WARNING – Long post ahead. Its been over a week yall. You knew it was coming!
Now that I finally have some free time in my life, I figured it was probably time to make my first sabbatical post.As you can image, my first week of sabbatical our wedding was the #1 focus. I have been planning this wedding since Nic proposed to me in December of 2015. Yes, that is a really long time but I had my heart set on an October 2017 wedding and I mean we really couldn’t complain about all the extra time we had to prepare. My main goal when we started the planning process was NO STRESSING. I did not want to end up a ball of tears on the floor the week before the wedding because I had so much to do and no time to do it. I bought a little here and there and tried to space out the big things like cake, flowers, etc so that the week before the wedding would be stress free. I was so happy to accomplish this goal and spent my first week of sabbatical finishing up the small things. Surprisingly, the week actually went SUPER SLOW! I think I was probably just really excited for the wedding and after waiting for what felt like forever, I was ready for it to be our turn.
For those of yall who didnt know, our wedding was on a Sunday. There was actually another wedding that was happening the Saturday before ours. Because of this, we were not going to be able to decorate or even bring any of our stuff to the Grove until Sunday morning. This was really the only stressful thing about the whole wedding. It takes about 20ish minutes to drive from our house to The Grove. Knowing we had a very short time frame and also knowing we were going to have to make a few trips back and forth to get all of the decorations, cake and flowers, we decided to get smart and rent a cabin. Copper Cabin is an Airbnb and is literally 1 mile from The Grove. We were blown away with how awesome this little place was. It was filled with charm and the owners were so sweet. They even went as far as leaving us everything we needed to make sausage/meat spaghetti. We probably could have lived out there. The link to the cabin will be below. Check it out!
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17773872
Anyway… we were able to bring all of the decorations to this cabin and when Sunday morning rolled around, we were going back and forth 2 minutes instead of 20! That, along with all the help from our family and friends was the only reason we were able to get that place decorated. The Grove is an absolutely beautiful place. I fell in love with it the first time I walked through the gate and with it decorated up I really could not have been happier. Everything turned out exactly as I had pictured it and I really would not change anything. The weather was fantastic the entire day. Dan was a real blessing to have officiating. Dan if you are reading this, Nic and I really cant thank you enough for how special you made our ceremony. Between the BBQ, chocolate foundatin, photo booth and cake Nic and I had a blast and we hope everyone else did too. Our wedding went off without a hitch and there is not one thing I would change. It was literally perfect. And the best part of the whole thing? I got to marry my best friend. After we left the ceremony, Nic and I went back to the cabin to wait for everyone to bring back the decorations. We sat on the porch on metal rocking chairs, looking at the stars and that is really when it sunk in. I cant speak for him, but I seriously could not have been any happier at that moment, looking back at the day spent with our family and friends. I cant wait to see what God has planned for us next.
Now that the wedding is officially over, the second week of my sabbatical will be focused on cleaning up and getting reorganized. This week, I will also be working with Camp Able to get ready for the Under the Stars event on Saturday. If you arent doing anything on Saturday, you should definitely come out! Its promised to be a fun night filled with great music and good food! $9 gets you in the door AND helps feed a horse!
Id like to thank everyone who came out to our wedding on Sunday. It really meant the world to us to have you there!
P.S I would like to point out 1 very major thing. There was NOT ONE giraffe in that entire wedding.
Sincerely,
Alyssa Alvarez <3
