twohipposunite's Xanga

Wedding Update! Finally...

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:36:14 GMT

*fair warning...this is VERY LONG with tons of pictures!*

Now that I've completely lost all but 10 subscribers (though I'm not so sure there were too many more to begin with...) I'll finally update about the wedding. Now that it's past a bit and I can think about it without thinking about how much I disliked it. Yup, the honeymoon was a week of talking over the wedding and major therapy session with husband and I. What would I do different if I were to do it again?
Allow me to list them and add more later:

Have the small wedding that I originally wanted with just family and close friends.
Think about location more than just "pretty." There are "pretty" places all over the nation. I'd probably end up choosing somewhere in Washington as it would have saved alot of people money (not us...but other people).
Spent less. I'm sure this is on just about anyone's list. But really, we went about 30% under budget. But I could have easily spent less on a dress, etc. And while I am glad I spent a bit on photographer I would probably be willing to pay even more for that. But I'd spend less in general. (in the end we got all the left over money, not something i knew would happen)
Had everything together to get the marriage license in time for the wedding. Waiting two weeks wasn't all that bad. But it would have saved alot of phone calls and hurried calls trying to get a license in the state we were married in. (yes, i believe marriage in God is more important than legal marriage). Infact, if anything I'd get the legal marriage over with before the wedding. But the best would be at the wedding (or at least on the same day).
Had my bridesmaids sleep in a different room than me. Haha. I'm not sure how serious about this I am. But they probably would have slept much better and gotten up earlier the next day. As it was, I slept one hour the night before and they didn't get great sleep either. Of course that could be partly due to the late night bachelorette party and the awesome lightning show.
Served JUST hor'dourves to the bulk of the guests followed by a formal reception/meal for the family and close friends. (originally i wanted just hor'dourves but MIL said "no" and that was that)
I surely would have at least had the reception catered. None of this, "order the food and also keep myself directly involved in it's preperation"!
Sent Save-the-dates.
Completed my list of desired photographs and given it to the photographer and coordinator. Yeah, i started one and didn't finish it. As a result I didn't get all the pictures I had wanted. You WILL forget on the day of your wedding what you want. ...and the photographer may not know.
Set aside a few hours for photography alone. Probably between wedding and formal reception.
The cake. I HATED the way the cake turned out. So much that I've asked the photographer to NOT put any pictures of it in the wedding album.
Had more than two people proof read the program as that I would have a) spelled everyone's names correctly b) used the correct (married) name for everyone

As you see, my list of "what i would do different" is extensive. But there are a few things that I WOULD NOT change. :)

Married my wonderful husband, Mark.
Included the people in the wedding who were included (except maybe they'd be in different orders, etc...)
Outdoor wedding. (despite 96 degrees and a bizzillion % humidity)
The dress, the attire in general.
The flowers. I loved the flowers. Yey for the florist who I never doubted.

And now for a few pictures and tales. woo hoo!

Getting ready wasn't quite as "romantic" or "dreamy" as I always imagined it might be. I suppose I shouldn't have since I have been in many a bride's rooms pre-wedding. It was okay, but I missed ....something. Maybe I just prefer not to be the bride in the situation. For I've always enjoyed the cheese and crackers which are always present ... and for my wedding I was too nervous to eat ANYTHING. I made sure to drink OJ to make sure i was hydrated and sugared up. It kept me alright until the reception (where I didn't really eat much either...i think mark and I ate before anything else when we got to our hotel...hehe)

But here are some great pictures from that: (granted I'm stealing these from the online proofs so excuse the copyright and also obey it...no stealing these from here!)

Lisa did my makeup beautifully. Too bad it didn't last long, eh? But it looked good before we left the hotel.

This is actually one of my favorite pictures of me from the day. I look alot like my mom and dad in this picture.

My sister did my hair for me. I'm glad I have a talented sister. It probably took longer than a professional hairdresser would have...but it's nice to keep it in the family. And it turned out great.

I had fun twirling my slip. It really was lots of fun!

My lovely sister-in-law (brother's wife) videoed the getting ready process. See, she is wearing one of the skirts I made.

Dress detail.

If you have an outdoor wedding...DON'T FORGET THE SUNSCREEN. (i did on the front of me.. i had a tan line from the dress and necklace)

Putting on the garter. :)

one of my favorites of my beautiful bridesmaid, Andree.

They had fun with my slip and veil too while I was peeing one last time before getting dressed. hehehe.

Putting on a wedding dress is definately a group effort!

Yey, it made me look SKINNY. Very.

Moving on now.....

Because I wanted to do pictures pre-ceremony we had Mark turn around while I arrived. He says that he saw the car and a white thing in the front window. So he assumed that there was a sheet or something covering me so that he wouldn't be able to see... The truth is that the big white thing...well, it was me and my skirt!

My MIL carrying my train for me. I'm sure my MOH was doing something important like making sure My path was clear.

Lisa kept Mark occupied and turned around.

Our first kiss of the day. Awe.

Now for the "boring" portraits...

The flowers were beatiful and smelled good too!

Bridesmaids and me. (Lynn, Andree, ME, Lisa)

Marks' side of immediate family. (not that you care ... but from left to right back to front: Darb, Andrew, Tracy, Johnathan, Bob, ME, MARK, Bonnie, Kim, David, Shelley, William)

My side of the family. (L-R: Brenda, Jesse, Mom/Carrie, ME, MARK, Erin)

All the siblings.

Bridal Party. (I almost forgot this group for pictures!)

I wish I'd actually been that peaceful!

My extended family.

Handsome Husband. :) Sexy man.

Mark and is lovely sisters.

The Ceremony!

Mark escorting his mother.

Aww... :) I think it was an extremly emotional day for her.

Flower Ladies at work! (they were plucking petals)

Finally to Mark!

It WAS a pretty site.

Gotta love Pi!

And Nephews. hehehe I seriously don't remember him crying although it's on the video and in pictures.

We did our share of laughing. I think mine was mostly nervousness.

Because we didn't want the wind to blow them out, we had our mom's light the unity candles right before we lit the main one together.

The kiss was fun. It was our one "suprise" which nobody but us knew about. After a nice kiss we wiped our mouth's and "spit" hehehe... I wish I could show you a video clip of that.

The new Mr. and Mrs.!

Awe... pretty.

We walked to the reception....and made everyone follow us.

Of course on the way we diverged and had everyone else continue while we had some great time getting fun bride-groom portraits.

We went down the slide... This is my favorite part.

and walked out on the pier....

The Reception!

Then we had our cake and ate it too.

The table decorations (one thing I loved the turnout of)

Sister and Brother in law took the photographer out. I actually wanted her to get portraits of all the sibling couples...i forgot.

The whole reception. It worked out pretty well.

At least everyone liked the punch?

And the olives ;)

I love children. :) esspecially ones who are now my nephews! Jonathan kept getting water out of the cooler for people. He'd pass it out and as a result people drank it. Yey for him!

Everyone enjoyed ringing the bells for us to kiss....even those who didn't know what it meant.

I just love this picture of Luke going down to the water.

Mark looked lovingly into my eyes enough that day to turn me on for a week! ;)

He says he had to make sure he was getting the right garter! Later he told me that he kinda wished that he had used his teeth. Pre-wedding that was the last thing he wanted to do. haha. Oh, the garter toss ended up being for married men to "get lucky" because the only single guys there were like under the age of 7. Except one who showed up 10 minutes later.

The ladies were ready! And they jumped!

Andree caught it! She seriously is the next in line to get married. She, Lisa and I are kinda groupies from like early elementry school. Lisa and I both got married this year.

I took a break in the shade for a couple minutes.

Yum.

A sure way to get tons of wedding rice in your hair and all over your body is to make sure you're nice a sweaty first with lots of hairspray and places for the little pieces to stick.

Gotta love the car!

Bye everyone!

And so concludes this year's eddition of Aliya's Wedding Story!

Sorry this is so freakishly long. But I know I'll never get back to it so figured I'd better just do it all at once. Hope you enjoyed it.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:58:40 GMT

The wedding is over...the honeymoon is basically over too.

there are a couple pictures on my beautiful bridemaid, lisa's site

When I get more pictures I'll write more and all that stuff.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 00:38:05 GMT

I shouldn't have spoken so soon on my last post about not being stressed at all.. ;)

Anyway, this is just a copy paste from my regular blog so those who read that... need not read this post. :)

We're down to just less than three days til wedding time.

I'm so relieved to have my mom here! I wish she'd been here all week. Better yet, I wish she'd been around the whole time. :)
Today we got so much done! But I'll start with Last night.
Last night my sister bought me all the makeup i'll need (new stuff!) and hot curlers for my hair and anything else we thought we might need for hair and makeup. She's the best sister ever! Then we got to work on my first hair trial. I think we might try again tonight. Who knows, i might spent the next two days just getting my hair done :) I love her.
Today Mark and Erin (sister) and I went and paid the rest on the cake...played on the super cool playground for a couple minutes and got my sister some shoes to wear.

Today my mom has helped me:
- make the last skirt (my sister in laws)
- do all the handstiching finishes on all the skirts! HUGE HELP.
- took me to pick up my dress and all the tuxes
- did i mention the skirts??? Why did i take that on myself? And why weren't they done three weeks ago when I thought they would be?
- When I realized while talking to the pianist that i still had to print my programs my mom took me immediately to walmart to get a rubberstamp and paper to print them on!

My grandma and sister cut all the tulle into thirds for me and tied bows on all the little mint and nut pails. They're the best! But they used up all the ribbon and I need to go get more tomorrow :) It's okay with me.

It's so wonderful to have my family and Mark's family all together. I can't wait til everyone's here.

Oh, and the weather situation. ....after talking with my super cool brother, who's buying and taking care of getting me some bells, i've decided to just leave the weather up to God. I'm not checking the forecast anymore and I'm just goign to trust that everything turns out perfect. :) God is awesome like that.

This wedding has come so fast. I mean, seven months ago it seemed kinda slow...but now with two days from now fast approaching... wow.

I will probably not be updating for a while after the wedding. So hopefully someone else posts some pictures for you guys to see. If anyone does, please leave a comment to let others and myself know. :) I'm totally going to be gone on my honeymoon with the most wonderful man in the world for me. :) Thank you God!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 03:46:00 GMT

i can't believe it! One week til I'll be on my honeymoon...wow

I should probably be worried about stuff now. Like getting all the little detailed crafts done and getting my birth certificate so that we can get our marriage license...

But I'm pretty much calm.

I'm nervous about the reception. Right now I don't really trust the reception coordinator. I reallllllly wish we were having it catered. Like crazy wish that we were. I don't know why I let anyone convince me otherwise to begin with. We really aren't saving any money. We might be wasting money actually.

I just hope everything comes together just right. and maybe that one thing that goes wrong will be something minor...

I've paid everything off except the food (pay when we pick it up friday) and the cake (ugh). Wow. I think everything is just about ready.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 18:52:43 GMT

Last night, despite the rain and thunder we went out to the site. As it turns out the motor home WILL work out. woo hoo. :) Though I might still want to go up the stairs for the pictures. I love the part of the park up there (actually kinda wanted the reception up there...but there's no shelter at all). It's called sunset park and I looooooove watching sunsets from there. :)

But we did find one problem that I did not expect. I swear Mark and I were out there one time and found the outlet, etc. Well, last night we went to measure to see how long of an extension cord we need and ... we couldn't find it. We looked all around the stairs.... seriously. and it was wet. So now I need to call the city hall and find out exactly where it is. maybe hiding under a bush that we didn't look under? It better still be there!

I was working on decorating my unity candle tapers today. i got one done and want Mark's opinion on it before I do the other one. If he doesn't like it then I'll have to get another candle and re-do it. I'll have to get another one because I put pins into the wax to hold the ribbon in place and the holes are not pretty uncovered. I think he'll be fine with it though. But I think i'm going to buy a new large round candle. The one I got i like alot but it just doesn't match like I thought it would.

With just over two weeks left I HAVE TO order the food tomorrow. Wow, that's come quick.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:32:53 GMT

Please read this entry and comment if you want... but MAKE SURE you look at the pictures in the post below. :)

Tonight I was watching Who's Wedding is it Anyway? ...
One of the brides was a little on the heavy side and I thought to myself, "I betcha a dress like mine would make her look skinny like it makes me look skinny." Low and behold! She had the same dress as me!!!!! And the same wedding colors too. How cool is that? Oh, and she looked great in the dress.

Also today in the mail came our wedding rice and bags! :) Very cool. So while Mark and I watched The Truth About Cats & Dogs We bagged all of it. Woo hoo. One more thing we don't need to worry about later. :)

I think today was a fairly productive wedding day.

Tomorrow we are meeting with the coordinator again. Down at the waterfall. So I get to tell her everything I want. Haha. We want the arch and aisle lined up between the waterfall and two trees across the street. Silly? nah.

We decided that a good option for where I wait would be in a motor home across the street. So what's up in the air about that? The only motor home we can think of the owners aren't sure if it'll be ready or not to be driven down there (licensing and stuff). If that doesn't work out I'll probably end up walking down those stairs... yeah, look at the picture below to see those stairs. I don't think I'd do it alone if it came to that.

On a side note: I've been growing out my hair for the last 4 1/2 years so that it'd be long for my wedding. I have definately succeded in that. But... I don't know if i can part with it after the wedding now. But it can definately be a pain to deal with sometimes.....like when I'm laying on it and can't get up or when Mark and I are cuddling and he's laying on it and I can't get up.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 18:39:38 GMT

Picutres ...finally!

The flowers:
This is basically what the bridesmaids will have and represents the two colors we'll have throughout the wedding.

And here's the personalized cake topper that my brother made for us. Yup, we really are two purple hippos. (a few different views)

Here's my ring (cause some of you missed it the first time around)

Some examples of how I basically want my hair to be:

Another wedding where our wedding is at... (I couldn't find a picture on my computer of the waterfall but it's in front of where the front of this wedding is)

And My invitation. Yes, I made all of it....with a little help with design from Lynn and assembly from Mark.

Outside

Insides (the inserts go into the pocket)

The wording:

More review:

My dress:

Bridesmaid Dress (on Lynn):

And review of bridal party, etc..

Bridesmaids

Lynn H. (Friend of the Bride)

Lisa H. (Friend of the Bride)

Andree A. (Friend of the Bride)

Groomsmen

Darwin D. (Brother in Law of the Groom)

Jesse F. (Brother of the Bride)

David D. (Brother in Law of the Groom)

Flower Ladies

Tracy D. (Sister of the Groom)

Shelly H. (Sister of the Groom)

Kimberly D. (Sister of the Groom)

Erin F. (Sister of the Bride)

Brenda F. (Sister in Law of the Bride)

Pastor

William H. (Brother in Law of the Groom)

Pianist

Gary G. (Friend of the Groom)

Ceremony Coordinator

Joan M.

Guest Book

Eliece C.

Photographer

Jen Kroll Photography

Flowers

Sky’s The Limit

Monday, June 26, 2006

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 04:13:12 GMT

It's funny how things turn around. I'm starting to wonder If we'll actually have 125 people at the wedding now. As opposed to being scared that too many people will show up. I wish I had a better count. i think we've got about half the RSVPs back. They still have a week to show up before the given deadline. I'll be happy with fewer people. I want a small intimate wedding anyway. But if 80 people are showing up I don't want to order food for 125 or tables and chairs for 125.....ya know.

This last week I accomplished almost everything on my goal list for the week. I didn't get the invites mailed out but I did get them ready to stick in the mail box.

The skirts are just needing the finishing touches now (hem and hook and eye). For the pregnant sister I made a maternity dress thing today. I don't think it'll fit her. I need to tear it appart and make it smaller. It is also shorter than the other skirts. I hope she won't mind...and that she's shorter than I remember her being.

There is a ton of important stuff to do this week. including, but not limited to, ordering food, paying all the vendors the rest of the money, finishing skirts and other stuff like that.

I decided to use wedding rice instead of bird seed. This is because I don't think the park would be very happy if they ended up with millet growing in their grass. And since the reception (and get away) is directly behind the city hall... The wedding rice will be nice. I don't like bubbles. They are WAY overused lately. Maybe for my second reception I'd be fine with that though.

When i went and talked with the florist this week she gave me the flowers we'd been playing with. So I've been meaning to take a picture. But I haven't yet. They are sitting in water on the dining table. I will take a picture as soon as I find new batteries to put in Mark's camera.

I also intend on taking a picture of my cake topper. And my invitations. I promissed that one a LONG time ago. Sorry.

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for my nails for the wedding. i am pretty sure I want my toe nails painted. They are pretty ugly. If they were nice I'd do the french tip look. But my feet aren't cute. My nails never grow long. Today I buffed them all (hands and feet) and I think I'm just going to try growing them out best I can and buff them up for the wedding. Nice and Natural. The way I really am. And It's what will probably look the best too.

I can't believe the wedding is only three weeks away! I have lots of detail work to do. And not so minor detail stuff too. Like the whole program.

I am dedicating my boquet to my Dad. He died a few years ago and this way I will be sort of "walking down the aisle with him" if you will. I'll write this into the program.

Do you think i should get bottles of water and sit them on each chair? This is an outdoor wedding and I hope it'll be sunny. Sunny will mean it's hot. The water will get hot sitting out. Would it be better (or tacky) to have a bucket with ice at the back as people come in they can grab one?

Oh, I also ordered our cake knife and server. The server has our names and the wedding date engraved onto it. It's goign to be pretty.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:36:19 GMT

This weekend my wonderful and sexy and handsom and sweet fiance drove down state to our house (duplex) to pick up some stuff we needed for the wedding or honeymoon (table cloth, hiking boots, etc) and also because our cell group (group from church) threw a shower for us. It was wicked fun. :) Because we are camping for our honeymoon it was a honeymoon / camping themed shower. They gave us sooooooo much camping stuff. Like a two room tent, an air mattress, lantern, little stuff like hot dog / marshmallow toasting sticks, and other important things that are too many to list. Our friends are awesome.

One of the games we played was "blow up the air matress with straws" game. We split into two groups and had a contest to see who could get it full the fastest. After a while my team was loosing more air than we were gaining. Bother. Although we were ahead fromt he begining we ended up loosing in the end. Oh well.

We also created our child. Named the monster selma and got a family picture. If i knew where the disk of pictures was I'd be uploading some.

And everyone got together to embarrass us by giving us condoms and "pills" (m&ms with perscription labels) which the doctor in the group definately helped with. I'm not sure why we needed both viagra and birth control though. haha.

For the meal we had hot dogs, corn on the cob and some salads (pasta and potato). We ate leftovers twice the next day too! Oh dear. I think I have had my fill of hotdogs for at least a few weeks now. This will be the meal at our rehersal dinner too.

This week my goals are:

get any last invitations out, fiind address for one returned invitation
call florist to set up appointment. Decide on new floral arrangements and confirm drop off time.
send cake lady color samples that I want on the cake and a picture of the inspiration also a picture of the cake topper. Confirm drop off time.
Make two more skirts and buy pattern to make matternity dress for fifth sister.
Order birth certificate that I didn't know I needed for the marriage license.

I think that's enough for this week.

It's less than a month until the wedding now! Four weeks from yesterday! And 3 weeks until my mom and grandma and sister get here!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:34:05 GMT

Future FIL has logic!
After I was talking with FMIL about wedding rice and cake servers she talked to FFIL who basically said, "well, it's thier money". EXACTLY my point. I mean, it's money they have and are offering to us to pay for something specific... so it's as though it's our money for a specific thing. So today FMIL appologized and told me they were going to write us a check for the rest of the money that we can deposit when they get the money into their account (the 23rd) and use it to pay off everyone (vendors). This will be soooo much better. I wish they'd just done something like this from the begining. Would have made everything so much easier. ...and I can sneak in the photos for my mom too *shush* (it's actually only 75 dollars for an album for the parents). Anyway, I'm happy about this new arrangement.

We are meeting with our reception coordinator today. So I've been working on laying out the whole menu and that kind of stuff. I need to call the cake lady and talk to her about when she is going to drop off the cake, etc and set up another meeting with her to go over colors n' stuff.