The Details...

October 13th was absolutely the best day of my life thus far. To be surrounded by so many family and friends as Travis and I were finally married... well it was just amazing!! Honestly, our day couldn't have been more perfect. The weather was beautiful, the flowers were gorgeous, and all of our vendors came through for us with flying colors.

My girls and I met around 9:30 am to eat some breakfast and enjoy some mimosas. The hair lady came at 10, then my Mary Kay lady came around 12 to do my makeup. Flowers arrived next, and my photographer came soon after... at which point she got some pictures of my girls helping me get dressed. When we were all ready we headed to our "hideout room" to wait for everything to be set. When everyone was in place we were lead to the door that we would walk out of. Up until that point none of it had felt real... like we were just playing dress up, but at that point, when my dad gave me his arm... it started to hit me. I was still totally calm though... and couldn't get the smile off my face.

Our ceremony was all that I hoped for (I'll post it in another post), and while I kept it together so much better then I thought I would, I did cry when Travis read his personal vows to me. I couldn't believe it when it was over and we were announced. We walked down the aisle and led our bridal party back to the "hideout room" where we toasted, hugged, kissed, and cheered.

After that it was back outside for pictures. After family shots, the bridal party headed down the road to a beautiful little park where our photographer went crazy. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to see the results. Travis and I got some shots of just the two of us after that, and then it was on to the party.

Everything was amazing... we were introduced and went right into our first dance to Queen's "You're My Best Friend"... then it was the father/daughter dance (my dad and I, both saps, cried) to "Tea For the Tillerman" by Cat Stevens... and the mother/son dance to "A Song for my Son". We sat down after that and got two fabulous toasts from my Maid of Honor and his Best Man. Then we started the rounds. Just talking to everyone at the party seemed to take forever... but neither of us was especially hungry, so we took care of a lot of it while people were eatting their soup and salad. After we made our rounds and ate some of our delish entrees, we headed out onto the dance floor with the rest of our guests. Around 9ish we cut the cake and did the bouquet and garter tosses. Then it was one last hour of dancing before the night was over!! I could not believe that it had gone so fast and actually checked my watch to be sure!

At that point Travis and I said goodbye to people heading out, before heading upstairs to our room which my wonderful bridesmaids had decorated with candles, roses, and a chilled bottle of champagne. A basket sent up by another wedding guest held chocolates, more champagne, beautiful champagne glasses, and potporrui that made the whole room smell beautiful. We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly together before collapsing into bed completely exhausted.

The next day we got up, packed our wedding day stuff away, helped load everything into the cars, ate some breakfast with family, and then headed to our friends' (Ro & Pat) house where we dropped off our car before they drove us to the airport... and we were on our way to California!

(The Honeymoon)
We spent six wonderful days in American Canyon, CA.... which is between Sonoma and Napa Valley, and only 40 minutes from San Francisco. It was a wonderful trip!! We arrived on Saturday night, and settled into our hotel. We had grabbed some brouchures and started looking at what we wanted to do. Sunday we picked our first winery, Rutherford Hill, and went on a tasting and tour. It was beautiful and the wine was delicious. I discovered a new love... Port! Mmm.

Since we had time to kill between when we finished our tasting and when we started our tour, we asked some of the locals what they suggested and they sent us to a wonderful store that we never would have found on our own. Olive oils, mustards, dressings, balsamic vinegars... and you got to taste everything!

Monday we went on a limo tour, and were taken to 5 wineries. First was Andretti Winery (yup, that Andretti), then Cosentino Winery, and then to V.Sattui (http://www.vsattui.com/). V.Sattui was one of our favorites... they purposely timed it over lunch so that we could take advantage of their store with meats, breads, and dozens of types of cheese! It was amazing, and after a great lunch and tasting, we ended up buying 4 bottles of wine there and a Port! In the afternoon we continued on to Merryvale (with their beautiful cask room) and the Miner Family Winery. It was an amazing day.

Tuesday we took it easy. We drove around downtown Napa a bit, and to kill time before heading to our sushi dinner, we headed to two wineries: Renold's Family and Luna.

Wednesday we started off early and headed into San Francisco! What a great city! We drove across the bridge, visited Alcatraz, walked along the water front and checked out Pier 39. Travis' uncle then met up with us to lead us up some (humongous) stairs and show us Telegraph Hill, and gave us great views of Russian Hill and the waterfront before taking us to the Mission for dinner at a cute Italian place.

Thursday was our last day to tour around, so we headed to Sonoma, which we hadn't really checked out. It is a cute town, and we got to look at the historic sites. We then did a tasting at the Quastle Winery tasting room... where we sampled about 15 wines!! We also got 4 bottles of wine there, and I got a gorgeous pair of earrings by a local artist. Next we checked out some shops and ate a leasurely meal at the Sunflower Cafe, before heading to the hotel.

Friday we got up early, ate breakfast and packed the last of our stuff. It was time to head to the airport. It was quite the adventure getting home (plane pushed up, then delayed making us rush to our connection, which was then delayed!)... but we, along with our 7 bottles of wine (we bought more then 8, but only 7 made it through the week!), made it in one piece. It was an amazing time, and I recommend it to anyone!