Tina's Wedding...finally!

Now after both those blog posts about Tina and the big Duke/Bama game, are you wondering where the pictures are? :)

Am I an inconsistent blogger or what?

Yes, I definintely am.

So, I thought I should get those things taken care of before moving on because this weekend, we are headed to Tuscaloosa Alabama for the Florida/Bama game and if I don't blog about Tina and Duke/Bama before we leave, then when I return, those things will be a thing of the past that I'll never end up revisiting, ha!

Just like how I never blogged about our family beach trip with Ryan's family (in May!) or our Maine trip (in June!) or our friends' summer weddings (in July and August!)!  Maybe I'll circle back around to those eventually...

It's just hard to stay caught up on it when I spend all day at a computer at work and then come home and have to figure out dinner, clean up from dinner, spend as much time with Ryan as I can, and the last thing on my list is usually getting BACK on the computer.  I do write blog posts in my head sometimes, if that counts...they just never make it to the actual computer screen.

But tonight, I'm getting my priorities in line!  No packing for Alabama until I whip out some blog posts, complete with pictures.  Dedication baby...

As for Tina's wedding, it was BEAUTIFUL and SO.  MUCH.  FUN!! On a perfect day for an outdoor wedding in one of the prettiest outdoor settings I've ever seen, she was possibly the most gorgeous, most excited bride I've ever seen.  Knowing Tina, I had a feeling she would be nervous and stressed on the day of, but she was totally relaxed and even said to one of her friends/bridesmaids at one point right before the ceremony, "why are you nervous?  I'm not even nervous!".

We kicked off the wedding weekend on Thursday morning with the Bridesmaid's luncheon that my mom hosted for Tina at a surprise location that turned out to be...the Swan Coach House in Buckhead!

Here is Tina with her bridal party... me, Andrea - her sister and Matron of Honor, Alicia - her niece and junior bridesmaid, Tina, Carlie, and Allison.  Carlie and Allison are two of Tina's best friends from elementary school. It was a fun group!

Tina with her two moms!  Her mom, my aunt Elaine on the left, and Mama Ellis (Wes' mom, Kathy) on the right.  She inherited an awesome mother-in-law like I did! :)

Then came the rehearsal dinner at the Old Mill in downtown Ackworth(?).  Quite possibly the best dinner I've ever had!

Wes' parents put on the sweetest rehearsal dinner too, with a slideshow all about Tina being the answer to their prayers for their son and a video of all the grandparents giving marriage advice.

Andrea and Wes' brother/best man Daniel had to give speeches at the rehearsal dinner.  Andrea was a little nervous about it beforehand, but did an awesome job!

Rehearsal dinner was the first time I got to see Jamiloo since my arrival to Georgia!!  Stinking love that girl and the party was even more fun once she arrived on the scene!  And then I didn't have to decide between the steak or the salmon.  She got steak, I got salmon, and then we split them... :)  Thank goodness for my other half!

Joycie and all four of her grandgirls!


Dun dun dun

and finally I give you...

...the couple of the hour!  

Christina Baguley and Wesley Ellis.

And Tina with her parents, my uncle Steve and aunt Elaine

We were two goofy kids once who did everything together. 

Occasionally, the kids in us still come out to play...

The next morning, the day of the wedding, Jamie, Alicia and I ran some last minute errands to pick up Tina's honeymoon dresses from the alteration shop.  We jammed out/woke up to some Justin Beiber.  Yeah! Lol

Be sure and pause the ipod on the left sidebar so you can hear it.




A little bit later after meeting back up with Tina, Andrea and Elaine, we arrived at the hotel near the ceremony site to get ready.  Wes and his brother had stayed in the hotel room the night before to play golf the morning of the wedding, and this is how he left the room for Tina.  A three page letter, a dozen roses, and a heart made of kisses...

Tina brought Carolyn in to do our hair, which was so fun!  Carolyn did all the girls' hair for my wedding too and that was the last time I had seen her.  Here Tina's discussing what she wants done to her hair.

Tina wouldn't read Wes' letter until after she had written her own.

Little Nelly Olson brat here! She gave me her best brat face to go with her Nelly Olson curls. :)  

Bridesmaids getting ready!

Her daddy first saw her when we got to the wedding site - the Governor's House in Kingston, GA.

Garter - check!  It's her something old and something blue in one!

Putting on the dress with the help of her mom and sister...

And the dress is STUNNING!

Andrea helped put her shoes on and Alicia stepped in to admire.  On go the pearl earrings

- something borrowed!  From me :)  I wore them on my wedding day too.

Bridal party picture time!

AJ arrived and Alicia was so excited to show Andrea and Tina how "handsome" he looked all dressed up.  It was the cutest thing ever!  I don't know which was cuter...AJ or the fact that Alicia was so proud of him and wanted to show him off.

Mom and Dad arrived and Dad wore Bob's tie (Bob is our grandfather - Joyce's husband and Mom and Elaine's dad, who passed away when I was 3, Tina was 4) so Bob could be represented on Tina's special day.

Ceremony time!  Christina Marie Baguley walked down the aisle to meet her groom who had 

yet to see her or talk to her the entire day...

Christina Baguley Ellis came back up the aisle escorted by her husband! 

First dance to Brad Paisley's "She's Everything to Me" song that Wes surprised Tina with. 

Fetching the garter!

Bouquet Toss!

At the end of the reception, we ran upstairs to help her change into her getaway dress.  

Snapped a quick picture of the last time I'll see her until Christmas probably!

Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Ellis!

The car got decorated while they were inside dancing.... :)

And they're off!  Headed to the Ritz in Atlanta, then to fly to Jamaica the next morning for their honeymoon!

It was such a perfect day!

(And I took lots more pictures, which I'll post to facebook as soon as I finish sorting through them all!)

Whew, that was a lot of wedding coverage.  I think the Bama game is going to need a separate post.

To be continued...

Tina

My cousin Tina is one of those "near and dear" to me in life.  We're only 9 months apart in age and grew up around each other alot, so really she feels more like a second sister, one that was closer in age to me than Jamie. 

This is Tina and me on my wedding day.



I have so many crazy childhood memories with her...

Birthday parties that involved dancing and singing to Spice Girls and pranking people who fell asleep...

Getting my first tooth fairy visit at her house...

Riding four-wheelers at my house all the time...it's all we ever wanted to do.  Cops and Robbers in the field with the boys and Jamie and sometimes the Case kids. 

Spending at least a week of every summer at her house, hanging out at her neighborhood pool with all her friends.  I was such a tag-along, the grade below all of them...

Trick-or-treating in her neighborhood...

Getting mad at each other over stupid stuff and banning each other from sleeping in our room.  She'd kick me out and tell me I'd have to go sleep somewhere else that night or vice versa if we were at my house... usually we got over it before night came though and didn't have to go find some other room to sleep in.  Once, when she got mad, Andrea (her older sister) took me in and bought me ice cream off the ice cream truck (we didn't tell Tina) and taught me the macarena until Tina got over being mad at me.

Hiding in Andrea's closet and spying on her when she was on the phone talking to boys (well, A boy...Jimmy) in high school...she'd always find us and make Steve kick us out...

Getting booted to pallets on the bonus room floor when all the family was there, so we made a slide by sliding off the table on a pool raft...in the middle of the night, waking everyone in the house up...

Getting grounded together...

Staying awake way past our bed time, giggling and talking til Uncle Steve would come down to check on us and we'd always hear him coming and roll over, pull the covers up and pretend to be asleep when he opened the door...

Deciding to be pen pals and play tic-tac-toe through the mail.  Every time it was our turn to write back, we'd get a turn...

Having such similar taste that one summer we ended up with the same bathing suit, after having the same kids bedspread we were shopping with our grandmother to redo our rooms and came around an aisle having both found a comforter that we loved to find that it was the same one, so we both had the same bedrooms in high school, then just a couple weeks ago I bought some bedding for our guest room and when Andrea and her kids stopped by to spend the night on the way home from DC, Alicia said "that's the same comforter that Tina just got!"...and we registered for the same dishes.  haha! 

We both always talked about living together after college (I got married and ruined that plan, sorry Tina!) and always said we'd have a red couch.  I did end up with a red couch :)

Spent a night in the bathroom once in sleeping bags and played cards, and I can't remember why, lol.

Anyway...that same Tina that I share all those memories, and a thousand more with, caught the bouquet at my wedding...

...and now she is getting married Friday night!

And I am so excited for her and honored to be a part of her special day!

Cousins!  Andrea and Tina with me and Jamie

Me and Tina at one of her showers

 We love Wes, her fiance.  He is great, perfect for her and fits perfectly into her family.  Ryan and I both love hanging out with the two of them. 

Us with Tina and Wes at their couples shower

I'm flying to Atlanta this afternoon so I can join in all of the wedding festivities over the next couple of days!  Mom is doing her bridesmaid's luncheon tomorrow, then there's the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night and then the big day on Friday! Can't wait!

I love you Tina!!!

Where it all started for us...

Valentine's Day will always be special for Ryan and I.  This is our 8th together (where does time go?!) and every year on February 14th, we celebrate our first and favorite Valentine's day (V'Day 2002) - where it all started for us.

A lot of you know our story, but on Kelly's Korner, people were sharing favorite Valentine's Day memories and not only did I think it would be fun to join in with mine, but I also thought it would be a good excuse to write out "our story". It's a little long, but it's a fun one!

It all started in 10th grade...I was the "new" girl to Buford High School, having just transferred from a small Christian school along with my younger brother, Matt, who was in 8th grade at Buford Middle and Kyler Case, a close family friend who transferred at the same time as us.  I'd never cheered before, but tried out with two other new girls in a make-up tryout and after making it, had to attend picture day for the football program along with the entire cheerleading squad and football team.  Picture Day was a couple days before school started so I went not knowing anyone, but meeting everyone at once that day.

Afterwards, I waited on Kyler in the field house because his mom was picking both of us up. While I waited, Coach Wood, the Football Coach and Athletic Director (and my future father-in-law...little did I know) who had taken my parents, Matt, and me on our tour of Buford back in the spring, walked up and started talking to me, asking how I was liking it so far and if I had met a lot of people in my grade that day.  I remembered he had told me he had a son on the football team that time we'd first met him, but thought he'd said his son was a Senior.  As we were talking, his spitting image walked around the corner from the locker room and Coach Wood introduced me to his son, Ryan, who he said was a sophomore and might be in some of my classes.  We talked just briefly before we left, but I left thinking he was really cute and really really nice.

The next day, I saw him again at open house and we talked for just a couple minutes as we found our lockers and then made our way to a covered dish dinner with the rest of the football players and cheerleaders.  A lot of the football players were cute...and flirty...but something stood out to me about Ryan.  He was very level-headed and mature and I could tell he was respected by the other guys on the team.  I left that night excited about my first day at Buford the next day and on the ride home, I asked my parents... "You know who I could see myself liking?"  And my mom turned around and looked at me with a smile and said "Ryan Wood".

Over the next couple of months, Ryan and I spent our mornings in the back hall sitting on the floor with the early crowd of kids because we got to school so early.  He rode in with his dad to work and my dad dropped me off on his way to work, so we were always early and killed the time sitting on the floor talking.  Meanwhile, my interest in him grew, but I couldn't tell how he felt.  I didn't admit to liking him, but I guess some people started to pick up on the fact that we were getting to know each other and a couple girls told me not to waste my time on Ryan Wood.  Several girls had been interested in him, but apparently he was too focused on football to notice or give a thought to being in a relationship at that time.  So I purposefully didn't get my hopes up and meanwhile, almost went out instead with one of the two other guys that were more aggressive with their interests and a lot more flirty (both of which ended up being in our wedding).  It came down though to me thinking I didn't want to date just anyone and I really liked Ryan...and even though I never would have been one to make the first move or call him or express interest in him, I guess I did have some kind of hope that even though he hadn't dated the other girls, MAYBE I'd be the lucky one.

After some time, people started to pick up on the idea of us dating...including his football coaches, and started the whole "will y'all just start dating already" stuff.  Guys on the team would ask him about it in the locker room and he played it cool and never gave them answers to any of their questions.  Meanwhile, those guys would come up to me and tell me "Oh, he's going to ask you out.  I heard he's just waiting til you turn 16 to ask you".  Then, my birthday came and went.  Then it was "Well, really I think he's waiting til his birthday so it's not weird that you're 16 and he's still 15" (our birthdays are only 13 days apart).  Then, nothing.  At that point, I was thinking nothing was ever going to happen - he must not be interested and I kept talking myself into not getting my hopes up - even though I really liked him at that point.  So when those guys kept trying to pry and find out what he was thinking with still no answers, they started saying "He must be waiting for Valentine's Day".  Even a couple of the coaches started giving him a hard time saying "what are you waiting for - you two are perfect together"

So, the day before Valentines Day, after Ryan and I had gone through the lunch line and then gone our separate ways with our lunch trays like we did every day...he to the football player table, and me to the table with the rest of our class, I went back to grab a fork.  When I did, Coach Simpson, one of the coaches who has known Ryan his whole life said, "Erin, I have a great idea.  Tomorrow, you and Ryan are going to sit at this table right here all by yourselves and have Valentines lunch together!".  I laughed and was like no way, that's not going to happen, but he kept convincing me it was a good idea and kept asking me if I'd do it if he set it up, finally saying, "well, if Ryan agrees to it, would you?".  So I said, "fine, because I know Ryan would not agree to that anyways."  Then I walked away laughing at Coach Simpson's tactics.  Ha, even the coaches were trying to push things along now.

Sure enough though, just a few minutes later, I saw Coach Simpson and his buddy Coach Snell (another coach that had known Ryan since he was a kid) over at the football players table talking to Ryan.  All the guys were laughing and some of them were looking my way and Coach Simpson made eye contact with me and just grinned and said "yep". And then I saw him go over and talk to the lunchroom lady, pointing to the table he had said we should eat at.  Ryan looked over at me from the football player's table and just grinned.

After lunch when we met up out in the hall while waiting for the bell to ring before heading to our next classes, I asked him if he had agreed to Coach Simpson's idea and he put his arm around me and grinned and said "I sure did - he said you agreed first though!". 

So, the next day on Valentine's Day, Ryan arrived in the back hall with a rose for me, which Mrs. Maltbie our math teacher gladly put in a vase and kept in her room all day for me.  Then we went about our classes.  I had somehow forgotten about Coach Simpson's plan or just didn't think it was going to actually happen...until I started hearing about it from people in all my different classes.  In 2nd period, a couple guys were like, "Hope you're excited about your Valentine's lunch today because Coach Simpson sure had us making table decorations for it instead of lifting weights during his weight-training class this morning".  A couple senior guys told me the same thing between classes.  I was thinking, "oh no, what has this turned into?".  Then again, in 5th period, the class right before lunch, a couple other football guys, Darius and Drew, started asking if I was ready for lunch with big ole' grins on their face.  So as soon as the bell rang, I headed to lunch not knowing what to expect.  As soon as I walked in, everyone was looking at me like they had been waiting for me to walk in.  I walked by the senior's table and they were all watching me - it was like the whole school knew about mine and Ryan's "Valentine's lunch date".  I looked over to the table Coach Simpson had suggested and it was decked out in Valentine's decor - a dozen red roses, heart confetti, stuffed bears, etc..., but no Ryan, who always beat me to lunch because his class was a lot closer than mine.  I walked up and Coach Simpson pulled out the chair for me and told me he had sent Ryan through the lunch line to get our lunches, so I waited awkwardly at the table while everyone in the lunch line went grinning by me.

Finally, Ryan came through the lunch line and sat down at the table with a big smile.  I guess his arrival was the cue because as soon as he sat down, all of the football guys and Coach Simpson and Coach Snell gathered around our table, linked arms, starting swaying and snapping and started singing "I've got sunshiiiiine on a cloudy day.  When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May...".  Ryan stood up and linked up arms with the guys behind him and joined in the snapping, swaying, and singing when they reached the chorus of "My Girl".  He smiled down and sang to me as I turned bright red - my face matched the color of my shirt I was told afterwards.  Some people in the lunchroom joined in singing and at the end, people clapped.  It was so embarrassing, but does make for a great memory after the fact.  I found out later that some teachers let kids who had been in 1st lunch out of class to come see the whole event.

(Thank you to Carrie (Creedle) Wolfe...childhood friend of Ryan's / my high school BFF / my college roommate / my bridesmaid...for snapping this picture to record the moment!  This picture did hang in my locker for the rest of the year.  And this was taken late at lunch when a lot of people had already cleared out, so there were a lot more in there when everything happened.)

After the singing ended, people went about their lunch.  A couple people came over and snapped a picture of us, but after it died down, it was just he and I at the table.  I don't think I was able to eat anything because I didn't know what he was going to do.  After a couple minutes, one of the senior girls walked by and said "So, I guess it's time for the DTR talk then, huh?  Ya know...Defining The Relationship."

Ryan took the prompt after she walked away and began by saying "Well, I wanted to do things on my own time so you didn't think it was because of prompting and prodding of other people, but since we're here with all of this, I guess I'll go ahead and ask you the question I've been wanting to ask you for a while now...".  (ha, sounds like a 10th grade proposal, huh?).  And that's when Ryan asked me to officially be his girlfriend.

Two high school years, four long-distance college years (me at Georgia, him at Duke on a football scholarship), a total of 6 years later and still together, he did ask me to marry him on Sunset Rock in Highlands, NC on December 23, 2007.  And after a year and a half of awesome marriage to this amazing guy, today is our 8th Valentine's Day together!

On our wedding day, as part of my "something old", I carried down the aisle a "my girl" heart candy that someone gave me after lunch that day and I had kept all these years in my "Ryan" box.

Then at our wedding reception, all of the guys who were there that had been a part of the high school cafeteria scene on Valentine's Day 2002 once again serenaded us with a fun rendition.

Here, Joseph is telling the crowd the "background" behind the song, My Girl, that they are about to sing to us.

Joseph and the guys called Coach Simpson in from outside for the song.  He's still pretty proud of his match-making skills. :)

The singing, swaying, and snapping begins...

"I've got sunshine on a cloudy day..."

It was so fun to relive the memory of how our relationship started with so many friends who had either been there in high school or knew the story...

Sing it, Zach!  

And I'm so thankful for such an amazing husband and the fact that at age 24, we've already had 8 fun years together full of special memories.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Hope you've all enjoyed your day with someone special!