Day 1: 11/2/08

Flight was at 11am. We were at the airport at 8:30. Jon set a wake up call for 7 and a shuttle to the airport for 8am. I forgot all about daylight savings time and was up an hour earlier. I wasn't tired, very excited. They had a really nice breakfast at the hotel.
Side track-it took me 15 min to wash my hair-conditioner, shampoo, shampoo, and conditioner again. Then another 20 min of picking out the knots.
Our seats on the 3 hour non-stop flight to Orlando were right behind first class. Plenty of leg room, but the seats still lacked butt room. Being that close to first class I saw the differences. They were served ice water pre-flight, unlimited alcohol, and a 3 course meal! I brought my Ipod to listen on the plane-completely dead. We arrived early. Got our bags quickly and intact. Hand picked our car-a gray Aveo. Jon's driving, of course, directions are supplied by the Garmin that Margaret provided-works great! Arrived at the hotel-OMG!! Words cannot describe-I took tons of pictures of the rooms.

We were going to go to Sea World for 1/2 a day, but ended up soaking in this awesome room. Then we were hungry, we hadn't eaten since breakfast at the hotel. It was now around 6pm. Using the yellow pages and Garmin, we found a Japanese restaurant called KOBE. Very similar to Benihana. There was an hour wait for the dinner show, so we went to the sushi bar. There was only one guy working there and he was swamped with orders. The dinner table ended up being ready before our sushi was, so we waited for the next table. All good things come to those who wait. I should have that saying etched somewhere. Food was great and there were people at our table with great conversation. One lady was staying at the same hotel as us. There was a family of 5 from France too. So diverse here. After dinner we set the Garmin to find a Target, but drove past a Wal-Mart. Jon doesn't like Wal-Mart but since it was right there we went in and bought food and other non-food items for the week. $60 later we had breakfast and lunch for the week. Plan was to eat dinner out only. Back to the hotel. Drew a bath in the hot tub. A little too hot because it actually felt like a hot tub. We went to bed early.

The Wedding Day

The day started off with the girls getting their hair done. It didn't take that long. Everyone was able to do whatever they wanted and the stylist were able to pull off some great work. I was very impressed-everyone looked fantastic. Erin brought a fake hair piece to use on herself but ended up not using it and then offered it to me. It matched my hair perfectly and really added some volume-which I don't have. Olaf ended up loading all my photos from the wedding day onto his hard drive so I don't have anything to post for pictures yet. I also do not have my professional photos yet. I will add photos when I get them.

After the hair dos we went to the hall. Some of the girls headed over early and started setting up. By the time I got there most of the stuff was already set. Jessie did a great job on the flower arrangements-they were beautiful. Having the black napkins to break up the all white table cloths really looked nice also. We had about a half hour to get ready for photos. We all crammed into the bathroom and became really close fast. We took a few individual photos while we waited for all the girls to be done. Once everyone was done we took the girl group photos. We headed outside and took some there. Outside were two shiny silver and red Corvettes. They belonged to the owner and his son. Since the girls were in black and I was in white we went with the stand out red car. I can't wait to see these photos! A car would drive up and the girls would all scream for me to take cover in case it was Jon (who didn't want to see me before the wedding). When we were done we went into the "office" for K&J. It was the boys' turn. I haven't seen any of these and don't really know what kind of poses they even did.

The girls and I waited in the office until almost right before the start of the ceremony-then we headed out the kitchen and came around to the back door. We were going over the essential wedding stuff; something old=my bracelet was from high school prom, something new=dress, something borrowed-this stumped us until Erin yelled "MY HAIR!", something blue=my hankie tucked into my cleavage.

The officiant was supposed to be there at 3:30 to go over the ceremony. 5 min before the ceremony was supposed to start-he showed up. I was not a happy bride, but at least he was there. I had the entire ceremony outlined and had what he had to say word for word typed out. We gave him our vows and asked that he feed us the lines. We asked if he needed us to write our names on them so he knew whose was whose. He said he was fine. When the ceremony started he was not fine. He read the outlined ceremony word for word-straight through to the end. He skipped over Margaret and Jadah doing readings and then fed us our lines 2-3 words at a time. I'm surprised anyone even understood what we were saying. He almost pronounced us before I looked at him and between gritting teeth said, UNITY-GET OUT OF THE WAY. Seriously, he skipped over the part in the outline that said Unity Sand. He pronounced us, we headed out. Started gathering for the receiving line and he came over to congratulate us. I didn't want to shake his hand. Everyone backed away as I voiced my concern about how he performed. I asked for my check back and he gave it back. I would have also liked my other payment back, but he did show up and when we returned from the honeymoon we already had the official license in the mail.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Margaret and Jadah had decided pretty much as soon as they were skipped by the officiant that they would do their readings during the dinner before the toasts. They each added a little something at the end that of course got me teary. Dinner was great-the plates were kind of small so I didn't get a chance to eat some of the items. My mom brought home all the leftovers and froze them, so we had them when we returned on Sunday and for the past two days. Jon had Monday and Tuesday of this week off so dinner has been pretty easy for him with leftovers. There was lots of dancing and drinking (videos will come later also)-I hope everyone had a blast because we had so much fun we ended up leaving earlier than expected. Around 10pm Mike drove us to our honeymoon hotel next to the airport. The beds were smaller than our one at home, so funny thing, our wedding night we slept in separate beds.

Next posts will be the honeymoon-one day at a time...

**there are too many photos for blogging. To see wedding photos go to facebook or myspace.

Catch Up

So it was a busy few days leading up to the wedding day so I didn't get a chance to write about the rehearsal, dinner, and Fogo.

We had rehearsal on Thursday October 30 because many of our friends are first time parents and we thought it would be nice for them to enjoy that first moment with their kiddies. When we showed up for rehearsal I noticed a couple people in costume. I didn't think much of it because I saw the same outfits on facebook-I just figured they were coming from a party or going to one. Then others showed up in more elaborate costumes. Mike and Margaret were a couple of playing cards. Everyone had conspired about this for quite some time via email. Since my parents email was not working, they didn't get the memo. Knute had just came back from Amsterdam so he had a good excuse for not dressing up.

We got into the hall a little late, but everyone was great and we were able to run through the ceremony a couple times with the music. Then we were off to the Machine Shed for dinner. Everyone had fun and plenty to eat.

On Friday I went to Midway Party Rental and picked up the napkins. Then I headed to a few other stops. We were meeting a group for lunch at Fogo. Olaf, Mike and Dave met us there. Jodi and Brian came to our house and we rode together. It was the first time for Jodi, Brian and Dave. I think they enjoyed themselves. About an hour after we got done eating Jodi's parents called and asked if she would be ready for dinner-way too full. It is a meat smorgisboard.

After lunch Jodi helped me get last minute stuff for the wedding. Then we headed to her brother's house to go trick-o-treating. When done she took me to the hotel. There was a hand off with Tamara-who spent the night with me. I was so wound up that I couldn't sleep and just wanted to keep talking. She finally said, if we go to bed now we'll get this amount of sleep. I still ended up waking up before the alarm...nerves/excitement.

Next up...the wedding day!

Counting down...

we are down to less than week.
I had my trial run for hair, and a makeup consultation.
Turned in my dress to be pressed.
Margaret bought a serving set for the cake cutting.
I bought a vase/container at World Market for our Unity ceremony. Anyone that knows me knows I am a do it yourselfer. We went to Things Remembered and they said the mouth of the vase was too large for them to be able to etch on it. So we went to Michaels and I bought the stuff to do it myself.
Jon is having his bachelor party on Thursday after the rehearsal dinner, so I am helping clean the Moritz house tomorrow. I also need to pick up the serving set from being engraved.
Just about everyone has rsvpd (thank you), so Sunday we are going to go through who is sitting at which tables. Not so much in each seat just at each table.
Jon and I are going to pick up the rings on Sunday and I am getting my nails done.
Monday I have to give the final count to K&J.
After that we just need to pack for the honeymoon and do the last minute stuff like stopping the mail and turning in our absentee ballots. Can't forget to vote!

The Fence Is In!

The fence was installed yesterday. Jon and I came home from work to find the rest of the fence was up!

Fence Posts

We had an estimate done for fencing back on 9/10. I called them back 9/11 to go ahead. Their estimate said it would be installed within 2 weeks. That would have been yesterday. Last week the utilities were marked, so I thought they would be calling shortly after that to schedule the post digging. I called them Tuesday; they called back Wednesday saying they could come Thursday between 1 and 2. I have been working so much overtime that being short hours was not an issue, it was being away from work when I am still behind. So I asked them to call when they were 20 min out so I didn't have to take off more than I had to. I arrived at home and they were already marking for the poles. There were a few adjustments in the original measurements that had to be made because of tree roots. I went back in the house with Polly and then Jon got home around 4:30. I asked if they were still here, he said no. They never said they were leaving. We looked out at the poles-5 were not cemented and they forgot to put 2 in because we are not connecting to the neighbors fence. So I called and of course they have to give me a call back. Since we were supposed to be home for the post digging part I asked if we would have to be home again when they finish because I really don't want to take off of work again. We'll see what happens. Until the actual fence goes up we now have to watch Polly when she goes out so she does not dig in the holes that are not cemented or wrap herself around the poles and pull them out of alignment.



Edit by Jon: The 2 post have been installed and the 5 have now been cemented in. Fabric will probably be installed on Monday.

Making Way

We went to a few home improvement stores last weekend to try and buy fencing that we would put up ourselves. Not realizing that there is more to just digging some holes and tying the fence to the poles. One store gave us a quote for just the materials. The other store went straight to the installation cost. If you combined the two, the deal we got through Town and Country Fence was 1/2 that price. Now we just had to make way for the fence by clearing some trees and brush. Even though it was raining today, Jon and Mike got this accomplished.
As soon as it STOPS RAINING, we can burn some of the dry stuff.

Future fire pit.