We're back from Las Vegas for a day before heading on to Texas for my 10 year High School Reunion. I wanted to check in and let everyone know how things went... :)

Everything was at our house, so we had a full house for about a week and a half before the wedding... the biggest problem that we had was miscommunication between my mom, who had apparently decided that she could do everything herself and wouldn't let anyone help her, and the rest of us. We couldn't get our timing in synch for use of the kitchen and it caused some major blow-ups, especially when it came to making the cake... things all came together on Friday when my mom finally let other people come in and help and she went outside to finish her decorations (she decorated the arches that people walked through to get from the front to the backyard as well as the ceremony arch, and various other things...) things all came together, but with all of the people there was a huge flurry of activity and it was very hard to keep track of what was going on...

Highlights: (things that were important to me and turned out beautifully!!)

- The flowers (400 fresh roses, 200 hot pink, 200 orange) arrived thursday morning. They were wonderful and they made the entire house smell delicious!! They arrived at a time when only I and my MOH were home and it was great spending the quiet time with her unpacking them and getting them all cut and put in hot pink 5 gallon paint buckets for storage until Saturday :)

- DH's best friend and his wife (also a great friend) arrived on Wednesday and they brightened up the whole house - they are a great couple and 2 wonderful people and it was just a great time with them... I am so glad that we set the date to enable them to be with us (we chose the date so that they could make it since they are teachers...)

- The weather was beautiful... it had been 100 degrees just a few days before, so I was very worried that we would have hot weather, but it was gorgeous with enough breeze to keep me cool in my large white dress! ;)

- The ceremony was wonderful, I think everyone who could hear cried... (the microphone that worked the night before decided not to work for the ceremony so some people said they had some trouble hearing some of it because of the wind...) and it was just perfect!! We chose to do the rose ceremony and not the unity candle because it would be outside and that turned out to be a great decision because the wind would have wreaked havoc on the candles! :)

- My dad walked me down the aisle and it was so nice. He tried to freak me out by wearing a baseball cap before we went outside but I told him I liked it... he said it wasn't any fun if I didn't try to make him take it off :)

- The food was wonderful (and we didn't even notice the things that didn't get put out! :P ) and the cake turned out wonderfully in the end - most importantly it tasted great!

- We chose to have glass bottled soda rather than cans or plastic bottles so we had a variety of glass bottles from Mexico as well as various American glass bottles of things like root beer and cream soda - I loved it and many people commented on it being cute - as our "Northerner" attendants said "Here's to POP in glass bottles!" :)

- The first dance happened right at sunset and my MOH got DH & I bubble guns as presents, so my brothers (the ushers) stood upwind and inundated us with bubbles through the whole dance... it was spectacular! (I sure do hope the pictures turned out!) Bubbles are very special to me and I loved it!

- The first toast was from DH's best friends wife and it was so special...

- DH surprised me with a night in a hotel afterwards... I thought that we were staying in the house full of people since we weren't leaving for Vegas until Tuesday! :)

Lowlights: (Things I learned from and would like to share with others...)

- Make sure at least 2 other people know your plans, and make sure at least one of those people is not a person who would be getting ready with you before the ceremony! A few last minute things didn't get done (correctly or at all...) because the 3 people who knew about them were me, MOH and mom... oh, well, we worked it out! :)

- I would have been more uptight about making group plans to schedule each day... we had meetings each night to plan the next day of preparations, but my mom didn't join in so it made keeping track of her plans hard...

- Let everyone willing to help out help with whatever they are willing to do... it really is amazing what 10 people focused on working can get done!

- Don't do everything yourself!! Be willing to let go of control and be sure that the things important to you are the things that get done and let everything else happen as it may...

- Don't put candles outside the morning of the wedding in the desert... we had boxes of candles that inadvertently got put outside while we were cleaning up and ended up melting! The floating rose candles became one giant "floating" mess... oh well! :)

Overall it was perfect. I would have only changed a few things by being more organized, or by having one person who knew what was going on that was available while the wedding party was getting dressed...

Best wishes to all of you and I hope that your weddings turn out as nicely as ours did!! I will post pictures once I get back from Texas :-)

-DuckyHead