Went to a party & a wedding broke out! (pic heavy)

Where do I even start? Our wedding was absolutely wonderful, but the week leading up to it was so much drama. It was a huge relief when it was over & we had made it without killing each other or someone else!
The wedding week started on Sunday, when we headed to Galveston Island. My parents had rented a breathtaking beach house for everyone to stay in for the week. It was right on the beach – literally, the beach was a 250-foot walk away in the back yard.

The beach house (back view)

The view from the second level deck

Walking to the beach in the back yard

Beach for a back yard

View from the beach to the beach house…and a heron!


Penny Lane loved the beach!
Emmett & I had the place to ourselves for a few days before everyone else started arriving from their respective homes, which was perfect. We even got to bring Penny Lane on this trip and as it turns out, she is quite the beach puppy!
Sunday we got settled in, got Penny used to the new place and I attempted to watch the Breaking Bad finale, but had to wait until Monday because the beach house’s only flaw was limited cable. I wound up downloading it onto my kindle & watching it the next day. It was well worth the wait! Also on Sunday we met up with the woman from our venue. As it turned out, she was the biggest source of our wedding drama. In the months since we booked the venue, her communication has been horrible. I would have to send multiple emails & voicemail messages which eventually turned to threatening to cancel the whole thing & book elsewhere just to get a response. And this was every time! So, by the time we met up with her she was already not in our good graces. When we dropped off the last deposit, she informed us that the time of our event had been changed. On the original contract it said 6 hours, to be determined. On the next one, it was 5-10, and when we met up with her she said 5-9! When we originally met with her, she said that she would set up our decorations for us and this would not be counted as part of our time at the venue. This also changed apparently, because now she was saying our 4 hours would have to be 4-8 to include set up time! We went back & forth with her multiple times & finally discovered her trick…We had added an option for beer & margaritas to be on the house. When she resent the contract, she told me this was the only thing changed & I thought she was upfront so we took her at her word on that, signed & the contract & sent it back. As it turns out, she had also knocked 2 hours off of our time! Unfortunately, we were pretty much screwed because we had signed the contract & wound up having to pay $500 more for more time at the venue. Everyone there was from out of town, so we wanted everyone to be able to hang out & have fun & not feel rushed.
Monday, we found out that my dress – which was supposed to be done & back in the store for pick up on Sunday – wasn’t in the store OR completed by the seamstress. My mom went there to pick it up for me because Emmett & I were already in Galveston (which is 4 1/2 hours away) and needless to say she was furious! She told the woman at Alfred Angelo to not even call me because I was on the other side of the state & didn’t need to worry because I couldnt do anything about it anyway. But of course within 5 minutes they had called me just after arguing again with the woman from our venue. Needless to say, panic was starting to set in at this point! But luckily, the seamstress got the dress there about 2 hours later & the dress made it safely to me on Tuesday. The dress should have been in my possession about a week earlier, but I kept losing weight (not even intentionally!) and when it was all said & done, the dress was 3 sizes smaller than when I had bought it. The seamstress measured me & I lost 9 1/2 inches from our first appointment on 8/4 until the last one on 9/27.
Tuesday, things finally started calming down. We were supposed to drive about 2 hours to meet up with our DJ, but he let us do everything over the phone. He was awesome! Such a laid back guy, I really think without him & our very laid back photographer I would have lost my shit a little. But luckily, they saved my sanity.