when i said i do......

two years ago today i said i do

to a man i could not live with out

a man i wished of marrying for so long.

a man i dreamt about becoming a father

a man i trusted with my heart

a man i called my best friend

 i remember it like yesterday

i spent the night away from my soon-to-be husband

i woke up with my mother and sister at the hotel

it rained in the morning

but they say its good luck when it rains on your wedding day

i got ready with my girls

 

 while my seminoles beat the gators

and while the guys got ready downstairs

shots and all

 

i had dreamt of this day since i was a little girl

knowing my father would walk me down the aisle

 where i would join my prince

and our family and friends would watch

as a close friend performed our beautiful ceremony

adding special touches that really symbolized our relationship

and what it had become over the past 10 years

we had written our own vows

something he wanted us to do

something i was a little shy to do in front of so many people

but they were beautiful

he went first, then me

ive kept those small papers

with our loving words on them

his a little shorter, but just as powerful

his went like this

and mine like this

those words mean even more to me today

than they did when we said them to each other

we were no longer just

matt & lisa

we were

husband & wife

and now

two years later

we are daddy & mommy

~matt~

i love you more than words can express

you are the man of my dreams

a father to our son

and my best friend

happy anniversary

love

your one and only

also linking up with Becky to connect with other 20 something wifes, mommies, and wannabe photographers ;)

wedding gift etiquette

Wednesday was me and hubby's 8month wedding anniversary. No we didnt celebrate or anything, but I just happened to realize this morning that we had been married for 8 months. Technically not that long considering we've been together for going on 10years now, but hey still a milestone right? But why Im telling yall this is because within the last 3 weeks I have received not 1 but 2 wedding gifts. I mean come on people, 8 months later you decide you want to send me a gift? lol its not that Im unappreciative, but I personally I would feel really awkward stupid bad if I waited that long to give someone a wedding gift.

However, technically speaking I think its considered proper wedding gift etiquette as long as its within 1 year of the wedding. (Still you'd never hear me doing this) So you may be wondering what the 2 gifts were. Well one was a check (thank you lord, southern wifey is going broke) the other a bracelet.

Now I'd have to say that the bracelet is actually one of my favorite gifts. Not only is it beautiful, but it comes from my oldest bestest (yeah I can make up words like that) friend in the whole wide world, Erin.

This girl right here :)

 Her house is literally the house next to my parents. We've known each other since we were I think 1.5 or 2 years old. Crazy right? we've had alot of crazy bad fun trouble-making good times together. More than likeing you'll find us doing something like this:

Yes this was on our honeymoon.... yes my best friend was with us one of the days while on our honeymoon in St Thomas where she was living for a while. Lets just say she might have gotten us a little belligerent typsy and may or may not have taken us to do this

 But thats not a typical day with us. A typical day with us normally ends up looking like this

Anyone else see a common theme?

water

alcohol

uummm yeah......

so back to the point of this lil here post. This lovely lady gave me a wedding gift. Does anyone have a Irish Claddah ring?

via amazon

Me neither. But Ive always wanted one. Just felt awkward wearing it since im only a teeny tiny bit Irish. Basically for those of you who dont know, if the crown is pointing towards your heart your taken, if it points out your single. So wouldnt you know that the Virgin Island (aka St. Thomas where bestie lived) has a similar tradition of their own. Introducing, the "hooked" bracelet.

The story goes, an old fisherman who lived on the island couldnt afford to give his bride a ring. So he took fishing line and a fishing hook and tied them together for her. From there it became a tradition on the island that if the hook was facing toward your heart you were forever hooked to your soulmate. If it faced the opposite way, it meant you were unhooked and single. Needless to say I absolutely LOVE it! I feel like I relate to it so much more being a fishermans wife. And so if you go to the Virgin Islands you will see alot of people wearing these bracelets because they are handmade by the artists there. They have abunch of different styles. Bestie even has one herself, but pointing out

Gotta love the beer can in the pic...ooops.

And I looked it up and guess who else has one of these precious little things? If you guess my 2nd husband Kenny Chesney, then your RIGHT?!?! (note: he may not know hes my husband yet) He got the bracelet while we were at his private house on St. John. 'nother note: we were not married yet this is why the bracelet is facing out in the pic ;)

omg. that cowboy hat gets me every time........drool......just dont take the cowboy hat off.....


sorry. minor setback in the story. Back to bestie and I. I absolutely LOOOVVVEEEE this bracelet. And it was well worth the 8month wait to get it. I havent taken it off since she put it on and I dont think I plan to. Its so simple and its sterling silver so basically it matches everything I wear.

Ok thats all for now. Probably should go back to work. its what pays the bills ya know?

And the PARTAY continues . . .

Continuing on with my road trip posts, this one is all about the PARTAY! (aka wedding reception for Michele & Will). Ill start with the decorations. I have to give some major props to Michele. See the bride and groom both live by us in south Florida, but the bride is originally from Connecticut. She managed to get everything organized for such a large wedding in a completely different state. And on top of that, all the decorations were not only perfect, but so meaningful too! (oh and total photographer fail, i forgot to get a pic of the ballroom all decorated before anyone went it. oops)

And because they were all so meaningful, I have to explain these pics to you.

1. birdcage envelope box - no special meaning that I know of, but it looks cute

2 & 3. little lollipop favors that are supposed to look like flowers in pots (so cute) that have tags used as place cards for which table your supposed to sit at.

4. the groom used to play on the Rutgers football team in college, so instead of a guest book they had a helmet for everyone to sign with their picture on it ( i know clever huh?)

5. picture frames with collages used for the table numbers. The table number corresponded with the a seperate picture of each of them at that age. We sat at table 15 (right next to the dance floor was perfect) and the pics were of them each at age 15.

6. (Now this is my favorite and it is the story I promised in this post) Ill start off with the story of how the lovely bride and groom met. Michele, as originally stated, is from Connecticut. Which means she doesn't really have the knowledge of all the neighborhoods in south Florida. After living several years with different roommates in apartments, she decided it was time to purchase a place of her own. Us native south Floridians tried to warn Michele of certain areas to not buy in. But Michele refused to listen to us and bought a beautiful townhouse in a gated community right smack in the middle of Lauderdhill, ahem "ghetto" for those of you who arent familiar. Because she did have 2 extra rooms she offered 2 friends to move in with her. So boxes, beds, tv's, and lots of makeup were brought into this "bad" neighborhood. Well fellow inhabitants of the area must have been steaking out the place seeing that it was 3 beautiful young women who had moved in. Ill give you 3 guess on what happens next, and the first 2 dont count. A few days later one of the roomates comes home to the door wide open. No one else was home, so she immediately called Michele who quickly left work to go home and call the police. Insert Knight in Shinning Armour, Officer Will. As Will pulls up in his Lauderdhill police car, the 2 girls immediately notice the attractive man in uniform. Needless to say the rest is kind of history as the two exchanged numbers and quickly started dating. Turns out Will just happen to grow up in the same neighbor hood as the rest of us so we already knew him. Ok back to the point, so this little decoration (#6 scroll up again so you can see) was a surprise from Will's Police Department back home who sent this up to the wedding. Its a figurine of Will in his uniform carrying his princess Michele, who also happens to be holding a football. Now you might ask what is that plastic bag with a brick in it behind the figurines? well that my friends, that is the evidence bag from the station with the brick that had went through the window to break into Micheles house. Now do you see why I love the story? :)

7. At last, but certainly not least, the bride and groom decided to honor the brides brother who battled cancer, with a donation to the Make a Wish foundation as their favors for the wedding. (i know my heart melted a little too)

Some things you may see here: the beautiful bride. First Dance. One of the bridesmaids actually sang the song for their first dance. It was absolutely beautiful. Father Daughter Dance. Mother Son Dance. And the last 2 pictures are absolutely epic. The MOH (aka brides sister) had been joking the previous couple of months that she was going to rap at her sisters wedding. Michele thought she was kidding. This was not the case. She told a bunch of us (bridesmaids, groomsmen, close friends, etc) that she was going to do this and she would queue us all when it was time. She literally made up this entire song of Michele leaving CT, partying in SoFL, moving to the ghetto, getting her house broken into, meeting will, getting engaged,.... i think you get the point. The best part was it went along with the background music to Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It was absolutely hilarious. I believe there was a video camcorder, so when someone finally shares the video of it I will def share it with you all. 

And then of course the infamous cake smashing in the face cutting. Not Surpirsingly it was the bride who started this little mess. I love how I captured the actual moment she smashed it on his face. 

PRICELESS!!!

Next came the bouquet and garter toss. It was actually kinda weird for me and hubs. It was the first wedding we had been to that we were "allowed" to go out on the dance floor for this part.

The rest of the night went by pretty fast. But I guess thats what happens when you combine friends + liquor + music + family + liquor + dancing = good times :)  Unfortunately I didnt get alot of said dancing pics, well, because I was dancing :D

All in all, the night was beautiful, everyone had fun, and we couldnt have asked for two better people to begin their happily ever after together.......

p.s. I think the bride enjoyed the night too, she was totally exhausted by time it was over ;)

a wedding fit for a princess

So our road trip began with our first stop in Tana-See, but the real reason for this escapade was to get to Conneticut for our friend Michele & Will's wedding.

Technically, we did have one small stop in between Tennessee and Connecticut, but it was just for one night so we wouldnt have to pay for a hotel. We decided that we would stop in New Jersey at my Aunt & Uncles house and leave before lunch the following day to make it in time for the rehearsal dinner.

It was a relatively quick visit and really only consisted of a bite to eat down by the jersey shore, some ping pong games, and a little bit of ring toss at my family's picnic facility up there. As I said, we had to get back on the road the following morning to make it to the hotel in time for the rehearsal dinner. Surprisingly the trip from NJ to the hotel in CT was only about 2.5 hours (relatively short compared to the 16hours we drove the previous day).

So the wedding festivities began that night with a buffet style rehearsal dinner and of course a few glasses of wine. The bride and groom were nice enough to also make us some absolutely appropriate munchies for later on that evening (aka popcorn, m&m's, and marshmallows in a cute little bag) that my husband kept on stealing from all the tables to take with us.

You might notice that all the wedding festivities pictures will start to look sooooooooo much better in quality. This might be because I kinda stole the newlyweds brand spankin new DSLR camera they got from the in-laws. Let me tell you something. They almost didnt get this little puppy back after the wedding, I think I might have fallen in love again (sorry babe).

The next morning (or shall I say afternoon for those of us who drank a lil too much wine) is when the bridal party starting getting ready for the big day. Although I was not in the bridal party, Michele had plenty of girls (8 to be exact) who would be standing by her side up at the alter. Ironically, when I went to go check on her all the ladies had disappeared to get their hair done at a local salon and Michele was left by her self to get her makeup done. So what did I do? I whipped out aforementioned stolen camera and started snapping away.

Once her makeup was done, the bridal party started to slowly trickle in. Mimosa's were poured. Dresses were put on. Smiles were shown on all. And it seemed like everything moved pretty quickly from there.

Isnt her dress gorgeous? Once the bridal party was on the bus, and the beautiful bride was in her limo, all headed to the castle (yes you heard me, they were married at a castle) for photos, it was time for the rest of us to get ready and head to the ceremony. There also might have been a few pre-graming shots of baby Guinness and of course a lil bit of Captain.....

Isnt my hubby handsome? Everyone kept saying you could for sure tell he was one of the Floridians, as he sported his Sperry TopSiders with his suit.  He thought he was a stud, Id have to say I didnt disagree ;) Sorry, of topic, back to the ceremony. As mentioned, they were married at a castle, St. Clements Castle to be exact. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and the ceremony had a to-die-for view overlooking a waterway with mountains. Truly, it was like it was right out of a childrens story book; a princess marrying her knight in shinning armor (Ill share their story of how they met in my next post, and youll totally understand where Im getting that form).

I do have to admit, although I think I captured the entire ceremony beautifully through the camera, I feel kind of like I didnt get to actually watch them get married. I dont know, maybe other photographers feel this way too? Or is it just me? Like I was there, but not really there. I was behind the camera capturing the moment, but not in the moment.

So, I think thats enough pictures for today. Im going to save the actually wedding reception for another post because literally I think in total I snapped like 450+ photos with this camera. (I wasnt lying when I said I fell in love, babe; this is your subtle hint, new camera wink wink)

back from a well needed vacation

Hi everyone! Oh how I have missed you all!!!!! We got back last night (after driving 2 straight days from Connecticut to Florida. yuk) and I cant wait to show you all the pics I took. I have to some how organize them into multiple posts since it was a span of 10 days with 3 destinations and a couple of very long days of driving through basically the entire eastern coast.

Until then, why dont you go over and take a peek at our latest entry on TLC's A Conception Story. Theres some pretty exciting news to look forward to if I do say so myself.

Ill also leave you with a beautiful picture of the new Mr. & Mrs.

Congratulations you two! Im so happy I was able to be part of this special day! Luv you both!!!!