It's OVER!

And it's back to the regular work week!

I really don't know what to say...I'm married, that basically covers it :) It's been an amazing week and I know it'll just keep getting better (not easier, but better).

As most of you know, I'm a control freak, a perfectionist and a "planner". But I'm happy to report that even with those tendancies, in my mind my day went PERFECT. It's not even that I just had to let go of stuff (which I did, but mainly during planning), but God blessed us with calm nerves, helpful and extremely generous friends & family, and a smooth, flawless day. I couldn't have asked for anything more! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures so far (check out my facebook or myspace for more, or go to the website).

Something old (my mom's pearl necklace), something new (my white Rainbow flip-flops), something borrowed (Matt's mother's hanky from her wedding) & something blue (the bow on my polka-dot garter, made by my mom).

Right after I was given away, singing our favorite hymn, "Before the Throne"

Becca, my cousin & one of my bridesmaids, wiping away mascara-tear streaks.

Ok, I would have put the one of us with Michael & Jessica but Jessica hates that picture of herself, so until we get it photoshopped a little, here's one of Matt, me, and his brother & best man, Michael.

CAKE!! Paradise cake with whipped cream frosting from the King's Hawaiian Restaurant & Bakery in Torrance, CA. The most AMAZING cake ever on earth! Sadly, we didn't get a chance to eat our slices that night :(

Coronado was AMAZING and the resort we stayed at was wonderful (here's my plug, stay at Loews Resorts, they're all over the US). I don't have the pictures from that uploaded onto my computer yet but I'll add them when I do.

5...4...3...2...1...

5 days to go! And I made my goal of being done with wedding prep a week before the wedding! Well...almost (which was the goal of my goal haha). All I have left to do is finish up the slideshow, do the beading on my veil, wrap my attendants gifts and put together the kid's favors. Oh, and finish packing for the honeymoon. I'd get more of that done today only now I'm not feeling very well. I've got a killer headache and keep getting dizzy and lightheaded when I stand up. So I'm taking it easy and drinking more water.

But really, I'm so not stresed or nervous or scared. I'm just ready to be married and start my life with Matt. We moved all his stuff into my apartment over this past weekend. It's weird to see his clothes hanging in the closet. The apartment is a disaster right now with all my wedding stuff, all of Matt's stuff, and then all the boxes from all the shower and wedding gifts.

Oh, speaking of gifts, we've recieved 2 sets of our dishes and our vacuum in the mail but the packages didn't say who they were from. So if they're from you, please let me know so we can send thank you cards!

AHHHHH 19 days!!!!!!

The fact that I haven't posted in a month might be a small clue to how busy I've been...and not even with wedding stuff!

Two weekends ago Matt and I went up with the high school group for winter camp and cooked 3 meals a day for 70 people. It was really fun, we got to spend alot of time with each other, in the kitchen and then relaxing back at a cabin for some of the leaders.

This past Friday we put on our annual Valentine's Day Dinner at church which I headed up so this whole past week was basically taken up by prep work for that.

Yesterday I had my bridal shower, which was a blast (although I still dread opening presents in front of everyone!).

Now it's crunch time! This week I pick up my dress, finish the wedding favors, and this Saturday is the deadline for RSVPing and when I give the reception location my final head count! Today I'm ordering a second sample cake, scheduling a time to walk through the reception with our coordinator, sorting our hair and make up for my girls, and hopefully working on bridal shower thank-you cards. Still to do...

Finish up two last details for my attendant's gifts, write all notes and wrap them.
Confirm our honeymoon reservations.
Do the beading on my veil.
Hair & make-up trial runs.
Schedule my nail appointment.
Decide on send-off materials, if any.
Decide on get-away car.
Decide on ceremony set-up & decor.
Decide on where to take pictures.
Create "must-have shots" list for photographer & videographer.
Create reception music play list.
Start (and finish) ceremony programs.
And...the list continues...

*WHEW*

Wedding invitations are out!!!! 2 days late but they're OUT! That's a huge load off my back. Now I can just check all the little detail things off the list over the next 6 weeks. I'm going in to get my dress altered this week as well as meeting with the florists for both ceremony and reception. Two weeks ago I finalized music with Justin (oooo boy am I excited for that!). We're also doing a cake tasting this week!! I'm REALLY excited for that haha! We went through old pictures of Matt this past weekend and next weekend I'll go through old pictures of me for our slideshow. I'll have to post some of my favorites (Matt in tights anyone?) Bridesmaids' & groomsmens' gifts are ready and we've almost reached a decision on tuxes :)

My wedding websites

Check 'em out!

http://mrshamel3808.googlepages.com/home

www.theknot.com/ourwedding/EliseAlcorn&MatthewHamel

Invitation disasters :-/

So my concept was good, my execution just was lacking. So I sucked it up and ordered invitations today. That actually relieved 99% of the stress and reason I've been in a bad mood for the past few days. The remaining 1% is worrying about the budget but I know that that will work itself out too. Here's what the invitations will look like now...



The thought of leaving this week for 5 days is rather disconcerting but I just keep trying to remember what Matt tells me when I tell him how stressed I am "in the end we'll be married and THAT'S what really matters". *sigh*

On the fast track to a wedding...

Apparently 3-month engagements are so rare that Jr. Highers needed to start the rumor that I'm pregnant and that's why we're getting married so fast! But oh well, that's their problem (although I do wonder why they would think that with me still serving in Student Ministry but maybe they just didn't think through the rumor).

In other news...or maybe not so "other" since it also has to do with the wedding (what doesn't nowadays!?) we got a huge chunk of my to-do list done yesterday. We registered at Target & Macy's (although everything we registered for at Target in store somehow didn't get saved so I have to do it again, unless they can fix it when I call tomorrow), I got my little black dress & Matt got a formal jacket (items we figured would be good to have on the honeymoon), I took Matt to meet our reception coordinator and see the reception location, we bought our wedding bands, and we bought our attendants' gifts.

Awesome story about Matt's jacket too (I told so many people at church the story, I know, but I get excited about bargains like this!!!). When we went to register in store at Macy's, the lady told us about their rewards program that you can have if you have a Macy's credit card (you get 5% Macy's cash back on everything people buy you off your registry) so we opened one just to get that. Well, because we opened a new account, we got 20% everything yesterday and today plus yesterday they had their huge "One-day Sale". So we didn't think to use it until we stopped at the Stonewood Mall (we did our registering at the Brea Mall) to visit Zales for our wedding bands. Then we realized "oh we should look for his jacket and my dress NOW while we have the 20% off". It took a while to find jackets that weren't outrageously priced (even with the discount) but we finally found some that were 75% off. They were really nice cashmere blend Alfani (I'm guessing a name brand???) and they were in the men's formalwear department and their retail was $295. They only had charcoal or black in his size (they also had brown, but all L or XL) or else we would have gotten him two...why? Because being 75% off and then adding our 20% we ended up paying $15 for a $300 jacket!! I joked that we should get them as groomsmen's gifts they were so cheap! Anyways, we took a brown one up to the cashier and asked if they could search other stores for it in his size and they supposedly had two there at that store and Brea had 6 but the sale was only yesterday and we're NOT gonna pay that much! lol

ANYWAYS...This week on my to-do list is:

Make invitations
Start working on the handmade portions of my bridesmaids gifts
Pre-marital counseling homework (verse memorization)
Buy supplies to make the ring bearer's pillow like this