We're Baaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!

In celebration of the joining of our lives, we are composing our first joint post. Matthew dictating while I type. (I'm a faster typer...ha) First off, we would like to thank everyone who was involved with the Big Day! It was absolutely perfect, and we could have not been any happier with the outcome. We will try and lay this out in chronological order, starting with September 6th up until now.

I (Andrea) had a very relaxing day surprisingly. I got up the morning of the wedding after 9 hours of wonderful sleep (with the aid of some of my favorite medication Benadryl!) Dad made me my favorite breakfast of homemade waffles that morning and I relaxed on the couch and watched some TV. I headed over to the Y and ran for about 30 minutes. On the way out of the Y I thought to myself, "I really don't feel like I'm getting married today" I got to the church around two to get my hair and makeup done. Of course i had to take a peak into the reception area and auditorium, and I was completely blown away! James Brown (our wedding planner) definitely outdid himself! It finally felt like the hard work put in by my mom, James and me paid off! The flowers were absolutely gorgeous as well (thanks to John Conger!) Around 4:30 I got ready for pictures with my bridesmaids. Thankfully, our photographer Derrick Pierce is a genius, so the pictures were quick and fun. By the time we were done, I thought it was around 4:50, but was quickly informed that guests were arriving and I needed to get downstairs! The ceremony was perfect. Both of our dads did an excellent job, and I was very proud of dad for making it through the whole thing without crying! Right before my dad and I walked down the aisle he asked me if I wanted a piece of advice. He said, "Always be aware of your surroundings" Which is something my mom has said to me for the last 22 years. Thankfully it made me laugh, and I made it through the ceremony without breaking down.

(how the auditorium looked...notice the aisle runner that James spent a lot of time on!)

I (Matthew) had a slightly different, but just as good, wedding day. I arose at 8:30 after 8ish hours of sleep and got ready - showered, shaved, etc. then packed up my toiletries and such into the bags that Andrea and I were taking on our honeymoon. I left the hotel and drove downtown to drop off our bags at The Hermitage Hotel around 9:30. The hotel was awesome and the staff very helpful, I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a nice place to stay for an anniversiarry or just happens to have a money tree growing in their back yard. Unlike Ann, I did not go to the "Y" and run, I went to the "CB" - Cracker Barrel and ate! I had the Harvest Sampler, a seasonal take on their standard Sunrise Sampler (I'm a sucker for anything new at restaurants - if it has a new sauce or name, im in!). After all of my groomsmen, ushers, Dave, Micah and I ate most of us went over to Adam and KB's apartment to hang out and watch some college football until time to go to the church for pics. Scott Trevathan and I rode to the church together and he got me a nice wedding present of a Diet Coke at a gas station on the way. Once everybody got to the church it became obvious that the bow-tie tying tutorial Jonathan and Dad had received the day before had not stuck. Fortunately I managed to figure it out and got everybody's tied by picture time. Like Ann said previously, Derrick is a master and we were in and out with the picture taking...leaving plenty of time for nervous pacing and gorging ourselves on Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits. Our tray was gone very quickly and talk was made of making a raid on the girls' room because we knew there was no way they had finished theirs. I have just been informed (rather indignantly) that they did in fact finish theirs...yeah right. Once people started to get to the wedding I started to make my way up front and got to see several people as they were being seated (you know who you are). Then the show got on th road. I will reiterate what Ann had already iterated once - both of our Dads did a fantastic job on the ceremony. In fact, we have been told by what I consider to be a reputable and rather stoic source that it was the most perfect ceremony he has ever seen and even started to tear up and make him think about getting married. In the interest of maintaining our friendship he will remain nameless...

Now on to the reception! Since from this point on we were together, we are writing together here. We were announced into the room, which again looked AMAZING! We were told by James that we were to immediately start our first dance and cut the cake. Church of Christ people get irritated if you don't cut the cake immediately! Our first dance was "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra. Since we are both big Sinatra fans, we couldn't think of a better song. We cut the cake and it was made clear to Matthew beforehand that there would be no smashing cake in each other's faces! Vicki was not paying the money to get my make up done if it was going to have icing smashed over it! The next two hours were a blur of talking to people, both random and dear friends, and of course hitting up the dance floor. We absolutely loved our band. Andrea had heard them at previous weddings and has known for a long time that she wanted to use them, and we were so glad that everyone enjoyed them as well. (MAtthew writing) Let that previous sentence serve as proof that most girls have their wedding planned for years and the only remaining and minor, inconsequential detail is which guy in the black suit is going to be standing across from them. Anyway... we were whisked away from the reception around 9:45 in a shower of rose petals and a white 1969 Jaguar. Our driver was really friendly and informed us that after he dropped us off, he had another couple to pick up...Must be busy on the weekends.

(picture of our delicious wedding cake..or at least we thought so)

(Matthew's grooms cake that was done by a lady at church...She just started doing this! Could have fooled me!)

(picture of the beautiful reception...Way to go James)

(Nashville BlueTones, they were amazing!)

(Leaving!!..Goodbye Nashville, Hello Jamaica!)

The Hermitage Hotel was incredible! The room was all ready when we got there, and they had even given us some chocolate dipped strawberries. The room overlooked the capitol and was complete with a big screen TV, large closet, jacuzzi style tub, walk-in-shower, and comfy robes! Unfortunately, Matthew spent half the night in the bathroom sick, and he slept an hour, while I got about two. He didn't get to really enjoy any of the food that was sent with us or cake, but I took full advantage of the portions he left.

(a picture of the bathroom in our room...ridiculous)

This is where we will end this post. Our next post will begin at 4:45 am September 7th. Honeymoon Bound!