Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Reception and Last few days as a Miss....

Hey guys!! Sorry for the lack of blogging even though it has been almost a month since the wedding! Everything has been so busy but don't worry! I have been working on 10 new blog posts!!  So as the last few days rounded up towards the wedding things were crazy as ever! The last 6 days before the wedding were so stressful but so worth it as I got a lot accomplished! They had to be like that because my plan worked perfectly, the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner day and wedding day were a breeze with ABSOLUTELY NO STRESS!! Even as my actual wedding day was re-arranged various times because of the massive storms, I came prepared with all plans A-Z and everything went perfectly! It was so neat knowing that I could pull off something so big that I planned mainly by myself!

Anyways, those details will come with my wedding day blog soon. So come Thursday night before the wedding and I am absolutely and completely overwhelmed and stressed. After my last clean up/set up of the reception and church locations, Cody takes me on a getaway date night around Knoxville which turned out to be the greatest date night we have ever had! He knows exactly what I need and it was bittersweet because it was our last date night before the wedding. We told no one where we were at so we escaped from the chaos, went to Panera's and putt-putted until midnight. It was beyond perfect! Everyone kept calling and wondering where we were. We ended the night going to our reception place, Cody turning on the music to our first dance and slow danced in the dark. It was so magical I can't even explain. That time together was so special. Cody stayed at my Nana's house with me which is 2 minutes away from the church until the night before the wedding where he stayed at the local Hampton Inn. 
This was my wedding errand face. Pleasant on the outside but frantic on the inside! I didn't want to forget anything but the incredible thing was that it really just all started coming together one day at a time! I was having a really fun time though. 

So jumping back a bit, the weekend before the wedding I visited Cody in our apartment and got the last minute details set up and had a movie night! I went to the bathroom and just looked in the mirror. It just hit me right then and there. I was going to get married. I was going to marry the love of my life my high school sweetheart, my soulmate. I will be a wife! So I captured the moment with my phone really quick above. 

One of the things besides my hair highlights I took care of down there was getting my name on the apartment lease! It was such an exciting moment! At that second, Cody and I were officially unofficially "living together". 

When I arrived back in Knoxville before Cody came up on the 1st, Mom took Morgan and I to dinner at the restaurant that Cody proposed to me and had our last dinner as the three Dyar girls. Mom got me a small bag of gifts with one being a gift from Morgan, a beach sand turtle! It was so precious and so cute! Cody and I did use it on the beach!!

One of my favorite things mom got me was my eloquent office clock with my name on it, perfect for my engineer work desk at my future job, and my key necklace!! It is so beautiful and says, 'She believed she could so she did!' Perfect for me!

Another one of my early wedding errand day selfies in my wifey t shirt. So that made it a little bit better!

When Cody got to Knoxville to stay June 1st, the first thing we did was get our marriage license! It was so incredibly exciting!!! We had been putting it off because Cody had just finished school a few days before that and the courthouse hours were strict. 

Some of the set up for the wedding included little details such as the honeymoon fund jar. It was so much fun decorating!!

On Thursday I took some time really taking in all the beauty of my reception venue as we set up. I knew on the wedding day it would be a blur. This picture of the 'I Do' pillow was really special because it signifies how I would say I Do to Cody a thousand times over, there is no doubt God make Cody for me!

This was the chandelier inside the girls bathroom!

And the couch in the bridal suite! So eloquently beautiful!


Just look at the beautiful scenery!

Just one of the main reasons we chose this fantastic place! I mean.....breathtaking!!!


This was one of the decorations inside the church! It was so special to Cody and I because my Grandfather, two great-grandmothers, Cody's grandmother, and my great aunt has passed away within the last 10 years and we miss them so so much. It is such an overwhelming peace knowing they were still with us on or big day!


So here was the sneak peak of the flowers from our florist! I was so glad she did that with me because I didn't get to see any of that on the wedding day! Above is Ada, my 7 year old cousin flower girls baby's breath halo. Legend has it that having baby's breath in the wedding signifies you will have many kids and rain means good luck and fertility. I am predicting then we will be having a little army one day lol!

The bridesmaids had BEAUTIFUL bunches of babies breath.

The sign-in table had this beautiful vase of babies breath, and snap dragons. I went with the classy traditional white theme if you didn't guess.

Here is the centerpieces for the reception! White roses, greenery, white snaps, white hydrangeas, and white babies breath.

So the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner rolled around and the rehearsal went so smoothly!! We only went through the whole ceremony run down twice! My wedding day coordinator was awesome!! Also having my dad there for the week and a half before was a lifesaver! He was amazing! Also having my mom there by my side to help me with whatever I needed was a true blessing from God. She was my true hero! She would stay up with me until 2:00am making sure everything was done! Cody was fantastic with errands and moral support and Morgan made sure I remembered the big picture and didn't stress over the details. So the picture above was at the rehearsal dinner at Calhouns on the river downtown Knoxville! We were the first guest room! My mother-in-law threw it and it was the most beautiful dinner I have ever been to in my life! It was drop dead INCREDIBLE! Totally blew me out of the water! She put so much time and energy into it! It was the most magical time of my life and I will NEVER forget it the rest of my life. I was so in love with Cody I couldn't hardly stand it. It was our time. He would just hold my hand everywhere with such tenderness.

The pure joy written across our faces. This is also our favorite date night restaurant in Knoxville!

I mean just look! My MIL really outdid herself!


Me, Cody, Tyler, Morgan, and Edgar sat at the head table. It was so cool! And look at the beautiful place settings!!



And the bouquets!! Oh my gosh!! So beyond perfect! Everything was our wedding colors!!!

As the night dwindled down, Cody and I gave each other our last kiss as Mr. and Miss and parted ways. Cody had a blast with his groomsmen staying up late talking up a storm! I'm so glad he got that time with his friends he hasn't seen in a while!

I went to bed pretty "early" about 1:00am and each of us before bed opened up each others gifts we had for one another. I had given Cody all 4 diaries I had written to him since day 1. It was so special! 

To end the night, my cousin Nathan had Cody and I open his gift to us and it was this drop dead beautiful beach painting. We were blown away! It was the best gift we have ever received! Nathan has such talent and is so sweet to do that for us!

Love, 
Kayla Raborn

6-29-16

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