Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Kroger

Man time sure does fly once you get married. That's right everyone, Nathan and I have been married for just over a month. This is the post that you all have been waiting for. I know I have been putting it off just because I am lazy but really how do you describe something that took you months of blood, sweat, and tears to put together in just one little blog. Ha, you can't, that's why you are going to be stuck reading a ridiculously long blog. Let me take you back to the beginning of November.

November 1, 2008, RSVP deadline: Please tell me how hard is it to RSVP when all you have to do is check yes or no and place the paper in an addressed stamped envelope? Anyway, at this point I had like 40 people RSVP of the 116 people who I sent announcements out to. Needless to say I was a little frustrated and I decided that it just wouldn't do to have people show up and have no place to sit but I didn't want to have like ten empty tables. So, I called people. I know some of you who know proper etiquette are cringing but seriously how the heck was I supposed to get an accurate number count for my caterer? Once I finally had a number locked in I headed down to Yakima so I could apply for our marriage license. That was a complete disaster. I thought that I had all the info that I was supposed to have. Key word there being THOUGHT. So, I go in there with all the paperwork and cash and oops, I don't have the county Nathan lives in. Then I find out I don't actually know how to spell Nathan's mother's maiden name and of course Nathan is incommunicado watching TV or something. So, I totally blunder my way through that and a half hour later Nathan decides to answer my calls and yep, I spelled his mom's maiden name totally WRONG! Luckily, he finds out all is not lost and we can just white it out and fix it. If that is true why the heck do you even need all that info when you go in there?

Anyway, back to the important stuff. After spending a week and a half at Nathan's parent's house, quasi house sitting and making all my final payments and finally ordering a veil a week before the event, I headed back up to Bellingham to pack up all my junk and get ready for the big day. After three days of procrastinating I finally got all of my junk together out of my parents house and loaded up the Ranger. Wednesday, November 19th I headed down to Seattle where most of my family was arriving. We had an amazing dinner at the Metropolitan Grill for Sandra's 70th birthday. It was really nice. Then, early the next morning I headed down to Yakima to meet with David Lambertson who would be officiating our ceremony. On the way down I stopped by Ellensburg to pick up Nathan. It was so nice to see him. It had been four months since we had seen each other. We drove up to Yakima where I had a beautification appointment before we met with David. When I got out of the appointment I got a voicemail from the Museum saying that they wouldn't be able to set the room up like we had discussed. I was frustrated but agreed to meet with the guy the next morning. Off we went to the Church in Tieton to meet with David. On the way there I got a call from the florist telling me that she couldn't get some flowers but she got others .... blah blah blah... I was like OK whatever I am sure it will work. Then we got to the church and met with David. Everything was going great until we find out they took out the rope to the bell and so we couldn't ring the bell after we got married. Once again, what could I do? It was just another disappointment among many. Then Nathan and I spent some quality time wrapping presents for the bridal party. Just after that my caterer called to inform me we can't do the seafood pasta salad, just pasta salad. At that point as long as Nathan still wanted to get married I didn't care what actually happened. Nathan and I spent the rest of the day picking up the tuxes and my veil and other errands. The next day was the day of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. I was pretty excited even though I still had a ton of work to do. You know, like getting my nails done and stuff like that. Everyone showed up to the church and the rehearsal went fairly well. Even if the flower girls and ring bearer didn't make it down the aisle and spent part of the time running away from their parents, and I thought I was going to pass out while we practiced our vows, I was pretty optimistic that things would work out just fine the day of the wedding. After the rehearsal, we headed out to the rehearsal dinner, which Nathan's mom planned. The whole thing was perfect. I said goodbye to Nathan because we wouldn't be seeing each other until I walked down the aisle. I spent my wedding night trying to steam the wrinkles out of Alexis's bridesmaid dress, my veil, and my wedding dress. After turning the hotel room into a sauna and burning my hands repeatedly, I finally headed to bed and slept like a baby.

I woke up the morning of November 22 and ate the continental breakfast at the hotel and then showered and headed out to the salon with my mom where we got our hair and makeup done with Karine, Corey, and Madison. Well, Corey just got his hair cut and maybe styled but it was fun and the whole time we were getting pampered the photographer was there taking pictures. After hair and makeup I rushed over to Nathan's since I thought I would be done by like 11 but it was more like noon. This was a little stressful since we needed to cram a ton of pictures in before the actual ceremony. Once I arrived at Nathan's house I had to be sure that he was hiding down stairs because he wasn't allowed to see me all done up. Once everyone was ready to go, the guys and all of Nathan's family headed outside for his pictures. They did all the group shots. While they were getting group shots I have to admit I peaked and saw Nathan. I just couldn't help it. Luckily he has a stronger will than I and was able to refrain from peaking when I headed outside for my pictures. I was trying not to feel rushed but it was hard since it was like 1:40 and the wedding started at 2:00.

Amazingly, it all worked out. Everyone got to the church in time to get lined up and down the aisle without a hitch. When it was finally my turn to walk down the aisle I was so nervous. I hate large groups of people and being the center of attention so I just focused on walking down the aisle, not crying, and attempting to not puke and pass out. Luckily I only cried a little bit and I didn't pass out or puke during the entire ceremony. It all went perfectly. The church looked perfect, the bridesmaids were all beautiful, the groomsmen were all looking sharp, and Tanner, Catherine, and Madison made it down the aisle on their own. We said our vows, and Nathan went through with it all. I couldn't have asked for more. After the ceremony it was nearly impossible to get out of there in a timely fashion but we needed to get more pictures done before it got dark. We headed back up to the Kroger's and got a ton of pictures of just the two of us. We were out there for an hour and a half and it was in the low 40's. Needless to say its a miracle that neither of us were blue in our pictures. Our photographer did an amazing job. Of all 1059 pictures she took of us, we only look bad in a few.

After we finished up all the pictures we headed down to The Yakima Valley Museum for the reception. Nathan and I snuck in the back and got a sneak peak at the room. It was PERFECT. I could not have asked for more. The florist, caterer, and cake lady did such an amazing job on everything. Nathan and I did some last minute things while our guests mingled and munched on snacks. Then we invited everyone in to the reception hall while we greeted everyone at the door. It was so nice to see all of our family and friends there supporting us. We had dinner, a slide show, toasts from Andrew, Maria, Nathan, and both of our Dads, then we cut the cake, mingled, tossed the bouquet and garter, and then had a little bit of dancing before it was time to go. Nathan and I headed out to a lovely little Bed and Breakfast in Selah where we had a wonderfully relaxing night. Don't worry, I will spare you the details. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you enjoy the pictures. The slide show is almost as ridiculously long as this post but I challenge you to try and pick through 1059 pictures and have a shorter slide show.