TERRI'S TRAVELS: Wedding Week

Monday, November 16:

I had quite the To Do list today. A whole page, I believe. So I got up and got moving pretty early, and left Wembley like this on the couch.

I think thats her, "look at how cute I am, please stay and play with me" face. It almost worked. But I just had too much to do!

Stop #1: IKEA. ... But before the first stop: TRAFFIC. Always.

I wasn't hungry when I left the house, but by the time I got in the store and smelled eggs and sausage and potatoes...well, I was hungry. And for ONE DOLLAR!? I'm coming to IKEA every day for breakfast.

I had to walk all the way through the entire IKEA store just to find the small blankets we needed for the wedding. Oh, and four small lint rollers to put in the bathrooms.

Thank goodness no one (all day) asked for my ID because I used Shannon's credit cards at every store!

Stop #2: Anthropologie to return a couple of things for Shannon. It took me FOR.EVER. to find a parking spot at this place, AND I took the wrong turn at a roundabout not once but twice. #frustrated

Stop #3: UPS Store to send some packages back for Shannon. Quickest and easiest stop of the day, and it was just a couple of blocks from Anthro.

Stop #4: Nordstrom at a mall to return shoes for Shannon. (They were super cute and fit. I thought about keeping them...)

Stop #5: a liquor store for 35 small bottles of alcohol for the wedding gift bags. I was just driving along on a pretty busy road when I spotted a little liquor store. So I did what any irrational person would do and just pulled over to the side of the street -- NOT a parking spot AND by a fire hydrant -- and just ran inside. The Indian guys working thought I was hilarious because I was frantically running in and out of the store to make sure my car was still there and not hit yet (or towed). The guy even threw in a few extra bottles for me because I "looked frazzled." HA!

Stop #6: Target. I had a loooong list for that place, but I got it all -- and even did a little shopping for me, too. {Still trying to find a rehearsal dinner outfit!}

Stop #7: Print Papa to pick up the wedding programs and menus Ryan printed last night. This was actually an add on to my list for the day once Ryan realized they were done and ready to be picked up.

I did't get home until almost 5...and this was all I had to show for the day:

It doesn't look like much, but I did a lot of returns, and running errands in the bay area just takes forever! Kansas is so much easier!

I sat down to take a break for five minutes and Wembley instantly found a comfy spot on my shoulder to sleep. She missed me. ;)

I got to work on the seating chart before Shannon and Ryan came home from work. I think it's going to turn out good -- just needs some tweaking of the twine.

When Shannon got home, we set out for more errands, and saw a Google self-driving car! It was so small and SO SLOW. People were honking and yelling at it, hahaha. Too funny. I think they've still got some work to do on that thing.

The sunset was beautiful as we went from Petsmart to Michaels to Costco to complete our list for the day.

Grinding coffee at Costco:

I guess this is the scene almost every day they get home. A front porch full of boxes of wedding gifts!

Ryan had a softball game tonight, and since it was the playoffs, we had to go. That didn't mean we had to watch though. We brought the pictures we just picked up at Costco and cut them out for the wedding guestbook.

We finished the night off with the best Thai food ever. For real.

Oh, and more guestbook work. Cut and tape and cut and tape and cut and tape. It looks a little ghetto with the crooked pictures every now and then, but whatever. It's all there is time for at this point!

Tuesday, November 17:

I woke up to an inbox full of emails from Ryan and Shannon. Seriously. Weddings are no joke!

I took Shannon to work this morning so I could pick her up and go with her to her final dress fitting this afternoon -- and learn how to do the bustle!

She grabbed a morning bun for me for breakfast, which was delicious, but just a little messy.

Rush hour traffic wasn't too awful going from Mountain View to Pleasanton and I dropped her off just on time, 8am.

The traffic from Pleasanton back to Mountain View after 8am was another story.

I mean, come on. How do you drive anywhere in this city!? I was beyond frustrated with all the cars.

And not just the cars, but the bad drivers. So many bad drivers. I had to slam on my breaks so many times that I lost Ryan's morning bun to the floorboard of the car. Oops!

I eventually pulled over at a Target for a few more things that got added to my list, and missed Ryan at the house. So his bun wasn't going to get eaten after all.

My list for today was shorter, but a little more time consuming: candle making for wedding gifts.

Shannon did some of the prep work with wicks and tape. I had to melt the wax, scent it, and pour it in the jars.

It was pretty slow going with the small glass measuring cup in the microwave...

...so I upgraded to a giant tin canister on the stove. It was smooth sailing from then on and I finished the candles in record time!

I hit a few more stores (FedEx, UPS, post office) and worked on the guestbook some more before leaving super early to fight traffic again to go pick up Shannon from work, and then fight it some more to go pick up her dress another 45 minutes away.

When we got there, she put her wedding shoes on to practice walking in them.

Wedding dresses. Jeez. Never seen so many in all my life. Rooms full of them! And honestly, I don't think I liked one of them for me. Might have a problem if I ever decide to get married... Do they make them short, tight, sparkly, and purple?? ;)

Shannon looked gorgeous in her dress and it fit her perfectly. {And I successfully did the bustle!}

The sunset on the looooog drive home was just gorgeous again. Makes the traffic a little more bearable I think. :)

And once again, back at the house, a porch full of wedding gifts awaited us. Nuts!

{See the whole corner of the family room FULL of boxes!? All wedding gifts!}

On the agenda for tonight was the seating chart. They were still trying to finalize numbers and put people at tables so I could get to writing the names and table numbers on the little tags.

As soon as they got another table finalized, I wrote it out. Until my sharpie ran out of ink. UGH.

It was already too late by that point to run out and get another one, so we called it a night. Plenty more to come tomorrow...

Wednesday, November 18:

Miss Wembley missed her bath over the weekend, so I did it first thing this morning. Shannon assured me she liked it, so when she stood there shaking with those sad eyes just clawing to get out, I was a little surprised. She certainly did not like one thing about that bath, or the blow dry she got after.

I immediately ran to Wal-Mart to get another sharpie and to TJ Maxx to get a skirt and shoes for the rehearsal dinner. Shannon had text me a couple of things to make sure we didn't forget, so I sat those out as soon as I got home and sent her the picture:

Champagne, the egg (so wembley doesn't bark), and Ryan's gift

I had more errands on my list for today. I had to head north to Santa something or another to pick up some baskets and candles and the veil, and then across the bay to get her dress from the dress shop.

Crossing the bay to Alameda, CA

Once I got her dress, I needed to get the car washed. I originally left the GIANT dress bag in the middle seat and made the car wash guy promise me they would be extra careful around it. But about one minute later and realized that was a bad call and went running back -- just as the car was going in to the car wash - screaming that I needed the dress out. HA! Too many things could have happened to it and I just couldn't stand being responsible for ruining a very expensive dress a few days before the wedding. So I sat down in the waiting room and held a ridiculously large pink wedding dress bag until they finished.

And then I drove like an overly cautious old lady because I did NOT want to get in an accident with that dress!

Back at the house, I started dragging out everything that needed to go with us to Malibu that night. Which was only like half the house. I swear.

Somehow I managed to get it almost completely packed before they got home from work. And then they added more to it. It was nuts. Honestly, there was not one more inch of space in that car by the time we got done and hit the road (much later than we wanted to).

Poor Ryan was stuck in the back seat with boxes and a ski right by his head.

We didn't end up making it all the way to Malibu and stopped at a hotel outside of Santa Barbara for the night. We got upgraded to a "suite" which was really just a big handicapped accessible room, but whatever. We just needed a place to sleep before we hit the road again to finish the drive.

Thursday, November, 19:

Shannon woke up early this morning, so we hit the road early. Not without a stop at Starbucks for some breakfast. The first Starbucks we stopped at was super busy, so we went to another one, and saw some famous singer there...dang it, I can't remember his name now but he was from the 70's. And he was very unhappy with the worker because he wanted a "THIN layer of butter on his morning bun!" Hahaha.

Anyways, we kept driving and the view was gorgeous along the ocean. I think I was too busy holding the dog and trying to keep all the boxes and bags in place to take pictures.

We pulled in to Malibu, got the cookies from the grocery store, and went to work putting the gift bags together. Got them labeled and separated by hotel, and took off to get them delivered. It looks like a complete disaster, but we had it pretty organized!

Finally, we got to check in to the hotels (Ryan at one and Shannon and I at another) and got to unload the car. That thing was beyond full. It felt so good to get it all out of there and put where it needed to go. (Kind of.)

Ryan went to meet some friends, so Shannon and I went for a manicure/pedicure. Well, she got her nails done. I went and ate instead. :)

It was a race to the ocean to catch the sunrise and we got there in perfect time. I think Wembley enjoyed it just as much as I did. (It was my one request for the day: sunset on the beach.)

Shannon and I drove up to the house her parents rented to check it out. Man, such a beautiful home, and perfect for the brunch Sunday morning!

And then we drove to the house Ryan's family rented. Jeez. What a monster. It had an elevator and movie theater. Pool and hot tub and fountains. I felt like I was in Italy. Just breathtaking!

We spent the evening there with everyone who was in town for the wedding. I had to drag Shannon out of there at 9. We had too much to do tomorrow to be out late partying!

{Funny side note: Carson and I went to pick up pizza for everyone, and could NOT figure out how to turn the lights on in the car. I drove the entire way down the 1 with NO lights on before we finally figure did out at the pizza place.}

Friday, November 20:

Today was our final push to get everything ready for the wedding. Another early morning alarm, and we were at the UHaul place at 7am to pick up our rental van.

We made Ryan and Jason (his friend) drive it from Malibu to downtown LA to the flower market. Shannon and I followed in the rental car. And of course there was traffic. Is there ever NOT traffic in California!?

The traffic set us back a little bit (took us twice as long to get there as it should have) but we got the flowers picked up and loaded in no time, and the boys took them straight to the wedding venue.

Shannon and I loaded up more stuff in her car and went to the venue, too, to get everything organized.

We might have left the car at the rental place and had to walk from the hotel -- carrying a wedding dress, champagne, and who knows what else. And it was 80 degrees. Thankfully it was only three blocks away.

Shannon and I spent the next few hours at Oak Canyon Ranch finishing all the wedding details up. Drink menus on chalk boards for the bar, Got all the tags in order on the seating chart, put candles in the lanterns and blankets in the baskets, table numbers tied around the flower jars... Have I mentioned how much work weddings are?? ;)

About the time we were getting wrapped up, the trucks rolled in and it was like we were on a movie set! It was a whole production getting everything set up. Tables and lights and dinnerware and food... crazy!

With an hour or two to spare (we crushed that to do list for today!) Shannon and I opted out of beach time for a blowout and champagne instead. Best decision ever. We needed a little relaxing down time.