Nashville Wife

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DIY Wedding

Spring Wedding Part 2

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Here’s the second batch of photos from my sister-in-law’s May wedding. (Click here to see the pictures I posted on Monday.)The three-tiered cake was made by Mr. Handsome’s cousin, who runs a bakery out of her home. She has made cupcakes and wedding cakes for us in the past, but she holds her recipes close. Her cakes are just so moist, and her homemade frosting is out of this world! Someday I’ll learn how to bake like her, and then I’ll share the recipes with you all.

She also made five sheet cakes.

We had a dessert table with a few assorted treats made by other family members.

There’s Mr. Handsome’s “We Do Forever” sign, greeting guests at the front door. We need to start charging for use of that thing!

My mother-in-law set up a room for kids with carnival games, popcorn, and soda. Most of Mr. Handsome’s many first cousins have several children each, so family weddings always have a bunch of little ones running around.

 

For drinks at the reception, we set up dispensers of iced tea, lemonade, and water.

And there’s Mr. Handsome and me….

Spring Wedding Part 1

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Two weeks ago, I shared photos from my sister-in-law Catherine’s Let Love Grow bridal shower. As promised, here are the snapshots I took at her wedding!Mr. Handsome and I, along with the other brothers and sisters-in-law, were guests of honor. Mr. Handsome wore a tux without a jacket, while us girls wore the same style dresses as the bridesmaids but in navy rather than blue. Mr. Handsome played music during the ceremony, while I walked my niece (almost three) and nephew (nine months) down the aisle and sat with them in the front row. My niece had a bag of toys and played quietly, while my nephew sat calmly in the grass the entire time.

The wedding ceremony took place at a park. Although it was hot, the scenery was gorgeous. Beyond the arbor was a small lake.

The reception was held at the same community building where we had my brother-in-law’s New Year’s Eve wedding reception. It was also the rain backup for our DIY outdoor wedding reception.

We were blessed to have a whole crew of friends and family help us set up. Around 260 guests attended the wedding.

 

The centerpieces were teacups/tea sets and books, as Catherine loves to read.

 

 

 

Instead of champagne or sparkling grape juice, we set out chocolates for the guests to eat during the toasts. The milk chocolate grooms were for the best man’s toast, and the white chocolate brides were for the maid of honor’s toast.

The wedding party sat at raised tables at the front of the room. The food was buffet style, catered by a friend. I made salad balsamic dressing (recipe to come).

Mr. Handsome’s cousin and aunt did the flowers, as they did for our wedding.

 

Stay tuned for more photos!

Let Love Grow Bridal Shower

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Mr. Handsome’s second oldest sister, Catherine, is married! Mr. Handsome is the oldest of seven, and in the past four years, four of them have tied the knot. I’m looking forward to sharing wedding pictures, but first, I have one batch of bridal shower snapshots to share.Catherine had four showers–our family, her family-friends, her college friends, and his family. (In the words of my father-in-law, she must have been very messy to require that many!)

The first two photos are from the shower with our side of the family, put on by my father-in-law’s sister-in-law and niece.

Everything was decorated in blue and yellow, as those are the bride’s absolute favorite colors. The event took place at a community center because Mr. Handsome has a ton of female relatives, and about half of them are children. It was a fun-filled day! My mom and my brother’s wife also came.

The shower for family-friends was hosted by myself, my mother-in-law, and my other sisters-in-law. The theme was Let Love Grow, and the party was supposed to be outdoors under a tent, but the rain forced us to move the festivities inside.

This chalkboard sign is my masterpiece. Writing neatly with chalk is harder than it looks, y’all!

With all the wedding showers we have done, we have learned to always have guests address an envelop to themselves, as it makes writing thank you notes so much easier.

This sign has gotten a lot of mileage since Mr. Handsome made it for our wedding. (The letters are individually nailed onto the plywood with tiny nails, and the nail heads stick out to give it a more rustic look.)

Guests were encouraged to write a memory and a personal note (advice and wishes for the new Mr. and Mrs.) on pieces of paper.

We had fun choosing garden themed prizes.

We also bought plants to give out as party favors.

My creative mother-in-law was responsible for the clever food table. She made homemade veggie pizza and called it a “vegetable garden.” She also baked shortbread in silicone cupcake holders for guests to cover with fruit (“build your own fruit garden”).

For games, we did a crossword puzzle competition that featured questions about the bride and groom, and we broke up into teams to decorate ribbon and tissue paper bouquets for the rehearsal dinner. Catherine chose her favorite (bottom left). Guess everyone knew her pretty well because they all used blue and yellow items!

DIY New Year’s Eve Wedding Reception

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Hope you all are having a fabulous weekend! I have one last batch of photos from my brother-in-law’s December wedding to share. The wedding was on the East Coast, where the bride is from, so many people from our side of the family were unable to come.My in-laws have a large extended family, so they decided to throw a second wedding reception, which also worked out to be a New Year’s party, for the couple a few weeks after the actual wedding. The venue was a small banquet hall located in their small town and only cost about $100 to rent for the evening. It was a lot of work because we DIY-ed most everything, but it was a blast.

My in-laws have seven kids, so before their first child got married four years ago, they purchased napkins, tablecloths, and chair covers to use for all the weddings. For this party, we used disposable plates, silverware, and cups purchased from Smarty Had a Party.

After setting up, we waited around a couple hours before the guests began to arrive. We all got quite hungry. (That’s Mr. Handsome’s hand reaching for some pretzels.)

I caught him mid-chew…

 

For drinks, we had coffee and homemade crock pot hot chocolate–click here for the recipe.

Dinner was a simple pasta/chicken buffet made by a friend who has a catering company.

There’s Mr. Handsome again.

 

Mr. Handsome’s talented cousin made these homemade cupcakes. The flavors are coffee, chai (my favorite), raspberry, and peanut butter. I asked for her recipes, but she wants to keep them secret, as she has a cake decorating business.

We also had other random assortments of goodies, made by other family members. We ended up overdoing it and having lots left over.

 

Music Themed Bridal Shower

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I just came across these photos and realized I hadn’t yet shared them with you. A few weeks before Mr. Handsome’s youngest brother married Sarah during a beautiful December ceremony on the East Coast, his grandmother threw a wedding shower for Sarah.The shower was music themed, as Sarah is a professional, classically trained musician. Everything was very beautifully done! I wasn’t able to attend because Mr. Handsome had to work that weekend, so we couldn’t make the seven-hour drive, but my in-laws sent me photos.

The game they played was created by Mr. Handsome’s grandmother. Guests had to finish the story using music related words. In case you want to try it, I posted the answers as a comment below.

Music for the Shower
The ______ to a perfect day is to have everybody in _______.
As you arrive at your wedding, may you ________ into the
church on _________ with your family there to __________ you. Rumor has it that
you will be wearing __________ on your feet with __________ on your toes. Your
wedding planner will greet you and __________ in with ideas from her _________.
Your wedding planner will remind the groom to ____ _____ and
not to fall to ______. It is difficult to have a wedding if the groom is
__________. Also, be sure your groom knows you want the best man to be a
__________.
The ________ of the ceremony is usually a member of the
church ___________.
When you place your _______ on your finger, it is a
_________ that you are no longer going through life _________.
Some couples ______ _____ as they leave the ceremony.
A good choice for the meal for your reception is ______
________. Make every effort to keep the groom away from the _______. As you
look at your gift table you will notice that many people have taken time to
_______ their gifts.
It is always risky to have the best man __________ a toast.
If it is too long, have your maid of honor ready to _______ in.
As you leave for your life together, it is our wish that you
will have ________ happiness and ________ stress.

East Coast Christmas Wedding 2

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On Sunday, I posted photos from my brother-in-law’s rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony. You asked for more snapshots, so here are some from the reception immediately following the ceremony.The cake was made by Mr. Handsome’s cousin. She is in her early 20s and is a professional baker. Her cake is out of this world. I asked if she wanted to share the recipe, but she said she wants to keep it a secret. Boy would it be wonderful to have though! (The cupcakes I posted to my Facebook page were also made by her.)

I took these pictures before guests arrived because I knew you all would want to see photos of the tables. My sister-in-law did a wonderful job.

Just under 200 guests attended the wedding.

Mr. Handsome is the oldest in a family of seven kids, and he was the best man. His speech was top notch. The perfect balance between funny and sentimental.

East Coast Christmas Wedding 1

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As many of you know, my brother-in-law got married a few weeks ago. The wedding was a beautiful Christmas affair on the East Coast.I recently posted photos of the hairstyles that myself and two of the other bridesmaids wore, and you requested that I share more snapshots from the weekend. Here the are! More coming soon.

The first two are from the rehearsal dinner, and the second two were taken at the ceremony. The last picture shows the church when we first arrived. We put the poinsettias, altar, and two chairs in the back room because the wedding colors were green and gold (not red).

We didn’t need to add extra decorations to the stage because it was such a beautiful chapel on its own. After the ceremony, it took us less than 10 minutes to return the church to the way it was before the wedding.

Wedding Hairstyles

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A couple months ago, I told you all that we had two family weddings to attend before the end of the year (my brother’s and Mr. Handsome’s youngest brother’s). Well both of those weddings are over and done with, and they both went very well. (I posted photos from my brother’s wedding back in October. Click here to view.)Joseph (Mr. Handsome’s youngest brother) and Sarah (Joseph’s wife) had a beautiful wedding party of 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen. They were sweet to include all the siblings and siblings-in-law, as well as cousins and friends.

Rather than pay for a professional hair stylist, us bridesmaids gathered at the church at 9am and did our own hair. Most of us were a bit nervous about the whole thing and didn’t go in with high expectations, but by the end of the morning, every single one of us looked gorgeous.

Most of us curled our own hair and then had someone pin it up. I wasn’t able to take pictures of all the hairstyles, but in the midst of the wedding craziness, I managed to get three, all of which were pinned up by Mr. Handsome’s cousin. She is self-taught and has a totally different career, but I think she’s better than some professionals.

This is how my hair turned out…

And this is Lena, my youngest sister-in-law. Her mature hairstyle made her look much older than her 13 years.

 

And this is my sister-in-law Anne…

Fall-Themed Bridal Shower Pics

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Earlier this week, I shared two of the games we played at the wedding shower we threw for my future sister-in-law (purse raid and the shoe game). About twenty ladies attended, and we enjoyed chatting and laughing together.The theme of the shower was “fall in love.” (It was fall themed, which I’m sure you figured out.) Scroll down to see pictures:

Order of events chalkboard

The “We Do Forever” sign we had left over from my DIY outdoor wedding reception–letters are attached to the board using nails

A closeup of the pumpkin (49 Days Until She Says ‘I Do’)

Bridal shower word search

Guess how many chocolate kisses (winner takes them all home…there were 69)

Random cute chalkboard

Snack table (cobbler bar with your choice of toppings…blueberries sauce, baked cinnamon apple slices, and chocolate sauce) and other munchies

We also held a pumpkin decorating contest. We split up into groups of three or four and decorated a pumpkin to look like a bride. The groom-to-be chose his favorite (the one on the left). My group’s is two from the right, but our face isn’t the greatest. LOL.

Bridal Shower Game: Shoe Q&A

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What did y’all think of the purse raid game that I posted yesterday (click here to read)? The ladies I played this game with a couple years ago were extremely competitive and had huge purses stocked with all kinds of random “necessities.” (That experience inspired me to add more items to my own purse.)

This time, the women had much smaller purses. The majority of the points (150) were earned by Mr. Handsome’s grandmother (Gram) and oldest sister (Anne).

In addition to the Purse Raid game, we also held a bridal pumpkin decorating contest (photo coming soon). When the groom-to-be arrived at the end of the shower, I led him and his bride in the Couples Q&A Shoe Game. Surprisingly, their responses were identical for all but three of the questions!

Here are the rules:

Shoe Game for Couples

Have the bride and groom sit in chairs so they are facing opposite directions. Ask both of them to remove their shoes and exchange one of their shoes with the other person, so each of them is holding their shoe in one hand and the other person’s shoe in the other hand.

Gather the guests around, and call out these questions. The bride and groom will each come up with their own responses and will use the shoes to answer. (Example: If the bride thinks she is the pickier eater, she holds up her shoe. If she thinks her man is the pickier eater, she holds up his shoe.)

-Who is the pickier eater?

-Who chose the honeymoon location?

-Who is afraid of heights?

-Who is the morning person?

-Who is a night owl?

-Who is more likely to leave clothes all over the bedroom floor?

-Who is a better secret keeper?

-Who is more likely to burn the house down while cooking?

-Who is more of a dog person?

-Who spends a longer amount of time getting ready for an evening out?

-Who is more likely to overspend while shopping?

-Who loves the outdoors?

-Who has the craziest family?

-Who is the party animal?

-Who is more likely to get a speeding ticket?

-Who is more likely to fall asleep in front of the TV?

-Who is a more trustworthy driver?

-Who will manage the finances/spending?

-Who is the daredevil?

-Who is more likely to lose something?

-Who is more stubborn?

-Who will mow the lawn?

-Who has better organizational skills?