The BEST Day. Le Fin.

I know what y'all are all probably thinking... "Finally, these wedding posts are over!" I have to have somewhere to remember the blur  that has become our wedding day. Y'all, people really weren't kidding when they said that it flies by. I still feel bad that we didn't get to talk to every one who came or get more family pictures. Here are some pictures from our reception-

Our beautiful, fabulous, amazing, talented friend Sarah Balke made our wedding cake for us. She is a good friend of ours from high school, and y'all, she did not disappoint!! She lives and works in NYC now and flew down here to do our wedding cake. Honored would be an understatement.

Apparently my "concentration face" is me holding my mouth open with my tongue sticking. Hence, there are no pictures of our faces actually cutting the cake. I need to start working on a new "concentration face" ....

1- How amazingly beautiful is that cake?! 2- I am about to brag on how amazingly delicious that thing was. I hate to admit this, but I am not a fan of wedding cake. They always end up being pound cake with super sweet icing. I love sweets but sometimes they are just too much. Well, I wanted to do something different. One of mine and Pat's favorite desserts is Key Lime Pie. Literally all we told Sarah was that we wanted a cake that was Key Lime Pie flavored. She knocked it out of the park! Our cake was a yellow cake with a key lime curd and a graham cracker streusel. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Is it our 1 year anniversary yet? We still get asked all the time who made our wedding cake, and we were told 1000 times over that it was the best wedding cake that people had ever eaten. Woah. Way to absolutely kill it, Sarah! We couldn't have dreamed of a better cake if we tried!

My little southern heart was all a flutter with our new monogram everywhere :)

An attempt at a family photo with my dad's family.

Love my cousins :)

My Uncle Johnny. One of my favorite people of all time.

Phi Mu

Pat and his momma

SPX 06

My French parents 

My momma

My baby sister who started her Senior year of high school today (What?!)

I would expect nothing else from these two. Perfect reenactment of the video if I do say so myself ;)

SuCo

It's a requirement that she does the robot at every family function

With my favorite little dudes. My brothers.

With the man I am named after- my Uncle Britt

Pat and his Kappa Sig brothers

One of two versions of my bridesmaid bouquets. These were the bouquets for my Phi Mu sisters. In the front you can see the Phi Mu Flower- the pink carnation

Hydrangeas and a monogram- Be still my heart!

Our getaway car aka my dream car

The Best Day. Part 2.

Portraits 

One of our favorites.

 
Our other favorite.

One thing many don't understand about the south are our massive wedding parties. Pat and I have both lived all over the place so it was nearly impossible to keep ours small. Atlanta, South Carolina, Mississippi/Colorado, Tennessee/New Orleans, Ohio, France, and California were all repping in our wedding party!

The BEST Day.

May 11, 2013

I'm going to try and let the pictures speak for themselves. There are a few traditional things that we did not do because they didn't work for us. I will have to say the absolute most important part of the day was the ceremony. I'm not going to lie, out of all of the planning I spent almost all of my time working on the ceremony. I kind of left our reception up to my mom. We have extremely similar styles so I knew it was in great hands! This post will be pictures pre-ceremony and of our actual ceremony.

 I wish I could play in that dress every day.

 My momma helping me out.

 Love these ladies with all of my heart.

 My Nana.

 Ma mere francaise.

 My honey.

 The dudes.

 Us again.

 Hello nerves.

 Pat didn't want to see me before. I think I get the desired effect I was looking for ;)

 We love Father Michael. He did our premarital counseling, and he is truly a gift. We looked FORWARD to our premarital counseling sessions every single time.

 Our kiss came in the middle of our ceremony. It was important to us that our first act as a married couple was taking communion. We want to live our lives with God at the center of our relationship and what better way than to acknowledge the greatest gift he ever gave us- His Son.

 Singing one of my absolute favorite hymns- Be Thou My Vision

Relief. I am an introvert through and through. Being in the center of attention was so difficult for me.

Photographers- Willett Photography

The day before forever.

Well, we finally got our wedding pictures back so here I am getting ready to document everything. I'm going to start with the day before the wedding at the Rehearsal dinner. 

This might sound weird to some, but I think our Rehearsal Dinner was my favorite part of the weekend. It was at one of our favorite restaurants, La Petite Maison. As an American-Frenchie, I am obsessed with French food. The food at this place is perfection. Not to mention, they don't skimp on the portions! We got to spend time eating just us two and got to spend time with our families. Here are some pictures from the night- 

So we took one whole picture at the rehearsal. Glad I actually managed to get one of us!

I will be forever grateful of this man, mon pere francaise. So thankful he was there and with my family. Where he belongs.

I will be forever grateful for this woman, ma mere francaise. Proud of her and the English she learned for the trip! :)

Love this! Frenchies plus my brother and us

Can you tell we've been sobbing crying here?? We've known each other for 23 years now (woah) and the weekend just wouldn't have been the same without her there. 

All of the Schirra cousins. We always have to get this picture because the eight of us are never in the same place, at the same time.

We had to get one last "engaged" picture. Sweet Em will be getting married in October in Memphis. I can't wait to celebrate you Labor Day weekend in NOLA! 

My Phi Mu LA-dies! LIOB :)

My family has a tradition at Rehearsal Dinners. We love to give speeches and tell embarrassing stories of the couple from through out their lives. My aunt's story had to be the most memorable. She told the story of how she never saw me without my "mommy shirt" when I was little. An old Mississippi State sweatshirt that my mom got in college and has somehow lasted the test of time. My aunt was shocked to hear that I still have it, AND that I still wear it. I guess I do get attached to some things? Here it is-

It's a good thing I ended up going to MSU for college, and it is probably the most comfortable piece of clothing I own. I think it'll be awhile before I officially retire it. :)

I really wish I had been more conscience of taking more pictures that night. Oh well! We will always remember the great food (French food is the best!), great company and great stories!

Well, this is embarrassing.

I always knew there was a reason I didn't keep a journal growing up... apparently I forget all about them! 

So, it's been over a year since I posted on this sweet little space of the internet. Sorry about that! I don't remember much from the past year (it was a whirlwind to say the least!), but this happened- 

And I feel like that whole day needs a post dedicated to it. And then the honeymoon. Can I go back to the beach now? It's sunny there and only rains for about 10 minutes a day. Does anyone else in Atlanta feel like they moved to Seattle?? 

I promise to post again soon. We are waiting to get the CDs of our wedding pictures, and then I will be sure to share them with you all. I'm going to apologize in advance for the praises that I will be singing of our photographers. They were (and still are!) that fabulous! 

Get ready because here come the posts of pictures! Wedding, Honeymoon, everyday life, and we're moving! Hooray for DIY projects!

I promise I'll get better at this. One day.

Well, since starting this blog I've started a full time job and this thing got put on the backburner. Oops! Now that I am officially settled in (and all grownup like) I think I'll get better at this ... I hope!

Life has been crazy busy over the past month. The soccer team Pat coaches finished it's season with it's best record ever. Not that I'm surprised or anything. Child has a gift when it comes to relating to other people and coaching them in way they'll understand. So thankful he does because Lord knows I have a hard time doing that.

We had our engagement party on May 12th (364 days from our big day). We had a BLAST! We have both been so incredibly blessed with amazing family and friends. It was so amazing to see so many people who we love in one place. Not to mention, it was a great practice round for the real deal. Now I know that a 5 hour energy may be my best friend that day. Seriously.

We both enjoyed celebrating our Mommas the next day. I know that I have been blessed with the most amazing momma for me. The older I get the more I respect her and understand why she does things the way she does. It's not so embarrassing when she calls people out for doing things wrong. Maybe it's a Steel Magnolia kind of thing. She doesn't get pushed around ever. Maybe it's not so embarrassing now because I am slowly turning into her. Looks like that Steel Magnolia backbone has officially kicked in, y'all. Hate to tell ya, but I'm not even sorry about it. Don't mess with the people I love because it won't be pretty. We stick up for own down here and will do just about anything to protect them. It's a southern thing.

We went to the beach the next weekend, and I was so excited I got to see my uncle for the first time in what seems like forever. He lives on a boat in St. Pete (be jealous) and is seriously the most talented photographer I know. He's got an amazing gift. It should come as no surprise since he's always winning a new award. I mean, you gotta brag on the guy you're mom thought so highly of she named her only daughter after him. Right??

The finace and I


One of the many fishies I caught on our deep sea fishing adventure

I'm ready to go back. NOW.

The real reason for the trip was so that Pat's mom could see her BFF from high school before she starts on her next adventure to Saudi Arabia (that's a whole nother blog for another day). We had a blast hanging out in their Tiki Hut all weekend and introducing them to the wonderful sport of soccer.

I'll be back soon, y'all. I promise.

B