We left for Tennessee on Thursday after I got out of work. The drive to Gatlinburg wasn't too bad and we made it in about 4.5 hours. We stayed at a beautiful lodge that the families rented out for the wedding and a select few guests who also got to stay there. This was our lovely room for the weekend:
On Friday, we went into town to go to brunch and do some exploring. Being from Kentucky, S's family has visited Gatlinburg many, many times; however, I had never been there. I can't get over how much is crammed into that little mountain town; tons of businesses and restaurants. It's mostly cheesy/tacky touristy stuff, but I was able to find one cute shop to buy some souvenirs for my fam.
On Friday evening we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner then to my surprise, a little impromptu birthday party for yours truly. I was changing in our bedroom after dinner when S told me to come into the kitchen because his brother was going to do a toast. As I walked out into the dark room, calling for S.. the lights switched on and about 20 people stood there singing "Happy Birthday" to me :) It was really nice and very appreciated. Especially since it was the bride's idea. Very thoughtful!
I didn't cry immediately, but eventually the water works started :p
Saturday was the big day. The ceremony started at approximately 2:00 pm. It was outdoors and a beautiful, sunny day. Once it was over, everyone made their way back in to the lodge for food and libations. It was a very low key wedding; no caterer, no DJ, and things wrapped up quite early. I would say that by 6-7 pm, everyone had filtered out. We hung out and watched the bride & groom open their gifts then they left to go to their hotel room for the night. At that point, we were still ready to party and decided to go back into town to finish celebrating my birthday. We made our way over to the Smokey Mountain Brewery for some live music and adult beverages. We had a great time and S even got the band to play 'She's Country' by Jason Aldean for me<3
My birthday key lime pie from S<3
Yesterday, we all got up and had to be out by 11am so we packed up and headed out to brunch. We had some really yummy country cookin' then headed back East. All in all, we had a great time and I still managed to have a great birthday.
Lessons I have learned, which I will apply to my future wedding:
1) Do not leave projects such as centerpieces to be completed until the night before the wedding.
2) Hire a caterer (I thought this was a pretty obvious one).
3) Hire entertainment (DJ/band, etc.)
4) Hire a professional photographer (also pretty obvious?)
5) Definitely hire a wedding/ event coordinator so that the mothers of the bride and groom and especially the bride will not have to stress out over the smallest details 20 minutes before the ceremony.
Crazy, I tell ya. This was the ultimate DIY wedding, but not in the best way.
Everyone was in the wedding spirit and that of course led to many conversations about when the groom's older brother (S) was going to get married. Even the pastor said straight to my face (AND S), "so, will I be doing your wedding next?" Oh yah, that was like the theme of the whole weekend. Are you all going to be next? When are y'all getting married?
Actual conversation between S's 10-year-old cousin and me:
Z - "So, haven't you and S known each other longer than [bride] and [groom]?
me - "yes."
Z - (with a confused look on his face) "And they are getting married before you?"
me - "mmmm yep."
Z - awkward laugh
me - "Maybe you should tell S to get a move on"
Z - "Yah, I was going to say something to him....I would really like to have you as a cousin."
me - "awwwwww"
I can promise you this was a completely non-instigated conversation. He came up with this all on his own. It's so funny what kids pick up on. Thanks to the bride and groom for completely confusing this poor innocent child, lol.
I have lots of pictures to come both from this weekend and our Keeneland weekend in Kentucky a few weeks ago. I am bringing my MacBook to the Apple store today on my lunch break so hopefully they can figure out what the problem is and get me back up and running in no time! Hope you all had a GREAT weekend!
PS - Yay short week then Thanksgiving!! (and another trip to Kentucky for us)
3 comments:
What a wonderful weekend!!! :)
We had a super low budget wedding with lots of DIY elements, but we most definitely hired a professional photographer. I've been to several weddings where a family member or family friend was the photographer and it has never gone well. Also, I totally understand the whole "you've known each other longer than the bride and groom??" stuff. Christopher and I dated 4 years before we got married and most of our friends met, dated, and got married all during our 4 years of dating. It's always weird when I think about how we've been together 8 years (married 4) and yet our friends who have been together 6 years have been married longer than us at 5 years. Ha!
Aww Happy Belated!! Such an awesome weekend. PS. At first I thought you were the one getting married. Haha. Congrats to the happy couple.
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