Home Sweet Home

It has been an exhausting week! When we got back from Minnesota we had to pack and move all my stuff into Chuck's apartment, rearrange Chuck's apartment to make room for my stuff, and being the OCD person I am I had to thoroughly SCRUB the apartment before I deemed it clean enough to live in. (Hey it's been a bachelor's seminary apartment for I don't know how many years--it was definitely NOT up to my standards of cleanliness!) I thought you'd enjoy seeing photos along the way--some are pretty entertaining. I am completely wiped but am happy with the progress that's been made :)

The before pictures--Chuck & George's room--we'd already moved the futon George slept on out of the room at this point.The living room--with the futon mattress already in the middle of the roomWe thought we'd put the futon mattress up on the loft to get it out of the way--except it's super heavy. So I got up there and tried to pull it up but then got a little stuckOn Thursday we had some help from a couple of great friends who helped move my stuff in. I came in a few hours later and asked Chuck 'Um where did you & Ryan put my couch? Is it in here?' Yes, to answer that question--it is...can you see it? Nope you can't.Where did my husband go?? This is the point where he looked at me and said "there is NO way this is all going to fit" I said give me a couple days and that I would fix it.Ta da! This is what the room looks like today...The view from the kitchen.I spent about 5 hours yesterday cleaning this kitchen--scrubbing, shelf papering, washing the front of cabinets, cleaning the fridge...it was getting kind of bad. Chuck even went out & got me new burner covers since the others had literally had holes cooked through them...The bedroom is still a work in progress, but it's getting there. Chuck's desk moved to the living room and mine is under the loft (which is extra storage right now) so I have my own little office. We were going to put the bed under the loft but we got pull out drawers under the bed that won't work if that's where we had put it. So we have to climb over furniture a bit but it's ok :)

Glimpses of the Big Day (or week!)

We got married last Sat. night on what was a perfect spring day in Minneapolis--really, it was gorgeous--55-60 degrees, sunny, and we were even able to do all our portraits outside. The entire week went absolutely perfectly, we can't really think of anything that went wrong at all! We had about 80 people come from ALL over the country to celebrate with us and we are SO honored and humbled that they all did. It was amazing getting to see everyone, I am still on cloud 9 from all the love, excitement and fun that we got to experience! After the wedding we spent a relaxing and romantic evening in a hotel right in town, and then returned for a brunch with the extended family on Sunday morning before driving about an hour away to the town of Stillwater, Minnesota for 2 wonderful days in a bed and breakfast there before flying back to LA on Tuesday to move and get settled. We get a real honeymoon in June which I am already looking forward to! We have thousands of photos from the week but I thought I'd try to put together a snapshot of the week here. This post has photos leading up to the wedding, scroll down for the wedding photos...and if you want to see any photo larger, you should be able to click on it and it will open.

Thursday

On Thursday during the day I had some incredible friends helping with ALL kinds of tasks--making my programs, washing sea shells for the beach party rehearsal dinner, working on place cards, etc etc. It was so fun to have so much help and they did an amazing job! Also on Thursday my parents hosted 40 people at their home for dinner--all those who were in town by that point were invited for different kinds of soups, salad and bread--it was a LOT of work for them I am sure but it was so fun to see everyone! Thursday evening the girls all took me out for a "celebrate the bride" night where we went bowling and then came home where my parents had set up a fondue party for us!

Jenn, Jodi (Chuck's really amazing friend from Florida) and Jean hard at work!Jenn and Missy at work on another projectWhile they worked I got to hold Noah, Jodi's 3 month old baby :)Dad and IAunt Ginny & Uncle Mike showed up just in time to help make soup for 40 people!I had to wear the bridal veil bowling...Every frame had different rules on how you had to bowl...Chocolate Peanut Butter fondue!Friday--Rehearsal Dinner Set Up & Rehearsal

We threw a beach party-themed rehearsal dinner Friday evening which turned out to be SO much fun! We had everyone come in sun dresses, hawaiian clothing etc and totally decorated a room to look as tropical as one can in Minneapolis! We did a great job if I do say so! Jenn & Miranda, two of my bridesmaids and best friends from high schoolOur tropical party--the set up--the kids loved the beach balls!The rehearsal--getting everyone lined up! We had people stand alternating men and women so that we didn't have 1 line of bridesmaids and 1 of groomsmen--we wanted to communicate that our whole wedding party was standing up for us as a couple, and not just for the bride or the groom.A father-daughter moment--he was joking about not letting go of my arm when we reached the end of the aisle.We had 2 fewer groomsmen, so George & Rodd escorted two bridesmaids each. George doesn't look like he minds!My GORGEOUS attendants! (Jenn, Jenn, Alethia--who was my personal helper for the day!, Megan, Jean--with baby Catie, Miranda & Missy)Ryan was worried about me eating BBQ in my white dress--so he took part of the wall decorations and made me a smock.The boys did a hula dance--it was...umm...unforgettable...Nate, Nathan (my brother in law), Ryan, George and my groom :)Introducing our bridal partyEven Grandma and Papa got into the beach theme! Papa's suspenders had surfboards on them!Jean and her adorable baby Catie and IAfter the rehearsal dinner we had a party back at the hotel where everyone was staying to hang out with the family and friends in town. Cousin reunion! (Mikaela, Christopher, Erik--Mikaela's fiance, Amanda and I)I got to see Amy again!! Amy started her relationship with our family as our babysitter when I was 5, she has been such a faithful friend since!Saturday--time to get ready!
My hair and make up were done by a wonderful woman, Sebastiana, and Miranda did all the other girls' makeup--thanks Miranda! I had asked Amy to come sit with me while I got ready to spend a little more time with her!My hair is done! I'm not sure what Jenn and I are doing...Jean and Jenn killing timeMegs and I arriving at the arboretum--the other girls were waiting for us to sing "Goin to the Chapel" as I got out of the car :)Getting dressed!The finishing touches--ready to go see my groom!

Ready to say I Do!

Picture time!

With my girls, ready to go meet Chuck

My amazing bridesmaids--poor Helen (my jr. bridesmaid) was somehow cut out of this photo but I don't have any others of all of us, I'm sure some will surface later! (l to r: Jenn, Jean, Megan, me, Jenn, Missy, Sophie, Miranda, Diana--our flower girl)Something tells me Chuck doesn't mind this particular photo!This is my "please don't drop me!" lookWith Chuck's parentsChuck and his dadWith my mom and dad--Dad was waving and blowing kisses to the "papparazzi" that had gatheredGrandma trying to keep me warm--my dress was long enough it served as a cape too!The CeremonyWe poured sand taken from Seattle and from Jacksonville Beach into a vase as our symbol of unity instead of doing a candle--it turned out beautifully!Mr. & Mrs. Kennedy!Party Time!
Our first dance--we'd taken lessons, so we were able to (somewhat) successfully fox-trot around the floor :)Father-Daughter DanceMegs came & joined us for the last half of the song--so dad got to dance with both daughters :)Mother-Son danceCutting a cheesecake is kind of messy!My bridesmaids had literally practiced singing "Goin to the Chapel" the day before and sang it to me all day--they came into my room singing that morning to wake me up, and sang throughout the day--here's one last performance, at the reception...My amazing parents who did SO much work to make our week so special!The foursome--the 4 of us cousins grew up super close to one another, celebrating all major events and holidays together throughout our childhood--me, Brian, Christopher & MeganThis is Ryan and Alethia, they did SO much work for us this week--so did all our wedding party! Ryan and Alethia gave us the gift of checking us into our hotel & decorating our room SO beautifully, it was amazing to walk into such a relaxing and romantic space after a very long day!I LOVED our centerpieces--we named each table after a different Psalm (we had read through all 150 Psalms as a countdown to our wedding together), and at each table were excerpts from a different Psalm. As part of the dinner prayer we had one person at each table read their Psalm to their table--it was awesome looking around seeing everyone leaned in, listening to God's word as we prepared for dinner.Leaving in our 'tunel of love' made up of our friends and family! (hey in MN it's too cold to make everyone go outside and throw stuff!)Leaving to shouts of encouragement from our friends for our wedding night :)One of my favorite shots--taken in our hotel room away from all the other cameras