Flashback Friday

I meant to post this yesterday since yesterday was Friday, but I got busy and forgot, so I’ll post it now. 

It’s been a while since I’ve had one of these, but with me and Justin’s anniversary coming up next week, I figured now was a good time for this one in particular!!  In the past, my Flashback Friday posts have been flashbacks many many many years ago.  This one won’t be that much of a flashback, but one I thought necessary since I’ve gained some new followers in the past year or so.  So now, we flashback to me and Justin’s wedding day, July 25, 2009. 

It was a very warm day that day.  The sun was out and it was gorgeous.  Couldn’t have asked for a better day!  With that said, it did rain for about 20 minutes literally seconds after we finished taking pictures with the wedding party in the courtyard.  You know what they say….a little rain on your wedding day is a good sign for your marriage :)  And something I definitely can’t neglect to mention is that it just so happen to be the same weekend as “Christmas in July”.  If you don’t live in the Birmingham, AL area, you probably won’t understand.  We have a radio station that plays Christmas music pretty much from Halloween to New Year’s.  They pick one weekend in July, usually at the end, and play Christmas all weekend long as the halfway point to Christmas time.  Our wedding weekend just happen to be the same weekend which is FABULOUS because all of my friends know how much I ADORE Christmas!

Our photographer was Amelia Strauss.  She no longer resides in Birmingham.  She moved to Los Angeles shortly after our wedding, but she is still doing wedding photography and every now and again I jump over to her blog to catch what she’s taking pictures of.  She is unreal!  Here’s a few of my favorite moments that Amelia captured on that perfectly wonderful God-given day:

 

 

This is when we saw each other for the first time.  We chose to do this before the ceremony since we took our pictures before the wedding.  We wanted to be able to go straight to the reception and have a good time once the ceremony was over!

 

Our reception was at B&A Warehouse in downtown Birmingham.  The place is BEAUTIFUL.  I loved the brick walls and the warehouse feel of it.  We decorated with Christmas lights and Japanese lanterns.  This is the view from the stage looking at the wedding cakes.

The grooms cake.  It’s a mountain.   Justin and I love mountain climbing so naturally, we had a mountain cake.  The cake’s icing is chocolate and the filling is Reese’s Peanut Butter flavor.  It was DELICIOUS.

Can’t have a mountain themed cake without a fabulous cake topper!

The bride’s cake

      And that’s it folks!  We stayed at the Tutwiler Hotel downtown and then caught a VERY early flight the next morning for our trip to Hawaii for our 10 day honeymoon.  I absolutely loved every moment of my wedding day.  Naturally there are a couple of things I would go back and change.  I don’t love the bridesmaid dresses nor did I love the flowers for my maids or even myself.  But I think the reason I want to change those is because it’s been 4 years.  Dresses have evolved and people are beginning to be more courageous with their flower choices.  If I could change now, I would change the color of the bridesmaid dresses and would have made them short dresses instead of long ones (it was July for crying out loud).  Not sure what differences I would have made in the flowers, but I know I would have wanted more color. 

Regardless, I loved my wedding day and I fall in love with my husband more and more each day.  Marrying him was by far the most important decision of my life (even more important than children).  He is my rock and I truly don’t know what I would do without him. 

Flashback Friday

Since I haven’t done one of these posts in years….

Found this ole gem on youtube the other day.  I have a channel that I upload videos to constantly so now, I have over 120 videos.  The other day I started looking through them and saw this.  Oh the good ole days.  I was a freshman in high school in this video and it was at the UDA competition at the University of Alabama in 1997.  15 years ago.  Wow.  And apologies that my mom felt the need to zoom in on me every chance she got.  Kinda makes seeing the whole dance hard.  Can we talk for just a minute about those socks???  I mean…WOW.

This is at least a little more recent (yet still about 11 years old).  I was a senior in this one.  You can’t miss me.  I’m the one with the BLEACH blonde hair.  What was I thinking??  As I went back to watch these and it hit 4:43, I thought to myself “wow…pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to have another kid if I had to do that again”.  I took a lot of pride in how our team did during our senior year fieldshow because I helped choreograph it.  Even the flag parts, and I was AWFUL at flags.  Ugh.  Again, apologies for the constant zooming in by the madre.

I’ve only discussed dance team twice during my blog and they were both flashback friday posts.  You can see the other one with more pictures and videos here.  This is interesting to me because dance was pretty much my life from 5th grade all the way to college.  But then life happens and the real world sets in and you just don’t have time for those fun things anymore :(

On an unrelated note, I am officially in party planning mode.  That’s right.  I am now planning my son’s first birthday party.  I remember when I was pregnant and thinking that there was no way I was going to be one of those mom’s that has a huge production party for every birthday.  Well, that was then, and this is now and I am SO excited for what I’m planning for his party.  Not giving anything away yet, but it’s going to be so cute and SO fun.  Usually party invitations for birthday parties and such go out about 2 weeks in advance, but since Carter’s birthday is around Christmas, I think I’m going to send them out before Thanksgiving (his party is on December 15th).  I know there’s numerous Christmas parties for work and friends and families and I want to try to get his party on people’s calendar as early as possible!  But at the same time, I understand that his birthday is at a time of year when people are so busy so I will understand if a bunch of people don’t make it.  It’s just the nature of a  December birthday :)

Flashback Friday - Old School Family Pictures

I'll just let some of these speak for themselves...



Me and my sister getting ready for some trick-or-treating



When Jen and I took ballet when we were kids, she was a ballerina. I was in a different dance for that recital and I was a tiger. I thought I had that picture, but I can't find it.



I kinda look like Cindy Brady don't I?



Fast forward many years...the sisters, Jennifer, Marcie and Lindsey



Me and my aunt DeLane



For my 21st birthday, both of my sisters treated me to dinner and a Prince concert. Such a fun night.



Charlies Angels...this is after a pep rally at Hoover High where I was on the dance team, which explains the outfit ;)



The three sisters with our two step-sisters and our dad and step-mother, Martha...I was going through some hair experimenting years...back off.



The girls with Paw Paw



The sisters again...gosh this was so long ago!



Me and my cousin John. John is DeLane's son and he came to watch me dance at a UA basketball game.



This is the three of us at B&A Warehouse. My step-brother's wedding reception was there, as was mine several years later :)

Hope you enjoyed my flashback friday, I know it's been a while since I've done one. I love doing this because, God forbid, if I lose all these pictures, they're all right here for me to see in 10, 20, 30 years :)

Flashback Friday - The City of Angels

Last week I did the flashback on a city...and I will again this week :)

Back in 2004, I went for a week to visit my college roomie in Los Angeles. This wasn't my first time to be in LA. When I was a senior in high school, the Hoover High School band along which included the dance team and majorettes were asked to perform in the Hollywood Christmas parade. Not only was that my first time to Los Angeles, but it was also my first time to be on a plane!

Anyway, my friend Ashleigh still lives in LA and visiting her again is on my list of 101 things to do. I went once in 2004 to see her and then again in 2005. The pictures below are from both times, I think. I just had a "LA" picture folder on my computer and didn't distinguish which pictures were from which time period.



This is at City Walk. I LOVED LOVED LOVED City Walk. So many shops and fun things to do!



A girl can't go all the way to LA and not go to Melrose ;)



This is me and Ashleigh at the Chinese theater



Exploring downtown. This is where all the accounting firms are. I know, I know. I'm a dork.



This is from the 405...the busiest interstate I have ever in my life been on



I heart this picture



Yep, we went to Laguna :)



The beach at Laguna Beach



The city of Laguna Beach



This made my day!

And that wraps up my two LA trips. Justin and I do want to go out there not only to see Ashleigh again, but also to climb Mt. Whitney, the 2nd tallest mountain in the US, but the tallest in the lower 48 :)