Tina's Wedding- the reception

Here we are at the final installment of Tina's amazing wedding!



After the wedding we headed to Laguna Beach for the reception at the Surf & Sand Hotel.



Tina and her youngest boy. Don't you just love little boys in tuxedos?



The newlyweds!



It was such a lovely venue.



These are the views from this balcony/courtyard area.



Our rooms were right off of this area as well. I'll cover our stay here another time.



Celeste, Tina and I. Celeste is expecting too!

There are a series of these pictures and in every one I am looking in the opposite camera as the other two.



The centerpieces were simple and beautiful.



My bouquet of perfect roses.



I love menus. I'm sure you aren't surprised.



Celebrating our 6 month anniversary.



You will not believe this but I didn't get any pictures of the food?!

Each layer of this menu described a different course. We started with seasonal baby greens tossed with tear drop tomatoes and basil vinaigrette.



On the head table (of the bride & groom as well as maid of honor/best man and their dates) you can sneak a peak of the entrees.

We had a choice and of course B and I got 1 of each. Grilled Filet Mignon topped with gorgonzola cheese and pinot noir sauce, served with garlic mashed potatoes and Filet of Salmon drizzled in basil sauce, served with saffron mashed potatoes.



We can't forget the cake! 3 different kinds, actually. White cake with banana custard and strawberry filling and vanilla icing, chocolate with chocolate filling and icing and carrot cake with maple cream cheese filling and icing.

Each slice of cake was served with a chocolate covered strawberry.



The favors were bottle filled with jelly bellies for everyone to take.



The tossing of the bouquet....



and the removing of the garter



were very entertaining! To say the least.

I've never seen a groom so eager to get a garter off!



Baby boy had a great time dancing, running and rolling on the dance floor!

The rest of the night was filled with laughter and dancing and love. We all had a fantastic time and we always smile and laugh when we think about it.

Congratulations Tina and Ben, we wish you many years of love and happiness.

Tina's Wedding- going to the chapel

In my last post I shared pictures of us all getting ready but the most exciting part is ahead of us.

These two darlings are the flower girls in dresses made by the mother of the bride.



Lisa and Kim, two very gorgeous ladies. Kim will be getting married next April (and I suspect that Lisa won't be very far behind).



Courtney is Tina's sister and both of us will be escorted down the aisle by Tina's oldest son.

Courtney and I have a lot in common and it was great hanging out with her. She couldn't stay all night because she was flying to Austria the next day for another wedding. Did I mention she was in Maui the previous week. Lets all take a moment to silently curse her. Is cursing people during wedding posts bad form?

I should also mention that the bride made our accesories... earrings, bracelets and hair pieces.



Eagerly anticipating the big event... oh all the things running thru your head on the way to the church. I can remember it like is was yesterday. :)



We're all gathered in the bride's room, primping, preening and taking some last minute pictures. Thats me in the bottom right. I'm one of the three pregnant bridesmaids in the wedding.



When Tina first saw her oldest from the limo window the tears started. It's a big day for the entire family. He was in on the proposal and very involved in the ceremony itself.



She was just an incredibly beautiful bride... as expected!



Even though it was no less that 168 degrees in the brides room with basically no air. We were all trying to fan her off. Noone wants to be the sweaty bride.



Thank you to B for taking majority of the pictures for the day!



Another picture of the shoes. But really we were lifting her dress and fanning her to help cool her off. I mean, there were a lot of layers on that dress. Did I mention it was 192 degrees?

I'm pretty sure it was.



The last picture I have of Tina as a single lady....



and an hour later she is happily married.

The ceremony was sweet, with the most amazing music and we didn't cry too much.

~snif~



Congratulations Tina and Ben!

Up next is the reception!

Tina's Wedding- the morning of...

This is going to be the first of maybe 3 posts because I want to share all the little details with you!

We gathered at Tina's mom's house in the morning to get ready together.



You could just feel the energy in the house when you walked in. We're all very excited... can you tell?



Here the bride, Tina is doing her niece's hair. She is one of the 2 adorable flower girls.



I'm not particularly sure she wanted her hair done.



The dress! That incredibly fabulous dress.



First things first though. On go the blingy shoes.



We were dying to see the dress on Tina. A note about the bridesmaids dresses. We were all able to choose a dress from the same dress line so we coordinated well but each had a bit of individuality. It's a fantastic idea. So we all had the same color and the same material with the exception of the maid of honor who had a different material.



The dress zipped up and then we all started buttoning the gazillion buttons up the back.



Here she and Jenny (her maid of honor and cousin) are placing their great-grandma Tina's brooch on the inside of her dress. She wore the jewelry of her mom, grandmother and great-grandmother at her weddinng. I think that is just incredible.



Some last minute touches.



A gorgeous back view.

That sounded odd.



A few pictures with mom....



a few tears shed....



and we were ready to head to the church.

Priorities

We're in the transition of rearranging the apartment to accomodate Peanut's room. The extra bedroom in our apartment once served as my library/storage/guest/crap hiding room. The left wall was lined with bookshelves that we are now painting and putting in our bedroom.

We are limited on space and our garage is downstairs and around the corner of the next building so it's completely incovenient to bring things down there to paint... as if we would have any room with the bicycles anyway.



So we open all the doors and windows in the apartment which gives it this weird vortex of airflow in this room and we paint in there. I've taken to painting over the stuff that inevitably flies thru the screens.

My parents and I started this project on Memorial day and then I had something planned every day this past week.... so it's been sitting here. We step over shelves to get to the kitchen table.



Of course, since my priorities are all in order I spend half of the little free time I have had doing this. Smoothing down my dress and staring at my bump. Oh how I love my bump. I'm totally that girl that keeps rubbing it.

I just need to make sure it's there... that this is all really happening. Physical proof. Besides, when else can you be rpud of not fitting into anything with a waist?

Yesterday when we got home from Laguna Beach and Tina's fantastic wedding and I had majority of the day to paint and organize... I was interrupted.

Peanut was really enjoying a fetal kick-boxing class and I din't want to miss out on his event. Besides the occasional taps and flutters, Sunday was the first time I was able to lie down and consistently feel the kicks throughout the day.

This means that for every 10 minutes of doing anything remotely useful, I spent 15 minutes giggling to myself as the baby moved and squirmed and got waaaaay more exercise than his momma.

We can live in total an utter chaos for another few days/weeks/months... right?

P.S. Am I the only one who has to look up lay/lie/laying/lying/lain/laid? There must be some kind of trick so that I can remember which to use.

P.P.S. I'll have wedding pictures up tomorrow!