Today starts the recap of the wedding day!

To say I was excited would be a bit of an understatement. I don’t think I slept more than a couple of hours on Friday night because I was so excited. When our alarm went off, I was ready to go. The bride wasn’t quite as ready as I was…

 We had a really fun day leading up to the wedding. Neely, Michele, Ally, Laura, Neely’s mom, and our friend Amber all hung out together in the bridal suite, getting our hair and makeup done and just hanging out. It was nice to have a quiet, calm morning together. Early in the afternoon, we met the groomsmen and the family down at the wedding venue to take all of the pictures. We had a lot of fun ones, and I can’t wait to see how they turned out!

We hung out together in a room off of the ceremony site until it was wedding time!

Neely looked absolutely amazing. Even though I was with her through all of the hair and makeup, and I helped her get dressed, seeing her completely ready made me tear up! She looked happier and more beautiful than I’ve ever seen her!

The ceremony was beautiful! They did a few traditional Jewish things, and since I’ve never been to a Jewish wedding before, it was really neat! Of course, I cried when she walked down the aisle, I cried when her dad gave her away, and I cried when they said their vows. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I’m thrilled I got to be a part of it!

After the ceremony, we had cocktail hour while Andrew and Neely ate dinner, and then we headed down to the reception!

I’m not sure who I stole this picture from, but it’s beautiful! Their first dance made me tear up again :)

Since I was the maid of honor, I had to give a speech at the reception. Neely’s friend Megan caught this moment after the speech, and it still brings tears to my eyes!

These two…I love them so!
One of the sweet things about being friends with Neely is getting to be friends with Michele too! I love that we all three get along so well! Michele is precious, and I love that I get to call her a friend too!
Just a little photo booth fun :)

We slow-danced to Brad Paisley…because that’s what we do.

I can’t even tell you how happy I am that Whitney and Amber got to come to the wedding! I hadn’t seen Amber since February, and I hadn’t seen Whitney since Blissdom! Our friend Caitrin was there too, but sadly I didn’t get a picture, but it was great to see her too! It was like a fun bloggy reunion! I wish we all lived closer to each other! I miss my friends!
Oh yes, the Wobble happened…it was a fun little Blissdom flashback :)It was a very fun, beautiful wedding! As happy as I am that Neely and Andrew are finally married, it’s a little sad that everything is over. It’s been a fun year getting to see my friends and celebrate Neely and Andrew, and I’m a little sad to see it end.

The next day, we all had brunch together, and then we headed back to Neely and Andrew’s apartment and watched the Dallas Cowboys game until it was time for me to fly again.

Another Dr. Pepper for the flight home…

I got a very nice welcome home from the kitty cat. I was gone just long enough for him to miss me and not quite long enough for him to hate me for being gone. He didn’t let me out of his sight the rest of the night!
The wedding weekend was such a beautiful celebration of Neely and Andrew. Neely has been one of the most important people in my life for a few years now, and I love that she has found such a great guy. Andrew has become a good friend to me as well, and I’m so happy they are so happy together. It meant so much to me to be a part of their wedding and to get to celebrate with them!

I finally feel like I’ve recovered enough from my trip to finally do a wedding weekend recap! Because there was so much happening, I’ve divided everything into two posts. So here is part one of the Moldovan wedding, through the eyes of the maid of honor :)

If you read my Flying Solo post, or if you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that I have an intense fear of flying. Thursday night before the wedding, I flew to Dallas alone. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I was prepared for. I think I got myself a little too worked up beforehand, so it was nice that it ended up not being as bad as I thought.

Of course I got a Dr. Pepper on the plane! The cutest little flight attendant man accidentally brought me water instead of Dr. Pepper, so when he brought me the right drink, he handed me a whole can of Dr. Pepper and said, “Shh!” Everyone else just got the small cups, so I felt special :) When I was getting off the plane, he said, “Goodbye Dr. Pepper girl!”

When I got off the plane and headed down the escalator, this happened. Clearly we were meant to be friends! I think it was that moment that it finally hit me that she was really getting married! It was a great beginning to a wonderful weekend.

When we got to their apartment, Andrew had his homemade pizza ready for us, so we ate really quick and watched Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder laying in bed. Because that’s not weird at all. Haha! Believe it or not, that’s the first time Neely and I have watched Scandal in the same room.Friday morning the wedding festivities got off to a fun start! We picked up Michele, checked into our hotel, and met Neely’s mom and the rest of the bridal party to get mani/pedis and have lunch at Neighborhood Services. It was great to get to have some downtime together before all of the crazy started. I LOVED getting to meet Neely’s childhood best friend Laura for the first time, and of course it was wonderful to see my Ally again! We had a great lunch together, and then headed to our hotel to relax for a bit before rehearsal and dinner.We had a good quick rehearsal and then headed to dinner at Eddie V’s. Can I just say how wonderful it’s been do spend time with these three girls? It’s making me sad that everything is over now because I don’t have Neely/Ally/Michele time on my calendar anymore!Seriously, they are just too cute!
I love her. How did we ever live without each other?
The dinner was a lot of fun! We had great food, watched a video of Neely and Andrew’s love story, and Andrew’s parents, grandmother, and several of their friends spoke. It was so great to hear the wonderful things their friends had to say about them! After a fun dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before the big day!

Stop back by tomorrow for the recap of the big wedding!

]]> https://ashleylately.com/2014/10/marriedmoldovans-part-1/feed/ 3 https://ashleylately.com/2014/03/my-best-friends-weddings/ https://ashleylately.com/2014/03/my-best-friends-weddings/#comments Wed, 26 Mar 2014 09:00:00 +0000 http://ashleylately.com/?p=34 Hey y’all!

I can’t think about Neely’s wedding without thinking about Jessica and Teddie’s weddings too!

Jessica’s wedding happened during our freshman year of college, and she married her high school sweetheart. It was the first wedding I had been in as a “grownup”, and it was incredible to get to stand beside her on such a wonderful day. I was so happy for them, and when I get really happy I cry, so to be safe, I tucked tissues in my bouquet :) Jessica’s wedding was so special for me because we’ve been a part of each other’s lives for as long as we can remember. We met in kindergarten, and we’ve been friends ever since, so it was extra special!

Teddie got married just a few weeks after I graduated from college. We shared an apartment the last six months before the wedding, so between her wedding planning and me trying to graduate, things were insane around our place. Watching everything fall perfectly into place with only a few little mishaps (I got strep, it rained a couple of hours before the wedding, the cake fell over) was wonderful. Again, I tucked a few tissues into my bouquet, just in case :)

In just a few months, I’ll be standing with Neely and A on their wedding day! I’ll never forget the day they got engaged. Neely called me, and when I answered the phone, she yelled “I THINK I’M GETTING ENGAGED!” After a little bit of screaming on both of our parts, we three-way called her mom, and all three of us screamed together. As A sent her on her “Amazing Race”, we talked on the phone between each stop until I finally got the call that said “I’m engaged!” I raced home, and we FaceTimed, because I just had to see the ring :)

Because when you can’t be there in person, FaceTime is the next best thing, right?

We screamed and cried, and it was wonderful! I am beyond thrilled for Neely and A, and I’m so happy they found each other. I couldn’t have picked out a better guy for Neely, and I can’t wait for their wedding!

Just a couple of weeks after the engagement, I got the sweetest package in the mail from Neely officially asking me to be her maid of honor! I might have cried :)

It’s crazy to think that we just met each other three years ago through blogging, and now I’m maid of honor in her wedding! I will forever be grateful for the blogging community because it gave me one of my best friends. I love her so much, and I’m so honored to get to be a part of one of the most important days of her life!

And I can guarantee there will be tissues in my bouquet :)