Mi Vida Loca!

Wedding details

Okay so finally I have time to just sit and write! Hopefully I can remember it all. Well, thanks to a friend who works for Southwest I got free "buddy passes" to fly to Nashville which was great! Carting my heavy suitcase through the airport was not that fun but it was still better than the long drive in the car, plus it enabled my parents to take one of their typical driving trips after the wedding. They are in Iowa right now! Anyway, I got to Nashville Monday afternoon and mom, dad and I went straight to the house to start helping with any wedding preparations we could. Dean had said there were still programs, jelly beans and center pieces to put together. So for the 3 days before the wedding we spent lots of time at the house working with the other bridal attendants and Jills mother. It was pretty funny actually - Jill (we all love her) had very specific ideas about how she wanted things done and of course, in the end it probably didn't really matter. But it mattered to her and so we did it! She and her cousin/matron of honor had designed the program on a stiff half size of paper and we were to use these things called "zots" (glue dots) to put a red ribbon in the middle of the J and the D and then on top of the ribbon was a round W that we had to also glue on. It was painstaking as the zot was very adhesive and you had to make sure it was in the right place because once it stuck there was no moving it. And it all had to be CENTER. At one point DLynn got distracted and almost made an M instead of a W - it was hilarious. They had also had a great idea for guest gifts of jelly beans. They were called "Jilly Deans" and were blue and red (the wedding colors). It was a really cute idea but also very specific. We had to put a cup of jelly beans into bags, then tie the bags with ribbon into a pretty bow. Fun times - but the jelly beans were very good!! Thankfully the center pieces were not that hard, but in making them I was reminded of the heat and how easily I can get overheated. It was hot outside! A friend of Jills had worked with her to design a cheap but very pretty idea for the tables - we spray painted pots white, then sprinkled glitter onto them. Once it all dried, she attached blue ribbon that matched the wedding party, and the in the pots were GORGEOUS red roses. It really did turn out beautiful! on Wednesday Deans 3 grooms people (he had a grooms 'maid' on his side!) came into town as well as several of our family members and other family friends. It was really great! After visiting with them some we all headed out to the rehearsal dinner which was held where the wedding would be. It was a good thing we went through the rehearsal at the same time as the wedding because we knew it was going to be a scorcher and we could be prepared for it. Several of us were getting a little overheated just during the rehearsal! The guy working there was fabulous, bringing us cold water. But everything went smoothly and the coordinator/owner of the place was GREAT. Slightly eccentric but really wonderful. The food was fabulous, and in all it was a great time of fellowship. I sat at a table with the 3 other bridesmaids that I had not met before then and it was fun getting to know them. Shae is Jill's cousin and close friend and she is a sweetheart. She was doing a TON of work despite the fact she's 7 months pregnant!! She made the ribbons for the dresses and worked late Wednesday night tacking them onto all our dresses. DLynn is one of Jills oldest friends and she's from Texas so she and I bonded pretty quickly. She has a sharp quick wit and keeps Jill in line! She kept me in line too... haha! She was hilarious and we had a great time hanging out. We ended up going to a salon together to get our hair done and then rode out to the wedding together. It was a blast. Then Jana is Jill's sister and she was really nice - she and I had a few laughs. Her daughter, Amanda Shae was the flower girl and omg what a hoot. That girl is a handful already but I'm sure she'll only get worse! She's a good kid but she sure has attitude. She had us laughing!
There were a few small "hiccups" leading up to the ceremony such as Deans tux not coming in until the morning of the wedding because someone had entered a date wrong. Thankfully we found out in enough time that they were able to overnight it and get it there! The day of the wedding, Bethany realized she needed help with her hair but thankfully the girl doing the rest of the bridal party had time to help her out. Jeff, Deans best man had a flat tire. The flowers didn't come in but Costco provided, free of charge, their backup roses. In the end, it all went off without a hitch!!!! The day of the wedding brought a very nice wind that helped take the heat off, although it was still pretty hot. The ceremony went by fairly quickly (at least it felt like it, its kind of a blur really and I wasn't even the bride!), and in the end, they are happy. Thats all that matters. My little brother has married a fantastic girl, I have a sister, and its all over. The pictures turned out GORGEOUS, the location was perfect and we had a blast. After it was all said and done, Dean and Jill did a "fake" getaway for those guests who were waiting to leave. When they returned, they had 30 more minutes of "paid time" at the mansion and with the Deejay so while the rest of us cleaned up and loaded everything back into cars, they snuck off downstairs for their own private dancing. Halfway through we all barged in on them and danced around to "I Got You Babe" and then left them alone again. Everyone left except me - I waited until they came back upstairs and I got to see them off. Thinking of it now brings tears to my eyes. I know its silly but somehow it was special to me to be the last one to see them on the night of their wedding. The precious man who worked there (who brought us water) told me that night "this one's gonna last, I know it." he said to me "I've been doin this 5 years and I've learned how to tell the ones that will last and the ones that don't - you can see it in the couple and in their family. This one has a great group of family and friends supporting them and you can see it between them that they really love and respect each other. They'll make it just fine." And you know, I completely agree!!

(I realize some people have visited the link of all the wedding photos but I still wanted to post these on here! There are LOTS more pictures and once Fred gets them edited and loaded I'll post them - there is one of me and Dean dancing, and the ones of us walking back down the aisle afterwards)

The bridal party before our walk down the aisle

Me and my new sis in law
Me and Dean
The new complete Williams Family!
Mr. and Mrs. Dean Williams!
Jill at the end of the night, returning from the "fake" get away, walking across the rose petals we showered on them


The next morning we had a group breakfast for those who were still in town. We ate a a famous place called The Loveless Cafe and as my dad pointed out - how ironic for them to spend their first day married at such a place?? Ha! But it was really great - kind of weird to see my brother with a wedding band!! But it was a perfect way to end the week, with our 3 aunts, 2 cousins, some family friends, and Deans crazy friends (Jeff, Brandon and Bethany).

posted by Jan @ 5:29 PM