The Wedding...

Well, our wedding was the best day of my life! Everything was completely perfect and everyone was completely perfect. I do not regret one single decision I made for the wedding, it was amazing. Ray and I really wanted a few things for our wedding, 1) to honor our God 2) for all of the people we love to be in the same place at the same time 3) for all of those people to have the time of their lives, right alongside us!

I have to say, all my dreams were fulfilled. It was so good to see everyone, lots of you I haven't seen in weeks, months, or even years, thank you for coming. I'm tearing up just thinking about seeing all of your beautiful faces!

I also wanted to say thanks ... thanks to my mom and dad for loving Ray wholeheartedly and knowing he is the husband God has picked for me and for enjoying my wedding as much as I did... to Ray's parents, thanks for our honeymoon, rehearsal dinner, and loving me...to our wedding party, you were the life of the party, as you are continually the spark in our daily lives, thank you for the money, time, and hard work you put in to make sure this day was incredible...
to my vendors, Nolte Farms, William and Patricia Long Photography, Daryll Stewart our DJ, and The Sweet Stuff our cake baker, thanks for giving me exactly what I asked for, excellence...and to my wedding guests, friends, family, loved ones, we love you and we feel loved by your presence and happiness at our wedding.

If you haven't looked at our pictures just go to www.wlpstudio.com/jennifer.ray and be prepared to go through TONS of photos, it's a bit overwhelming! I promise I'll get the thank you cards out soon, that is also an overwhelming tasks! Good night!

Events leading up to our big day....

I haven't posted a blog in a few weeks, the closer the wedding got the less time I had, hmmm, imagine that! I wanted to talk about the time leading up to the wedding before I talk about how completely amazing the actual day was!



The Friday before the wedding, March 13th, Amy Hughes, one of my bridesmaids (yes the one who sang at the wedding) had a small get together at my house with just a few of my girl friends. This day was a hard day for me, emotions were high because I was trying to finish everything at work and it seemed like everyone needed something from me, not to mention I was shooting a wedding the next day in San Antonio. Amy pretty much talked me into letting her do this, and I'm extremely glad she did! This night gave me time to get my mind off of all the stress and anxiety I was feeling. She cooked an awesome meal, all green and brown, to go with my wedding theme (even the mashed potatoes were green!), and then brought individual chocolate cakes that she topped with green hydrangeas. We played a few games where I won fun lingerie and just had a great girls night. My love to Amy for caring enough and knowing me well enough to force me into such a fun night!



The Sunday before the wedding, March 15th, my mom threw me a shower at her house for all of the ladies who lived in the Houston area. It was very nicely done with all green and white accessories, and my Aunt Val brought the amazing cupcakes which the put in a cupcake holder that made the cupcakes look like one big wedding cake. I received lots of great gifts including my everyday dinnerware, many sets of china, a sheet set, stainless mixing bowls, and some crystal serving ware... just to name a few! I don't have any photos to post at the moment because they're all on my mom's camera, but it was a great day!



Wednesday, March 18th, Teresa, Mark, Ray, and I headed up to Austin from our house in Spring to begin preparing for the wedding. Teresa and I stayed with Megan in Kyle and Mark and Ray stayed with Mitch in Austin. Thursday night Ray had his bachelor party and all the boys said it was a blast! Friday during the day we all went to Don's Fish Camp to hang out at the river for a bit before coming home and getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. I'll talk about the rehearsal and wedding in my next post, still trying to catch up from our trip to Vegas.

Will and Patricia posted a preview of the photobooth for everyone ... check it out, good times!
http://www.wlpstudio.com/jennifer.ray

Also just in case anyone is wondering, our wedding was perfect, we are completely fulfilled with how everything went! If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't, no need to! We're married!!!

The Stock The Bar Shower!

This shower was so much fun! It was great to be back in Austin and have all of our friends there! We had a wonderful turnout and everything seemed to go so perfectly! Ray and I don't have a huge social life in Houston, so getting this chance to unwind with our friends we miss so much was amazing! Having a celebration of our wedding like this made the fact that our wedding is coming up so soon such a reality! I think the timing of this shower was perfect because it was exactly a month from our wedding day! It's crazy to think that it's only 18 days away! I said that to Ray today and he said, "Are you ready to be a married woman?" and I said "Ofcourse!" We are so thankful to everyone who made this shower happen, Cory for bringing the refreshments, Treasa for bringing the amazing cake, and Megan for being the designated Taxi! Also to everyone else for coming, I know life is busy but you really did make this special for us! I hope to see everyone soon, and if you're ready this and you haven't RSVPed, please do! Getting people to RSVP is driving me crazy!!! :) Good night!

Stock the bar...

Well I decided that Ray and I should have a "Stock The Bar" Shower and what better place to do it a than a bar in Austin!?! Cory came up with a wonderful place to have it called Copa Bar and Grill on Congress and I'm really excited! We're going with a latin theme and red and black as the colors. I finally got the invitations in the mail a few days back and now we're ready to roll! Just incase anyone is unsure of what the shower is about, I found this idea online, so let me explain! This shower is in order to alleviate some of the costs of the open bar and instead of people bringing traditional presents off of your registry everyone brings bottles of liquor. I think this will be great because it benefits both us and the attendees of shower due to the fact that we won't have to buy as much liquor and they'll have whatever they want to drink behind the bar at the wedding. It should be really fun, we're inviting all our friends from Austin and San Marcos! No need to worry for those in Houston, I'm having a shower in Houston as well, but ofcourse more traditional, my mom is putting it on at my NEW HOUSE! Anyways, the wedding is getting so close, Ray and I are both excited, we were talking about it this evening!

On another note, the wedding invitations are in the final stages, it seems like a neverending tasks! Amy Hughes came over yesterday and helped me finish assembling them and we came up with our DJ list for the wedding! It's all getting REAL!!! Love it love it love it! Good night!

Bachelorette Party!

OMG! I had the time of my life in New Orleans this past weekend! I went with a great group of girls all from random parts of my life and it was perfect! I want to go back every year from now on! Let me start out with saying that all of the talk of New Orleans being super scary and dirty is not true! Obviously there are parts of New Orleans that I would rather not go to, but there are parts of Houston that I would rather not go to either!

While we were there we went on a cocktail walking tour (the photo to the left) which was a great way to start out the weekend! We learned about different cocktails of New Orleans, which is where the word cocktail actually originated (wooohoo, I did learn something)! We also went to the oldest bar in the U.S. where we had hurricanes, yummy! We went out that night to lots of bars and had a blast, I wore a sash that said "Future Mrs. Baugh" that Megan had made for me, a veil, and tried to sell some "suck for a buck" lollipops out of my bouquet! Megan did an awesome job on the accessories! My Nanny was so much fun on this trip, I feel so fortunate that she was able to come! That lady was having a blast and she made my whole trip!


On Saturday we took a Swamp Tour and got to hold an alligator! It was awesome and completely beautiful, this is a part of New Orleans that I think everyone should see! It's nothing like Bourbon street or anything downtown! My mom planned all of the tours and she picked the two best as far as I'm concerned!Saturday night us three girls went out to Bourbon Street again, me in my gear, it fun! We went to the famous Pat O'brien's and got a hurricane, (see the photo to the left) all in all had a wonderful time! I came back home exhausted and hungover but with some great memories and new lingerie!

I could not have asked for a better group of girls or a better time, I hope Ray has as much fun for his bachelor party! Thank you ladies, love you hotards! LOL

Closing Day!!!

We finally closed on our house today! It has been such a long road for us! The bank just couldn't seem to get their stuff together! None the less God has blessed us with an amazing house!!! I love it so very much! It's a two story three bedroom with an office, game room, and dining room, it is amazing! It was a model home before so it's never been lived in, also comes with a brand new washer and dryer and refrigerator! I feel so fortunate that we can afford something like this! My favorite part is the kitchen and the covered back patio! Check it out...... life is great....

FLOWERS!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Ray's sister's house in Salado (north of Austin) and I stayed a few days to take care of some wedding stuff. We went and picked up my dress and took it to the alterations place... speaking of that, I still need to find some shoes... anyways so that will be done in January and we also went to meet with a florist. We met with Colinda at Bloomer's Floral and Design in Seguin and she was so sweet. She quoted me a great price and we will be using her for our flowers. We decided on green hydrangeas for the bouquets and boutonnieres, nothing too extravagant! I'm excited!