And the Wedding...

Was pink. Everything. Was. Pink. It was almost hilarious. The invitations, the bridesmaids' dresses, Alyssa's dress had a pink bow, as did the programs, the flowers were pink, the cake, the tablecloths, we even had pink lemonade! Guests could make a bag of pink candies on their way out the door! Obviously, that is Alyssa's favorite color, so when they asked her what color she wanted something to be, she always said, "Pink!" I must say I was a little nervous, but it turned out to be beautiful. We had a really fun time, and everything turned out perfect. My mom and Lanette and I did walk into the church Saturday morning to see the flowers all out of order...and the florist was gone! We were a little panicked. They were all there, but it looked like a jungle! Never fear, Shanna to the rescue. The florist came back and fixed everything, and it was great. The ceremony was really sweet. A guy who used to be in Sam's youth group but is older now created a video for them that was just like the beginning of The Wedding Story. It was so cute. The photographer, Kathy Stephens, was wonderful. She was so sweet but really knew how to take charge. I'm anxious to see what the pictures look like.
The reception was fabulous. I was most impressed with the cakes by The Cake Diva (she's a Coast implant!!! Yippee!). Alyssa knew exactly what she wanted, but we were all surprised by how perfect they were. Sam and Alyssa stayed for a few hours and then left. They had the cutest car and the sweetest little driver. It's an older couple who owns this car, and they love doing weddings. They had a basket full of drinks and snacks for Sam and Alyssa. They were just so sweet! They took Alyssa and Sam to the Fairview Inn where they stayed in the Hayloft Honeymoon Suite (how funny!). It was really nice. The nicest thing was that they were at their hotel by 5pm and didn't have to be ready until 9am the next morning. I mean, Lee and I got to New Orleans after midnite and were sooo exhausted!
Meanwhile, we went back to the hotel with all the food left over. We took it all downstairs and called everyone who was there for the wedding and had them come down and eat. It was really fun to just hang out with everyone (mostly family and close friends) and laugh. After a while, we started inviting anyone walking through the lobby to come eat. It was hilarious. We did get rid of most of the food, though! Lee and I stayed at the hotel that night with my family.
Sunday morning, Lee and I picked Alyssa and Sam up and took them to the airport to catch their flight to Mexico. They are in Playa del Carmen at this great resort. They have a Casita, and it sounds really nice. There's a lazy river that goes around the resort, and they get to take two steps out of their room and get in the lazy river and ride it around until they want to get out! How neat! We are so, so jealous and can't wait to pick them up on Saturday to hear all their stories. Sam makes fun of me all the time because I have a blog, but Alyssa called yesterday to tell me about their snorkeling experience and said that Sam keeps saying, "Oh yeah. This picture is definitely going on the blog." So I'll be posting some pictures of that, too!

The Wedding Day