My Best Friend's Wedding

The reason I haven't blogged in over a week is because I took a week-long trip to Nashville last week for my childhood friend, Ashley's, wedding.

Ashley Newton and Brent Byrd

Ashley and I have known each other since kindergarten. Her family is my "second" family and is very special to me. She was maid of honor in my wedding six years ago, so it was a privileged for me to be a part of her wedding and help in a small way with all the prep work. You might remember back in January when Ashley invited me to be a bridesmaid. She and her mom, Leslie, are two of the most creative people I know and Ashley's wedding definitely showed that.

Ashley had so many creative elements of her wedding, from the milk and cookie bar to the favors. She  and Leslie had been working for months on various DIY projects so when I got into town, I joined them and Ashley's two college roommates, Chelsea and Allie, in helping out with the final touches.

We spent all day on Thursday putting together the flowers and bouquets. Her mom's living room looked just like a florist when we brought in more than four buckets of flowers!

We had to take off all the leaves and make 16 boutonnieres, eight bouquets and four corsages. It was a group effort, though we discovered Ashley definitely has the best eye for flower arrangements, so much so that she made her own bouquet.

We also had a few other things to do, including making heart birdseed feeders, which Ashley gave away as favors.

Stamping bags for the children's appetizers.

Creating burlap and fabric pennants.

And covering stools with burlap (which Ashley let me do ... it was good practice for my upcoming dining room chair project).

And that was only a few of the projects Ashley and Leslie had already done, including making dozens of chocolate cookies, stamping bags for their guitar pick favors and wrapping hundreds of silverware. Whew. I still don't know how they had managed to do all this! In the end, the efforts were not in vain because they made for a beautiful wedding!

Ashley and Brent got married at Front Porch Farms in Charlotte, TN. It's a beautiful house on top of a hill, which the owners, Kathy and Brian, built themselves. (I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.) It was a perfect wedding venue and Saturday, April 2, was a perfect day. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the the big event.

I'm so happy for Mr. and Mrs. Byrd! I pray they have a long and happy marriage together! Congratulations!