Dancing the night away....

Our DJ was awesome. He was worth every....last....cent. His name is Chris Torres and his company is Tuffersound.

He did our ceremony music. We had a variety of music. Two songs were the Beatles and my brother recorded a violin and guitar version of his interpretation for me. I think we got Chris the music the day of. He had a microphone set-up for the officiant and the music played at all the right times!

He also did our music for the reception. He did our entrance song which was Mississippi Queen by Mountain. It was great!

Right when we sat down to eat our photographer told us she only had 1 hour left to get the rest of the pictures. I really wanted pics of the first dances, cake cutting, garter/bouquet toss, etc. We informed the DJ and he made it happen. He moved everything right along from the first dances to cake cutting, etc. He ran the show and did a great job. I was so glad that someone else was in charge of timing and getting everyone's attention. He seriously took away our stress!

Our first dance....Warm Love by Van Morrison

My dad wrote a song for our father/daughter dance. It was very special.

Greg and his mom danced to Lynard Skynard's Simple Man

Our cake cutting song was One Love by Bob Marley

The best man (Greg's brother) and maid of honor (My sister) caught the garter and bouquet! haha

Pretty much after the food was eaten, everyone danced all night long. I don't remember the dance floor being empty at all. Everyone had a blast!

I think this picture sums up the night.

Venue!

Our venue was the Sandia Golf Club in Albuquerque. In planning our wedding Greg and I both said "No ballrooms". We both wanted something outdoors, but there are limited choices in ABQ. I had never seen a wedding here, or heard of a wedding here. Greg's brother works with Guest Services and he offered it up when we were starting to plan our wedding.

Sandia Golf Club

Our ceremony would be here, on the driving range. This picture was taken over a year ago when we were checking the place out. It was high noon.

Here is a view from the patio.

Here is a view of the patio.

Originally we were looking at this piece of grass to have a tent reception. The patio would only hold 12o guests and we were thinking closer to 150 would come so our only option was to rent a tent for that piece of grass. Up until 2 weeks before the wedding, everything was planned for the tent. Once I realized that only 120 people were coming, I switched it to the patio....BEST DECISION EVER!

It made everything easier from alcohol serving, food serving, music, dancing, cohesiveness.....it just worked. Jeff Elliot (the food/beverage guy) was awesome to work with. He was easy-going, answered all of my questions and executed everything.....perfectly. From the set-up to the servers everything was like a well-oiled machine. I could not have asked for a better venue. It was also VERY reasonably priced....I mean VERY.

Here are some pics of the scenery.

Originally the paper lantern chandeliers were designed to go inside the tent, but Greg's dad made it work with our last minute change of plans. I just feel like everything was well designed and well executed. I didn't even imagine how wonderful everything was going to look.

The more I think about it, the more giddy I get.

GUS, the ringbearer

GUS!!

I love this picture with Gus and all the red shoes!

Gus did great! I will say there were moments that were a little difficult.....like the part where he almost choked half to death on his rawhide during the ceremony, but overall I'm glad he was there. We didn't actually give him the rings, but you know he was there just to be cute.

My brother was in charge of him during the ceremony, he walked him down the aisle and stood with him at the front.

It was a little hot and Gus likes to be touching someone, so it was good that he had my brother my drool on.

I had my friend Caroline pick Gus up from my mom's house, bring him to the site and then after the ceremony and a few pictures she drove him home again for us. It was so nice to have someone there to take care of that part for us! She was also ready to jump up and take Gus away if he wasn't behaving during the ceremony.

I would highly recommend having someone ready if you are having your pet in the wedding.

Getting him situated for pictures was a little difficult, but after a few, we decided he could go home. I like this one!

Aren't we so cute?

The Bridesmaids...

This was the incredible view from our "wedding night" suite. We were able to see everyone arriving for the wedding and all of the setup...

Me with my girls and some celebratory champagne!

If you remember from my previous post on the bridesmaids they were wearing Eden dress #7266

and yes.....it had pockets! The girls looked so nice in their dresses!!

I let them choose whatever red heels they wanted....here is the result!

Don't they look great?

Bachelorette Partay!

Oh! What a fun night! We had it a few weeks before the wedding and it was fun!!!

It started at my sister's house with some lingere and a "Slumber Party"

My friend Paula made me wear a "Bachelorette" sash, candy necklace and light-up star necklace!

We went bar hopping and dancing! It was a much needed girls night out.

I had a candy necklace that I supposed to share with strangers, I think we ended up eating most of it ourselves!

This is one of my favorite pics of the night. I think my sister's face is sooo funny! I have no idea what this guy was saying, but she wasn't having it.

My thumb looks weird .

HAHAHA

Me and my sis

Oh what a blast!

Rehearsal Dinner

Lets start the real recaps with the rehearsal dinner!

We celebrated getting through the rehearsal with dinner at Pars Cuisine Persian & Mediterranean Restaurant.

Unfortunately I didn't get too many pictures of the food, but let me tell you.....it was AWESOME! Greg and I both love all kinds of food, Indian, Greek, Thai and especially gyros.

The meal was set up "family-style" with heaping platters of hummus and pita for appetizers, beer and wine of course. We have a salad that we passed around and then the MEAT. We had gyros, chicken kabob, filet mignon kabob. Mmmm...it was so good and and everyone loved it! Even those who were a bit skeptical at first.

And we had baklava for dessert!

There was a belly dancer who came around and really got everyone movin'. (But that is Greg's brother, not the belly dancer)

My belly hurt from laughing so hard, but so many people got up and danced. I was glad that everyone was in good spirits and willing to get up and have a good time! Even my shy brother got up and danced!

Then Greg got up and said his toast. It was so perfect. He recited the poem he wrote me when he proposed.

Loriel,

We have dated since the ripe age of 16,

When you needed somebody on which to lean.

Just a young skinny ballplayer,

Spying in on a cheerleader.

Our first encounter was one of chance,

When learning of high school romance.

As the high school years ended,

We thought it would be splendid

To embark on a journey together,

Into the rainy northwestern weather.

We had a time of a lifetime,

Learning of many friends and wine.

And through the thick and thin

We knew what would happen

That through the good and bad weather

We would grow and learn together

The true meaning of this life

Was for you to be my wife.

And then it was time for PRESENTS!!!!!!!! The boys loved their shoes! Both of our dads were thrilled. The girls loved their presents too, and I'll have a post later on about what exactly they got since I haven't blogged about that yet.

So I will leave you with a picture of Nate that pretty much sums up the night.

Oh yeah! AND after the party there were still some people ready to smoke hookah, so we did that too! All in all it was a great time. It was set-up and executed very well and I don't think we ran into any problems. We would most definitely do another event there. It was very much what Greg and I wanted.