Best Day (Part 2)

The guys showed up on time (which was how the entire day went thanks to my lists and everyone else’s fear of me!). We piled into the car, and I do mean piled, there was definitely a whole lot of wedding dress to be squished into the front seat. We went to pick up Glenn and then we headed for the Basilica for pictures.


Ashley (Joel's Girlfriend) was even smiling at 8am!

Apparently Joel needs help getting dressed!

Remarkably everyone was early for pictures; both families were already there when we arrived.



Megan, Sheri, and I arriving for pictures.




I was completely relaxed during pictures; I hauled my dress around with the help of Megan and Sheri and smiled (I hope!).

Here are the girls hauling my train around, I couldn't have doen it without them!





The guys waiting around!




The main photographer was great and made this part of the day easy. I realized that although Jay saw me before I walked down the aisle having pictures beforehand made me so relaxed. The day had begun and the ceremony was just the next thing to do. It was definitely a good decision to do pictures early; it helped the stress case that I am relax!

The Best Day of My Life (Part 1)

I want to recount the events of July 19th.so I could read it and re-live it. It was such a great day, and although it can’t happen again I can at least save some of the memories. I know it was a couple of weeks ago but being away on our honeymoon and then at camp meant that I couldn't post it until now. Now I have pictures, so it will be more interesting. I wrote it all out and realized how long it was so I am breaking it up.

The day started early, my alarm rang at 3:21! It wasn’t difficult to wake up but I was thankful that I fell asleep quickly and soundly the night before. I took 20 minutes to relax in the bath. At 3:45 my wonderful hairdresser was at the house, I can’t believe that she was so willing to be there so early!


Here is Krista doing Megan's hair.


Note the big bunch of balloons :) !


On the dinning room table there were a bunch of heart-shaped balloons, one that said “I Love You”. I later found out that Jay and Mark had ninja-ed (complete with masks) into the house the night before and put the there, how sweet!

As Krista worked on my hair Megan and Sheri got up. Dad had the coffee on so they drank some caffeine to wake them up. It sure was an early morning! Thanks girls for your willingness to wake up at a crazy hour of the day. I actually managed to eat some breakfast at about 5:30, which was about all I ate all day!
By 7am (half an hour before Jay and Mark picked us up) I was in my dress and feeling very nervous/anxious/excited. I just wanted the day to start!


Here I am in THE DRESS!! Both these pictures were taken at my parents house in the morning!

Update

I was hoping to post today with a recap of the wedding but it doesn't seem appropriate given the circumstances so instead I will post that at a later date.

Please pray for the Friesen family, their daughter (18 years old) was killed in a car accident on Thursday night. I teach her little brother. This is a very difficult week here in Mennville as so many people have been touched by this beautiful, intelligent, and caring young woman.

I am heading to camp (BCBC) on Sunday to be staff for the week, they are very short staffed and I can go so I am. Pray for us out there this week. For many it won't be an easy week!

~S

The Dress

She is home! After a long period of waiting, some tears (okay many) and some alterations my dress has come home! Sheri and I went today to get her and I had so much showing my dad (who called me three times today about it, and was almost as excited as I was about getting her home) and figuring out jewlery tonight! I LOVE HER!

I know it is just a dress, I know that I will only wear it for one day but it is my wedding day after all! Maybe I am more attached to it because the dress was a battle right from the beginning. I haven't told the story here so if you haven't heard it all then here it goes (just for the record Dahlen and Chantal are now married so I am not spoiling anything here!):
Dahlen and Chantal got engaged the same weekend we did (hmmmm... the boys must have talked), and then happened to go dress shopping the same weekend as well. She went on Fiday, I on Saturday. At church on Sunday we were both excited to announce that we had found and purchased our dresses. That afternoon at the guys place we started telling each other about them; we started generally, "mine is strapless", "mine has a pick-up skirt", mine gathers over here", "mine has beading across the top", "mine is lace-up"... as the list went on we discovered that our dresses were extremley similar, to the point of being the EXACT SAME DRESS! Yup at two different stores, on two different days we bought the same dress... same colour (ivory), same size! At first we laughed, the boys teased us and made some wise cracks and off Dahlen and Chantal went. They shut the door, I started to cry. Now I can't explain the exact cry, but I can tell you that it was more like a sob, and maybe a touch too dramatic. I don't think Jay knew what to do or say. I quickley called my parents. Through sobs I told mom the problem, who then got my dad on the phone and they both didn't know what to say. It was already late-ish on Sunday so we couldn't do anything about it. I think I spent the rest of the evening on the phone crying with various people (Megan, Mom, Chantal, who called to see how I was doing, etc.). If you are a guy reading this post you won't understand, it is just a dress after all... but the biggest deal for me was that Jay would see Chantal in my dress before he would see me in it... I wanted there to be an element of surprise on the day! I decided to just get another dress, my dress shop was AMAZING and let me exchange the dress (they had already ordered it). The next weekend, with a fresh pair of eyes (thanks Sheri), I bought MY dress! I loved her even more than the first one and was happy with my decision to get another dress rather than stick with the "shared" dress. So the dress has been the bigest problem all through the planning process; I have even had nightmears about dress issues (not having her onJuly 19th and doing pictures and the ceremony in jeans). I am very happy to have her home now, hanging in the sewing room for another week.... maybe I will visit her a couple of times a day just to look! Having her home makes me so happy that I choose another dress!

So that was the excitment for the day... maybe even the week. One week from today I hope to be sleeping by now (I get to wake up at 3:30 am on my wedding day), but I wonder if I might just be a little too excited at this point to sleep.

Just for the record I am excited to wear my dress (what bride isn't), but I am more excited to get married to Jay. I love him a ton and for some reason he puts up with my stress related freak outs (yes mom and dad he now bares the brunt), my demands, and my craziness. Who knew that the set-up would turn into a marriage!

The list is shrinking!

I spent a wonderful two days and one night (thanks Lindsey and Eric) up in Mennville this weekend. I left in such a whirlwind that I forgot stuff and had stuff I needed to do with Jay. So off I went. Jay and I had time to work on programs, talk about what we both needed to do, finished our last day at bootcamp, and I felt a little less stressed when I went home. I came home with most of what I needed so it was time well spent.
I crossed some more stuff off the list with mom today.
I think I am ready to just get this done! Time seems to be dragging just a bit and I really just want to be married! AHHHH only 13 days to go (and really today is almost over so that makes it almost 12!).

Moving, planning, stressing

So I am officialy living in winnipeg now, my parents home is now my "home". It will only be for 18 days (17 more). It really is handy living in the city, I can shop, plan, create all in the comfort of air conditioning and without driving for 2 hours! My stuff got packed and thrown into Jay's (our) house. I am looking forward to organizing the place when I get back after the wedding. I moved so quickley that things are everywhere... unpacking should be interesting!

The wedding planning is coming along. There is stuff to do but not too much. It is a little difficult when Jay and I are living so far apart. I know it isn't crazy far but the whole planning process has been a team effort with LOTS of discussion so it is a little hard to adjust. I had my first dress fitting today. I hadn't seen her (that would be the dress) since Feb., I love her, I am so excited to have her home!

Stress... I know I just wrote that there is not a ton of stuff to do but at times it feels like I have a million things! It is worse at night, we start talking and I quickley become overwhelmed... by morning it doesn't look so bad. I think maybe I just need to stop thinking about the wedding after 8pm... that might help! Really I just need to make a game plan and figure it out! Ahhh it will all be over in 17 days!
~S

Yes I am Alive!

So my blog is falling by the wayside and I update it less and less as time goes on. I think maybe that is a good thing; I am living life, and spending less and less time on the computer. But here is an update, just to keep you in the loop!

School is wrapping up; I can’t believe we have only 2 weeks left! I really do like my job but I am looking forward to summer (maybe even some summer weather). So work is busy as I wrap units up, go on field trips, and of course do report cards. An endless amount of marking is heading my way tomorrow! But the end is in sight and I hope to finish these two weeks strong.

Lindsey, Jay and I joined a fitness boot camp and that started this week. I really don’t have time for the three nights a week plus homework, but I am motivated to look as good as I can in the dress so I am making it happen. Plus I get to hang out with Jay! Really I am enjoying it, and looking forward to the next couple of weeks!

Really the biggest (and most important) thing on my mind is JULY 19th! I can’t believe I will be married in only 36 days! Time is flying by! I continue to be thankful for a fiancée that does so much wedding planning. I will never be able to say that Jay “just showed up” the day of the wedding. Other than the dress Jay has been a part of every decision and has made a million phone calls and emails to get things planned. He even wrote some thank you notes for shower gifts that we received last weekend.

I am so looking forward to that day, but more importantly the days after that day. I can’t wait until “home” (aka Jay’s house) is my actual home, or until I can watch a movie (and fall asleep) and not have to get up and walk across the road, or until I can wake up in the morning, eat breakfast and have a conversation with Jay all in my pyjamas, or until… you get the picture. Basically I can’t wait to actually live all of life with Jay.