The wedding

April 8th has come and gone. All these days of planning, working, and thinking about the wedding are over now and only the memories (and pictures, of course) are left. There are also some left over sweets out in the freezer that look really good, but I'm not eating any sweets right now so I just get to look at them. 

I decided to post about the whole wedding week, so that is why this post ended up being so long. :) I can't believe that it was just one week ago that we were starting to get ready for everything. It seems like it was a long time ago. 

Monday was a typical day. It was strange because I thought I would be so busy with wedding stuff, but I wasn't. During the day, I figured out what I my outfits for Thursday and Friday so I could hang them out. I also made a batch of Turtle Bars for Mom. Monday evening, several of us went to the church to start getting ready for everything. Tommy, William, and Jeffrey were able to rearrange the chairs so they formed a center aisle. It looked really great when they finished. Dad also worked a little on the gym that evening...he was able to put up a cable for the lights so that was good. I didn't help a bunch that evening, but I did bring one of my piano books so I got to play that piano in the sanctuary which was fun. 

We had soo much stuff everywhere in our house. It made me a little distressed at first when the boxes started piling up, but at the end, I was use to it. In fact, when we got home Saturday and I looked around the house, I thought, "Wow, it is empty in here!"

The sanctuary after William and Tommy had worked their 'magic' :) You can see the center aisle coming from the door on the right. 

On Tuesday morning, Emily and I went to get our nails done. The lady doing mine was a little rough, but I think they turned out okay so I was happy about that. :) Afterwards, we did a little shopping, and then came home and I watched her pack some of her things. Natasha came in that day, so I got to see Aunt Marlene, Nikki, and Grandma, so that was a fun time getting to hang out a little. In the afternoon, I hardly had anything to do, so I wrote some emails to friends and also found a song that I called my theme song for the wedding. Stars Appear by Adam Young. I downloaded that song and literally listened to it on repeat one for pretty much the whole week. I did that because one day when I listen to it again, it will bring back lots of good memories. :) In the evening, we all went to the church and the guys set up a string of lights so we could see what they look like.

Our fancy nails

The Genie....I was a little scared. ;)

On Wednesday, Janeal and I went to the church to arrange all the flowers for the gym. It was a fun time, but I decided that I probably wouldn't really like arranging flowers for a job. ;) In the evening, all my family was gone except me, so I turned on my theme song and started packing up all my stuff....curling irons, bobby pins, clips, etc. I had made a big list of everything I would need and slowly, I started marking everything off. That was one of my favorite memories....I was just listening to my music, and packing everything up. I was so excited because I knew the next day would be a big day and packing just made the evening go quicker. :) Jeffrey and Emily went to pick Kami up at the airport and they stopped by around 9:00. Everyone seemed excited and really lively. I was so excited for the next day. :)

Thursday, I woke up around 6:20 because when I am excited about something, I can't sleep in. So I went downstairs and William was saying, "Oh brother..." when he saw me because I never wake up early enough to see him before he leaves for work. But Mom, Dad, and Janeal were already awake, so we all were talking before William left. Last minute, I decided to go with Dad to Canada to pick up Tony and Mary, so we headed down around 7:30. I'm glad I went because it was a really pretty day to drive to Canada and it was also fun to get to hang out with Mary in the back seat on the way home. Right when we got home, Mom and I left again in Big Blue. When we got there, I helped unload some stuff, then went and unlocked a bunch of doors that we would be using. Tony, Mary, Emily, Jeffrey, and Kami showed up and all of us started taking boxes into the church. Before long, a bunch of other people got there, and soon everyone was busy working. We set up the sanctuary, the gym, foyer, and some other people worked with food preparations. It was such a fun day watching everything come together. In the evening, Mom, Nikki, and I went home, got ready for the rehearsal really fast, and then Nikki and I went back to the church with Tommy. We had the rehearsal, and then ate a yummy dinner. There were lots of tears during the sharing time of the rehearsal dinner, but I knew there would be some. I didn't cry very hard that evening, because it still hadn't hit me that Emily was leaving. When we all got home that night, we were all getting stuff ready and everyone was excited that night as well. I didn't fall asleep very fast that night just because I was thinking about everything that had happened, but eventually I did. :)

Working on the gym

The kitchen crew

Cassidy doing a good work with the meat trays :)

Kami and Janeal setting up the sanctuary 

The lights with the crate paper was really pretty. When the AC turned on, the crate paper was moving all around so it look really cool. 

Aunt Marlene making lunch for everyone. She really wanted me to come eat and be her first customer, but I didn't. :)

Natasha and Mary were ironing. Grant was helping set up for the rehearsal dinner.

Lunch break

Nikki and I were stringing all these trees with lights, but we had to take them all off later. :) Poor Nikki...she didn't want to take them off. :)

Nikki and I went to swing after lunch since it was such a pretty day. 

The finished sanctuary 

This was kind of a funny story. The little table with the unity candle had lights under the tulle and I was thinking how great it would be to put lights in the tulle going between the pillars. So Titus and I found these lights and then they didn't even end up working. Oh well, we tried. Nikki took this picture cuz she was thinking it was funny how intense I was being about the lights. haha :)

Setting out the silverware

Dad, Tommy, and Tony made this 'screen' for the slideshow. and then they hung it from the basketball hoop. 

The gym

The rehearsal. The little ring bearers and flower girl were too cute. :) 

Rehearsal dinner

The bride and maid of honor just look so nice...and then there's the groom and best man...haha

 Friday found me awake around 6:20 again. Emily and I had our hair appointment at 9:00 so we hurried around, packing up stuff and making sure we had everything. Emily gave me her old phone the night before, so I was able to reset everything and then have that for my camera during the day. I am thankful I had that too because I got a lot of picture that I wouldn't have gotten with the big camera. Emily and I drove out to Lynden and I thought it was special to do that one last time as sister. I mean, she is still my sister, but she's a Balvanz now, not an Arnhart! :) In the salon, the ladies there were all excited for us and one of the ladies turned on some 50's music and the other opened the door to let the breeze in. It was just such a sunny, beautiful day. :) After her hair was done, Emily got her makeup done, and then I painted her toes. The photographer and videographer just loved it when I painted her toes and they were filming me and taking pictures and I was thinking, "Yikes, this is nerve racking!" I was just hoping I wouldn't mess up. :) Janeal was just getting done with her hair when I was finishing Emily's toes, so we (Janeal and I) drove out to the church. We listened to my theme song on repeat one the whole time and sometimes we would randomly start squealing because we were so excited. :) Then when I was getting closer to the church, I said, "Janeal, before you know it, we're gonna be driving back home and the wedding will be over." That was a sad thought.
We got to the church and I started doing her makeup right away. Thankfully the AC got fixed (it wasn't working at all during Thursday) so that was a relief to know that we wouldn't have a super hot gym or sanctuary. I started working on my makeup and when we were both done, we went and had some chicken wraps that Mom had made us. We sat out on William's tail gate, and I almost think that was one of my favorite memories of the whole day. We were just sitting outside enjoying the sun shine. After we ate, Emily and the other bridesmaids got there and I went back and forth between seeing what they were all doing to doing Mom's makeup. Emily changed into her dress so we all had to help fluff it and then I got to get a mirror and hold it for her while she put in her earrings. I think the photographer and videographer liked that too.... :) Janeal and Emily left to go met Jeffrey and during that time, I fixed Mrs. Balvanz's hair, finished Mom's hair, and did Lydia's hair. After that, I put everything away, and then got into my outfit to get ready for pictures. We took pictures for awhile and then we had a free time where I was able to eat, and talk with people. Then we had to go hide. During that time, I was really starting to panic, but thankfully, I wasn't too nervous for the ceremony. Karin gave me some calming essential oils, so maybe they helped me be calm. :) Eventually we had to line up and before I knew it, I was walking down with Titus. The ceremony was great. I had to hold Janeal's flowers the whole time since she was holding Emily's and at one point, I had to hold Janeal and Emily's flowers since Janeal had to go sing so I got Karin  to hold mine. After the wedding, Janeal, Grant, and I were hanging out in the nursery since Zachary, Titus, and Jordan were dismissing rows and Karin and Madison had to put our bouquets in the gym. The 3 of us were wondering how we were going to sneak out past all the people since the receiving line would have been right in our way, so we went outside and walked around to the different doors. It was a pretty great plan and we avoided all the people. :) We met Karin and Madison, then waited for everyone before we went to the gym to get announced. When we got announced, we went to the head table and then watched Jeffrey and Emily cut the cake. Then we all got to eat our dessert. The reception went pretty well. The speeches were good, and the slideshow was fun to watch too. Toward the end, I had to run out and put Emily's bag in the car so I missed the bouquet toss, but I really don't care since I'm not a big fan of bouquet tosses. ;) Then they left while everyone blew on their kazoos.
I packed pretty much everything I would need, talked with my friends, and then Janeal and I went home. When we were driving out, I said, "Doesn't it seem like I was just saying how soon the wedding would be over?"
.

The morning drive to Lynden

Getting her makeup done

Janeal working on her makeup

Eating lunch

The photographer wanted to get a picture of the dress hanging in a tree, so we found this tree right outside the church

William and Tommy seeing Emily. I think they were a little nervous because they weren't sure if they were suppose to be seeing her yet or waiting till later. :)

Haha, I'm not sure what Dad was doing here....

my 'salon'

All the guys going to get pictures

Benjamin

Alexander

Some of the kitchen crew...they did a great job!

Dad photobombing...

Nikki and I! We like to get pictures together on weddings since we did that at Brooke's wedding and Adrienne's. :)

The Bridesmaids

Mr. and Mrs.  Jeffrey Balvanz!

Janeal giving her speech.

Watching the slideshow...

On Saturday, I woke up around 7:00 since I heard everyone having a good time downstairs. We all got to hang out with Natasha and Kami a little before they had to leave. We were all telling stories and laughing a lot. When they were both gone, Tommy and I headed out to Michael's house to see Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, and Kyle, then we headed out to the church. On the drive over to the church, the clouds started coming and the day suddenly turned into a kind of cloudy day. It's crazy what the weather can do to a person because when we got to the cloudy weather, I started feeling kind of sad. (the sun eventually came back, but it was cloudy for awhile) Cleaning up was a little depressing. I didn't even want to listen to my theme song incase it made me think of sad memories instead of good ones. Everything was coming down and going back to normal. A few friends from church helped us, Titus came to help a little later, and then the event crew came as well, but other then that, it was just all of us cleaning up. Zach came to help too and before Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, and Kyle left, we were all standing around and talking and it seemed right, but it seemed wrong at the same time since Emily was missing. We left in the afternoon after busy morning of cleaning everything up. When I got home, it finally hit me that Emily was gone and I'm went in my room and cried. Then I cleaned my room a little, and for the rest of the day, I wrote about everything that had just happened. That was a sad day, but there were also some good memories to that day as well. 

Uncle Greg, Aunt Vicki, and Kyle came just to say hi and then head back to Oregon. We sent them home with a bunch of food. :) It was a lot of fun to see them again.

Taking everything down! 

Look at all those presents! I wanted this picture so I could tell people that those were all my early birthday presents. ;)

 And that's about it, guys. The wedding week was such a fun thing. There were so many good and sad memories made. The wedding day was very blessed...I had prayed and prayed that we would all be healthy since there was sickness going around just a week earlier and we were all healthy. And then the day was super sunny so that was just an added blessing. My slideshow worked out, all decorations looked good, we had plenty of food, and we were all there to celebrate with Emily and Jeff. I was very thankful.
 Congratulations to the newlyweds!