Reminicing about June 22, 2007

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! I noticed that the past few days, I was thinking alot about our wedding & reminicing about all the planning we did for it & the actual wedding & reception. We had such a gorgeous wedding & reception (Thank you Pop & Kim!!). Just thought I would share some of the things about our wedding. Like how we came up with the date, how we chose the colors & flowers & some other things. It's fun for me to think back on all this & I thought it'd be fun to share it.

DATE - Garyn propsed on December 8th 2006. I always thought it'd be sweet to get married on my parents annivsersary which is also my grandparents anniversay, February 23rd. But I realized that I wanted a summer wedding so we wanted June 23rd. That way I'd get my summer wedding but it's still on the 23rd. Unfortunately, the place we chose for our reception (The Kitsap Golf & Country Club) was booked on the 23rd. The 22nd was available & it was as close to the 23rd as we could get.

COLORS - This was one of the 1st decisions we made & one of the toughest. My 1st choice was pink but since it was Garyn's wedding too, I didn't want it to be too girly. We threw out pink & purple. I knew I didn't want red because EVERYONE does red. Black wasn't a summer color. I then chose green & yellow but Garyn wanted blue & yellow. We agreed that blue & yellow were the perfect colors for a summer wedding! The only problem we had was finding the bridesmaid dresses in the perfect color. We ordered the tuxedos from Men's Warehouse so we were going off that shade of blue. I finally found the perfect bridesmaid dresses. They were short & sleeveless so they also fit in perfectly with the summer theme. Unfortunately, since I had to ship 2 dresses to WA & 1 to CA, the saleslady told me there wasn't enough time to have the dresses shipped & sized to each bridesmaid. We ended up finding great dresses at JCPenney for only $30 each! They matched the groomsmen tuxedo's perfectly & looked great with the yellow tulips & the champagne color in my dress!

CAKE & FLOWERS - At that time, the only wedding I remember going to was my sister's wedding in 2004. I loved her flowers & her cake was delicious! So we chose the same people for our wedding, Safeway.

The flowers were easy, tulips are my absolute favorite flower! We chose yellow tulips for almost everything to make sure the color was incorporated in the wedding. I wanted my bouquet to be a beautiful waterfall one with blue flowers. They did an amazing job but it was heavy! I remember being nervous because it's hard to plan a wedding in another state. We were living in AZ but getting married in WA. I think I called serveral times just to make sure they had my order right. To save money, I did the centerpieces myself (another idea I got from my sister). I found the vases at the $1 store & just ordered yellow tulips. We arrived at the reception hall the morning of the wedding to drop of the cake, check out the decorations & set up the center pieces. It definitely saved alot of money doing it ourselves!

The cake was another easy decision. I wanted the same flavor my sister had at her wedding. We did a vanilla cake with fondant frosting. It was so good! I didnt' want the bride/groom on the top of the cake because I did want a few things about my wedding to be different. We had Safeway floral department make a beautiful flower arrangement for the top of the cake. It was breathtaking!

MY GOWN - I had come home in December for Christmas. The day I had to go back to CA, my stepmom, Kim & I went dress shopping. This of course was what I was looking forward to most about planning the wedding. We went to Benita's in Silverdale. They had a pretty good selection & I was happy with the attendant that helped me. The first 3 dresses I tried on were okay. The 4th dress I tried on was it! I rememeber my jaw hitting the floor in the dressing room. I came out to show Kim & she was in awe of this dress. I loved it anyway because it was exactly what I wanted. It was strapless, corset top with alot of detail. When the salesgirl showed me the train, I was sold. This was THE dress! I knew I didn't want anything under the dress (tulle or a hoop skirt) because I knew I'd get too hot. My sister offered for my something borrowed to be her veil. It matched my dress perfectly & I loved the idea of wearing her veil. I also didn't want alot of jewelry because I wanted the main focus to be the dress. The only jewelry I wore were a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings my stepmom gave me that belonged to her. I still treasure those diamond earrings! The dress was amazing & I felt so gorgeous in it! We are planning on renewing our wedding vows on our 5th anniversary next year & I'm planning on wearing the dress again!

THE RINGS - When Garyn propesed to me in December he didn't have a ring yet. Once he told me why, I was happy he chose to wait. He said he wasn't 100% sure on what kind of ring I wanted & he wanted to make sure I got exactly what I wanted. He knew I wanted white gold but that was about it. Once I moved to AZ, we went to the mall one day & he took my hand & led me into Fred Meyer Jewelry (our go-to place for all our jewelry). The saleslady was wonderful. I told her what I wanted & what our budget was & she fully kept that in mind. Garyn showed me the ring he had picked out. It was a round cut diamond with 2 smaller ones on each side. I did like it but everyone has that ring. I like to have things that are unusual. I chose 3 rings that I loved & told him to pick one. He chose the ring that is now on my ring finger. I love this ring so much! The engagement ring was a set & came with a beautiful wedding band. Unfortunately, I no longer have my original wedding band. A couple years ago, a diamond fell out & instead of them just replacing the diamond, they wanted to give me an entire new ring. We didn't like the new band so thanks to layaway, I got a better one that we love even more!

There are still so many wonderful memories I have about our wedding. Garyn & I chose not to do bachelor/bachelorette parties because the typical party wasn't our thing. We also think they are rather immature. Instead of a bachelorette party, all my bridesmaids & I met up at Azteca for margaitas & then we went & got our nails done. It was so nice beause none of my bridesmaids knew each other so it gave them a chance to meet & I hadn't seen any of them in awhile so it was so nice to chat over margaritas & pedicures.

I think my favorite thing about the wedding (besides becoming Garyn's wife!!) was getting ready. All my bridesmaids & I got our hair & makeup done about 2 hours before the wedding. We then went to the church to get dressed & ready. It took awhile to get into my dress but once it was on, I knew that I chose the right dress & I was so happy to finally be wearing the most gorgeous wedding dress & marrying the man I love!

My favorite thing about the reception (everything was my favorite) was the crystal decorations hanging from the ceiling. When I was home for Christmas, my Dad, Kim & I went to look at the reception hall. It was perfect. I loved that it was at a golf course, there was a beautiful pond in the entry way & plenty of space for dancing, tables & the cake. When we walked in they must have had an event coming up because the crystals were hanging up & that's when I saw them & mentioned to my Dad that I wanted them. The morning of the wedding, Dad, my bridesmaids & I arrived at the reception hall to drop off the cake & set up the center pieces & I remember walking into the hall & seeing the crystals & getting tears in my eyes because for some reason I thought we forgot to order them. I was so beyond excited! The Country Club did an amazing job! I had called several times to make sure everything would be set up in time & that they didn't have any questions for me. We just had white table cloths with blue napkins & the yellow tulip center pieces. We also had yellow lemonade at each table which I thought was a fantastic idea since it went along with the summer theme & the yellow color. I wanted candles but didn't want to spend much so we just got a big bag to tealites & they were perfect!

We had such a gorgeous wedding & reception. I'm still so thankful that I'm able to look back on our photos & the video & not have any regrets about the wedding. It was everything I'd wanted since I was little. I'm so happy that we are now celebrating our 4th anniversary & know that we have many more ahead of us!