Sorry, couldn’t resist that title 🙂

Let the fact that it’s Tuesday and I’m just getting around to posting serve as proof of how absolutely amazing this past weekend was.  Hannah and Josh’s wedding was so perfect and so fun that I needed a few days to recover.  Also, I’m dealing with a serious case of post-wedding depression.  As in, being back in the real world and having to be at work is pure torture.  I feel like I need a honeymoon too!

I was trying to come up with a way to make this post more concise, but there’s just no way around it.. this is gonna be lengthy.  It’s not every day that your best friend of 23 years gets married and I would be remiss not to write about all the details that made for one of the best days of my entire life.

It all started on Thursday afternoon when eight of us girls met to get manicures and pedicures together.  Many of them were from Josh’s side of the family and I cannot get over how sweet they all are.  They were all so genuinely excited for the wedding and it was making my heart melt.  Also, my pedicurist rubbed a hole into my toe, so that felt nice…

Afterwards, I picked Joey up and we headed to the wedding venue for rehearsal.  Turns out these are pretty easy — I was kind of nervous for ours since we don’t have a coordinator or anything — and Hannah pretty much ran the show on her own.  Between the two of us, she is most definitely the take action one.  The boys are trying to figure out what to do with their arms in this picture.

Once the rehearsing was over, we all headed into Louisville for the dinner part of the night.  I promptly ordered a beer and decided the Tropical King was pretty apropos since that’s Hannah’s new last name.  We had our own private room where food was all set up for us.

Mingling commenced.  I creepily snuck this picture of Josh and his mom.  I told you his family was too cute!

I think I remember telling Joey that I take too many pictures of him eating.  Then took this picture anyways.

Hannah and Josh gave out bridesmaid and groomsmen presents and I was so blown away by all the loot they gifted us!  All “what do I wear while we get ready for the wedding?!” worries vanished when I unwrapped a monogramed robe and I’m pretty sure Joey has a whole new wardrobe now.  They seriously spoiled us!

This is Fletcher, the best Best Man.  He’s actually equally good friends with Hannah and Josh so we had him running all over for the bridal party — as well as taking on groom duties like shaving Josh’s neck? — on Saturday.  Like I said, he’s the best!

Ahem, this is when someone decided to get a little sloppy and we had to make a quick exit from the party.  I wasn’t exactly happy about it…  My sister is a godsend for coming to retrieve us.

After a relatively lazy morning — I attempted to go on a run, that turned into a walk, that turned into me stopping at the coffee shop for an iced chai — we headed to Tracey’s for a little 4th of July BBQ action.

We actually had a hell of a time getting the BBQ-ing started because we kept getting big downpours of rain and some crazy wind.  Every time it ended we thought we were in the clear, then it would start up again a few minutes later.  Luckily, there was cowboy salsa and chips inside.  Once the rain let up long enough to turn the grill on, we let Josh take charge.

And bocce ball, of course.  I think this is actually a game I could handle but these four were playing in the rain and I was not into that.  Hannah’s expression in this picture cracks me up!

After all the BBQ-ing and family time was over at Tracey’s and Hannah and Josh decided they had better go check into their hotel rooms, Joey and I headed home so I could pack up my sleepover stuff.  The hotel they were staying at has been there forever but they recently did a major renovation and it was so nice!  Hannah, Josh, Fletcher, Joey and I all hung out there while we waited for the fireworks to start and Hannah and I obviously claimed our lounging area in the bed.

After walking over to Panera for a late dinner — “your last dinner as an unmarried couple was at Panera!” — we grabbed some seats near the fire pit area at the hotel and had a primo view of a not so primo fireworks show.  C’est la vie!  We could see the Broomfield fireworks off in the distance afterwards and those looked great!  I think the boys hung out in our room until 11:30 when Fletcher headed back to his room down the hall, Josh headed to his which was right below us and Joey headed home.

The bride and groom had a strict policy of not seeing each other on the wedding day until Hannah came down the aisle and Josh was cutting it pretty close when at 11:50 he realized he needed to borrow some contact solution.

I think Hannah and I were up till close to 1 chatting so when 6:45 AM arrived, the first words out of my mouth were “Where’s Fletcher with that coffee?!”  The two of us had breakfast at the hotel buffet — I think Hannah managed to eat half a piece of toast and one strip of bacon ha ha — then headed back upstairs to meet Josh’s mom Karla and Kellee who were first to get their hair and make up done.  And yeah, Fletcher did eventually bring the coffee 🙂

Our beauty team was incredible!  They were both so talented, thorough and most importantly, punctual!  I already tried to get Christina for my wedding day hair styling and she’s already booked.  Nooooo!  Our make up artist, Jake, brought his partner and he was nice enough to fix the clasp of my dress that came unstitched.  So happy he was there!

Hannah’s got a great new sister.  This is Kellee on keep-the-bride-cool duty.  I had Joey go out and get us some fans and they turned out to be a huge help.  Hannah saying she was hot was about the only sign of any nerves.  She just kept saying, “I think I’ll start to get nervous when…” and kept pushing it further and further back.

Don’t we all look stunning?!

Once we got over to the wedding venue, it was smooth sailing.  The vendors and Josh’s aunt had everything taken care of and I don’t think Hannah had to worry about a single thing, so we got to just hang out and relax in the bridal room.  This was the first time the other bridesmaids got to see Hannah’s dress in person and I loved the looks on their faces.  This is also when Hannah’s photographer showed up and started snapping pre-ceremony pictures.

This was Hannah’s dad Tim seeing her for the first time that day.  I took this picture and then had to excuse myself from the room.  Karla, Kellee and I had instant tears and it was a little too much to handle.  We were out that door so fast!  I just had to remind myself how long it had just taken Jake to get all the make up on my face.

The girls headed out to do our photo shoot afterwards and this bunny as just chilling in the grass.  I think he stayed there the whole time.

Drop dead gorgeous.

This is Hannah about three minutes before we all left to line up for the ceremony.  That’s a look of pure excitement and not even a hint of stress or anxiety.  She was seriously the most perfect bride ever.  I hope I can channel her calmness before my own wedding.

As all of us bridesmaids were exiting, she looked at me and said, “I’m just in here by myself?!”  I think we were all about to leave her there alone and not even realize that no one told her dad to head in to wait with her.  Oops!

I don’t even know what to say about the ceremony.  It was incredibly emotional and beautiful.  I actually couldn’t even see Hannah during most of her walk down the aisle because all the guest were standing up and I decided that was probably a good thing.  I was already struggling to hold it together just looking at Josh and all their family members.  Joey and Hannah’s cousin were the first of the wedding party to walk down and he said it was scary having all eyes on them.  I responded that absolutely no one was watching me because I had two sets of tiny ring bearers and flower girls behind me.

Once the ceremony was over, we had time to grab a quick drink — wine me! — while the receiving line went through then we finished up pictures.  I thought their photographer did such a great job.  She pretty much positioned and posed us so pictures were easy and quick.  Now, that’s what I’m talking about.  We did a Bridesmaids shot that I’m hoping turned out good!

This is the one and only shot I have of the reception.  I think it was because half the time I was stuck in “Oh my god I’m so nervous to give a toast!” mode and afterwards I was in “I just wanna have fun on the dance floor!” mode.  Everyone told Fletcher and I that our speeches were perfect.  I don’t know if the amount of shaking I was doing was “perfect” but I’ll take it!

The reception went so fast.  At one point, Joey remarked that there was only an hour left and I was shocked.  Between the dance floor, the photo booth and the cake, time flew by.  Speaking of cake, I wish I’d gotten a picture of that thing.  It was GORGEOUS! 

This is the aftermath of a wedding.  A bride sitting on the hotel floor, a wad of cash and a pile of photo booth pictures.  Sounds about right to me.

A few of us decided to hang out by the fire pit back at the hotel, but we said goodbye to the bride and groom first.  I think they were probably just as deliriously tired as I was, but I pretty much demanded that Josh carry Hannah into their room.  He only kind of complained about his back while he did it…

Cheers to my absolute favorite couple and a completely perfect weekend!