Last Thursday our loaded up the minivan and headed towards Nashville. We were going for our niece's wedding on Saturday. Since it's a 13 hour drive, we had planned to stop that night in Little Rock, Arkansas.
It's always fun to see interesting things along the way when driving to somewhere new. We thought this sign was really cute. I can't remember where it was...Arkansas maybe.
When we stopped in Little Rock to eat, we decided we could drive on to Memphis, Tennessee....then later decided to go all the way to Nashville that night! I'm glad we did. (I thought this picture was funny because we're from Oklahoma....the kids are wearing Texas Ranger's shirts....we were stopped to eat in Arkansas....headed to Tennessee!)
On Friday we toured the area around the Grand Ole Opry. It's a very pretty place.
Being the "comic" and "entertainer" my husband, Joe, is, he thought it would be funny to sit in front of the Grand Ole Opry and play his nose harp! The nose harp was a gag gift from my parents a few years ago. You put the harp in your mouth and sniff air into it to make music. He actually can play a few tunes on it!
The Opryland Hotel is amazing! The garden area is beautiful and to tour the place is free, so even better!
The flowers were beautiful and seeing so many kinds of plants and trees growing inside the atrium/garden area makes you wonder what the garden of Eden might have been like. It must have been even more beautiful than even this was.
We ate at a fun place in the Opry Mills mall called "Johnny Rockets". The waitress was so friendly and kind. She made Tyler this ketchup happy face and he was so excited about it!
This is our family before the wedding. Our daughter packed herself and so did the oldest son. Tyler was in the wedding so his clothes were provided for him. Unfortunately, I didn't check Jacob's clothes before we left, just told him what to take. When we began getting ready for the wedding, he didn't have khaki pants to go with the brown polo he brought and then for Sunday worship he had brought brown pants (too "clashy" to go with the brown polo) and a pink and navy striped polo! I had said "pink" meaning solid pink. He also didn't have a belt (later it was found). Luckily Target was across the street and the new white polo was cheap! (Mom's Lesson Learned: ALWAYS CHECK JACOB'S CLOTHES!). It wouldn't be a family trip if something wasn't forgotten - at least in our family, it wouldn't be :)!
I thought our niece did the cutest thing with her two flower girls. Instead of wearing shoes, they wore ribbon sandals! Cute and extremely cheap, too!
This picture is dark but it's where the wedding was held. My brother-in-law preaches at this congregation (Hillsboro Church of Christ in Nashville). He walked Hailey down the aisle while the groom's father did the "Who gives this woman?" part. Then my brother-in-law took over and performed the wedding ceremony for his daughter and the groom. It was so sweet and personal.
Hailey's wedding dress for her special day was over 95 years old! It was worn by her mother and her grandmother, and her great-great aunt. The top of it was altered some for her, but her mom and grandmother are holding photographs of themselves on their wedding day in that dress. Very neat.
Instead of a traditional big wedding cake, Hailey chose to serve cupcakes. Her mother made hundreds of them and they were served on two large circular displays. Her mom got these from a department store for $20.00! They were perfect for cupcake tiers. In fact, I may need to find some of these things for my decorating adventures!!
Tyler was the ring bearer. This is the second summer in a row he's been asked to be the ring bearer in a cousin's wedding. He really likes wearing the tux! After he walked down the aisle and got in his "spot" he began working really hard to untie the silver fake rings from the little pillow. It was then that I realized that he thought he had the real rings and that he was really supposed to give them to the groom! My husband and I looked at each other with the same thought: "What is he going to do when they don't get the rings from him?" When that happened, he looked a little bit worried, but thankfully he didn't say anything.
On my husband's side of the family there are six siblings and 17 grandchildren plus in-laws. Twenty-one of us were able to be together for the wedding - fourteen of us from Oklahoma. It was a long drive, but very much worth it to be part of the special day.
I really liked this post! She had some cute ideas too! When I saw the pictures on facebook I thought her dress was so pretty and had a neat vintage look...never would have guessed that it was "vintage!" haha I'm sure they were so appreciative that you guys drove all the way up there to share their special day, I know I would have been if my family had done that! =) Oh, and the ring thing was funny!!
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