Happy 1st Anniversary B!

Oh B, where do I even start? I can hardly believe that one year ago today we were getting married. It seems like yesterday and yet it seems like years ago. We knew it would be a great year and a great adventure. Boy were we right. What a wonderful, whirlwind of a year.

I'll never forget the feeling that washed over me as I said my vows and you wiped the tear from my eye. The wedding was incredible, our vintage winter wonderland like a dream, but this first year of marriage has been the best part.

We traveled to far away places and indulged in our every whim. We explored, experienced and tasted our way thru the trip of a lifetime. I'm so glad we had that time together, just the two of us.

I never would have expected that on our 1 year anniversary I would be looking into the sweet face a 5 week old baby. Thank you for our beautiful little Peanut. A little baby B. I won't hold it against you that he doesn't seem to have any of my characteristics... yet. I'm sure he'll have my sparkling personality and quick wit.

Thank you for balancing me, for being grounded when I'm spinning around. Thank you for loving me and all my craziness. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband.

I expect all of our years to be as absolutely perfect as this one... so you had better start planning something exciting for next year.

No pressure though.

Be sure to work in romance, culinary adventures, life-changing revelations and marital bliss. OK?

And something sparkly.

And world peace.

Amen.
~~~~~~

Now for all of you out there in the blogosphere. So many of you have shared in all of this with me. We've been together thru the planning of the wedding, the crane-folding and the guest book making, the honeymoon in New Zealand, the pregnancy and the birth of Peanut. Thank all of you as well for a wonderful year. It seemed as though so many of you really should have been celebrating with us at the wedding.

Since you couldn't be there with us I'd like to share some never before seen (by you) footage of our wedding day.

Craig & Dawn from Garner Films on Vimeo.

Wait, we're newlyweds?

Sometimes I forget that we're newlyweds. B and I have been together for a long time and we've lived together a couple of years. I can safely say that for at least the last 3 years I waited very patiently for the proposal.



Actually if we must be honest, I gave B a deadline. We looked at rings in June and by September I was downright antsy. So I wrote in huge letters on the calendar that he had until December 31st to propose. Or. Else.

Patience is indeed a virtue. One that B has and I do not. I'm learning, I just wish I could learn faster.

He did, of course, or we wouldn't be enjoying the nice, blissful marriage we are. It wouldn't be blissful because I might have dragged him to the church and forced him to marry me at gun point. It would have been a very small gun and easy to hide because I think the church generally frowns on forced marriage. Thankfully I did not have to hide a weapon in my bouquet. Now when I think of our wedding day I think of laughter.



Majority of our photos from the day show us laughing. Friends laughing, family laughing, B & I laughing. So far that joy and laughter has continued on every day. I want to keep that alive.

It seems that even though we've been married less than six months we've already slid out of the role of newlyweds and into another role. The role of expectant parents. I guess I have a hard time focusing on more than one life changing event at a time!



Not that I don't like this role, I really love it. I've always looked forward to pregnancy. Now that I'm showing, B seems to have a new sense of awe, it's a different reality. I love the way he talks to the baby and rubs my belly and how we send each other messages from Peanut. ~sniffle~ We're total dorks.



I just have to remember to just soak up this first year of being married. I need to soak up this time of just the two of us. Err... 2 1/2 of us. Sometimes life is moving so fast that it's hard to appreciate the events as they pass us by.

Appreciating a certain time in our lives can be a challenge. Sometimes it's about appreciating the day I've had or just appreciating that the day I've had is over and tomorrow is a new one.

Another day with B is a good one. Did you know we're married?!!!

What do you appreciate right now?

The talented Adrienne Gunde

who was our photographer (with the help of her boyfriend Scott) has blogged about our wedding.

I'm still not done reveling in the excitement. I hope you don't mind.

I'm married! You'll have to excuse me, I'm still having those OMG we're married moments. I wonder how long they will last...

I loved each and every one of the nearly 1200 pictures Adrienne sent me. I'm proud to call Adrienne a friend now as well. She is just pure sweetness and I know you'll love her blog.

What are you waiting for? See the post HERE!

Our Ceremony

Its been a month since I blogged about the wedding... but since its the month of love... and because LMM asked me too...because you really twisted my arm.

I suppose I'll post a few, ahem, several pictures of the ceremony.



I could do a whole post on the vintage jewelry I had on between the 2 "costume changes".



This is Jordyn, B's niece. Isn't she beautiful? She totally took charge and made sure the others were where they needed to be.



B and his parents. I wish I could have seen them walk down the aisle!



My mom and B's best man.



Here our moms are lighting the two candles signifying each of our families. Later in the ceremony we will take those two and light the unity candle together as a symbol of our union.



Funny story. Originally my mom and B's mom both purchased the exact same jacket for the wedding. I was describing what my mom was wearing to B's mom and she thought it sounded really familiar! So my mom wore a jacket that she already had that went perfectly with the color scheme and B's mom kept the jacket they almost both wore.

Actually in the end I think they're outfits still looked like they coordinated. It cracks me up. I couldn't have planned it any better :)



Oh the ringbearers. Little boys are hilarious.

Look at her face light up when she sees her mom and her sister!



And look at her sister smiling right back.





This was before I gave up and just lifted my dress.







I love this picture of our cute shoes :)

I know all you ladies who don't wear shoes are probably thinking I'm crazy. But I wore those things for the entire day/night except for maybe the last half hour. They are way more comfy than they look.



Oh the vows. I get choked up just thinking about it.



As soon as I started to speak the tears started.

I'm laughing because Fr. Bill was giving us very specific hand holding instructions and I was getting confused.



We made it! This was sweet.



But this was better.



Presenting of the flowers to our moms and general hugging of parents :)



Meanwhile the cantor is singing Ave Maria and I wasn't the only one crying.

I've known Fr. Bill my whole life and he was perfect for our ceremony. He also married my parents. He made sure to personalize the prayers and include blessings on B's bikes, good trail and great weather for riding.

Completely won over the groomsmen, thats for sure.



The tossing of the pillows.

You don't remember the tossing of the pillows in the traditional wedding ceremony?

Fr. Bill leaned over and told them he would give a dollar to the one who threw the pillow the furthest.



The boys weren't so sure they wouldn't get in trouble. I mean who gets to throw things in church? So I started them off and threw the first pillow.



B, what is that expression?

That must be B's ecstatic face.

Happy mom.

Happy me.

It was so much more than I could ever have imagined.

How did I ever get to be so lucky?

Did your wedding ceremony go smoothly?

~All pictures taken by Adrienne Gunde

Rehearsal Dinner at Ruby Palace

Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas?

I did, it was completely fantastical. Unfortunately I seem to have the flu. I hope it doesn't last long because I have approximately 243 things to do before New Zealand. But B made me some chicken noodle soup and I had this post already in the works so I had a bit of rest! I'm sure I'll feel better in no time.



I'm going to share a few pictures from the rehearsal. I totally forgot to hand my camera off to someone and so it sat there sad and lonely for majority of the rehearsal.

But someone did pick it up and snap a few pictures, so thank you!



The ringbearers and flower girls. This was the first time they met and they were instantly connected. The two on the ends are B's nieces and nephews, the two in the middle are mine.



It didn't take long for the 2 boys to separate and very quietly wiggle their way around the altar.



Things on the girls side are looking more mellow... and boring. Or is it depressing? Sad? Is there something on the floor?



With all the hustling around and direction giving B gravitated to the place he felt most comfortable.



My favorite part was when the wedding coordinator (a very serious, stern woman) was doing a role call of sorts and looked around and said "Where is the groom?!"

Then we all giggled because he was sitting behind her in the designated kids area. The look on his face is the general look of anyone being spoken to by the coordinator.



Here is my mom and Cassidy. I know you see her all the time but you see, she is the only child that will let me take her picture. The other ones are too busy moving around all the time. So its not that I have favorites, I just take control of the ones too little to run away.

Besides, she goes to absolutely everyone so she gets passed around constantly and everyone wants a picture with her.



Oh but here is the part of the post I couldn't wait to share.

This is the rehearsal dinner that B planned all by himself. He knew exactly what he wanted.



We went to Ruby Palace in Huntington Beach and had a 8 course Chinese Banquet. Its traditional for this type of event



Here you see most of what was on the Cold Appetizer Plate. Starting clock-wise with the scary greenish looking blob in the back: 1,000 year egg (surprisingly it tastes like egg only soft and creamy in the middle and jelly-ish on the outside. A lot of people tried this and it got rave reviews. I had to close my eyes. I'm a visual eater), honey walnuts, roast beef, shrimp, chicken and jellyfish.

Funny story, I went over to my mom and sister and asked them if they liked the jelly fish. They said they hadn't tried it yet. They thought it was the bright red thing in the middle of the plate (in the previous picture) which is actually a mushroom. They did tell me they liked the noodles.

Of course, there weren't noodles on they plate... they were eating jelly fish.



Shark's Fin Soup with white asparagus and crab. Its quite a delicacy.



This was really, really good. The shark's fin is actually similar to a noodle in texture. If I had served this and told everyone it was chicken noodle soup (with crab) they totally would have gone for it.

The dinner got less intimidating, I swear.



House Special Lobster in the most delectable sauce evah!



Sheesh, how did this get in here?



Can we just get another look at this lobster. The plate was covered in these pieces and you just lifted out big chunks of lobster.

At this point I tried to remind everyone that we had like a bazillion courses to go. No one listened.



The heads were quite entertaining. Poor little Ruby left the table because she thought the Crab Monster was going to get her.



Beef with Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) or Gai Lon. Lovely.

I love the way its presented. Keep in mind that these huge plates or platters were presented to every table of 10.

.

Pork Fried Rice. Chinese multi-course meals differ from many other multi-course meals in that the serving portions don't seem to get any smaller. If you went to an American restaurant that was serving 8 courses we would be getting dishes 1/10 of this size :)



Salt and Pepper Pork, simple, breaded and seasoned with salt and pepper. Delicious.



My bridesmaid Chrissy's boyfriend Matt. Did that make sense?

I think he might have taken Cassidy home if he had the chance.



This dish cracks me up because it has such a typical name. Its called Sweet and Romantic Shrimp! I love English names that they come up with for these dishes.

Its basically a sort of sweet and sour shrimp on one side and honey walnut shrimp on the other side.

Our table had a lot of leftovers because we only had 4 adults. Nothing got wasted though.. we took it all with us!



I almost forgot the black mushroom and bok choy!

I want to take this time to remind you that we all have dresses to put on the next day. Some of us ate 8 full courses the night before wearing a wedding dress. Actually all of us ate 8 courses.

About half way thru the dinner my fingers were swelling and my rings felt tight. But I was not about to miss out. I drank 3 bottles of water before I went to bed.



CSC! That stands for Cute Shoe Crop... didn't you know? Have I ever told you how much I love peep toe pumps?



Me and my girls. Two foxy ladies if you ask me.

Did you have a rehearsal dinner? What did you eat?