Wedded bliss!

I can't believe its already been a month of wedded bliss. Things are a blurr so I wanted to make sure I blogged it all. :) We got married on June 26, 2009; then had our reception the next day. Sunday morning we took off for Hawaii. Three days in Oahu, and seven days in Maui. It was a whirlwind of adventure. We got back from our honeymoon, opened the presents, packed, and drove to Northern California. We will be living in San Lorenzo, CA for the summer, and then returning to So. California so I can start school in September. Matthew will finish working for SAFEWAY in October, on his anniversary date, so he can secure his retirement and get his 5 weeks vacation and then join me down south.

The wedding was wonderful. Friday started off with me having a migraine headache, not good, I was really worried I wouldn't make it to the temple. I was staying at a nearby hotel with Emily and she ran home and got my medication and then Matthew and his uncle came by to give me a blessing. In this instance it was good luck for him to see me before the wedding. While I was getting my makeup done, I started to feel better. The temple ceremony was incredible. Sitting with him in the celestial room before the ceremony was just so calming and peaceful. I didn't know they had you do that before you got sealed. We were all alone in there, and it was just such a quiet, peaceful time for us to reflect and feel the spirit. I couldn't stop crying during the ceremony and my mom didn't help it any. I just felt such joy and happiness. I felt like I have never felt before. Everything seemed so clear, and though I don't remember everything, our sealer did a wonderful job will all that he said to us at the ceremony.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly. We were the last wedding of the day so we had the temple grounds to ourselves, which was good, even thought the sun was really too bright for very good pictures. We also went to a nearby park and took some fun photos. Then we had a family/friends beach party. My oldest brother Shawn cooked tri-tip that was delicious and he also cooked corn on the cob. Matthew’s family was happy to get to enjoy the beach (they are from Oregon) and we were treated to a wonderful sunset. That night we stayed at the Hyatt Hotel. We had reserved just a regular room but they upgraded us to the PRESIDENTIAL SUITE! It was awesome. This place was huge! It had a kitchen, dining room, 2 living rooms, a master bedroom, a grand sunken tub (my dream), showers, hallways, sitting areas, fireplace, and a balcony that went around the entire front of the hotel. It was immense. We felt like royalty. Beverly Hills 90210 was filming a party scene at the pool we could see outside our bedroom window. That was surreal. The next morning we ordered breakfast and ate out on the balcony overlooking Huntington Beach in our luxurious Hyatt robes. It was awesome. The food was served on silver trays and it was so fancy. The hot chocolate was the best I have ever tasted. Neither of us wanted to leave.

But we had to leave about noon to get to our reception. The reception was perfect. Sister Koller, from my ward, and my friends did an amazing job on the flowers and decorating. The backyard was stunning! WE had the ring exchange first with a family and a few friends. It was really beautiful. My friend Rachel, who introduced us, sang "When I Fall in Love". We both cried. My brother Shawn, said beautiful things about the symbolism of rings and then both our fathers spoke and gave advice. Matthew and I also exchanged "vows" or basically just said how we felt. It was really amazing. Then we cut the cake and started the reception. The cake was beautiful and yummy. We took a lot more pictures. The food was really good. My older brother made this fruit display that was so cool looking and the fruit was excellent. He is a wiz! Really, I don’t think the reception could have been better. I didn’t worry about a thing. We wandered around and talked to people. I felt so happy. I just had a great time. It was like a huge party and everyone seemed to just be having fun. We left amidst bubble blowing and were on our way to Hawaii!

We spent two days in Oahu. Our room was right on Waikiki Beach on the 16th story. The view was out of this world gorgeous. We had another sunken tub, which I loved! We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center because Matthew had never been, and it was really fun. Maui was the greatest though. We had this ocean front room that was about 20 feet from the ocean. It was so beautiful. It was a condo, so we had a kitchen and we would cook meals and eat on our patio and enjoy the view and watch the sun set. We rented a mustang convertible and cruised everywhere in style. We went on a bike ride down the Haleakala volcano, went to a Luau, did a fun dinner cruise on the 4th of July and watched the fireworks from the boat, drove along the road to Hana (despite a flat tire), and did lots of snorkeling and beach bumming. It is a beautiful island and was just such a relaxing, fun time. I was sad to leave. But also know it is just the beginning of many adventures together.

It was all just so perfect. The temple, the beach party, the reception at the Kettley's, the honeymoon. Everything. It was all I wanted it to be and then some. It exceded my expectations. And I am not just saying that. I really just had such a fabulous time. And I know my family and friends had so much to do with making it all be so perfect. Emily and her sister Marie were angels to me. My brothers and their families were all amazing. My friends from school, Kristen and Jaime, were so great. The ladies in my ward who all helped - just wonderful! And my folks who helped me put it all together and were so supportive - I love them so much!

And, of course, my wonderful husband who was by my side the whole way through and who I know will continue to be. I truly feel so blessed to have found him. Matthew and I just have such a great time together. He has really become my best friend, which is as it should be. I guess I am just in constant awe that I have found this wonderful person to share my life with. And though I am sure there will be many trials and things to deal with, I feel happy to know that I found someone who will weather the storms with me. It’s such a cool feeling.

33 days

oh I truly did think I would do better at this than I have. Things have been so crazy lately. I can't believe how fast the time is going. Matthew has been down here about every other weekend and we have been working non-stop to get everything together. We have made a few changes to our plans for the wedding and reception that I am pretty excited about. First, we decided to get married on June 26th and then have our family dinner that night and do the reception the next day. That way it is not so stressful and we can enjoy the wedding day and keep that special and less hectic. That night we decided to have our family/close friends dinner. I kept looking around for places that weren't going to break the bank and my oldest brother, Shawn, even suggested we should do a BBQ. I liked the idea, but we couldn't decided where to have it. There will just be too many people at my folks house. Shawn said to me, "Well, it's your day, what do you want to do?" And I said, "I want to have a beach party and BBQ tri-tip and roast corn." And so that is what we decided to do. I am really excited about that. Matthew's parents will be down from Oregon and they are excited to spend some time at the beach too. They are not so sure about the whole temple thing. I know it is hard to comprehend it all when you are not members of the church, but they are still being very supportive.

On Saturday we are having the reception in the Kettley's backyard (they are my brother, Scott's, in-laws, and they have a gorgeous backyard. It will be fun to have a garden reception. We will also have a ring ceremony before hand with just our family and friends. Shawn will head it up, and my friend Rachel agreed to sing for us. I found a beautiful Apache poem I want to read and Matthew agreed to write something he will read that I am sure will make me cry. After that we will have our reception and then off to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I am excited because I have never been to Maui. Everyone keeps saying it is just beautiful.

Things are finally starting to come together and we are finding that we are being blessed to have wonderful people who are so willing to help us. My Visiting Teacher printed our announcements for us. Another sister in the ward does flowers and is excited to help us put everything together for the wedding and reception. Another extended family member is going to be our photographer. A friend of my brother Jason is going to cater for us at a great price, and the food is delicious. Of course the Kettley's offered their backyard for our reception. My wonderful sister-in-law is going to come down early to keep me sane as my maid of honor will be on vacation and unavailable. So everything is just about done.

We sent out the invitations yesterday in the nick of time. Funny story about that. We went to take some engagement pictures awhile back and they turned out pretty good. I downloaded them onto my macbook because my dell laptop is getting sluggish and needs some help. Just as I was about to send them in to Costco to get printed my macbook crashed. The harddrive died big time. Don't believe everything you here about wonderful macs. I had only had the macbook for just over a year and barely ever used it because I am so used to my dell. Well, the stupid thing was that the mac erased the pictures off my camera and I luckily had some saved to the Costco sight. However, when we printed off 225 of them and went to pick them up they were fuzzy and horrible looking. I actually looked like I had a flesh colored beard. Yikes. So last weekend Matthew came down and we went to the Hyatt hotel in HB and my mother took some pictures for us. This sounds like a fine idea, but if you know my mom, you know she is NOT a photographer (The first 5 pictures she cut off the tops of our heads). But we gave her some pointers and finally got the shot. It actually turned out ok and since we were behind schedule now, it would have to do. The invitations I got were another hold up. Who knew that putting a little piece of ribbon on a card would be so time consuming. Props to my mom who spent hours putting them together. Then, on Saturday we went to the post office and the lady tried to sell me 200 Bart Simpson stamps. I almost went with it just because I thought it would be so funny. I thought they would just run them through a machine but I guess the stupid ribbon prevented that . So, we got 200 flag stamps and 400 military green clock 10 cent stamps because it cost $.64 each to send the invitations. So, bless my mom again, we stood in the post office for 40 minutes and stuck the ugliest bunch of stamps on my beautifully printed envelopes. All I could do was laugh. We went and got great pedicures and had a wonderful lunch after that (my mother's day present to her).

What a week. I also had Open House which went really well, thanks to two fabulous moms of my students. I honestly couldn't have done it without them. Plus, my student teacher finished her assignment and its nice to have my class back, but also puts me back in the drivers seat. I was getting so much done when she was here! I do miss her. I am glad the week is over now, and I can enjoy Memorial Day with my family. Matthew will be back down next weekend. I am getting used to not seeing him on the holidays (He makes triple time at the store, so I can't argue with that). Hope everyone has a fabulous holiday!