My "First" Wedding

I survived my first wedding on Saturday, February 6. No, Greyson and I aren’t having multiple ceremonies. I help coordinate my first wedding at Doubletree. February started in full force and I feel like I am just now getting a moment to breathe. The week of the wedding I had my first session of premarital counseling (which I have to spend 2 hours in the car for, one hour there, and one back, and over an hour of counseling), hosted a small dinner party, had back to back functions and went to the Chamber’s Annual Banquet. Right after the wild wedding weekend, Doubletree hosted Business After Hours and my boss Stephanie and I oversaw the whole thing. It was a successful night but it’s been nonstop since the beginning of the month.
My first wedding will be something to remember even during all of this madness. The bride had a very sweet spirit about her and had every detail of her wedding down in her head from my first meeting with her. I will always remember that about her. When working with brides there are a lot of uncertainties. Major decisions have to be made like first dance or cake cutting first. Who should they include at the head table, and the list goes on and on. Not this bride she knew exactly where she wanted everything and how she wanted everything to look. But the most memorable thing about her won’t be her ability to envision every moment of her big day, it will be snowflakes. And I am not talking about all the snow we’ve received outside. I am talking about the snowflakes that hung from the ceiling at Target during the holidays. This bride and her mother saw them over Christmas and knew they had to have them at her wedding. So Target gave them to her. So the Friday before the wedding in midst of sales visits and the Chamber banquet my boss and I hung 6 foot long snowflakes from the ballroom ceiling at Doubletree. I’ve never laughed and griped about something more in my life. It was a hard task and so was overseeing a wedding where the bride knew exactly what she wanted and nothing else would do. But it was also very rewarding. When we got ready to leave the wedding the bride hugged me tightly and thanked me for making her day “perfect”. I left feeling like I had provided a real service to someone even if it meant hanging snowflakes for the ballroom ceiling. I helped make her special day “perfect” just like she planned. It reinforced that I had made the right decision in making this career move to the hospitality industry. I will forever be a part of this couple’s special day and for that I am beyond grateful to have that opportunity.

Lairdland Farm House

This past weekend I went to my wedding venue site to plan the layout of the ceremony and reception with my good friend, Trina and my future mother-in-law, Nancy. It was a very productive day. We met with my florist. It was nice to finally meet a florist who was price conscious. I am very fortunate though that my wedding site is covered in flowers in the spring so I am purchasing minimal flowers. This way I can spend more money on things that are more important to me like good food and good music.

Our wedding venue is very unique. It is an old farm house dating back to the civil war called Lairdland Farm House. There is a lot of history there. The owners are a precious elderly couple who are the biggest history buffs I have ever met. It’s been a dream of mine for quite some time to get married outside of an old southern home and I am so excited my dream is getting to come true. Lairdland Farms fits me but many people have asked about the location of it. Lairdland is located in Cornersville, Tennessee. Very few people know where this is because they have one red light. Think Mayberry with rolling Tennessee Hills and you’ve got Cornersville pictured. It is actually a perfect location for us. Cornersville is located one hour south of Nashville and Murfreesboro, two hours from Hartsville where Greyson is from and an hour and a half from Florence which is my hometown. It is two miles off of Exit 22 off of Interstate 65. Also, majority of my family (besides my mom and dad) live within a twenty mile radius of the farm. (I can’t tell you who many times I have explained this. Maybe writing about it will save me from saying it a few more times.)

We both immediately fell in love with the place back in September when we first visited and I fell even more in love with it this past weekend. One of the big sellers for us was that there are two cabins adjoining the property that we can use. My bridesmaids and I are having a slumber party the night before. I can’t wait.
We are working with the caterer and the rental place this week getting all of the details nailed out. After this week the only big item left on my to-do list will be to find a band. I am still working on this one. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
In the mean time check out Lairdland Farm House at http://www.lairdlandfarmhouse.com/

Music

Yesterday I had some rare down time to work on my own wedding. I actually planned out the ceremony and selected several songs for the ceremony. My biggest stress about my wedding is the music. I am a big music lover and I want the music we play to represent us.
It is important to me that we honor God and our beliefs in our ceremony. I feel the songs I have selected will do this. I am honored that my childhood friend and “brother”, Timmy Ray is playing and singing for us during the ceremony. I know he will move all my “moms” to tears. (Side note: I was blessed to grow up in a church family. I say church family because that is what they were. My parents had a group of friends in our congregation who had children the same ages and over the years we became more than just friends we became family.) I can’t wait to be in the moment of my wedding ceremony and hearing Timmy sing these songs that sing right to my heart as I commit the rest of my life to Greyson.
So why am I stressed??? One word- RECEPTION! I am a fun loving girl and I want a fun loving reception. When else am I going to get to party with my closest friends? I’m a good ole southern girl getting married at a Historic Farm House so I also want some good ole country music! Again, I am sure you are asking, “why are you stressed”. So here it is. One, I am having trouble finding a band. And two, I am having a hard time visualizing how to mix my traditional ceremony with my fun loving ceremony without my guest feeling like they left a revival and stepped onto the set of hee-haw. But then when I think about it, that kind of describes me. I am a God loving woman and a fun loving country gal. (Another side note: “Gal” is the only name Grandpa Stokes ever called me.) So why can’t I mix both? I’m not talking about having homemade wine at my reception; I’m just talking about having a country band. Although, I can’t promise there won’t be a few members of the Stokes clan that sneak some in. HA HA! And before, I let the band crank up and that is if I find one, I will have the more traditional type reception before the band starts “blame it all on my roots”.
Now that I’ve talked myself down, if you have any more suggestions on how to mix both let me know.
And if you want to preview my ceremony selections, visit the links below.
Prelude
Solo- “Love Never Fails” by Brandon Heath
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Brandon+Heath:Love+Never+Fails:96099520:s28399812.8115294.13129018.0.1.2%2Cstd_31ec27a0977b06c3b24527794be6fa46

Seating of Grandparents and Mothers
“How Beautiful” (instrumental)
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Twila+Paris:How+Beautiful:1489145:m121689

Wedding Party Processional
“Joy” by George Winston
http://s0.ilike.com/play#George+Winston:Joy:80817:m15674409

Bridal Processional
Bridal Chorus

Ceremony- Solo while we are lighting the unity candle
“Your Love is Extravagant” by Casting Crowns
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Casting+Crowns:Your+Love+Is+Extravagant:241285:s433744.8122939.1476415.0.2.260%2Cstd_f0a6ddb9016e41d0a27c79d2eb813ac1

Registries!

It was another productive weekend. Greyson and I made our registries. We registered at Target for towels, bath stuff, small kitchen gadgets, a microwave (neither one of us have a great microwave), blender and several other small items like picture frames. We also registered at Kohl’s. We are in love with their Food Network band. They have several great pieces for entertaining which we plan to do a lot of, so it was a no brainer for us to register there. As a part of their Food Network band they have a lot of grilling gadgets that Greyson loves. And lastly we registered for our China at Dillard’s. We chose a Makasa print for our dishes and Makasa stemware and Gorham flatware. Greyson was hands on for it all and really seemed to enjoy picking out everything. We are still in search of everyday dishes and a new bed set but we were unable to find anything we liked at any of the three places we decided to register with. I was told at Dillard’s that they would have a better selection soon so I am keeping my fingers crossed. If anyone has any suggestions please let us know.

As for showers and teas, I have two planned for me right now, one in Florence and one in Hartsville. They will both be held at our home churches which I am excited about.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Lessons from Libby

Greyson and I have already have a child together, her name is Libby. Well actually we have a dog but considering how much both of our lives already revolve around her, I think we should have the right to call her our child. We constantly joke about how good of a life Libby has. But we both realized lately there are 3 great lessons we could learn from her that we came up with together as we were talking the other night.

Lesson 1: Show your love for one another. Neither one of us have never been ignored by
Libby when we walk into the front door. She is immediately runs to us and tries to jump to the top of our heads to greet us. At night time, she always gets on the couch with me and tries to give me kisses and then snuggles with me. Libby is constantly showing her love towards us. Each morning when I wake up it is like she hasn’t seen me in days. The constant show of love is a great reminder to us how we need to show each other how much we love one another and never assume the other person knows.

Lesson 2: Love unconditionally. It doesn’t matter if we have just scolded her within seconds her tail is back wagging. She never holds grudges towards us. She forgives instantly. I’ve been told the key to a successful marriage is forgiveness. Holding grudges does nothing but build up anger. May we forgive as easily as Libby.

Lesson 3: Be content with what you have. Libby eats the same food every day. She plays with the same toys everyday. She stays at home almost all day every day, yet she is content with what she has. Each time she hears food being poured in her bowl she comes running. She plays with the same toys for hours each night. Fetch never gets old. TRUST US! We’ve probably spent over 100 hours in the last year just playing fetch with her. She is content and grateful for everything she has. It’s as if she takes nothing for granted. I hope Greyson and I will do the same and always be content with our earthly possessions and with one another. And may we never take one single moment we have with one another for granted.

As you can see Libby is more than just a dog to us. We have not only had to train her but she has trained us on some valuable lessons as we begin our lives together.

A Little Progress

Greyson and I have made a little progress this week on wedding planning. We purchased several things this past Saturday at Hobby Lobby’s 50% off wedding selections sale. We are trying not to break the bank on this wedding, mainly Billy’s bank (my dad). We found some great things at great deals. We bought a unity candle holder, guest book and pen, garter, tea candles to go around our centerpieces and lots of thank you notes in preparation for all of our showers we have coming up,

And the item I am most excited about, our invitations! I purchased them at Michael’s. They are ivory with purple swirls and purple ribbon. We are going to get them printed at Kinkos. I can’t wait to hear people’s reactions of them. We are going to have an envelope stuffing party early in March with our friends. I thought if we feed them they will work and we won’t spend hours doing it ourselves. I’ll be sure to blog about the party.

And another exciting start, we have our first premarital counseling session with Brother Darryl Turner of First Baptist Church of Hartsville on February 2. Brother Darryl is a precious man of God and we are both honored he has decided to guide us during this time and to officiate our wedding. I already have many ideas and scripture that I want to be apart of the ceremony. I will share some of my ideas and scripture in another post soon.

My new job is still going great! I have some busy days ahead of me though. We are booked solid with conferences and weddings starting tomorrow and ending Monday so I’m heading towards my bed. Until next time!

Wedding Planning Progress: 144 Days to Go!

I think I hear “how is wedding planning going” more than I hear hello these days. And to be honest they are not going so well. I have so much left to do. I’m starting to enter panic mode. Something about the calendar turning to January has sent me into a panic. I’ve book the wedding/ reception site, found my dress, picked out my bridesmaid dresses, booked the preacher and found a photographer. Now I am left with a LONG to do list. I know what I want and how I want every moment of our big day to unfold but little progress has been made. I have spent hundreds of hours the last few months searching theknot.com and reading bridal magazines yet I’ve made very little progress. The reason, my parents are the two biggest procrastinators in the world. I am not saying it’s their entire fault but what is not their fault is mine and then they are the reason why I am this way. HA HA! I am only kidding Mom. We have never had a planned family vacation in all of my life. Every detail of our lives has always been made down to the last minute so this is a challenge for us.

Luckily, Greyson is off this week and he is being a trooper! He’s turned into my personal assistant. I am hoping we can take a trip to Cornersville this weekend to select the rentals and book the florist. But I just decided this, so Mom and Greyson if you are reading this, how does that sound???

On another note, please say a prayer for Greyson. He has a big day tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to share with you all later.