Rhett and I woke up early, before dawn.
My nerves were tingling as we looked at each other.
"We can do this, right babe?"
"Let's do this babe."
We loaded the car that morning with 100 glass vases, 20 hydrangeas, 10 Chinese lanterns, 2 dozen pink roses, 1 chalkboard, 35 personalized mason jars, 60 feet of burlap table runners, 50 tea lights, 30 candlesticks, 1 gold painted R, 100 mini carnations, a box full of scissors, floral tape, & twine, 1 gold painted M, 2 Tuxedos, and 1 Wedding Dress. At 7am, we rolled that loaded car out of our driveway and headed out of town. We had precisely 2 hours to accomplish our mission, 1 hour to get back into town, leaving us 1 hour to pack our plain street clothing, because in 5 hours, we were scheduled to meet the fam. It was our family reunion weekend.
And so it began.
This day, preceding The Day, that we had been waiting for, for mooooonths
and for what felt like an eternity, was finally here.
"Do you think they know?"
"I don't know babe.. maybe? Maybe not? I mean, I don't think so? I don't know babe".
This was the beginning of the conversation that had been set on repeat for the previous 14 days straight, differing per day by a word for word, text by text replay of what was said, who said it, how we responded, concluded by an analysis of what it meant, or if it meant anything at all.
There were only four other people that knew, that could have let it slip... Grandpa and Grandma whom we had sought blessings from to crash the reunion, my sister Aubrey whom got ordained so she could perform our ceremony, and Tristen whom would join us under the arbor as we exchanged vows. No one else knew.
Or did they?
We arrived at The Resort at the Mountain in Welches, Oregon, located under the foots of the majestic Mt. Hood by 8:30 am. Up and down the stairs, Rhett & I unloaded the car that was stuffed to the brim with the ingredients that would make up our wedding day. Rhett stacked it all in closets and behind doors as best he could, while I added water to flower buckets, carefully snipped an inch off every stem, and placed them under the air conditioner unit, praying they'd survive the next 24 hours. And with that, we were done. With time to spare, we headed back down the mountain, and back home to pack our bags for the clothes needed for the weekend. We had until noon to met the Acelar clan for the caravan to the reunion. It was almost time to spring the surprise on the fam with our announcement that we were going to get married, the very next day!!!
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snippets from the summer planning
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| my task list/calendar leading up to the wedding |
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| all the glass we scored from an event planner off of craiglist 75 bucks for the whole haul |
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| rhett taped off a "table" for me on the garage floor and I "tablescaped" |
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| the tablescape on our back patio |
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July 28th we drove up to The Resort at the Mountain to see the site where we were to be married. Another huge part of the story is the reunion (and wedding) was originally slated to be at the Kahneeta Resort. In late July, Kahneeta had a huge kitchen fire and wild fire (unrelated to each other) that rendered the resort unable to cater our dinner, and all the surroundings were char-coaled black. 13 days before the wedding, we changed locations. THAT is a story in and of itself. But, in the end, we were thrilled to be married at The Resort at the Mountain. I mean, how beautiful is it!!? AND, it is located 2 miles from the exact place we met which meant the world to us. It was perfect.
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| Thursday night, 2 days before the wedding, I went to Fred Meyer's to buy all the flowers. They did not have ANY of the flowers I had intended to buy. (Notice in my "test tablescape" photos above different flower and colors). I came up with a new scheme on the spot at Fred Meyer's that night. I'll admit- at that point, I made the quick decision that I just wasn't going to care what the tables looked like. :) |
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| all the flowers in the hotel room, under the AC unt |
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| // I brought these make up inspirations to my Sunday August 4th trip to Sephora and asked the artist to give me all the products needed to recreate these looks since I was doing my make-up myself. // My something blue: baby blue Calvin Klein heels. I passed by them in Macy's, right after Rhett and I had been to check on his ring, and I knew immediately they were "It" // Soft Fem'y Mason Jar decor that I loved. // I need to mention that when I speak of "no one knowing", I am referring to our families, as it was only our families that we were "Ambushing". Of course, to pull off the surprise, we had to keep the secret from most everyone. I did have a few close girlfriends that I shared the secret with though, for my sanity. I didn't have my sisters to confide in and bounce ideas off, my main go-to's, and without my girlfriends ~ particularly Heidi and Tiffany from my office ~ I don't think I could have pulled this day off. It was Heidi that sent me the top and bottom left photos that ended up being two elements of our day. // In order to utilize pinterest, yet keep my pinning under wraps so no one would know I was in the depths of wedding planning, I created a secret pinning board. I just made it public. I certainly didn't utilize all things I pinned, but it captures what I found as inspirational. The link is here: My Secret Wedding Pinterest Board. |
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| my second to final dress fitting when I decided I'd wear my hair to the side |
