Mr. & Mrs. Britz- part 1 (rehearsal & pictures)

I'm back, and I hope I can finally bring some consistency to my blogging once again.  Life has been a whirl-wind for us, and we seem to finally have found ourselves a little bit of a slower pace.  We have made many lasting memories, and have spent some good, quality time with friends and family.

September was one busy, but, very exciting month for us!  Between the kids' birthday party where we celebrated with Spiderman and rainbows, going back to work, Eli starting pre-school, and the most amazing wedding I have ever experienced, we have found ourselves now just reflecting on all the fun we had.  I'm so glad to have captured so much of the excitement with photos, because we have now just have the wonderful memories to look back on.

There were many factors that made this wedding one that will always be cherished and remembered.

One reason is Nate and Ashley.  They came into our lives a few years back, and have become the best friends we could ever ask for.  These are the friends that you long for and dream of- and we will never let them go.  They love our children more than we knew friends could.  They are friends that we will share our lives with for many years.  We will raise kids together, and rely on one another for support, advice, and of course, fun!
The next reason is that they asked for us to be a part of their day.  We couldn't have been more honored and happy for them when they surprised us one evening and walked through our door to tell us about the engagement, and then proceed to ask all 4 of us to stand next to them as they said their vows.
The last reason this wedding will always be in our hearts is the fact that our wonderful friends that we met while vacationing in Jamaica with Nate and Ashley made the 7 hour trek to MN to spend 3 nights, and 3 days with us to celebrate Nate and Ashley.  We haven't seen these friends since we said our good-byes (while holding back tears) in Jamaica back in January.  You would have never known we met them once- We picked up just like old life-long friends do, and had the most amazing time with them.  They hung out with us, played with our kids, sat back, and relaxed.  Our time together couldn't have been more special.  We miss them dearly, and can't wait to see them again.

Onto the pictures- My friends, I plugged my camera in the day after the wedding to find 540 pictures of the celebration!!!  Because of this, I will need to spread this out into 3 posts.  Bear with me, there's a lot of pictures, but I couldn't narrow it any further- Each picture expresses so much, that I had to include all of the following.

Ready to head to the rehearsal at the church.

This little man couldn't have been more proud to do his job.

This just says it all- LOVE.

Don't let that face fool you- he was more excited that I even anticipated he would be!

Back to the barn waiting for rehearsal dinner.

The place looked amazing!

Every little detail of the day was thought through, and it was perfect!

Celebrating the night before up in the barn.

Eliott made a new friend- He loved this puppy, Olive.  Still talks about her, actually!

The flower girl, and the other ring-bearer, Wyatt hit it off, and had lots of fun together.

They played some games together.

Ashley knows what this guy loves!  He was so excited about the pack of gum he found in his back-pack!

And look at all that Sass!  Loving her beautiful headband and bracelet to wear for the big day!

I'm so glad that they are both a part of this day with me!

Loving her new backpack, too!

There are those WI ladies!  Love these 2!

How awesome for my sister to also be a part of the big day!

Such an honor to walk down the aisle with this man again:)

The proud groom, himself!

How about a little "chair guitar" to bring some fun to this party!

And the morning of:

All these pretty ladies getting made beautiful.

The dresses were absolutely gorgeous- and Yes, mine is the short one:)

I sent the camera with Chad to get some pictures of the guys getting ready, and the first picture he takes is one of the photographer!

Check out this little stud!

Cute as can be!

The proud and happy groom!

They were quite a fun crew!

Love.  Absolutely Love.

Ditto here- could this be any more perfect?!

It's hard to get serious with a crew like this- we just wanted to have fun!

The whole party all together.

That is one gorgeous bride!

And a good-looking crew of guys.

Yep- that's my girl.  Flower-girl dress, bouquet of flowers, and holding a frog!  That's Adi for you!

She found a little frog friend, and didn't want to let him go.

Such a little lady!

Those curls get me every time!

In between the slight heart-attacks thinking they were going to fall right in, I stood back and snapped some pretty amazing photos!  More of these to come....

That's the first set for you...I have many more to come, and I'm going to work really hard to not have it take long to get them loaded up!