After the Laughter: P-P-P-Party Every Day

You thought we were done partying just because the wedding was over? Not on your life!

The day after the wedding, we drove to Austin for our Sunday barbecue, generously hosted by Mr. Hyena's aunt and uncle.

It was really nice, because it gave us a chance to actually spend time with our families. We didn't get to spend more than a few minutes talking to people at our reception, so we were thankful for this extra time. Some of Mr. Hyena's relatives had flown in all the way from Germany for our wedding!

German family with SIL and BIL Hyena

Mr. H's family had Salt Lick Barbecue brought in, and family members provided so many delicious desserts! Not to mention we still had leftover wedding cake AND this adorable "congratulations" cake!

My family got the chance to get to know Mr. Hyena's family better and spent some time hanging out.

We also got to spend more time with our bridal party. They all had to go home that afternoon, and we didn't want to see them go!

After the party started winding down, Mr. Hyena and I headed back to College Station. We were exhausted from the weekend and were excited to get back to our home! 

Are you having a get-together after the wedding?

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

• "The One With All The Walking"

• "The One Where It's Official"

• "The One After The Ceremony"

• "The One With Our Wonderful Families"

• "The One With The Bride and Groom"

• "The One Where We Dance"

• "The One Where We Mix 'n' Mingle"

• "The One Where Everyone Else Dances Too"

• "The One With The Sword"

• "The One That's Catching"

• "The One Where We Sing and Sway"

• "The One With All The Pretty Little Details"

• "The Last One"

• "The One With The Money"

A Life Full of Laughter: Family Time

I know family portraits aren't that interesting to people you don't know in real life, so I'll try to get through them quickly. Some of these portraits were taken pre-ceremony, but in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, I combined the pre- and post-ceremony pics into one post.

Me and my parents

Me with my grandparents: Paw-Paw, Nana, Grandma and Grandpa Hyena

MIL Hyena, me and SIL Hyena

FIL, MIL, Mr. Hyena, SIL and BIL Hyena

Mr. Hyena with H-Dad and FIL Hyena 

Mr. Hyena and his parents 

MIL Hyena's side of the family

My entire family

FIL Hyena's side of the family 

Us and Aunt Hyena

My immediate family 

Mr. Hyena's immediate family

Aaaaand, I think that about covers it!

Are you going to take family pictures before the ceremony?

all photos by Danny Boyle Photography

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

• "The One With All The Walking"

• "The One Where It's Official"

• "The One After The Ceremony"

A Life Full of Laughter: Boom! Married!

We had said our vows, given each other rings and served communion together.

Pastor Jason pronounced us husband and wife, and Mr. Hyena kissed his bride!

Yeah! Married!

As the "Throne Room" song from Star Wars swelled in the background, we made our way back up the aisle.

Along with our families, we headed back into the room where we did our non-first look and waited around for a few minutes for the church to clear out so we could take our portraits.

Everyone was so happy and excited, and you could feel the love in the air!

Not gonna lie, pretty much the second we were back in that room, I realized I was starving. I had only had two bites of a sandwich the entire day, and I needed food stat! Luckily we had purchased a few trays from McAlister's Deli for that morning, and there were still some sandwiches and chips in the guys' room, so I snagged a couple of extra bites before pictures. :)

I showed the girls my new bling...

When the church had sufficiently cleared out, we headed back out to the lobby. Jason signed our marriage license, and we were ready to take pictures!

all photos by Danny Boyle Photography

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

• "The One With All The Walking"

• "The One Where It's Official"

A Second Shower

About three weeks before the wedding, I was lucky enough to get a second shower, co-hosted by Hyena Sis and a family friend of Mr. Hyena's, Mrs. W. This time I remembered to take pictures. :) Most of the ladies in my family came, plus MIL Hyena and several other family friends.

We planned for it to be over lunch, and Mrs. W created an absolutely beautiful spread!

Pretty flowers, hand-painted glasses, floating water candles, and lots of pink and polka dots!

For lunch we had mini-sandwiches (including the best egg salad everrrrr), fruit, cocktail shrimp, and more, plus giant pound-cake cupcakes and cheesecake cupcakes for dessert!

I seriously need to learn how to cut a watermelon into a fruit basket like this:

So cute!

After lunch, we got to opening presents. Here's me and Hyena Sis:

I try to include laughing pictures whenever possible. :)

Mom Hyena models the dishes we finally chose, Mikasa "Daylight."

After presents, we played a few games, including the DVD version of The Newlywed Game. Since we didn't have couples to play with, we split into teams of three and four, and just tried to guess the best answers for our teammates. We also did a word scramble with wedding words, and a trivia game about me and Mr. Hyena.

I'm so glad I got to spend time with these wonderful ladies!

Did you play games at your shower? What was your favorite?

I Need a Shower

Luckily, I got one! At the beginning of April, Mr. Hyena's Aunt C and cousins threw me a brunch bridal shower, and it was so much fun!

(Aaaand I was a bad blogger and didn't take any pictures ... sorry guys! All the pictures in this post are courtesy of FSIL Hyena.)

"Bride to Be" beads were placed around my neck, and it was time to get the party started! Aunt C had created this wonderful brunch spread, and we nommed on delicious "cowboy biscuits," fruit, croissants and banana bread. We drank mock bellinis and talked all things wedding, and Mr. Hyena's aunts' told stories from their weddings as well!

As a new member of the family, I was gifted a photo album "cookbook" and each of the ladies had provided a few of their favorite family recipes to go inside it! (Sopapilla cheesecake! Strawberry spinach salad! So much fantastic fooood!) Mr. H will never go hungry. ;)

We opened some gifts ...

Mr. Hyena had been talking about this electric griddle for months, ever since we put it on our registry. The second I got it home after the shower, he tore it out of the box and cooked bacon. I joke that he's more excited about it than he is about marrying me. ;)

FMIL Hyena collected the ribbons and bows to make a rehearsal dinner bouquet at a later time, then it was time for some cake! The table was done up so cute, with black and pink decorations and polka dots! And the cake ... ohhhh the cake ... whipped cream frosting, half white cake and half chocolate ... you guys, it was heavenly.

Then we just mingled and hung out, and I got to spend more time with the wonderful women in Mr. H's family! It was such a fun party, and I felt so honored and loved!

One Thing I'll Miss

I mentioned ages ago that we're going to be rocking an iPod reception. I've been working on playlists, and am having a lot of fun doing it. But I had totally forgotten about something that I'd always really, really loved about weddings: the anniversary dance.

I don't know if this is a regional thing or not, but in case anyone doesn't know, the DJ will call all married couples out to the dance floor, and they usually play a song like this:

Then, the DJ starts eliminating people from the dance floor. First, people who have been married less than a day (bye, bride and groom!), then less than a year, less than five years, less than 10 ... up until there's only one couple left on the floor, the one that has been married for the longest. At the end of the dance, that couple gives the newlyweds their advice for a happy and lasting marriage.

I love love love this tradition. It's so cute and I love to hear the different advice given.

What I didn't put much thought into was that this may be difficult with an iPod wedding. Sure, we could play "Remember When" (even though everyone uses it, Mr. H and I danced to it at our senior prom so I have some attachment to it), but without an emcee I wasn't sure how it would work. Bridesmaid A is manning the music, but she is also married, and I didn't want her to miss out on the anniversary dance just so she could emcee it.

Thank goodness for FSIL Hyena, though, who volunteered to emcee for this song. I would have been really sad if we didn't get to take part in this.

Are you having an anniversary dance? How about any other special dances?

Mom Jeans

Mom Hyena is notorious for ruining pictures by putting her hand in front of her face. With that preface, my parents have a running joke that they use to rile me up whenever we have wedding conversations. It goes like this, every single time:

Mom Hyena: "I'm not going to the wedding if I have to be in pictures!"

H-Dad: "Well, I'm not going if I have to dance!"

Mom Hyena: "I'll go if I can wear jeans!"

(Laughter all around.)

Well, clearly jeans will not do, so Mom Hyena and I planned to go shopping while I was in Dallas. We headed out to the mall, which is my mom's least favorite place on earth. We trekked through J.C. Penneys, Macy's, Dillards and Nordstrom's with no results. The closest we came was this, from Dillards:

Very pretty, but she was afraid it was too fancy. Also, she's wearing her jeans under this dress. :)

After our trek, our tootsies exhausted and our tummies hungry, the last stop was the bridal store where I got my wedding dress, not five minutes from home.

We could have saved a lot of time if we'd just gone there in the first place! Because I bought my dress there, I get a 15 percent discount on any other purchases we make. I think this might be a bridesmaid dress, technically, but it's very appropriate anyway, since Mom Hyena is cute, and she looked cute in it. :) No pictures allowed in the bridal store, but here's a picture of the dress in the color we ordered it in:

image via Bill Levkoff

The salesgirl at the bridal store told us something I didn't know, so I'll pass it along to ya'll: The mothers aren't supposed to match the rest of the bridal party. Who knew? Instead, they're supposed to choose a complementary color that is more neutral and season-appropriate. We chose green since we're using that as an accent color. I haven't seen Mom Hyena this excited about a dress ... well, ever! Adios, jeans!

Any other wisdom out there about picking dresses for the moms? And would anyone else's mom wear jeans if they had the chance? :)