Pics from the wedding

Oct 22 the big day

Click on the picture and enjoy

Timing.

They say timing is everything. Of course, two weeks before the wedding, I start a new class for school. As it turns out, with the timing of the honeymoon, I basically have 5 papers to write and 3 slides of a powerpoint presentation to do prior to the wedding. Needless to say, I am overwhelmed. Thank goodness for Daniel, Tina, and Terri, for proof reading my papers and giving me guidance along the way.

I only have two more to write and the powerpoint, oh along with some busy work for the class-YEAH! Getting there though!

With all of that, work and being pregnant, I have been a bit of a slacker! The dress is at the cleaners, the rings are at the jewerlers being polished, the cakes will be ordered on Saturday, the big cake is to be delievered, everyone has been in touch with me or Daniel, and just a few final touches-mostly decoration is left. This is where I thank Sarah G for flying out early from CT, staying with us and helping me get all of this decoration stuff done. I won't be able to do it without her! Sarah R will be in charge of cakes. Nina, Irma and Hannah is on the wedding day decor crew, so everyone is doing their part to help and keep me sane. Thank you all soooooo much! I know you will be there for me 100% on the greatest day of my life! Love you guys, and see you in EXACTLY 8 days!

The Count Down!

The time is getting much closer! As of today, 10/4, we have 18 more days to go! I am getting so excited!

The Wedding Dress-A Work In Progress

Today, my mom and I went to get the wedding dress fitted. The seamstress, Rita, is AMAZING!! She has done a better job altering the dress for me that I ever thought possible! It looks great even though it is being held together by pins in the pictures.

Rita is going to do a few more alterations and add some things to the dress, like changing the neckline to a sweetheart neckline. I will go back to her house in two weeks, while back in Tucson for my cousin's wedding-September 12th, for one more fitting to make sure it fits! I can't wait to wear it for Daniel on our wedding day!

The Start Of Another Blog!!

Yes, you saw the title right! Daniel and I have some very exciting news! But, I am not going to spoil the suprise! To get an exciting play by play, you must visit our new blog at:
http://babyhedgpeth.blogspot.com/
Although, the website title kid of gives it away...

The Favors and Flowers Have Been Ordered!

Last week was productive for me. I ordered our party favors, remember, they were the 'green favors'. I also ordered the rest of the wedding flowers-white carnations.

I also scheduled our rehersal dinner for Wednesday Oct 21, at 6:30 pm, which we will run through the ceremony with our minister, Jacob. Then off to a Mexican dinner (much to the delight of my Florida family...:-) at Aunt Chiladas right by the wedding site.

Caught In The Act!!!

Boys will always be boys. I don't even think Daniel got her name. But, she didn't seem to into it!

The real story, Daniel and I were hanging out in Scottsdale waiting to have lunch for my friend, Andy.

Daniel afterward told me, 'they felt like bags of sand.'

Daniel's Dance

This picture was taken at our friend's, Karin and Chris's wedding. Billy Jean by MJ came on and Daniel was feelin' it that night. After Miriam's encouragement and Tom's hat, Daniel hit the dance floor.

People clapped and his dancing was just plain awesome-ness! I loved it! Hope he does that for our wedding too!! :-)

The Wedding Invitations Are Out!!! :-)

The invitations are out! Finally! Yeah! This is exactly what they look like. To add a special touch, we did a wax seal on the outer envelope instead of a sticker. It turned out nice, but the wax would get onto other envelopes. Honestly, I was just glad to get them mailed!!!!

One other thing to note, I spelled my name Leah instead of Leigh. For the invitation, I probably should have spelled it Leigh, but when I change my last name, I am going to change my first name to as well. It is just easier to spell it Leah, because people then know how to correctly pronouce it. And I don't have to explain my name every time.

If they haven't already, they will be coming soon-to a mailbox near you!

Meet My Bridesmaid-Sarah

Katie, Sarah and Me-At Katie's 2009 New Years PartySarah and I at her sister, Jenny's Wedding

Meet Sarah. She is my best friend. Sarah and I meet lifeguarding while we both lived in Tucson. This would have been around 1999 or so. I knew Sarah's sister Becca first, but Sarah stole me away just like she did Kimi-hee, hee. Sarah and I have been through different relationships, moving, distance, time and yet our relationship has strongly surivived. I couldn't imagine life without her. I have not only spend national holidays with her and her family, but attend major family events as much as possible. I am really looking forward to and am honored that her family will be attending my wedding also. Because I consider them a part of my family, and I want all of them there celebrating along with me.
Currently, Sarah is a high school English teacher at a school right by our house. She is spending the summer with her first born son, Xander.
It only makes sense that Sarah be right by my side on the most important day of my life. I have so many Sarah stories, but I think our picture montage describes it better than my words even could. Sarah, Jaycee and I celebrating 'Purple Reign' our kickball team
Sarah and I camping during our 24 hour camping trip with NO fire-Good times!Sarah and I cosmo bowling
Thanks for always being there for me, Sarah. You are my best friend! I love you! Thank you for being with me on my most important day!

Meet My Bridesmaid-Jacquline (My Flower Girl :) Just Kidding)

Meet Jacquline aka Jackie aka Nina (only to me, I will explain this in a sec...) She is also my cousin, her mom and my dad are brother-sister. And, she is also my godmother, hence the title-Nina. Nina and my uncle baptised me as a baby. She has been the BEST godmother (every holiday I got a great present) and cousin. Growing up, we were not really close due to being in different stages in life. I remember telling her and her friend, Sheri (she is the one in greenon the left in the top picture) when they over for dinner once and were MERELY 25 years old, that they were both old as dirt. (I was probably around 9 at the time.) Let's just say that they both still to this day remember me telling them that! Retrospect, 25-not that old!!! :-)

Of all of my family, Nina and I (along with her mom) are probably the most alike. We are very similar in a lot of ways and take after our Nana. Which is a lot of fun!

After graduating nursing school last August (speaking of, we are both Leos), I had the opportunity to move back to Tucson for my first nursing job and got to live with my Nina. So, for a little less than a year, her and I lived happily together. She would set up my breakfast stuff for the next day if I was working, it was so sweet. (Daniel doesn't even do that for me...) And, I had access to a whole closet FULL of shoes that fit. Yeah, it was heaven! We really got along and life was good living together. She was also the first family member to meet Daniel. Nina meet Daniel on our first date in Tucson. We all went out to a sports bar that night with some friends (Jeremy and Jackie-she is in white in the picture below). Apparently, my Nina only hangs out with people named Jacquline. Seriously. But, it is easy to remember her friends names that way. I really love all of the Jacqulines in our life though and I am just teasing!!! :-)

Currently, Nina works for Hogan Real Estate School as the Office Manager and she lives with her Cocker-Tedi Bruschi. She is also coming up early to help with the wedding-yeah!!I love you, Nina! Always have and always will! Because of you, I knwo that I am really NOT a cabbage patch baby, like my parents always made me believe.

Meet My Bridesmaid-Hannah

Meet Hannah. She is also my cousin. As well as Sarah (please see MOH), her mom is my mom's sister. I was eight when Hannah was born and I remember the very spot I was when I found she made it into the world. Her and I grew up closest to and with eachother. We would spend every day (expcept weekends and school days) together playing at Grandma's house. We were particularly fond of office. :-) Oh the memories. High school came along for me, where soccer and other teenage things took me away from spending so much time with her. Unfortunately, I moved to Cal and a year or so later, her and her family moved to the OTHER side of the country, literally-Florida. Currently, she is attending University of FL. I am so excited and honored that she is a part of my bridal party. I feel so fortunate that I have such great cousins that will stand up and be with me on the most special and happiest day of my life. Thank you Hannah! Love you!

MOH-Maid of Honor

Meet my MOH. Apparently Sarah doesn't like pictures of her adult self (at least I couldn't find any on Facebook...), although, I really like this picture, because growing up at my grandma's house, this picture was one of the ones I always remember looking at as a kid. She also has one wtih Kermit the Frog that I always affectionately think of.

Sarah is my first cousin. Her mom and my mom are sisters. She has always lived in a different state than me (Mo or Ct), so we didn't see a lot of eachother growing up. But when she did visit, we always had a great time and really got along.

The picture below of the three of us actually hits upon two of my bridesmaids (Hannah is in the soccer jersey. She will have her own post in a bit.) This picture is from 1999, which was a while ago (and it scanned in poorly), but now you know what she looks like as an adult. Good looking both as a child and an adult!!!

Why I choose Sarah to by my MOH-when I was around 12 and Sarah a few years older, we were both in Tucson, walking around our grandparents neighborhood, hanging out. Her and I both happen to be only children (as is Daniel) and we were talking about getting married and stuff like that. We talked about since we are both only children and have no sisters, we should be eachother MOH. We made a pact that day to be eachother's MOH if/when we do get married.

Now forward to several years later-I call her on the phone to ask her to be my MOH. She was so suprised and excited! Although, she assumed that Sarah (my best friend-you will meet her too) was to be my MOH. I told Sarah-MOH, remember our pact? You were always going to be my MOH!

Sarah currently lives in CT, working for ESPN as a journalist. She is going to come out to AZ early and help me get everything finished for the wedding. Thank goodness, because I know I am going to need her help! :-)
Sarah, thank you for being my MOH and following through with our childhood pact! Love you!!

Meet the Wedding Party-Bridesmaids

Yesterday, while doing some of the ceremony decorations, I was zoning out and the thought occurred to me, not all of my bridemaids know eachother. They are all related to me (or have been my friend for so long, I consider her family. When you spend several major holidays over several years with that friend and their family, it is time to consider them a part of your family-in my opinion!) So the next four blogs I am going to dedicate to my wedding party, starting with my MOH (maid of honor) and so forth, describing our relationship and all of that other fun stuff. Stay tuned!

Unity Candle

For our wedding ceremony, we want it short and sweet. No hour and a half ceremony for Daniel and I!! :-) Short and sweet, aaaaaannnd to the point. Although, I really want to do the unity candle-I really like the symbolism of that. Daniel agreed, so we are going to add that during the ceremony.

I checked out Michaels and Joann's Fabric, and didn't like any of their unity candles (a bit on the cheesy and expensive side), so I thought, I am craftyand I can make my own so it will be personalized and even more special. A few ideas were floating around in my coconut-but nothing too special. When I went to the David's Bridal website for the picture frame (see below post), I saw these uninty candles and thought-that is it! I can do that, maybe not exactly, but close and for a heck of a lot cheaper! So, below is the finished product. The cool thing is the jeweled center piece will be the exact same on the cake too, so they will match! Not that anyone else will notice, but it is nice when a craft project works out so completely! [You can click on the picture to enlarge it in your browser if desired.]

Who Needs A Wedding Guest Sign In Book??

Again, I have to thank Karin and Chris for this absolutely wonderful idea!!!! Instead of having guests sign in on a book that you #1-will never look at ever again#2-it is a great collector of dust #3-how boring!! Karin sent me to David's Bridals website and viola-the picture frame that will have everyone's best wishes engraved forever into this frame. Plus, it will be a great conversation piece for the house and this will last forever! Just like our love for eachother!

True Love

I am very fortunate in my life to have such great examples of 'true' love. My parents are soulmates, they are inseparable and really truly love eachother. My parents always have been and always will be that way. My Tio and Tia, they are soulmates also, just like my parents. They were totally meant to be. You can just tell by being around them.

I always wanted that person by my side to be the one for me-my true soulmate. There was a time in my life, when I thought that was just not possible, just not for me, but I was never willing to just settle.

What brought about this post, is the new Pixar movie, "Up." They go through the main characters life-as a child during the first part of the movie. Where he met his true love as a mere child, they get married, they try to have children-but it was not meant to be for them (shed a few tears during that bit), they grow old together and were extremely happy. But then his wife died (more tears), and I am not sure quite how that segment ended because I was really crying at that point, but it shows him old, alone, and lonely, just waiting to be back with Ellie, his wife. After I attempted to wipe away the tears-without Daniel noticing me doing that, he leans over and whispers, "you were thinking of us, weren't you?" And he was so right! I was. Everything that 5 minute Disney movie segment showed of this character's true love and soulmate, I feel the EXACT same way about Daniel!
It is such a wonderful, freeing realization and I am so grateful I found him. My true love, my soulmate, mostly, my Mr. Perfect. Because he is everything I have ever wanted in someone, and then some.

Our Photographer-JW Davis

Our photographer, JW, is a great person and close family friend. How lucky are we?! My family and I even spent Easter, eating some wonderful buffet with JW and his sweet wife, Pauline.
When the big day arrives, instead of having a stranger photograph us, it will be someone who I know and really trust. That will reflect wonderfully in all of our pictures!
Check out his website! It is: photographybyjw.com
Be sure to check out his gallery of photographs. You will see one of a cat, that is Baxter, my parents kitty. She is a total sweetheart!

More Pix Of Our Wedding Rings

I was talking to my friend Kimi a couple of days ago- she is getting married November 6th of this year!!! Whhoooo Hoooo! I am very excited for that!!!-and we were discussing guys wedding rings and how hard it is to find good ones. So, I want to take this opportunity to share my favorite pictures of our rings and the story of finding his ring. The pix turned out a bit dark, but I LOVE how look!! This one below is my personal fav. (You can right click on any of the pictures and open in a new window/tab to make them bigger to see.)

I wanted our wedding rings to match, but not be identical. For each ring to have their own personality, just like the owners, but to still have a common foundation! 8-) Reverse time back a few months, to where I had done no ring searching yet. I knew the ring would find me, so I wasn't really worried. Still, it wasn't going to drop out of the sky... I decided to go to Maguire's in Tucson. I have good luck there. And, one of the last rings the lady showed me was the one I ended up getting. But, I walked away from it at the time. They said the size was 8.5 of that particular ring. I had no idea was size Daniel's finger was. But, I figured somewhere close to 8 or 9.

A few weeks later, we were in Helzberg gettting my rings sized and Daniel's finger ended up measuring size 9. I thought to my self, 'PERFECT, that ring at Maguires was super close, no one else has one that looks like that AND the diamonds match in our rings, it is meant to be!!' I went back to the jewerly store the next opportunity I had, it was still fortunately there and I bought it.

Finally, I took Daniel to see the ring and it ended up being too small! (It probably was a size 8...)Daniel could get it on, but it was not comfortable for him. His wedding ring is now a size 9, needless to say. Perfectly sized for Mr Perfect! I know, gag!, is what some of you are thinking!!

The ring is now sitting in it's box-safely-waiting for October 22nd to arrive so it can take it's rightful place on Daniel's handsome, ring finger!!! And I really, really look forward to that!

The Dance

The dance need I say more! Leah is truly the one for me and as the day draws near Oct 22nd, the more excited I am to start are life together as husband an wife. My true love.

Flowers-Red Roses

Here is a picture of the kind of roses we are going to have for the wedding. I love roses and for a wedding, you can't go wrong with red ones. They are very romantic and tradition. I plan on having a big, beautiful, red bouquet.
As for the bridesmaids, their bouquets will be anti-bouquets with red roses and white carniations. It will be simple, yet elegant.

The Rings Part I

I know some of you may have seen these upcoming pictures of our wedding rings, but I HAVE to post them on the blog! These were just 'experiments' with my dinky camera, a light, and some great flowers from Karin and Chris's wedding. Stay tuned for more to come!...

Hotel Accomodations

I have some information about where to stay for our wedding.

Best Western
http://www.bestwesternarizona.com/hotels/best-western-innsuites-hotel-and-suites-phoenix/

This is where some of my family is staying. If we get enough rooms there, as in at least 5, the price will be dropped to $74.99/night-great deal! A definite perk. Let me know if you are intersted in staying at this hotel.

Courtyard by Marriott
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/phxmc-courtyard-phoenix-north/

I don't know anyone who is staying here at this time, but it is another option. And I am all about options...

And another option is:

Hilton
http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/PHXSPPR-Pointe-Hilton-Squaw-Peak-Resort-Arizona/index.do
This hotel is really, really close and really, really nice. I have several family members staying here too.

Why We Have Not Updated Our Blog Lately...

The reasons are......They are good ones......I promise.....Get ready....In March, Daniel and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to San Diego to attend our friends, Karin and Chris's wedding. It was a beautiful beach side wedding, with the ceremony's picturesque background and an unfogetable reception; with great long time friends, awesome food, and fun dancing-I will never listen to Billy Jean by Michael Jackson without thinking of Daniel and his great dance moves (hat included) on the dance floor, not to mention an open bar!!! What a fun, fun time!

...Then a few weeks later, I finished my job in Tucson and I moved up to Phoenix and I am now living with Daniel-whooo hoooo & FINALLY!!!

And then....We had the honor of attend our friends, Kimmie and Pete's wedding in Anthem, Az. This wedding had another picture perfect setting-a country club! The Anthem Country Club was another amazing place to get married. This wedding had the greatest bachelorette party-golf themed no less, really tasty-tasty food, some truly wonderful people, a chartered bus drive to the bar, a stumble to Denny's for a late night breakfast and a lot of hung over people the next day. We had an absolute blast!