Wedding Candids!

Well, I guess I should start with the week before the wedding. We started with picking all the gourds and getting all the booze gathered up. My dad had grown all the mini pumpkins for me so that was all taken care of. Then I had practice hair and make-up and my wax job. Wow was that an experience, but it really wasn't all that bad. I would consider doing it again if I was going on a trip somewhere warm.Gib's family arrived late Wednesday night. I worked a half day Thursday and then waited for my brother Nik and my maid of honor Jen to get here. My dad came up to to help set up the reception hall and get tuxes. While the guys worked on getting everything set up Jen and I went and got our nails done. I had never had my nails done so this was kind of a treat. I didn't really know what to expect. So I was a little suprised when the nail lady said to me, "my gift to you", I was like what gift and then I looked at my nails....she had put little flowers on both my ring fingers for good luck I guess. I wasn't trilled, but I went with it. because it can always be photoshopped out of the few pic that really matter. Then we went and helped the guys finish up. We went for dinner with dad, but Gib had to stay back because we had gotten the wrong table clothes and the caterer was going to drop of the right ones and he had to tow his blazer home because the petal broke. Then when we got done with dinner we started on folding programs. I also got to open a special gift from my maid of honor. It was full of wonderful things: wine, lingerie, lingerie bag, victoria secret lotion/spray/bath gel, a honeymoon dice game, a movie: PS I love you (which is great and a tear jerker), a bride tote, and a few other unmentionables. I was so spoiled by her. She is the greatest friend I could ever ask for.

Then an unexpected trip to the bar, Shenanigans took place. It was a lot of fun, but I knew I had a few busy days ahead of me so I went straight to bed when we got home at 2:30am.

Friday morning start off by my mom, Bob, and my aunt Nancy showing up at the house ready to get to work on the reception hall. When we got out there, my uncle Ray and aunt Sue and cousin Jan were already there waiting on us...it's all my mom's fault she's always running late. My aunt Marjorie and her husband Howard also came out and helped. They all did a great job and we couldn't have gotten it done without everyone's help. Then I met Karly and her mom, showed them the office and got my back adjusted by Dr. Karly, went and checked on the flowers and then it was about time to get showered up for the rehearsal dinner. We had the rehearsal dinner at the Pizza Ranch and then went to the church. Rehearsal went well, but I did get a little overwhelmed. I was suprised at home by a cool hologram on our garage door that night when I got home that said "I love you". It made my tears stop and put a smile on my face. I then got showered up and ready for bed because the next morning we started hair at 9 am.

This is my mom's brother Raymond, Sister Majorie, my mom Marie, and Sister Nancy.

So Saturday started with hair and makeup.

Then getting dressed at the church.

And then lots of pictures. Thank goodness for great neighbors that did a lot of behind the scenes work (getting ice, chilling the beer, getting the bar ready, lighting all 200+ candles, etc.) We started pics at 12:30 at the church with just Gib and I.

It was a very overwhelming feeling seeing eachother for the first time all ready to go. Then we went to Sertoma Park to take wedding party pics.

This was the same location that we took our engagement pics so it was very cool to do our wedding pics there too. We would have loved to take more outdoor pics, but time was limited. When we got back to the church we took family pics and then it was time to relax before the ceremony.

This is me totally exhausted and I'm not even married yet. It was quite funny watching me try to sit down in a little preschooler chair with a corset/lace up dress on. I think I had to be pulled up from that position.

The Ceremony was beautiful and I feel like I don't remember much from it, so it's a good thing we videotaped it.

Ring bearer Evan and Flower girl Kylie:

Junior groomsmen Austin and Junior bridesmaid Shantel:
Nate and Crystal:

Greg and Karly:

Best Man Heath and Maid of Honor Jennifer:

Dad walking his little girl down the aisle:

Mr. & Mrs. Gib Davis

Then it was off to the reception. We made a pit stop to have a drink with the wedding party and friends before heading out to the reception. The reception turned out great. The food was awesome and we didn't run out of anything (well, I take that back we had to send some to get more captain morgan, but other than that we did ok). The koozie were a big hit as our favor for our guests.Our first dance was very emotional but awesome. We danced to Making Memories of Us by Keith Urban.

Then the father daughter dance. Dad was a little nervous but he did great. We danced to My Wish by Rascal Flatts.

And then the wedding party dance.

Austin and Shantel weren't to keen on wanting to dance together, but.....

I think they ended up having a lot of fun! Aren't they adoreable!

Then it was time to cut the cake. We were both nice to eachother and there was no smashing of cake in the face. But in some of the pics I have it looks like Gib is gaging me with his fingers.

The garter auction was fun, but long. Thanks to all of you that contributed! You are all amazing! And little Andrew who finally won the garter, has had it hanging by his bed every since I was told by his mother.

The bouquet was caught by my junior bridesmaid, Shantel, but Renae almost had it if she would have just pushed Shantel out of the way a little more!!! The night soon ended, but we weren't quite ready to go home so we all went to the local bar for a few more, and then I finally called it a night around 1:30.I was so excited to get out of that heavy hot dress, so I could go to the bathroom without help. When we got home we were greeted by a candlelit rose petal path to our bedroom and on the bed was a heart made from rose petals and a set of his and her scarecrows. If you don't know I love fall and especially Halloween.

Sunday morning started with us being woke up by our friend/groomsman Greg. We then met up with Gib's family to go out for breakfast. While at breakfast I got to see both sides of my family which was nice too. After breakfast we went home to say our goodbyes to Gib's family and then start laundry and packing. We also had to go to the reception hall to finish cleaning up. We then divided left over food and cold beer between all our neighbors. They were all very greatful, because the cheesey hashbrowns and roast beef were great. We finally got to bed around 10:30 only to be awoken by the alarm at 2 am for us to get up to and get ready for our week in Jamaica with our flight leaving at 5:05 am.

Big Gib, Rosemary, Holly, and Little Gib

That about sums up what all takes place during a wedding weekend. It's very busy and you feel like you don't have enough time to talk to anyone. So sorry if I missed talking to you at the wedding, I sure tried to make the rounds.

I will be posting our professional pictures as soon as we get them and I have time to get on here again. I should be getting them this week and I was told there is over 2000, so I'll have to do some limiting before posting again.

Honeymoon Sandal's Negril, Jamaica

I'll be posting some of the pics I have a little backwards. I haven't received my wedding pictures back, so I'll start with the Honeymoon. We had some photos taken by the resort at sunset which was fun, but the poses where a little strange.

This was our first full day of being in Jamaica. We were going for dinner at Kimono's that night which is like a hibachi. It was our favorite place to eat. We started with appetizers, then salads, and then fried rice my favorite. They also made chicken, steak, and then 3 seafoods mixed together.

We also did a lot of snorkeling while we were there. It was my first time ever to snorkel, so I was a little slow at first, but got the hang of it quick. Gib was very good at it. We snorkeled 4 different days to 4 different locations. We had a guide named D.T., double trouble, flava flave, etc. He was Hilarious. And Toby took underwater pics while we were snorkeling.
The sunsets in Negril are beautiful when you get one. We were there during hurricane season, so we had lots of cloudy days, but we did get a few amazing sunsets (5:45pm).

While we were in Jamaica we had to go deep sea fishing. We were so excited to do this. It rained pretty hard the whole night before and was still sprinkling in the morning. There was an amazing rainbow out that morning though. We were the first to arrive to where the small boat would pick us up at so when we got on board we were the first to catch a fish. They had seven lines out at a time and we were on the water for 5 hours. We didn't catch anything! Well, I should take that back we caught a small lizard fish right off shore, but I think that they put this fish on there before we left, or maybe it was just bait. We were kind of bummed, but that's the luck of fishing. Our guide, Martin was very cool and hung out with us the whole time talking about just about anything. And just for your information I was the only girl not to throw up on this trip, Thanks to our neighbor Lisa for getting us Dramamine.

I would have to say my favorite part of the trip was going to Rick's Cafe to cliff jump. I was the first to jump and I chickened out of the 35 foot jump, but did the 25 foot. Gib did the 35 foot jump. It was so much fun after you finally got the nerve to jump. The water was so crystal clear blue. The professional jumpers would jump from 50 foot platforms after doing a handstand for a few minutes and begging for money. And then there was a guy who jumped from a dead tree that is 70 feet high, but he would only jump once he was given $20 from the crowd. It was so worth it.

I'm not sure if what I'm about to say next was Gib's favorite, but it had to be at the top of his list. We found out from some other guests that you could kayak out to this little island that was not part of Sandal's property. The island was completly untouched. No buildings or restrooms. Over there was some fisherman that trapped fresh lobster. You got to pick out of the cage which lobster you wanted and then they would chop it in half and put it on the grill with butter and garlic. There was a small fee for this, but all the guys over there loved us because we brought a cooler full of beer, wine and water over and shared with them. It was such an experience. Cats roaming all around trying to eat any scraps. And there was a few other couples over there at the same time. Obviously not from the US, they were basically nude. It was very different. And after we were done, we kayaked back by Hedonism, which is a nudey resort, and you won't believe this but the song, I Like Big Butts came on and all we could see was a bunch of naked people shaking what the good lord gave them. It was hilarious. I didn't eat, but I enjoyed drinking and sitting on the beautiful beach. If we would have known about this place earlier, I'm sure we would have been over there everyday.

This was our bus/taxi driver, Perry, that picked us up at the airport and drove us to the hotel. I was his co-pilot and asked him lots of questions during the hour and a half trip.

And last but not least we have a few pics with Norman. Norman is 59 years old and he has been growing his dreads since 1995. Norman was the creator of a few qifts we bought for our friends and family.

More to come when I get some more time and more pics! I hope you enjoy!

We are home!

We made it home from Jamaica late Sunday night and we both had Monday off to try and get our lives together for the work week. Our house looks like a bomb went off in it. We had a beautiful day for our wedding and I'm looking forward to sharing pics when I get them. Our reception/dance was awesome we partied all night long. I feel like I didn't get to talk to everyone there, but I tried. I really appreciate all our friends and family who traveled to be with us on our special day. Words can't express what you all mean to us. Jamaica was very nice. We were sad to leave but so excite to be home to eat a great steak and potato and visit our friends. I will start to work on photos as I get them. As of now I only have the sunset pics the resort took and the pics I took the whole week we were there. I'm hoping to see the wedding pics in the next week or two. And if any of you have pics please email them to me.