Dear Etrain

Dear Etrain,

Today is Dada and my anniversary. We've been married for five years and together for eight. In my post last year I told you about our first date. This year I thought I'd tell you about our wedding...well, weddings. Yes, we had two. I'll explain.

Dada and I both have large families, but frankly we just didn't want a big wedding. Once you invite one cousin or aunt/uncle, then you have to invite them all...and the same goes for friends. So we decided to just invite our immediate family and best/closest friends. This was also helpful because we wanted a destination wedding...we chose Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

To get married in Mexico legally it would have been more complicated than we wanted, so we decided to legally get married in a courthouse near home, then have a fun celebration and ceremony in Cabo. Our legal marriage was on March 7th, 2012. When we were picking dates, your dad really wanted our anniversary to be February 15th. He figured Valentines Day is Feb. 14th, our anniversary would be Feb. 15th, then my birthday would be the next day on the 16th. He could knock all of them our in one swoop. Obviously, I didn't love that idea because I like getting to celebrate everything individually (even though sometimes we still group them together), plus I thought it'd be really cool to have our wedding anniversary also be the anniversary of our first date.

Anyway, on March 7, 2012, I must have taken the day off (don't really remember), but your dad had to work because we were leaving the next day for Cabo. We had an appointment at the courthouse around noon, so Dada could just take a long lunch and drive over to the courthouse to get married. Doesn't sound too special, does it? That was ok though. Our parents were going to be there and we planned on having lunch with them after. And we were going to have a an amazing time in Cabo, so I was ok with having a low key ceremony at the courthouse. Well, when I showed up I realized all my friends were there. Your dad, being the thoughtful, caring guy he is, called all my friends and invited them without me knowing. He knew I was sad lots of them couldn't make it to Cabo, so he made sure they came to the courthouse. It was really nice to have everyone there. It did make me a tad more nervous to have all those eyes watching us though. After the ceremony, some people (who didn't have to get back to work) stayed for a simple lunch with us.



But then the next day we were off to Cabo! We'll take you one day, son. Cabo is just soooo much fun. Being the bride, I had quite a few appointments to go to in preparation for the wedding, but otherwise we partied a ton and we had the best time. Not only is the location lots of fun, but it was great to share it with our friends and family. The night before a wedding there's usually a dress rehearsal (which we didn't do) and a rehearsal dinner with close family and the wedding party. Since our group was fairly small, we just took everyone out to dinner the night before the wedding.  Oh wow, was that a good time. We probably had too much fun because we stayed up waaay too late and paid for it the next day. But I wouldn't have done anything different because we have so many special memories from that night.

The day of our wedding, I had a bunch of appointments all day to get ready for the ceremony. Your dad got to sleep in and enjoy some pool time with everyone (lucky!). Before the ceremony I had all the girls some up and help my get ready. The photographer took some photos, which I really appreciate because I feel like that day went by so fast that it's a little bit of a blur. It's nice to have the photos (even thought I felt totally awkward posing for pictures) of the special time with my girls before hand. The photographer took some of Dada and his guys too.

So handsome!

Once I was ready, I was told to wait in my room and they would come to get me. I was so nervous and I just kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And wondering what was taking so long. The time for the ceremony was getting really close (it may have even passed, I don't remember), and I was worried something was wrong. It's not like your dad could change his mind, we were already married! Ha. But still, what could be taking so long? By the time they came and got me, my brain was fried and everything went by in a blur.  They walked me down to my dad (Papa), who walked me down the aisle. Your dad and I exchanged vows and rings, and kissed. :)











The location for the ceremony was beautiful. Couldn't have asked for a nicer spot on the beach. They had cleared the sand in front of our hotel and set up a lounge/bar area for just us. Our guests had some drinks and appetizers, while Dada and I took some more photos. Then we moved up to the deck, which still overlooked the ocean while we had dinner and some dancing. Everyone was still a little tired from the night before, but the evening was gorgeous and I loved it all.

Left to right: Charlie & Jessica, Papa & Nana, Brandi, Candice & Gib, Auntie Ginny (Grammy's sister) & Grammy, me & Dada, Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Shawn (behind Grandpa) & Auntie Carrie, Uncle Elliott, Tim & Crystal, Micah & Lien, Collin & Janine)

Photo with the family!

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Our wedding may have not been very large or extravagant, but it was perfect for us. I wish more people could have made it to Cabo only because it was just so fun, but we had some more come to the courthouse which was nice. We have wonderful memories from both.

I love you sweet boy and I can't wait (well, yes I can wait, but you know what I mean) for your wedding. I'll be the one balling my eyes out with happiness from the front row. Until then, I'm going to enjoy every minute of you being my sweet (most of the time. Ha.) two year old. My hope is that you grow up to be as wonderful a man and husband as your Dada is. You have an amazing roll model, so I think your chances are good, son. xo.

Love,
Mama

P.S. Still wondering why the ceremony started late? I'm not sure how old you're going to be when you read this, so ask me later. But for now let's just say some adults were being in appropriate on the beach and the wedding staff had a difficult time asking them to leave.

P.P.S Almost forgot. Today is a Tuesday, but we still wanted to celebrate, so we took you out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, North Italia. Pretty cool name, right? You and Dada were wonderful dates and so very handsome.




P.P.P.S (or should it be P.S.S.S.? Whatever) Just found our wedding invites. Yes, I made these too. I also, totally forgot we made a wedding website...and it's still live! Check it out. You can get a taste of your dad's far superior writing and story telling, as he wrote quite a bit of it.