Day 10: Your wedding

 My wedding. I must admit, this post is a little overwhelming for me. There's so much I could say! After taking a weekend off from blogging, spending 90% of the day in a pool, I feel like I have to work myself back into the blogging mode :) So...here goes nothing!

Shortly after Ryan and I decided we were going to get married, we decided we wanted to get married in Vegas. I never pictured myself getting married until I met Ryan, and when I did picture it, I saw VEGAS. I was never the type that had every detail of my wedding planned out, and frankly, it was just overwhelming to me (surprise, surprise!) So luckily, Ryan rolled with the punches!

We met in person for the first time on January 22, 2010. My parents got married on December 22, 1978, and my sister got married on July 22, 2000, so I figured I better stick with the 22nd as well! What better day than the anniversary of the day we met?! January 22, 2011 it was. When we decided on Vegas, I think we both pictured something very different than what we actually got. Initially, we were looking at getting married in a little chapel that was made to look like a 50s diner, with a cheesy Elvis doing the ceremony...

However, we soon found out for that particular venue, there could only be 20 people (including us and Elvis) in attendance. Don't get me wrong, we wanted a small wedding, with only our closest loved ones invited, but 20 guests was impossible. So instead, we decided to get married here:

At this venue, we could have up to 100 people in attendance if necessary. They also had complete packages available. Complete as in the whole package. As in Jessie would not have her head explode by trying to plan the decorations, flowers, photographers, etc.. The thought of all that made my head spin. NOT something I excel at, and NOT something I was dying to attempt. So early on, we decided this was the place for us!

A view of the inside of the chapel

The bridal suite

The lobby

After the venue was chosen, I had the task of finding the perfect dress ahead of me. The perfect dress?! Was there such a thing? I've only recently become a fan of dresses. I almost never wore a dress unless I had to. Why? You got me. I wasn't even completely sure I was going to wear a dress, but I figured I'd at least entertain the idea. So off we went. We walked in, and almost immediately, I was bombarded with questions I didn't know the answers to: What material? Which neckline? Do you prefer an empire waist? What in the hell is an empire waist?! Oh Lord. The consultant could apparently see my panic-stricken eyes, and decided we should just pull the old "browse and grab." And browse and grab we did! I ended up with about 5 dresses to try on. I wanted something different, but nothing over the top. I had no desire to walk down the aisle draped head to toe in sequins and lace. At the first place I went to look for dresses, and only the third one I tried on, I found my dress. As I look at pictures today, I love the look just as much as I did then.

In my eyes, the dress had a retro feel to it. I am not a fan of veils, so I wanted a vintage headpiece instead. Paired with a pearl necklace my Grandma gave me, and some black sequins high heels, I think it was perfect for me!

Next came the invitations. In order to make the invitations, we needed a few photos to go along with them. So one fall in October 2010, my best friend Brandy, Ryan, my Nikon and I set out on a mission. Initially, we were going to take the photos in an old abandoned house that had graffiti all over one wall. However, when we got there, that wall had been ripped down and we weren't left with much. There was still some graffiti, but not exactly what I was looking for. As awesome as it would have been to end up with the word "rectom" spray painted in blood red on our invitations, we went elsewhere.

We went to more than a few places that day, and didn't experience much luck. We were almost ready to call it a day when we decided to try a cornfield across the street from my parents' house. Little did we know that there, amidst all the Children of the Corn references, we would capture the photos we would use for our wedding invitations! My friend Stephanie helped with the design of the invitations, and with the help of Costco's one hour photo, I had my invitations in my hand the next day!
 

These were the invites to the reception that was on the Thursday after the wedding.

For the actual ceremony, we wanted to something a little more fun! So we went with a less traditional approach

Although the venue planned just about everything else, we still needed to find 3 songs to use during the ceremony. One for the wedding party to walk down the aisle to, one for me to walk down the aisle to, and one for the newly weds to walk back down the aisle to after the ceremony was over. We discussed, analyzed, and discussed some more. Finally, we decided on the songs that we felt were perfect for us. 

The wedding party walked down the aisle to "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service.

Ryan's brother Mike and my friend Maren

Ryan's brother Jeremy, and my sister Laura

Ryan's friend Rob, and my friend (and Joel's wife) Meggi

MK and our friend Micah who tragically died a month before the wedding in a car accident. We planned the wedding with him in it, and it was only right that he still was. We miss you, Micah!

Ryan's brother Chad and my best friend Brandy

Jaylinne and Joel

My dad and I walked down to an instrumental version of "The Gambler" by fun. Thanks again for recording that instrumental version for us, Joel! (Recognize that album cover anyone?! Haha)

My Dad and me. Aw :)

 After the ceremony, we walked out of the chapel to the musical stylings of a Mr. Butch Walker. Some of you may listen to this song and think it is an odd choice for a wedding. Well...don't choose it for your wedding then! But for Ryan and I, it was perfect. it reminded us of eachother :)

Somewhere along the way, as if Joel hadn't done enough for us, we made the decision of asking him to marry us. Best. Decision, Ever. He was perfect.We didn't want some stranger we didn't know giving some standard speech we've all heard a hundred times before. We wanted something with feeling. We wanted something genuine. That's exactly what we got. At one point, he even included Jaylinne, and I couldn't have imagined anything more perfect.

I love that the photographer took a picture of the rose tattoo on Joel's hand during the ceremony

After the ceremony, we changed out of our clothes and went to eat at a mexican restaurant on the strip called La Salsa Cantina. They have the most amazing queso in the world. THE WORLD!

After we filled our tummies, we headed back to our suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. Thanks to the Packs, we spent our first night being Mr. and Mrs. Sanders in the most amazing room I have ever stayed in! I even took pictures. Yay! :)

This was our bed. If you're not wanting to hop in it right now and take a nap then something is wrong with you! It was a king sized heaven.

This was the view we had from the bed. The tv at the foot of the bed had a twin on the other side of the wall too! Ignore the creep on the couch in the beanie, he came with the room ;)

The view from the couch

The huge jetted tub

The steam shower with body jets

The bathroom sink and vanity. Again, ignore the dork with the camera. I think she came with the room too ;)

We had 2 walls that were all windows, so we had a pretty awesome view!

So, there you have it! Our wedding. Did it turn out exactly how I saw it in my head? Basically, yes. I knew I needed the man of my dreams, and my friends and family by my side. All other elements were expendable :) Thanks to everyone who shared our special day with us!