We didn’t register anywhere, but our friends got the wonderful idea of buying us a matching running outfit from the Running Room along with a new set of running shoes with socks. Renan also got a little mixed gift basket of running gels and shot blocks (I don’t eat those things when I go running). I think it was cute, and such a wonderful and thoughtful gift. I think our friends really thought about it when they picked it out, and it was much more personal than a gravy boat! I always try to pick out gifts for my friends that I know they will use!

We knew when we wanted to go to Hawaii, but we also knew that booking through the marathon organizers would be more expensive. AND we also knew that places book up fast, so we made our reservations almost a year before. We booked our flights and hotels through Expedia. I think the next time around we will also book a car, because we ended up renting a car locally, and we paid over $100 more than what expedia quoted us for. The hotel was great, I think it was easy to chose because we knew where we wanted to be, and there was no problems with our e-tickets. Expedia is easy to use, and I always book my tickets through them.

We found out about Janee’s Elite Designs from one of Bridal Shows I attended. Her work is really beautiful, and we went in for a consultation and were able to chose a beautiful template to work with. Once we had choosen the template, we ordered invitations, place cards, and save the date cards, because we thought that it made more sense having everything match and to have everything done. I liked the organic look and feel of the place cards, and having them on the table made it much easier for people to find their places and sit and have a good time. Out of the places that we were quoted for invitations, these were about high-average, but much better than anything we could have made on our own.

The thing about runners is that right before a big race, they’re supposed to have a carb-load. There’s always spaghetti dinners put on by the marathon committees for all the runners, and it’s a great way to get pumped up before the big race. So, on the eve before we were heading up to Trego, we had all our close friends and family members meet us for a group spaghetti dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. This is an old brick building, high ceilings, really makes you think of older times and maybe somewhere in NYC or old Chicago. The atmosphere is great, and if you reserve far enough ahead of time you can get a group reservation. We were 25, and they were ready for us. The food is really tasty, nice comfort food with lots of garlic bread, drinks, and pasta. It’s a great place.

It was rather hard finding a photographer who wasn’t booked, and also to find someone who would be willing to travel outside the St-Paul/Minneapolis area. Renan is an amateur photographer himself, and he loved all the pictures on Melissa’s website, and he wanted her to be the one that took our photos. We were able to negotiate a price with her to take our engagement photos, which we had on our wedding website, and then a second round of photos in our apartment. I think it was great for us to have a professional photographer take pictures of us at home, because we were able to capture a piece of our daily life in such beautiful frames. She is wonderful to work with. I recommend her, hands down.

Renan needed a suit, but he wanted something that was cheap. Classy but cheap were his exact words. He didn’t see many opportunities to use the suit again, and seeing how simple my dress already was, he went in and hoped to get something on sale. I guess he lucked out and found everything her needed at Men’s Wearhouse on sale. He bought a really nice suit that was almost 60% off. He bought two nice shirts for the occasion, which was good, too, because shirts were something that he would use again. On the day, he decided to not go with a plain white shirt, and instead went with a pale green shirt. I liked the subtle nature of the green, so for men who are thinking of just wearing a shirt without a jacket, consider green, not just white!

For our honeymoon, Renan and I ran the Honolulu Marathon, in early December. It’s a great course, and we had always talked about running it together when we first started training. We booked through expedia a room at the Ohana Hotel, which was nice. The whole atmosphere was great, there were hundreds of runners waking up early every morning and running along the paths alongside the beach. Literally, hundreds of runners, and everyone is up early because the race itself starts at 5am and we all need to get used to the time difference. The island is beautiful, it was a great place to relax. After the race, we drove up to the North Shore and that was equally beautiful. Best part would have to be the Cheesecake Factory in the downtown, and all the great resturants! We could spend the day secluded in nature but at night we could still eat a great four course meal!

I love flowers, and there are always fresh flowers in our apartment. I had made the decision early on that even though Hearthwood would be taking care of the flowers for the ceremony, I wanted to bring my own bouquet for the reception. I wanted my bouquet to be beautiful, and not something generic. I knew of Prairie Crocus because they had been listed in the Pioneer Press for being an organic florist that works with seasonal and local flowers. My bouquet was beautiful, and it was really easy bringing it up on Friday night.

We headed to Target for all our favor needs, which was more at the suggestion of my mother and bride of honor than what Renan and I wanted. They had seen some party favors at the Fair, and had decided that they could DIY for less by buying the stuff at Target. Target, like Wal-Mart or Michaels, has a whole section of wedding DIY stuff, like decals for the car and silk rose pedals and small champagne glasses that you can fill with chocolates. Everything was cute and fine, I just can’t get over how expensive this can be when it’s all totaled up. We even bought a plastic runner for me to walk on, but on the wedding day we used none of those things, just because we went with the natural beauty of the outdoors. There was the lake and the sunset, everything was beautiful on its on. The little champagne glasses filled with chocolates were cute on the tables, and I was grateful that my mother and cousins made them because I just couldn’t see myself doing that. If I really wanted little favors, I would have bought them pre-made rather than make them myself.

My secret is that before I became a runner and was a member of the track team, I was on the school dance team and would dance before games in high school. This was when I was 15! Most of my bridal party is from that same dance team, so Renan and I decided that for our first dance, it needed to be good. My present to Renan was the private wedding dance lessons at Cinema, because I wanted us to be able to waltz in front of all our friends. How classy is that? I don’t think anyone could expect that from us! The lessons were great, the instructors were really helpful and patient, and I would suggest going with more lessons than less. Because both of us are athletes we had good form, and our rhythm was good for the most part. Still, as we were learning a complicated dance, we took the most amounts of lessons they offered.