gets to come out in full force! The down side, it's going to be chaotic!

But until then, here a few of the wedding sneaks from our awesome photographer, Nelson Benton. And of course, I can FINALLY reveal "The Dress"!

Life is going to be crazy around here for the next few weeks as we are dealing with the house, living under one roof for the first time, plus having to go to WI next weekend then SC shortly after that for family events (we're trying to see just how much we can put on our plates right now, can you tell?! Ha!). But I promise, full wedding and honeymoon details are coming!

Enjoy the sneaks :)

  

Not one of Nelson's pics, but I was dying to show our cake!

From our photobooth at the reception :)

XOXO The New Mrs. Kinney :)

It's Wedding Day!!!!!

It's finally here!!!! I woke up at 6 SO excited and am waiting for lovely matrons of honor to get up and get moving with me. EEEEEE!!! I'm getting ready to become a WIFE!!!!

Remember last week, when I said, "Surely nothing else can happen, right?" Well, it did. On Tuesday my entire house flooded from a busted water line leading into my refrigerator. There were 2 inches of water in virtually every room of my house. No joke.  So, since Tuesday, my house has been gutted and we've had to basically move out. I'm starting to think I should sell my story to Hollywood and call it "The Bad Luck Bride." Ha! Thankfully, State Farm has been AMAZING and put me and my girls up in this swank little hotel in downtown where we've stayed the past few nights and have sent people over to help pack up my house, etc. I thought I was going to need to be medicated the other day because my mind was gone; I honestly could not think straight. However, we've made it to today, everyone is here, nothing wedding related was ruined, and M and I are going to be getting a virtually new home on the inside as a result.

I wanted to share with y'all the video montage that is going to be shown at our wedding. It tells the story of our lives and we cannot wait to show it to our guests!! Enjoy!!!


XOXO
The Almost Mrs. Kinney (in 10 hours to be exact)