The Wedding Weekend

And it was a full weekend! The festivities for me kicked off early Friday morning. I was packed and coffee set to delay brew Thursday night, and then I was up and on the road before 8a on Friday for San Diego. The first stop was the nail salon for... oh, everyone. Girls, guys and family. Pam had called the salon in advance and arranged for them to allow us to have champagne and bagels, so we took up that whole place and were drinking and eating away.

After that we headed to the venue site (the San Diego Zoo!) for the rehearsal, which took a grand total of like 20 minutes, and then to a small Mexican restaurant that hosted us for the lunch. After that everyone headed to the resort that we were all staying in, Paradise Point near Sea World. It was fun because it was all bungalows. By the time we checked in and unpacked a bit and the girls were choosing our dresses (we all had had major problems finding some and everyone had 2-3 options!) I was ready to crash for a power nap but had to go pick up AJ from the airport. Everyone hung out at the resort's bar til it closed, chatting and catching up, since we were all coming from all over the place! This bird was also hanging out and hoping for scraps.

Girls had a report time of 8a in Pam's bungalow to begin the getting ready process. Pam had bought all the bridesmaids these cute kimono-style robes to wear as we got ready. I can't wait to see all the professional pictures from this day!!

We took an Elvis limo to the zoo where the guys were waiting, and we headed out for their First Look pictures.

Pam's wedding present to Doug was a behind-the-scenes tour of the gorilla exhibit (his favorite) so at this time, the wedding party went to our waiting room to continue to champagne, and Pammy had brought along tons of zoo-themed props for us, including animal masks, little animal-head sippy cups and blow-up animals. When Pam and Doug got back and we went out for wedding party pictures, we brought all the props with us. It was so cute, I can't wait to see! Although, walking up and down and all around the San Diego zoo in my heels was not the best way to begin the day.

The bouquets and boutonnieres were all wrapped in SDSU game tickets, and Pam made sure that I got the bouquet with an SDSU v UCSB and SDSU v UCR ticket! So special!

Shortly after it was ceremony time. Look at this adorable welcome board they had had made. Can you find me? My name is Kristin "It's My Birthday!" Kelley... couldn't be more accurate! Haha!

And look at these adorable bridesmaids.

The reception was in a separate location from the ceremony, so we got a tour of the park on the bus that took us, and it was incredible, because by this time it was about 5p, the sun was more or less set, and the animals were all out and active! I didn't have my phone on me at this time, although AJ got some pictures. The tiger was out, the gazelles were out, we walked by the lion cage and the lion was pacing back and forth all over his cage, it was crazy beautiful! The anteater and capybaras were out and wandering around, it was so neat. The reception itself was right next to the elephant enclosure and there was an elephant out the whole time who would play in his cage and play with his barrel and stuff, it was so amazing to see!

Look in the background and you can see the elephant!

After this, we all got the shuttle back to the resort where we went back to resort bar. I was dying by this time. After the bar closed, people went to Pam and Doug's for the after party, but AJ and I crashed with a capital C.

The next day was predictably rough. What made it better was knowing we were all heading to Doug's parents house by 12:30 for a hosted pizza party lunch featuring a gourmet pizza catering company that literally pulled their woodfire oven up in the driveway and made delicious pizzas all day, there were also homemade cookies, mai tais, leftover donuts from the wedding dessert bar, coffee, and more friends!

I was getting really sad about the wedding coming to a close. For some reason it felt like the end in the sense that we wouldn't all be together again, which is ridiculous because even though we all live all over the place now, we still all get together regularly. Maybe it's just the let down after looking forward to this for so long? Either way, it was very bittersweet to say goodbye to everyone. It was such a fun wedding though and I can't wait to see more pictures.

This officially closes out the 2015 wedding season for me!