My dear, sweet, hilarious, bestie cousin, Anna Hallum, got married to Bo Merrill in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 2nd!
My mom, Reese and I drove down the beginning of her wedding week to be there and help with anything we could {and just join in all the fun too!}. We had a blast getting to run around crazy Baton Rouge! We spent most of the time just playing with family, cousins, grandparents, etc! It was such a FUN week. We did desperately miss Mark though... He had to stay behind in Columbia because he was starting his first day of residency while we were gone. Horrible timing. He did great though and now he's like an old doc just solving cases and healing people left and right :) All the wedding events were just PERFECT {besides the crazy, unbelievably hot temperature and humidity - which no one even noticed, anna, i promise!! :)} It was extra special to me because Anna married a guy who is the cousin of my best friend growing up. Here's the short version - Growing up our very best best friends were the Cooper Family!!! They were very close with their cousins, the Merrill Family, just as we were very close to our cousins, the Hallum family. So, I grew up knowing the merrills, playing with them at kamp in the summers, staying out their house when we went to KC, etc. fast forward lots of years to Kamp where Bo Merrill meets Anna Hallum. The rest is history. :) So now, finally, the Coopers and the Staples are related. We always said that somehow it would happen. haha. seriously, we did. when we were 8 we said that Lucas would marry aimee. or maybe eric could marry rebecca. or taylor could marry rebecca. we never paired up bo and anna, not sure why because they are PERFECT together. So..... needless to say, the rehearsal dinner was so special to me because I literally knew everyone in the room. On the merrills side and anna's (my) side too. sooooo cool. and i was completely honored to stand by anna on her wedding day. under the amazing louisiana trees on a beautiful hundreds of years old southern plantation. it was gorgeous! and not all at hot... {oh right....it was 97 degrees plus 150% humidity i think.} :) but no one noticed and they danced the night away under the stars. even little reese slept in my dads arms. i sure love my family.
she LOVED sampson (and kyle too of course!)
bachelorette party time! such a fun night!
bridesmaids luncheon:
rehearsal at the desert plantation.... it was incredible!!!!
rehearsal dinner time:
{with all our original Beadle family cousins; Aimee, Taylor, Anna, Eric, Me, Ben, Monique. love you!}
my parents and the awesome sunflowers (the dinner was kansas themed!)
almost mr&mrs:
and here she is on her wedding day.... the STUNNING bride!
and little reeser too, of course.
sweet bridesmaids
this is actually how reese spent most of the night.... crying and saying "mama, mama, mama"
love my mama's girl:
my dad and matt houston did the ceremony. so incredible! They wrote their vows and they were so sweet and honest and real. i loved it! it was simply perfect and southern and God was glorified 100%!!
the fam. missed you mark!
to the new Mr &Mrs. Bo Merrill :) love you!
