And Miss Becomes Mrs.

I was completely surprised that our ceremony was exactly one hour long, maybe even a little less, considering all of the Spanish traditions that we included in our ceremony. We were so on top of things, time wise, that I waited in the bridal room for almost two hours before I could see Mr. H again!

Here are some highlights of when we finally said our I Dos, after 14 months of planning!

*All photos credit to Perez Photography

All of our padrinos, lined up in a row.

Mr. H walking his parents down the aisle before the rest of us make our debut.

I just love this pic because of my bridesmaid - her face says a million words :) Not to mention it shows all of their amazing dresses. Letting them pick what they were going to wear was, by far, one of my best decisions. They all did amazing!

There are a few pics that are our favs from the wedding, and all of them are in this post. This one I love because all three of us were so nervous, but so excited, to get down the aisle. At a couple of points down that walk I had to slow one down and speed one up to make it there. I wanted to enjoy every moment, especially after all of our previous bees' advice, so I slowed it down and truly enjoyed the walk.

One of the best pics of the wedding - Pops H and me. My two brothers are in the background. I have to admit, that is one hilarious face on Brother H in the front. It's almost a sweet, yet totally older brother face to make. My dad's grin, and mine for that matter, say it all. We were happy!

The arras. I am so glad that we chose to incorporate the Spanish traditions into the mass. I made sure to put explanations of all the traditions in the back of our programs, mainly for my side of the family.

The lasso, another Spanish tradition. I chose to use a beautiful rosary as our lasso and am so glad that I did. This will definitely be passed down to our children in the future, along with the arras.

I just love this pic that Cesar and Tanya took during the ceremony. To see everyone holding hands and praying at our wedding is just touching.

Another one of our favorites from the wedding. Just days before, we stood near this same location and lit candles for Mr. H's grandmother, who is very ill and was unable to attend the wedding. Instead of just standing there and talking, Mr. H and I actually said our Hail Marys (good thing, b/c I had no clue that Mr. H was mic'd).

And it's official - we are married! It was a good kiss too, I might add :)

Another one of our favs from the wedding. Our grins say it all, and are so natural. We were toally happy to have finally said our I Dos.

My niece, who attended the ceremony but not the reception, didn't want to walk with her parents, but with her grandparents instead. She might look sad, but she wasn't. While everyone was taking communion, and we were kneeling at the altar, I heard, "Stephanie, Stephanie.... STEPHANIE," and, when I turned around, there she was waving and smiling as big as she could. It was one of the most memorable moments for me. And walking back down the aisle with my parents was one of their most memorable moments as well.

Mr. H's parents. I promise they do smile.

With our awesome Father John. His homily was filled with humor, seriousness and great messages for marriage.

Mr. H's parents and our padrinos. I promise they are happy - they don't smile for ANY pictures.

Mrs. H's family. We aren't a big bunch, but we are a lot of fun!

Our bridal party, once again!

Stay tuned for more details and the party of a lifetime :)

09.27.08 - The First Look

Mr. H and I opted to see each other before the ceremony. The main reason for this was because our ceremony started so late (6:30 p.m.), was a full hour-long mass and we would still be taking some family pics at the altar after the wedding. We wanted to get some good pics with each other, and with our bridal party, so meeting before was our best option and I'm so happy that we picked to do this because it eased a lot of nerves (especially Mr. H's nerves)!

All photos credit to Perez Photography :)

While I got in one quick shot of myself before the wedding.

Mr. H was experiencing some nerves as he waited to see me for the first time that day :)

The boys waited in the Social Room at The W for all of the girls.

The last of the bouts were pinned onto the boys' tuxes.

The big grin on Mr. H's face prob stems from the evil look on mine :) Instead of just coming up to him to surprise him, I gave him a nice little tap on his rear to lighten the mood...and cause it just looked so cute all dressed up!

I think Mr. H was a little confused as to why my engagement ring was on my right hand and not my left!

First couple shot of the day - you can see how tense we were. All eyes on us in such fancy attire - it took a few more pics, and a lot more jokes to get us to be more natural in front of the camera.

Me and my girls - the blonde one is Mom H, my matron of honor, in case you can't tell :)

This is what our photographer, Caesar, got when he asked the boys to give their "badass" look.

Up next - we arrive at the church and the ceremony is about to begin!

09.27.08 - The first details...

I'm a sucker for details. I love them so much that, naturally, I asked Perez Photography to take lots of them, and that they did! Here's the first batch of photos that they snuck in while we were getting ready in my room.

All photos credit to Perez Photography :)

The OOT bags. The hotel even sent one up to our room, and then another to the honeymoon suite that night as well :)

My wedding bands. Yes, I had two. No, I am not ashamed.

Mr. H's bling. Yes, bling. I have never met a man as hard to satisfy in the ring department as Mr. H. He wanted diamonds, but not in your face diamonds. I was just about to give up on him until we found this ring. It broke my bank, but it was totally worth it. From the top it looks just like your normal, platinum band, but when you see it from the sides, it has lots of little diamonds. Not in your face, and definitely not your every day ring :)

My mom thought Cesar, our photographer, was nuts for getting up on her bed and trying to hang my dress. She had to go to the other room it made her so nervous. He promised her that it would definitely be worth it and the shot would be great - and he didnt lie.

When our fabulous day-of coordinators at Rebecca Hackl Events brought up the bouquets, we also saw the boys' bouts. Each couple that would walk together had a different type of flower and the girl's bouquet would correspond with the boy's bout!

The coordinators also supplied each member of the wedding party with a mini-booklet that had the entire timeline for the weekend. This came in very handy - and, in the short time they had to get to know me, they realized how anal I was about details and made sure to use the same fonts that I had used throughout the entire wedding!

This is the piece that I won at a discount from Castle Bride Couture. She did an amazing job on it and it looked great with my second dress.

The infamous shoes. You should see how many photos I now have of them :)

My bridesmaid and her husband, also a groomsmen, surprised me with my favorite black & white cupcakes from Sprinkles on the day of the wedding. I love how Cesar got this shot with my engagement ring :)

My extras - the hanky that you see was actually my baby bonnet as a child. My mom couldn't find anyone who would be willing to embroider it because it is so thin and fragile so she hand embroidered our initials and wedding date in navy blue, the same color as all my accessories. She was a little embarassed at how it came out, but it just made me love it all the more. To the left is my present from Mr. H - and sapphire and diamond bangle that I wore that day :)

Coming up - Mr. and Miss H see each other for the first time and we all get some pre-ceremony pics!

09.27.08 - Getting Ready

The girls' (and I mean all of us, me included) plans to get up bright and early for yoga on the day of the wedding were thwarted by a late night upstairs at the Ghostbar at the hotel. One of my bridesmaids got up and went, and then took a run, but the rest of us found sleep to be much more satisfying.

We ordered some room service and lounged around the hotel room until a knock at the door unveiled our videographer, Chris Watson, and, a few minutes later, the hair and makeup ladies from Elan Make-up Studio.

Once our amazing photographers showed up, Perez Photography, we were all beautified and it was just about time for us to get into our dresses. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

All photos credit to Perez Photography, unless otherwise noted :)

I started the day out in my robe, but that thing got super hot, so I traded it in for the workout clothes I had brought for yoga.

Everyone got so tired of me walking around the room with my veil dragging around, they put it on a hanger and I was forced to carry it around for a long time - and I'm talking at least an hour.

The ladies were the first to get dressed. While they put on their beautiful dresses, I got to sit around and relax a little more - only I just started to get a little nervous about finally putting on my dress.

I love this shot. I just see us looking at it like, "Am I really going to put that thing on?"

If you notice in these next few photos, instead of having a huge grin on my face, I look a little more serious. I was cool as a cucumber all day until it came time to put on my dress. I started to get a little anxious and nervous for the first time that day.

My bridesmaid tying my ribbon happens to be a fashion stylist in L.A. How lucky am I? During all the pre-ceremony shoots she secured, fastened and posed my dress for me :)

Meanwhile, back in the boys room, my brother snuck up and took this photo and the one below of the boys. Even though Mr. H is smiling, he was super nervous. He barely touched his lunch that day an those beer bottles you see them with were actually the empties from the night before. Mr. H couldn't even drink a beer - that's when you know he's nervous :)

Up next, the first batch of details. I'm a details kind of girl, so we'll have a few of those posts between the people pics :)