VBS

After work tomorrow, Jeff and I are heading to Long Island to do VBS next week at the Church we got married at! We are running the recreation portion of the day. This is my third year doing it and Jeff's 13th or something insane like that! I am missing yet another week of camp (the second to last week of camp for the summer), and my boss has been so awesome! She was fine with me taking 3 weeks (out of an 8 week camp) off for the wedding, honeymoon, and VBS. She also let me leave early yesterday to go to the Social Security office before they closed at 4:00 so I could legally change my last name! She's the best and I look forward to working for her again next summer!

My favorite camper, a 10 year old girl with Down Syndrome, is done after tomorrow :( Everyone on grounds loves her and camp won't be the same without her! She's the best and I will be spending as much time as I can with her tomorrow!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Anyone doing anything fun? We're prepping for VBS and having dinner with some family friends that I've never met!

Professional Wedding Pics!

I will eventually stop with all the wedding posts (I promise because I'm sure you're all sick of them) but our fabulous photographer posted some of our pro pics in a sample album setting! We're thrilled with what we see so far! They did a wonderful job!

http://www.visualconcepts.net/clients/nesteruk/

Post Wedding Chop!

We went to my friend's Indian wedding yesterday! We had fun and I got to borrow a gorgeous traditional Indian outfit from the groom's mother (I'm really close friends with the groom!) I also got a beautiful henna tattoo on my hand! I'm posting this first pic so you guys can see my post-wedding haircut and the outfit I got to wear! My hair was the longest it's ever been for the wedding and I am soooo happy it's shorter now! I think this is the shortest I've ever had it and I love it! I don't plan on growing it out again anytime soon!

Isn't the outfit pretty? The shirt was reaaaaaaally long (down to my shins) and it had blue pants as well and was very comfy, even in the humidity (it was an outdoor wedding in a tent). The scarf started to bother my neck by the end of the night, but it was so worth it! The majority of the guests were dressed like me, so I appreciated my friend's mother lending me an outfit so I could fit in!

My gorgeous henna tattoo done by the bride herself the night before the wedding! I think she did a fabulous job! She also lent me some jewelry, which you can see in the pics! She was so nice to do that, especially since I just met her!

Next Year's Schedule

One of my fabulous bosses already e-mailed out our schedules for the upcoming school year! Teaching doesn't start till September 9th, but we have preservice meetings sometime in August. I am beyond thrilled with my schedule! I asked for the really low level kids, and I got them! I also got two students I've taught before (one for two years) twice a day! I am teaching health, writing, and study skills again, which were my top choices! It was really, really weird to see my new name on the top of my schedule! It's also going to be weird for several of my students who have either had me before or know me since they now need to get used to the new name!

I am nowhere near ready for school to start again, and thankfully I still have some time. However, when it's time to go back, at least I have a wonderful schedule and students to look forward to!

Honeymoon!

Our honeymoon was awesome! We had an incredible time (even though it rained a lot and was very humid!) We mainly ate tons of food, drank yummy cocktails, and of course, went to all the theme parks!

Our rings!

The resort we stayed at: The Grand Floridian! We really liked it, but we both liked the Polynesian, which is where we stayed the first time we went to Disney together, better. This was a shot from the boat we took to the Magic Kingdom. The monorails were down the first day and a half we were there due to a tragic accident, so we had to take boats or buses everywhere.

A gift from the resort staff!

We went to Cinderella's Royal Table for a princess character breakfast! It was fun, but highway robbery! The meal was almost $100 for basic breakfast food! We will never do this again unless we have a Disney princess obsessed daughter haha!

This was our special sweetheart dinner at Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge. The food was delicious, we got to keep those champagne flutes, and the sparkling wine in them was soooo good! It was called "Magicale" and I want to buy a bottle!

Dinner at Le Cellier steakhouse in Canada at Epcot. Another fabulous place!

We're so happy to be married! This was waiting in line for the new 3D Toy Story ride. It was awesome!

In front of Lego bride and groom at Downtown Disney.

A "happy marriage" dessert from Teppan Edo in Japan at Epcot: Green tea pudding! Delicious!

Winter Summerland mini golf! The course was so easy and I beat Jeff (which wouldn't have happened if he didn't help me aim my putter each time!)

We wore the Mickey and Minnie ears EVERYWHERE! We also had "just married" buttons! We got congratulated everywhere we went, and a few of the street musicians played "The Wedding March" when we walked by! It was so cool! We saw a few other couples on their honeymoons as well, and a few brides! It was so nice to just be able to slow down, do whatever we wanted, and just enjoy each other in a stress free environment! This is probably one of the last times we will be at Disney before we have children (and one of the last times we go for several years because of the future children) and we really enjoyed it!

Since the honeymoon, I cut off several inches of my hair and I'm thrilled with it! I will post pics after the Indian wedding I'm going to this weekend! I get to wear a gorgeous traditional outfit and I'm so excited!

Wedding Recap: The Wedding Reception

Our reception was fantastic! We had so much fun! The food was excellent, the DJ was awesome and everyone danced all night! We couldn't have asked for a better reception!

We started the day with the posed pro shots. These are not pro, but they were taken by friends at the same time as the pro ones were.
 

The "Groomal Party" as they liked to be called.

My family. 

Jeff's family.

My girls. I had such a gorgeous bridal party! 

One of my favorite pictures with my brothers! Warren's face is priceless!

Jeff and I.

Group shot.

Our tables. So pretty! I had asked for pink champagne (which I was told would cost extra, but they didn't charge me) and it really tied everything together and looked so nice! It was also really good, and I normally hate champagne!

Our cake! I was so thrilled with the way it turned out and it tasted delicious! We saved the top tier for our first anniversary! It's in the freezer right now!

We entered into our reception to "Enter Sandman" because we are huge Yankees fans and Mariano Rivera enters the stadium to this song. It was so badass and awesome!

So fun!

First dance. We took 10 private lessons and we had the routine down. I didn't factor in nerves and a big, puffy dress, so I actually screwed a lot of it up and had to ask Jeff for reminders for what moves came next! Thankfully, no one else noticed and thought we looked awesome! I couldn't really do the dip at the end of the dance because I had lost more weight and my dress was a tad too big and I almost flashed everyone haha!

Our ceremony arrangements came from the Church to the reception.

Pretty view.

The sweetheart table was a bit of a surprise for me! I had just said to stick my bouquet into a vase, put a few votives on the table, along with some pink rose petals. Our venue hostess decided to give us a big candle that was on a mirror plate, and she put everyone's bouquets on the table. It was gorgeous and I never would have thought of it on my own! It looked so much better than what I had planned!

Toasting during either the MOH or best man's toasts. Both were so personal and heartfelt, and I cried during my MOH's toast!

Dancing!

Cutting our cake!

We were very nice to each other during the cake feeding, but we cut a pretty big piece and Jeff tried to shove a ton of it into my mouth! I was like, "I can't eat that much cake at once!"

Kissing with mouthfulls of cake!

Dancing with my dad. I split the song with one of my brothers as well. The other one hates dancing and didn't want to do it haha!

My brother and I.

Jeff and his mom.

Bouquet toss! My bridesmaid Jess caught it!

Removing my garter.

Jeff kind of danced around me and was silly before and after getting the garter. I almost died when he practically sat on my lap!

Garter toss! Jeff aimed it at his groomsman that we had paired Jess with since she caught my bouquet. He caught it and then had to put it on her leg, which was funny!

I don't really have any pics of us leaving because the venue and hotel shared a parking lot, so we didn't have a "getaway car" or anything like that! We just kind of left and walked next door! 

I hope you all enjoyed my wedding pictures! I will definitely post some professional ones once I get them! I'm still in awe over how well everything went and we had such an amazing time! Next I will post some Disney honeymoon pictures! 

Also, Jeff proposed to me a year ago today! I can't believe how time flies!

Wedding Recap: The Wedding Ceremony

The wedding ceremony is obviously the most important and special part of the day. I thought our ceremony was beautiful and perfect! I of course cried, which you will see in a pic below, but it was such a moving ceremony and emotional day!

MOH zipping me up. My dress had covered buttons going all the way down the back, but my MOH was so happy that there was a hidden zipper and she didn't have to actually button everything!

My bridesmaids took pics while the pro was, and this is a thoughtful, serious shot before leaving for Church.

The boys are almost ready! Not sure why Jesse is frowning tho haha!

My MOH and I in the limo. I was a nervous wreck at this point! I was excited to marry Jeff, but nervous at being the center of attention!

At this point, I was saying "Get me out of the limo and into Church! I'm ready to get started!"

Once we were at Church, I hid in the offices with my girls. This is one of my brothers being my "flower girl" and getting the aisle ready for me! He'd probably kill me if he knew I posted this pic haha!

Flowers and unity candle.

My MOH walking down the aisle. I was SUPER nervous at this point because I knew I was next!

Pastor Scott, my FIL, Jeff, Bret the Best Man, Jason, My brother Warren, my brother Kurt, Evan, Dan, Jesse.

My girls! Dara, Lauren, Jess, Juliet, Amy, Amy (SIL), Shannon my MOH.

This is me crying walking down the aisle! I was so nervous, overwhelmed, and happy! My mom was trying to calm me down and telling me not to cry. My response was, "Don't tell me not to cry because it's not going to work!" I got it under control for the rest of the ceremony, but barely. 

Jeff's first reaction to me. My bridesmaid Amy's husband got this shot and I love it!

Both Pastors did a message about us. I almost cried during Jeff's dad's. It was so sweet!

Vow time. I cried when we rehearsed these, but I was OK for the real thing. It was so incredibly special to hear those words from Jeff and to say them to him. Definitely one of the best parts of the day!

Prayer before the rings.

Jeff putting my ring on me. Another emotional time in the ceremony for me.

We did a unity candle lighting, but no one got a good shot of it because of where it was in the Church, so I have to wait for the pro pics! I also don't have a  good one of us kissing after being pronounced husband and wife! I will post them when the pro pics are in!

We're married and so happy!

Receiving line, which I did not plan on doing, but the Church wedding coordinator lined us up, so we did it. It was really nice to talk to everyone! Our ceremony wasn't as long as we expected, so this took up some time!

Leaving Church to get into the limo to go to the reception.

Everyone threw pink rose petals at us! It was so pretty!

Next up, some posed shots at the reception site and the reception itself!