The night before we had a wonderful rehearsal with our wedding party, parents, and close friends. The rehearsal dinner was at North by Northwest Brewery and Restaurant.
We said our goodbyes that night, and wouldn't see each other again until a little after 6pm the next day. We got back to our suite, and my step brother, his girlfriend, step sister, and BFFs Ashley and Jenn all stayed up to late hanging out and talking! We finally decided it would be a good idea to go to sleep around midnight, since tomorrow would probably be a big day...
Me and the girls woke up around 9 to get ready for our hair appointments. We all had our hair done at Jackson Ruiz salon in downtown Austin.
After everyones hair was made beautiful we came back to the hotel to do make up and for the girls to put their dresses on. We had the most amazing videography team, Crescent Video, that showed up at 3pm to start getting footage of us.
Then we headed to the church! In the meantime the guys were in Mark's suite watching football and getting ready themselves. We got to the church around 4:15pm (15 minutes late according to my detailed itinerary!) just in time for me to slip into my dress and start pictures. It actually took about 6 people and 3 tries to get my dress on the right way with all the accessories where they should be! I opened my wedding gift from my husband to be, a diamond necklace I had picked out many many months before at a jewelry shop in NJ! I was shocked he got that for me since we had a limit on how much we were going to spend on each other!!! It was so beautiful and of course I immediately put it on and wore it that day! I gave Mark an engraved money clip. I had a hard time trying to think of something special that would last forever, and remembered my mom gave my step dad a money clip on their wedding day. So I hope it is a tradition we can pass down to our children too!
The ceremony was at 6pm at the Smith Family Chapel, Riverbend Church (Me and Mark's new home church!). It was an amazing ceremony, officiated by my childhood pastor Dr. Harlan Betz. Harlan gave an incredible marriage challenge to Mark and I. We had a "sand ceremony" where Mark, myself, and Harlan each poured sand into one container, signifying Me and Mark coming together as one, with Jesus. It was really neat. My brother sang towards the end of the ceremony. He played the piano and sang This Kind of Love by Sister Hazel. It was truly incredible! I have waited so many years to have my brother sing at my wedding and I was so honored and touched to have him as an integral part of my wedding day. There wasn't a dry eye in the house and people still tell me how amazing he was!!!
After the ceremony and pictures, we headed over to the reception as husband and wife! The reception was at The Glass Oaks Ballroom at The Renaissance Hotel. The entire event was amazing, the food was delicious, the DJ (DJ Cecil!) was awesome, it was amazing to see everyone having such a great time! I got to surprise Mark with our first dance song. All along he wanted to dance to Taylor Swift, Today Was a Fairytale, and I told him no! Well I ended up changing it at the last minute and he was so excited! Everything was so perfect, from the flowers and food, to the cake and the company we had celebrating with us! About 80% of our guests came in from out of town to celebrate with us (Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Alaska, Colorado, California, and I am sure more!). We were so thankful that so many people took the time and effort it takes to travel to be with us on our wedding day.
Mark and I left there ceremony to a flurry of bubbles around 11pm. We had an EARLY flight the next morning, 6am, to Maui!!!
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