Wedding pics!

I finally have uploaded all the pics I need. This might be a two-parter, with our honeymoon in OR coming next.

Ok...So I was living in Winter Garden, FL on my family's property/orange grove. There was a teeny little house at the end of the drive, and it was the perfect size for our starter home. I wish I had a pic of that, but they are buried on a CD somewhere. Here's a view from our house...we were surrounded by hay field on several sides, with a section of tall pines on another. They were so beautiful.

Anyway, my dad and uncle and aunt and great grandmother all lived on this property, and it had been homesteaded by our ancestors back in 1875. It was called Almyra, after the couple that first settled there.

It was such a beautiful house and grounds, with so many of my childhood memories, and we decided to get married under some trees at the corner of the lawn.

Plus, the family had decided that it was time to sell, with chunks of land being taken off for roads, and developments all around us. So, with that in progress, I wanted as many pics to remember this Grand Old House as possible. (Today it is demolished. As a tangible memoir I have two green tiles from the fireplace in the parlor. That about broke my heart.)

Here's the parlor, where I had some of my bridal photos taken. I don't have the photographer's pics on computer yet, but when I do, I'll post some.

Here's the female side of the party...DH's two sisters on the left, my sister-in-law on the right, and my little cousin Rebekah. Her brother Andrew was the ring bearer, and they both did so well!

Here is dh's entire family, plus one cousin on the far left. Yup...there's eight of them! And I couldn't have wished or dreamed for a better family to have as in-laws. They are so great!

Ok...trying for a little better progression here! I'm doing a house tour and our wedding at the same time....heh.

We had our rehearsel dinner at P.F.Chang's, which has american chineses food, and offers white and brown rice, which I love. Yumm. It's one of our favorite restaraunts, and I'm kinda glad the closest one is now 1 1/2 hours away, because it can sure take a toll on the 'ole pocketbook. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Afterwards we came home and started in on the flowers. I bought 20 dozen roses, I think, for about $100. They get them from Columbia or something. Anyway, my mother-in-law, two sister-in-laws and I worked on flowers until 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning! I was relaly happy with the flowers, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone to try this themselves. *lol* It makes for a very exhausting day, even though adrenaline helps get you through.

Here's my new mom helping with the dress. I'm so short, we had to get it as fluffy as possible!

Here are my little attendants. Aren't they the cutest? My brother and I were in my aunt and uncle's wedding, so I thought it was cool that two of their children were able to be in mine.

Here's the guy's walk-down. My father-in-law was able to officiate, so that was special. Dh had his brother and two friends for his men.

My dad bringing me down the aisle. It was so hard walking in grass in that dress! If I have a funny look on my face, it's because he was walking a little fast and I was concentrating so I wouldn't fall!

I don't think we captured it in a photo, but while we were saying our vows a butterfly came and flew around for a minute.

We had to kiss a lot, because the photographer told us to. *grin* I guess we didn't mind. Everyone still teases us about it though.

Our cake was so georgeous...I found the idea I wanted in a magazine, and my brother's wife offered to make the cake. She worked at a bakery for years, and does such a professional job. She was up until the wee sma's, maybe 5:30 am? to finish it to completion. I hated to cut into it!

I enjoyed taking our time about leaving....we didn't have the traditional send-off, because I still needed to go down to my house and finish packing! It was great to be able to visit a little longer with some friends, and not feel so pressured to get packed before the wedding. It's hard enough to pull off an event like that! I never could have done it without so many friends that helped with making and serving the food, and helping with the decorations. It was the day of my dreams!