Kylee & Austin, part 2

part 1 here!

(all photos by me, unless otherwise noted)

After showering and changing, I arrived back at the wedding site, and a few of us girls started setting out the vases (all recycled beer, soda, and wine bottles) with flowers. Because of the wind, we ended up using the flowers from the smaller bottles just lain on the table.

Photo by Anjuli of Photorange Photography

Then we found our seats for the ceremony! Another high school friend of E's, Thomas, stood up in the wedding, so his wife Adrienne and I sat together.

it was a gorgeous, sunny day, and everything was perfect!

During the processional members of Kylee and Austin's church's praise band played acoustic numbers and sang.

Father of the groom and grandmas

The groom and the pretty mamas

Hubby with bridesmaid

Kylee's brother with her twin cousins!

Thomas and Austin's sister

Austins brother-in-law and sister with his nephew

best men and maid of honor

Anxious groom

and glowing, teary bride

Their ceremony was touching and heartfelt and there wasn't a dry eye in the place!

One of the most touching parts was at the very end, they asked their entire bridal party to surround them and pray with them and for them.

after all the emotions of the ceremony, it was smiles all night!

Photo by Anjuli of Photorange Photography

and then it was time to party!!

Kylee create a DIY photo booth with a black curtain, homemade felt mustaches, polaroid cameras, magnet photo holders and a scrapbook. It was a huge hit!

Photo by Anjuli of Photorange Photography

Hubby and I hung out with Thomas and Adrienne sipping sangrias and beers

and then....my camera battery died.

the below photos by Adrienne

Thomas wearing the only facial hair he doesn't have!

We danced and sang into the evening. (that's me in the bottom right)

Austin had made a crazy mix of beats, and even brought a tray of shots out for the song "Shots" by Lil' Jon

It was pretty much a perfect wedding, and we're so happy for the newlyweds!

Blogged! Kylee and Austin, part 1

Remember that wedding I was telling you about last month? E was a groomsmen and I helped out with setting up the 'venue' which was the brides' parents' and neighbor's backyards.

( my hubby is crouched on the right side)

I've been getting ready to blog all of my own photos from the wedding day, but was completely thrilled and surprised when I saw yesterday that their pictures were blogged on 100layercake!

Check it out

Their photographer, Anjuli of Photorangephotography, is a total rockstar. Check out her blog for many more shots from the day.

I can't say enough how wonderfully personal, gorgeous, and unique their wedding was. The photography captured it beautifully.

Having coffee date chats with Kylee in the months leading up to the wedding made me really grateful to call her a friend (our hubbies have been friends since 6th grade!). She is fun, spontaneous, enthusiastic, and SO full of life.

Their wedding exuded personality with intimate touches, adorable signs, and sweet homey feel.

(all photos above by Photorangephotography)

I was totally honored that she asked me to help out with the wedding day, with several of her [many] wonderful friends. I can't possibly share this whole wedding in one post, but here are a few shots of the wedding day from my perspective:

Kylee was the most organized bride I've ever seen! She collected vintage floral plates from the thrift store and had each table setting in a separate box along with wrapped silverware sets and table cloths made from curtains weighted down with fishing lures!

We then put twigs and mason jar candles on the tables. (just before guests arrived we added the flower vases)

Kylee had us set up so many fun stations with hand painted signs. Here is the candy table, with some really unique containers

In the background you can see my favorite detail from the wedding.

Kylee and Austin asked their guests to submit wedding photos of themselves. there were pictures dated back to the 50s, and as recent as last year (including a fun vintage shot of us, from this post) Can you find us on the board? (hint: left side)

scrapbooks Kylee and Austin made during their relationship

Appetizer table in the foreground, with all the reception seating in the back

The wine/sangria table

For the food, they had a barbeque truck back up into the driveway and set up a buffet line. YUM tri-tip and barbeque chicken with all the fixings.

Kylee's uncles completed about 5 ice runs during the day to keep things cool. These bins were filled with soda, water, juice, and beer

ceremony site (the neighbor's backyard)

Just as we were completing the finishing touches, the bride arrived! I said hello, and then rushed home to shower and change and be back a couple hours later.

Birthday in Vegas

If you've been following my tweets, you'll know I'm planning a girls weekend in Vegas to celebrate my birthday this month.

I have been on the hunt for weeks for the steals and deals on the best in Vegas. Which is possible, it just takes a lot of time!

When searching for accommodations for 6 of us--I wanted to keep the price around $100/pp for 2 nights, stay close to the strip, stay in a hotel that is clean, nice, and got good reviews, and be a place we can relax (preferably with a pool). It was a tall order!

I searched TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Yelp, for 3-4 star hotels in our price range. A hotel I'd never heard of kept coming back up in the search results: The Desert Rose Resort

It was rated 96% on trip Advisor and 4.6/5 on Expedia. It was SO affordable, and so cute. I had originally had my heart set on staying at a themed hotel like New York, New York, or The Luxor, but the reviews were just appalling!

We booked a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite for a ridiculously low price (we came way under budget)

The site won't let me copy/paste photos of our room, but if you want to check it out,

Click here, then view photos 22-27.

Once that was squared away, I started to look at Vegas shows. I wanted to see a Cirque Du Soleil show, and I heard really great things about KA.

I waited and searched online for ticket deals and had finally resigned myself to paying $108 for seats in the nosebleeds. I called last Wednesday to make my reservation and this amazing lady at MGM Grand told me to wait just a little bit longer. I checked over the weekend and the released this fantastic Summer of Cirque special. I ended up getting seats worth $130 for $60.

Thank you awesome lady at MGM Grand!

The next thing it was time to worry about is FOOD. So this week I'm doing a bunch of research on places to eat.

We need to pick restaurants for Friday night (for only 3 of us), breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday, and a light lunch on Sunday (we're going to make breakfast in our kitchen suite on Sunday morning)

My ideal situation would be:

Friday dinner: cheap casino dinner (but still good!)

Saturday Breakfast: Cafe (possibly the Grand Lux at the Venetian)

Saturday lunch: possibly ethnic food like sushi or thai? or diner like BLT Burger at the Mirage?

Saturday dinner: Vegas Buffet (our show doesn't start until 9:30pm)

I would love to get some recommendations from people who have been, so please chime in if there's a place you feel we HAVE to check out! (and thanks for those who've chimed in already on Twitter!)

Have a splendid weekend!

I am going out with my in-laws for an early birthday celebration tonight, heading to Encinitas for lunch and a visit to Lou's records tomorrow afternoon, and then attending a year-end softball game and barbecue where E and his classmates will take on graduating seniors and faculty.

I'll be back on Monday with more wedding recaps :-)

We've got a Latte Love: Just the two of us

This post was a little tough for me to put together, because as much as I wanted to share every single shot with you, I don't want to overwhelm with you Latte portraits.

Nobody wants to see that much of us :-)

So here are a select few from about an hour of shooting, after our first look.

I love that E is holding up my skirt so it wouldn't be dirty for the ceremony!

whispering sweet nothings. More likely i was saying "honey, I'm going to lean over and whisper in your ear romantically for this picture"

Because there were still some people around the campus, and I didn't want full building shots in these pictures, most of the photos we took here are closer up.

our smiles started to face...

LOVE this set of photos!

Chris and Sara kept telling us to keep smooching--which was no problem for us!

After taking these shots near the arbor, we walked over to the gazebo

Sara's favorite:

We had planned to spend a lot of time taking photos there, but it was such a confined space (screened in with bushes around so we couldn't lean out or take photos from the outside), so we didn't stay long.

Then our photographers got this great idea...we grabbed the bench and dragged it out to the walking path. I always loved the idea of doing some really vintage photographs and this set the perfect scene! We assumed stone faces, and Chris and Sara edited the photo to look straight out of the 1930s.

This is one of my favorites, and definitely hubby's favorite wedding picture!

Then we were off to meet our wedding party for lunch!

all photos, unless otherwise noted, by Little Hands Photography

Previously, on We've got a Latte Love:

The day before the Big Day

The Rehearsal...Disaster

Getting Pretty

The Girls and the Details

The Boys

Seeing Great Grandma

For the First Time...

We've got a Latte Love: For the First Time...

I had decided about a month before the wedding (after a lot of local scoping) to have our first look on the grounds of my [former] workplace.

So after goodbye to grandma, we headed off to the first look.

The latte ladies are the most sweet and fun girls ever. They had me in tears from laughter just before I was supposed to meet E!

Before I go on, I just want to put a plug in for the "First Look" phenomena. I had a very traditional wedding in most ways, and for years dreamed E and I's first look to be at the end of the aisle at church. As we worked through the wedding day schedule though, E really thought it was wiser to take as many photos pre-ceremony as possible for the sake of us and our guests, so I reluctantly conceded to the first look.

I poured through posts of some of my favorite bloggers first looks--Avocado, Cupcake, Sea Breeze and started to get really excited about that moment.

After experiencing it, and seeing the pictures, I am completely won over to the idea. There were still tears and smiles during the walk down the aisle, but this moment was raw, real, and so much better because of its intimacy. We savored it, and it turned out to be the only time we had to ourselves the whole day.

As I peeked around the corner, I was a ball of excitement and nerves.

I spent all morning preparing and now it was time. A happy calm swept over me and I started walking towards him with a smile you couldn't wipe off my face.

E knew nothing about my dress except that I had changed my mind three times about it and had it custom made. He loved it!

For a few minutes we were in another world...

*le sigh*

all photos, unless otherwise noted, by Little Hands Photography

Previously, on We've got a Latte Love:

The day before the Big Day

The Rehearsal...Disaster

Getting Pretty

The Girls and the Details

The Boys

Seeing Great Grandma