December 2018

Where do I even start?? I had the best month ever. I'm a married woman, I had the mot magical wedding ever surrounded by more family and friends than I could have hoped for and have the best memories of my wedding day and what was probably the best day of my life :) Honestly everything felt so perfect and I just loved it all. The pictures still give me goosebumps and make me so happy to see them.

Went on a badass honeymoon to New Zealand and Tahiti which was friggin brilliant and everything we wanted, and now back home with our dearly beloved pets, setting up house with all our beautiful and generous gifts, and slowly easing back into work and life and reality before 2019 hits.

I'm not even sure how to capture all the photos and videos from all that excitement, so I'm going to try to condense into a sampling of some favorites here of the wedding... the honeymoon photos will have to come later, this is an undertaking as it is!

Everything started with the rehearsal at our venue, followed by the dinner immediately after at Heroes across the street. AJ and I even got a free shot of Fireball and a dessert, as did Shannon since it was her birthday too!

The electricity was buzzing from all the excitement of everyone in town and the upcoming festivities and seeing everyone, it was so much fun.

That night some of us even went walking around downtown with the Festival of Lights, and then Jayna and I crashed in my suite, to wake up bright and early on the morning of my WEDDING DAY and get ready with the girls!

Then it was off to the first look at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium steps... it was getting hot! Followed all that with some photos of the bridal party and family.

All this before we had even gotten married! However, being at the venue and seeing them set up the chairs and the whole place for my wedding was pretty surreal and definitely freaked me out a bit at how real it was getting (as if I couldn't process it all before that!) And then there was nothing left to do but get married...!

I loved our ceremony so much, and I loved getting married and that venue and seeing everyone around us, inside and above. But I was still looking forward to the dinner and dancing.

This might be my favorite picture from the
whole day. This was right after we exited the
ceremony, headed outdoors, and AJ spontaneously
kissed me and literally swept me off my feet. I
wasn't expecting it at all, and the Best Man was
right behind us to capture it :)

And then, rooftop for the real par-tay!! Good Lord this was a fun time.

When it shut down, a few of us went to the Presidential Lounge at the Mission Inn for a nightcap, which was convenient since AJ and I were staying there and he wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders anymore LOLOLOLOL. 

Rob was cute and snuck behind us on our way out to take this picture of us heading upstairs.

Funny story, it wasn't until probably the plane ride home from the honeymoon, going through AJ's phone, we found this photo below. Neither of us have any recollection of it hahaha but it was our last photo from our wedding day!

Aaaaand the next morning! I may not have looked it, but I still felt like a ray of sunshine. Family came by to pick up some stuff from the suite, Kathleen brought coffee, and my mother basked in the glow of her sons LOLOLOL.

We went to brunch with some friends, which was a great little conclusion, and then AJ and I headed home. We stopped by South Coast Plaza and AJ took me to the Kate Spade store and let me pick out anything I wanted! That was a fun surprise. Then, we went home, opened some beers and went through our cards and guestbook, which was so sweet and helped us relive the fun day we had just had.

At brunch I told my friends, I don't feel sad it's over... I had such a great day and I'm just so happy with everything, I don't feel any post-wedding blues. They pointed out that it probably helped I was leaving for New Zealand and Tahiti the next day LOLOLOL #truth.

AJ and I crashed early on Sunday then woke up to go open up a joint bank account together then go home and throw stuff in suitcases in time for Chris, AJ's Best Man, to drive us to LAX for our honeymoon. And that'll have to be a post for another day!

I remember, on the day of the wedding, taking time to very conscious and present and enjoy each event and each moment and take it all in, and I remember thinking "this isn't going by too fast like everyone says", but of course, a few days later it was starting to feel blurry and like it did go by too fast and couldn't believe such a momentous occasion was over with so quickly! I feel lucky though, because it felt pretty darn perfect, and in the end I got to be married to AJ #cheesybuttrue