the wedding day

The wedding was amazing. Having it outdoors was just wonderful. The ceremony was under beautiful sunny skies. The end of the reception fell under an amazing fun thunderstorm and then the skies opened up again to lets us all get down on the chairlift (except for the folks who already took cars down). We hope everyone had as wonderful a time as we did. We even made it to the Sugarbush home page with this picture. Check out our flickr album for more photos of the wedding. Cherith pulled together all the pictures from friends, family, and honeymoon on her new google page.

bride&groom4.jpg
Originally uploaded by rvelez127.

finalizing the flowers

Orange
Originally uploaded by mooingdragon.

So we just returned from mad river garden center and have finally finalized the flowers:). This flower made Ray laugh because it's called Fabio. We also finalized the ceremony with Roddy yesterday and got the license certificate. After an earlier hike to skylight pond in the breadloaf we are a little sleepy now. Two weeks left!

Wedding Ceremony Location

DSCF1008.JPG
Originally uploaded by rvelez127.

So here's a photo of the wedding ceremony location. This will be the view from where people will sit. We spent a couple of hours last Friday planning out the details with Traci our Sugarbush wedding planner. Lots of fun and it was a sunny, beautiful day. Still two trails open:).

Yosemite with the girls

Yvette, Johanna and I camped out in Yosemite Friday and Saturday night over Easter weekend. It was really beautiful and wonderful to spend time with the girls. We used my cool jetboil stove only once on Friday night to make a soupy zucchini lasagna and hot chocolate. It was very cool to be able to cook in the light drizzle that fell on us. We took a twilight hike through the woods and then had a hard time adjusting to the light back at our tent city, Curry Village. We slept in a heated tent cabin the two nights. There was an amazing breakfast buffet. I ate a breakfast taco/burrito and sausage gravy and biscuits. I really miss the west...the guacamole was terrific! Yvette is getting married in June so we talked planning for a bit. Johanna is having a baby in October so we talked baby and names a lot :). It was inspiring to spend time again at a crossroads for all of us. The next time we vacation together will be full family style...I hope it will be soon.

Invitation Social

Yesterday I spent the day with my mom, Ray's mom, Aunt Pat, sister Liz, and niece Amanda (and her friend Erica) pasting and folding and cutting to assemble invitations. Liz decorated our work table with a beautiful flowery table cloth from Italy and we worked furiously all afternoon. We had an early evening break to visit the bunnies outside and then worked some more. We finished up around 7pm and then Liz treated us to a delicious dinner of leek/potato soup, chicken marsala and raspberry pound cake. We had a wonderful time. I am touched that everyone wanted to help and worked dilligently to finish.

My mom, Ray and I spent the morning driving around picking up wedding stamp sheets and calligraphy pens. My mom and I are determined to learn how to do calligraphy so we can hand address the invitations. I am hoping that we can address next weekend and perhaps send out invitations during the middle of next week.

We met with a florist last week and talked about flowers for an hour. I didn't know you could talk about flowers for an hour and I can see many more flower talks hovering on the horizon. The good side is there are so many beautiful orange flowers to choose from :).

We also went to a Unitarian service last Sunday in Burlington. It was a very friendly service. The minister was Roddy, a silver woman with a calming presence. She used to be a Catholic nun. We went to coffee hour after the service and then humbly waited for Roddy to finish another conversation so that we could propose to her. She checked her calendar and is free. She agreed to marry us!! Yay! We meet again with her in early May.

I am so excited that we also found Rosita's again. This is the best Mexican food on the east coast. They moved from Warren to get a less seasonal business. We visited after a trip to the Outdoor Gear Exchange to add some food supplies to my pack for our girl camping trip to Yosemite. The food at Rosita's is still wonderful and we ate a lot!

I am reading a book called "A Divine Guide to Transforming Wedding Stress into Wedding Bliss: Wedding Goddess" by Laurie Sue Brockaway. I am thoroughly enjoying it as it is confirming my choices in so many ways and offering more ideas for remaining grounded and strong during this life transition.

Planning

We have been busily planning our ceremony and reception. We decided on having the ceremony at the base of Mt. Ellen at Sugarbush followed by a country barbeque reception midway up the mountain outside the Glen House Lodge. We have so far arranged for Sugarbush to cater and help us rent all the tables, linens, china and logistical stuff. We meet with Mad River Garden Center to talk flowers today. I have ordered my dress and footwear. But I am very sad to say that I won't be able to try the dress on or have it fitted until it arrives at the beginning of May. That is sooo long to wait.

We have emailed a Unitarian minister in Burlington and a musician in Shelburne.

The invitations, thank you notes and program materials have arrived from Invitesite.com. We are planning to have an inivitation assembly party on April 1st with the mothers of the bride and groom and a lot of family from the groom's side. It should be fun and will involve a lot of glue and folding :). I have to make sure to print all the materials by Friday of this week. woohoo!!

The planning so far has been fun. We agree easily on what is important and not. The only slight tension being keeping the invitation list manageable.