yayy! it finally came! the wedding was on July 11
th in Grants Pass, Oregon. I have so many pictures for you guys, I tried to narrow them down!!
ok, so the weekend started off very fun! i rode down to grants pass from Seattle with
Joe and his
best friend Kevin and his
gf Shelby. we got there late
Thursday night and got everyone to their hotels and then heather and i went back to my grandparents and spent the night there. We woke up early the next morning to all the craziness that comes with putting on a wedding. After pretending i was asleep and
couldn't hear people asking me to do things stopped working, i woke up and asked how i could help. Unfortunately the only pressing matters at the time were "a new bee hive" and an "unexpected mole hole" In the backyard. I guess
that's what u get for getting married in your grandparents back yard. As a solution my grandpa one minus a hearing aid suggested that Heather "wonder off now down the road that way a couple houses down and go see the bee lady, she'll know what to do!" And as concise as his direction were, Heather decided to hand the job off to uncle
Steve, who not only couldn't find a solution, but got stung 3 times during his visit to "the bee lady"... well, somehow Heather and I escaped from the house and went to a lovely brunch with
Joe's sisters and some friends. But then we had to return to the craziness and get ready for the rehearsal/ rehearsal dinner! The dinner was at an outdoor
restaurant called "R
HAUS" right on the Rouge River.
it was very pretty!!
it was fun seeing all of the family! and the dinner was great! dad and
Joe's dad gave speeches and we were all in tears!! So sweet... but honestly, we all couldn't wait to get to.. The Laughing Clam! A local bar that my grandpa Don and his brother
Cec co own. That's where we had the After Party! We got there and Lizard Mafia (cover band with questionable members) was playing and everyone was having fun!
The fun stopped for Joe tho when the lead singer took it upon herself to
finesse the crowd... and by that i mean she gave Joe a lap dance. In front of God and his parents.
(joe's dad is the one on the left in red, laughing..)
Later after things had died down and only the
truly committed were left at the bar, uncle
Steve came through in the clutch and bought everyone (15 people!!) shots of patron!!
here is a picture of
us all about to take ours..
(that's uncle steve on the right)
after the shots were consumed and we were all hanging out around the bar, we noticed something in the corner of the bar. Someone (not with our party) had ordered a burger, and whilst the bar tender was about to deliver it to whoever it belonged to, he must have gotten distracted, and set it down on the edge of the bar. Well, it sat there for a good 5 minutes. Just long enough for one cousin to dare another cousin to take a bite out of it, and she did! Not long after that Maria got either rebellious, or hungry
I'm not sure which, and one
upped my cousin by exiting The Clam with the rest of the burger. It was such a fun night!
Heather and I stayed the night in an AMAZING room at the.. get ready...
Weasku Inn. wait, say it out loud...again....one more time.. get it??? I love grants pass :) We fell asleep right when we got home and woke up the next morning to start getting ready! Eileen and Angie came over and hung out, Jen came and did our make up!! After we got ready we headed to the house to meet the parents... this is how we found them:
This was my dad hours before the wedding...
but we eventually got it together..
Everyone looked fabulous! After running around like chickens with our heads cut off we gathered
ourselves and got all lined up to head out to the back yard and start the ceremony!! Ben and cousin Eric did the music, Ben played yellow rose of Texas on his violin before it started and
Eric played the
background piano music beautifully!
first came the flower girl, and the ring bearer! Kaitlyn and Ryan are Joe's
niece and nephew.
She was so cute! She bumped almost the entire basket out before she even hit the isle, then ran down the isle! it was adorable.
then it was my turn :) I didn't even cry I was so proud of myself!
Then came the Big entrance... Heather and my dad :) They decided to come down the staircase, just like my mom and grandpa did 32 years earlier :)
This is my favorite picture taken! It captures me, my sister, and my mom during the ceremony!
During the vows:
She looked perfect :)
Just as he announced them as husband and wife, cousin
Nate set off fireworks!!
you can kind of see the end of them in this picture of
Ben walking me back down the isle:
After that we all ate an amazing salmon and steak dinner, it was so good! and fun to see everyone all together! i gave my speech and made it through 3/4 of it before I lost it and had to just say "love u!" and sit down before it got awkward. We finished eating and they cut the cake! the BEAUTIFUL cake, made by Maria herself!!
it was beautiful!! She did an perfect job!!
Then we all hung out around the house, set off more fireworks, took tons of family photos, I tried to play some fun music and start the dancing but few participated... it was a very fun reception tho!!
And this is how Heather ended her night:
...and this is how I ended mine:
dancing with the makeup artist :) my new
roommate Jen!
Some called it a wedding, some called it the start of a new life, I called it the family talent show, but either way it went amazingly and I cannot believe it's over!! So much planning and anticipation, and now its done! and I have an amazing new brother in law, and a sister with a new last name!!
yayy :) for their
honeymoon they went to
San Fran for 3 days, and now they're in
nappa valley! They come back Sunday.
As for me I am now living in Heather's old apartment with Jen! I love it! its just north of downtown in capitol hill! I will have to post pics of the apartment! AND SOON!!! because I
officially only have two and a half weeks left in this amazing city!! I have totally fallen in love with this place and I hate to ever leave!! The internship is still going steady, nothing very exciting, it wasn't exactly what i thought it would be but I still learned a lot!.. well some..
haha! I love the people i work with and i finally have the whole bus thing down.. finally! I am excited to spend my last few weeks here and live it up!! I miss it already.. if that's possible!! perhaps because I know i am going back to RUSH.. my least favorite activity in life, but I do miss everyone! I hope you guys are still enjoying the
blog!! I'll write more soon!
