Wedding Weekend in Springfield

This past weekend Ryan and I went to Springfield for one of our best friend's weddings.  Ryan was a groomsman in Chris's wedding.  Chris, Ryan, Guthrie, and us girls were pretty much inseparable through college.  We spent tons of time together at sporting events and hanging out at our apartments.  We lived at the same apartment complex as the boys...just about 10 seconds away!  We've seen each other several times since college, but it is always so much fun to get together and catch up.

Ryan and I left on Friday morning and got to Springfield around lunchtime.  After eating we had to go to Chris's old high-school football stadium because the boys had been making bets on how far they could throw a golfball...the boys never change!  Guthrie was the winner.  =)

After shopping and hanging out the rest of the day, we drove out to "Tuscan Hill" for the rehearsal dinner.  This was also where the wedding was going to be the next day.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the front of the house.  Basically, Tuscan Hill is a large estate/house that the owners have converted into a venue for weddings.  The wedding was in the front and the reception was in the back.  The house and grounds were GORGEOUS!

Here is the back of the house.  The owners converted the top floor into a gorgeous salon and area for the bridal party to get ready.  The owners live in the basement and you can even rent the main floor for dinner parties, etc.

Besides my wonderful hubby, this is one of my favorite guys ever!  This is one of our best friend's...Andrew Guthrie.  I LOVED being able to spend time and hang out with him this weekend.  We hadn't seen him since last summer.

Throwing washers at the rehearsal dinner.  On the left is one of our best friends, and the groom...Chris.  Then his friend Jordan, and then Ryan.

BEST BUDS!  3 of my favorite boys...Guthrie, Chris, and Ryan

 After the rehearsal we all went bowling.  It was fun getting to know some of the other people in the wedding party.  Then the boys went out to do "boy stuff" (and came back with some pretty interesting stories) and I went back to the hotel and got a WONDERFUL night's sleep.  =)

The next morning the boys went to play a round of golf, so I slept in, took a hot bath, and ordered room service.  The order took so long (which didn't bother me because I didn't have anything better to do) that the guy added a bunch of stuff to my order.  I had ordered off of the kid's menu and he thought there were a bunch of hungry kids in the room so he kept apologizing and asking if they wanted extra chocolate milk! =)

I wish I would have taken a picture of the ceremony because it was beautiful.  This is us at the reception. 

This huge tent was set up in the back of the property.  I loved all the lights twinkling...so pretty!

You could also eat and dance down by the pool...isn't this so pretty!  Can I have this house???

They had a photo booth set up and gave away flip-flops as party favors...what a good idea!

Sorry this is blurry...we all held sparklers as the bride and groom made their way out.  And by the way...I realized I never took a picture of Chris and Ashley...whoops!  Her dress was GORGEOUS! 

I was seriously afraid we were going to catch them on fire during this part...maybe that's why they were running so fast! HA!

Can you tell I'm excited...these are my favorite kind of sparklers...I felt like a 5 year old again!

I have to tell one last story about Saturday night.  So after the wedding we got back to the hotel pretty early...I'm thinking...wow I'm going to get a GREAT night of sleep!  Well...I'm almost asleep about 11:30 when I hear this fire truck's alarm going off.  Normally, the sirens seem to get quieter the farther away they get, but this one kept going off!  After like 3-4 minutes it woke Ryan up.  He gets up and looks out the window and comes back to bed.  Immediately the FIRE ALARM in our hotel starts going off!  AHHH!  He starts yelling about "some flippin' kid probably pulled the fire alarm" when the hotel's alarm system goes off and says "The Springfield tornado sirens are going off because there is a tornado warning.  Please evacuate your room and come to the first floor conference room.  If you are unable to leave your room please take cover in the bathtub."  (Like that's going to help when we are on the 8th floor!)  So...my heart starts racing and I'm scared of the storm, but then I'm also so annoyed that my great night of sleep is going to be interupted by this!  So we (along with the entire hotel population) start racing down the stairwell and go into this conference room of the Double Tree hotel!  People are half-asleep, they have their kids in pj's (and I'm so thankful Brynn wasn't there because I really would have been freaking out), trying to call people, etc.  We found Guthrie and Jordan and just hung out in a corner of the conference room until the tornado warning passed.  So...everything was fine but I didn't really sleep too well after we finally got to go back upstairs.  Of course that would happen, though, right? 

It was A WONDERFUL WEEKEND with some of my favorite people!  We missed Brynn so much, but it was great to get away for a little weekend.  We can't wait to see our college friends again soon.