in a nut shell...

Well, the wedding and honeymoon are officially over, and it's back to work and reality tomorrow. I'm assuming most brides go through a bit of sadness at this point, all the planning and looking forward to the grand wedding weekend, and then boom, it's over before you know it! I'm trying to convince my Mom that we should throw a 1-year anniversary celebration because I want to re-live the whole weekend again, and she even sounds a bit interested in it! 

The whole weekend was absolutely perfect, and I honestly mean it when I say we are SO blessed with so many close friends and family who made the trip to College Station to celebrate with us.  We started off the weekend with our rehearsal dinner at the Benjamin Knox Art Gallery - it was the PERFECT venue, so neat and quaint, and Mrs. Turner did a GREAT job decorating it and planning everything!  She made huge containers of Sangria which were a big hit, and then had On The Border cater it, followed by super yummy dessert and coffee from a little shop in town called It's A Grind.  Our videographer had made a slideshow, which is always fun to watch, but all of the speeches from our parents and wedding party were the true hit of the night - not only were they hilarious, but they were so heartfelt and sincere, and it just made me so thankful to hear the sweet things they said about Matt and I. :)

After this, mostly everyone headed to the Corner Bar at Northgate, where Matt and I actually met about 6 years ago!  It was fun to return to the same spot, and it was also one of our favorite hang outs in college.  I believe everyone had quite a fun time :)

The next morning, Abby and her Mom, Jane, threw my bridal party and I a "Pedicures and Poinsettia's" shower, which was a perfect way to start off the morning!  They brought champagne to make Mimosa's and Poinsettia's, along with a table full of snacks - including sausage balls which I must have had about 14 of!

After this, we all sort of split ways to run errands and get dressed.  I was planning to just get my hair and make-up done alone because I knew the other girls would want to spend time with their husbands/dates and go eat a yummy lunch in CS, but luckily Jen was able to hang out with me all day because her husband Wes was out with Matt and all the guys, bowling and eating lunch at Wings N More, so it worked out perfect!  We headed to the church at 4:00 to begin pre-ceremony pics and hanging out!

The ceremony flew by, but it was perfect!  I've always loved Christmas :) especially the Christmas Cannon in D version, so I knew I HAD to have the bells and children's choir sing that intro before my Dad walked me down the aisle, and it turned out just as I had imagined... I cannot wait to see the video of the whole ceremony since it was a blur! 

We then headed to the reception in my parents neighborhood, Traditions.  Those who are close to us know that they JUST completed the clubhouse 2 weeks ago, and we were the first wedding they had- which could have been a huge disaster- but they pulled it off and made everything perfect!  I wanted it a wedding reception/christmas party, so the flowers and decorations were very simple white, golds and silvers, along with some christmas ornaments and pine cones.  The club also put up beautiful swags and decorations, and all though I never even made it outside, the fire pit looked wonderful!  We could not have been more pleased with the band, Texas Unlimited Band, they were a stinking blast and I highly reccommend them to anyone looking for a great time - they do country, typical wedding fun songs, and most importantly, rap!  I know everyone was in shock when they busted out the rap music, and also when they invited Matt up to sing Wanna Be A Baller with them, what a fun night!  We also had a photo booth that was such a success, and I will forever love looking at all the goofy pictures that our guests took - and might be able to use some of them as blackmail, hehe! 

When the reception was over, we moved the party to Matt and I's Casita - the neighborhood has GREAT little 2 bedroom houses that you can rent out, so most of our wedding party and a few friends stayed there, it was so convenient!  A bunch of friends came over and we danced, did sparklers, and just enjoyed having fun.  The  next morning I met my Mom at the club and of course started crying that it was all over - so sad!  But to make things better, some of our wonderful friends stayed around and met for brunch at one of our favorite places - La Bodega!  It was SO much fun to get together and laugh about all the funny things that happened over the weekend, and just how wonderful it was to celebrate with so many friends and family at once, I loved every second of it!

Well, now that I went on a writing/picture spree, I guess the title 'in a nut shell' isn't really appropriate for this post anymore, but I hope you enjoyed it! 

BIG thanks to my parents and Matt's parents for giving us such a wonderful weekend, that we will always remember and be so thankful for - y'all did an amazing job and we love you so much!