My Wedding Day was almost entirely stress-free! I woke up early after getting a pretty good night's sleep. I was the last to get my hair and makeup done, so I had plenty of time to relax and take some pics of my favorite girls getting ready!My best friend Sara is an amazing hair stylist and did my hair for the wedding, as well as all my bridesmaids and her own. I sat back and had some tea and toast, watching everyone getting beautified.My mom, sisters and I had our make-up done by Shana Beals. She's an awesome makeup artist who has done many of my cousin's makeup for their wedding day and came highly recommended. She did not disappoint!My Dad stayed out of the way of the women and hardly noticed I was talking to him he was so sucked into the game!I lazily got into the shower and had my makeup done, then we were off to the Stockton Hilton to meet up with our photographers and finish getting ready in our room. I loved that the morning was completely stress-free. We were out of the house on time and didn't feel the least bit rushed. A perfect start to our perfect day!
Like I said in my last post, there was so much going on during wedding time, there would be no way to fit it all into one blog post! So I'll blog little by little about all the fun details of the wedding....which we are still talking about! It was an amazing day, with incredible people.
First off, I'll tell you a little bit about our great rehearsal dinner.
The day started off a little shaky with a misunderstanding about time frames. I had my freak out for the weekend, but got it out of my system before the Big Day. We headed out for The Rivermill by 1pm to be there for our 2pm rehearsal.
I was excited that everyone was on time and ready to go. Jerry, is the planner at the Rivermill and she took care of everything. I had given her all the information ahead of time, concerning who was standing where and walking with whom. It was great! I didn't have to do anything!
We ran through the order of the ceremony once and we were done. I was thankful we finished so quickly because........it gave us more time to practice our dance before we had to go to the dinner.
Ben and I had been taking dance lesson to learn a graceful waltz, which you may have read about in an earlier post, but what you didn't know was that I also choreographed the second half of our first dance to "Bust a Move" with our attendants, minister Mike, and our reader participating. We gathered our attendants in the parking lot of The Rivermill and taught the boys their part (I'd already taught the girls the night before). We ran through the dance 5 or 6 times before we had to race to the dinner. Everyone seemed to be having fun, despite being nervous, although it could have all been to spare my feelings.
We had a fun dinner at Chevy's on the River with all our family and attendants. It was an excellent evening spent with our favorite people. It meant so much to us to have so many friends and family make long trips to be there for us!
It has been a crazy few weeks! I had the most amazing wedding ever, followed by a wonderfully relaxing honeymoon, and then we hit the ground running, when we came back to work after missing in service and the first two days of school.
I will be back to blogging regularly now. The wedding was an incredible event and I'll blog about it in pieces, as not to overwhelm you with everything at once! Honeymoon to follow after that!
Weddings are great! Just a couple more weeks to another Zehnder wedding, when cousin Tracy marries Tim! So happy for them!
Here's a pic from the wedding, and I'll add more as I blog about the special day!
I've always known I had a special bond with my family, especially my mom and grandmas. Back in April we decided to do a bachelorette cruise. It was just my bridesmaids and I, and my mom. Yes, MY MOM! It was such a fun weekend. A lot of people were confused by why I would bring my mother to what should be a crazy weekend with the girls. It's because she's just as crazy as the rest of us! She knows how to party!!!
That was the perfect weekend getaway. I couldn't have been happier. Although, as the wedding was drawing closer, and we had more of these small bachelorette weekends, I have been wanting to do a night out where anyone could come....young or old.
My amazing little sister, Lauren, planned the perfect Ladies Night Out. She contacted all the women in the families (mine and Ben's) and did all the work getting them there. Both my grandma's were there, almost all my Aunts on both sides, my mom, cousins, sisters, and soon-to-be sister-in-laws, and my 2 best girl friends, as well as Aunt Sharon from New Mexico.
We started at the Blue Cue downtown, where we had appetizers and drinks. It was absolutely perfect. (Lauren scoped everything out ahead of time). It was almost like a private party, there was no one else in the place. It was great to talk with people in a more laid back setting before the wedding.
After Blue Cue, we headed back to Strikes in Elk Grove for some bowling! We had a blast!! We were also joined at bowling by a few more cousins and Ben's cousin Kim from Wisconsin!
It was such a fun night! I felt really special, surrounding by fabulous women, just having a great time! I couldn't ask for a better family! Thank you to Lauren for all her hard work setting up the evening for success!
I've decided we need to find reasons to do this, other than weddings every year or so. I'll plan the next one! Thank you again to everyone who came out! I just can't get over it! It was a GREAT night!
I have so many things to be thankful for this week!
1. I'm getting married to an amazing man, in less than 2 days! (yes, we are almost to the point of counting hours).
2. I have an incredible family, who has been nothing but supportive these last few weeks!
3. My Mom, for taking care of all the details of the wedding. She's stressing, so I don't have to. She's also taken care of all the beauty appointments leading up to the wedding.
4. My bridesmaids who took the week off of work, to be here for me!
5. My fabulous soon-to-be sister-in-laws, who came to party with us last night, as well as cousin kim!
6. All the beautiful women who came to Ladies Night Out to celebrate my last few days of single life!
7. My Grandmas, who join the Ladies Night Out crew and took care of much of the bill!!
8. My vendors, who are doing whatever they can to make sure our wedding day is perfect!
9. My bridesmaid Nicole, who has had the worst luck making the slide show for our wedding, but continues to remake it everytime it dies.
10. Can I repeat one?!?! I'm getting MARRIED on Saturday!! I can't wait!
I'm really excited about my Dad and I dancing to "I Loved Her First" for our Bride and Father of the Bride Dance. But, I don't dance with my dad very often, and definitely don't know any of his fancy footwork.
My mom and dad have been taking some dance lessons for fun, with some of the family and were having some fun practicing for the wedding this weekend.They're all set for dancing the night away, although my mom was a little worried that my dad might step on my feet. So, she had us do some practicing. I also took the opportunity to break in my reception shoes.
My wedding planning has been almost completely stress-free. I'm a pretty laid back bride, in my opinion. My bridesmaids keep asking me about what shoes, what jewelry, nail polish, etc, that I want them to wear or do. My answer is always whatever you want or is most comfortable. I just want everyone to have a great time! Unfortunately, one thing that should have been super easy, turned into a ridiculous all-day process.
I purchased my dress at House of Fashion in Sacramento, because I didn't want to have to cart a dress back and forth from San Diego and worry about having it pressed here (EG). I bought the dress in December, and when they were measuring me, the woman was saying aloud the measurements and I knew I was not that big. So I told her I wanted her to measure me again. She did, and didn't repeat the measurements aloud this time.
When I can back for my first fitting in June, the dress was way too big. The dress needed to be taken it in 3 inches. They kept asking me if I'd lost weight; the answer was no. I wish I had, but that wasn't the case. Then I wanted them to change the dress to a sweetheart neckline. They said they would make those alterations first, and then at the next fitting do the bustle and hem. I left there unhappy, because they made us pay to alter the dress from their mistakes.
The second time back at the shop, the neckline looked terrible and the seamstress said she would redo it. They also pinned for the bustle and hem. It was another unhappy day at House of Fashion.
I went in on Tuesday to what I hoped would be a fast appointment where I would trying on the dress, and then take it home. We arrived at 10:45am and the first round of trying on the dress was horrible. The neck line was completely off-center. There was also a gaping hole in the back of the dress where the corset came together (because they ordered a size too large). So they told us to come back in a half hour. When we came back and tried the dress on again, the neckline was just as bad as before, maybe worse. And there were other issues.
We went through the process again, and this time the seamstress and manager were arguing over the top of me on how to do the alterations. I was so frustrated, I just wanted to get the heck out of there.
They didn't end up getting the dress perfect, but I'm over it. It's just one day, and most people wouldn't notice the difference. I'm just upset we had to pay so much in alterations, that we really shouldn't have. A lot of people asked, "did the give you a discount on the price?" Nope. But they were acting like they did us a huge favor by pressing my veil for free.
Unfortunately, I've heard that this has happened to a lot of people. If you are getting married, do NOT get your dress at House of Fashion.....unless you have lots of time and money to waste with their staff! Here's a pic of the neckline, that took them from 10:45am - 2pm to fix! Plus three previous fittings!
My best friend Sara is an amazing hair stylist and did my hair for the wedding, as well as all my bridesmaids and her own. I sat back and had some tea and toast, watching everyone getting beautified.
My mom, sisters and I had our make-up done by Shana Beals. She's an awesome makeup artist who has done many of my cousin's makeup for their wedding day and came highly recommended. She did not disappoint!
My Dad stayed out of the way of the women and hardly noticed I was talking to him he was so sucked into the game!
I lazily got into the shower and had my makeup done, then we were off to the Stockton Hilton to meet up with our photographers and finish getting ready in our room. I loved that the morning was completely stress-free. We were out of the house on time and didn't feel the least bit rushed.
A perfect start to our perfect day!
