.the wedding.

5.13.2010

Readers... wow.... does anyone still even read this anymore? Sheesh. Shame on me. Life got in my way and completely halted my blogging. However, with the wedding weeks behind us already, I can catch up and fill you in.

First, the wedding was amazing. Period, new line.

Recaps are in progess....but in the meantime, here is a teaser or two....



.wedding recap 1: .the week prior.

Well… let me rewind to the month prior. March 27th was my East Coast shower. It was fabulous. My mom hosted it at her house and about 15 of our relatives attended. They are mostly my aunts and moms cousins, but they’ve all been married for 33+ years, so to hear their advice was priceless.


The day after, my dad and I loaded up his truck and hit the road for Vegas, 2,496 miles and 41 hours later…. Here we were.


It was the first time that our dogs were together in over two years. They were the reason we met, so it was great to have them together.

With three and a half weeks to go until the wedding, we had to finish packing our house and move. Yes, the sale on our home that we owned went through and we were told to be out by April 30th. Uhhh… so we chose to move on April 3rd. My dad was here and was a priceless piece to this move. He was gung-ho for it… I would have been too if I lived in the same house for almost 40 years. However, both Flo and I knew what we were about to experience. We were moving from a single story to a two-story home…. The new crib is fabulous and we have a huge yard and the home is perfect for entertaining. That is great for me because almost everything we registered for is an entertaining piece.

So the first two and a half weeks of April were spent packing, unpacking, fixing up things, running wedding errands and trying to show my dad a good time in Vegas. We took him to Mix 94.1’s “Pet-A-Palooza” and ran into some good friends with their dogs… we even made the evening news! ;)


We took him to the “Vegas Dozen” party at Saks Fifth Avenue… we ate all of the Manchego cheese. And drank. A lot. It was fun. No photos were taking at this event.

And then on the 17th, we picked my mom, sister and niece up from the airport. This, to us, truly kicked off wedding week, since this was the start of the guests arriving! My uncle and the best man arrived on Monday. Tuesday we hosted a “Ster is cooking BBQ” and entertained in our new home for the first time. We had some of Flo’s BFFs over, the Zillaz and my family. It was just a sign of the good times to come. I loved every second of it.




Wednesday started the Bachelor activities… Flo rented a Fantasy Suite at The Palms hotel... I worked… and packed. It looks like the guys had an amazing time… who couldn’t?




Thursday was my bachelorette party. We reserved a cabana at the JW Marriott Pool and had plans to sit out in the sun and have some fun. It rained and was 56 degrees. In Las Vegas. In April. What are the chances? The weather didn’t dampen our fun; they moved us to a suite, we ate, we drank and we talked. What more can one bride want? My Zillaz treated me to a wonderful Vichy scrub, which I do not recommend after drinking. It was hard to not want to pass out in all of the heat and steam… but it made my skin ready for the spray tan. Three of the Zillaz and I got in-room spray tans for the wedding. Getting it two days before the wedding allowed us enough time to let it set, wash it off, etc. Well, I looked dirty in our Thursday meet and greet photos… oh well. I didn’t have to wear makeup or a bra, both of which I quite enjoyed.



Thursday also came with one heckuva tired groom, but his tiredness was no match for my blazing bridal stress. Actually, I wasn’t overly stressed once we got to the hotel and got settled. But his tiredness was no match for my to-do list. We had invited our out of town guests over for a little “meet and greet” party. Our party didn’t consist of much food, just some homemade chocolate sauce from Budelia’s Chocolate… I ordered six jars. They were delivered to one of Flo’s co-workers who was kind enough to bring them to me, except she didn’t know that we ordered six jars and she brought one. We made it work. Ironically, my dad’s friend sent us an Edible Arrangements fruit basket and it worked out perfectly. We served that, pretzels, the jar of sauce and tons of beer, wine, water and soda. It was actually quite fun.




Friday…. The day that I had set aside for Flo and me to relax and enjoy. We woke up, munched on whatever stash of food that we had in our room. Wait, Flo ran off to go do something... because I remember calling him and telling him that we needed to head to the spa at a certain time. Bridal Brain, it affected me. We had a spa appointment at noon for a couples massage. I had also booked a manicure and pedicure. When I checked in for the appointment, the mani and pedi wasn’t scheduled. It was my first “bridezilla” moment because in my head, I knew that my snaggle toe nails were in no condition to walk down any aisle without being groomed or painted. This is where the JW highly impressed me. It was a Friday, they were busy and booked. The spa hostess with the mostest told us to go and have our massages and that they would take care of it. So we did. It was 50 minutes of pure bliss; it was THE best massage that I had ever received. When we were finished, my mani and pedi were scheduled. Not just for me, but for Flo too. Wow.

While at the spa, I bumped into the fabulous, amazing Andeen of Hair By Andeen. She would be spending the nite with the Zillaz to get us ready for the wedding, but she took some time to enjoy the spa, the sun, the pool and get some much, way deserved R&R. She looked so fabulous. Every day she inspires me to become a better person.



And then…we head into the rehearsal….