Anniversary Post

Today is mine and Brent's 16th anniversary! Instead of sharing pictures of our wedding like I do just about every year, I am sharing details of our wedding WITH pictures! You're welcome!

And thanks to Natasha {as usual} for providing the template for this post.

Engaged - February 27, 2004

Brent and I had been talking about marriage for a long time. Once we both had jobs after graduation, I was READY. Brent and I went to a jeweler in Houston, TX and designed my engagement ring, so it was definitely not a surprise. I asked him to please just not throw the box at me when he got the ring ha. 

I ended up being on an out-of-town audit in Kansas for a big chunk of February. I left on a Monday and didn't come back until the following Friday {February 27}. That is the longest I've stayed in a hotel in my life! I drove myself to the airport and had my car in long-term parking. When I landed back in Austin Friday night, all I wished for was someone to help me with my luggage and walk me to my car WAYYYYY in the back of the parking lot. As I went down the escalator, I was super confused because Brent was standing at the bottom with a sign saying my name. I couldn't believe he came to help me with all my stuff!!! And then he turned the sign around, and it said 'Will you marry me?' What a surprise!

We took engagement pictures in the spring in the park by my parents' house where the kids all still play now!

Bridal photos - September 2004 - I don't think this is a Southern thing to do, but maybe it is? I loved getting to take bridal portraits because it was a chance to put on my gown, get my hair and makeup fixed, and go play dress-up! I loved my dress then and still love it now! The back had a double French bustle that was my absolute favorite detail. We took these pictures in one of the biggest parks in Austin, Zilker Park.

Married - October 16, 2004 - I wanted to get married as quickly as possible, and not quite 7 months from our engagement, we did! We originally tried for September 25 but couldn't get both the church and church hall for that date.

Location - S.S. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church Granger, TX - We got married in the same church my parents and my mom's parents were married in. I have always been a sucker for tradition, and I have always loved this church. The difficult part was this church is in the middle of nowhere, so there were no good options for a reception. We ended up using the church hall...which looks like a church hall connected to a 100+ year old church in a small country town in Texas, ha.

Weather - It was a perfect fall day in Texas! Sunny, blue skies, warm but not too hot. Gorgeous!

Number of guests - I don't remember exactly, but it was several hundred - somewhere between 300 and 400. My parents and Brent's parents paid for the wedding, so it was largely extended family and a lot of their friends.

Colors - Light pink, dark pink, a little bit of white and silver {For any Steel Magnolias fans out there, we had a lot of fun calling  my colors 'blush and bashful' in a very thick accent.}

A good shot of the bridesmaid dresses {pale pink} with their bouquets {light and dark pink roses}

Flowers - Roses - We ordered 1,000 light pink, dark pink, and white roses from Sam's, and I made all of the wedding bouquets with my bridesmaids a few days before the wedding. We also decorated for the reception the day before the wedding and used a TON of flowers in the church hall. We hired a florist to make the boutonnieres for the guys and to decorate the church for the ceremony.

One of my cousins filling vases for the tables at the reception

A close-up of some of the roses/bouquets

Readings - I always felt like Catholic services were unoriginal and always chose the same readings. Then when we got married I understood why - you only get so many choices ha! We did the very traditional 'Love is patient, love is kind' reading as one of them.

Hymn - I didn't want any singers during the wedding. We had all traditional music played on the church organ. I honestly couldn't remember any of the names of the songs, so I pulled out my program. Do any of these song names sound familiar? Ode to Joy, Cannon in D, Bridal Chorus, or The Wedding March? Ha!

Other Music - For the reception, we had a DJ. I didn't want to hire a band to sing covers of all the songs we wanted to hear plus a DJ is cheaper!

Meal - We had a beer and BBQ reception - this is a very traditional Texas wedding reception ha.

First Dance - I'm not really sure where the tradition started {German? Czech? Both?} but at weddings in Texas, a lot of times the first dance is led into by The Grand March. Everyone pairs up, and you do a follow-the-leader type dance around the dance floor, and at the end you have formed a circle around the bride and groom for their first dance.

Lined up and ready to dance!

For our first dance, Brent and I danced to a song called 'There's No Way' by Alabama. The lyrics are really beautiful and all these years later, I still love it! The music video is a real gem from the 80s, so it's fun to watch on YouTube as well. {grin}

Bridal Party - Our bridal party was ridiculous - we had 9 bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was my fault because I had my sister, 4 cousins, and 4 friends. My sister was my Matron-of-Honor. Brent's groomsmen were an assortment of his brother, some of his cousins and my cousins, and friends. He had 2 Best Men - his childhood/high school best friend and his college best friend, both named John.

One of my favorite pictures, I love the view of the church, you can see the back of my dress, you can see all the altar flowers, and our wedding party!

Honeymoon - We went to Turks & Caicos for our honeymoon and were there 6 days and 5 nights. We had a great time but were also ready to come home and start our life together! One piece of advice I always give people is to NOT fly out first thing Sunday morning for your honeymoon and SLEEP IN. We were exhausted at the start, ha.

Best Memories - The whole day was magical, and all these years later remains one of my best memories.

One thing I have never blogged about is my 'something borrowed'. My mom and dad are especially close to my dad's cousin's daughter, Kyle. Kyle's mom, Cherie, was a lot older than my dad, so he is closer in age to her kids. She has lived in NY her whole live and lived in Brooklyn for years and worked in one of the World Trade towers {not THE towers, but in the complex}. She saw the 2 towers fall and spent an entire day trying to walk home without being able to contact her family or friends. Needless to say, it was quite an ordeal. She bought herself some gorgeous Emerald-cut diamond earrings {1 carat EACH} and called them her 'I survived 9/11' earrings. The day of my wedding she surprised me and let me wear them for my something borrowed! I felt super special haha.

Also, I can't end a post about our wedding without talking about our cakes. I love wedding cake and really enjoyed designing ours and thought they turned out beautiful. [Well, I wouldn't call Brent's beautiful, but it sure was tasty.] I think this is becoming more widespread, but we had a traditional wedding cake plus a groom's cake.

Brent's grooms cake was a 3-foot-long chocolate Miller Lite beer bottle.

All these years later, still his favorite beer. {grin}

What was also funny is even though Brent's cake looks huge, it really didn't make that many servings, so we had a whole sheet cake {a typical birthday cake you buy at the grocery store is 1/4 sheet cake} in the kitchen...that everyone forgot about, so when the night ended, my parents had to take it home. The teachers at the high school got to enjoy some cake the next week!

Enjoying the topper on our 1-year anniversary

Regrets (if any) - I don't know if I'd say I have any true regrets, just things I'd change given it's been almost 20 years since our wedding. I've always been annoyed that we didn't realize when putting together my bouquet that there was a line of hot pink flowers - you can only see it in certain pictures, but it's always bothered me. I also kind of wish I'd worn my hair differently - it seems so stiff and formal, but I also know that if it'd been down I would have been stressed about it looking bad in pictures... That's about it, ha.

This was a fun post to write and take a trip down memory lane. I pulled out my box of wedding stuff and was looking through it, and the girls looked at our wedding album too!

Happy anniversary, honey! Here's to a WHOLE BUNCH MORE!