Dancing the Night Away

While I wait for the fancy wedding pics from my photographer, I just had to share all these amazing shots of people dancing! We had such a great DG- I would totally recommend him to anyone. He was with Sounds Unlimited and did a great job. We even got to go online and request an hour of songs we really wanted to hear. We also had the lovely option of creating a list of songs we did NOT want to hear.

You know what they say, "a picture is worth 1000 words"...

Enough said.

Bachelorette Party

Well, blog readers (all 10 of you- haha) I have a lot to catch you up on! The months of September and October have been a whirlwind! I actually find myself trying to think about my wedding day and not remembering a lot about it. The pictures help some of the memories come back, but for the most part I think I was on "autopilot" that entire weekend. It is very strange that the most important day of my life has already turned fuzzy in my memory. Thank goodness for video and thank goodness for my new sister-in-law who taped it for me (Stefanie is a lifesaver!)

Anyways, I very blessed to have had a total of 6 showers thrown for me! I'm still waiting on some pictures for a couple of them, but I will have to do a shower post soon. On to the bachelorette! (Sadly, it is highly likely that no one took pictures of Lowell's bachelor party and we may never get a post about his party...)

For the bachelorette, my bridesmaids and friends surprised me with an amazing get away! We went to Suncadia Resort near Cle Elum, WA. It is one of the most beautiful places in Washington! Lowell and I are definitely going back for a trip sometime... Check out the amenities!

As soon as we got there, we settled down and Emi told me I had an appointment to get a FACIAL! Oh my gosh, the spa there was AMAZING. I spent an hour soaking in their saltwater pool, sitting in the eucalyptus-infused steamer, and reading magazines in the fluffy sanctuary chairs before getting my facial.

The girls were so awesome, they had the room stocked with wine and food and gifts by the time I got back and we kicked off the girls weekend right away!

The next morning we went on a hike around the resort and laid out by the pool.

The bees were a sight to see. Christie and I both got stung. Rachel ran around like a crazy person whipping her towel trying to fight the bees. Emi let the bees crawl on her. We were also chased by a strange middle-aged man who insisted on taking our picture and following us out to the bar later on.... you know that saying, "it takes all kinds to make the world go around" always applies when you meet a character like that! He took this picture as a matter of fact.

That night I wore the standard bachelorette uniform and we went out to dinner at the resort!

A table of golfers decided to buy our table a bottle of champagne to celebrate with the condition that I present the tournament trophy to the winner at their table. I gave a heck of a speech.

Lastly, we went out to a traditional hick bar with a live band. My sneaky friends told the bar ahead of time that a bride named "Becca" was coming out so the band even put my name into a song of theirs!

It was so much fun until Emi fell off the bus... It was a bad one! When you are 4'10" bus steps aren't made for you. Especially in heels after a few drinks...

I was very sad for it to be over! I think one of the best parts about Suncadia is that you can be back to Seattle in less than an hour. I love it! Thank you to all of my amazing friends! What an unforgettable weekend!

The Wedding is OVER!

To Everyone We Know:

Thank you for everything. Our wedding was truly perfect to us and everything we hoped it would be. We had the best day of our life seeing all those that mean the world to us. It is overwhelming how generous people can be. Whether it is taking an enormous amount of time to make invitations for a shower, providing us with the funds to have this wedding in the first place, throwing us amazing parties, or giving us gifts that will last a lifetime, we will never be able to put into words how loved we feel.

We will never forget this time in our lives and we look forward to all that life brings us!

Love Always,

Becca & Lowell

Lulu's Bad Day

Poor Lulu. 

The morning started off a little on the rough side. She knew she was in for it when I started combing out all her hair tangles (which she hates with a passion) only to dump her in the kitchen sink for a bath. I toweled her off and she had her usual "spaz-attack" where she runs around the house for almost an hour at full speed rubbing her ears around against the carpet. She hates having water in her ears! 

While Lulu was running around, I decided to give Buster (we are also sitting my parents' dog) a bath being that he is the smelliest dog alive. I had just gotten him wet in the bathtub when I heard some thumping against the wall and Lulu screaming her head off. I quickly shut off the water, letting Buster escape the tub tracking water EVERYWHERE. I raced out to see what happened and found Lulu hiding under my bed still whimpering. 

From the sound of the thumping, whatever she did happened in the guest room. It looked like she jumped on the guest bed to rub her ears against the sheets (ew) and fell off the bed. Somehow, some way, in that process she hurt herself badly! I thought maybe she would get over it, but after an hour of yet more screaming every time she tried to walk, I called the vet. 

Of course my vet said they were booked, but they gave me the number of another one. I called the second vet and they said I could drop her off for about 3-4 hours and one of the vets could maybe look at her in between surgeries. Excuse me? Drop my baby off? Hell no!

So I searched the yellow pages and found a vet in West Seattle. They were definitely more expensive than my usual vet, but I didn't care. I took Lulu there and miraculously she started walking around making friends with everyone. I was actually a little pissed- wasn't she in severe pain? She made me look like an overprotective crazy dog lady!

Well, then the vet touched her tail and she started squealing all over again. He couldn't tell if it was dislocated or broken so they did an x-ray. Turns out Lulu broke her tail!  

She is very depressed about all this as you can tell. I am also very depressed about all this because if her bone doesn't heal in 3-4 weeks, we will have to AMPUTATE HER TAIL! They vet is semi-optimistic that she will heal because she is still young and the break did not go all the way through the bone. It was more like a nasty crack than a complete break.

So now, Lulu's tail has to be in a splint for 3-4 weeks and we have to take her in once a week for them to re-splint it. She's also hopped up on pain meds. I feel so so bad! 

I will keep you updated on the tail situation when I know more... Keep your fingers crossed for the tail to stay! Be PRO TAIL!

New Stuff

Moving on to bigger news, Lowell and I got some new STUFF for the house. 

My parents were up visiting last weekend before leaving for France for 4 weeks! Ever since Lowell and I started getting wedding presents, we have experienced a serious storage problem. We just do not have enough cabinet space for all of our fancy new items! I guess that is one of the set backs to being spoiled. Lowell and I have been dreaming of a hanging pot rack where we could store our cookware and free up some space in the cabinets. My parents decided to buy it for us as an early wedding/shower/whatever present!  

It was a family-effort to hang it up properly (nothing worse than finding studs in the wall in my opinion) and we love it! Thanks Mom and Dad! And thank you too, Crate and Barrel!

I also just had to share Lowell and I got new barstools for our counter area! We got them from Cost Plus World Market at a good price! Lowell and my Dad had to drive all the way up to the boonies (A.K.A. Lynnwood) because all the other locations were sold out. Not bad for $35 each! 

Hike with Lowell's Dad

Lowell and I both had Friday off last week and went on a hike with Lowell's Dad! It was in the Mnt Rainier National Forest, called "Crystal Peak". It was a little more grueling than expected and we were all sore the next day. Check out the pics!

Starting out. Shirts on. No "Parker sweaty-back" yet... (It's a genetic condition)

Up and up and up

Jim pretending to be bear behind me (I have a bear phobia)

There she is!

Finally there! Amazing views of Mount Rainier and 2 alpine lakes. At the top of the world! Now getting down... ugh...

High Tea!

For my bridal shower, my best friend/m-o-h (that's matron-of-honor), along with my bridal party planned an adorable "tea party" wedding shower for me! It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

The dessert display ... mmmm

How adorable is this little tree Emi made? She hung a bunch of mini-spoons, spreaders, powdered sugar dusters, etc. along with the cake cookies. I got to take the tree home at the end of the party so now I have these little mini servers to use at my next party! The best part is the yellow spoons. Not only is yellow my wedding color, but matches the accent wall I painted in my house! 

As if putting together that tree wasn't enough, Emi also made HOMEMADE petit fours (a.k.a mini cake bites covered in fondant) with a "B" written in icing on the top of them! 

Tea sandwiches, homemade scones, yum yum! Emi even found napkins with a "B" on them to use. How does she think of everything?!

Enjoying our tea party out on the deck. I'm not smiling a big smile because my mouth is full of yummy food! My sister, Ashley/m-o-h (that's maid of honor) came all the way from Spokane to come to the shower. Thanks, Ash!

Us playing "Fiance Feud" (Emi's spin on "Family Feud".) The girls broke up into teams and tried to guess items in categories like "Lowell and Becca's Favorite Food" etc. Kelsey, who hasn't known me as long as everyone else actually got the most right! What a perceptive lady!

Then of course came present time! I told everyone I might have withdrawals after the wedding because I've gotten so used to opening presents. It's easy to feel like a spoiled brat! 

(Cute wrapping job, Amy!)

My ever-growing rehearsal bouquet and Mollie. She gave me the serving set that Lowell and I will use to cut our cake at the wedding! Isn't that sweet? 

As if Emi didn't go above and beyond enough, she also made me a cook book! She emailed my family members and asked them all for the recipes to their favorite dishes. She entered them into this website called Taste Book where you type in the recipe, add a photo and they send you a custom made book.  (With extra spaces for recipes to be added!) One of my favorite presents by far! It is very touching to flip through the pages and see what family and friends included. It makes me feel very loved! 

Thank you to all of my WONDERFUL FRIENDS! It always amazes me how much they are there for me and how much they care! I am so lucky! 

Arriving at a mail box near YOU

Our wedding invitations! 

Trying to be the most frugal bride I can be, I decided to make my own wedding invitations. It was a little extra work, but actually really fun to do it myself. I found the yellow color I wanted at a store called PaperZone. When I asked the lady who worked there about the paper, she told me some amazing news! The paper came in "parent sheets" - a.k.a. huge sheets of paper that PaperZone cuts down to the size you want it to be. The parents sheets were only $1 each and one parent sheet gave me 30 small sheets!

With my yellow paper already cut down to size, all I did was buy off-white card stock and printed 4 invitations on each sheet. (We drove all the way up to the Everett PaperZone that was going out of business to buy the paper at 30% off. We are getting really cheap in our old age!)

 

Then I hired a professional paper-cutter to cut them down to size for me. He's pretty cute for hired help, I'd say! He ended up not charging me a dime!

Once everything was cut down to size, my bridesmaids Emi and Mollie came over to help me assemble them. It took about 3 hours with all of us working together.

It probably would have taken less time if I wasn't such an idiot! I counted up our invite list to find that we were inviting around 210 people... so I planned to make 210 invitations... Thankfully, after making about 170 invites Mollie pointed out that most invitations went to houses of at least 2 or 3 people. Ahhhh! I have PLENTY of extra invites now! The next picture is of Mollie' fancy double-sided tape tool. It was a lifesaver and really fun to use!

Special thanks to Mollie, Emi, and my hired paper-cutter for making these effective yet inexpensive invitations possible! 

P.S. If you have received an invite, please RSVP as soon as possible! Also, don't forget to fill in your name on the RSVP so I don't get too many nameless RSVPs in the mail. It can be hard to figure out who they came from! :)