The Beam's: A bride, a groom, and a candy bar

I am sitting here enjoying the spoils (aka eating my candy from the candy bar) and reflecting on my little sister's wedding this past weekend. Surprisingly, it went off without a hitch! I really couldn't be happier with how it all came together smoothly. Praise the Lord for His favor and blessings on this wedding.

It all started about a week ago when my mom and brother got into town. It was so nice that they were able to come so early (my little brother sacrificed his Spring Break to help). We were able to get some wedding details nailed down, as well as spend some good family time together doing the usual shopping at our favorite store: 1/2 of 1/2 Namebrand Clothing. That's right, I said favorite store :) My family can spend hours in there.. Something that our married in husbands will never understand about our family.

My dad and sister both got into town on Thursday to ~~drink chocolate milk~~ help with wedding preparations. My mom and sister (when she wasn't taking care of my niece) made the bridesmaid's bouquets on Thursday. Yes, my mom is super woman and can make floral arrangements. This is her 3rd or 4th wedding to do all the flower arranging and preparations. That night we got our nails and toes done and then went to the mansion that Bryce's parents rented for a cookout with the family and friends that were in town already. Please excuse my lack of pictures. At this point, pictures were the last thing on my mind.

I took off work all day Friday to help with corsages, boutonnieres, and decorating the reception area. Another blessing from God was that we were able to get into the reception area two days before when the original plan didn't have us decorating until the day of the wedding. I can't imagine how crazy that would have been!! We were able to get a lot of the decorating done before we needed to get cleaned up for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went well and we headed back over to the mansion for rehearsal dinner hosted by Bryce's family. It was a lovely time of eating, mingling, and toasting the bride and groom. Once again, I have no pictures :( Epic fail on my part.

The big day arrived! By this point, we had all been staying up way too late to chat with family and friends so getting up to decorate the reception area was super tough. We spent that morning putting the final touches on the flowers and decor at the reception venue. I DO have some pictures that I took after setting up. Shocking I know!

Candy bar

Advice & gift table

Groom's cake.. from Texas duh

My cousin Virginia is a cake boss!
This is her 3rd wedding cake for my family alone and seriously, they are so good!

This looked much better with the candles lit up

Table decor before the candles are lit

After leaving the reception, we hurried off to get ready at the church with the rest of the bridal party. The rest of the day/ceremony was kind of a blur from doing hair and make up to making sure I stuffed tissues in my bouquet for Hayley if she needed them. Thank goodness I didn't forget the groom's ring :) Of course, I didn't get to take pictures of the ceremony so I'm very thankful that Mrs. McMillan took some and I could steal them for the blog!