Going to the chapel...or croquet lawn, that is

I woke up two Saturdays ago (I can't believe it's been two weeks already!) to the sound of rain and a pretty gloomy day. Surprisingly, I had had a restful sleep and felt ready for the big day. The rain didn't even really bother me because I knew we had a good Plan B just in case and there was nothing we could do about it so I got up and started getting ready.

Our hair appointments started at 10 am so the girls and I headed to the Westin and Gene did my hair in between working on everyone else. I loved how it came out, and the two paisley hair pins I bought to stick in the back worked perfectly with the overall theme.

Once we were all done, we zipped over to Port Royal and snacked a bit on lunch while we worked on centerpieces and other decor.

Then it was time for make-up and getting dressed. My cousin did an amazing job on my make-up (as she always does!) and I felt radiant. Our photographers came around 2 and started shooting us getting ready and then went over to take shots of the (late) guys. While they had their cameos, I got zipped up in my dress and all finished up. I love my dress and thought it was the perfect mix of simple and elegant. It was, however, a tiny bit tight after a week's worth of home-cooking with the family so it made it tough to breathe. I even had to have my girls unzip me for a little while so I could catch my breath and calm down a bit. Once we were all dressed, we went for our photos, bouquets in hand. I had purchased some antique green ribbon with paisleys on it and it was wrapped around everyone's bouquets for another paisly touch. The rain finally stopped and it was just very gray out, which didn't bother me a bit. It also dropped the temperature about 20 degrees from earlier in the week so there were definitely moments of shivering while we took pictures, but it was fine.

Once we had the all-clear, we headed back over to the clubhouse (we had been getting ready in the locker room) and waited for our cues. Kelly, my matron of honor, stayed with me while my dad walked my mom down the aisle and I got a little emotional but I knew if I started crying it would never stop, so I told her not to let my dad get too mushy when we walked together.

I'm a little bummed because I had worked so hard on the ceremony music with Ryan and our musicians were a little difficult to deal with, so I had really wanted to soak in what they played but I was in a cloud from the moment I hit the top of the steps to go outside until basically the ceremony was over. I do know I tried really hard to ennunciate my vows so people in the back could hear and I was all smiles staring into Ryan's eyes. It was beautiful!

After the ceremony, we went off into the woods to take more photos with the group, and then Ryan and I went to a tunnel connecting Port Royal and the Westin for some more photos. I am very curious to see how these "tunnel of love" shots turned out. Unfortunately, we were gone for so long that we missed the cocktail hour and went right into getting introduced.

We went into our first dance from there, and again I didn't let myself get too emotional so we just talked about what a great day it had been so far and how much fun we were having. The fun continued with an amazing dinner, wonderful, heartful toasts and yummy cake before everyone got to dancing. I think we suceeded in our goal to throw a really fun party - it seemed like everyone had a blast and I know we did, for sure.

At the end of the night we had them bring out sliders and mini-milkshakes, a nod to our late night Steak 'N Shake trips after going out. Then it was over and we left in a burst of sparklers on the front steps, getting into my dad's convertible and driving off.

It was a beautiful day and so much fun and I know I will remember it for the rest of my life. I certainly couldn't capture it all here, but hopefully that is a good glimpse of how the day went. I'll post more photos soon.

Rehearsal recap

Okay, back to the wedding...

We had the rehearsal at the croquet lawn at Port Royal. The girls ran a little late, but I guess they couldn't have done it without us! It was all because I was trying to finish the slideshow of photos from me and Ryan growing up, which never ended up working out despite numerous, very helpful friends and family members trying to help. I will try to post it on here but it's huge! Anyway, we paired everyone up and practiced walking up and down the "aisle" a few times. Our minister from Orlando made the trip up for us and helped us through the whole ceremony flow. He even went as far as starting to say the vows but I stopped him because I didn't want to jinx anything!

me and Dad, practicing our walk to the croquet lawn almost about to say our vows! me and my beautiful bridesmaids

After perfecting our walks, we headed off to Aqua Grille & Lounge for the most delicious apps and dinner. They passed around fried green tomatoes, lobster rangoons, and crab cakes while the bridal party and all of our aunts and uncles arrived. Then we all sat down for a plated dinner and gave our thank-you gifts to our parents and bridal party.
I got my aqua and coral wish, with the invitations to the dinner and the matching placecards I made having an awesome aqua and red coral design. We also borrowed some coral-colored star fish from the "big house" to help in our decor. This is the last night I was Kristin Nathan!
me and my awesome sorority sisters, taking a photo break

my favorite gift was to our parents...a canvas print of a photo I took of the Harbor Town lighthouse, the ultimate symbol of Hilton Head, made to look more like a watercolor painting, to remind them of our destination wedding.

The bridesmaids all got porcelain ring dishes with their first initial hand-painted in the center. I actually received one with an engagment ring in the middle from my Aunt Elaine when I got engaged and I love it so I wanted my girls to have one, too. They also got green wraps (which came in very hand when the cold front came through the next day) and brown dangly earrings to wear at the wedding.

The boys all got Tervis Tumblers with their favorite school of choice for the patch. Of course, I couldn't have a gator tumbler on my blog so I am showing UGA. We also got the boys the green paisley ties they wore in the wedding.

Small interruption

Sorry for the lapse in wedding posts...Ryan and I have basketball tickets again this season and tonight was already opening night! It's crazy to have NBA basketball starting with college football in mid-season. I must admit, though, that it was a very dissapointing game. I was not impressed with the entertainment portion and we (the Magic) didn't play very well, although the woman in the skin-tight, low-cut, laced-back, zebra-print, short-short-short mini dress made the people watching very interesting.

I'll resume wedding downloads tomorrow, when I have a bit more time before bed. I promise!

First things first

Okay, before I go into honeymoon details, I figured I should start at the beginning of the wedding festivities and go from there.
We got to Hilton Head on Monday (two weeks ago) for a week of pre-wedding fun with the family and friends that were able to make more of a vacation out of it. The "big house" that my parents rented housed a ton of aunts, uncles, and cousins and each night we had an awesome meal prepared by various family members. A few highlights were definitely the s'mores (see ingenious method of chocolate melting in photos below) and Mexican night, where there was a delicious guacamole that rivals my own recipe-as much as I hate to admit it!



Once R got into his house on Wednesday, which was literally only a few houses down from the "big house", I got the girls villa, and a few more friends joined us, there were multiple party houses and even more fun. Of course, kareoke dominated the nightly festivities and there were definitely some hams on the microphones. There was also a small fire at R's house that caused some concern (to those of us who weren't consumed with selecting the best kareoke song) and got the boys up in the attic to check things out. Luckily, it was just the A/C overheating and nothing serious!
We held Beach Olympics on Thursday for those that could make it, and had a blast seeing how competitive everyone was. Lindsay and I dominated at Ladder Golf, as we had once before, and there was also a sponge relay where everyone raced to the ocean, filled up a sponge with water, and ran it back to pass to each team member before squeezing it out into a bucket until it overflowed. I was not so great at the water balloon toss and we also had a Bocce tournament. Although we didn't necessarily keep score, I definitely think Team Blue won! We each got bandanas to sport our team colors and it was fun to see how each person chose to wear theirs. Mine served as a headscarf to protect newly freshened-up highlights from the sun.
My wonderful bridesmaids and I went to lunch after some mani-pedi action Friday morning. We met at Sea Pines Center and dined at a restaurant called Truffles Cafe, which had awesome food and apparently very tasty Bloody Marys. It was so great to have some down time with all the gals and to chat about what's been going on in everyone's busy lives.
That brings us to the rehearsal on Friday evening...which, I'm afraid to say, will be a post for another day along with the rest of the wedding details. After being gone for two weeks, this newlywed needs to get some sleep before heading into the office tomorrow!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

I can't believe it's already all over and we are back home again! It seems like forever ago that we got married and I'm amazed we were just in St. Lucia yesterday, wrapping up the honeymoon. I have been spending the entire day trying to settle back in, do countless loads of laundry and peruse all of the AMAZING photos from the whole wedding week that everyone posted while I was away. All I can say is that I have an awesome group of photographers for family and friends, because the pics are amazing!
I definitely have some of my own to post, so stay tuned while I try to download and organize everything.

And we're off!

We are all packed up and heading out the door for HHI. I am so excited and can't wait to see everyone there. If you need to reach me this week, call my cell phone. Otherwise, I'll be back in two weeks with (hopefully) some great things to post! xoxo

They're Here!

Hooray! I got an email from our photographer last night that they were able to post our image gallery from the engagement session. I already went through the slideshow and gallery (link below) to see them all. While I think our photographer did an amazing job, and Ryan looked so handsome and did so well for the shoot, I don't know what was wrong with me - my smile was so fake in a lot of the photos and I didn't use teeth for a lot of them. I was so nervous and wanted it to go so well that I think I was trying too hard. Oh, well...at least there are some great ones in there of the two of us. Now I know what to do for the wedding photos...relax!
Enjoy: http://wscottchester.com/slideshows/kristinandryan_eng.