The wedding!!

I finally have time to post about my amazing and busy weekend. I left on Wednesday night and flew home. The whole family picked me up from the airport, but honestly I was really tired and kind of went straight to bed. The next day, we all went to a spring training game. It was nice to spend some time with the entire family. It'll be the last time for a while since Aaron leaves tomorrow for boot camp. Mike was also there so I got to talk to him a little bit. Mike caught a baseball that one of the players threw into the crowd. We had awesome seats, really close to the dugout. Nicole and Mike ran over to try to get Orlando Hudson to sign it, but instead, Antwan Bolden signed it. I don't really know who that is, but Nicole informed me that he is a very famous Cardinal's football player. I guess he's friends with Hudson and he came with Orlando's wife and son to watch the game. So Orlando Hudson wouldn't autograph anything, but Antwan Bolden did. Weird.

Anyways, that night was the bachelorette party. Nicole planned most of it, and she did a really good job. She had decorations, party favors, catered dinner, and reservations for the Melting Pot! Yum! It was just the bridesmaids. We got all dressed up, talked about the wedding, and ate lots of chocolate. We played a little game to see how well each of us knew Beth and Jacob, and then to see how well Beth knew Jacob. It wasn't really a contest because Allison, Nicole, and I all knew Beth about equally well and Beth knew all of Jacob's answers except his first word ("moon"). That's pretty good considering, I don't even know what my first word was. We spent the night at the hotel and then the next morning all went to get our nails done. They had two people there to do all of us and the mothers, so seven people all together. It took a couple hours. Then Nicole and I went home to rest for a few hours before the rehearsal.

We drove over to the wedding location and that's the first time I had been there. The hotel was beautiful and the wedding coordinator was super nice. It was also my first time meeting the groomsmen. My "escort" was Jeremy, one of Jacob's friends from elementary school. Lucky Nicole got James, the only one that I knew. But actually all the groomsmen were really nice and generally gentlemen. A little clueless when it comes to weddings, but most guys are. Tyler was a perfect angel at the rehearsal doing everything he was asked. Then we drove to Scottsdale for the dinner. It was delicious! I'm definitely going back to that place sometime. The whole wedding party sat together and the families sat together. Jacob gave a beautiful toast. That's when I really got to know the groomsmen, actually James. Jeremy and Cory were kind of quiet on the end. But James was really fun. I am surprised. Ever since Tyler was born, we've had a difficult time accepting him, but to be honest he is a great dad and it's obvious he really cares about both of his boys. And he is just fun to be around. We got home a little after ten, and went to bed because Saturday was the wedding!

We had to stop at Wal-mart to pick up supplies to decorate the car. We figured the boys probably hadn't thought about it and we wanted to make it as easy as possible so they would actually do it. We got silly string and some cheap cans and window paint. Then we headed to the hotel. The hairdresser was already there finishing up Allison's hair, and I was next. She set my hair in big huge curlers so I got to sit around for a while looking quite strange. Karen made bows and barettes for all of us to use in our hair to keep with the pink/orange theme. They were so cute! While the hairdresser did our hair, we got the candy bar ready and all decorated, and had lunch. It was really fun hanging out with just the girls. We went downstairs to decorate the wedding location and reception. We tied ribbons on all the chairs and it looked beautiful. The colors were so cute all together. There were conferences going on inside, so we had to wait for them to finish before we could put out the table settings and set up the candy bar. The hotel kinda dropped the ball on that. They said we could have access to the rooms at 2:00pm, but of course it was 3:00 before we could get inside. And even then, there was one guy moving the chairs out, setting up tables, and putting on tablecloths. Karen let the wedding coordinator know that we were running out of time so they would get some more people in. In the meantime, we laid out the tablecloths outside and taped different colored ribbons to the underside. When we flipped them over, the ribbons hung down. It was such a neat idea!

We realized at about 4:00 that we had better head upstairs and do our makeup and start getting dressed for pictures at 4:30pm. Allison and I went first, and then Nicole and Dana came up a little later. The florist came and brought our gorgeous bouquets. Beth and I couldn't stop talking about how beautiful they were. And of course Beth took a ton of pictures. She says taking pictures makes her calm, so all day she had her camera with her. Then we got all dressed. Beth helped us put orange ribbons on our dresses and make some final adjustments with our shoes and stuff. When I first saw Nicole and I together, I thought we look so much like twins! It was cute. We helped Beth get dressed and then Tyler came in with his cute little tux on. He was so adorable. Beth was really happy to see him. She got her makeup done, and it was time to take pictures! Walking through the hotel was fun because people kept staring at us. We got the pictures done in a half hour and then we had to back up to the room so the boys could take pictures. So it was just waiting until we got the call to go downstairs and start the ceremony.

I was so excited to see all the guests and walk down the aisle. I was also really nervous because the shoes Beth got us were really tall heels and I was terrified that the heel would get stuck in a little crack and I would fall. I told Jeremy to walk really slow so I wouldn't fall. The ceremony was so beautiful, especially the sand pouring ceremony. And their vows were so cute! I may copy that for my wedding. After the ceremony, we walked back down the aisle and as soon as we were at the end, the shoes came off! Wendy told us we could leave them off for the pictures if we wanted, and we were all happy to hear that! Another whole round of pictures, and it was time for the reception. Beth was very strict that we were not going to leave everyone inside waiting for too long, so there weren't too many pictures. The DJ explained to us the announcing and all that. I loved walking in with everyone cheering! It was so fun. And then dinnertime! It's great being a part of the wedding party. We were served first for everything. And we got to talk to Beth and Jacob. The dancing was really fun. Especially dancing with Tyler. I miss him so much when I'm in Denver, but I got to spend a lot of time with him this weekend. I wanted to catch the bouquet, but Dana was very aggressive in that regard. Beth told me that she tried to aim it at me, but oh well. I thought the honeymoon dance was adorable. I'm definitely doing that at my wedding. Nicole and I were there until the end, which ended up being quite early. About 10:30 everyone was clearing out. I got to talk to Lucia for a little bit which was nice. And then Nicole and I helped clean everything up and we went home. That was it, no more bridesmaid for me :-(

I felt so honored to be chosen as one of the few non-family members that Beth wanted to be in the wedding. It was such a blast. I love Beth and Jacob and I am so so happy for them. They deserve a happy-ever-after. And now it's time to look towards my wedding. I think we'll have to rethink the Estes Park thing. Beth had 204 guests, and ours will be similar, but Estes Park only holds 80. I have also thought about having an entire reception like wearing my wedding dress and all, in Phoenix right after the wedding and before the honeymoon so all those people can still celebrate with us. But it's not the same. I don't know, it's so hard to figure these things out. Daniel doesn't understand how important it is to me to celebrate with all the church people. He keeps saying that Denver is where our future is blah blah blah. But that's not how I feel and he just doesn't get it. My church family is extremely important and I want them to be a part of the wedding. I don't know why he refuses to see that Phoenix is my entire childhood. I've only lived in Denver for a little over a year. I can't just cut that part of my life out. It's really frustrating that he doesn't acknowledge that. But when it comes to our wedding, I will put my foot down. It's important enough that he will just have to deal. And if that means having it in Phoenix, then that's what we'll do. I refuse to just leave them all out because they are a part of the past.

Well this post is long enough. I can't wait to see pictures! So far, nobody has any good pictures of me so I haven't been able to show Daniel. But I'm sure Wendy and Beth have some really good ones.