The Big Day...from our side.

So as stated early, and as all of you have probably read...My sister Lisa wrote a beautiful recap of our Wedding weekend in a 5-blog-collaboration. After some discussion and thinking, I have decided to write a little blog about the wedding day from our side.

We started to watch the wedding video-compilation last night. Only got through the ceremony and our first dance. It was so surreal to re-live. It brought me back down memory lane...to 3 weeks ago. Which feels like yesterday and feels like 3 years ago--all at the same time.

This may take a few blogs worth. I tend to get overly wordy, so it's best I break this up into pieces.

I am going to begin with Tuesday. Ryan was at the lakes with his family at the cabin they rented for the week. I had been in Wyndmere with my mom and dad enjoying the much-needed time spent. (I miss my parents, a lot) It was so exciting to see Ryan for the first time that week. He showed up at my house that morning. I had just returned from an 8 mile, head-clearing, heart-pumping, relaxing run...where I thought only about Ryan and our life together. When we saw each other for the first time, we were almost speechless. We both had one thought on our mind. "Wow, it's really here! Finally."

We had a full day planned of meeting with the priest and going over ceremony details, meeting with the photographers to go over...everything, and meeting with the DJ to make sure he wasn't going to be a "tool" and ruin our reception. We then met a high school friend on mine for dinner at Granite City. And finished the evening at my Mom and Dad's house. It was Ryan's birthday that day. My Mom, being the thoughtful mom she is, had gotten Ryan an ice cream cake. So we got to celebrate a little. He also got binoculars from my parents--which we have been dying to have on our hiking expeditions!

Our first hours of that day were stressful. It felt like we just walked into a wedding in a different state on the other side of the country..... Wait a second ;) We did! It felt like this was the first true "involved-wedding-planning" we got to do. We were working on memorizing wedding vows, going over the last minute details, and trying to spend some good quality time together before the craziness hit. However, the reality was that the craziness had already arrived!

After some nice and natural/expected "Pre-Nuptual Arguments"....we finally stopped everything. We were hit with the realization that this week only happens once. There is no need to stress out and get worked up. I tend to be high strung, Ryan tends to be intense too. And we calmed each other down...and finally found peace and serenity!

Looking back. I wish I could go back to those days leading up to the wedding and relive them again. The excitement, anticipation, wonder, and uncontrollable-butterflies I felt were like nothing I've ever felt in my life.

Last night we were recapping that week, and both agreed that our cheeks have never hurt so bad. Not because of endless pictures taken, however. But the smiles from seeing the people we love the most, smiles from the moments so memorable, and smiles from the excitement and anticipation of a promised life together as as family--Ryan and Abigail Nastase.


More to come in a future blog........