"And I found a woman in Texas, who's strong when she comes to me Yea, I found a lady who's never too lazy to give me little things I need Who lady who can get her hands little dirty too
She can rock me and roll me, then love me, console me, she can cuss me too"
-Jerry Jeff Walker

WEDDING WORK ALL WORTHWHILE PT 2 (FRIDAY NIGHT & SATURDAY BEFORE) + DATE 14, 2011

We checked into the Stephen F Austin late Friday afternoon and the hotel, who after trying to give us a room in the adjacent room to my parents, gave us the Yellow Rose Suite, which was enjoyable and completely perfect for us for the weekend.
I really like the Stephen F Austin because of its incredible downtown location and its fantastic wraparound patio with views of the Capitol.

We had a small immediate family-only dinner at Perla's on South Lamar and while it was a tad sticky out, we sat on the patio and we were all great sports. The Maddens, Harloes & Ramos-Albrittons dined on oysters and crab legs from their cold bar, wedge salads, grouper, salmon & hanger steak, with family style sides of shells & cheese, fried okra and asparagus.

I wore a flowery silk dress that I had picked up at the end of last summer and an incredible pair of DSquared2 heels that have fishing lures over the open toes.
Horribly uncomfortable, but amazing to look at. I will be buried in these I love them so much.

After our dinner, we headed to the Stephen F Austin hotel bar, which I had chosen because its a great swanky spot with that awesome patio, convenient to all, and even locals could get their parking validated on a weekend night.

photo taken by Jesse Knight and his permission is pending

And so we had drinks, drinks, drinks. Drinks we never needed, never wanted, could have done without. And so many people that I and we adore and haven't seen in years and years. This many people probably won't show up again until we die. I think that we went to our room around midnight and even though I was excited, I went right to sleep.     Me and Sam, prince among men

We had very much wanted to provide brunch to all of our guests and their children, as so many people were here from out of town. The easiest answer was of course to just have the brunch in our yard and have my cousin, the devastatingly handsome and talented chef , Richard G Eastland, Jr, to create our feast.

Slade's sister and her family enjoying some fine food

I made flags strung with twine to hang all over the place for the brunch and then later to be taken with us to Stubb's. I think that they turned out just as I had planned and were a very happy addition to our surroundings.

Kudos to Slade!
I had been after Mr. Madden for quite some time to find us some outdoor tables for our party and he was brilliant enough to pick up a slew of industrial spools. The tops were sanded, painted & glazed in various shades of turquoise.
What a super solution.

We ordered adorable personalized cups, matches, and napkins for brunch. The cups and matches would be used again later in the wedding favors and the cocktail napkins would make an appearance later at Stubb's.

I hand painted almost 500 Easter eggs and hid about half of those very half-heartedly in the backyard so that our guests' children could take part in an Easter egg hunt of some sort that weekend. Most were filled with candy and Silly Bandz and occasionally I will find an long-abandoned egg when I move a rock or a pile of sticks.

We had three fat canisters of candy and I think only three people that very much took advantage of them. One contained a small assortment of gummy bears (pineapple, lemon & orange), another Lemonheads and candy sticks, and the other filled with super-sour Napoleons, which I die for.

They looked adorable and regret that I do not have a picture of them finished out as we had them. I also regret not taking them with us to Stubb's that evening. C' est la vie.

I spent the past year collecting all of the cans and jars that passed through my house, as did my awesome mother.
(Have I already mentioned what a powerhouse my mother is and was?? Whew!)

It actually worked out wonderfully... We purchased a flat or two of flowers and planted those in the cans and then bought a few armfuls of long-stemmed flowers that we added to all of the jars. Really we bought anything that was reasonably priced in orange, white, yellow or blue. And it seemed to work swimmingly for both the afternoon and later that evening as well.

only examples- not my flowers

One thing that fell through that I do regret was the tags for the potted flowers. I had intended to string up each can with a little tag that was a pick up line. The goal was for the locals to take the potted plants home with them, as they would surely have died by the time that we got home from our honeymoon.
I had planned to add the tags before our evening and was then going to watch the crowd to see who figured out that the plants were flirting.

All say "Perhaps you will take me home with you" on the back and the pickup lines on the front vary from "I like the way you move..." to "We could be so good together..."
I totally thought that it was going to be a riot. Sigh.

Menu Comments from Richard: "I was mainly thinking about having lots of little sandwiches and salads. The bread I would make before I came. And we could do things like Reuben, Ham & Pepperjacks with Chipotle Aioli, Salmon Lox & Red Onion with Cream Cheese Caper spread. And maybe a few others. Then having a Beet, Walnut & Horseradish salad, a Brussel Sprout Cole Slaw, and a Tomato, Avocado Salad." The brunch was exceptional- everyone said so. And we all drank our weight in Bloody Marys. What a way to start the day!

I had previously thought (and I'm sure had told Slade) that eventually all of this work would be worth it and that at some point during all of this, that he would turn to me and tell me that "this is awesome" and he would be so grateful and happy that all of this had been done in his good name and with all of the collective joy for our future. And at some point during our brunch in our tiny little Austin house on Anita Drive, he did turn to me and say "this is awesome" and then I later found this picture that he took of himself on his own camera. He looks joyful. Because everything was so sweet. And so many people showed up to love us.

Up Next: Our Saturday Night Celebration at Stubb's Bar-B-Que!...

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