Our wedding day

What better time to write about our wedding than while my hubby is downstairs glued to the TV since football is on.
Where to start...

On Friday we had the rehearsal at Steamboat Landing and it was windy...very windy. Quite amusing with all of us girls in knee length (or shorter) dresses. I'm really glad we went ahead and did the rehearsal, originally I wasn't going to. That would have been awful. We ran through the whole thing twice, and ironed out all confusion, answered everyone's questions. We were also able to tweak our actual ceremony with Chase's grandpa, the minister. We had table linens and favors to drop off as well. Lindsay and Alejandra were thrilled because my dad rode the bike out there...and brought a change of clothes for dinner. Silly man.
After we were all set at Steamboat everyone left for dinner at Hawthorne's. We met our grandparents, Amy & Courteney, and Ken, Sharon & Brent there. Our party was too big for the private rooms, so they gave us the whole main dining room. It was a little bit cramped in there, but it was fine. The food was incredible, I took way too much on my plate that's for sure. It was good to see Ken again....I've seen him so much lately, 3 times this summer. That's so unusual, but I'm not complaining. He and Chase got to meet for the first time which I was really happy about. Brent and Livvie loved each other also, so cute, Brent gave Livvie a flower. :) We were at Hawthorne's for a few hours...we gave the wedding party their gifts there. The guys loved the RayBans and wore them the rest of the time they were here in NY. My girls really liked their gifts as well which made me really happy since I was so indecisive.

Anyways, after all that we headed back to our place where Chase and JC finished the photo card box. It didn't turn out quite like I'd imagined, but it did it's job, and all the guests at the wedding loved it! After the boys all left for the hotel we got to working on the programs and table numbers. We had more problems with printers than I'd care to remember. While all this was going on my Dad called me and told me he hired a new DJ. Someone with more experience than Wendy. That was fine with me, I didn't really like Wendy. We gave up at 2am and went to sleep. I was so worried about sleeping that night, I figured I'd have too much on my mind and wouldn't get to sleep. I was wrong. I passed out.

Cara and I got up in the morning to go get my hair done while Ali went and ran errands, Lindsay and Alejandra hung out at my place, cleaned up (it was a mess with all the people staying here) and then they worked on the programs. Back to my hair....It looked beautiful! I was worried while Rachael was doing it, but it all came together and I loved it! We ended up putting my veil under the curls, and it turned out great. I actually wore my veil all night! Our limo driver got here 10 minutes early which sent me into panic mode. We hurriedly finished the programs and packed the limo...our dresses took up so much room! We got to Steamboat right on time. My cousin Jeanne was already there. She graciously videotaped everything for me. When I got there it hit me...I'm getting married. The room looked beautiful with the ivory linens with chocolate overlays...the favors. The ladies there put our tulle and white Christmas lights up on the head/gift/cake tables. We had some concern about the weather, it'd been raining all day and was real gray and wet outside. We did end up holding the ceremony outside, but moved the cocktail hour inside.
It took us girls forever to get ready. Of course I took the longest. After getting into my dress, with the help of my 4 closest friends...and the photographers looking on, snapping pictures, Cara did my makeup. I knew she'd do a fabulous job, and she did. I loved it. It was very natural but still very pretty. Since it took us so long to get ready, they photographers went out and took pictures of the guys. After that we went outside and got pictures with the girls, and my parents. This is when my mom brought out our bouquets. They were so much more than I had imagined. They were beautiful! The stargazers were so perfect. I'm glad that Cara had suggested them at our florist appointment. I loved them. Then all of a sudden it was time to line up and get ready to walk down the isle.

When it was just Dad and I standing on the side of the building waiting for our turn I noticed a bunch of people at the park and walking along the lake had stopped to watch. Dad was very emotional. I'd never seen him like that before. As we rounded the building he whispers "I'm biting my lip". Then about 20 feet later he said the same thing. I too was fighting back tears the whole way. I couldn't believe the moment I'd been waiting for, been planning for forever, was finally here. Dad lifted my Daddy's veil and kissed me on the cheek saying "You never looked so beautiful." Then I was Chase's. Then it started to rain...big, heavy rain drops. I don't remember most of the ceremony. It was like an out of body experience. I didn't cry. It was like I was hovering above us and looking on. Chase's grandpa spoke quickly so we wouldn't all get soaked. I messed up my vows a bit when I put the ring on Chase's finger...I was distracted by the ring, no joke. The ceremony was short and very sweet...just what we wanted. After it was over I couldn't hold the tears anymore.
We immediately took pictures with our families outside...we did them fast and actually missed a few that I would have liked to have gotten. Oh well. After that we went off to do our pictures and pictures with the bridal party. Can I just say, I love my bridal party? They are such a great group of individuals and I am honored that they came to share our special day with us. Our first pictures were done right outside Steamboat in front of the lake. When it rained we went under the pavilion or trees....We also had a few large umbrellas. We only managed to get 1 formal photo. All the rest of our pictures are hilarious, and so perfect. We had a boy band pose picture, Charlie's Angels, pictures with umbrellas, pictures with wine/beer, casual pictures.
We finished pictures there pretty quick and still had 45 minutes left so we piled (literally, into the limo...we lost Dustin...he was under David. Luckily Ellen was crammed in the back with us and took pictures) down to the boat houses. I'm so glad we did. Some of our best pictures came from that location. I mean, really now. What would a wedding be without a photo next to a Speed Hump sign?!

We finished pictures a few minutes late, had our introductions, first dance, then dinner. Our first dance was to I Cross My Heart by George Strait. We didn't get a chance to take dance lessons, but it was fine. It was perfect. Before dinner was served Dad gave his speech/toast. It was funny. It was touching. It was perfect. The 2 bites of dinner that I had were fabulous. I had no real appetite at all. After dinner Chase got up and thanked everyone for coming, I wished my grandparent's a happy 61st anniversary and Cara a Happy Birthday. That was when they were supposed to bring out Cara's cupcake I got her. That didn't happen, but that's ok, she got it after her speech. Then Cara and JC gave their speeches. They were both perfect. Cara quoted Sex & The City which was oh so appropriate for us. JC made everyone laugh with his "If I'm the best man, then why are you marrying Chase?"

After speeches, Dad and I danced. Dad recorded I Loved Her First by Heartland for me and it was beautiful. I know he was worried about me liking the song, and I love it so much! I keep the CD in my car and listen to it daily..multiple times. I was worried about dancing with Dad. I never really had since I was really little, and wasn't sure how it would go. It was perfect. He was emotional again. Towards the end of the song he told me, "Soon I can start enjoying myself, the 2 hard parts are over." Later in the evening his friends stopped me and were like "Wow, so your dad isn't stone cold, he does have a heart!" Haha, I've known that for a loooooong time.

We did an anniversary dance for my grandparents. It was to Remember When by Alan Jackson. I thought he was just going to have all married couple dance to it. No he got us all up there then had any couple married less than 10 hours exit the dance floor. Then all couples married for less than 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, and so on until he got to 61 years at the very end of the song. My grandparents were adorable out there dancing all night. They looked like they had so much fun and that made me very happy. Then it was party time! Our DJ was incredible. I love him! He did a great job! He played lots of classic party/dance music and we danced all night long. I don't ever dance and you couldn't get me off the dance floor!

The 1 bite of cake that Chase fed to me was fabulous. I didn't have any more than that...and I'm guessing by the amount of cake we brought home, not many other people did either.

We forgot a few things...I'd printed business cards with login information to my shutterfly account and I forgot to put them on the gift table for people to take. If you're reading this and have photos of our wedding, comment/email me and I will give you the login info. I want to see your pictures!!! We also forgot about our Thank You sign until the very end of the night. We went into the restaurant to take those pictures and I didn't like how they turned out, so we used other pictures on our Thank You cards...I LOVE how those turned out. I will be including the cards in our TY's.

I was a little bit upset at how many people left after dinner or soon after that. We stayed until the end, cleaned up, then went to Jose & Willy's down the street. That was funny....lots of very intoxicated people there.

I know I'm forgetting so many details, but that's the jist of it. I'm loving married life. I loved the wedding. Seeing 17 months of planning finally all come together is incredible. It was more beautiful than I'd even imagined or dreamed about.

Details about our Honeymoon to come at a later time. Sorry for the wait.