Dallas Recap - Pt. 1 - Lindsey's Wedding - June 11th

I recently took an AMAZING 10-day vacation to Dallas - it was so nice to have the time to catch up with high school friends, church friends, and my family (although it never feels like enough time).  The original reason for the trip was to go to one of my best friend's wedding.  Lindsey and I have been friends since kindergarten and I am so lucky to have a group of friends who have stayed so close over the years.  I will have to tell the story of "Bouje" at some point, but we'll save that for a rainy day.

Lindsey, Matt and their families planned a wonderful weekend for us - the weekend started with a bachelorette party which included dinner at Patrizio's where I tried mussels for the first time (highly recommend these with the pesto sauce...yummm!) and a lingerie shower at Lindsey's sister's house - where I may or may not have had at least 5 of Emily's symphony bar brownies.  Sadly, I didn't take any pictures from this night - Sal, Pam, Lauren?  Help a girl out?

Friday we had a bridesmaids luncheon at someone's home followed by lemonade pie (I like to remember meals by the dessert I consume). The hostesses had this great idea that each guest would have their picture taken with Lindsey and one of the hostesses' husband printed our pictures during the luncheon - Linds gave us a frame with the picture from the day!

With the beautiful bride!

With Sal-Pal - and yes, in the above pic she is approx 5 1/2 months pregnant, which I realize is hard to believe - even harder to believe when you scroll down and see the full-length shot.  She looks amazing!

 Best friends since birth!

 Bouje girls - minus Kristine who was missed and Pam who was slightly tardy  :)  We forget how terrible Dallas traffic is!!

Pam arrives!  I realize the lighting is not great in this pic, but Linda had a hard enough time with everyone else's fancy cameras (I'm still rocking a point-and-shoot, but am upgrading soon thanks to an EXTREMELY generous sis of mine....)

After a couple of hours hanging at my mom's pool (which is so nice - love that she moved to a McKinney high rise!) with Lauren, we got ready to go to the rehearsal at PCBC (Ellis Chapel) and the rehearsal dinner at Cantina Laredo - queso, guacamole, margaritas, enchiladas, the whole 9 yards!  Tim few in on Thursday night very late and actually stayed at Lisa's mom's house because he and Nate were getting up early in the morning to go golfing.  As previously mentioned, Friday was Tim and I's 4th wedding anniversary!  He met me at dinner that night and we got to celebrate together.  It was actually really neat to get to celebrate our anniversary with a wedding - it made me think about our big day four years prior and how much we've grown and I enjoyed listening to different toasts about marriage. 

Happy anniversary! 

The Smalleys 

Pam made us take a "couples" picture to send to her boyfriend Troy! 

Sisters!  Love you! 

The whole bouje crew

Saturday was the big day!!  We arrived at the church early to see Lindsey get dressed and to take pictures.  The only snafu (that I'm aware of) of the weekend happened right before pictures - the zipper of Lindsey's sister-in-law's dress broke right before it was time for the bridesmaids to get their picture taken!  I'm not even sure how much of this Lindsey was aware of, but I know Linda (Lindsey's mom) was ready to have a heart attack.  Luckily, one of the other house party girls had some sewing skills and sewed her into the dress.  I think if that's the worst thing that happens all weekend, you're doing pretty good.  Lindsey looked incredible - perfect hair + perfect make-up + perfect dress = one beautiful bride! 

 Getting ready in the bridal suite of Ellis Chapel

Linds had all of the house party choose our own black dresses.

Had to get a shot of Forrest...coming October 2011!

Fun to celebrate with family... 

Another pic with the Smalleys...can I also take this moment to say how happy I am of Lauren for snagging an Auburn boy  :)  Loved hearing how on family vacation the Smalleys watched reruns of the Auburn/Alabama game!

The "official" Bouje pic - hard to believe this is the 5th one!!  Each time one of the Bouje members is married, we take a picture at the wedding with the newest "member" holding Bouje - we welcome Matt with open arms (that is if he can put up with us!)!! 

"Original" members with newest member - Ross, Lauren, Matt, Linds, me, Pam (of course Chris was there in spirit!)

As each member of Bouje has married, we've loved how the group has grown - it seems like each new person brings something new and I can see how they are such a compliment to their spouse.  Patrick very appropriately has named them the "Enhancements" - which I totally agree!  Tim, Matt, Sal, Patrick (and again, Kristine in spirit!) 

Loved spending time with my mom - my hair keeps getting shorter and blonder, just like hers!  :) 

Sal pinned Pam's hair up for her - I loved it!

Pam giving Linds the signal - she's totally ready to catch the bouquet...and now, she'll get her wish of having the last Bouje picture!

The toss  (Pam was not successful in the catch, but I'm not reading too much into that!!)  Side note:  isn't her dress amazing?

One last girls pic before letting the newlyweds go!

Overall, the wedding was a huge success!!  After Matt and Lindsey left, Ross and Sal had us to their house to wind down - loved borrowing comfy clothes from Sal and sitting around with my best friends and just talking.  I love how no matter how much time we spend apart and how much our lives change, we can all still come back together and just BE.  Its comfortable and challenging all at the same time.  Of course, this doesn't keep me from falling asleep on the couch mid-conversation (hey...in my defense it was WAY past my bedtime), but I wouldn't be me otherwise!