Wedding photos!

My dad created a photo album of my wedding day with the photos our wedding photographer printed out and sent to him. I only saw 251 - out of 1,300 (yikes!) - but so far, here are some of my absolute favorites:

I felt like a rock star while being pampered on the big day!

You can't hear the music, unfortunately, but this is my mom; cousin, Breanne, and sister, Brittany, singing - and dancing! - to the song, "Going To The Chapel." I have never seen anything so hilarious in my life.

Here I am anxiously waiting to be driven up to the wedding site in my dad's limited edition 1982 corvette - the one made the same year I was born!

The guys - outshined by an 8-year-old.

Walking down the aisle with daddy.

This is my absolute favorite photo. I still cry every time I see it. Is it bad that my favorite photo doesn't even include my husband?

The vows that my husband wrote for me were incredible. I knew I'd need those tissues!


Our wedding was held outside on a thankfully gorgeous summer day at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. I could not have asked for a more perfect day!

Our first kiss as husband and wife!

Our gorgeous wedding party!


I love this photo of us together.

Here are our parents and parents in law!

I love this photo taken right after we were declared husband and wife!

One of my favorite little touches on our wedding day is that right after the DJ announced the new Mr. and Mrs. Brent and Erika Meller, sparklers flew out of the plants and lit up the room. It was awesome.

Cheers!

Listening to the best man/best maid speeches. They were sweet, funny, and moved me to tears!

Our first dance as husband and wife!

I HATED cutting this cake - I mean look at how gorgeous it was! It absolutely blew me away! We had it made to look like the Eiffel Tower because Brent proposed to me at the faux Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas and was taking me to the real one in Paris on our honeymoon!




Dancing with my baby brother while my baby sister looks on!

No, we weren't doing the YMCA - we were doing COUSINS! (Inside joke!)

If my marriage is half as good as my parents' - who have been married for 27 years - I know Brent and I will live happily ever after.

HERE COMES THE BRIDE!!!

My wedding day is and forever will be June 14, 2008.

It may sound cheesy, but it's a date I will never forget, mostly because it was perfect. That's right, I said it: IT. WAS. P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

Now if I'm being brutally honest, of course not everything went perfectly:

-There were some guests who were invited, and who I desperately wanted to be there, but for whatever reason (out of town, out of town and about to give birth, etc.) couldn't make it.

-The cone filter for the sand we poured at the ceremony to signify that our lives were now blended together wasn't on the table, so much of the sand was spilled into the ground apparently signifying that we are now one with the earth. Or something like that.

-The harpist, who I now refer to as the in-serious-need-of-therapy-for-her-need-to-control-everything harpist, got on my last nerve with not only telling me how to pose for pictures, but telling my professional photographer how to take the pictures. Seriously, lady. Just play the harp!

- Brent didn't much care for the special dish of salmon he ordered at our reception, and wanted to eat my delicious honey dijon chicken. Being the great wife that I vowed to be just hours earlier, I told him that if he went near my chicken, his hand would be impaled by my fork. (It was THAT GOOD.)

But honestly, thinking back to that day two weeks ago as I write this posting after our honeymoon, I am struggling to think of anything else that didn't go, well, perfect.

I mean, I married my best friend and the love of my life.

And more importantly, IT DIDN'T RAIN, which was a permanent worry I had in the back of my head a month before the ceremony right up to our rehearsal dinner at Stella's Restaurant in Perrysburg the night before the wedding.

But I woke up on Saturday to an absolutely perfect day with not a single threatening thundercloud. Whew!

So after spending fun times with my bridal party at the salon, where I got my hair and makeup done, I was finally able to put on my almost-too-pretty-to-wear wedding dress at my parents' house. Then my sister, and maid of honor, helped me put on my jewelry and I was nervously ready to go!

When it was (finally) time to get married, my uncle was able to drive me up to my outdoor wedding site at the Toledo Botanical Gardens in my dad's corvette convertible. My dad met me on the edge of the site to walk me down the grass aisle scattered with rose petals near wooden arches and huge evergreen trees that towered over a pond complete with swans. As he put my hand in Brent's, he said "Take care of her Brent," a phrase that still makes me tear up to this day.

And for the ceremony, we wrote our own vows. After hearing Brent's vows about how he was looking forward to spending the best years of our lives together with me, I couldn't wait to kiss him, so I asked the minister if it would be OK to kiss him right then. She allowed it!

Right after the ceremony, we asked the guests to remain in their seats so we could spend a moment or two with every single one before anyone left. I loved it!

Since we had two hours between the wedding and reception, Brent and I enjoyed some quiet moments together - with the photographer - at the park.

This is important because now I will FINALLY have some photos with the two of us! Brent is one of those people with a gorgeous smile that completely disappears when in front of a camera. Therefore, he H-A-T-E-S getting his picture taken, so I have very few of us together. Now, according to the photographer, I have about 1,300 photos - many that have the two of us in them!

When it was time to go to the reception, we asked the best man, Doug, drive us there in my parents' car, which was tricked out with "just married" signs all over the windows. Cute!

We arrived at the reception a bit early, which led to one of my favorite moments of the day. It was when Brent and I got to spend about 10 minutes alone in the bridal suite at Central Park West, which is where our reception was held. We held hands, kissed, laughed, looked at our wedding rings, and just enjoyed the fact that we were finally married. Then the flower girl crashed our romantic moment, but since it was Katelyn - Brent's niece - we had fun playing Sesame Street with her and her Abby doll.

One of my other favorite moments of the evening came just moments later when it was time for the wedding party to be announced. Right after the DJ introduced us, the new Mr. and Mrs. Brent and Erika Meller, we walked through the doorway of our reception to live sparklers flying out from the plants near the doorway. It was awesome.

After an amazing meal of dijon chicken, roast beef, salad, veggies, and champagne - which was interrupted several times by people clanging their utensils on their glasses to make us kiss - Brent and I made our way from table to table to talk to our guests.

Unfortunately, we only made it to about half of the tables at our reception, so we didn't get to personally talk to everyone who came. This was something I was upset about afterward, but the day just flew by in a blur!

There was our first dance to Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This," followed by my dance with my dad to "Wind Beneath My Wings," which is my song for him. (I had the DJ announce that I chose the song especially for my dad because I wanted him to know that fact.) Then I got a break while Brent danced to "You are so Beautiful" with his mom.

Soon thereafter, we unfortunately had to cut our cake, which was simply stunning and surrounded by a bunch of red and pink flowers and candles. We had it made to look like the Eiffel Tower in France because Brent proposed to me at the faux Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas and was taking me to the real one in France on our honeymoon. And no, we didn't smash the cake in each other's faces, though we got it one each other's noses a bit!

After a fun dollar dance, the rest of the evening was spent dancing, laughing, and visiting with my family and friends - some of whom I hadn't seen in a long time.

And even though I've heard you shouldn't be the last one to leave your own reception, I didn't care because I wasn't going to leave the fun behind!

But as the clock was striking midnight, Brent and I headed for a wonderful wedding night at the Belamar Suites in Perrysburg. Along with having our own garage, we also had a shower with two shower heads big enough for about seven people, a hot tub with jets, his and hers bathrobes, and a fireplace right next to the bed.

And it was FREE because we had our reception at Central Park West. It was heaven on earth, and a wonderful way to spend my first night with my new husband. I can't remember a moment when I was happier.

(More pictures to come when I have the professional ones back!)

I'm willing to try anything once, but damn that hurts!

There have been a few things that Brent has requested regarding our wedding. One was to have the wedding colors be maize and blue, which are the colors of the University of Michigan. Another was to privately tell each other our vows at our wedding instead of using microphones.

And there were a few more. So, being the great future wife that I am, I shot down all of his suggestions immediately.

But then he came to me a few days ago and said that he felt like he had no say in our wedding (even though I gave him veto power over any decision I made) and really wanted JUST ONE THING as a wedding gift.

How could I turn him down? So I cautiously asked him what it was that he wanted, fearing it would be something like "I want our first dance to be to 'Baby Got Back.'"

"I want you to get a Brazilian," he says.

"You want what now?" I ask him.

Turns out, what he wanted was for me to get a Brazilian bikini wax. As in he wanted me to let a stranger spread hot, sticky wax all over my lady parts before he or she ripped the hair from the hair follicles. As in O-U-C-H!

Here is the part of the story where I say "hell no." And here is also the part where I know Brent and I will be during the entire course of our marriage. He says yes and I say no. Someone is going to win and get what they want, and someone is going to lose and give in. All I hope for our marriage is that there is a balance. I think we're doing a pretty good job so far.

But getting back to the ridiculous, vain, unnecessary beauty procedure that women undergo to benefit (hopefully) only one person. I had to admit that Brent DID have a point about not getting to make many decisions regarding the wedding, and didn't really need to point EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM out. So, like we do in most every situation where we disagree, we compromised.

Though I was apprehensive about getting this particular part of my body waxed, I didn't really have that great of an argument against it because I had never tried it before. And since I pride myself on keeping an open mind with most everything, I agreed to do it, but only if it was a week before the wedding in case something went wrong. I had visions in my mind of being horribly burned or the wax causing some sort of allergic reaction.

So after work today, I reluctantly went to the De Novo Beauty Spa on 55th Street and made a mental note to book a massage so next time I was there I could actually look forward to something.

Instead, I was led to something that looked unsettling like a doctor's office and told to keep my shirt on (duh) but take everything else off. The woman (and I was glad it was a woman. At least then she'd know what I was going through!) who came in seemed to be in a hurry. As I explained that this was my first time, she quickly dismissed my concerns with a wave of the wax-slathered Popsicle stick and said that she's good because she's quick.

The first rip of hair was painful, but surprisingly manageable. But it was also on my bikini line, which, relatively speaking, is not as sensitive an area as, ahem, other parts.

Looking back, I think that first strip didn't hurt as badly because I was anticipating much worse. BUT, that didn't mean that the rest didn't hurt. It did. A lot. The rest was in much more sensitive areas, and since I knew what it felt like, I was able to anticipate the ripping part. That was bad. It was almost bad enough to yell "AHHHHHH KELLY CLARKSON" a la Steve Carell in "The 40-year-old virgin." Almost.

But it was over in a matter of probably 10 minutes, and baby powder was applied to counteract the redness, though I doubt it did much good because the redness lasted for more than 24 hours. But the lady said it would last for four weeks, then told me to come back during the fifth week for another round. Yeah, OK. Sign me up. Riiiiight.

At least it wasn't a rat... I think

I'm telling myself it was a tiny field mouse (though there are no "fields," per say in Manhattan) because I will not admit that it was a rat. Not in MY apartment building.

And I'm telling myself that there was only ONE mouse - not three. It was the SAME mouse that I saw today on the floor of my apartment building, then in the lobby, then near the door of the apartment building. Yep, he must have taken the elevator down to the lobby sometime between 2 p.m. when I saw him on my floor and 10 p.m. when I saw him in the lobby.

Nevertheless, to cover all of my bases, I informed our doorman/security guard that there were MICE in the apartment building. He told me that the exterminator would be there the next day. And two weeks after that. Apparently, they come every other Tuesday. And I'm STILL seeing the vermin in the hallways.

The silver lining here (and yes there is one) is that it was a mouse. And not a cockroach.