the wedding.

the day of.

after sharing a bed with ivy for her last night as a singelton...complete with prayer, tears and ivy almost pushing me off the bed in the middle of the night...we have arrived at the big day.

the bridal suite is swank: there's champagne, strawberries, an official beauty chair, a flatscreen and tons of mirror space. we had a blast getting ready...

trisha and i pre-makeup

hair and makeup for all the girls ends up taking way longer than expected, so things go a bit awry on the schedule. instead of being at the church in time to take some photos, trisha, whit and i roll up to the church 10 minutes before the ceremony, run up to the bride room in our robes and throw on our dresses. and then it's go time.

ivy and her matron and maid of honor (that's me!)

walking down that aisle to stand next to my best friends was surreal. i can't even describe the feeling i had when i watched ivy walk toward us, it was so intense...so heavy. we are adults, doing adult things. ivy and troy are making a commitment that will last for the rest of their lives and forever. seeing her walk down the aisle with her father toward the man of her dreams made my heart burst. i have really never been so happy for someone...for two people. you bet i cried. and it was not a pretty cry - it was an embarrassing cry.

but we all regained composure and watched as our best friend wedded her prince charming. they were so great! the ceremony was absolutely perfect, and now they are husband and wife.

the TEXAS maids

now complete...and with one married lady!

weird.

but a good wierd.

after the ceremony, the 4 texas maids and travis made our way to the reception. here's whit and trish getting excited for the party :)

the reception was a blast. it was like everything was coming to the crescendo. i can't imagine how amazing it was for ivy and troy. i mean, the 4 of us had been in houston living and breathing this wedding for a little under a week and we were beat! ivy worked so hard to put together such a personalized and unforgettable wedding...we'll be talking about it for years to come for sure. and not to mention ivy's helping me plan mine whenever i get around to it.

once the dj made the announcement that we could make requests, you better believe that we were the first ones in line to make sure MJ was gonna play. dirty diana (patricia), PYT and billie jean got the party started...in our opinion. ivy's bro was awesome, he had the moves down and stole the show :)

we danced like maniacs. we found the basketball boys. we made some interesting decisions.

after the reception we head to our hotel (troy's friends were staying at the same place...i wish we could say that this was a coincidence). we go to baker st. pub, which is next door to our hotel. after a long, crazy ride (with travis as our chauffer), we get out and whitney realizes that she's left her bag.

whitney: "it's not here. SHIT. what am i gonna do??"

trisha: "don't panic. when was the last time you had it?"

whitney: "i set it down when i went to pet the donkey."

....

laura takes off her sandals and begins putting them on whitney's feet: "here, just wear these...we don't have much time, we NEED to go." (exchanges a glance at trisha who is equally desperate to get to the pub and out of the car, while putting on moccasins).

we are still in our bridesmaid dresses. we go inside and trisha buys a round of [drinks]. i become brave. we spend the next morning at starbucks laughing at ourselves and the afternoon sending text messages that say, "we really are nice girls, i promise."

but that's what happens when you get us together and one gets married :)

i didn't come to college to find my husband. i came to find my bridesmaids.

mission accomplished.

(because ivy met hers in high school and we're all still single, HEY HEY!)

so many emotions packed into just a few days. it's hard to believe we were leaving austin over a year ago and now watch as our ivy marries her true love :) i can remember her talking on the phone with him, crying because she missed him, and seeing them together and knowing that they were going to make it. and it's only the beginning :)

love/miss/namaste.