Wedding Recap: The Days Before it All

Good morning!

After a much-needed vacation with my new husband (it's still weird saying that!), I am happy to be back in Minneapolis as we start this next chapter of our life.

Thanks to my Aunt Lori for taking some pictures during the ceremony! 

Our wedding turned out so well and as fun as it was, I am glad it is over! Planning a wedding is a lot more time and money than you expect! We are anxious to get back into our hobbies and have more free time to spend with each other rather than working on wedding to-do's. Everything went really smoothly though and just like they say, your own wedding always flies by much faster! I felt like the whole day was only 3 hours long!

The last few days have been kind of chaotic--we're still pretty jet lagged and it has been tricky getting back into a routine since we spent the last 8 days laying on the beach.

However, our honeymoon was so worth it. Andy surprised me by planning an 8-day trip to Maui! He had me guess where we were going while we were driving from the ceremony site to our reception so that I could tell our guests of our travel plans. Hawaii was absolutely gorgeous--complete with ocean views, tropical plants and flowers, amazing sunsets, and stunning mountains all around.

I'll recap getting ready, the wedding, and honeymoon in separate posts, so stay tuned!

The Days Before It All
Wednesday during wedding week was my last day at the office before taking the following two weeks off. My coworkers actually threw me a surprise wedding celebration before I left--complete with cake and gifts! What a fun surprise!

It was so nice to have Thursday and Friday off to run around and get last-minute things accomplished before the wedding. On Thursday afternoon, I drove down to my sister's place to do a wedding day makeup trial run.

My sister definitely got the girly gene and does an excellent job at makeup. She expertly applied my makeup for a fresh look on my wedding day. Since she works second shift and had to head into work, I headed out after the makeup application and ran a few errands before meeting up with my friend Kaaren for coffee.

During the last few weeks before the wedding, I didn't get a chance to spend time with friends and I was starting to really miss them. It was so great to catch up with her and hear pre-wedding advice from her since she's been married for a few years already.

Friday morning was spent grabbing a hot cup of coffee at Starbucks--it was freezing out! After picking up a warm drink, I spent the remainder of the morning being pampered by getting a shellac manicure and pedicure--a gift from one of my good friends, Kara Lynn as a bachelorette party gift!

This was my first time having a pedicure and oh my goodness--it was amazing. They had a huge tv, massage chairs, and hundreds of colors of nail polish to choose from. I ended up choosing "Strawberry Margarita" for my toes and a shellac French manicure on my hands. The lady at the salon added a quick sparkly top coat on my fingers before I headed out the door--what a fun touch!

Don't worry, Andy didn't get his toes done...

After the salon visit, I ran a few other errands before stopping home to change and get ready to head to the rehearsal. The rehearsal was great since it was laid back and we all got to chat with family and friends. It was great to connect with those close to us before the big day. The only freak-out moment happened when our wedding coordinator informed me that the flower girls could not use real flower petals on the hardwood floors of the chapel. Ahh! Luckily my amazing personal attendant, Krystine, stepped up to the challenge of running to the store to find fake rose petals!

After running through the ceremony order twice, we headed over to the restaurant for a delicious dinner. Before I knew it, we were headed home to try to get some sleep. Despite my excitement, I actually fell asleep pretty quickly!

I'll continue where I left off in my next post; it's time to scoot out the door to work. This week is flying by since it's been a short week for me--thankfully! After work, I'm headed out to grab coffee with my friend Bre before joining some friends for Krystine's birthday party later this evening. I'm looking forward to catching up with them!

Have a great Friday!

Where did you go for your honeymoon? If you aren't married, where would you like to go?
Mani's/Pedi's--love them or no?
Do you get jet lag after returning home from a far-away trip?