I hope you're ready! This is going to be ONE LONG POST. Longest one I've done in awhile. So here... we... go.
We made our way down to Indy on Friday for the rehearsal dinner. I didn't take hardly any pictures of the rehearsal dinner. Bummer, I know, because it was really lovely. Erin and Doug really put together a super nice dinner at a really great place. Tommy was even well behaved! I did steal a couple pics from Cait though.
I took a pic of the bridesmaids before we headed off to dinner. They were all color coordinated! Did they do that on purpose?? :)
Each place setting had a specially made cookie for their favorite team. How cute is that?
Tommy had a great time chillin' with Pop and Gaga. After sitting for a couple hours at the table without needing to get down or throwing a fit, I would have let him do whatever he wanted at that point. :-)
The next day my only job was to make sure Tommy got some kind of nap and then I had to drive him to the wedding. You would think this wouldn't be hard. But all Tommy's good behavior the night before allowed him to save up all his bad behavior for me. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears but I got him to go to sleep. Thank Goodness! But because it took so long to get him to sleep, he only got a solid hour in. Ugh. But it was much better than nothing!
Trying to pack stuff up in the hotel room while trying to stay quiet was also really hard. But we packed up and were on our way with a little Chickfila bribery.
We changed poor Tommy in the hallway. We are so mean! I even took a picture! But it was too cute.
Note: He had his tie on at this point. It was fine here! More to come on this later.
But he quickly decided he didn't want to wear the tie or the jacket. The suspenders were okay once he saw dada and pop were wearing them too. He ate all his Chickfila and ran around playing until it was time to walk down the aisle.
This was the room where everyone hung out before the wedding. This was also the room where we tried to convince Tommy to put his tie and jacket back on. We had about 5-10 minutes until we were supposed to line up. Andrew and I tried to put his tie and jacket back on. The tie, according to Tommy was too tight so we loosened it several times. Every time we tried to put it back on, he would scream louder. Then finally he decided for some reason that it was choking him. So he started gagging. We kept trying to convince him- It's not tight! Turns out you cannot rationalize with a 2 year old. The screaming turned to choking which turned to gagging which turned to puking... and puking and puking. All the freaking Chickfila came on a projectile path out of him. All of it! Just when we thought he was done, there came some more. O...M...G. It actually caused one of the bridesmaids to throw up too. Awesome! Puke and rally! Ugggghhhhhh. It was time to line up! Andrew and I were beside ourselves!! People were running in with paper towels, napkins, a bucket, water, cleaning supplies. Everyone was awesome. It was mass chaos. I cried. Damn hormones. Luckily for all those involved, Tommy only puked on his shiny black shoes and a little on his pants. Everything got cleaned up as well as possible and in just enough time for everyone to make it down the aisle. In fact, Tommy and I made it to our seats just in time for the wedding to start. I thought it might be better if we didn't force Tommy to walk down the aisle after that fiasco.
Tommy was well-behaved for the ceremony. (What a good kid! Well-behaved when it counts at least!) I just love that suspender look. Soo dang cute!
This is the only picture I'm in from the entire day. I'm totally fine with this though. One picture is plenty. I was pretty excited about my necklace (from where else? Target, of course). No idea what Tommy was looking at.
Tommy was super stoked about Dada and Gaga walking down the aisle.
Here are the ring bearer and flower girl walking down the aisle and handing off the rings... where Tommy was supposed to be. But that's okay. These two did a wonderful job! Even dealt with a runaway fake ring!
Here comes the Bride!
The moment has arrived! The ceremony has begun!
After the ceremony, Tommy and Dada got some cheese time together.
They also got some nice non-cheeserton time. ;-)
There were more group pictures taken after the ceremony. While the cameras weren't clicking, Tommy put on a cute face.
But this is the face he chose for the actual pictures. I really hope they got at least one good one. Stinker!
Scott quickly became Tommy's new best friend when he offered to spin him around.
Tommy also practiced walking down the aisle. A little late, Tommy Hawk, since the reception had already started but hey, good effort!
Then he found a rock pile. He loves to throw rocks into trees. It is his favorite activity at home too.
I think I captured the only time he actually thought about potty training all weekend. He quickly got over that.
When the wedding party was announced, the Matron of Honor and the Best Man came out in style. The best man had surgery on his achilles heel (although he still made it down all those steps on crutches for the ceremony, incredible). He rode out on his scooter while Katie danced. It was awesome.
Then came the bride and groom! Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Hartley!!
I liked how this picture turned out with the sunlight in the background.
Watch out, it's a Tommy selfie!
When we sat down to dinner, the wait staff brought over a bottle of sparkling cider. I cried again. Damn hormones. It was super nice of them to do that.
Tom did a great job with his father of the bride speech.
The matron of honor and the best man also did a great job with their speeches too.
Tommy did a great job eating his allergy-free brownie. Selfie number two! You know Andrew's
saying when I take these
pictures. No need to review. :-)
I saw Andrew and his dad sitting there looking like father and son so I snapped a quick pic. Andrew saw me take it though so he made this face. Oh Drewfus.
After dinner it was time for dancing starting with the father/daughter dance.
Cait and Tommy did a lot of dancing. I thought this was a cute moment.
The DJ turned the lights on when it got dark enough. Tommy was enthralled with the lights on the ceiling.
But look at how cool they are! I totally understand why he liked them!
I had to post a quick pic of the youngest wedding attendee. Little Will is about a month old. He slept like a baby (ha) all night. You might remember him from
THIS picture. :) Another reason why the matron of honor was a rock star!
Cait, Scott and Tommy all bustin' a move!
Hey look, it's the Card Club!!! Great picture!
Tommy could not get enough of the dance floor. He LOVED it. Every picture I took was an action shot!
He especially loved the Proud Mary dance. But who doesn't?? Tina Turner is awesome!
But the dance floor was dangerous at times. A conga line started and Tommy got mixed up in the middle. Luckily Aunt Erin jumped in and grabbed before someone ran him over. Phew! Thank goodness she got him just in time.
This picture turned out phenomenal for being on an iPhone in the dark. Yay sibling shot! Good looking Thornburg kids!
After the wedding, we held sparklers as Erin and Doug exited the reception. Another iPhone photo in the dark that actually turned out. Yay!
What a night! We had SUCH a great time watching the Hartleys get married. It was seriously awesome. They planned such an incredible wedding. All their hard work paid off. I hope they enjoyed it even though we provided some unneeded chaos to the weekend.
Many many congrats to the happy couple! Happy wedding weekend, Hartleys!
(Told you this was going to be a long post!)
