Wedded Bliss

 Yesterday, my sweetie and I celebrated 3 months of wedded bliss. I thought I'd start this blog off with wedding photos to celebrate!  Nathan and I were married on May 7th, at the Marysville Opera House.

In the bridal cottage before the ceremony

In front of the door all the newly married couples signed

My bouquet - I LOVED my bouquet

Studly Nathan getting ready!

The groomsmen

Mom lacing me up!

I helped pick her mother of the bride outfit - she's so pretty!

Yes yes, love the dress

Nathan's cute mom

Diane, our wedding day coordinator extraordinaire. She was amazing.

I love mom's expression - I had the right person on the job of lacing me up

Gorgeous sister. 4 months pregnant and still so tiny.

Little Caitlyn, relaxing before her traumatic trip down the aisle

One last look in the mirror!

LOVED the little berry circlets I had for the flower girls

Bridesmaid Anna looks so pretty!

My mom is hilarious. Giving helpful advice on how to pin on flowers.

Nathan waiting to see me for the first time that day

Coming out to see Nathan for the first time on our wedding day

We were SO happy to see each other. Calmed a lot of nerves.

We did this a lot over the course of the day

One of my favorite pictures

Mostly I remember hugging for most of our photos, the photographer had to work hard for photos like this

With our bridal party - it worked out perfectly for us to use our siblings

Love my dress in this shot

I really wanted to be dipped for a photo

With extended family

Our ring bearer really liked the gift we gave him the day before and carried his sword and shield for all the photos before the wedding - Nathan and I thought that was about the best thing ever.

This photo was Anna's idea. It's another one of my favorites from the day.

With my wonderful parents

With Nathan's sweet mom and step-dad

With the awesome Idaho side of the family - I adore my new niece and nephews

Bridal party - Laura, Amber, Abby, Daniel, Thomas, Jake

Nathan's favorite photo from the day. I'm not even offended that it's one of my brothers and not me, this is a hilariously awesome photo and the source of not a little embarrassment for both brothers.

Littlest flower girl and ring bearer - these kids were so good. Caitlyn had to be carried down the aisle but that just added to the charm of the day.

When we got engaged, Nathan kept telling people that he was "locking it down" so my friend Cerra made us this poster for guests to sign in lieu of a guest book. Very fun!

Red velvet wedding cake! Got this from a grocery store and then had our florist cover it in rose petals, still looks awesome and we saved a lot of money doing it this way.

The candles were wedding favors that didn't really get publicized so we have about 150 left over. I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year ...

Our fabulous venue, the Marysville Opera House

My bridal cottage. It had a main room, two dressing rooms, a bathroom, and a hair styling room. Nathan got a groom's room that he shared with about 15 people just off the main entrance of the Opera House, I heard a few things about this after the wedding ;)

My grandpa made our wonderful wedding programs. He said it was the first time he'd ever included "the kiss" in a wedding program itinerary. We were very serious about our wedding day kisses.

The Opera House as people began to fill in. This was also our reception venue, it took them about 15 minutes to swap out the chairs and get tables out in the area where people sat for the ceremony. Genius, it made everything so easy.

The bridal party getting ready to make their entrance

My dad walking me down the balcony steps, where I made my grand entrance. Very fun!

Walking up towards Nathan - thank goodness we had gotten to see each other earlier, I would have been a wreck otherwise

On the stage! Everyone could see us easily. Have I mentioned how much I loved our venue?

Dad officiated the ceremony and did such a great job. Here he's sharing our stories of how we started dating and how Nathan proposed.

It was SO nice to have my dad up there with us. He's fantastic.

Getting the rings from the best ring bearer ever.

Our littlest flower girl slept through most of the ceremony. Her mom gets many points for holding her the ENTIRE time. Ouch.

Signing the marriage certificate. Nathan later pointed out that he was the only one with a legible signature who signed the document.

The kiss!!!!

So very very happy to be married!

Nathan really likes this photo - he's the champ!

Victorious trip back down the aisle as husband and wife!

Our table centerpieces. I tried to change these to mini cakes about three weeks before the wedding. Thank goodness it was too late to change my order by that point, I really like the white centerpieces we ended up with.

Best man toast. Jake did a great job, even quoting a poem about love by Nathan's favorite author, Louis L'Amour. Later I asked Jake, "How did you find that great poem? It was perfect!" He said "It was the first thing that popped up on Google when I searched for Louis L'Amour and love." Go figure.

First Dance

My dress was really difficult to dance in. Did not realize that when I tried it on. Mostly I just held on to Nathan while slipping around on the fabric on the inside of the dress. This is one of the few times where Nathan and I did any moves fancier that swaying back and forth by each other.

So happy

Father/daughter and mother/son dance. Dad and I got a little emotional while dancing together so this is the best photo of us for the dance (not being able to see my face at this point is a good thing)

Nathan with his mom, Colleen. Cute.

The rowdy bunch I sat next to at our table on the stage. They mostly talked about how much better they were than all the peons down below and how it was delightful to be first in line for food in front of all the riff raff. I hope neither ever obtains a position of true power or we'll all be in trouble ;)

2nd song - Nathan dances with his other mom, Katie.

2nd song - Daniel got to dance with me. Lucky boy.

Nathan dancing with adorable Anna

The photographer loved Logan

Cute mother/daughter shot

It seems so easy to cut a wedding cake

But it's not, it's tricky business. Also, we cut each other gigantic bites so our photo of actually eating the cake is quite embarrassing.

Nice photo demonstrating that my family did indeed enjoy this wedding

Grandma and Pa dancing - a wedding highlight

Mom and Dad dancing - very cute, Mom really didn't want to but Dad made her. Good job Dad.

Friends up in the balcony

Steve, a wedding day champion. Also, proof that Caitlyn enjoyed parts of the wedding. Pictures and walking down an aisle in front of hundreds of people are hard on a three year old.

Nathan and I trying out more tricky dance moves

Overall look at the reception, very pretty

Party time!

Nathan and I had a deal - we had to separate to talk to family and friends, but when Justin Beiber came on we'd find each other again and dance. Worked like a charm.

The ladies love dancing with Uncle Tim

Getting funky

Dance dance party time

A fitting end to our wedding day photos. Nathan's pretty hilarious when he dances up on me.

 It was a magical, beautiful day and I'm proud to say that I'm one of those who truly enjoyed her wedding day. It helped to have done a lot of planning in advance to have a go with the flow attitude on the big day. For instance, it rained - a lot - and it was hard to take some of the photos before the wedding. But then we just did some indoor photos in the bridal cottage, which turned out to be some of my favorite from the day.

Also, we had so many wonderful family and friends helping out. I'm sure many things that I thought were a breeze were the result of hard work that I never really saw.

And obviously, my marvelous husband Nathan is what made the day the best of my life. We were both so excited to be getting married to each other and to be joined by our friends and family for such an important day in our lives. Sweetie, I love you so much. Here's to another three great months - and many many more to come!!