Show Us Your Life= Wedding Ceremony/Wedding Party

Over at Kelly's Korner, it is Show Us Your Life Friday. Today's edition is Wedding Party, Ceremony, etc. As I have previously stated, I have very few digital pictures from the wedding, so some of these are pictures of pictures, but they are good enough for you to get the main idea.
So this is how it all started...with this simple yet elegant invitation. We bought these about 3 weeks after getting engaged. I went in to merely look but they had a special going on. I wanted to try an mimic the border design of my parent's invitations. Not only did they replicate the design exactly, they even replicated the font! Plus, I got a really good deal on them, and they were ready in 1 week! (That's right, I had my invitations for my June 2004 wedding in August of 2003!)
The location was the adorable historic chapel in the middle of a rose garden. Believe me it was not easy to find a beautiful rose garden in the middle of West Texas! This place, however, was one of the first places Hubby and I ever went on a date. He took me on a picnic in the rose garden, I think it was date 3 or 4. I fell in love with the country charm, wood beam ceilings, and old wooden floors...reminded me of my hometown.



I walked down the isle to the Westphalia Waltz. Two ladies from my hometown came and played the fiddle and acoustic guitar as the guests were seated. The wedding party walked down to 'Faded Love' and 'Ashokin.'
The heart of my family is music, and I always knew I wanted my Daddy to sing at my wedding. He is a very accomplished singer and guitar player. (Much loved by West Texas ladies over 70! hehe) When I first asked him, he said he did not think he could make it through, but after convincing, I got him to play 2 songs. (By the way, those of you who know my father know that it was much harder on me to get him into the tux than to sing...but that's another story!)
Right after walking me down the isle, and 'giving me away' Daddy sang the 'Farmer's Daughter.' He actually picked this song out for me. It is written and originally sang by his hero Merle Haggard. For those of you who have never heard it...


Daddy did change some of the words. For example, in the second verse instead of Momma died 8 years ago December, it became "Ashley was born the 1st of September, she joined her Momma, brother Shane and her Papa too, Somehow me made a home of our old farmhouse, and love was all our Ashley ever knew...Dave, welcome to the family. I promise, we're going to feed you the best we can. But you say that you really love the farmer's daughter, and I know the farmer's daughter, loves her man." (Side note, totally tearing up writing this..)
We were married by our preacher Brother Ira Lynn from Kingsridge Church of Christ in Lubbock. One of the very special things about Ira is that he not only married us, but baptized us both the previous year. He will always hold such a special place in my heart for so many reasons! You can also, in the picture, get an idea of our adorable wedding party and the West Texas sun gleaming through the stained-glass windows..Let me tell you it was warm....especially in layers of wedding dress!
Here we are lighting the unity candle...this picture also gives a better idea of the beams in the church and all the spheres of flowers I spent days making..Our flowers were pink and white roses with white hydragenas. They were so gorgeous!
After lighting the unity candle, Daddy sang another Merle Haggard song, "That's the Way Love Goes." I can remember him singing this song to my mother since I was a little bitty girl. You can also tell from this picture, that my Daddy does not sing with his eyes open, something my Mom and I always kid him about. I wish I could have taken a picture from my angle of all the people crying as he sang. It was so cute. Hubby's Grandma K. once told me, she loved my Daddy once hearing him sing..So cute!


One of my favorite pictures of the two of us..
A picture with part of our wedding party..and our families. My parents and brother, and Hubby's parents and sister.
This is another favorite because it isn't staged..I think the photographer said "Say Grandkids," and I said something like "No!"...
The reception was short and sweet...cake, heavy appetizers, a little music, lots of conversation...nothing too big. We had the best Italian Cream Cake as our main cake.
Hubby's groom's cake was the Texas Tech double T, chocolate divine chocolate covered strawberries surrounding. There was not a single piece left of the either cake after the reception. People went back for seconds and thirds. Guests still tell me that was the best cakes they have ever had...One thing about a party that my family throws...there is going to be good food, especially desserts! = )
My maid-of-honor/best friend since 7th grade Kat caught my bouquet and my nephew/ring bearer caught the garder. Well, he was more-or-less thrown in front by the other guys and caught it..he wondered why no one else wanted it. Kat caught the bouqet and 5 moths later was married...and they say its just an old wives' tale...= )
Here is the best man and Hubby's best friend since he was 10 lighting the sparklers. I had this fabulous idea that we would run out with fun PINK sparklers. It was really beautiful, but with 75 people holding them, it became a LOT of smoke..so much so we set off the fire alarms in the reception hall..and my uncle Jerry got a spark in the eye and my neice/flower girl caught the hem of her dress on fire...yeah...sparklers, fabulous idea!
Here are our ushers and two of our 3 groomsmen proudly standing by their masterpiece..my car covered and stuffed with everything! The three ushers were Hubby's only boy cousins from Michigan, and these two groomsmen are Hubby's best friend/best man and his then roomate and our dear friend...The car was packed with balloons, streamers and confetti. They put confetti in the A/C ducts and it blew everywhere! It took me a solid year before I stopped finiding confetti in that car!