Recap #11 Here comes the BRIDE!

What better way to spend a Friday afternoon than share some more of our wonderful photos and recaps about the wedding?!

So without further waiting lets take a look at our "venue"!!

Since things with the cruise wedding were very cut and dry as to what you "got" in your wedding package I knew from the start that we would of course want some personal touches at least one or two things for the ceremony. Thus my idea of the flower ball DIY project. Of course from that I continues and made the ones that my ladies carried as well.

We didn't have a lot to work with in terms of decorations (mainly because contractually you can't add a lot)as well as the fact we would have had to fly with or ship everything from Texas, but I think that it was simple enough to incorporate the blue and yellow and just make things seems a bit more "weddingish". Plus what do you really need with the backdrop we had?!
**thanks to Mom and Jenn for going down and grabbing a few shots before everyone arrived**
Then it was really time for the big walk down the short aisle.

My wonderful maids of honor Kelly and Laura were escorted by the best man Matt

Followed by groomsman Andrew and grooms-woman Katie

Dum dum dee dum dum....

Here Comes the BRIDE!! and Dad of course

It was a quick little walk down the aisle to the alter....
*Note this photo courtesy of a wedding guest**

Up Next---We Pronounce you HUSBAND & WIFE!

Need to catch up?

Day 6 The Wedding Party
Day 6 Paparazzi-Bride and Groom Pics
Day 6 The First Look
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

Mrs. Blanco

I am working to get some more things checked off of my 2010 To Do List. Friday I visited the dreaded Social Security Office! And while everyone kept telling me changing my name would be so time consuming for some reason I thought maybe I would be the person to get it done quickly....boy was I wrong!

My Friday started off like any other day at work (though I did receive 2 awards! Most Improved (sales based) and MVP for the office (voted on by the office)...a nice surprise and great start to a Friday) Sorry for the poor photo--gotta love cell phone cameras

....following lunch however things got annoying.

I arrived at the social security office at 12:45, clicked on the appropriate 'reason for visit' box and took my number and waiting for it to be called....and waited....and waited....

Finally after 3 and a half hours, my number appeared on the little lighted board and I proceeded to the counter. Handed the lady the form I had completed via Miss Now Mrs. (an online name changing service-which allowed me to have all of the forms I needed in one place!)

The woman took the form and proceeded to type in the information-though I must say I was a bit concerned because she did not ask for any ID verification, or my current social security card for verification!! It was not until I asked her what to do with my current social security card that she said "Oh yea, that won't be valid any more so just give that to me".

So quick and painless right? Oh I could have only hoped. She handed me a piece of paper which was my receipt--I started to walk out the door and looked down and realize she had typed my last name WRONG--BlancE not BlancO....so back I went--thankfully I sort of bullied my way back to an open window and said I needed them to fix it....they woman helping me was not too happy but I showed her the exact form I provided and I think she realized that the mistake was not mine and helped out.

So after about 4 hours I officially walked out the door as Mrs. Megan Blanco!!

Or at least I was in the eyes of the government. I had to wait at least 24 hours before I could change my name with the DMV. So Saturday and Sunday were spent completing all of the notification letters to credit card companies, bank, student loans, frequent flyer accounts, memberships ect...and yesterday a half day spent at the DMV for my new license (to be received in 2-8 weeks!). But there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

As of Today January 20th 2010--I am now officially Megan Blanco!

My advice to future MRS....definitely look into Miss Now Mrs. It made things really easy to keep everything together and lots of form fill capabilities to help out with getting everything put together quick and easy....now it's just a waiting game to get everything in the mail....

A Quarter of a Century!

(note, this is not my cake--but isn't it cute?)

That's right today is my 25th Birthday!

A quarter of a century--wow I'm getting old

I am looking forward to spending some time tonight lounging around with my New Hubby, Nala, and Stitch!

I'll be sure to update with more of the wedding photos soon!

Recap #10- The Wedding Party

After the first look it was time for some group shots and pics of me and my wonderful maids of honor and bridesmaid before the ceremony.

First up was a fun veil picture with my ladies! I am so glad that I went with the cathedral veil!




These 3 girls are amazing and I am so glad that there were able to share our special day with us!






And the whole group! I love the fact that we went with the vibrant blue colors of the ladies dresses it made for some great colors for all of our pictures! We had the most amazing group of people for our wedding. The each played such am amazing role and it would not have been the same without each and every one of them.
(From Left to Right) Andrew proved to be the life of the party, Matt added to countless laughs the entire trip. Kelly (MOH#1 ) proved to be the sentimental one of my side, her heartfelt words will be long lasting. Laura (MOH#2) was so calm cool and collected the entire trip that it put my mind at ease about everything! And last but not least Katie, though Rene will tell you she is the Grooms woman for the event since she had been through the wedding events about 7 months before she knew exactly what I needed even before I did--including the bobby pins when the wind did a little damage to my hair. Thank you all for making the cruise so amazing for us. One of the best things about a wedding on Disney Cruise Line aside from the gorgeous backdrop was the bright colors and fun places around the ship to get some great pictures. Up next we took a stroll down Route 66.

As we were heading up to the overlook of the lobby for some family shots I was greeted by an unexpected "creature"....Stitch!

He then continued to "eat" my flowers...

We also took this time to get a couple of pictures with just my side of the family.

Me and Mom

After we did a little mini-family photo session we went down to meet up with the guests to go down to the ceremony location. I wasn't worried about people seeing the dress before hand, I guess I figured if the groom had been me what did it matter for the rest of the guests? Plus it was nice to get to mix and mingle a bit with everyone....even if it felt rushed!
Up next....the first look at the ceremony location. I must say a big thank you to Jenn and my Mom for going down to take a look at everything all set up.

Need to catch up?

Day 6 Paparazzi-Bride and Groom Pics
Day 6 The First Look
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

It's COLD outside!

I know that I have no place to complain compared to the majority of the country who is getting slammed with the never ending snow (mom and dad and friends up north) but I must admit that waking up to the 26 degree temperature this morning to take the puppy out was no fun at all!!

None the less, here I am bright and early at work and still quite cold. Here is hoping to a warmer afternoon so I can focus on getting a post up about our amazing wedding party!

Why didn't I think of that?!

I could not help wish sharing and I wish I had thought about this! Such a cute idea from Mrs Meatball's Recap on Weddingbee .

She had all of her ladies sign the bottom of her wedding shoes so that she would be "surefooted through the day"
Love it!

Recap #9- Paparazzi!

Ok well maybe not to that extent, but the next thing up on our wonderful wedding day it was time for the Bride/Groom portraits. I of course had been stalking different photographer’s websites and searching through 100’s of different photos to get my inspirations.

Before the wedding I had no idea what Jenn would have in mind after seeing the “palate” that she had to work with on the ship, and it had been so long since I had been on board one of Disney’s ships that even I was having a hard time trying to think of great photo locations.

None the less, I had provided Jenn with these photo inspiration boards during our planning time all created at Style Me Pretty

As you can see from the first sets of pictures I have posted from getting ready and the first look Jenn completely went above and beyond my expectations! You can see from my boards a few of my photo ideas had been captured already--but what was yet to come for these bride/groom portraits were much more than I had ever expected!

These two are some of my favorite close ups, the way the wind was blowing around worked out just great when it came to getting some amazing photos!

I can not say enough about what a beautiful day we had while in port, it made for such amazing backdrops and vibrant colors!!

As if these are not gorgeous enough, check out what Jenn did in terms of effects on a couple of the pictures--I am generally not much for altering pictures or changing the color from anything but color/B&W/Sepia but I fell in love with these!

After this we headed down towards a spiral staircase to grab some cute shots, again with the amazing background and just a side note the fish eye lens has become me new fave photography trend!

Next up it was time to head over to the smoke stakes on the ship to get some Disney themed bright shots, along the way Jenn just kept on snapping pictures along the way.

Here is where we got some fun shots with the smoke stacks, the best part is there was no one around when we were getting these which made for some perfect images.

I loved out portraits of just us as you can see, and these are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we have to choose from! I can't wait to see what they look like in print around our apartment!

Next up, photo time with the wedding party.



Need to catch up?

Day 6 The First Look
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

Resolutions? They Just Aren't My Thing

Now don't get me wrong I am not opposed to resolutions, they just never seemed to be my "cup of tea". I guess it's the fact that I just don't think that the things I am working toward just fit in with the definition of resolution.

Per Merriam-Webster
res·o·lu·tion \ˌre-zə-ˈlü-shən\
Function: noun
1 : the act or process of resolving: as a : the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones b : the act of answering : solving c : the act of determining

I however am very much all for "To Do" Lists of my Goals for the year.

While I am not perfect by any means, I have goals to improve myself rather than just looking for a way to solve a "problem". So what falls on "the list" this year?

I must be honest I didn't think much about it until my BlackBerry reminded me of it today by blinking a reminder Due Date:January 4th, 2010 - start an MBA program or start working on a second degree. Done and done! I start classes in 2 weeks at Texas A&M University-Commerce working on my Executive MBA (it's been two and a half years since I have had to take classes so I am excited and anxious at the same time!).

This made me start looking through the rest of my list of things to accomplish by the end of 2010. So what does my year entail? *The last few are new that came about because I started thinking about it today*

My 2010 "To Do's"

• Most Important-Get my name Officially and Legally Changed to "Blanco"
• Start My MBA
• Finish our wedding scrapbook before our 1 year anniversary-I've already started thanks for my amazing Cricut (more posts to follow on that to come)
• Finish at least 12 leisure books this year--this should be easy thanks to my wedding gift of my Amazon Kindle from Rene!!
• Plan an amazing trip for the Mr and I for our 1 year anniversary
• Get home to Pennsylvania at least once over the next year
• Stay in better touch with friends and family - and when I say communicating more than just email and Facebook
• Stop stressing over $$- with Rene and I paying 100% in "cash" for the wedding ourselves over the past year we can finally relax a bit when it comes to money
• Get back to the gym! --The 2 month "honeymoon" is over time to get back to the regular routine
• Really try to drink 8 glasses of water a day
• Stop dwelling on things that have happened in 2009 that didn't go my way - there is nothing I can do about it now but move on.
• Get out and see more of Dallas -- we have been here now 1.5 years and there is so much we haven't seen yet

So while I may not do resolutions I have quite a list of To Dos for this year. Do you make resolutions? If so, did you make yours for the year already?