"She Made a Movie": A Celebration of Baby Martin

On January 20th the world's best maids of honor threw an absolutely beautiful shower for the little lady bug and I.  Jen was gracious (read: brave) enough to host it at she and Brendan's awesome abode.  Every element of the shower- from the precious guestbook entries to the games to the decor to the scrumptious food was well thought out and flawless.  I also felt so blessed and honored to have so many people care enough to celebrate with me that they drove in from across town or even as far as from Brenham and Dallas.

Everyone present was treated to some absolutely troublesome baby birth fact learning thanks to Google (e.g. longest birth recorded: 375 days), fantastic adult (and pregnancy-friendly sparkling) beverages, a belly-filling smorgasboard of appetizers and desserts, a sampling of some of the awesomest celebrity baby mullets that the internet has to offer and the general hilarious commentary that comes standard with gatherings involving my friends and family.

Little Miss was, once again, BEYOND spoiled.  She racked up far too many too-die-for ensembles, amazing baby swag and toys.  I'm starting to get worried that she is going to cause us to outgrow our house in her first month of life if she keeps acquiring items at this rate.  Is 1 month too early to ask her to get her own apartment?  Yes?  Fine, we'll reconsider around 1 year.  Okay.  Moving on.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to come celebrate.  I really can't put into words what that means to me.  An even bigger thank you to my wonderful hostesses and all my sweet friends who were kind enough to contribute food or decor.  I laughed far harder than I usually do without a glass of wine beforehand.  Thank you for warming my heart.  I love you all so much more than you realize and can't wait to see how much baby girl loves you as well.  You are all the best and I can't wait to return the favor for each of you.

Author's note:  I am very pale and looking especially swollen/large in these pictures.  Normally I would edit myself out of them, but for the sake of posterity I am not.  Just know that I am indeed aware of these facts.  :c)  As an added bonus they should serve as some post-partum work out motivation, right?!

Melissa's pintrest diaper wreath masterpiece.  Everyone together:  ohhhhhh.  Ahhhhh.

Jenn's pasta salad, Julie's mozzarella, tomato & balsamic appetizers & Jen's educational rainbow fruit sticks.  More things showed up in these bowls post picture that were equally delicious.

The finger licking good product of my Mom & Julie's Friday evening.  I think Ryan may ask for an entire box of the strawberry ones for his next birthday.

I love those yellow pom poms.  I hope Jen decides to leave them up permanently.

I want all of these fabrics.

Ryan, Yours truly & Little Miss' baby pics.

I had such a good time laughing at everyone's answers to the guestbook questions.  Except those of you who wished a 9 pound baby on me.  That's a little too real.

Shawna's adorable onesie decor.

Way too much cute in one space.

Jen & Julie organized a trivia game which pitted grandmas against a team of new mamas and a team of baby-free ladies.  Jenn & I are representing the mamas-to-be team.  We promptly lost to Shawna & Dena who were the baby free team.  I assume this means that they'll be better mothers than I and that they want to babysit my child regularly.

This is probably when Julie was reading the question about how much the largest recorded baby weighed at birth.  The look on her face is representative of how I felt when I learned the answer.

I only thought Christmas was over.

Thankfully Ms. Brenda was sitting next to me to inform me of the uses of any items I was unsure of.  Maybe she should move in with us to do so full-time.

The beautiful hostesses, Jen & Julie, and I.

My wonderful mama & I.

My sweet niece, Kylie Pie, sister-in-law, Tiffany, & mother-in-law, Melanie, and I.

The super cute party favors.  Thank you again everyone!

Wedding Part 3: Glamification

In an attempt to make the morning of July 9th as calm as humanly possible for everyone in the wedding, I arranged for our hair & make up people to come to our hotel to turn us into glamazons.  I rented a suite, bought a little food spread and we got down to the business of beautification. 

We spent the pre-wedding hours of 9-3:30 lounging, trying (and failing) to take pictures of the TV screen when "Martin-Boarman Nuptials" popped up, jamming to some questionable Pandora stations, rehashing Caitlin B's The-Lion-The-Witch-And-The-Wardrobe-meets-Bridezillas dream, posing for "emotional" pictures and waxing philosophic on the latest celeb news. 

It was absolutely the perfect way to  begin the best day of my life.  Thank you to all of you who came and helped me to stay relaxed and excited.  Thank you also to JuJuBee and Mamacita who helped me shop for our little brunch spread.  Lastly, big thanks to Shawna for taking pictures.... and unknowingly letting me hi-jack them for this post.

Nourishment

Shawna & Julie on their way to curl faux hawks.  Very Fall 2011.

TiffyPants

Mom & Jen getting their curl on.

A 5 Hour Energy sponsored event.

Caitlin is thrilled to know there's no laundry shute in the closet.

Not pictured:  Julie fake crying

Going to the chapel and we're gonna get maaaaaarriiiiiied.

Wedding Part 2: Dress Rehearsal

Today's anecdote is of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Ryan and I's rehearsal was at 3:00 pm on July 8th at our wedding venue and our rehearsal dinner follwed at 6:30 pm at Cadillac Bar. I should take a minute to thank everyone for making it. I know it agitated people's work days, not to mention sweat glands, and we're sincerely appreciative that you all were there.

The rehearsal itself was fairly uneventful. While practicing walking down the aisle Ryan did not practice shooting finger guns into the audience as he threated, which I think we all breathed a sigh of relief about. I am sure something funny happened but I can't remember it. I would say that is probably in everyone's best interest for a rehearsal. Especially given the speech Pastor Thomasson gave us about ensuring that no one was "doped up."

After the rehearsal my Mom, Julie and I ran to the store to grab a few food items for pre-wedding beautification the next day. I also requested a coffee break because I was yawning which apparently doesn't look good when at one's own wedding events. By the time we arrived at Cadillac Bar, a large quadrant of our wedding party had already gotten the party started, evidencing why we love them so dearly.

The rehearsal dinner itself went perfectly and it was so wonderful to have so many important people from different facets of our lives all in one place getting to know eachother. Nothing brings people together like a few beverages, some good fajitas and some bad pictures of little Amy and little Ryan. My darling sister put together an absolutely wonderful slideshow of pictures of us. For those of you wondering, Ryan actually did select Mariah Carey on his own.

I once again proved that even when I think there's no chance I'm going to cry- I am wrong. Ryan and I discussed how he would say his thank you piece and then I would say mine. It went something like this...

Ryan: Thank you to ______ for _______. Joke. Thank you to ______ for _______. More thankfulness. More thankfulness. Joke. More thankfulness. And now I'm going to let Amy say a few words.
Amy: I just want to say thank you all for being here today. I know some of you came a really long w... *unintelligble sobbing*

So, that went well clearly. Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful night- one that I'll never forget. Afterall, it's not often that one of your MOHs, who shall remain nameless, tries to eat cake with a knife. It's also not often you get to see my Aunt Jan demonstrating how to make sure you don't have any lipstick on your teeth. I will not describe this because this is a family site, but ask me next time you see me how that little trick works. Thank you to each and every one of you for making it out and for giving up your Friday night for us. A special thanks to my fantastic in-laws, Mike & Melanie Martin, for hosting the rehearsal dinner for us.  Also, thank you Daddio for taking pictures.  We love you ALL!

Austin, Ryan, Blake & Jonathan.  Note that Blake was in charge of drink tickets.  In hindsight, not perhaps the best judgement call but it definitely ensured a good time for all.

A sampling of the Indiana crew- clockwise from the left: Sydney (sweet babysitter), Taylor (my cousin), Natalie (his pretty girlfriend), Ashleigh (my cousin), Tripp (Kara's precious son) and Kara (my cousin).  Please note that my Dad is a fan of candid shots.  Sorry guys!

My Mom's twin sisters, Aunt Jean (Ashleigh & Taylor's Mom) and Aunt Jan (Kara & Travis' Mom)

Sweet Sydney, Tripp, Kyle (Ashleigh's handsome fiance), Aunt Jean & Brian (Aunt Jean's beau)

Tripp & Paul (Tripp's Dad & Kara's hubby)

On to Ryan's family... Linda, Larry, Grandpa (on his Mom's side) and Meemaw (on his Dad's side), Kylie Pie (our gorgeous niece) & Melanie

Stan (Ryan's Uncle), Mike, Tiffany & Kylie

Ryan's Missouri cousins: Taylor, Jace, Connor & Bryce.  (I told you there was a fondness of candids).

Caitlin B, Melissa & Courtney

Shawna, Jen, Dena & Jenn

My hottie bridal party (less Caitlin P):  clockwise from the bottom- Dena, Tiffany, Jen, Courtney, Caitlin B, Shawna, Jenn, Melissa, Chelsea, Julie & Yo

Dress-a-palooza

This past weekend, the stars aligned and it just so happened that all of my fabulous bridesmaids were in town at the SAME TIME.  This is a serious feat considering of 7, 1 lives in Austin, 1 lives in Dallas and 1 lives in New York.  I picked out bridesmaid dresses a while ago - actually I finally picked our colors based on some bridesmaid dresses I found that I liked.  I selected a color/fabric and decided to let each of them pick the style they liked the best to ensure that everyone feels like the hottie that they are.  As I've told my Mom multiple times, I want people enjoying adult beverages to celebrate that Ryan will never again utilize a Coach Fran poster as home decor- not to forget how uncomfortable they are.

In order to make sure that the fabric/color didn't disappear with the season (because I would say there's a 98% change Ryan would call the whole thing off if I tried to change colors one more time) - I wanted to make sure we got these babies booked.  My Mom, Mrs. Martin, Tiffy, Julie, Jen, Shawna, Chelsea, Melissa and Courtney were all kind enough to oblige my craziness.

Since some of the ladies are from college life and live out of town, they haven't all gotten to meet the in-town post-college portion of the bridal party.  After 30 mins in a dressing room with strangers, I feel confident that everyone is now appropriately acquainted.  Actually, I believe after Melissa exited the dressing room in a size 26 v-neck dress that her chest was completely exposed in, I think everyone in Venturas is well-acquainted with her.

At the end of the day, I think that everyone found a dress that they liked, purchased it and I can promise you that each of them will be gorgeous.  :c)  After a hard day of shopping, we decided to extend our get-to-know-eachother session at brunch at Hungrys in Rice Village.  If you haven't been, I highly recommend it.  It's deeeeeelish.  I had such a wonderful time and was further reminded of how incredibly blessed I am to have paid off found such amazing friends.  Thank you to everyone who made this such a memorable day.  I can't wait for the Bachelorette Party.

Shawna, Melissa, Chelsea, Courtney, Jen, Tiffany & Jules

Melissa & Courtney

Shawna & Jules

Jen, Me & Chels

Mrs. Martin & Tiff

Chelsea & Mamacita