Mr. and Mrs. Utterback

Yay hooray! My sister Rachel is officially married and now Mrs. Utterback. Saturday has come and gone and they are also gone on their honeymoon in Paris. Jealous, I know.

Anyway, after a lot of preparation, the whole day came together and was so perfect. We could not have asked for a better day for a wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful. Rachel and Todd were the sweetest couple I've ever seen, so happy, so in love. I just wanted to cry the whole time, but I knew if anyone started to cry, then everyone would cry and it would be waterworks from start to finish, so I held it in as best I could.





The night before was assembly time for all the decorations. My mom put together like 50+ picture frames of Rach and Todd. It was crazy, I've never seen so many pictures assembled of one person/couple in one place before. I was busy assembling about 60 pinwheels of all sizes for the tables and lawn and Laurel was a gem and helped put all table pinwheels into the green apples. It was a lot of work and took all night, but it all turned out so cute and I can't wait to see all the professional pictures when the photographer gets them finished up.




The reception itself was the bash of the summer. The house and lawn looked fabulous and about 280 people attended. It was a serious party and thank heaven we had a babysitter to watch Isla half the time so that Bart and I could really enjoy it. At 6, there were hors d'oeuvres and drinks in the back yard where it was shady and pleasant for a hot August night.


At about 7ish we all headed to the front of the house for dinner at in the big tent set up on the lawn. It was so lovely, the food was fabulous, and we all just had such a good time. (Isla stayed inside for the most part eating a hotdog and watching toy story 3, pretty classic and convenient!)


There was a photobooth set up where we all got to go in and take fun pics which were then put together in the sign-in book for us all to sign and give well-wishes. It was the cutest idea and such a fun thing to do! I have to admit, I did it three times - with our small fam and lots of friends. I was so happy that so many fun people were able to come all the way up and enjoy the night with us. Weddings are always better when you have your friends there.



Afterwards there was the cake-cutting and dancing in a canopy-lounge section on the other side of the lawn. I'd never seen a 'lounge' area at a wedding before, it was such a cool concept and the ottomans were comfy at the end of the night!



Aren't my dad and Rachel so sweet dancing together? I just loved watching that. I told Bart - get ready, it's only a matter of time before he has to do that at least twice!



This was our dancing queen. We brought her out for dancing and she went nuts!! I'm not kidding, the girl did not stop dancing the entire time the music played. It was a little crazy. Of course, she was hamming it up and everyone just loved her. She's got some pretty awesome moves, if I say so myself. My favorite part was her singing 'baby, baby' to the Justin Bieber song since she actually knows the word baby. It was adorable.



At the end, Rachel and Todd left in a tunnel of sparklers to their limo and left us for the most romantic city in the world. I hope they're having fun because they deserve it. The day before the wedding, Todd had been very sick and even had to go to the ER for a little IV bag rehydration so he could feel better and make it through his big day. What was sad is he had to miss his first big day -which was his graduation! At least he felt loads better for the wedding and still looked fabulous in his grey suit and bow-tie. Of course, there's no need to go on about how fabulous Rachel looked! She was sparkling all day long! Those two beautiful peeps, they're going to make some dang cute kids, I tell you.

Anyway, long post but much needed. We loved the day and love the couple. Congrats little sis!