Ding Dong Wedding Bells - Part 3.3 (Bonus Features??)

Mariko here! I'm finally posting, as promised. :) Dave covered the wedding synopsis pretty well, so I'm just going to make a few additions.

When we were planning this wedding I was totally lost on what needed to get done and how to go about doing it. I read some blogs, magazines, etc., but I hadn't been to a wedding in quite a while and wasn't really sure how they were supposed to work. We were trying to keep the cost down but still have a nice, semi-formal event that we could invite our (many) close family members and friends to. So in honor of our friends that are planning weddings, here are a few things I learned while planning our wedding:

Ding Dong Wedding Bells Pt. 3.2 "The Finale" (Extended)

So yes, the wedding posts are much longer than I originally planned. But then again it makes sense, as A LOT went on. This one should be fairly short, though I do tend to ramble at times. I know that Mariko said she'll have a post after this one about her day, since I don't know what happened prior to the ceremony..... but this is Mariko so anyone's guess if/when she'll post.

Last we left you the wedding blur of fun was ending and we were making our way to the hotel, and yes it was the same hotel that had been giving us so many problems. Mariko arrived and checked in, both of strutting our stuff in formal attire. Luckily we got into our room quite nicely, and began to cool off. Sadly though our change of clothes were in Mariko's parents room, so we had to wait a bit to get comfy.

Ding Dong Wedding Bells Pt. 3.1 "The Finale"

I'm sure this is the post that most people have been waiting for... the wedding info! Though it was a rather busy day for me, I'm going to try and remember the details as best as possible. And though we don't have the photographers photos yet, we still have a few from family members (and if you have more PLEASE send them to Mariko and I)!

My day (Dave) started off a little earlier than I had planned, waking up around 6:30. I mostly wondered around the hotel room, declining breakfast with a few people.... I don't like to eat in the mornings and my stomach was already a little nervous. I had to do checks with Mariko's family to make sure we didn't wander the around the hotel at the same time, didn't want any accidents happening.

Ding Dong Wedding Bells Pt. 2

And so we move on, they story continues with the next chapter of our little wedding posts! Last we left off, Mariko and I were working on all the wedding prep at the beginning of the summer. I won't bore you all with the dirty details of wedding planning, but as I'm sure you can all tell we got things finished!

We'll do a little time jump around this point to July 20th, 2011. It is Wednesday before the wedding and people are starting to arrive in town. We had visitors from California, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Utah and even the far off land of Japan. We were lucky enough to have quite a few friends and family make the trip.

Ding Dong Wedding Bells Pt. 1

Yes the big day has come and gone. I am now officially married to my beautiful wife Mariko (though I guess saying married to my wife is rather redundant). A LOT of has happened in the past few days, probably more than one blog post could handle... or more than I can handle writing in one post. So I am going to break it up a bit and do three posts of all the fun-ness. Post #1, which if you can't guess is this post, will be a little background on Mariko and my relationship. Post #2 will be pre-wedding fun, while the wedding day and post-wedding day fun will be included in Blog post #3.