Meredith & Ben's Wedding Weekend!

This post is so long overdue! Meredith & Ben's wedding weekend was such a blast! Annie, Baby Ryan, and I went to down to Atlanta on the Tuesday before the wedding and spent a few days catching up with my family. Annie enjoyed some nice bonding time with Baby Ryan - she got some good snuggles!

The wedding festivities officially started on Friday evening with a fun Mexican dinner with the bridesmaids....it was complete with a lap dance for Meredith from a Mexican server (no joke!) and a proposal from an old man who was dining there (also no joke!).

Ryan, Madison Claire, and his parents made it in on Friday afternoon. Here are my 2 boys snoozing in the morning...love this pic!

Saturday we started the day off with the rehearsal at Country Club of the South. It was hot out, but we survived! Madison Claire wanted to be running all over the place and Annie captured this picture RIGHT BEFORE she completely busted and skinned up her knee and nose! Of course...right before the wedding and she had a scabbed nose...oh well...kids will be kids!

After the Rehearsal we headed to the Sewell's house for the bridesmaids luncheon. It was so special to have some quiet time with Meredith and her wonderful friends!

That night was the Rehearsal dinner. Madison Claire stayed with the McSwains, but we took Baby Ryan with us - he was 11 days old!
The soon-to-be Mr. & Mrs. Telfair!

Ryan McSwain and Ryan Fetz gave a toast at the dinner to tell Ben the things he needed to know about marrying a Howard girl. Highlights were: they like to sleep so you'll cook breakfast, drug of choice is caffeine, we are always late, we pack way too much for trips, we like to shop a good sale but don't ever really save any money, dad snores, mom will provide furniture, providing them the What to Expect when you are Expecting book - and predicted they'd be expecting by spring, told Ben his place in the family to the tune of "This Little Piggy went to the Market" and finished by presenting Ben with an official name change form because the Howards only allow people named Ryan into their family! It was a lot of fun and got some good laughs!

Sarah and I on the other hand, talked about how special Meredith is and how we are excited for her & Ben to start their life together. We talked about how Meredith has always had such a sweet spirit and has the ability to "touch" peoples lives. She is so special to us!!!

After the rehearsal dinner, we went back to the house for the lingerie shower and a sleepover with the Bridesmaids! Baby Ryan was the only male in attendance :)

Sunday morning, dad cooked breakfast for all of the girls and they ate out by the pool. I say "they" because apparently no one wanted to wake up Annie and myself so we totally missed it! After that, we got ready and headed to Country Club of the South to get ready for pictures and start the wedding. I have a few pictures of the getting ready process but they are on my nice camera and the charger has been packed for our move to Memphis, so they will be posted later. Meredith looked gorgeous and I can't wait to see the formal pictures! Madison Claire was the flower girl and because I was in the wedding, I didn't get one single picture of her from the wedding day...but trust me...she was ADORABLE! We did have a scare before the wedding when Meredith got a nose bleed and blood got on the front of her dress. Luckily nurse Morgan (one of the bridesmaids) knew that Hydrogen Peroxide would remove the blood so after a few test spots, out it came! All of it! You could never even tell it was there...amazing!!!

The ceremony was outside and was gorgeous! Pics to come later! Madison Claire threw a small fit when we were waiting in line to go down the aisle because she wanted to be with her "AAA-EEE" (Annie), but once we got up there she was fine. I walked down the aisle with her holding her hand and with the other hand she tossed the flowers. At one point, she picked up the basket and dumped it all out! Once they were all gone, she looked at me in the aisle and said "Pick Up" and turned around to go back and pick up all of the petals! It was too cute...even though she wasn't happy when I pulled her on down the aisle! (Looking back this is totally my fault because we were practicing her throwing the flowers before we went out and I would say "okay...lets pick them back up" because we were inside! I didn't think of the consequences!

After the ceremony, we went right into the reception. Ben and Meredith were glowing, everyone was dancing, the food was great - all in all a great night! I'm excited to see how the Lord will use Ben & Meredith as they both go into ministry and can't wait to "do life" together as married couples with them! Here are a few reception pics:

About an hour before the reception was over, I hit a total, complete wall. All of the exhaustion caught up to me and I felt like I had to sit down or I would faint. I think all of the activity finally caught up with me - I really did too much for having a baby 11 days prior - but what are you supposed to do when it's your sister? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I definitely couldn't have made it through the weekend without Annie's help with the baby and the McSwains help with Madison Claire. THANK YOU!!!