Anyway, we’ve been doing good, and always have been. It was just strange going back to the normal life after planning something for so long.

There’s so many exciting things to look forward to in our lives, such as buying a home, having kids, building a business (who knows), and learning from each other. Anyway, I think Connie did a great job on the article…

Anyway, I’m going to try to post it on Craigslist and Ebay. We’ll see how much it’ll go for. Maybe the resale value would be a bit higher if I cleaned it…

Well the longer I wait to update this, the less I remember. And to think I’d remember every moment on my wedding day.

So Erin got done with Brian’s mom. Next was Julie. We didn’t do much, I ordered a sandwich from Jason’s Deli since I knew I wasn’t going to be building much of an appetite, so we all grazed on that. Kate came in at around noon. I went off to the main club house to check on things and Sheri was kind enough to put some other stuff together after everyone else helped out with the centerpieces. The centerpieces turned out quite nicely considering it was just a hodgepodge of inspiration I got from pictures. It was simple but very cute. Emma, Jacob and I worked on the head table. They were so cute and helpful. Luckily I got some pictures of it with our camera. I headed back to the locker room and asked Brian’s mom to go back to the clubhouse to make her rounds and remind Sheri some stuff. Later on, some snooty country club lady came into the locker room, saw Tony and mumbled some comment about “when did they let men into the locker room?” I didn’t actually hear this, but Tony did and mentioned it to me. He said, “I bet you ten bucks that lady is going to get me kicked out.” I didn’t think much about it, but sure enough right when Erin was supposed to work on me, the manager came in and asked him to leave. ACK. I was so pissed off. I tried to find the lady, but she was no where to be found. So I marched over to Sheri, but she was with another bride. I finally talked to the co-coordinator and told her, and she said she’ll take care of it. About 20 minutes later, Sheri marched in and talked to the manager. They said he could come back in, as long as he leaves if any country club guests are in there.

So anyway, once we were done, we were going to take formal pictures, but I don’t know what happened or what we decided instead. I guess the point was I was going to hide out in the children’s room while Tony takes formal pictures of him and his guys. During this time, my neices kept coming in and I could see guests starting to arrive. I got kinda frustrated since the whole point of hiding out was that people can’t see me, but of course people kept coming in and out. What a stupid tradition that is (the hiding out part). So they finally moved me to the managers office. It was nice and cool in there and so quiet. I was anxious to get started and finally they called us out there.

I could hear the Richmond’s violin. He started playing Canon in D and that’s when I started choking up. My thought was, I want to run up the aisle, but knew I couldn’t because my dad is slow. So finally when the Wedding Chorus started, it was time. I finally saw Brian for the first time that day after exchanging brief phone calls and text messages. I honestly did not see anyone else. It was all a blur. We said our vows, exchanged rings, I cried (needed a hanky!) and Brian wouldn’t stop talking. He kept telling me not to be sad, but I wasn’t sad, just emotional.

It was a quick ceremony, I didn’t time it but it was nice and short and traditional. The one thing I remembered was that the air conditioner kicked in, so I hope everyone was able to hear. Lou Whitworth did a great job officiating. EDIT: Yung also did a great job with the reading. Thanks for filling in with such short notice.

We marched back and went and hid in the side hallway while the guests left. We skipped the receiving line since we were going to do rounds during the reception. After the guests cleared the room, we took some formal family pictures (which I still need to upload). I hate formal pictures, but I guess we have to do them for the family. After that, the wedding party went out to the golf course to take some photos. This was the best part, as it was truly fun. Some funny moments were all 8 of us including robert piling into the golf cart. Brian freaking out because he thought we were going to break the thing. Tony taking some shots of us running and jumping and one of the girls dresses flying up (we deleted that one!) Then Sheri came out to fetch us since it was time to go back in and start dinner. The one thing I was disappointed about is that we never took formal shots with myself and the bridesmaids. I guess we forgot…

The DJ made his announcements, and Harlan said his prayers. This is when Brian and both noticed people missing. AHEM, don’t friggin send an RSVP card and not show. There are some that had a good reason and we hope that everything is ok. But some that just plain didn’t show or didn’t call or didn’t email to let us know afterwards. I think we had about 30 people not show. That’s quite a bit in terms of dollars. I didn’t really care about wasting the food at the point, I was just upset. It was the one thing that ruined both our nights. I actually wanted to cry. Of course most of those people were from my guest list and some of them were family that lived 20 minutes away. Whatever. My mom said it doesn’t matter at this point, if they decide to be that way, then there’s no reason to care about them. Which I don’t anymore. And the point is the people that really mattered and really cared were there, and for that we thank you.

Dinner was good, I ate a little. I had a piece of steak (undercooked by the way) and a piece of chicken. That was it. I guess my appetite was still not there. I wish I could have enjoyed that part. People said the food was good, I hope so. I didn’t even get to drink at my own wedding, I had one sip of a cocktail and a couples sip of the champagne! Oh well. We were going to do the toast a bit later, but since I was done with dinner we went ahead and moved that up. Kate, Matt, and Jassin all did a wonderful job. Kate even got emotional.

Anyway, after the toasts, we cut our cakes. Mmm cake, we’re still eating it today. Then we had our first dance to You and Me by Lifehouse. This was one of the moments I’ll remember. It was super sweet. At first we didn’t suspect many people dancing, but the DJ did a good job of keeping at least some people on the dance floor all night. We did our rounds. Brian and I snuck outside to take some more pictures. Then my old HS friends came out and we took some pictures with them. By then it was about 9:30 and people were starting to leave. Brian and I were both ready to go as well. I was super tired and just wanted some sleep. We went back inside, danced our last dance. Talked to some people. And finally made our way out the door by around 10:30 or so in the freshly shoe polished car. Thanks Matt and Jassin. Brian still needs to clean some of it off. With any luck he’ll probably get it all off by our first anniversary.

We drove out to the Hilton Anatole. Checked into our room, got our champagne, which Brian was a wuss about opening the bottle.

The next morning we had appointments for massages. We got breakfast for the room, checked out the awesome parlor next door and had our yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, hashbrowns, OJ and coffee (this was the first real food I enjoyed all weekend). I had to rush since my appt was first. They only had one masseuse so they couldn’t get us both at the same time. But I enjoyed it. Brian came down after I was done. We checked out at noon, stopped by my parents house to get some gifts from them. Then left to go pick up Wendy’s for lunch. Brian’s parents came over with some gifts which we opened. Then we both went and got our haircuts and ran some quick errands before heading back to Brian’s parents hotel to get the rest of the gifts and stuff. The flowers were still in good shape. We got our leftover cake. Came home, had dinner, packed for our honeymoon and went to bed. We had to be up at 3am on Monday to get to the airport. I’m glad we left on Monday instead of Sunday morning, we needed the extra day to take care of stuff. Reesey went home to New Braunfels, and we missed her during our honeymoon. More recaps about the honeymoon later…

Click here for slide show

So the rehearsal went without a hitch, not that there should be any. We felt kind of rushed only because they have a Sweet 16 birthday party going on with MTV filming it. I have to make Brian watch that show to see if it makes it on TV. After dinner we then headed off towards Pappas Pizza for dinner. I love love their pizza but with all that was going on, I had half a slice a pizza and wasn’t very hungry. Thanks to the inlaws for organizing the dinner.

After that Julie, Kate and Robert and I headed off to the hotel. We weren’t sure what our plans were for that night, but decided to stay in and gossip and catch up was much more fun than going out for drinks. Unfortunately I got a call at around 10pm from a friend that was supposed to do the reading during the ceremony. I guess she had personal issues and couldn’t make it to the wedding. I was gravely disappointed, and I won’t repeat what others said about the situation. To keep myself from being upset, I just told myself, if I wasn’t that important to put all things aside, then this person is neither important. I mean I just don’t ask people to be in my wedding or personally invite people to the wedding if I didn’t think they were important or wanted them to be there. What happens to one on their wedding day will never be forgotten, I’ll leave it at that. I had a blast that night. We watched the Devil Wears Prada on pay per view, and went off to Walgreens for some snacks. Robert bought a buttload of drinks. I think we stayed up till 1:30 that night. We then went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to back out to the other room. Robert was still up working on his laptop, so we just talked about his teaching job. Julie then got up and joined us. Finally at around 2 or 3 we all decided it was time to sleep. I woke up at 6. Sat around while everyone was still asleep. Finally by 8am I think Julie and Robert were waking up. We decided to go get breakfast at La Madelines. I had half a croissant and a few spoonfuls of the parfait. Ugh, I couldn’t eat anything! I ended up taking the yogurt with me hoping I can finish it, but of course that ended up in the trash. When we got there, Erin, our hair and makeup person was already there. I felt bad for being late but we ate as fast we could. I went over to the main clubhouse and the rest of Brian’s family were there ready to help set the tables. I threw off orders and walked back to the girls locker room to see if everything was ok. Came back and helped a little while Erin was working on my sister’s. Silly mom didn’t want her makeup done, so I told my sister to take her spot. After this point things were kind of a bit blurry. We sat around the girls locker room. I ordered Jason’s deli for lunch. Had a couple slices of sammiches which amounted to half a sandwich. Tony our photographer showed up at noon. By then Erin was working on Brian’s mom, I think.

I will post more later once we get pictures…it’ll make these posts much more interesting.

Vendor Reviews:

Well my wedding day was a complete blur, I don’t remember much and I wasn’t even drunk, I had ONE sip of my drink! So my one advice is to just enjoy and relax. The one thing I do remember is saying my vows, I tried really hard not to break down, but eventually did start crying. Brian kept telling me not to cry, and I kept telling him to stop talking during the ceremony.

Anyway, it’s finally my turn to do vendor reviews, so here goes:

Photographer - Tony Valadez A+++++, enough said. Tony is not only an extremely talented photographer, but very fun to work with. He’s personable and fast with returning stuff back to you. He is my favorite vendor. I should get all the pictures this week. He claimed I was his most difficult bride bc I didn’t express how I felt about the pictures. That is not the case at all. I guess I’m not the type to jump and scream over stuff. I do love his quality of work and will consider him for future photo sessions. He has an eye that’s completely unique from any other photographers I’ve seen or researched.

Cakes - The Cake Guys – A+++++, they are my second favorite vendor. OMG, everyone talked about how beautiful the cakes were and of course how delicious they were. I still couldn’t believe how good the white cakes are. I’ve never had white cake this good. We ended up with strawberry cream and amaretto filling for the brides cake, and plain choc. for the grooms cake. I can’t wait to get home to have the leftovers!! They were also easy to communicate with via email, it takes them a couple days to respond, but they always do.

DJ - DJ Ralph with bookdjralph.com – A+++++. Originally we sent him a CD of songs we liked, but no one was dancing. So finally he was able to play music the guests would dance to. Not only did he show up extra early (an hour early) but he’s great to work with AND his prices are incredible. I don’t see how people can’t find a good DJ for under 1000 bucks.

Dress – Bridesmart – currently Alfred Angelo on LBJ and Preston – A+ – I had a budget and needed to stick to it. The service here is incredible but the selection was ok. Luckily I found THE dress which was a discontinued obscure name brand that I loved. I originally was going to sell it, but I think I’ll keep it. I love my dress. I only gave them one plus because I returned the following week after paying for my dress to pick it up and found that the exact dress was 50% off and they wouldn’t give me a discount. Oh well. Again the service there was impeccable even during the busy hours.

Alterations - Becky Fowler – A+++++, she made me feel like a princess. Not only did she do a good job on the alterations, but my bustle stayed on all night even when people were stepping on my train. On top of all that, after the dry cleaners screwed up some of the beadings, I took it back to her to get it fixed. She did it for FREE. I insisted on paying her because she’s just that awesome. One thing to note, you do have to call her to see if your dress is ready, otherwise she’ll forget.

Invitations - DIY kit from Target, printing at Kinkos. I prefer the printing at Kinkos versus Office Depot because the ink is so much more crisp and it was only a couple dollars more than the other locations. In all I spent about 100 bucks for 150 invitations (not including stamps). The invitation kits were kinda drab and boring so I added some tissue paper and ribbons to reflect my wedding colors. Everyone complimented on how pretty they were.

Reception and Ceremony site - Brookhaven Country Club A+++ – Sheri the event coordinator is great. She just doesn’t know who you are unless you mention your wedding date. The food was great, or so I hear. We had london broil, chicken saltimbocca, and pan fried trout along with sides. They not only do a great job with the food and setup, but I dropped my stuff off (candy buffet, pictures, etc) and she put it altogether for me. The location is even better, right near Addison so all my guests stayed in the Beltline strip in Addison and all raved about how cool that area was. I only rank Brookhaven a bit lower because apparently Sheri had mentioned we can get ready in the girl’s locker room and some stuck up rich lady got Tony kicked out because he’s a guy in a lady’s locker room. Sheri was able to talk them into letting him back in which was fine. Also, at the end of the night while MIL was packing up our stuff, one of the staff coordinators tried to claim that some of the stuff was theirs, but I think we got everything. The other negative is that she left before the night was over, there was another coordinator there, but I guess I would’ve preferred for her to stay the entire night – just one of those bridezilla things….I should however rank them higher, because she let us have the ENTIRE clubhouse for no extra charge which is an added bonus.

Flowers - Jordan Payne with www.abridesdreambyjordan.com A+++++ – Jordan is an event coordinator and also a floral designer. Too bad I only used her for the flowers because she is just super cool. Her prices are a bit steep but for the beautiful bouquets it was worth it. I still stayed within a reasonable budget with her at under 900 bucks for 3 bouquets, 14 bouts and corsages, ceremony arrangements, and flowers for the cake. She even threw in rose petals for the cake table which I didn’t expect. Also, I loved my bouquet, it had just the right amount of colors and mix of flowers.

Minister - Lou Whitworth with Love Notes – A+++++ – everyone complimented at how great he was. Originally we booked with Marty but since I changed my ceremony time, he was no longer available. Lou is awesome nonetheless and showed up right on time for both the ceremony and rehearsal. Not only that but he was able to accommodate a reading that a friend was supposed to do but backed out last minute. He gave a different friend some very last minute suggestions (10 minutes before ceremony) and she did an awesome job.

Violinist - Richmond Punch www.richmondpunch.com – he actually found me on my blog. At 200 bucks, he’s awesome. He plays the heck out of a violin and was very professional. I hope he succeeds as he is new to the wedding scene. He showed up early for the ceremony and right on time for rehearsal. For the price he’s charging, he’s definitely one of my good deals for this wedding.

Bridesmaids dresses - David’s Bridal at Arapaho and Tollway (now closed) – A+++++ – they came in 4 weeks early, AND I got a discount because they thought I had bought my dress with them. WOOHOO. The service here was way better than the one located off of 75.

Hair and Makeup (wedding day and bridals) - Erin Blair – Knottie Dangerkitty – A+++++, I was a bit disappointed she wasn’t available for my engagements because she is just that awesome. Everyone complimented on my makeup and she is super nice. Not only did she show up on time for my wedding day (I felt bad, I was 10 minutes late), but also woke up extra early on Sunday to do my hair and make up for my bridals. Also her prices are amazing, she needs to start charging more because she is that great. MIL had her hair and makeup done as well but complained about her face being itchy at the end of the night. I of course had no issues, and I rarely wear makeup, so I guess some skins may be sensitive. But anyway, I loved my hair and makeup and she gave me exactly what I wanted.

Hair and Makeup (engagement) - Kelly Espinosa – A+++++ – She was also super nice and woke up early to do my hair and makeup for my engagements. I scheduled a bit early with her and my session didn’t start until 5pm, but both my hair and makeup lasted the entire day.

I hope I’m not missing anything else, but will post more if i do think of other vendors.

Alright alright, I’m going to document this in phase as I have a ton of thoughts running through my mind that I want to put down. I guess I’ll talk about prewedding stuff and then move on from there. Hopefully I’ll have a full recap done by the end of this week.

Wednesday the 30th was my last day of work before the wedding. I left a ton of issues open at work that I was really worried about and it is my sole responsibility to take care of and hate having to shove it off to someone else. But I did as much as I could and left work at around 5:30. By then my sister and brother and their family were in town. They were all staying at my parents. So Brian and I met up at home and drove down to have dinner with them. At this point I pretty much had everything done, the programs were assembled most of the things were purchased, we just had a few odds and ends to take care of. Thursday was my day off, and Brian was still at work. His work folks threw us a work shower which was super nice of them. I like his coworkers, they seem nice. Anyway, let’s backtrack, before that I had to get my nails done. And before that I was exchanging IM’s with Brian at work about where I should stay on Friday. By the time I got to the nail salon I only had an hour left before I needed to leave for the shower. So I rushed the girl and was off. I felt awful having to bail early, but I guess it was ok, they’ve got work to do, and I had to stop by the most awesome seamstress, Becky Fowler to pick up my dress in Irving. I was about 10 minutes late for my 2 o’clock appt with her, but oh well. She sewed back on every single missing beads that the dry cleaners messed up, AND she didn’t charge me. I had to write her a check anyway since she is just that awesome. Then I decided to stop by the Ft. Worth Flower Market since I’ve heard such good things about them. OMG, it was a complete waste of time. I guess I was expecting some grand flower market with all sorts of selections but they had a couple buckets with some dying roses. It was truly disappointing and a complete waste of half a tank of gas. I still needed some flowers for the table decorations, and since I didn’t have a Sam’s card and wasn’t sure what their selections are like, I decided to stop by Central Market. They had a ton of gerber daisies in orange and fushia and they were so fresh. On top of that, the prices were wayyyy cheaper than what I saw at the FW Flower Market. 1 dollar a stem versus 1.89 a stem, can’t be beat!

I finally got home at 5, walked the Reesers and was getting ready to go by my parents to spend more time with the family. It’s sad that I only see them once every 2 years. I think my parents were happier to have the kids together than about the wedding itself, which is fine by me. That night my sister and I went to Target and wandered around and I bought her kids some stuff. I dropped them off and came home to spend the rest of the night with Brian before getting married.

Friday, this was the last day as a bachelorette. It’s not like I was sad to be leaving singlehood behind but it was quite surreal. I still don’t feel like an adult. I’m still the youngest personnel in my company and I’m getting married. It was all too weird. Brian and I slept in but finally decided we needed to get going. We had some shopping we needed to do. He picked up his gifts for this groomsmen while I went around looking for anything I may find useful for the honeymoon or wedding itself. All I found were a couple of hairpins. We went home, exchanged wedding gifts. He gave me diamond stud earrings and I got him cologne, a tie tack, and a Coach wallet, which he didn’t like by the way. I hate him! He wants to exchange the wallet for something else. Arg. Oh well. We then decided to go meet his mom for lunch at Burger House off Marsh. This was the first and last meal I enjoyed that weekend. Mmm chili dog and fries! We then stopped by Sam’s just in case I found something in bulk we needed but of course didn’t find anything. Brian dropped off, while I went to check into the hotel before getting ready for the rehearsal. My bridesmaids were either just getting into town or still at work at point. I decided to take a quick detour to Walmart and found more candy for the candy buffet and finally met Brian at the Hilton Suites. We hung out there for an hour got dressed, I wore my black and white dress that I had just purchased earlier that week. The dress was originally supposed to be my exit dress, but Brian nixed that idea because he wanted me in all white. Of course white dresses are no longer in season or they just don’t make them because I didn’t find one. Oh well. I had to go pick up my parents before heading off the Brookhaven and by that point I was a little frazzled because I didn’t want to be late. In addition to that, it would be the first time the entire family would meet and of course that was also nervewrecking. I guess I should give fair warning that my family is 10 times more reserved than I am, so I hope they didn’t appear standoffish.

Alright, more to come later.

I seriously can’t wait to get these back. Tony Valadez is so awesome.

Tomorrow is my Friday. Thank goodness. I thought it would never come. I was looking through my “box” of old stuff that Brian and I have been exchanging. Cards, pictures and such. Memories….Too bad hotmail deleted over 200 emails we exchanged back in the day. I was so distraught.

Anyway, we’re meeting with our reception coordinator tomorrow to finalize everything. I guess we have enough RSVPs to give them a count. We also have all our junk we’re going to give them. I realized I need 2 more jars for our candy buffet and a scoop. I’ll have to stop by Walmart to pick up a couple more bags of candy.

The programs are ready as well. I spent last night putting them together. It wasn’t as hard as I thought and it turned out better than I thought, although I could use thicker cardstock. Oh well.

Thursday will be a busy day. I am going to pick up my dress. I need to call all the vendors. I need to go by the Ft. Worth Flower Market to buy some flowers. I need to get my nails done. We need to pick up the tuxes. That’s it I think.

On Friday, I need to buy last minute stuff, and basically relax until the BIG DAY. EEEEK.

I haven’t worked out in 7 days. I feel terrible and awfully tired. I am so not relaxed and have been moody and crying. ugh.

OMG it’s almost here. We’ve been getting gifts in the mail. Yippee! So far only one thing broken :-(

But yeah this place is a mess. Boxes have taken over, mail all over the place, laundry not put up. Arg. I actually had a dream I was scrubbing the tub. Yeah right. I asked Brian if we can hire a maid to come over but he said no. We just need someone to help us tidy up for one day. My brother came into town Wednesday night with his family, but I think, they’re already in Florida. I wish I was at DisneyWorld. My sister and family is actually driving from MN and is on her way today. Crap I forgot to ask her if she brought the guestbooks. Brian and I will be shopping for gifts today, separately. I also gotta stop by and pick up my parents so they can go see Brookhaven.

I also dropped off my dress at Becky’s yesterday after work. I will be picking it up Thursday. I am still sad at what happened to it. Stupid cleaners.

Work has been totally hectic, I guess I’m finally starting to feel the pain and frustration. Sigh… I’m so ready for that vacation, even though I’ll be leaving at a hectic time. But you know it wouldn’t be so bad if things got done right away as promised. OK, end of that vent.

I guess I should also take my programs to Kinko’s to get printed. I may have to change the design a bit. It’s going to be a fast week!!!