3 weddings and thankfully, no funeral

Part of the reason that I have been absent from my regular-ish blogging was because I was off doing one of the best things ever: getting married!  If you've been to weddings you know how wonderful, fun, and full of  love they can be.  The best wedding though, is truly your own.  That's right.  Mine was the best!  And I guess it was so good that it had to have 3 parts: our part, the government's part, and my family's part.  We didn't plan for the 3 parts, but in the end, that's just how it worked out.  And it worked out!

Brandt and I arrived in Puerto Vallarta a week before our wedding.  I thought this would be a time of relaxation and amounting excitement.  It was one part that and 3 parts mild to moderate stress, anxiety, frustration, and anticipation.  I guess I wouldn't really be a bride if I didn't experience some of those things.  A relentless DIYer, I couldn't help myself from purposefully leaving some items off of our wedding planner's list.  I thought it would be "fun" to shop around for our own wedding cake and make personalized gift bags for our guests and also, prudent to do some of our own shopping for food and drinks to save on costs.  In hindsight it was fun and we did save money, but at the time it made me less of an adorable and patient fiancee and more of a bridezilla.  But how else can you get a tasty, hilariously decorated, authentic tres leches cake for 30 people for less than $30?  And what other situation would result in you busing to Costco (that's the green and white public bus, folks), purchasing 10 kilos of beach towels, 2.5 lbs of shredded pork, and a lifetime supply of tortillas and then carrying it all in your arms to the bus and then 10 blocks further past the last stop??  People probably thought we were so weird.  We were.

After meeting with our wedding planner (thank god, they really do exist! Wiring money to complete strangers isn't always a scam after all!) I did feel a bit more relaxed.  Also, friends of mine, Bob & Virginia, very graciously gifted us a week at their condo in downtown PV!  A place to call home with a king-size bed, hot shower, pool, kitchen, balcony, just steps from the ocean was a wonderful way to enjoy our last days "in sin."

As if that wasn't luxurious enough, my dearest friends, Erin & Jesse, gave us the pinnacle of wedding gifts (well pre-wedding gift): a 3 hour treatment at a luxury of-the-earth-type day spa in the PV hills.  I'm in heaven!  It started with what might have been my favorite part: a wine body wrap.  Total body exfoliation, oatmeal scrub, wine scrub, rubbin' it in all good, then they wrap you up like a burrito.  When you shower off, the view through the semi-open terracotta wall is a sweeping view of the entire city.  This sensory-stimulating wrap was followed by an hour of total body massage and then a facial.  I was SO happy!  The fun didn't stop there either!  We enjoyed a lovely buzz after sharing a bottle of red (tinto, rather) and a delicious 3-course late lunch.  Still, look how happy I was!

Really all I want to say about the wedding is that for us, it was completely perfect (you can see for yourself below).  Twenty of our closest family and friends joined us for 4 days in a private villa (i.e. mansion) and it was spectacular.  If you are planning a wedding, plan the wedding of your dreams.  Not of your friends or your parents or your mother-in-law.  Just yours.  If you do, it will be truly magically.  I guess you may say our beach wedding in Puerto Vallarta was the first of the "3 weddings," but in our hearts, this was our wedding.  Our one and only, and the day that will be special to us for many years to come!  03 May 2014

After our time in PV we actually flew back to the States for a week of continued wedding madness!   We promised we weren't first cousins and coughed up $48 to the state of Illinois for wedding part 2.  After a 10 minute ceremony with county-appointed Judge Yoder, we were married in the eyes of the government.  The best part? My favorite meal at the Grand Cafe afterwards to celebrate!

Part 3 was a splendid and well-attended day-long reception and party at my aunt's property in Lincoln, IL.  Extended family and friends joined from near and far to celebrate our marriage.  Dad roasted a hog, mom worked for months not neglecting even the smallest of details, family and friends helped with the set-up, another aunt was part of the live music entertainment, and we couldn't have asked for a better spring day.
In truth, we were a bit wedding-ed out after it all, but are grateful to have had so much fun celebrating and have wonderful memories (and photos) to prove it.

I also couldn't be more excited to spend the first year (or more??) of our marriage traveling the world.  Talk about one heck of a honeymoon!

Please excuse any typos and grammatical errors.  I am writing in a highly euphoric post-wedding state...