My Beautiful Wedding

I woke up next to two of my favorite people that morning. My best friend Sarah and my sister-in-law Stephanie.

Right off that bat I got a call from my mom crying. She was scared that I wasn't going to be happy. Of course I was (and still am) though. My sister was giving my mom a hard time about the whole thing and my mom of course was upset. She just wanted the best for her baby girl and wanted to make sure that I was 100% ready to do this.

I reassured her that I couldn't have been more happy in my entire life. I was marring my best friend and my other half. His family was also behind us all of the way and I knew that I was marring not only an amazing man but I was marring into an amazing family as well.

Once I calmed my mother back down we all got out of bed and headed for the church on that cold icy morning of February the 23rd. My heart was in my throat and my stomach was upset from the morning sickness. But nothing could stop me from getting married today. Nothing could ruin my day. NOTHING!

All the girls got to the church with me and we designated the room right next to the bathroom. Of course. We hung my dress and got everything in line for the big day. My dress was beautiful!


This is the beautiful dress I got married in.

My dad's friend Tom Holland (Uncle Tom) was trying to make his way from Arkansas but the roads were super icy and he didn't make it to the wedding but he sent his love and I got to sew a little blessing from him into my dress. A glass bead that he hand made.


The glass bead was sewn into my dress before I went down the isle.

We planned our wedding so fast that my rings hadn't came in yet so my band still had the sizers on it. But it still looked pretty in the pictures.


My and Derek's rings in the gorgeous roses

So everyone was starting to get to the church and the butterflies in my stomach turned to bats and I started to get so nervous. I had everyone I loved around me. So I calmed myself down. Put on my dress and my shoes and topped it with a smile. And a little bit of make-up.


Putting on my dress and smile to get ready to see my other half.

All during the 3 weeks of planning I told myself I did NOT want to wear high heels in my wedding. I don't even wear high heels anyway. I wanted to be comfortable and wear something that was ME. Since I couldn't go barefoot I picked out the next best thing and got the cutest pair of flats that I could find.


Like the shoes? I loved them. They were so comfortable and they were SO me.

The preacher (Keith Price) came in and said that it was time and immediately my stomach went up in my throat. Those bats in my stomach again changed into eagles! Oh gosh was I nervous. But it was ok. In less than a matter of minuets I would get to see Derek and it would be ok. I gave my final hugs to all the girls and let them go sit in the church for my big moment.


This is such a good picture. This is Derek's cousin Whitney. She helped with my hair.

It was just me, my mom, my dad, and my sister left in the room. My last moments as Emily Brennan. The last time all four members of my family were Brennan's. We stopped and took a few final pictures and I helped my mom straighten her flower before she went in.


Mom fixing her flower before we all went in.

Before my mom walked in all four of us were standing in the lobby waiting to go in when all of a sudden we heard clapping coming from the sanctuary. Puzzled, my dad popped his head around the corner. Derek's step brother Danny was one of our candle lighters and apparently it was a little harder than what he expected. He couldn't get the candles lit. So once he did everyone gave him a round of applause. That made me feel a little better and gave me a little laugh. (thanks Danny) But now it was time to walk down the isle as Emily Brennan and walk back as Emily Williams. My dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and my sister helped put my veil on. First my sister went down the isle and then the music started playing for me and my dad to come down. I took one deep breath in and it was me and my dad.


Ready or not. Here we come.

As soon as I got halfway down the isle and could see Derek's smile I knew from then on that everything was going to be just fine. I was still going to be my daddy's little girl and I was still going to be Derek's wife. I could do this. I could do both. Just because I was getting to a new chapter of my life didn't mean that I had to burn the rest of the book. Everything was ok. I was ok. Everything was OK! I'll always be my daddy's little girl.


It's ok. I'm a daddy's girl. Doesn't he look so handsome?

We did our "I do's" and we walked back down the isle as Mr and Mrs Derek Williams. Ahh. Life was good. Now it was time to relax and let things soak in for once. Oh yea, and take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.


Finally a minuet to sit back and prop up my feet. But not for long.


Nothing but smiles. We were done. We had done it!


He always knows how to make me laugh.


Mr & Mrs Derek Williams

Grandma B read a passage from the bible during the wedding. She did so good. I was so proud of her. She is go wonderful.
She prays for Derek and I every morning and every night. She really is such a blessing.


Didn't she look beautiful? I love my Grandma B.


Mrs Derek Williams and her beautiful rings.

Finally we get to EAT! We had the best food ever. We had Dexter Barbecue. It was so good but my dress was so tight that I couldn't eat as much as I would have liked to. But there was ALWAYS room for cake.


He got me pretty good but I got him better!

We're gettin' hitched!

So now everything was set in stone. We had everything planned. Now it was time to have fun and start worrying about the bachelor and bacheloret parties!

Derek's birthday was February 21st (his 21st birthday mind you) so all of his friends and all his male family members treated him to a birthday/ bachelor party. THE DAY BEFORE OUR 11a.m. WEDDING! I was ok with this as long as he promised not to get drunk at the party. Well, you know how long that lasted for? About a minuet. Since the bacheloret party was non-alcoholic we decided to go to pretty women. A sexy undies store downtown Cape Girardeau. FUN!


these are some of the boys responsible for my now husbands actions that night. shame shame.


karaoke? seriously?


Me and Stephanie (my sister-in-law) at the sexy store.


The girls thought that Derek would like this one. What do ya think?


I think he likes it?


Steph had to give it to him because I wasn't allowed to see him before the wedding.


I don't think that's how it's supposed to be worn babe.

So Derek and his buddies and brothers and dad all partied the night away and me, my girlfriends, sister-in-law's, and step-mother-in-law ate the night away. The sexy store was fun and the snacks were great but the only thing missing was my sister. I wish she was there with me. I had my friend Sarah and sister-in-law Stephanie to snuggle up with that night and Derek's cousins Whitney and Ashley slept on the couch the night before my big day. Derek was so funny that night. He called right before he went to bed to tell me how much he loved me and how much he missed me. He was a little drunk so of course I had to put it on speaker phone. Whitney and Ashley and I all had a good laugh at his expense but it was worth it. Now it was time for bed at almost 1 in the morning and in less than 10 hours I was getting married!

HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO SLEEP!?!?

3 Week Wedding Planning 101

So, I'm pregnant, it's February, and now we have to plan a wedding.

I didn't want to wait till after the baby was here to get married. It's a pride thing. I wanted to have my HUSBANDS baby. Not my boyfriends.

So I sat down with my mom and Derek and we went over all the possible dates we could have the wedding before I started to look like the Goodyear Blimp. Turns out the only date we could get in the next 5 months (from February to June) was February 23rd. Exactly 3 weeks after we found out we were pregnant.

So, my mom being the workaholic that she is set in and started making plans and getting things together. We got very fortunate with everything.

My cousin Beth owns her own business and she makes invitations and stuff like that for a living. She very kindly made our wedding invitations in no time flat. ( thank you so much Beth! ) They were so beautiful.

Next came the table decorations. My Auntie Pam is quite the seamstress and made out table runners with one of her friends and had them sent to us from Lexington, KY where she lives in less than a week. ( thank you so much Auntie Pam! )

Then came the flowers. My mom set in quick and got all my flowers (red roses and red carnations) for whole sale! They were so beautiful! ( thank you mom! )

Next was my dress. It was so beautiful. My mom, step mom-in-law, sister-in-law, and best friend Sarah went to Davids bridal and picked out the perfect one. It fit perfect and the only thing that had to be altered was the length.

The food was bought by Derek's dad and step mom and the some of the deserts were bought by Derek's mom and step dad.

Our wedding cakes were made by the sweetest old lady that a relative of Derek's. She made three white icing cakes 2 vanilla and a chocolate and she did it all for free. (thank you Edith!)

My dad's best friend is a Baptist preacher from Advance, Mo and I always thought that he would be perfect for the job. So I called him up and asked if he would be our preacher for the wedding. He agreed and had a sit down with me and Derek and two weeks later married us.

The church we got married in is called Church on Abbie Road. It's the same church that I grew up in and also the same one my mom and dad got married in as well as my grandma and step-grandpa.

My hair was short but lucky for me Derek's cousin Whitney Williams and Derek's step-aunt are both hair dressers. With the help of lots of hair spray and some bobbie pins they made my hair look so great. ( thank you Whitney and Shana!)

But who was going to take our pictures on such short notice? Derek's other cousin Ashley took our pictures. She has her own business that she just started up (ablackbirdphotography.com). My Aunt LaVonna also took pictures. Both for no cost. (thank you Aunt LaVonna and Ashley!)

Derek and I have such a great family. We couldn't have done this by ourselves. Thank you to all who helped on our big day!

First Comes Love Then Comes...

Derek and I met through one of my friends. My friend was dating his friend and she set us up. We have been best friends since the day we met. We had out fights just like every couple but we managed to work through everything.



We had been talking for some time about getting engaged at the end of 2008 and getting married after I graduated college.
God decided differently. We found out on a very cold icy day (Feb 1st) that we were going to start our life together a lot sooner than what we planned.

The Thursday before we found out, there was a BIG SNOW. That Friday night I had to baby sit for one of my professors and I had the strange feeling that I was pregnant. Possibly. So after I got done baby sitting at 12:30 at night I swung by our local Wal-Mart and picked up one of those nice little pee sticks. I did what you're supposed to do and was unclear about the result. I had one very distinct pink line and a not-so-there second pink line. I figured that I wasn't pregnant. If I was pregnant it would be TWO PINK LINES.

I sent a text to my friend Jake and asked what his wife Erica's pee stick looked like when they found out they were pregnant. I told him what mine said and he replied back that that was the same thing that Erica got. Unconvinced I woke up the next morning at 6:30 a.m. and took the 2nd test that was in the box. Still no TWO PINK LINES like I wanted. (I was a little in denial)

So I made Derek go to the store and pick up not one but two boxes of pee sticks. One that was either a plus sign or a negative sign and the other a digital read that either said "pregnant" or "not pregnant." Still unsure about the first two tests I took a look at the box more and found a 1-800 number for the tests. I went through the prompts and got the answer that I was searching for even before Derek had come back with the other boxes of tests. I was, sure enough, pregnant.

Just to be on the safe side (because if could be a false positive) I took the two boxes of tests out of Derek's hands as soon as he got in the door and went straight to the bathroom. I took out one of the digital read out sticks and did my business. 3 minuets later. I got the most distinct sign that I had ever seen in my life. It took forever for that little blinking hour glass to turn into that one little word that changed the rest of my life. I of course cried and Derek tried to hide how happy he was so I wouldn't feel bad.

I got dressed in my barn clothes (still crying) and made Derek come out to the barn to keep me company while I cleaned stalls out at Linda Murphy's barn. This was the longest day EVER! After I got done at the barn I went back to the apartment to get cleaned up and Derek went to his dad's to tell them the news.

Derek went in and said to his dad, "Emily's pregnant." His dad just replied "Ok." Lisa (Derek's step mom) came in and just out of no where goes "What's goin on? Is Emily pregnant or something?" Mothers intuition I SWEAR!

I had told my sisters boyfriend Marcus the news and a few of my close friends. But that evening I had to go to my now step-sister-in-law Maddie's bacheloret party. I tried to tell my other step-sister-in-law Ashley that I was pregnant but never got the chance to get her alone to tell her. Finally I asked her if she had anything for a head ache. She said "I got some ibuprofen" and I replied " I don't know if I can take that." She unknowingly said back "Why? Are you pregnant" My jaw hit the floor. I just replied "Well, actually yes."

Last on our list to tell was my parents and Derek's mom. (Breath In... Breath Out...) We told his mom first, over the phone, since she lives in Chicago. Derek called and asked if she could talk. She was at dinner but could tell something was wrong. Derek said "can you talk?" she said "well I'm at dinner" so he said "i'll just call you back later." At this point she knew something was up and made Derek tell her what was up. He just said " Emily's pregnant." The phone stayed silent for a few moments then finally she said. "Ok, well i'll call you back when i get done." She was upset up like every mother, told us that she loved us.

Then it came my turn. I had to face my mom and dad and tell them what was going on.

I walked in the door and greeted my dad and sister and Marcus in the living room then walked back to my moms room where she was sleeping. I shook her a little and told her I needed to talk to her. She rolled over and asked what was wrong. I just sat on the edge of her bed and took a deep breath in and said "well, I'm pregnant." My mom just kind of sat there for a minuet trying to process what I had just told her then finally sat up and said "what?"

I told her when we found out and showed her the little positive test. She put her pillow over her head and took a second to regroup. Just as I though things were going well, my dad decided to come down the hall. My mom of course bolted for the bathroom and said she had to pee. I was bawling my eyes at this point so my dad knew something was up. I wasn't ready to tell him what was going on yet but he persisted and got me to tell him. I wasn't ready to not be my daddy's little girl anymore. I wanted to bad to hold onto that moment before I told him. But I had to tell him and he was not happy.

He then left the room and went to the living room to tell my sister. Poor Marcus had to hide the fact that he already knew as he sat next to my screaming dad rant and rave about how I was pregnant to my sister. My mom came back into the room where I was sitting and so did my sister. We talked for God knows how long and my dad finally came back into the room.

Weeks before, my sister, mom, and I went and saw the movie Juno. (For those who haven't seen the movie, it's about a young girl that gets pregnant) There is a part where Juno has to tell her parents that she is pregnant and the father says "well at least she's not on hard drugs." My sister, God love her, says to my mom and dad "well at least she's not on hard drugs." The only bad part was that my dad hadn't seen the movie and didn't think it was funny.

Everyone settled down a few hours later and I laid in my still sobbing unable to sleep. I got up at around 2 or 3 and drove to Derek's apartment where I finally got a few hours of sleep with my other half.

I had done it though. I told my parents and Derek had told his parents. That was off of our plate. Next was the grandparents.

My grandmother on my moms side had gone through 2 daughters that got pregnant before marriage so I knew she was going to be a breeze to tell. My mom and I called her and met her at her house to tell her the news. She cried of course. But she was happy.

Derek's dad's parents were pretty laid back and easy going so we weren't worried about them either.

The two we were worried about were the two that were the most hard headed and one track minded. Grandma B (my dad's mom) and Grandma Marks (Derek's moms mom). We called Grandma B and set up a Sunday Date with her to tell her. Well, dumb me put that I was pregnant on my myspace page and forgot that my aunt has myspace. So my Aunt LaVonna accidently told grandma b before I got the chance to. Which was ok. Derek and I saw with our pagoda garden take out buffet box and out of no where grandma goes "so when are you gettin married?" We both kind of just looked at each other and were in awe that she knew. She told us that Aunt LaVonna told her so I asked what she thought, and her reply was simply "well, now I have something to live for."

Grandma Marks was pretty much the same and wasn't upset at all like we thought that both of them were going to be.

So the whole family knew now. What's next? Plan a wedding. So we did.