Big Wedding Time!

After the wedding I was way too pooped to blog. Plus I just didn't feel like it hahahah. But i'll start from a little before the wedding. Well we had a few hiccups. Nothing crazy. The final dress fittings went well and it looked great when it was done. I was really surprised with Men's Wearhouse. When we first went we got excellent service. Even when the guys went in to get measured it was great. Most of the guys had no trouble at their fittings either or picking up their tuxes. The very last fitting and pick up Al went with our buddy Charlie and brother in law Adam. And for some reason they got the worst service. None of the people working their offered any help they were all too busy chatting with each other. And the manager that day was some lady with a thick accent who had no idea what she was doing. Up until now we worked with the store manager which was a younger gentlemen who was really on top of it. Anyways this lady was crazy! So a few weeks before when all the guys were fitted Allen and I let them know the wedding party would be wearing converse. You cant rent those so we bought the guys from the tux shop. But two pairs had to be custom ordered because they didnt have some sizes. So they were supposed to be able to pick them up when they picked up the tuxes. They get their and for some reason they order the completely wrong sizes. We have no idea why. This is like a day or two before the wedding mind you. This lady says well we dont have any of the size you need in the store but we can order them. Allen asks well how long will it take to get them. She says probably not until after the wedding possibly the day of the wedding. Allen says thats too late we will just get them from somewhere else and I want a refund for the ones we paid for but werent the right size. She says wait well give me your address and someone from the tux shop will deliver them the day of the wedding. Allen says no its fine we will get them somewhere else and take the refund. The lady tells him and Charlie and Adam wait I have an idea. and Walks away. They wait 15 mins and the lady is no where to be found. Adam has to leave for work and he is pretty much squared away anyways. So he leaves. After like 20-30 mins the lady returns. And says ok so have a nice day. Charlie asks well what was your idea? She acts like she doesnt know what hes talking about. They remind her of what she did. And she says well you guys left so I didnt know what to do. At this point the guys are confused and getting irritated. They tell her about Adam leaving for work because she took forever but they didn't all leave. In fact they had been waiting there for her this whole time because she said she had an idea. And she says oh yeah well I ordered them and someone can deliver them on the wedding day............what?!.............At this point Allen calls me and he is very frustrated. They already left the shop to get some lunch. I told him we have to get a refund and he said he was so mad he doesn't want to go back. So my mother and I went down there. You don't mess with my mom when she is in the zone hahahah. She went in there told the manager this service is unacceptable. The lady actually tries to say that they all left and that Adam took the pair of shoes we were trying to get refunded for. Which he did not he returned them that day. It really only took a matter of minutes until my mom got the refund and we left. I don't know how that lady got put in charge of anything but she clearly did not know anything.
The wedding rehearsal went well I was excited for the type of ceremony we were having. When we first talked about getting married I had this idea and I wanted to be a traditional non traditional wedding. But it turned out to be more traditional than I thought it would. And it was amazing :) after a couple of conditions were met my grandmother was able to do the ceremony. Rehearsal went pretty smooth and after wards we took care of some last minute details in the reception hall and went out to eat at Mimi's Cafe. Was a good night.
The wedding day was frantic and nerve wrecking before the ceremony. All the guys had to do was put on the tuxes and look sharp hehehe and they did they clean up nice! But the girls had hair appointments all morning. And we were running a little late already. I was so worried my hair wouldnt hold its curl because we had some trouble a few days before. But we all turned out lovely thanks to the girls at Vanity On Main in Santa Paula.

I love that Salon and I love my hair dresser shes awesome! Anyways, after we were all done we packed everyone into the cars and rushed to the Hotel. Lets just say it was a photo finish. I felt bad because the photographer was already there waiting. But she was really cool as well. Ari from Ari Photography was very professional and very understanding. And while my mom was frantically trying to tie me into my dress Ari just took pictures of our shoes and rings and flowers and was very helpful. I think one of the scariest moments was when my mom was tying me in and one of the loops ripped off the dress.

We were already running short on time and this happens. But my mom being the wonderful person she is had already planned ahead and brought a sewing kit. Oh my gosh was it a life saver. she sewed it back on and we were good to go. Until we found out there were two cakes in our reception area and all the flowers that were supposed to be on our cake were on the other one that wasnt ours. I was pissed. Really?! come on people! By the time I got down to the reception area it had already been resolved. The other cake was for the wedding upstairs and the cake guy had put our flowers(Which were beautiful as was all our flowers thanks to Shells Petals. She Rocks!) on our cake. Which turned out so cute!
<----Hahahah
And very very VERY delicious! I have A Gift Of Taste to thank for that. Anyways after that we proceeded to the wedding. The ceremony went beautiful except for my grandma insisted on wearing her mic inside her jacket so there was a lot of static during certain parts. But it still turned out lovely.

I loved every part of that ceremony. Communion and even the unity candle lighting. We had a scare with the Unity candle a week before the wedding. Again thanks for nothing Mens Wearhouse. We had ordered it custom through them and when it got to us it was fine until someone barely touched the lettering and and it rubbed off!!!! Half my name was missing!
<----more came off later
We were freaking out! I sent a very angry e mail to customer services and demanded a replacement ASAP. But I never heard from them. So we had to improvise. I tried using paint pen, sharpie, and nail polish and nothing would write on this candle! While we were getting the gifts for the wedding party we told the guy helping us about our dilemma. And he gave us an idea. While you can't engrave a candle you can engrave a little metal plate with an adhesive you can stick to the candle. So thats what we did. I rubbed off the rest of the names and we got some ribbon and stick on pearls and totally redid the whole thing and it looked 10X better than the original. I was so relieved!!!!'

Two days before the wedding I received a box in the mail. It was a replacement candle from Mens Wearhouse. It was free so I cant complain. But they never contacted me to tell me they were sending one! It would have saved so much time and frustration! But I still liked the one we made. So thats the one we used and kept the other as a spare in case anything happened to the better one. I just couldn't believe it hahahah But anyways ceremony went well. And ended with us leaving to "the eye of the tiger" hahahah While the guests enjoyed cocktail hour we took the rest of our wedding photos. I can't wait to see them when they are ready! DJ Mike Freitas AKA Allens brother was our DJ. And he did a fantastic job. He introduced us into the reception hall with Lets get ready to rumble remix I think it was hahah and our wedding party made us a tunnel to run through. Was pretty fun.

We then went into our first dance where we danced to the song Adam Sandler sings to Drew Barrymore in the wedding singer. "I Wanna Grow Old With You" it was so sweet but Allen kept tripping up on my dress because the train was still down hahaha I guess we should have thought that one through a little more.

After that we went into a combined Mother Son/ Father Daughter Dance.

The reception was great. I have never danced so much. The food was amazing the cake was great. We couldnt have had a better group of guests. The speeches were emotional and humorous even Allen teared up. Our best man did a great speech and gave us a meaningful gift as part of it. He gave us bride and groom Minnie and Mickie Bobble heads that had magnets in their noses so it looked like they kissed when together.

And he told the guests a short version of how we got engaged at Disneyland. He told us later that the only way to get those bobble heads was if you get married at Disneyworld. And that the host family he stays with on his down time from the Airforce Academy happened to get two somehow when they got married, so they gave him one after he told them what it was for. That touched my heart that he planned all that for us. He truly is a good friend. It was a good night. Allen and I totally smashed cake in each others faces

and I think it just wouldn't have been us if we didn't lol It was fun even if I did get a pound of frosting in my nostril. The bouquet toss was fun but the garter toss was even better. Allen did a dance I don't know where he comes up with these moves but it result in him laying on the dance floor and kind of moved like a caterpillar to to the bottom of my dress where he pretended he couldn't find it then did.

And of course as soon as he tossed it all the guys scattered. What is it with men these days come on marriage is something you want remember? But one of them maned up and grabbed. It was pretty amusing. We did a money dance which helped us out a lot. Plus seeing all of Allen's guy friends try to have a romantic dance with him was hilarious.

We counted up all the money from just that dance alone was over $100 that contributed towards our honeymoon. We didn't even know if we were going to be able to afford one. Luckily between money gifts and money dance money we had enough to plan a pretty decent honeymoon as well as put a big chunk in savings. It was a pretty crazy night and by the time we got to our wedding night hotel. We were both so tired all we could do was knocked out. The wedding was amazing. It was in a beautiful location, the wedding party looked sharp! and the staff was friendly and helpful it was just the greatest day of our lives. And we keep getting so many compliments. I know we are very blessed.