ali loves andrew

july 14th was a very special day for two very special people.  one of my best friends married the man of her dreams.  leading up to this glorious day were many fun wedding and bridal showers where i was so lucky to see two of my best friends so often.  you know who you are {cough cough} ali and tin :)

i have posted pictures from some of ali's showers previously, so this post is going to strictly be dedicated to the weekend of ali and andrew's wedding.  

ooooohhhhh how wonderful it was to be part of their special weekend.

the weekend began with a beautiful bridal luncheon that ali's "gran," her sweet aunts and cousins had planned for all of us.  of course me and tin still act a little childish so it wouldn't be normal if some of these pictures weren't taken :)

gosh i love this girl.

and am so thankful that i have had this crazy girl to call one of my best friends for soooo many years.

thanks to someone instagram[ing] this picture i was able to add this lovely picture of tin and i with the bride-to-be.  there aren't many people out there that can say they are still best friends with girls from 1st and 2nd grade.  this girl can.

another lovely pic of tin and i after the bridal luncheon :)

all of the bridesmaids and cousins after the bridal luncheon.

friday evening was of course the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  at the rehearsal dinner i was so happy that 3 more of our best friends were going to be joining us {cough cough} george, tess, and ker :) it was so long over due. . . christmas to be exact!

by the looks of these pictures, you can see that we don't miss a beat. 

 so happy that we all still remain so close :)

i feel like i am just getting started on this post because the most important day was yet to come.  saturday afternoon we were suppose to be meeting at the church around 1 to start getting ready.  well i figured that with this group of girls what wouldn't make this day a little brighter with some cheese dip from el poblano, so of course i stopped and picked some up.

tin gettin' her hair did :)

the beautiful bride gettin' her hair did :)

us being silly. . .no. . .okay, before the make up.

the one-and-only. . .bekah gilliam :)

{almost} mrs. hawkins :)

ms. greta and ms. kay had some yummy snacks for us while we were getting ready.  these were some cute cookies that they had made.

and now for some church decor. ali and andrew's guest book.

beautiful flowers done by my favorite teacher who now designs incredible flower arrangements for weddings and other events.

our beautiful bouquets!

tin and i after we are all dressed and ready :)

all of our shoes and al's beautiful pink flat to match all of our dresses :)

ker came to check out the beautiful bride before she said "i do"

al getting her garter on! it was so cute and she specially ordered a camo one because andrew loves some hunting :)

tin and i on the way to the reception after the ceremony!

with my beautiful moma and sissy at the reception

love my little sissy.

2 beautiful best friends. love you both so very much :)

cant believe you are married. so thankful to be one of your best friends and to have been part of this special day.

becca and russ

the week prior to june 9, 2012 was a very big week for my little sissy.  it was the week before she became a mrs.  the thursday before i headed down to iop to join my sista and some of her closest friends to finish up the last minute preparations for her big day and of course just have a little girl time before she got hitched!

the beautiful sunset off the back porch on thursday before the big events of the weekend!

on friday morning i had some maid of honor duties that had to be filled.  i had to go pick up the programs and i had to take becca's ring to get it cleaned so it would be all beautiful for the pictures.  after i fulfilled those duties i headed to the salon to meet the bride.to.be and her bridesmaids for manis and pedis.

friday night was the rehearsal and then a gorgeous rehearsal dinner that russ' parents put on for all of the bridal party and our giant families :)

the beautiful bride.to.be with her fun ribbon bouquet i made her from some ribbons that were on presents she had opened from her bridal showers!

sweet lillie and i waiting for our turn to walk down the isle.

our now family of 5 :)

gair and i at the rehearsal dinner! it was such a beautiful location. the rehearsal dinner was at the cooper river room that is located with a beautiful view of the cooper river bridge and obviously an amazing sunset :)

almost all of the bridesmaids. i think lo had just left right before we took this picture.  pretty sure this is an instagram(ed) picture which is why the coloring is weird.

after we left the rehearsal dinner we headed back to mom and dads house for a girls only slumber party :) we had to make sure becca got her beauty sleep since we all know how late she likes to stay up!

saturday morning we all got up and ate breakfast and just kinda took it easy.  thankfully we had everything done and ready for the wedding and all we had to do for the day was get ourselves ready and finish packing becca for the honeymoon :)  we had a very relaxing day listening to some fun music, getting our hair did and playing with makeup.  it didn't seem real. it was just like we were playing dress up, it was hard to believe that at the end of that day my baby sister was going to be married.  you can check out becca's facebook album, oh happy day (part 1) to see pictures before the ceremony took place.  once we were all ready to go we all put our dresses on and hopped in the cars and headed to Seewee Preserve in Awendaw, SC, which is where the wedding was.

bec and i crammed in mom and dads car and i'm not gonna lie, i got a little teary eyed on the way there thinking about that being the last time we would be a family of 4.  of course those tears were of happiness, because i couldn't have been more excited about the new edition to our family :)

i love these pictures so much!

going from a miss to a mrs. in only a few hours.  she might kill me for this one, but i love it.

can't believe it :) so happy for you!

when we arrived at Seewee all of the girls went into this little house to finish getting ready and so bec could get into her dress.  since there are tons of pictures from this, i am just going to post my favorites.

this is one of the signs that i painted to go at the entrance of Seewee.  i painted signs there were all over the property with becca and russ' favorite bible verses.

me and my sissy right when she put her dress on :)

moma getting her all zipped in.

reilly helping moma and me just staring in awe of how beautiful my little sissy looks :)

kisses for the bride-to-be

still couldn't believe that this day was finally here! morgy had to get back there and tie bec's beautiful bow.

so special. my favorite picture.

all of us praying over becca right before it was time to walk down the aisle.

if you want to see pictures from the actual ceremony you can click this link to becca's facebook album, oh happy day (part 2) and even more pictures in this album, oh happy day (part 3).

one last picture that is another one of my favorites (i know i have tons of favorites)

 right after they became mr. and mrs. russ tomlinson :) 

oh happy day!

livin' large in texas: part 2

saturday for becca's bachelorette party it was actually her birthday too.  reilly and lauren came up with such a great idea to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of all of us.  we hired Rachel Ledbetter from Fort Worth, TX.  she was amazing and made it so comfortable and fun for us.

(you can click that link to see a sneak peek of the pictures that she took of us)

i will post all of them at a later date.

after our photo shoot we went to an authentic mexican restaurant in fort worth, before heading back into dallas.  it was really yummy and we even got to sing happy birthday to bec.

after lunch we headed back to dallas to hang out and chill a little bit before goin' two steppin' that night.  some of the girls took a nap, i worked on my school stuff, and becca and morgan went to pick up this precious little one.

this little girl used to live at an orphanage in Uganda, where becca lived for 3 months.  when becca and morgan went on their first trip one of the ladies that went with them fell in love with this little one (i mean how could you not) and she adopted her and she now lives with her new mommy and big sister in Dallas, so becca called her up and arranged for her and morgan to go pick her up from her nanny's house and be able to hang out with her for a few hours before her mommy could pick her up.

we ate cupcakes.

 

played with the ball.

 and then her sweet mommy came to pick her up.

 we just couldn't get enough of her :)

after little one left we all started to get ready for dinner and to head out for our night out 2 steppin'

 

rockin' out at Cowboys Red River

 love this pic! ry and bec doin' some of the line dances :)

 love this picture of all of us after dancin' the night away :)

bec- hope you had a fabulous birthday/bachelorette weekend.  i know we all did.

can't wait 'til june 9 :)