time to eat!

i knew that i didn't want the typical wedding food for our reception.  if i was going to pay that much money for food, i wanted to make sure it was good and not cold!  we really wanted bojangle's.  some 4 piece supreme dinners would've been delicious.  nothing says "johnathan" more than bojangle's.  if you need to know where one's at, ask him.  he's like a gps for bojangle's.  it's always bo time at our house!  looking back, i'm really not sure why we didn't have them cater.  oh well!

after calling several restaurants around the beach and getting insane prices just for appetizers, i checked into smithfield's chicken n' bbq.  it's good and who doesn't enjoy it?  plus, the sweet tea is delicious!

they showed up on time, got everything set up, served everyone's food, and left us with weeks of leftover food!  although we didn't get to enjoy it very much that night, we have enjoyed it for many nights since!  who knew frozen chicken and bbq would be so tasty?  thanks smithfield's for your great service and yummy food! 

will. i. am drop the beat now...

the dj asked for our playlist a while back.  i love music so much that it was hard to list all of my favorite wedding appropriate songs.  i had to choose something fun for the bridal party to enter with.  i bounced around some ideas and finally decided on "boom boom pow" by black eyed peas...a favorite of leah and myself.  the only directions i remember giving our friends was "break it down!"  i also remember a lot of screaming!  a few pictures were snapped as we entered and i can only imagine how insane the video is going to be.  even johnathan got his groove on!  so HIGH 5 bridal party on breaking out your best dance moves!

pony and ananda

eric and jenn.  don't worry, they got their groove on at the club later!

john and sarah...they did so good even with their significant others watching!

kevin and leah...we've been a little worried that these two were going to kill each other.  they've always had a love/hate relationship.  turns out, they actually make a pretty good pair!  they broke it down!

it may look like johnathan is dancing.  i was just holding his arm up.  :)

give me a little boom boom pow and watch me go.  leah...where's my chair for the chair dance? :)

last minute arch for us to dance under.  way to go team!

and for your listening enjoyment...break out your dance moves!

wedding photo shoot

if you know me, then you KNOW how much i love pictures.  when our photographer sent me the list of possible photo ops, i think i put a check beside all of his options and added a few of my own.  we did the basic shots and some originals ones up around the ceremony space.

 getting everyone organized

 the murphy family

 the james/park family

the dysfunctional family...you must have a red solo cup to be a member! :)

then, the bridal party hiked down the stairs to the beach.  it was low tide, my girls were in flip flops, and we were at the BEACH!  of course we wanted beach shots!  all our friends were great sports and had a fun time jumping around.  i remember brent saying "this wasn't supposed to turn into a trash the dress session!"  oh well.  i'll do just about anything for a picture!

 hahaha!  jenn was hiding behind us!

brent giving us some directions.  thanks for holding my train, ananda!!

brent has posted our photos but i can't steal them yet!  once i am able, i will post some more professional ones!

with this ring...

the ceremony was perfect.

there were butterflies flying overhead.  the sun peeked out at just the right times...i needed my sunglasses at some points.  it really felt like the whole thing was meant to be.

our minister, mr. caffin, did an awesome job.  he captured everything that we wanted him to say and even added a little bit of his own words.  we got our vows out...some of us better than others.  i'm still teaching johnathan how to say the word "lawfully".  it's a work in progress.  :)

during our sand ceremony, i remember giving the directions...as any good teacher would..."we have to make this pretty!  it's going to sit on our mantle!  ok, you pour....stop.  i pour.  ok, now you pour....stop."  then i even brushed the sand off the table when we were done.  thinking back on it, it makes me laugh.  apparently, some of the guests heard me and thought it was funny too.  can't wait to see that on video!

then, before i knew it, it was 1st kiss time.  this didn't go so well back 13 years ago.  after our 1st kiss, johnathan ran away.  we never practiced what kind of kiss we were going to do.  i honestly never even thought about it.  looking at pictures now, it was perfect and i'm so glad we didn't plan it.  it was 100% us! 

introducing mr. and mrs. johnathan and stephanie murphy!

here comes the bride

i've always heard that the wedding ceremony happens so fast that you need to take a moment and soak it in.  i really tried to capture each part of the ceremony.  the way we walked out, i was able to see what was going on before i walked out.  i remember leah turning around right before she walked and saying "it's fine!  it's fine!"  i heard my music start.  i saw leah's brother, chuck, who i've know just as long as leah, standing to the side taking pics.  he got a really good picture of my "moment."

i remember getting a nod and a smile from the dj.  then my focus went to not tripping on my dress or the aisle runner.  somehow my dress got longer that day!  i guess because my heels were sinking into the grass.  i made it down the aisle and saw all my favorite people along the way.  when i got to the end, it was me, johnathan, leah, and kevin.  the 4 people that were there on that july night 13 years ago when we 1st met.  i can't wait to see our video!!

having a moment

we wanted to make a grand entrance so we all waited in my room before walking out.  i had a little moment with each of my girls just to say "i love you" and "thanks for everything."  i kept it together pretty well until my matron of honor and BFF, leah came back in.  when we had our moment and hugged, i lost it.  she's the one person(other than our family) who has been there from day 1.  she's known johnathan just as long as i have.  so this day was as special to her as it was to me.  (which is probably why she cried the whole way down the aisle!)

bridesmaid, sarah, quickly snapped us back into the moment by saying "get it together!  bring it back to zero!"  2 sayings which were used a lot throughout the day!  then, she decided to get us pumped up by blasting out "i'm on a boat!" on the boombox.  this song became the anthem of the weekend.  i really hope our videographer got our jam session on tape.  the next thing i remember, we were walking out the door!  ahh!

getting ready is half the fun!

saturday morning, we got up and had some time to just hang out.  we watched them set up the ceremony space from our patios.  leah, jenn, my mom, terry, dj, and i hung out while waiting for the other girls to wake up and get ready.

then, we all went to a bridesmaid's lunch at emerald grill before going to get our hair and makeup done. 

hair and makeup was one of the funniest moments!  the girls at flair for hair did such a good job!!  i can't wait to see some of the pics brent took of sarah in her moisturizing gloves!  hair and makeup turned out beautiful.  everyone talked about how calm i was.  i guess for me, i knew who was going to be waiting for me at the end of the aisle.  i didn't feel like we were entering into some new phase.  we were just continuing what we'd already known for the past 13 years.  i didn't start getting nervous until we got back into the car and headed back to the hotel. 

from there, we were in a whirlwind of setting up, getting ready, and taking pictures.  it seemed like we had all the time in the world and then it was 3:00 before we knew it!

i had so much fun watching our guests arrive.  everyone made it on time and by 4:00ish we were ready!