Wild Wedding Weekend

What a long, exhausting, beautiful, and fun weekend! Jess and Chris finally got married! It was so great to share the day with them and all of our family. But I will say this: I think being the bride's sister is more exhausting than being the bride because I'm way more tired than I was after my wedding! But that's ok. The important thing is that Jess had a fun, stress-free day. So, I'm happy!

The weekend started with the arrival of lots of family on Friday. My house was hotel to a few family members, which was lots of fun. On Saturday, we began the wedding madness with the rehearsal.

We had to keep a good hold on the baby so she wouldn't fall into the beautiful creek!

Planning and rehearsing and such.

After the rehearsal, we had the rehearsal dinner, which I helped to "cater." While I've cooked many meals, cooking for 30 people was a new experience for me. My little kitchen has a hard time with that much food. But my baked beans, jalapeño mac n cheese, and irish cream brownies went over well.

Grandma and family relaxing at the rehearsal dinner.

Hangin' out.

We had a fun girls' night at my house the night before the wedding. But first, we (Mom, Salem, and I) had to practice our special secret song. We hid upstairs so Jess wouldn't hear us.

We had a room full of family helping us figure it out. I'm not sure what Jess was doing at this point...

The bride! The night before the wedding.

We played games and had a lot of fun. Then we went to bed to be well-rested for the big day! We had lots of getting ready to do!

Mom and Jess getting ready.

Trying to leave the house to head up to the wedding... hoping we didn't forget anything!

At the Red Lion Restaurant getting ready.

Me and Jojo. I think she was pretty excited to see her dad and Jess finally get married!

Jess in her wedding dress.

Aww, mom and daughter.

Finally, it was time for the wedding. We took a fun golf cart ride down to the beautiful creekside ceremony.

I think Evie was a little scared, but I thought it was fun.

During the ceremony.

Evie stole the show and made her dad hold her during part of the ceremony. But it was pretty adorable and the ceremony was very nice.

The happy couple. If you know Chris, you know that this was happy for him.

Yay!

It was tough trying to keep the baby happy during the pictures.

Proud parents.

Then it was time for the party. We had a delicious dinner, cake made by my aunt, Ellen, and an awesome dance party with music from my dad's band.

Cake.

Dinner.

Salem and I gave toasts to the bride and groom, and we sang Daddy's Hands with my mom for the Father/Daughter dance. Then we finally got to relax and have fun!

Me and the bride and groom.

First dance.

Me and Matt among the beautiful surroundings.

Friends. Mel and her family have been around for much of my and Jess's lives, so they had to be at the wedding.

Awesome band.

Awesome dance party.

Me and my cousin, Bethany. She was also the awesome photographer.

It was a beautiful and fun wedding!
To see better pictures, you can check out Bethany's site here.