DH and I are leaving to serve a tour of duty in Baghdad, Iraq (June 2009). We'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes. We should be home mid to late summer of 2010. Take care, enjoy the wedding planning process, and please never take one day for granted!

As many of you know DH and I were lucky enough to be picked for a special episode of TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress". We found out about it on the PW board. JDWedding day made a posting about the casting call and we thought, hey why not! They got hundreds of applications and had to whittle it down to 3 lucky couples.

The experience was amazing. We still can't believe how lucky we are to have been picked!

With my fashion designer, Randy Fenoli:

The lobby of Kleinfelds: 

All of the ladies headed to the salon to get their hair and makeup done at 9am. We were done by noontime and then got some lunch. Due to the rain we loaded up in the limo and got dressed at the church. We were at the church by 1:30, the ceremony had a start time of 2:30 and we were right on schedule

Lunch from Panera!!                                   The PW Thumbs up!!

Thanks AMiller for the Hoodie!                  Getting all laced up

Time for the Veil!!                                                 Putting in my earrings

Thanks to d1rtymart1n1 and abattyref we'll be having our sisters read the following pieces:

Navajo Marriage Blessing:

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the
journey ahead and through all the years.
May happiness be your companion and your days
together be good and long upon the earth.

and

"Blessing of the Hands"

These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.
These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.

You may now kiss the bride!

I had 2 BM's and he had 2 GM's The girls were in blue and the guys were in red to go with our patriotic red-white-and blue theme. Our flower girl is my new niece, his sister's daughter. She ran down the aisle and handed DH one single petal, it was so cute! I loved that SIL bought little Jada little red shoes to match mine! We didn't have a ring bearer

Ceremony processional: Cannon in D - I didn't even hear what was playing when I walked down the aisle!!

Bridal party announcement:You got a friend in me, Randy Newman

Bride and Groom announcement:My first my last, my everything, Barry White

Bride/Groom first dance: Michael Buble, Everything 

Frist dance ending, we had a killer dip!

Bride/father & Groom/mother dance: I Hope you Dance, Leann Womak

Cake Cutting: Sugar Sugar by the Archies

Garter Toss:Pink Panther theme song - This one was a big hit!!

Bouquet toss:Another one bites the dust.

Last Dance: Let's Get it On by Marvin Gaye :) I loved this

And boy was there dancing:

I carried a red, white, and blue bouquet. The BM's had red and white bouquets, white hydrangea and red roses and tulips. I had red roses, blue hydrangea, and white freesia and tulips.

My bouquet:                                 BM's bouquets

Red shoes were a must with our red-white-and blue theme!

Due to the puppy getting ahold of my first pair of red shoes, I ended up getting these from ebay for only $30

I made my unity candle set for a total of $16.

I bought one sheet of vellium paper at Michaels and printed out our image and date.

Then I used my sewing pins to hold the paper on the larger candle. I used pins to put ribbon on the smaller candles. I bought sticky gems at walmart, and ta da, a personalized unity candle, plus the stand, for under $20!

We love it!

As a favor, since we're both enlisted, and quite a few of our guests are as well, we're donating phone cards to soldiers serving overseas. We'll print these out and attach them to an ornament people will get to take home. We also attached a little card t a candy cane that announced when our SYTTD episode airs.

We went for a christmas themed wedding cake with our military Hummv topper. It was a white cake with a strawberry middle. It was donated to us by a very kind man! We were very thankful for the donation.

pinkdesignevents.com had contest giving away a free monogram. We entered and won a complimentary monogram, we love it!

We went the photo frame route. We had people sign the frame in our wedding colors, red and blue. We bought our frame at the Christmas Tree Shop for $6.99 We decided not to do the book since it'll probably just sit in the closet for years. We already have the frame hanging in our dining room. We used the picture from our trip to New York with "Say Yes to the Dress" and our 'second engagement' in the frame since it was a very special time for us.

We went on a Western Carribean cruise, stopping in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios.

We went on a zipline trip in Cozumel, snorkling in Grand Cayman, and a river tubing trip in Ocho Rios.

We were on the Carnival liberty. The food was fabulous, as was the weather. The zip lines were a bit disapointing, only because I've done them before in Costa Rica and Puerto Vallarta.

Elijah and I met while serving in the Army National Guard. I guess there's something about a woman in uniform as well! We've been together for about a year. He moved to the east coast after his twin brother died or cancer. He joined the military for something to focus on in his life. We plan on moving to Oregon to be with his family in the next 5 years.
On Christmas Eve,Elijah turned all the lights off, turned on the tree and lit all my candles. He read this very sweet poem and asked me to marry him. My favorite part was the box had a light in it! When he opened the box the ring just sparkled!
We had planned on getting married in the spring of 2009, but due to an upcoming deployment to Iraq we have to move the wedding up. If we are married we will get to live together while we're overseas, which is huge!
We decided on December 27 of 2008. We're looking forward to having a very sweet holiday themed wedding!

www.nluv.com/aprilandelijah

Our wedding photographer did a few pics for us so we could see her editing style, free of charge. They may not be very fancy, but they were free. We love the first one, which is also my profile pic. My BM's used the 3rd one for our jack and jill invites.

Being a big fan of ebay, we ordered our invites off of ebay. We got to pick the setup and the image. We got 60 invites, 60 response cards, 60 envelopes, 60 table cards, 60 direction cards 60 thank you cards and envelops, and 60 return address labels. All printed with the image of our choice. All of this only cost us $63. We couldn't believe the deal! Ebay seller: raeal6271 Very nice to work with!

We have a budget of $8500. There was a total of 76 people who attended the wedding.

His dad gave $2500 for HM, his mom gave $450 for DJ, and my dad gave $800 for church.

So far so good:

DJ  -$450 (FI mother)

Flowers $500

Bought Dress (PIB) $500

Had b-pics and e-pics $500 total

photographer  $1575

Invites done $95 including postage

Booked reception  $3200

Booked ceremony site  $800 (My father)

Bought and sized bands $240 total

Centerpieces done $80 total

Booked cake man and bought cake topper (Chocolate peanutbutter cake yum!) $free

Booked jacuzzi room for wedding night $49.99 (thanks to the cake man!)

Favors done, pending final RSVP's, may need a few extra $150

Picked out Tuxes $free

Bought frame for guestbook $6.99

Booked salon for hair and make-up $200

Bought garter/wedding night 'outfit' $25.00 for garter, free night of due to GC..

Booked Honeymoon and flights Carnival Cruise, plus airfare $2500 (FI father)

Bought shoes and dyed petticoat $45

BM gifts, manicure & makeup, total $180

Have toasting flutes $15

10 Dance Lessons $400

Booked Limo $260

Right now we're at $8021... and that's including his $450 b-pics. Looks like we'll pull it off!

As with any long anticipated event, there are always ups and downs, things you loved, things you would change. I thought I'd do a quick run down of some of my pros and cons:

Pros:

• SO glad I got a hotel room for the night before for the ladies and I. It was sooo relaxing, quiet, and fun. We drank wine and played "apples to apples" all night. It was exactly what I needed
• Glad I spent sooo many hours researching a photog in our predetermined budget. I came across dozens of photogs I LOVED, but so many were out of our range. I finally, weeks into my search, found someone within our range who had a package with everything we wanted. Our pictures are stunning, we couldn't be happier, and we stayed in our budget
• Dance lessons. Forget about the fact we had a killer first dance, we had so much fun in the process. The one-on-one time during our lessons was fabulous
• Scented candles. It sounds lame, but we had 3 or 4 votives on each table, and we bought scented votives. The entire room smelled like apple cranberry, it was so neat!
• Red shoes. Such a small detail but I loved it!
• We had a photo frame guestbook. Its already hanging in the kitchen, everyone thought it was such a good idea
• We loaded a digital picture frame with pictures of ourselves instead of a formal slideshow. A lot of people commented on how cute it was

Cons:

• I should have done more searching for a salon for our hair. 3/4 of the people who had their hair done weren't happy with it. I went for a salon a half mile from the house for convience. I should have shopped around more, but more importantly, I should have told her I was unhappy with my hair
• The damn DJ could not pronounce Elijah's name. We got Eli, Elia, Elias. I'm not too sure how we could have fixed that, but it was a big downer!
• Our centerpieces were really simple. However they were also cheap. They did the job, they were nice, but I see all these stunning pieces on PW and wish we had done something more elegant
• We didn't get all the photos we wanted. Not sure if its our fault of the photog's fault. We have NO pictures of just DH, not even one just before I walked down the aisle, which makes me sad. We also don't have any of DH and his guys, which DH is really upset about.

Hi ladies! I've got a few things to get rid of, let me know if you're interested in any of these

Black AMORE letters from HMM: ~sold to the fabulous jackieg!

Unity candle stand:

1 veil. its short, shoulder length with rhinestone accents:

12 pew hooks

4 rectangular vases. Used these on the head table to hold the bouquets sold!

36B longline bra, new, never worn. Bought without trying on and was a tad too small

"In case you get cold feet" socks. FI forgot to bring them, bummer! sold!

Flower girl baset with white bow and rhinestone center.  sold!

Then comes the baby in the baby carriage! DH and I are thrilled to be expecting a new addition to our family, due Christmas day, 2010. According to the u/s, we should be having a little boy, to be named Eric Thomas.

Here I am, mid September at 24 weeks:

As of today, October 4, I am currently 28 weeks. I had morning sickness really bad for the first 20 weeks. Weeks 20 through 25 were AWESOME! From week 26 on I've started to get uncomfortable. Heartburn that feels like it could burn through steel, exhaustion beyond belief, and the hip pain has started! I know in the back of my mind that it will only get worse over the next three months, but something tells me the end product will make me completely forget about this short, 12 week period of misery!