the wedding of the decade

December 17, 2011 was a day to remember. For one, it involved glowsticks and balloons and jinglebells. But another good reason to remember this day was because Matt and Arielle chose it as their wedding day. There were bridal showers and preparations in the days leading up, but that's a different story. Today's post is all about the wedding (see, I can stay on track when I want to. The sun is shining. I like birds. Hamsters are cute. I like the name Skippy for hamsters. Charlie would also be a good name. I don't like walmart's kind of gummy worms. Or their chicken...it's too spicy. Where were we? Oh yeah...staying on track.)

I have to give you some history here first (most of you know this anyhow, but this is for, like, my grandmother, or you know, people who read my blog from far away, like my grandmother and, um...okay, I guess just my grandmother. Hi Grandma Suzy!). Matt And Arielle met at our house, actually. We had just met his family and decided to invite them to the homeschool game nights that we do roughly once per month with homeschooled teens in the area. And the rest is history...a doozy of a history. Of course, at that time, who knew that history was in the making with a simple introduction?

Facebook now enters the story. Specifically, Matt's facebook profile. The speculations at this point were beginning... "do you think he likes her??"...and Matt's facebook would appear to support this. I mean, when a guy posts country love songs on his profile all the time (like, several per night??), it either means he was hacked by a conniving female or he likes someone. So for those of us also on facebook, we decided it was the latter option and commenced popping popcorn and charging camera batteries and drawing diagrams for decorating getaway cars. Matt graduated highschool and went to basic training...and Arielle (from all accounts) missed him, fell in love, he called her dad, they started a relationship, blah blah blah, called her dad again, engagement, blah blah blah, wedding. Which is where we are today. Pictures. Wedding. Enjoy :)

The first picture...watching his bride come down the aisle on her daddy's arm (sniff...tissues anyone?)


Who giveth this woman to this man? (TISSUES?? halp!)

Arielle's grandmother sang a song ("Each For The Other")...besides being an amazing singer, she's also a talented seamstress. The seamstress part came in very handy when the bridesmaids dresses were delivered a couple weeks before the wedding and needed adjustments done to prevent passing out due to lack of oxygen. (Oxygen = a good thing. Always remember this, kids.)

Next: the bridesmaids (here they're turned for Grandma's song). Please don't hate me, girls...you all looked amazing, and this is the only picture that I took that had you all in it :)


We also watched a slideshow of pictures of Matt and Arielle. (It's playing right above the groomsmen.)


The rest of these are from the exchange of rings. For whatever reason, I don't appear to have taken pics of the rest of the ceremony.

Gotta love the look on their faces... :)

awww...


Can you concentrate any harder there? :P

And my favorite :)


Next post: the reception.