I'm back!

It's been nearly 3 months since my last blog post. No one told me how stressful and crazy the last few months leading up to the wedding would be! I couldn't think about anything else. It was overwhelming and completely consuming, but I enjoyed every single moment. I didn't, however, even think about blogging! So much has happened in these last 3 months, so I think I'll just start where I left off...


In late August I had an absolutely wonderful bridal shower at my favorite restaurant in my old neighborhood. My bridesmaids, their moms, and my mommy helped host the shower and we invited all of my oldest and dearest "horse friends" to help us celebrate. Those friendships are so special, and it's all thanks to our four-legged friends :) If you didn't know that we were friends because of horses, the game we played sure would have given it away! The hosts had each guest write down how they knew me in a few words, and I had to guess who wrote it. The words horse, Snowball, and MacNair's were repeated many, many times! It made it quite challenging for me, but it was really fun. Those ladies spoiled me rotten and I'm so grateful for their love and support. I cried happy tears many, many times that day- but you won't find me apologizing for it!

My maids!

When I was little, my mom used to sing me "You are my Sunshine" every night. She wrote it in my card and got me this pillow - hence the tears from both of us! So special!

September was the busiest month of all. It started with my bridal portrait session with Renee. We went to the art museum and had a blast! There was a threat of rain all day, but we were lucky enough to just get beautiful after-storm skies from it. Sure, it was hot, but my mom is a seasoned horse show mom and brought her trusty hand-held fan along! Genius, I tell you! The pictures are SO amazing. It took us forever to choose THE bridal portrait, and we even ordered like 15 other pictures because we loved them all so much. I really could never find the words to explain how wonderful Renee was/is as a photographer. She is the best decision we made in this whole process, hands down! This was the portrait we chose, courtesy of Renee Sprink Photography (visit reneesprink.com, or "like" her on Facebook, too!):

Moving on... We also had our final 2 weddings in September! The first was for our dear friends, Aimee and Adam Rich! This was a destination wedding (how fun!) in Atlantic Beach. We took advantage of this opportunity and turned it into a mini-vacation. We got to bring Scout and spend the weekend with great friends. And to top it off, Aimee and Adam had the most stunningly beautiful, fabulously fun beach wedding! We danced our hearts out and had the best time celebrating such a lovely couple! To finish off the month, we celebrated 2 more wonderful friends, Morgan and Trevor Nienke! Morgan and I were fast friends at Meredith, and we even lived together Sophomore year. And Trevor is Payton's big brother in their fraternity, so we are all strangely connected (which is typical of Meredith girls and FH boys). They got married at a beautiful farm and they also had perfect weather. Morgan was breathtakingly beautiful, too! Another wonderful wedding!

MCGs at the Nienke Wedding!

Rich Wedding!

So, then it was our turn - the grande finale of 2013 wedding season, as I like to call it! I had the hardest time wrapping my head around the fact that 11 months of planning and waiting was about to be over. It is impossible to explain the feelings I had in the week leading up to our wedding. I took all of Friday and even half of  Thursday off so we could pick up Payton's sister and her husband from the airport and spend some time with them since they flew in all the way from Utah! We ate at The Pit (I drool every time I think about it), and went bowling. I needed the distractions. Friday was full of fun- from the bridesmaids lunch and manicures to the rehearsal dinner! Yummy food, great company... the perfect day! To make it even better, nearly my entire family came into town early, which was the icing on the cake. I got to catch up with them - some of whom I hadn't seen in over a decade - and I'm so thankful for that because there is no way I could have done that on Saturday. I barely slept on Friday night. So many things were running through my head! Saturday was such a blur, I can barely remember how it all went. I'm so looking forward to seeing pictures so I can re-live it! Overall, the wedding was everything I could have dreamed of. My favorite parts were the photobooth, the band, and having my grandfather sing at the ceremony. I want to do it all again! Oh, and my bouquet... O-M-G it smelled so good! I'm so happy with all the choices we made and I just hope everyone had as good of a time as we did. But, I must say, the best part of all was the honeymoon! I'll save that for its own blog :)

My groom and my MOH, courtesy of NCFotobooth!