Recap #8--The First Look

Well as you can remember where we last left off before the holidays I was officially a BRIDE! Next, it was time to head up and meet the soon to be Mr for our first look photos.

First a little back story, it was really hard for us to decide if a first look was what we were going to do. Rene being traditional thought that the best idea was the first time we saw each other to be for the ceremony I however used my powers of persuasion to have him realize the benefits of the first look photos. And as you can see the photos (like all the rest) turned out AMAZING! So here we go...

All images by Jennifer Werneth http://www.jenniferwernethphotography.com/

Rene waiting for me....promising not to look over his shoulder!

I make my approach, with the wedding party of course looking on and tap the Mr on the shoulder...(as you can see the wind was really kicking up)

Guess who???

Well hello there--I know you! Let me take a look at you!

And of course then it was time for a kiss since we hadn't seen each other in over 12 hours now!

I am so happy with our decision for the first look photos! I know the anticipation of seeing each other as I walked down the isle is more "traditional" but who can argue with the gorgeous back drop and the images captured here!

Need to catch up?
Day 6 Becoming the Bride
Day 6 Getting Ready to Say I DO
Day 5 Our Last "Single" Night
Day 4 The Civil Ceremony
Day 3 We board the Wonder
Day 2 Orlando and Cocoa
Day 1 in Orlando

Getting Ready to Ring in the New Year--With a New Addition!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Did I mention that Dallas had a WHITE Christmas for the first time since 1997!! Here is a not so great picture as we were heading to church on Christmas Eve! And the snow kept coming down all night and we woke up to about 1-2 inches Christmas morning. Of course it was gone by the 26th but still a nice novelty.

Our Christmas was wonderful, we spent all day in our PJs and enjoyed being able to relax, watch movies, and just hang out without having to worry about work.

Then on Sunday we added an exciting new member to our family!

Allow me to introduce Stitch Blanco! He is a pocket Australian Shepard born on October 20th of this year. We couldn't help but take him home from the pet store when we met him. He is quite a handful and now we are getting to work on the house training but he is love able and energetic and a perfect way to round out the Christmas holiday!

It is hard to believe that we are getting ready to start another DECADE isn't it?! Does it really seem like 10 years ago now we were all worried about Y2K? Well all I can say is that I am ready to start off 2010 and enjoy everything that comes along with it!

Up next back to the wedding recaps!

Merry Christmas From the Blancos!

I hate to blog-and-run but I promise that I will be back with many more recaps from the wedding after the holidays now that I have all of our photos!

Have a wonderful Holiday!

Merry Christmas

~ The Blancos

Recap #7 Becoming the BRIDE

Well where I last left off here is where we were:

Makeup- Done! Hair-Done! Our photographer arrived to started the professional photographs!!

Jenn was amazing. She was all over the room, the bed, the veranda--everywhere to produce amazing photos of our details!

Next of course it was time for some sorority rituals from my amazing Maids of Honor and bridemaid!

And now the big event--the putting on of the dress! And yes it took all 3 of my ladies, plus my mother a bit of shimmy-shake and luck to get into the dress with no messing up of my hair!

Dress was on...now started the long process of lacing up the back...and lacing....and lacing....

Finally all done with lots of pulling from my ladies and it was time for the veil with some help from Mom

Then we did some bridal photos--I wish that I could post all of the amazing pictures that I have but here is a quick little preview of some of the ones that were not posted on the original viewing gallery.

Then Jenn went up to start taking some pictures to of course showcase my wonderful Rene and his groomsmen!

The boys were instructed to head up to the 10th deck to wait for us--because up next was the big moment....our FIRST LOOK!

Need to catch up?
Day 6 Getting Ready to Say I DO
Day 5 Our Last "Single" Night
Day 4 The Civil Ceremony
Day 3 We board the Wonder
Day 2 Orlando and Cocoa
Day 1 in Orlando

Time to Hit it Rich?!

Well our first night in Las Vegas we were sure to take in the strip at night in all of its splendor seeing everything all lit up. The hotel was in a perfect location to make it in walking distance pretty quickly from everything!

First up just down the road from our hotel was the Paris hotel and Casino

And then we continued down the strip to make sure we got lots of photos...occasionally stopping to drop a couple of dollars on the slots or at the tables.

Unfortunately, we didn't strike it rich on the first night! But Rene did win about $25 which of course turned into drink money!

The next morning we were off to see the rest of the strip during the daylight hours.

First Up the New York New York....

The day continued and we made it around to all of the resorts. It was a very productive day! Too bad UCF lost in their bowl game...they cost us the $25 we put on them to win.....ohhh well

That night we were off to the Mirage to see "The Beatles Love" it was amazing!!!

All in all our little in prompt to trip to Vegas was great...we didn't strike it rich but it was a much needed break before the holidays!

Viva Las Vegas!

This past weekend we took our first offical trip as Mr & Mrs Blanco! Well I guess as official as you can get even if my airline ticket still said "Ries". We hoped onto a flight out of Dallas this past Friday and were off to Las Vegas to try to win it BIG!!

We got in around 11pm (and gained 2 hours of time because of the time zones) so it was plenty early enough to venture onto the strip after checking into our hotel.

We stayed right on the strip in the Planet Hollywood Resort. It was in a great location too! Our room had an AMAZING VIEW!!

Check back later tonight for a full account of the mini-trip--for now its time to get back to work here at the office!

**Just a little FYI: Our photographer did put the CD with all the images in the mail about a week ago--but it seems that the mail is moving slower than expected with the holidays. I promise after our Vegas Vacation and a little mini-break from blogging after the holidays I should be able to get back on track for the wedding recaps!**

Planning Christmas for 2010 already?

Ok I may not be going that far, but I have found my next DIY for next year! I love wreaths and I love love love this! I came across it today from Country Living how great is it? Simple and I think stunning at the same time! A must make for next year for sure!

Recap #6-Getting Ready to Say "I DO"

I woke up bright and early the next morning for the wedding. Rene of course spent the night with the boys and planned to head off the boat for a bit before the wedding (photos from that to follow). I stayed in our beautiful room with the veranda! Who wouldn't want to wake up to such an AMAZING view on their wedding day?
I had arranged for room service to deliver breakfast so that I could lounge around, make sure that I had everything in order for the detail shots for the photographer and take a shower before heading down to get my hair done. After finishing up breakfast and taking my shower, I was greeted by a knock at the door from Mom and Dad just checking in before the ventured off the boat for a bit as well.

With some time to myself, I finally started to write my letter to my wonderful husband to go along with his gift and then rounded out the morning with a bloody mary watching a few Disney movies and it was off to my hair appointment!

Things started off a bit scary...A few bobby pins, twisting, and lots of hairspray to avoid a hair disaster with the wind and things started to come together quite nice!And after about an hour or so I officially had "bridal hair"!

After that I spent some time alone walking around the ship getting some pictures of the paintings, and areas around the ship that we would later be making sure to get photographs.
Then it was time to get some lunch...as I was getting ready to order some room service Kelly and Laura my amazing Maids of Honor showed up! We ventured off to lunch and grab some photos around the ship as well!
Then it was back to my room to have some champagne, a little time to breath and then next thing would be getting into my dress!!



Need to catch up?
Day 5 Our Last "Single" Night
Day 4 The Civil Ceremony
Day 3 We board the Wonder
Day 2 Orlando and Cocoa
Day 1 in Orlando

Can I Add it to My Christmas List?

The registry is all taken care of and almost all of the Christmas gifts are wrapped and sent to our loved ones who are far away....but this morning I found the CUTEST thing for the newlyweds...


Bed Hog has come out with a great sheet set that takes care of the question of whose side is whose...



This great gift idea for the newlyweds are a 300 count 100% cotton perfect buy! **hint hint**

One Month Later

I completely forgot to post yesterday but it was our One Month Anniversary!

Crazy how fast the time has been flying by with the wedding, then spending time in Orlando, Thanksgiving and then the Christmas season coming along so fast.

But here we are happily married one month later! I heard from our photographer yesterday as well that she hopes to have the rest of our online viewing gallery up this weekend.

I will be sure to let everyone know where they can view and post as many as possible in our recaps as soon as I can!







**Jennifer and her family suffered the loss of her husband's grandfather shortly after our cruise so they have been back and forth to visit family since his passing. Please keep their family in your prayers.**

Gallery of the Day

I must admit yes the wedding is over, but I still keep watching a couple of my favorite wedding blogs--I am a bit addicted to the dresses, the flowers, the pictures--pretty much all of it....

So today I was checking the daily blog updates and found our photo smiling back at me for the Gallery of the Day on Weddingbee

It brought a smile to my face as I realized tomorrow will be our "Month-versary"

Check out the posting of us at : Mr and Mrs Disney Say I Do on the Disney Wonder

Recap #5 Our Last Single Night...but not really

I know its been a little crazy with the holidays but finally here we go with the continuation of my recaps! I know that yes "technically" we are married but lets just be honest we aren't going to count the civil ceremony as the wedding so Sunday night we shall call our last night single.

We had a lot to get done after the civil ceremony--the first day as a whole was pretty busy!

First we met with the wedding coordinator to go over some basic last minute details of our contract (cake, music, meeting time, ceremony set up ect).

After that it was time for the life boat drill (don't we look cute?)

After that we headed back down to our room because we had to work on finishing up the guest bags before our little mini-meeting about the next day with everyone...

We were greeted with yet another great gift! This one was a memory box and a huge beach towl/blanket from Disney Fairytale Weddings...

Then we were onto finishing up all of our guest bags--hopefully everyone enjoyed them!

After we had our little meeting about the next days agenda and meeting times things started to calm down and we had some time to actually breathe and relax and enjoy our time. After dinner we decided to venture over to the "Know Your Mate" Game...clearly our group of friends insisted we be chosen for the game as the couple married for the shortest amount of time--no one could out do only being married for about 8 hours so there we were "contestants". So onto the stage we went...with the cat-calls coming from coming from the back of the room from our wonderful friends... 3 questions later...we were crowned the Winners! We knew eachother better than the other 2 couples! And to the victors go the spoils ---

All in all a great first night on the cruise with everyone--and a perfect "last night" as a single lady!!

Up next: Day of: Getting Ready for the I Do's

Need to catch up?
Day 4 The Civil Ceremony
Day 3 We board the Wonder
Day 2 Orlando and Cocoa
Day 1 in Orlando

White Christmas?

Snow for Christmas?!? More than likley no, however I woke up today to a very wet and snowy Wednesday.


Yes, here is Dallas we woke up to a mix of rain and snow, and by the time I made it to work it was a full on snow flurry outside the window across from my desk!

The weather is saying that hopefully the 35-40 degree weather should warm up a little more today and it should melt but still...its Texas--I thought it was not going to snow out here when I agreed to move...and this is now the 2nd year with snow/ice at the start of December...oh well what can you do?!

We've been Blogged!

I could not be more excited to write this post! Our amazing photographer has put up more of our images on her blog!!

Click here to see her AMAZING WORK!

http://jenniferwernethphotography.blogspot.com/2009/12/megan-renes-wedding-disney-cruise.html