Phil and I met on the website our favorite author, Orson Scott Card.  His website, Hatrack River, is the gathering place of the single most interesting people I have ever met.  One late night in February, both of us were chatting in the chat room about music.  He had recently lost all of the music on his computer and was looking for recommendations.  I suggested a few things and we started to hit it off (let the flirting begin!).  Our chat lasted all through the night and into the next day.  We continued our nightly chats and graduated to phone calls and texts.

I admit that I was unsure as to where this relationship was going.  He was living in San Diego and I in Omaha.  I certainly did not have the money to go to California (I was living in a spare room at a friend's house) and he was a newly graduated Computer Science major.  Somehow he found the money and three months from our first chat, I met him for the first time.  We picked right up from our phone calls and chats.  Anyone who saw us would have assumed we were already married.  We couldn't keep our eyes (and hands!) off of each other.  Saying goodbye at the airport was traumatizing.  It was love.  By July he moved to Omaha to be with me.  Four years later and I am a Mrs!

Christmas Eve, the day before the proposal.

Just moments after the proposal.

  The One Ring

I had pretty high expectations for my proposal.  I dreamed about airplanes with banners, professional sporting events where the camera turns on us and he drops to one knee, or maybe finding the ring in a glass of champagne during dinner at our favorite restaurant. I certainly did not expect me to be the one to ruin it. 

We bought the ring back in October and I was so excited that I sometimes wore it when we went out on the weekends.  Well, I got so used to wearing it that it was that one time I forgot to take it off before visiting my parent's house that my mom noticed it on my finger.  She said, "That is not a cubic zirconia!"  I gasped and made an attempt to hide it.  Too late.  I was so upset she had seen it that I almost started crying.  This was not how I planned it!  I was obviously more upset about it than he was.

I got over it and finally the real proposal came, on Christmas Day.  When all the presents had been opened, he pulled the ring from his pocket and got down on his knee.  It couldn't have been more perfect.  He said that he knew how long I had been waiting for this ring, but he had to wait for the right moment.  Did he ever!  I don't think I stopped crying until New Year's!

My makeup trial was the morning of my engagement photo session.  We dediced to have it done at my mom's house because of the better light.  When I came in she had her vanily moved into the living room for me.  My mom knows exactly what to do to make me happy!  Makeup by Molly Brandt.

I may look happy in these photos, but I assure you I was not.  She did do a great cut job, but when she started to run out of time, she just threw everything together.  She then "reminded" me that this was just a trial and if I wan't to see the completed hairdo that I would have to pay full-price.  Oh well.  I wrote it off and she rushed off to her next appointment.  I probably would not have kept her for the wedding day if I didn't think she could pull it off on the day.  Not to mention she is a good friend of my bridesmaid, and I didn't want to offend anyone.  I just felt it was a complete waste of my time.  I still had no idea what my hair was going to look like on my wedding day.

I had some buyer's remorse about this dress by CasaBlanca.  I thought I wanted something low-key and when I got it back, I thought it looked so plain.  My alteration's lady added more beads, but that only helped a little.  If I could do all again, I would have done a little more glamour and little bit more sleeve.  I have no one to blame but myself, I rushed into it and only went to one shop.  The sales lady was aggressive and was experienced in getting the sale.  I was helpless.  If my Maid of Honor would have been in town, I am sure she would have rejected the dress right away, but she couldn't make it that day.

My favorite photo of us.

We were dancing to the music the street musicians were playing for us.

Our final shot of the night, looking over the fountain at the Heartland of America park.  The other shots were taken in various areas of the downtown area, incluing the Old Market and the Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha, Nebraska.  For the complete slideshow:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/largirl/sets/72157605296790793/show/

Getting fitted with my maid of honor, Michelle, was a blast.  I may look silly in some of these photos, but I was deep in decision-making thought during those moments.  My only regret is that my mom was unable to attend these, as she was not feeling well during that time.

These are my RSVP postcards that I designed from Zazzle.com.  I did make a tiny typo, but don't tell me if you can see it!

I was passing through Pottery Barn and these became a "must have".  I managed to get them delivered just two days before the wedding, engraved with the "M" and all!

I bought this polaroid book through JeanM.  I bought silver pens and a polaroid camera and had the guests write around their own pictures. My photographer liked this idea so much that she bought the camera off of me at the end of the reception.

We can thank JeanM for these lovelies.  We only had 50 people attend.  I'd love to know how I managed to spend $300 on invitations.

Yum!  Champagne cake!

Bridesmaid, Kristi; Bride, Niki; Maid of Honor, Michelle                          My mother and I

My shower was amazing.  I was so overwhelmed by its amazingness.  My friends really and truely went above and beyond.  It took place at this cute local restaurant called Noodle Zoo.  The food was delicious and they remembered not order anything with beef or pork.  We played two games, neither of which were cheesy!  One was called, "The Price is Right" (my favorite game show).  Guests were shown household products and guests had to guess the price.  The person who had the most close guesses, got Godiva chocolate.  I got to keep the products (I'm a clean freak so I was very pleased).  The other game was the "Clothespin Game."  Guests were given three clothespins and if anyone said the words "bride" or "wedding," a pin was taken away.  The guest with the most pins left at the end of the shower won a prize.  Out of all the prewedding activities, this was certainly my favorite one.

At this point in planning, we were starting to run out of money.  My grandparent's must of caught wind of the situation because just then they offered to pay for the cake.  The only problem with that is that we already had the cake paid for and it was really cheap.  I suggested an alternative:  the gift of music.  We decided that a harpist would be perfect for our little mansion/bed and breakfast/garden wedding.  Enter Kim Brokke.

Necklace and earrings by Swarovski.  The ring is my mother's given to her by my dad on their tenth anniversay.

It finally came and I am so pleased.  I started to tear up, I was so happy.  The pages are nice and thick and there is no barcode or Blurb logo on the back (that must have been part of the newest upgrade).  The only thing I had a problem with is that the pictures are a tiny bit dark and some of them lost a little bit of their "pop", but that is certainly a very small problem.  Here are some pictures I just took:

We went to Sandals Dunn's River Villaggio near Ocho Rios, Jamaica December 9-16, 2008 and had the time of our lives!  Sandals is an all-inclusive resort which means that the cost of your room includes food, premium alcohol, and various watersport activities.  We also opted for the concierge services which has a lot of perks (too many too list), but free room service is a big part of that.  Most of the photos below were taken during a complimentary private photo session that is offered to all guests.  The pictures weren't free, but they became my Christmas present!  Here is a link to rest of the photos, which includes the pictures of us on three tours (horseback riding through the ocean, ziplining through the rain forest, and treking up Dunn's River Falls.

                                                                                    (that is an urchin that I am holding)

         Our candlelight dinner on the beach

                                                                                   &nb sp;     The view from our balcony

Likes (not in any order):

• the weather (when you read the weather report it says scattered showers everyday, but what they fail to tell you is that means a 15 minute shower once a day)
• the fact that our food and alcohol was already paid for, which made for a very relaxing experience
• transfers to another resort-got to experience the restaurants there (and praise ourselves for choosing the right resort
• the bathtub-jets and all made for an amazing joint bubble bath (picture in link above)
• Concierge service-worth every penny to have someone to answer my every question, to make my reservations, and ROOM SERVICE, which was utilized on a daily basis for breakfast on our balcony
• private balcony overlooking the ocean
• sailing on the hobie cats
• private photo session (free)
• candlelight dinner on the beach (which we got for free on a promo when we booked)
• Dunn's River Falls tour
• zipline tour (we did this through Chukka)
• nighttime events-gave us a chance to meet other couples
• Jamaican Smiles (our new favorite drink)
• robes-provided in our rooms
• wet bar (concierge and better rooms only)
• helpful staff (it helped that we had concierge level status-they knew you did too because they ask your room number every where you go)
• snorkeling (we went twice)
• dress code-I love dressing up and it helped keep the atmosphere formal
• duty-free shopping at the airport (bring an extra bag just for this)

Dislikes:

• the boring drive (1 3/4 hours) from the airport to the resort-we were already so tired from layovers that the drive was agonizing
• the room was tiny bit smaller than I imagined (not a huge complaint)
• scuba was not inlcuded
• tipping each and every person who did anything for us off of the resort, and they were VERY aggressive ab out making sure they got their tip
• shop keepers-aggressive to the point that I became angry
• Jamaica is a very poor country, which you are reminded of when you step 10 feet out of the resort
• food at the resort-not 4-star by any means, and it seemed (to me, not hubbie) that a lot of the restaurants shared the same chefs, meaning the food had the same quality at some of the restaurants
• jetskiers-they yell at you from their jetskies to get you to ride on them (another example of how aggressive people selling stuff can be)
• Horseback Ride and Swim (through Chukka)-this scared the crap out of me, which is weird because I am usually comfortable on horses, but the saddle was not one I was used to and I constantly felt like I was going to fall off, and one guy did in the water

Overall, I would certainly go to another Sandals on another vacation, but now that we have the travel bug, we will probably explore other islands.

On Friday we checked into the bed and breakfast (the same one we were married at, The Cornerstone Mansion) and it was just like I remember it!  It was nice to roam around the rooms and not be totally stressed.  After we checked in, we went to the zoo and went on the new Skyfari, which is a ski lift over the zoo).  Our zoo in Omaha is one of the top ten in the U.S. so it was pretty cool to see it from above.  All of the animals were putting on shows for us.  The gorillas and orangutans were acting especially playful.  My husband loves the zoo and I love him to be so happy when we are there.

After the zoo, we went back to the B&B to freshen up for dinner.  Our caterer, Villamonte’s, runs the kitchen at the Omaha Press Club, which is a member’s only restaurant on the 22nd floor of the Double Tree hotel.  The view of Omaha, which is becoming quite a nice city, just blew us away.

Our caterer had arranged for us to not only get reservations into the restaurant but also had the kitchen make us the same meal we had at our reception.  So good!  

Back at the B&B, we cut into our cake (not our original cake, but a duplicate from the bakery where we got our wedding cake) with our serving set from the wedding and enjoyed it on the porch with some champagne.  I indulged in a bubble bath in the clawfoot tub that was in our room and we stayed up late “enjoying each other’s company”.  This morning I told Phil to go get the classified section of the newspaper and made him find the ad I put in.  He gave me his gift, a charm bracelet with a wedding ring charm and graduation hat charm.  Perfect!  We ate an early breakfast with the other guests in the house and went back up to our room for a short nap before checking out.  We overslept a bit and had to rush to make checkout and promised the owner we would be back next year.

Honestly, our first anniversary couldn’t have been more awesome.  I felt like we were renewed for the next year.  I am already planning anniversary number two!