Wedding Week Re-Cap

Hello! Greetings from the I-just-love-being-married world. I know it's been awhile but I just wanted to re-cap the week of the wedding events so that I can catch some of my readers up and so that I can have a record of it years from now to remember how much fun it was.

So, without further adieu, the week of the wedding:

Sunday, April 19, 2009: Our preacher, Ken Durham announced our wedding at church. It was so awesome to have him come up to us and offer us reassuring hugs and to share his excitement for us with us. We are so blessed to have him in our lives as well as the love and support of our church family. On Sunday afternoon, we camped out at Kinko's and got our programs printed. They looked better than I could have even imagined! And doing them ourselves made them so cheap. I highly recommend it. Sunday night, we had our last dinner with Brandon and T as single people. It was great to see them, as usual!

Monday, April 20, 2009: Aaron came over early so that we could head to the county clerk in Beverly Hills to get our marriage license! We got a little bit lost going there but the actual license was a breeze to get. We were official! Aaron had to rush back up to school to check a few more residents out of their apartments and I ran a bag of goodies over to Aaron's parents hotel since they were flying in in the afternoon! Did I mention that it was about 95 degrees in LA that day? It was crazy. We met up with Aaron's parents in the afternoon/early evening and went to a delicious air conditioned dinner at the Counter. After dinner, we went to Craig and Terrie's hotel and sat in the lobby and assembled our programs. It was great to have such good helpers and we got them all done!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009: In the morning, I went to LAX to get my mom who was flying in from San Francisco. We had a leisurely lunch and then went home to make the reception centerpieces. Everything went great and we were able to finish those by the afternoon. Aaron went to his first day of his summer job just to get acquainted with it and he came over to have dinner with me and my mom after work. After dinner, my brother and T stopped by to see Mom and I always love having people over.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009: Aaron and Craig had a 11am tee time at Malibu Country Club so me and the moms headed into Santa Monica to the farmers market. Terrie bought a bunch of beautiful strawberried for Aaron's groom's table and then we had anice long lunch in the sunshine at Urth Cafe. In the afternoon, I went up to Pepperdine for a job interview (more on that later), and all the parentals met us up at school for dinner before Bible Study. As a real treat, Aaron spoke at Bible Study and I joke with him that it was his "Senior Sunday" because after 2 years, Aaron will not be in charge of the Bible Study next year. So, everyone was so sweet and said really encouraging things about him and it was neat for his parents and my mom to hear all of it. We are truly blessed by such an awesome community at Pepperdine. After Bible Study, we went up to Aaron's apartment and finished up the boutonnieres and corsages for the groomsmen and the family members. Aaron's Nana was sweet enough to make ALL of the boutonnieres and corsages for the wedding. Because we chose hydrangeas, we ended up using silk flowers because real hydrangeas cannot be out of water for too long. They looked fabulous and we are so lucky to have such a gifted Nana!

Thursday, April 23, 2009: Kate arrived early Thursday morning and Aaron and Craig went to the party rentals place to pick up the tables and other rented stuff for the reception. We were able to bring it directly to the church so after we all met at the church to unload the truck, mom, Kate, and I headed to the South Bay to Chick-Fil-A to pick up gallons of tea for the reception. The rest of Thursday was spent finalizing up stuff for the wedding...packing up stuff that was going to go to the church and Aaron and I had to do some smash and grab shopping for thank you presents. I had my first real freak out on Thursday night...not about getting married but just about a few last minute things that needed to get done. Luckily, with Mom, Kate, and Aaron by my side, I was able to relax a little bit. Thank God for them!

Friday, April 24, 2009: Kate, Mom, and I piled into the car and met Terrie and Craig down at the flowermart to pick up all the hydrangeas. Everything went well and the flowers looked so good. On our way home, we picked up the dresses from the dry cleaners and then went to the Doubletree where Nana and Aaron's cousins and Aunt were making floral centerpieces for the rehearsal dinner. Kate, Mom, and I worked with the hydrangeas and made all of the bouquets...and I must say that they looked pretty fabulous! The rest of Friday is a bit of a blur...lots of running around but we did manage to get nails done, get snacks for Friday night and Saturday, and get to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on time.

The rehearsal went well and a bunch of Aaron's family members were in the reception room to help set some stuff up so the majority of it was done on Friday night! The rehearsal dinner was so awesome. I am hoping to get some pictures from guests because of course I had my camera in my purse, and of course I didn't take a single picture. The dinner was Texas themed and Terrie really went above and beyond as the hostess. Craig gave a very sweet speech, as did Ryne, Kate, Jerren, and my brother. It was an awesome night filled with good food, great friends, and so much love. After dinner, the girls and I all headed to the hotel and just had a good, old fashioned sleepover fuled by trader joe's snacks and funny stories. It was the perfect way to spend the night before I was getting married.

Saturday morning started early when Nicole, my hair and makeup girl arrived with her friend Chelsey. We had scheduled Nicole to do 7 heads of hair, and 6 faces of makeup. And get this...she was done EARLY! She was able to squeeze in 2 more makeup appointments! The timing was amazing and everyone looked so beautiful and was so calm. While we were getting ready, our photographer Matt came by and took a bunch of pictures but then headed to see the boys at the W hotel in Westwood. We all got over to the church 20 minutes ahead of schedule!!! We took a few pictures with Matt, ate a few snacks and then it was pretty much go time...stay tuned for the wedding recap!!!