A Very Special Day - Sarah and Will's Wedding

This past weekend was very special for our family!  Our youngest daughter, Sarah got married (again) and we celebrated all weekend.  The festivities started with a beautiful bridesmaids luncheon for the girls and skeet shooting for the guys on Friday, followed by the rehearsal dinner and ending with the wedding ceremony and reception Saturday evening.  It was a whirlwind and I'm so glad that we have pictures and a video to remember it all by!

The Friday festivities were very special because it was the  first time that our extended families had met.  The girls bonded over a delicious bridesmaids lunch and the guys spent the morning skeet shooting and getting to know each other. 

The luncheon was hosted by my sister, Catherine, and my friends Britt and Shannon.  We had a traditional cake, made by Main Street Cakes, with cake pulls and the bridesmaids pulled out a charm of fortune from the cake.  We drank mimosas and had a fabulous lunch in Shannon's very beautiful home.  Hudson got lots of attention from everyone there!  He's not quite old enough to skeet shoot!  

The bridesmaids and Ila, the beautiful flower girl!

It's so rare anymore that I get a picture with all of my daughters together so these pictures are very special!

Sarah with her Grandmother (my Mother).

We had delicious food, including strawberry soup,  and the flowers, created by Lyn Moser of Special Arrangements were breathtaking!

Hudson with his Great Grandmother.

Meanwhile, back at the house, preparations were being made for the wedding.  The rental stage that the band needed was too large for the space so my husband decided to build one at the last minute.  He got it done and it was absolutely perfect!  He was exhausted, but we all had so much fun dancing the night away to great music (hopefully the neighbors enjoyed it as well)!

The weekend did include some clowning around!

I probably have a hundred pictures of these two in this exact pose!  "The Sarahs", as we call them, have been friends since they were in grade school.

One lesson that I learned this past weekend, is that it is too much work to try to have a wedding reception at your home, cater most of the food yourself, AND be the mother of the bride.  I got everything ready before going to the church with the help of my good friends Britt and Tonia!  I couldn't have done it without them!!!  We were up and working early Saturday morning, setting up tables, cutting fruit and doing whatever else needed to be done!  My son-in-law, Chris was so helpful and he was there to do anything I asked!  I am so blessed to have good friends and wonderful family!  My husband worked so hard to make everything beautiful before the wedding and then he built the stage and strung all of the lights for the reception!  He barely made it to the church on time!

I put together this basket with fruit and veggies before going to the church!

Sara-Anne, our photographer wanted to do a "first-look" photo and I'm so glad she captured that special and beautiful moment.  I took these pictures myself, and I know hers will be so much better, but they're just so sweet that I wanted to share them!

Sarah's dress was beautiful and she was breathtaking!  The bridal party looked on as Will saw Sarah in her dress for the first time.  There were plenty of tears...it was such a special moment!

Three of Sarah's bridesmaids.  Sarah, Ellen and Kiely.

Ila, Will's niece, getting her mom to put on lip gloss.  She looked so beautiful going down the aisle in the church.

Lyn Moser of Special Arrangements, did the flowers for the bridesmaids luncheon as well as the flowers for the wedding and reception.  Everything was perfect.  I just can't thank her enough for making fabulous flower arrangements!  Lyn has been a part of nearly every special occasion that our family has had since the girls were born!

The picture below was the mantle of our outdoor fireplace!  I want it to look like this everyday!

Lyn hung a kissing ball in the gazebo.

This was the centerpiece for the buffet!  I've never seen anything so beautiful!  It's on my front porch now and brings back such wonderful memories every time I see it!

I put down my camera when the reception started and left the rest to Sara-Anne.  I will do another post with pictures from the reception soon.  My life has been consumed with the preparations for this special weekend and I wanted to share some of it with you!  

I hope to get back to a regular blogging schedule this week!  I still have some catching up to do but I also have some exciting things planned for the blog!  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you'll follow me on Instagram @crazyblondelifeblog!