pre-wedding

Well...its over. I must say that the last couple of weeks have been amazing! I of course have to go into great detail regarding the wedding because I don't want to forget anything. I want to thank anyone and everyone who was involved in ANY way. The weekend was absolutely PERFECT. I couldn't have asked for anything to go so well. The weather was amazing...70's and sunny all weekend, making it seem almost like fall.
It all started on Wednesday the first of September. Lee and I headed to Roanoke from Virginia Beach. I spent the ENTIRE day packing our stuff. There was so much to pack and a certain way it had to be packed. All our gifts for family and attendants, (bridesmaid gifts: Vera Bradley makeup bags w/philosophy "Everything's coming up Rainbows" lip glosses, Necklaces from ETSY, Plump it up eye makeup from Sephora, Bon Bon coconut bath wash from Dylan's Candy Bar and mini bottles of champagne! Groomsmen Gifts- Initialized flasks with cigar holders, cigars, and mini bottles of champagne!) clothes for the weekend, clothes for the honeymoon, wedding dress, cats, decorations. We were crammed into the honda and didn't make it to my Dad's until almost 1am. Thanks to Hope for watching our precious children (Simone and Pumba) for two weeks!
Thursday, Lee and Andie and myself headed over to my mom's to finish our favors. We made little jars of apple butter for everyone. It symbolized for us, the ending of summer (Labor Day Weekend) and transitioning into fall (Our favorite Season). They turned out beautifully. Here's a picture my friend Caron took of the favors at the wedding...



Thursday night, Lee went to his groomsmen Jeff's house to hang out and go to the baseball game. Lee's brother, John, drove up from High Point with our friend, Spencer. Thursday nite, Lee, John, Spencer, Andie and I, all had a little sleepover at my dad's house. So much fun! :)

Friday morning the guys headed out to go beer tubing and hang out at Jeff's cabin with some of the groomsmen. I know they had a great time..and I will say that beer and guns don't usually mix, but they somehow made it work. The video Jeff made of John and Spencer is priceless..I will have to try to get a copy of those! Meanwhile, Andie and I headed over to Salon Del Sol to meet Krystle for my hair trial. Krystle did a great job..I love her! Afterwards we headed over to the nail salon to meet Suzanne and Hope and got our nails done. I decided it wasn't priority for my bridesmaids to have nails/hair/makeup done. I let them decide which of those they wanted to do..if any at all. I didn't want them to feel like they had to spend a ton of money to be in my wedding! After the nails appointment, Suzanne and Andie and I headed over to the Florist in downtown Roanoke to see the flowers! Everything looked amazing..I couldn't believe how beautiful the flowers turned out! We then had lunch at Panera Bread and I headed over to Hope's to soak my toe (it was still infected).

Later that night, Hope and I went to the airport to pick up Lee's cousins, Nick and Austin. I LOVE THEM! From the moment I met them in Minnesota two years ago I've loved them. They have been so welcoming when it comes to me and joining their family! I'd do anything for those two! We immediately whisked them off to the tuxedo place for them to try on their tuxs. Hope and I were going to drop them off downtown at Macados for the Bachelor Party. Lee told me to come on in and have a drink with everyone. All of Lee's friends, and groomsmen, and my cousins, Troy and Robert were there. Lee's dad and future step-mom joined up with us as well. We were going to call it a night but we were having too much fun. Let's just say that later that night, I found myself surrounded by about 10 of Lee's friends/groomsmen on the dance floor at Cornerstone. Lee's cousins, Rachel and Ellen had made their way downtown too and it turned into ONE BIG Party! We had a blast!! I couldn't believe Lee and I crashed each other's bachelor/bachelorette parties..we wouldn't have had it any other way. :) and Nick, I'm dying to see pictures from that night..I know they're crazy! :)

Saturday was the day of the Rehearsal. All day long I'd been hearing hilarious stories from the night before. One inparticular about Jeff waking up in a random hotel room by housekeeping...no one was checked into this room, so how he got in there was a huge mystery. Lee has a hilarious note that he saved from the maid in the room..talking about how she found Jeff and cleaned up the vomit on the floor..my goodness, those poor maids :( Hilarious. We all showed up for the rehearsal at the Barn at 1:00. I was worried that there would be stragglers since the night before was pretty wild. Of course everyone but Jeff was there. My cousin Robert was a stand-in..when all of a sudden "Boom!" Jeff slams through the door doesn't say a word and just walks right to his spot. Everyone was laughing so hard...he'd had a hard night :) The rehearsal went really well...except for the part where my dad was supposed to be helping me up the steps to walk down the aisle and left me at the bottom. I was so afraid he would do that on the wedding day! Gosh, Dad!! Here are some pics of the rehearsal:









Andie and I headed over to the Hotel Roanoke where I had gotten a room for the next two nights. We got ready and went down to the Rehearsal dinner.




The dinner was incredible. The food was TOP NOTCH and amazing. I wasn't expecting the Hotel Roanoke food to be that great, considering I'd been to several banquets there and the food was below average. I was so impressed. Lee loved his Groom's cake. It was a huge mountain of Lee's favorite (chocolate donuts) It was made to look like a mountain with a river and trees and even a few deer here and there. He loved it. I HOPE someone got a picture of it, because I didn't! We had open bar at the rehearsal as well. That got people moving around the room, and then the speech's and toasts started. Nick, Rachel, Aunt Linda, and a few others got up and said a few words about Lee and myself. Lee tried to get up and thank everyone, but of course (as usual) started bawling like a baby..he gets so emotional!








After an amazing dinner the whole party headed to the pine room for drinks on the veranda. My plan was to have a bubble bath that night and relax so everyone and I do mean EVERYONE, headed downtown to do Karaoke. Unfortunately, I missed all of this..but I heard it was amazing and a great time! I think the Hammarbacks, Millers, and Rennichs pretty much took over downtown Roanoke! Party animals :) Meanwhile, I started looking for my cousin, Andie who dissappeared with Nick's Cousin Austin. At one point they were spotted in the courtyard making out...(oooooooooooo) but didn't show up until a couple hours later ;) They were so cute all weekend :) Finally, I made it to bed...I couldn't believe I was getting married the next day!