Finally...............

Updated 01/22/2007 - Pictures of the Wedding - Used by Permission

This was the Arch at the back of the Auditorium

This picture was taken through the window at the back of the auditorium.

This is one of the Christmas Trees at the Front (see the snow?)

This is how the front of the auditorium looked when it was all finished.

I am back to blogging. Let me say right now, if you don't have time to sit down for about 30 minutes to read this, don't start. It is going to be a loooooonnnnnggggg blog since I haven't blogged in about 2 weeks.

Let me start from the beginning. Where we left off was 3 days until the wedding went down.

The Rehearsal was truly a nightmare. Like I said, if you haven't ever planned a wedding before from start to finish, don't start now. First, I have never worked with 3 sets of parents. Second, I have never done a wedding with 22 people in the wedding party, not including the parents, grandparents, ushers, etc. They had 8 Groomsmen, 1 Best Man, 2 Maids of Honors, 6 Bridesmaids, a Junior Bridesmaid, a Ring Bearer, and a Bell Ringer. I am truly surprised that they didn't have a partridge in a pear tree somewhere in the mix.

I took off work on Friday to go to the church building to help with the decorating with the understanding that there would be some of the guys there to help. All of the girls had gone to the Bridesmaid Luncheon and were due to return somewhere around noon. Some of the guys turned out to be the dad and granddad of the Bride. So here we go, cutting about 80 feet of batting and Tobacco Cloth for the aisle. I am sure we were a sight to behold. About 12:00-12:30 the girls return ready to decorate. One of the sweet Bridesmaids, heads to Wal-Mart to get some Christmas lights for the trees that we are putting on the stage. There will only be 5 of them. We also have an Arch in the back that some lights are out on, so those need to be replaced as well. Rachel gets back from Wal-Mart and the girls start on the trees and arch with lights and placing batting on the arch and trees to make it look like snow. It is all starting to come together and looks beautiful. I need something to eat at this point since it is going on 2:00.

I go to lunch with a friend from work, Megan, whose office is only a mile from the church building. We are only gone about an hour and a half at the most and I come back and everyone else is gone. Ok, I am not expecting this. I am told that they all went back to the hotel and to their houses to take a nap and get ready for this evening.

Fast Forward: The rehearsal was due to start at 5:00p.m. We get started about 5:45 and we use replacements for almost the entire bridal party. The last ones to arrive finally get there about 6:30, which is when the Dinner is supposed to start. The caterer arrives late as well so I have about 30 minutes to get everyone in their places and set. I wont go into all of the drama that happened, however I have never been so disrespected in my entire life. I lost it. I couldn't even go into the youth center where the dinner was being held. I went out to my car and called one of my friends, Tonya, who endured my crying and complaining. She told me that it would all be OK and not to worry, but that everyone was on edge just wanting to get this whole thing over. INCLUDING MYSELF.

Saturday morning I arrive about 9:00 to find everyone scurrying about, getting the bride ready and themselves ready. The guys arrive around 10:30 and start getting ready themselves. The photographer, who is driving down from Glasgow, KY arrives about noon and starts setting up to take some pictures. Yes, they saw each other before the ceremony, but they saw each other alone. We put Alex in the Chapel facing away from the door and had Amber walk up behind him to "capture" the moment. The wedding is due to start at 3:00 and we are running great on time. They get all of the pictures that need to be made before the ceremony and I get Amber back to the Bridal Suite to get her finishing touches done. I have emailed the photographer asking permission to use some of the pictures on here to show you all how beautiful it really did turn out.

Today turns out to be a nasty one. Rain, sleet and wind are keeping a lot of the guests away. Since Amber is from Kentucky and Alex is from Atlanta, almost all of the friends and family are coming from out of town and don't want to get stuck in Nashville for what the weather forecast is calling a "wintery mix". I cant say that I truly blame them, but out of 375 invitations that have been sent, we have a max of about 150 guests for the wedding. This turns out to be a great number to work with.

The wedding went off with only one hitch, or maybe two. Amber didn't want anyone walking down the center aisle before the bridal party, so we had a rope up, and yes I forgot to take it down before the grandmothers were seated. UH OH. The coordinator for the church came to my rescue, and helped get it untied before they got to the arch. YEAH!!! Thanks, Pam!!!!

The wedding is finally in full swing and going great, so I run around the outside of the auditorium to check on the caterer only to find out that she has had a chocolate explosion with the chocolate fountain. OH NO!! There is chocolate everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. But, by the time that the reception is to begin, you really wouldn't know that there had been any kind of explosion unless you walked into the kitchen. Keep the door shut and we will clean it later is what we both thought. Tiffany, Beth and Leigh.......You all were phenomenal. The food was delicious and there was definitely enough of it. Tiff, the cake was GORGEOUS, and just what the Bride ordered. You truly make it look so easy. I will get a picture of it and put on here to show your handiwork. If anyone in the area needs a caterer, I happen to know one that is WONDERFUL. Just let me know.

The wedding is now over and the reception is going smooth. I finally get to sit down for the first time all day and get off of my feet. Whew, what a relief. As I am sitting there, the photographer takes a picture of me and I am sure that it is quite a sight. I am plum worn out.

I try to do something nice for every couple that I coordinate or plan a wedding for and go to the hotel they are staying at and decorate with rose petals and candles and such, with only the Groom's permission. So off I go to the Opryland Hotel. I get them checked in, go to the room and start decorating. I feel sorry for the maid staff. I know the he or she was never so glad to clean that room. Rose petals everywhere, candles lit, Hershey Kisses on the bed, it was absolutely beautiful, or so I say myself.

The wedding is done. They are on their Honeymoon to St. Lucius in the Caribbean, and I am sure that they are having the time of their lives.

Normalcy is finally back. I am back to work, but I only had to work the last half of the day on Monday since I have to work on Saturday. Monday Night, Joey plays Basketball with some guys at Joelton, and I have to go and pick up the kids. I sit around and watch them play for a few minutes and realize just how rough they really do play. WOW I guess the old saying goes, "If you cant play with the BIG DOGS get out of the pen." Well, I am here to tell you, I am out of the pen, cause I couldn't handle playing with those big dogs. They are quite the players and what looked to me as a couple of wrestlers as well.

Tuesday, Just a normal but busy day at work and the kids practice Basketball on this night. For dinner we opted for the ever cheap Fazoli's. Kids eat for .99 cents, drink included and I had a coupon for a free entree with a drink. Our total came to $10.56 for all of us to eat. You cant make supper at home for that. I told them to expect to eat at Fazoli's every Tuesday night while practice is going on.

Wednesday, another busy day at work. The Vice-Pres. and President of our region pay us a visit with our Regional Sales Mgr., so some schmoozing is going on today. Dressing in a VERY Business Professional suit with heels is not something that I normally wear, however, we are expected to dress up more with visits like this. I am glad that it only happens about once to twice a year. Wednesday night as normal is Bible Study. We go to Joelton with Joey's family and then to our usual dining experience on Wednesday night, McDonalds. We get home around 9:30 because if you don't know me then I am not going to tell you how quiet and meek I truly am. HAHA. Remember, if you comment, I get to read them before they are posted, so don't make any ugly remarks about the previous statement.

Thursday, work again, and busy again. Do you see a pattern here? It is only 5 days until Christmas at this point and I need to do some last minute stuff. I run by the house, pick Courtney up and off to the Mall we go. We finally get home about 10:30, and daddy is not a happy camper that I have kept her out this late. My thoughts on this is, OH Well, she only has a 1/2 day of school tomorrow and she can come home and take a nap or go to bed early on Friday night. What to my wondering eyes should appear..............

Friday morning, I wake up to see Joey laying on the floor and he cant move. Houston, We have a problem. I call my boss to let her know that I will be late to work. I call Darlee, Joey's aunt who lives next door and Faye, his mom, who lives about 45 minutes away from us, to find out what I should do. He is complaining of a horrendous head-ache and his neck is hurting. We finally convince him to go to the closest ER(had I known any better, we would have gone into Nashville) to only be told that it is a Muscle Spasm from an injury playing Basketball a couple weeks ago(reference, Monday's paragraph). The doctor doesn't run any tests, just puts him on a muscle relaxer and pain meds and puts him in a soft neck collar, and tells him that if it isn't better by Monday to go and see his PCP. I guess the doctor forgot that Monday is Christmas Eve and that we wouldn't be able to see his PCP until Wednesday. I am at work, because I have so much to do before the Holidays that I feel as if I need to be there, and that his mom is meeting him at the ER and she can take better care of him and not get as frustrated with him as I might be. I work much better under circumstances such as these too. Faye calls me at work to let me know that he will be fine and I suggest that he go to her house so that he wont be alone with the kids and me at work. They go to her house and end up spending the night because I have to work on Saturday and he is in A LOT OF PAIN. For those of you who know or don't know Joey, he doesn't complain about a lot of things. If he has a headache, he just works through the pain. He doesn't take medicine for anything dealing with pain or muscles, so I knew that he was not feeling up to par, and wouldn't want to be here by himself, and I didn't want him here by himself. So they stayed with his mom and dad and after work on Saturday I went and picked him up and brought him home.

Saturday night Joey was bound and determined to go to church on Sunday morning, even though he didn't feel much better. I did talk to the elders on Friday and they told me not to worry about Joey preaching on Sunday, that they already had it covered.

So Sunday morning, we get up and get ready for services, drive down town and he sits there enduring an hour of pain, instead of being at home in bed. I guess that since he is the minister at Shelby Ave., he feels like he needs to be there. It reminds me of the post office.....Rain, Snow, Sleet or Shine, they are there delivering the messages. Thank you Norris. It was a mighty fine lesson that you presented. We get home and he is not feeling well and I don't want to say, "I told you so" but he is in a lot of pain. I think that he just overdid it trying to get ready this morning. He realized that he needed to stay at home tonight so my in-laws came by to pick up the kids for worship this evening.

Courtney and Craig went to bed early since they have been kinda cranky today even with taking a nap this afternoon. Courtney came into the office and told me one of her teeth has been bothering her lately and about 5 minutes later, she pulled it. Yes, she pulled her own tooth. I guess that the Tooth Fairy will be visiting our house this evening. Everyone is finally in bed at 10:00 p.m. except for me, and I am getting ready to go there as soon as I get the clothes out of the washer and hung up. I will be adding some of my own pictures to this site after the holidays since that is the surprise that we are giving the parents for Christmas and I don't want everyone else seeing them before they see them. So, stay tuned for those, and hopefully I will get some of the wedding to post on here as well.

If I don't see or talk to you before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope that you and your families have a wonderful Holiday season and that you are blessed beyond belief. Our love goes out to you all.

In Him,

Kelly and family