One year.

Has it really been a whole year? I cannot believe it! One year ago today, I married my best friend. I married the man that God has designed for me before I could even fathom being a wife. It was the best day of my life, and everything about the day was perfect.


The weather was perfect.

The dress was perfect.


Our bridal party was perfect.


Our entire day was perfect.


I can seriously say without a doubt that my wedding day was the best day of my life thus far. I have dreamt about my wedding since I was a little girl. I always knew I wanted to have a southern, country wedding, and I wanted to get married at my grandparents' church. I could not have had the dream that I did without the dedication of my family - we worked for months up until the wedding making sure every single little detail was perfect (I'm definitely a detail kind of gal).

So, without further adieu, here are a few (actually a lot) of my favorite images from our wedding....

lena + brad = pure happiness

Thank you for giving me some of the happiest times of my life, Brad! I love you!

5.19.2007

These are some of my favorite images from our wedding. All photos courtesy of Chuck Arlund - http://www.arlundimagery.com/

My wedding dress - a simple, lace, A-line, Henry Roth gown.

The main flower arrangements at the church.

Our flower girl, Tessa, and her sweet button-mum hairpiece.

My parents before the ceremony.

Brad's parents before the ceremony.

My bridal bouquet - my only request was that it had sunflowers.

I love this picture of Tessa - it looks like a painting!

My darling bridesmaids and I before the wedding ceremony.

This picture is very special to me - it is right as I was about the walk down the aisle, and I lost it. My sister saw me crying, and she cried the entire way down the aisle. This picture shows our amazing connection.

I love this picture of my daddy as he was giving me away.

I think I shed a few tears here.

I now pronounce you husband and wife - the kiss!

After our exit as husband and wife.

The bridal party at an old country store that my papa owns.

One of my absolute favorites - I love the way the church looks!

Playing the "kissing game" - I love how happy we look!

Leaving the church in a sea of flower petals.We left for the reception site (my grandparents' barn) in vintage trucks - the bluish green one is my papa's.

Cutting the cake - it was seriously the most delicious cake! I told my caterer that I didn't care what it looked like, as long as it was good!!!

We had flip-flops for all the ladies so you could really dance!

Old photographs of our family displayed in an antique window - I think our family enjoyed this display!

My mom and I collect red and white enamelwear, and I wanted it used throughout the entire reception. We had large jugs of lemonade and tea, and we decorated the outside with fresh fruit.



Our candy bar (using the red and white enamelware again).



A special L and B for our chairs - although, I think I only sat there for about 2.5 seconds!

Our first dance - we danced to "Whenever I see your smiling face" by James Taylor. It's our favorite still to this day!
Daddy-Daughter dance - we danced to "Isn't she lovely?" My beautiful mother. Our beautiful wedding would not have been possible without her.



The entire bridal party - I love this picture.




Another one of my favorites - out in a field behind the barn.



Brad and his frat brother, Dustin, breaking it down. We had an amazing band, Marino Music!

The barn with our white tent - it was seriously one of the most beautiful nights! And they lived happily ever after....

Model for a day.

Today was such a beautiful day, and I was reminded of another beautiful day last May - no, not my wedding...the day I made my bridal portraits!

My wedding photographer does a lot of fashion stuff, so I for real felt like a model during my bridal portrait. It was such a fun time getting my hair done, make-up done and putting on all the wedding jewelry and attire for the first time. We spent about 3 hours taking pictures - my photographer took over 400! And I love every single one of them!

I love my dress so much, and I would so put it on tomorrow and do it all again - although I doubt I would fit in it. Looking at all these pictures motivates me to get back into shape! Ha! When my mom, grandmother and I went to view all the pictures to pick my actual portrait, I had a hard time really believing that it was me in the pictures...next to the wedding day, this was the best thing about getting married! Here are a few of my favorite shots (all photos property of Chuck Arlund) -

I had my portraits made at a Civil War-dated plantation here in Murfreesboro called Daffodil Hill. The owner of the house is a family friend, so he was gracious enough to let us use his BEAUTIFUL Southern home!

This was the first picture Chuck took.

This was one of my mom's favorites - I love the orange chaise and the color of the room.

This is a picture of Daffodil Hill - I am standing on the balcony. I just love this house!

Outside the house.

This picture is taken outside of another Southern mansion in Murfreesboro - Oaklands Mansion. Most people think Chuck made my veil look like this - I actually had to throw it up and immediately pull my hands down. I kept laughing the whole time - I love the "floating veil" look!

This was actually one of the last shots Chuck got - I just sat down on the front steps of Oaklands and told him to take my picture. I think he got my true personality in this one - I had actually taken my shoes off by this point. This was my favorite picture, and it is the one we chose for my portrait. (can you see my toes poking out??)

I truly felt like a model during this time - you can see some of my other pictures here from a previous post. I will actually post more pictures of the wedding and memories from that day closer to our anniversary...I can't believe it has almost been a year!

During the entire day, I kept thinking about the next time I would be wearing my dress - the day that I would be marrying my best friend, and I seriously could not stop smiling!

So I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with me!

Blessings, y'all!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, y'all! I hope you are all enjoying this day of L-O-V-E!!! Today has been a wonderful day for me, and I have lots of pictures to share with you!

Here is a picture of our house yesterday as the snow was coming down - you can't see the snow, but there were some pretty big snowflakes coming down at one point! You would have thought we were in the middle of a blizzard the way people were flocking to the grocery stores! Ha!

The Warnock's Home

I was so excited to get the mail yesterday, and we had TWO Valentine cards in the mailbox! Thanks, Marcia and Ron! Thank you, Miss Ada! Here is our bulletin board on the fridge where we keep cards, invitations, save-the-dates (those are coming in like crazy) and

pictures of our friends' babies!

Here is my cute clock that I got from Hobby Lobby yesterday for THREE DOLLARS! What a bargain - it says "le thé pour deux" (tea for two in french). I love it!

How do you make me smile from ear to ear????

(notice my NEW short haircut???)

Take some raspberry sherbet, add Jones FUFU Berry Soda, and you get the CUTEST PINK FLOAT!!! One of my sorority sisters works at The Waverly Café, and this is one of their specialities! Brad made them as a surprise dessert for us last night!I made strawberry cupcakes with pink icing last night for mine and Brad's co-workers. Here I am mixing the batter....

Brad decided to help out - doesn't he look like he's having a BLAST??? (He would kill me if he knew I put this on my blog! Ha!)

Filling up the cupcakes...

Here are all 30 of my precious pink cupcakes! I hope everyone enjoyed them today!

Today, we had an Executive Committee Meeting and Board Meeting, so I have pretty much been in meetings all morning long, and I have seen all these women getting flowers at my office. One of my co-workers, Ruth, seriously got the biggest arrangement of roses I have ever seen. I was really hoping that Brad would get me some since I LOVE flowers, but I was beginning to think I wasn't getting any. Then, my handsome husband showed up at my office with this...

It's a BEAUTIFUL arrangement of hydrangeas and pink roses (my favorite flowers) with stargazer lillies! It's the biggest arrangement I have ever gotten! I just kept saying over and over again "It's so huge!" Everyone had to come look, and they were all impressed! I'm not really a red flower kind of girl - I love pink, so I was so happy to see pink roses! Thank you, sweetie!

I hope y'all are having a blessed Valentine's Day!

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

- Deuteronomy 7:9

We're better together.

This post is going to be totally dedicated to my husband, Brad. We are coming up on our six-month anniversary, and I just wanted everyone to know how much I love my man! The picture above was taken after our wedding ceremony - it completely describes our relationship - JOY. FUN. and LOTS OF LOVE.

Brad and I got engaged after three months of dating - he proposed in front of my whole family (and everyone at my favorite restaurant, Miller's Grocery), and I, of course, said YES! We planned the wedding of our dreams that took place 14 months after we were engaged.

Our relationship is truly "opposites attract." Brad is everything I'm not - he's sarcastic, witty, realistic and a "numbers" guy. I'm a dreamer, not a big fan of sarcasm, and I hate math. I am a morning gal, and he is a night owl. But somehow, it works.

There are so many things that I love about Brad - I love coming home every night knowing that he is hiding somewhere in our house waiting to scare me. I love that even when we are in the most serious conversations, I can look at him and just bust out in laughter. I love that he keeps me in line regarding finances - otherwise, we'd be broke. I love hearing him sing Johnny Cash songs in the shower EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING. I love it when he dances and makes the "froggy" face. I love that he'll watch all the old classic movies with me that I love so very much - Gone with the Wind, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Roman Holiday, etc. And I love that every night he tucks me in, kisses my forehead and tells me he loves me.

And tomorrow, we will start a new adventure in our lives as HOMEOWNERS, and we couldn't be more excited. So, here's to you, Jimmy B - I LOVE YOU to the moon and back!

So, if you've got a man you love - hold him close, kiss him sweetly, and let him know how much you truly love him!