Meredith & Clayton

[mlm063007]

Yay!! I finally get to start an after wedding journal!!!

Our wedding day was WONDERFUL!! I cant believe how everything turned out, and how FAST it all went by! I got up at about 7:30 (couldnt sleep) and just kind of milled about. My grandma got to our house about 8-8:30 and started on my moms hair. She started on my hair...and it wasnt how I pictured, but I LOVED it.:D So I was done with that a bit early, but it held up really well. We were supposed to be at the church about 11:30 so that we could be ready to take pictures at 12. There were several other girls that came to my house to have their hair done and after one was done she went to put on her makeup. I told her that we would leave as soon as she was done, not to hurry. Maybe I shouldnt have said that. LOL she took longer than I thought and we got to the church about 15 min late. So I had to hurry and get in my dress so we could start taking pictures.

After I was done I went back in the room to wait until it was time to get started. There were blinds covering the windows, so I would peek out and they all kept telling me to stop, that I wasnt supposed to see the groom yet. I just said that HE couldnt see ME. hehehe

The biggest snag of the ceremony was in the beginning after the parents had walked down the aisle they were supposed to sit until the song was finished and then a new song would play and they were supposed to light the tapers on the unity candles. Well, they decided to go straight up there and I had to have someone rush up and tell the musicians to skip the next song so that everyone wasnt just sitting there wondering what was going on. It doesnt sound like a big deal now, but at the time it was really stressing me out.

When the doors opened and I started walking down the aisle was the only time I cried, and I tried to control it so that I didnt mess up my makeup! The rest of the ceremony went off without a hitch. Well, if something went wrong I didnt know it:D

[mlm063007]

We took pics afterwards and we were a little rushed doing that. Then we went to our neighbors that have some beautiful landscaping and took pictures there. We then got on the bus and headed to the local bar. Then to the reception...It was all just sooo much fun.

I was sooo glad that no one came up to me saying "where does this need to go" or "when are we doing this" It was soooo nice having it all taken care of.

One of the highlights of the night (at least for me) was my sisters (MOH) speech. I just thought she had the perfect blend of humor and touching moments.

[mlm063007]

All right. Now on to our married life :D

Sun. we got up and went to the hall to help out with things there. Then we went to my mom's house to open gifts. We got so many nice things. Unfortunatley they are still in a pile in the middle of the living room floor b/c I dont know where to put them! Then we just came home and chilled for a while.

I have been off the past 3 days and it has been really nice. I have cleaned and figured out where to put my stuff at, I still have things at my mom & dads that I need to go get. Im sure Ill get to it sometime!

We are leaving Sat for our honeymoon and I am sooooooo ready for it! A week away just Clayton & I.... Ahhhhh, I cant wait!

[thinking_much]

Wow. I am so happy for you. Best wishes!

[bichonlvr]

Congrats!!! Sounds like you had a great time...have fun on your honeymoon:

[Doglover]

yay!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

[shawnsgirl]

Sounds like everything was beautiful. Congrats on becoming a mrs! I can' wait to see pictures!

[NicksBride]

Sounds like it was just a gorgeous happy day. Congratulations. Have a blast on your honeymoon and hurry back with pictures. :)

[samantha01]

Sounds like everything went as planned. Glad your day was stress free. Congrats!

[WhiskeyGirl]

I'm sorry I missed stopping by and wishing you the very best Meredith! I hope your wedding day was absolutely everything you wished for and more! Congratulations!! Take care!

~Shawna~

[sjk1431]

I'm so glad it all went so smoothly :D

[samantha01]

Your pictures were just gorgeous. Congratulations!
Everyting looked very well put together and the bridal party was gorgeous. Those are some tall BM's...hahaha all very pretty girls.

[KMS]

I still haven't been able to take a look at your pictures! The darn page never loads right. I'm thinking that I may go to the library and try to use one of their computers. lol. Yes, you are THAT important. :D Haha!

I hope that you are having the most amazing honeymoon!!

[mlm063007]

I often have to use the computer at work for things like that. I only have dial-up at home:bbeek: .

The honeymoon was GREAT!! It was so much fun to get away and relax like that.

I dont know if any of you have been on a cruise. But we went to get the couples massage and it was like $250! We had already decided that we were going to get one, so we jsut did it anyway. Is that normal here on land? It was the first massage either of us has gotten so we didnt know.

We went to the Grand Cayman Island and Jamaica. We went on a tour in GC and also went snorkeling. The tour was fun. Our driver honked at EVERYTHING! It was so funny. We also went to Hell. THere is actually a town there called hell. We got pics and sent postcards home, saying wish you were here! Hehe.Snorkeling was fun too. I had never been before, and it was sooooo neat.

In Jamaica we went to the beach and climbed Dunns River Falls. It is this giant waterfall that you can climb. It really wore me out, it was like 1000 ft up. The beach was really nice too, although they didnt let you swim out too far, which I was kind of disappointed at.

All in all, it was an amazing time.

One thing that bothered me was tipping. I have no problem tipping people if they do a good job. I am actually more on the side of too much. But it really annoys me when people ask for a tip. And EVERYONE did it there. The porters that took you luggage onto the ship had us stand by our luggage and counted the number of pieces of luggage, then told us how much we should tip. A tip is for doing a good job, for performing a service. It is NOT an obligation. Like I said we probably would have tipped them anyway (they were the ones x-raying our bags and taking them to the ship) but the fact that they asked for it and told us how much it should be really irked me. And soooo many people did it! But like I said, I would have tipped them anyway.
And it didnt make the trip bad. So I better stop complaining:D

We are going to take our cameras to get developed, so as soon as we get them back I will post them!

Oh, and I have some other pics from the wedding that just need to be scanned on my computer and then I will post them for you.

[mlm063007]

Your pictures were just gorgeous. Congratulations!
Everyting looked very well put together and the bridal party was gorgeous. Those are some tall BM's...hahaha all very pretty girls.

Hahaha. Those are Clayton's sisters. Their whole family is pretty tall:D

[shawnsgirl]

I LOVE your wedding pics. Do you know how amazing you looked?? You look breathtaking!! I love your dress, the way you had your hair done!! Wow! Your color scheme, your bridesmaids, your groomsman everyone looked amazing. I love so many of the pictures! The one of you and your dad at the altar, he is looking down-your looking at him and its enough to bring tears to your eyes! I also love the picture of you and you hubby doing the first dance. The lights in the background are just amazing! You had a wonderful photographer and he really did a good job capturing you wedding day!! Congrats sweety.

Glad to hear the honeymoon was fun...I can't believe they were telling you how much to tip them! Sounds a little shady to me. But oh well, you have that sometimes. Welcome back and thanks again for sharing your pics!!

[NicksBride]

Glad you had an awesome time! We went to Grand cayaman as well its beautiful isn;t it? We missed out on Hell, but it was still a great place. Tipping was a hard thing for us to do with EVERYONE. But it was a goodt ime. Glad you enjoyed it as well!!! Your pictures are awesome as well.

[Bradsgirl]

Sounds like everything went really well for you! Congrats! I live in MI and there is a town called Hell here-on 6-6-06- @ 6:06 they had a huge mass wedding ceremony and I guess alot of people wore black ect...
Anyway, I'm glad you had a great time on your wedding day and honeymoon and where are your pics. posted?....I'm dying to see them.....I'll see if I can find them.....

[Goin2thechapel]

I said it in your PM...You're beautiful!!!

[KMS]

I'm glad that you had a good time on your honeymoon. Can't wait to see the pictures!

[mlm063007]

Thanks Everyone!!

Hehe, I feel so giddy after reading everyones responses.

Today is my first day back at work since the 6th, I was actually excited to come into work today. I guess you cant be much bigger of a dork, huh? LOL

My pics from the honey moon are on my computer so tonight I will try to get some of them posted on here. I have to change the oil in my car and pick up some more stuff from my mom's. And of course I still need to straighten up the house. Urghhh.

I am just glad to be back to normal (now married) life :)

[Goin2thechapel]

Meredith, Glad to have you back, but we need a picture of you to add to the Beautiful Brides page ;)

[NicksBride]

glad to hear that things are coming back to normal. I couldn't wait to get back to work either as a married women! hahaha can't wait to see pictures!

[70707Bride]

Just thought I'd stop in and say hi!

[mlm063007]

Thanks, ladies, for stopping in! Sorry I havent been around too much lately, but, things have been kind of crazy. Clayton's parents sold thier house and bought a 120 acre farm. So we are going to be moving up there to help them with the cattle sometime this fall. They are closing on their house and the new land on the 15th, so we have been busy packing the house up.

Clayton & I will be moving later in the fall. We are in a modular right now so we will just be moving it up there as soon as we can. It will be so nice to be at a place where we can actually do whatever we want. Right now we are on ground that we are leasing (and we were in agreement to buy, but that fell through, ughh). We are planning on putting in a circle drive, staining both the decks, adding a patio, and a bunch of other projects we plan on doing.

I am so excited that we can move somewhere that we can finally begin to settle and make our own.