We all miss Heather and her blog, and I am honored today to share a post Heather (Hangry Pants) wrote sharing her wedding. I wish I could have been there, but while she was starting the first day of the rest of her life with Mark, I was snuggling my brand new baby who requested to share the spotlight of that special day with her. I am happy to have the opportunity to enjoy her wedding through this post., and I hope you do too. We miss you Heather!

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Just over four short months ago on a humid, rainy, fall day, Mark and I got married. I am fortunate to have a blog archive filled with posts and pictures documenting the proposal and planning process. I was never ever able to complete the story with a final wedding post and professional pictures. In November, Sabrina encouraged me to do just that on her blog, but for whatever reason I never did.

I’ve tried to start this post, but nothing ever came out correctly. I wanted to share, but why? I kept trying to think of an angle where I could write this for a purpose. I thought about doing it in terms of “wedding lessons I learned” or “bridal tips,” but that just seemed contrived. So yesterday, while looking at my pictures on Facebook for the 2,392nd time I came to this conclusion … I want to share pictures of my wedding because I loved it. It’s completely self-indulgent, and you will probably only be interested in this post if you (1) have an affinity for all things wedding; (2) know me personally; or (3) read about the planning and wondered how it all turned out. So, without further ado, the conclusion of Heather and Mark’s wedding with no lessons, morals or veiled attempts to be anything other than a post with lots of pictures of me, my husband and our wonderful wedding.

The day started off wonderfully. Rain was predicted, but in the morning the sun was out. I went for a short run before heading to the salon for my fabulous bridal hair. Back at my parents’ house, my mom and sisters took turns getting their makeup put on. I snacked on fruit and some delicious treats Sabrina (who hours ago welcomed baby Raffi to the world) sent the day before.

The thing I loved the most about our wedding was being able to have my friends and family with me. All of my sisters got ready at my mom and dad’s house, even though none of them live there anymore. Before I knew it, my dress was on, the flowers arrived and it was time to head to the church.

The short limo ride was really exciting. I knew I wasn’t going to get to see Mark, but I was excited to talk to him. We met in the church basement for some fun pictures (as I’d seen Julie do), which calmed my nerves and made me even more excited.

The church was a little white baptist church close to my parents’ house. Originally, neither Mark nor I had any desire to wed in a church. It was something we settled on for our families, and I am really glad we did.

I won’t lie. I loved walking down the aisle with my dad. It made it all feel so exciting and traditional.

After the ceremony, we took some family pictures before everyone headed to the reception site. Mark and I stuck around to take some additional pictures, which turned out to be some of my favorites.

And yes, it totally poured on our wedding. This is not good luck. People will repeatedly tell you that if you have the misfortune of a rainy wedding day, but they are lying. The only two advantages to rain are cool umbrella pictures and a new fondness for rainy days.

Sadly, the cocktail hour could not be held in the wet courtyard, and we had to go into the reception room early.

After the ceremony, the rain picked up. We were only able to sneak a couple more pictures outside, and none on the beach.

When I think about all the planning we did (and by “we” I mean me, my family and Mark), the bulk of the time and energy went into planning for the reception room – what it would look like, the flowers, the yellow table liners, the lanterns – each and every detail. So, when I finally walked into the room and saw all of our hard work I just cried. I was overwhelmed with the emotion of the day, yes, but I was also just so shocked that everything worked and so grateful that I had so many people to help me pull it off. It was truly beautiful and even better than I imagined in my head. I knew my mom would be overwhelmed, too, so I made sure to walk her around and show her each and every detail we’d talked about for a year.

I wanted a unique Rhode Island wedding with an atmosphere of family, and that’s exactly what I got because of Mark’s creations.

Once the reception started everything moved so fast. I found myself laughing and crying at completely inappropriate times. Cue the hysterical laugher in church and the waterworks as soon as I heard the beginning of Sweet Child of Mine and knew it was time to be announced.

We danced, we heard short and sweet speeches, we laughed with our friends and took pictures with our families. We sat and enjoyed our family style meal. We shared cupcakes, pie and Awful Awfuls.

And then it was over. Well, almost. A college bar next door meant I got to dance a little longer in my wedding dress.

A wedding is just a big party, but for most of us it will be the only time when all of our best friends and family members from all the parts of our lives come together. For me and Mark, it meant 92 special people from childhood, college, and adulthood being together. There was stress in planning, little melt downs, moments of panic and questions of sanity, but in the end it was worth it, and I am grateful for each and every moment.

I can’t believe PB and I have been married for a year!!!! For our first anniversary, I made him this video, and I just had to share it. I love my PhillyBoy!

*The video is long, but worth it!

Wedding Vendors:
Resources: Mindy Weiss’ Wedding Book, weddingbee.com
Photography: LifeFusion Photography
Videography: Infinity Video
Flowers: Flowers by Semia
Dress: Priscilla of Boston
Bridesmaid Dresses: Priscilla of Boston
Bride’s Jewelry: My mom’s
Bridesmaids’ Earrings: Swarovski
Hair: Kassiane of Femme Fatale & Stephanie
Makeup: Arionna of M Squared Salon
Groom + Groomsmen Tuxes: Carl Anthony Tuxedo
Venue/Caterer: The Westin Providence
Church: Sts. Sahag & Mesrob Armenian Church
Jazz Trio: East Side Horns
Ceremony Music: Woodvale String Quartet
Reception Music: Armenian band, Anthony Crocenzi
Invitations & Other Paper Goods: Quaint Correspondences
Middle Eastern Appetizers: Delicacies
Lighting: Suzanne B. Lowell Lighting
Transportation for Bridal Party: Trolley Tours of Providence
Candy Bar: Self (Full candy bar details)
Day of Wedding Coordinator: Lisa Reindl- email me for her information!

PB and I are off to celebrate by making a fun dinner using Athenos feta! I am really enjoying this challenge, as is he. I can’t wait to share our latest creation AND tell you all about our weekend- it was extremely special!!!!

P.S. Very last chance to enter the Tempur-Pedic Supreme Cloud Mattress Contest!

A secret to both you and me… PhillyBoy and I were to have a second wedding celebration in Jordan! My Auntie Grace and Amo Hanna planned the whole thing, and it was an evening I don’t think anyone will ever forget.

I left my heart in Wadi Rum.

A short aside… the first year of marriage for my lovely husband and I was not perfect. We had our moments of pure bliss, but we also had our moments of discord. I believe it all comes with the territory. There were a lot of changes all at once, namely getting married, me moving away from RI, and suddenly living together. Our trip to Jordan, and especially our afternoon and evening in Wadi Rum, solidified our relationship like nothing I could have imagined. I feel like the desert brought us closer together than ever.

The desert.

The desert has pink sand. And camels. And clean, purifying air. And gorgeous sunsets. And stars! Stars in every direction of the sky. Shooting stars every moment.

It was beautiful.

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Everyone in the group knew there was a surprise related to the desert. However our itinerary simply said “Wadi Rum for a great time” and no one knew what to expect. We arrived at the town at the edge of the desert in the early afternoon and hopped into Jeeps. They actually look like pick up trucks and are quite old and beat up, but they make the desert experience even more fun. We piled into 5 or 6 of them and began our journey into the desert. (Click smaller photos to enlarge)

A fun, bumpy ride later and we arrived at our first long stop: The Sunset Toast.

My auntie and uncle had arranged a champagne toast to celebrate love. We were at the top of a sand dune facing the sunset, and we enjoyed the moment as a family. Yes, by then we had all become a beautiful, happy family. We took some fun photos, drank refreshing champagne, had a few snacks and hung out. Originally they had planned a different location, but the Royal Family called and asked if we would mind changing locations.

It was perfect.

I was so happy. My heart, full.

The sun set, and we all hopped back into our Jeeps. This time, we were headed for the real surprise…

Previous Jordan posts:
Planes, Cars & Family
Jerash  & Figs
I miss the Dead Sea
Karak Photo Shoot
Petra, Jordan

*Note: Photos were taken by various members of our group.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Dad,

I love you so much and can’t wait to see you in Jordan!

Thanks for being the best dad in the world!!!

Love,
Sabrina

*All photos by LifeFusion Photography, our amazing wedding photographers!

I thought I would make this into its own post since I am so excited!

I’m off to daydreamland right now…. you can find me in Bora Bora dreaming of the honeymoon to come…..

PB and I had a few ideas in our heads about our honeymoon but weren’t sure exactly where to go. We knew we wanted it to be someplace we’ve never been before and someplace we wouldn’t really want to go in the future or be willing to spend the money on. That narrowed us down a bit. We also knew that we wanted sunshine and water and relaxation and romance. I’ve always heard about Bora Bora as a magical, romantic place, and after showing it to be we decided it was where we wanted to go!

We took our time deciding between two resorts: The Four Seasons Bora Bora and the St. Regis Bora Bora. The Four Season just opened 6 weeks ago so it would be amazing to go there, but we are able to stay in a nicer villa at the St. Regis. I really liked the pictures I saw of the St. Regis as well as all the reviews so that’s what we decided to go with!!

This is a total splurge trip for us but we know we won’t want to come here with kids one day and we will probably be too cheap to do it before then so we went for it! I think we are both equally excited!

What I am most looking forward to:
-spending time with my husband for an extended period of time alone for the first time.. in an exotic location no less!
-blasting our ipods on the St. Regis Bose system every villa has while lounging on a raft right outside our door
-swimming with fishies (each room comes with snorkel, goggles, and fins!) and visiting the Lagoonarium
-romantic dinners and stargazing
-getting pampered for a week while living on cloud nine!

What I am not looking forward to:
-the realllly long plane ride. The most I have done is 12 hours before and trust me, you start to go a little nuts! Hopefully we will be so tired and happy that we will just cocoon in our seats and sleep or play cards the whole time! We are going to hitch a ride from Providence to JFK (about 3.5-4 hours) and then will fly direct to Tahiti. Coming home we will hitch at ride from JFK to Philadelphia… eeek! so crazy not to be going back to Rhodey!

Here are a few pics of the resort:

The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort

Breathtaking right?

Booking this honeymoon somehow made it all really real. We are getting married, I am moving to Philadelphia, my life and our life is going to change for the infinitely better- a future in the same city!!, I will get a new job, etc etc etc. It is so exciting!!!!!