Honeys Do: BBQ, The Perfect Dinner to Kickstart a Marriage

The DJ's gave the guests a good hour of socializing and after confirming that the food was ready and my bustle was as good as it was gonna get, they declared it food time! Which meant first, we got to be officially announced. As husband and wife. As Mr. & Mrs. Honey!

We stood just outside the door as the DJ got the attention of our guests and requested they find seats so the feast could begin.

It took a few minutes for the guests to follow instructions, so Mr. Honey and I enjoyed the fresh air as we gripped hands waiting for the announcement. This moment hyped us up, and was captured by the photographers, which happens to be one of my absolute favorites from the day.

We didn't pick a song to make our entrance to, instead we just took in the cheers and applause of our guests. Me with a big grin, and Mr. Honey looking a little overwhelmed, we made our way through the crowd...

...and right into the food line! I was not going to be a bride that didn't eat; in fact I was starving and I couldn't wait to get some of that BBQ!

Serious Texas BBQ was the perfect choice for our wedding; of course it was delicious and obviously the employees were helpful (hey-a neighbors!!), but most importantly our desire for plentiful, filling food was met.

As a refresher, we offered 70 pounds of meat divided between pulled pork, smoked sausage and turkey. The side options were beans, cheezy potatoes and coleslaw. And a baked potato bar, with topping options of butter, sour cream, shredded cheese, or queso. Both my new hubby and I went with the Serious Texas coined special, the 'Tater. We filled a baked potato with pulled pork, poured queso over the meat and topped with sour cream. YUM. It's now a tradition, every Wednesday we treat ourselves to 'Tater Night!

We oh-so-romantically fed each other bites of the meat-potato-cheesiness, and I'm surprised we managed to not spill a drop of BBQ sauce or queso on our wedding day attire. Go team!

Following in our footsteps, GM J.C. and GM Steele decided they wanted to share bites too:

After the wedding party was seated, the DJ decided to play a game with the guests to determine which row of people would be next up for the food line. Whichever row 'won' his question, they would be next up. This worked well, because I hadn't given any thought to how the line would work (clearly I was more focused on decorations than logistics, oops!).

His first question was to see which couple in attendance had been married the longest. It was BM Candace's parents coming in at 37 years..they were shocked when they realized they were the record breakers! They claimed they weren't old enough to be the longest married :) While 37 years is in fact a long time, it is usually the grandparents who take the cake on this one; but my Papa was the lone grandparent and he was a bachelor for the wedding. After the first row made their way to the food line, our guests started to get a little antsy. Admittedly, the line did move a bit slow; but people were piling the food high! We did loose a good handful of people as well, due to the twelve inches of snow that accumulated outside.

Everyone devoured their food, tables were cleared, the DJ's were set up, and we were ready for the party to start...it was finally time to dance! Woop woop!

*All Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!

·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom

·         The Honey Dudes played in the snow

·         20 People and a Dog posed

·         I swooned over the details

·         We all trekked a snowy aisle

·         There were vows, declaration and a kiss!

·         Our recessional was tricky

·         Guests drank and I bustled

Honeys Do: Bustling Into Cocktail Hour

We didn't plan a cocktail hour; in fact we didn't give much thought to just how the time right after the ceremony would be spent...with a room filled with 170 people, this could have turned into a disaster.

I mean, c'mon, how did I not plan this out?! Fortunately that room was filled with our favorite people and with an open bar stocked with three choices of beer, four varieties of wine and a rum cocktail, the crisis was adverted. Thank you, alcohol.

If there was one thing I knew about our wedding, it was that it would be a party. I've shown proof of that with evidence of libations at every turn over our wedding weekend. Without plans for a cocktail hour, but a plan to serve dinner around 5:30 we did in fact end up with an unintentional cocktail hour, and our guests got an early start to the party.

JS, BM Hogan & AS

Old friends reuniting!

Officiant Mark & Ring Bearer I

BM Hogan and her Hunny

I spent majority of that hour contending with my bustle. I'll be honest, when I saw the final system for my bustle, I was hesitant; but I trusted that a seamstress knew better than a non-seamstress. I had BM Kel Bel bustle my dress up, which consisted of a small button and an even smaller loop made out of thread. I turned to hug someone and snap, the bustle was busted 2 minutes after it was attached. 2 minutes!

BM Kel Bel performed emergency surgery on the bustle by collecting three safety pins from her mom and then proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes underneath my dress trying to secure a massive amount of heavy fabric with teeny tiny pins. BM Kel Bel got the pins attached and I was a happy bride once again.

Photo by Uncle P

It was short lived ya'll. Well not the part about me being a happy bride, but the part about my bustle. The pins gave out just a few minutes later. I quickly realized that the bustle just wasn't gonna happen...so for the next six hours that I was in my dress, we were constantly re-pinning the the massive amount of fabric into a pile on my booty. As the night went on the pinning got more and more half-assed, obviously; so don't mind that the underparts of my dress were showing during our first dance, or that it's a bit brown from the hundreds of times it was stepped on by both myself and guests.

A half-ass bustle through dancing, eating and partying was certainly an inconvenience. To say I was annoyed with the train of my dress is an understatement; I believe there was a moment when I actually considered taking scissors to the bottom of my dress. It was that bad. BUT I was not going to let a little bustle drama ruin my wedding reception. It just meant I had to hold all that extra fluff up!

Photo by Jo

See? Still happy! With our guests getting liquored up and our tummies growling, we were ready to eat!

*Unless otherwise noted, all Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!

·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom

·         The Honey Dudes played in the snow

·         20 People and a Dog posed

·         I swooned over the details

·         We all trekked a snowy aisle

·         There were vows, declaration and a kiss!

·         Our recessional was tricky

Honeys Do: An Obstacle of a Recessional

Our recessional song came on (Rhythm of Love by the Plain White T's) and we started the walk back down the aisle. At the rehearsal Mr. Honey had declared that he wanted to jump off the ceremony stage, this was no surprise to me and I figured it would be funny if he did. He whispered to me "Should we jump?" and I'm pretty sure I responded with "Hell no!". Being a good husband (!) he held my hand tightly and walked down the snow packed stairs with me.

All went well until we got to the turn in the aisle...you see we had imagined a turn in the aisle at the rehearsal but we didn't get to (obviously) rehearse with snow, a big white dress, flying pom pom's and the adrenaline packed, pure excitement we were contending with now.

Here's how it went: we turned the corner, Mr. Honey stepped on my dress which combined with the slick snow resulted in a slight slip of our footing, and at the same time we were getting pelted with tossed (I swear the pom poms were being thrown not tossed!) pom pom's. This slippery slope yielded some not-so pretty, although quite funny, pictures.

Reacting to having my dress stepped on...and flying pom poms!

Both of us loosing our footing...more flying pom poms!

Laughing, and thankful we didn't fall to the ground

...and flying pom poms!

After navigating the obstacle, we made it to the warmth of the venue where we shared a special 5 seconds alone of being husband and wife. I also took this quick time to make the switcheroo with my wedding band, putting it on the bottom of my engagement ring. Now things were official :) The rest of the wedding party made their way in and shared some tearful hugs with the new Mr. and Mrs. Excuse my crazy face in the picture below, as I was clearly very excited/teary/emotional as BM Fawn and BM Scoot greeted us!

Photo by Uncle P

I vividly remember this next moment, because my parents dear friends walked in to give me a hug and I promptly introduced them to Mr. Honey as my fiance, corrected myself and for the first time ever I introduced him as my husband! And, another crazy-face by Mrs. Honey; I'm sure I'm saying "Hiiii!"

Photo by Uncle P

While we were enjoying those few seconds before the guests joined us inside, there were some sweet moments going on outside. I think my parents were proud, and clearly a little wet and cold...but I absolutely love this picture of them!

I can tell they had just wiped away tears, the lace cone in my moms hand was fresh out of pom pom's from tossing them at their newlywed daughter and my dad is tightly grasping Zeus's collar (big surprise he couldn't understand why he wasn't walking back down the aisle with us!). Pure joy in this picture!

Officiant Mark and my dad had a manly sentimental moment, and I love that I can see so much emotion in both of these important guys.

Everyone filtered in from the cold, and our venue filled up with all of our closest friends and family as the party started with an unofficial cocktail hour!

*All Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!

·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom

·         The Honey Dudes played in the snow

·         20 People and a Dog posed

·         I swooned over the details

·         We all trekked a snowy aisle

·         There was vows, declaration and a kiss!

Honeys Do: I Do!

We had promised our guests, wedding party and everyone in between that our ceremony would be short and sweet. And this was before we were presented with the wedding snow storm; so I was so happy we chose to keep our ceremony short...though that didn't mean it was any less special. The words that Mark spoke to us were profound and loving. And as I expected, Mr. Honey's vows were amazing.

Officiant Mark started with a Welcoming of Guests and a Thank You for enduring the weather...Mr. Honey and I held hands and listened very intently.

Photo by BM Scoot's hubby

Family and Friends we are here today to celebrate the love between Danny and Cara.

By your presence, you are showing your support for their decision to

commit themselves to a lifelong relationship.

But first, lets bundle up and celebrate our surroundings and the specialness of this moment in time.

Danny and Cara wanted to share with you the

significance of these mountains, lakes and rivers

Because this is where their hearts have made their home.

It was this very lake that Danny asked Cara to be his wife.

I think she responded a few days later on Facebook.

And now, it will forever be a symbol of their union.

Photo by BM Scoot's hubby

Having just celebrated my 30th year of marriage,

I feel qualified to offer a few thoughts on this age-old tradition.

Marriage is a promise of companionship, of someone to share in all of life's experiences.

It is assurance that there will always be someone to rejoice in the triumphs,

and console in the disappointments that are part of life.

Marriage cannot promise eternal romance, but instead offers eternal commitment.

It is an affirmation that there will always be someone who loves you deeply.

Marriage doesn't prevent distress or grief, but it does provide acceptance and comfort in those times.

Photo by Uncle P

Today, Cara and Danny demonstrate their devotion to each other by

offering their companionship and eternal commitment.

They show respect for each other...they stand by each other...and dedicate themselves

to a life together in reciting the vows that they have created.

Cara and Danny, will you, with these family and friends as your witnesses,

Promise to care for each other in the joys and sorrows of life;

And to share the responsibility for the growth and enrichment of your

 life together and you as individuals.

We will.

Then please turn to each other and share the vows you have written.

Danny,

I knew before we even met that you were someone meant to be in my life.

From day one you have shown me what it feels like to have a soul mate.

Having you by my side has brought a calming sense of wholeness and a

content feeling that you will always be there.

You make my heart smile every single day by the way you love me.
I admire your ambition, your passion, and your courage.

I love that we share the same dreams and goals,

And that our doggy and kitties bring you the same happiness to you as they do to me.

I promise to give you a high five at every single accomplishment that's achieved

both individually and by us as a unit.

I vow to stand by you, to support you and encourage you.

I even promise to continue supporting your Cuckoo's addiction.

These 2 years have been so fulfilling that I know our future has lots in store for us,

And knowing you'll be there with me for both the highs and the lows makes me feel stronger.

Thank you for loving me as I am but also for bringing out the person I want to be.

I'm so grateful I am becoming your wife today.

I love you, Danny, with every ounce of my being.

...

Cara,

Today I am the luckiest guy in the world.

From here on I will spending the rest of my life with the most amazing person I know.

Your beauty, your intelligence, your patience, your overall love and respect for life

and everyone around you, make you a dream come true.

A dream that I will relive day and night for the rest of my life with you.

You are my best friend, my partner, my soul mate, my everything.

Our lives together are going to be incredible.

I am going to be there for you every minute of every day.

I promise to be everything you will ever need in life.

I love you, Cara, I love you more than anything in this world.

Today and for every day going forward nothing will bring me more joy

than being able to call you my wife.

Thank you for everything, and for creating this memory that we are sharing today.

We made it, we are doing it, this is happening.

I love you.

I have to share a story here; When we spoke, Officiant Mark turned and aimed his microphone towards us so that our voices would project to the crowd. As Mr. Honey said his vows, just as he stated that I was his best friend, Zeus spoke up. He did his trade mark bark/whimper at the exact moment! Everyone said that his ears were perked the entire time both of us spoke but chose that exact moment to speak up. A moment that perfectly characterized our dog was a part of the event!

We exchanged rings with each other, while repeating these words.

I give you this ring as a sign that I choose you.

To be my lover, my partner and my companion to the end of my days.

Wear it, think of me, and know that I love you.

Danny and Cara,

We have heard your promise to share your lives in marriage.

We as your family and friends, recognize and respect the vows that you have

made here this day, before each one of us as a witness.

In the honesty and sincerity of what you have said and done here today,

and in accordance with the laws of the state of Colorado,

It is my honor and delight to declare you man and wife.

You may seal your vows with a kiss.

We had our first kiss as husband and wife and then immediately embraced each other for another amazing hug (remember we shared the best hug in my life during our first look). I feel like the hug lasted a good few seconds, which gave our groomsmen ample time to celebrate amongst themselves. Check out this high five sequence:

Hey, we certainly couldn't have done it without them! Also, note Flower Girl M, and how every single pom pom seems to be right in front of her. She was apparently very entertaining as she continued to toss the pom pom's during the whole ceremony; since I was oblivious and in my "getting hitched" bubble, I love seeing these little things by looking through the pictures. See the flying pom pom?!

Photo by BM Scoot's hubby.

Okay, so where were we? Oh yes, we were JUST MARRIED!! After our hug subsided, we turned to face our guests and were greeted with a roar of applause and cheers to help us make our way back down the aisle...just the cheers from our wedding party alone were ample!

Ten minutes of love-filled words, vows, rings, declaration and the kiss, Mr. & Mrs. Honey walked back down that aisle as husband and wife...which turned out to be quite memorable!

*Unless otherwise noted, all Photos by the talented duo of Zak Fleming Photography

·         We had a busy wedding week

·         Teamwork made our Dream Work

·         We rehearsed casually

·         There was a pizza party!

·         Friday night was Princesses, Panties & Practice

·         Bridal details made me reminisce my morning  

·         I became a bride!

·         The Honey Girls took a walk in the snow

·         The Dudes got handsome

·         We did our First Look, with our doggy!

·         The Honeys posed as bride and groom

·         The Honey Dudes played in the snow

·         20 People and a Dog posed

·         I swooned over the details

·         We all trekked a snowy aisle