FRIDAY - Rehearsal Dinner: Friday was a great day... Jose and I were both off of work (thank God), so we got to spend the day together getting ready :) We slept in a little bit, and then got up and got straight to work. Jose got his hair cut, and then after we went to get our nails done! Jose got his FIRST pedicure ever... He was so cute, sitting in the chair with his pants all rolled up!! He said he liked it, but I don't think he would do it again ;) Anyways, after we got pampered, we went back home and I got ready to head out to Berkeley to check in to the hotel, and get my fake eyelashes put on (which I LOVED)!
The rehearsal went well, and was pretty painless. Dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants, Tomatina (Berkeley location)... It's a pretty small place, and our group took up just about the whole dinning room! We had garlic rolls, salad and pizza for everyone. It all worked out great.. Props to the staff at Tomatina for accommodating our large group! After dinner Jose and the guys all headed back to our house in Alamo, and me and the ladies went back to the hotel for a pre-wedding sleepover. Holly, Heather, Ashley and Robyn all stayed in the bridal suite with me that night, and it was so fun! Right off the bat we got a noise complaint (of course), but we proceeded to have a great time. I had gotten a bunch of beer, snacks, magazines, etc for us to have in the room, and Robyn brought a bunch of old notes from high school.. We chatted, read notes, reminisced, drank, laughed, cried, etc etc etc...
SATURDAY - Wedding Day: OK so I woke up on Saturday morning at about 5:30am (what can I say, I was too excited to sleep!). I heard the clock make some noise, looked over and noticed that it had turned off (which I thought was weird, but I didn't pay much attention to it). Then Jenn, who was staying in a room downstairs texted me asking if the power was out on our floor , too. Then I realized: The power is out in the hotel. The hotel where I am supposed to start getting my hair down at 8:30am. The SAME hotel where my wedding reception was supposed to be held in just 12 short hours. Greeeeaaaat.
My hair stylist, Amber, arrived at 8:30am just as I was stepping out of the shower, with wet hair and no way to dry it (sorry, Amber!) After waiting for the power to come back on for about an hour, I called the coordinator at the church (where they did have power), and she was nice enough to have someone let us in to use a room to get ready in.... Finally! I was able to get my hair set, and by noon (about an hour behind schedule), we were off to get our makeup done.
The rest of the day FLEW by... when I got back from getting my makeup done, I had to track down the Berkeley City Club coordinator (who for some reason didn't think she had to be there early.. ummmmm yea... ), yell at the front desk to let the wedding party check into their hotel rooms early (Hello? We weren't going to be there after 3!), touch up my makeup, have Amber finish my hair, get dressed, and take pictures. Before I knew it, I was walking down the aisle.. OH but of course, not before "Aunt Flow" arrived ten minutes before the ceremony!
OK, this is the point when things REALLY become a blur. I remember everything, but as if it were a dream...The ceremony was perfect, pictures didn't take TOO long, and the reception was absolutely gorgeous. With all of the ups and downs, I'd say the day went pretty friggin' perfectly. It was definitely a long, stressful process, but I wouldn't change anything for the world. Thank you to everyone, all of our families, my friends and Jose's... You all made everything so special, and we couldn't have done it without you :) I am especially proud of all my girls, who really came through for me... You were there when I asked you to, and when I was going crazy ordering everyone around, you put up with it and went with the program :)
And thank you to my husband for marrying me and loving me. I love you ♥
XOXO,
Nikki
Because I was a bachelorette, we got FREE DRINKS on the flight :) The flight attendant even gave a special shout out to "our little bride"!!
We finally got to our hotel at about 10:30pm, and it was AMAZING!! Our hotel room was just gorgeous:
After we took in the hotel and room, we started getting ready to hit the Strip! It was sooo hot out that night, it was unbelievable... We began just walking, not really knowing what the plan was. First, we went to a small casino where I got a $1 Margarita, and Ashley started on the slots (and didn't stop alllll weekend)!
