The new Mr. & Mrs.

I just back from my California visit and boy was it fun. I was gone for 12 days, but I think it was the perfect amount of time to have visited. One of the first things I did when I got to California was attend the wedding of my sister's college roommate, Portia. My sister was one of the two MOHs, and my parents were primary sponsors. Besides the wedding of John's classmate that we crashed in July, this was the first wedding I've been to as a married woman. Unfortunately, since I went to CA alone, it was the first wedding I've attended without the hubs.

It was a beautiful morning ceremony at St. Anthony's in El Segundo. It was nice small church, very intimate. Their colors were mustard yellow (her favorite) and navy blue (since the groom is in the air force). I, of course, left my camera in CA, so cannot upload them here in WI. Go figure. But like the resourceful bride I am, scoured facebook for something to share.

Here's a picture of the handsome groom awaiting his beautiful bride

The beautiful wedding party. My sister is the 2nd girl on the left. Her partner was her bf (to her right)

They had their afternoon reception at the Verandas in Manhattan Beach. It was a nice venue within a few blocks of the beach. It had a cute little patio for taking pictures. The Verandas is a two story restaurant. Cocktails were held on the second floor where the dance floor and cake were located. The actual reception took place on the first floor. The centerpieces were beautiful white and yellow.

Their favors were cute too. It was an airplane (b/c of the groom's occupation), but if you flipped it upside down, it was a pencil sharpener (b/c of the bride's occupation as a teacher). So clever!

The speeches were so awesome. Probably the best speeches I've ever heard at a wedding. The father of the bride literally brought everyone to tears! And he was the first speech. My sister's MOH speech was awesome as well. Tears galore! After the delicious meal, we were all told to head upstairs for the rest of the program. There was a cute slideshow that was presented, and then the cake!

The beautiful, simple cake. YUM! It had alternating tiers of lemon cake with lemon filling, and white cake with fresh strawberry and fresh blueberries. OMG! I don't normally like cake, but I had two pieces of that, plus they sent the bride home with two tiers, so I ate more later. SOOOO delicious. Fresh fruit just makes cakes so much more delicious.

After the cake cutting was the usual first dance, father/daughter dance, and mother/son dance. The mother/son dance was to a fun, hip fast song. I can't remember the song title now, but I can hear it in my head. It was just a song from the 80s that the mom used to dance with the groom to all the time. Totally cute.

After some "open dancing" there was bouquet toss and a garter toss. The girlfriend of the groom's brother got it (and the whole side of the family was disappointed...ouch). And then my sister's boyfriend caught the garter. Uh oh! I'm hoping they get married in 2012, but dad thinks it'll be 2011. But we're both hoping it won't be 2010. Too soon for us! AHhhhh!

Probably one of the most awesome things at the wedding was a surprise number by the bride's father, the bride and her sisters. Even the bride didn't know it was going to happen. For the last song of the night, they played "Hit the road, Jack." Apparently ever since the bride and her sisters were young, they used to perform this dance to the song for the bride's grandmother and her friends. They've performed it for years. So the bride's dad requested it and they did an impromptu dance, which was the cutest thing ever! Here's a glimpse of how cute it was:

The bride is the middle child. Can you tell?

After the wedding was over, the bride and groom made a bubble exit and thus ended the wedding.

Gorgeous intimate wedding of about 110 guests or so. So congratulations to Portia and Kurt, who will be making their new home together in Wyoming. Best of luck!