I'm Baaaack...

JT and I made it back from our fabulous honeymoon yesterday evening. We spent today getting reoriented into the regular world -- doing laundry, going to the bank, grocery shopping, all very glamorous stuff. Although we did start out the day by opening our remaining wedding presents. Since we had spent the 20 hours traveling the day before, we fell asleep at 9 p.m. and were up pretty early this morning. Opening presents while having breakfast felt kind of like Christmas.

During the days immediately before and after the wedding, I kept thinking "I should write down notes about all the things I want to remember and share on the blog." And of course, I never did. So I'll try my best to recap what I do remember...which is a lot.

We'll start this evening with a recap of the wedding morning and a bit of the ceremony. Then, in the coming days, I'll share the reception and break down the vendors and their roles as well.

Ceremony, Part I

The morning of the wedding, I woke up promptly a few minutes before the alarm would have gone off. I slept amazingly well -- I had been expecting that I'd be staring at the ceiling all night, too nervous to sleep. Not the case. I felt wonderfully rested. I put on some coffee, set out some bagels for the ladies that would be joining me shortly, and turned on the stereo. At 7:30, my hair stylist, Heather (who has been cutting my hair for the last 5 years), arrived at the house. My sister joined us a bit later, and the makeup artist (Catrina, from Laura Mercier) arrived just as Heather was finishing up. The plan was that I would be done with my makeup at 10:30, slip into my dress and head over to the Marston House at 10:45 to meet JT for our "first look." Remembering the wedding-morning chaos from when I was a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding, where everything was running about an hour behind schedule and people were constantly busting into her prep room with questions and problems, I was prepared to be similarly running late. But at 10 a.m., my makeup and hair were done, and my sis and I were hanging out, chatting leisurely and enjoying our quiet morning together.

Aaron arrived at the house to get a few shots just as we were about to get dressed, and after slipping on our gowns, my sister and I headed out into the vintage limo right on time. Here's me arriving at the Marston House (since Aaron's pro photos won't be ready for a bit, I'm sharing with you some of those taken by our friend Spencer):

After I quickly grabbed my bouquet from Carla at Che Bella, Aaron led me down the side of the Marston House to where JT was waiting for me. While our family and friends finished setting up the ceremony site, JT and I sneaked off with Aaron for our portraits. Words cannot describe how much fun this was. Standing with JT in Balboa Park, both of us wearing these fancy outfits that we had selected months ago, just staring in awe at each other while Aaron led us around the park...amazing.

Meanwhile, here's how things were shaping up in the garden. See all the flower strands dangling over the fountain? My sister made all of those! The were a last minute addition, but they added SO much to the beauty of the "altar." I'm so glad that we added them and so grateful to my sister for making them.

Our drink station looked so cute...I'm not sure if people actually drank anything, and I hear that the water pitcher's seal didn't work and eventually it had to be taken down, but it still looked cute.

At 11:30, right on time, we were all ready to get started and took our places around the corner from the garden. Check back tomorrow for the rest of the ceremony recap!