Our First Anniversary

Today marks our first wedding anniversary! Honestly, I can't believe it's already been a year. It feels like yesterday that we were organizing, planning and executing our big day.

 

We got married in Pleasanton, California which is about an hour and a half from where we live in Sacramento. We got married on a Sunday but we went over to Pleasanton on Friday. We wanted to settle into the hotel, greet a lot of our out of town guests and get ready for our big wedding weekend. Saturday was our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (we had it an Italian place called Strizzi's). On Sunday we woke up to a horrible rain storm. The rain was coming down and the winds were high. The winds were so high in the morning that cars were having to pull over to the side of the highway. During the rain storm, our videographer went to the wrong Marriott BUT thankfully, the rain stopped before noon.

We absolutely loved our wedding venue. The venue was perfect for the look, feel and décor theme that we were going for. They also had some great Christmas options since our wedding was taking so place to the holiday. Plus the food was melt in your mouth good. Everyone raved about how the food was amazing. Our wedding was plated and we served three courses and of course cake!

During our wedding we exchanged our own written vows, tossed the garter, threw my bouquet, cut the cake, danced our first dance, smiled, laughed and cried. We also had a first look before the ceremony. Looking back on our wedding, I didn't realize how stressed out I was leading up to our big day. Once it was all over it was like this huge weight off our shoulders. The day went by in a flash. They say it always does but they are right! The day was here and gone before I could blink. I'm so happy we have our wedding video! I literally watch our short teaser wedding video at least once a week. I love it! (here you can watch it if you'd like) It's like walking down memory lane. I haven't been through the hard drive that has about 9 hours of raw footage. One day.... I'll sit and watch it all.

So here we are... one year later. I love my husband more than on our wedding day. I didn't think that could ever be possible but I do. During our first year of marriage we went through new life experiences, good and bad challenges and many memorable moments. The constant throughout the year no matter what the circumstance was the fact that we love each other. We know that we are in this together. I can't imagine never not having him by myself. I love you boo and here's to our first year and on to the next.

My Wedding Style

We finally got our photos back from our wedding photography and I couldn't be more excited! Now I can share my special day with all of you and show off my fabulous wedding details. First thing up... my wedding dress! My dress was a Maggie Sottero and is named the Chelsey. I had originally seen this dress online and instantly loved it. It was the dress that I had to try on.

In November of 2014, I went to a local bridal boutique when I was in my hometown for Thanksgiving. I had called and asked if they had that dress and they told me yes. I got there and sure enough they didn't. They didn't have any of the Maggie Sottero collection. The consultant wasn't listening to me when I told her what I was looking for and brought me ball gowns. That was the furthest thing from me that I wanted. So when my mom came to California for Christmas we went to the Bridal Box in Roseville. I had called ahead of time and made sure that they had the Chelsey in store for me to try on. As soon as I got to my private appointment, I made sure the dress was pulled and put into the fitting room. I also chose a few others to try on but I tried this one on first and knew.

 

What you may not realize is the top was a jacket that was separate from the dress. I didn't realize it either until we had my appointment. I knew I didn't want to wear my gown as a strapless so I had my jacket altered and attached to the dress to make one piece. My dress came into town in June of 2015 and I had to hold on to it for another six months before I could wear it. I also went down 28 pounds from the time I bought it to when I wore it so I had to have it taken in a few sizes.

I love how my dress turned out. I love that it perfectly fit our theme and venue. To finish off our winter look I wore a crystal snowflake in my hair that I searched online forever for. The place that I got my dress had many different options but no snowflakes and I was dead set on having one for our winter/Christmas wedding.

I also wore sparkly shoes. I had originally wanted to find blue shoes. I had thought about buying the shoes that Carrie wore in Sex and the City for her city hall wedding. Then I thought to myself, "A 1000 girls have worn those shoes because of that movie." For me I wanted this wedding to be about me and not what Carrie wore in SATC. So I devoured online stores and had my maid of honor looking everywhere. Well two months before the wedding, we had to visit the venue for one of our final consultations. I was sitting outside by their fountain waiting for our consultant to finish up and randomly found them from Nordstrom. I ordered them instantly online and a few days later they were on my door step.

 

They went perfectly with my dress and theme. They were comfortable and classy. I loved them! They can even be worn again with another white dress. I love how my entire wedding style turned out!

Wedding Day!

Today is the day we say, "I Do!"

I love you Boo Boo! I hope this day is all we have dreamed it would be!

Family Dynamics

I grew up an only child. My mom was 1 of 4 and had three younger brothers. Two of her brothers, my uncles were close to my age when I was a kid. One of them being 8 years older than me and the other being 10 years older. So when I was a kid they would come over and babysit me. They'd like me watch 90210 when I was about 6 years old because they were teenagers and that's what they wanted to watch. So as I got older and they got married, naturally I went to their weddings, birth of their baby, etc.

As they got older, they moved away, moved back and then moved away again. They lived in Chicago, then Washington D.C. now New York City. One of my uncles still lives in my hometown of Huntington. Then of course, I moved across the country to California. Over the years, we've spent less time together but we still see each other for the holidays, group text now and keep up with each other over facebook etc. So when Beezy and I announced that we were getting married I let my family know first thing. I know that it's a long way to come for a wedding so I wanted to give them the most amount of time possible to plan. It's no easy trek coming from West Virginia to California. To get here by plane you have to make at least two connections, it's an all day flying and it's usually a little pricey.

I get it.

I have never asked my family for anything (well besides my mom of course). When one of my uncle got married, I was there... both times. When his baby was born, where was I? At the hospital. Thanksgiving and Christmas? Well I've never missed a Thanksgiving and this past year was the first Christmas I had ever missed. When my other uncle got married. I was there. I even drove 7 hours to get there. I literally had to turn around and drive back the next day. I travelled to see them when they lived in Chicago and Washington D.C. I send them Christmas cards, wish them Happy Birthday etc. So for me to ask them to come to my wedding was the first thing I've ever done. I don't even think I asked for them to come to my high school or college graduation. My cousin was in the hospital for over and week and I texted him everyday asking him how he was because I couldn't be there.

In February I had someone in my family telling me they can't make it to my wedding. Really? Let me hear the excuses. You can't afford it? Well if you get the flight now it's only about 500.00 a person. I paid 1000.00 for my Thanksgiving flight alone. I've given you 13 months to save. Put it on a credit card and pay it off. Then they had the nerve to tell me it's 500.00 plus luggage fees. Um you don't have to check a bag! You can carry on a suitcase. I know you aren't staying out here a month. A weekend worth of clothing will fit in a carry on.

I fully expect to hear more excuses as we get closer and closer. It just really disappoints me. I mean aren't families suppose to rally together for special occasions? I'm 30 years old and this is the first time I'm getting married. I mean come on. We are even going to feed them a 3 course meal, give them free drinks and a favor at the end of the night! We are even working on transportation to and from the hotel to the venue! I'm just really hoping that it all works out. I mean who doesn't want their family to come to their wedding. I really do! All of Beezy's family will be there that's for sure.

And before anyway says, well you chose to move away. Um... so has everyone else!

The wedding is coming, now will the family come too?

TBD: Honeymoon

 

Beezy and I have been trying to narrow down our honeymoon location and it's hard! There is so many places out in the world that we both want to go to and have never been before. We originally wanted to go to Tahiti for our honeymoon but we've found out that our wedding and honeymoon is happening in their storm season. So unless we want to lay on the beach in pouring rain and possible hurricanes then we should start the search over. Back to the drawing board we went and we still haven't came up with a destination. Here is a few places that we have on our idea board...

1. BVI.

The British Virgin Islands. We didn't even have this place on our radar until Jackie went to BVI. I stalked her entire vacation on instagram and it was beautiful! It has a little bit of everything. It's got relaxing, it's got adventure, it's got water sports. It has a ton of things we want to check off our want list.

2. Italy.

Where would we start? There is so many different places to go and things to see in Italy this trip would be action packed. First you've got Rome, Pisa, Florence and the coast. The possibilities are endless. I'd want to see it all and do it all. We would need a vacation from our honeymoon once we got back. I mean really though, how cool would it be? It was be awesome. Has anyone ever been there? Where should we start?

3. Greece.

Who hasn't ever dreamed of going to Greece and seeing these blue and white beauties? Going to the site of the first Olympic games, walking around where ancient Greeks walked. It would definitely be a great trip. It has historical attractions, great weather. It would be relaxing but not beach relaxing though...

4. Maldives.

We are talking over the water sleeping hut. The weather at this time of the year would be perfect. The only issue with the Maldives is that it's half way around the globe. Right in the middle of the Indian Ocean, not far from India. If we went to the Maldives we would be relaxing the entire time working on our tans. I feel like we'd have to do a stop somewhere else though... like Dubai or another very foreign country. I just don't know how I feel safety wise on that just yet.

5. Exuma, Bahamas.

Isn't this place amazing? I know right! As soon as we found out about Exuma we were like Let's go there! It's in the Bahamas so it's not across the globe. It's going to be in the middle of great weather and did I mention they have the swimming pigs? Yes, that's right the swimming pigs...

So now you see our hard choice. We don't know which one of these great places to call our honeymoon. Where did you go on yours? Did you take one and was it right after your wedding?

Engagement Party

This weekend was one for the history books. On Saturday, we had our engagement party.

I was having quite a nice hair and make-up day if I don't say so myself. We were very excited because we had planned this party since January. We had invitations made, reserved a venue and even planned out decorations. We held the party at Ten 22 which also happens to be Beezy's birth date. We had ate there for his birthday and we really liked the restaurant and the private party space. We had it set up similar to this but this was our private room...

Our room was set up like this...

We had some of our engagement photos on the tables, our wedding colors on balloons and then of course the food. We had a great time though celebrating with both sides of his family. Getting to see everyone and our friends. Sadly, my mom couldn't fly out but she'll come out here soon. I loved our cute I do balloon...

Everyone had a great time so it was a perfect time to have everyone come together. This was our highlight for the weekend. We also had to do some other big activities this weekend but that news is coming in tomorrows post!

Wordless Wednesday

Last week we got a surprise... our photographer sent us a disc in the mail with over 100 photos from our engagement shoot! We were so happy! We loved the 30 he had given us and we didn't expect more but we were very happy about getting them. I thought I'd share our favorites...

The Blue Bridesmaids

When it came time to decide who to ask to be in our wedding, I knew immediately who I wanted to be in the bridal party. I'll have one maid of honor and three bridesmaids. I sought out clever, cute ways to ask them and went with custom made embellished cards that came in their own personal boxes. I ordered them and they took two weeks to get to me. Then with the crazy winter weather that struck the east coast and Midwest they all just recently received the cards.

 

 

I chose our wedding colors for the cardstock to give them an idea of the theme.

Thankfully they all accepted so I officially have my bridal party. The next thing on my to-do list was to search out a dress. Since the four of them live in four different states, I needed to go with a vendor that would be easily accessible in all of their states. I've heard some really good things about David's Bridal so I started looking on their website. I talked to one of my bridesmaid's because she bought her wedding dress from them and she had a great experience. I knew when I started looking on their site that I would be able to find a dress that would look good and fit with all of the girls body types. Then I found this dress...

 

It's perfect! The dress photographs well, it's floor length and fits in perfectly with our wedding style. It's a Vera Wang dress but it's not going to break the bank. That was one thing I was concerned about when looking for a gown. I didn't want to ask people to pay a huge price for a bridesmaid dress that they may only wear once in their life. This dress is under $200.00 dollars. I started playing with colors online and found the perfect one...

 

The color is called Pool. I know that color can really be subjective on a computer screen so this past weekend, I went to David's Bridal and compared color swatches. Pool is officially it! I talked to them and this dress takes 4 months to come into the store once ordered. Then it takes them another 2-4 weeks for alterations. I immediately group texted my bridal party. Now the hunt is on for shoes and jewelry!

 

I'm very excited to be one step closer walking down the isle and having my bridal party ready! I'm thinking a silver shoe. Thoughts?

San Francisco Engagement

Last Saturday we headed over to San Francisco with our photographer to shoot the rest of our engagement photos. If you missed our casual shoot with the Sacramento Kings, you can see them here. This session in S.F. was more our formal photos and ones that we will use in our guest book at the wedding. We shot in three locations: The Golden Gate Bridge, Bernal Heights Park and at a private residence (his cousin's house). We really love how they turned out. So without further ado...