Cody and Manda's Wedding

Chris' sister, Manda, married Cody Standrige on Friday December 19th!!!

The wedding and reception were absolutely gorgeous and we were so honored to be a part of the entire event. Chris got to stand in for their dad and give Manda away, Madeline and Hannah were the flower girl/ring bearer, and I was a bridesmaid. We are so so happy for these two and the love they have for each other. And we are very happy to welcome Cody (officially) to the family!

We were sort of biting our nails, waiting to see if Hannah would learn to walk in time for the wedding. She is 18 months old now but only started walking on her own about 4 weeks ago! During rehearsal, Madeline refused to practice. Her exasperated reason: "I've watched other flower girls, I KNOW what to do and I WILL do it at the wedding!". Hannah was more than happy to walk up and down the aisle but was too young to understand why she was doing it or what she should do once she got there. Amazingly, they both walked down the aisle together at the right time of the ceremony.

Since Madeline didn't practice at the rehearsal, Hannah wasn't prepared for the idea that flower petals would be thrown. So halfway down the aisle, Hannah started bending down to pick up each of the petals that Madeline was throwing. Madeline tried really hard to get Hannah to walk with her to the front. But I ended up breaking away to get Hannah and bring her to the front. We had decided to let Hannah wander around at the front of the church, and Chrissy was our escape plan. If Hannah got too distracting, Chrissy would take her out. There was a lit memory candle on a pedastal on the floor near us and we were all holding our breath because Hannah still tends to fall over every 5th step or so. Chris got stressed out about Hannah toddling around the candle and talking out loud. So he asked Chrissy to take Hannah out. Poor chrissy had to pick up my strong willed daughter and carry her up the center aisle while Hannah was kicking and screaming "No NOOOO" in her pretty ivory dress. All in all they did a great job and we were so very proud of them!! I just had to paint a picture of those funny moments for you. If I can post videos of those parts of the ceremony I will...

Here are some pics...

Heather and Phillip, our neice and nephew, at the rehearsal dinner...

My beautiful sister, Manda - straight out of a magazine...

Madeline, having her hair professionally fixed...

Madeline and Chris just before the wedding - I think Madeline was getting a little nervous...
Madeline and Hannah shortly before the wedding - This is the only pic I have of them together...

Chris and his mom at the reception...

Chris and our nephew Austin dancing (?) at the reception...

Hannah and I dancing at the reception...


Joy and Mick, our sister and bro in law, dancing ...