Stephanie & Rafeal May 20, 2009

[VTStephanie]

I know I am only 15 days till the wedding but I figured now is better then never! Plus I need something to keep me on top of all the last minute things happening!

Okay, well I have wanted to do this for a while..but I kept putting it off. I was mostly scared someone would stumble upon it before the wedding. However, now that we are pretty close I would like to have a place to come back to in the future once the wedding is over to see how everything actually turned our versus what I think it will turn out.

Rafeal and I are getting married in Gatlinburg, TN. We found a nice place located on 5 acres out in a country setting. It is an all-inclusive family owned place. Planning a wedding while being in school full-time was not going to happen if we had to worry about booking a bunch of vendors etc… I don’t know what mind set we were in to think getting married 4 days after we graduate from college was a good idea. I guess we thought it would be easier on everyone’s pockets to do it all at one time versus having our wedding in October like we wanted to originally.

Well this is a basic run down of what we are planning. We have turned our wedding in to a four-day event beginning May 17th and lasting until May 21st. We have rented a huge 12-bedroom cabin in the Smokey Mountains to accommodate both of our families (Yes, you read that correct, we are putting both of our families together in one cabin for four days). BTW- The Majority of them have all met and get along great! I feel SOOOO lucky knowing that we can do something like this with out having to worry and some crazyness happening! We even all had Thanksgiving together this past year! Woohoo!

Here is a photo of the cabin our families will be staying at.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/sequoyahmanor.jpg

Here is a sample of what the bedrooms look like
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/TPR-Sequoia-br1.jpg

If you are interested in checking out all the goodies the cabin offers plus more photos here is the link to the website : http://www.thepreserveresort.com/cabin12.asp They have two of these cabins located right next to each other and the 2nd one does not looked to be booked for most of our stay! I am pretty excited about that. My Mom has already ordered a HUGE banner to go across the front of the cabin that says “Sheets-Klos Wedding Headquarters”.

[VTStephanie]

Everyone is pretty excited about it. Rafeal and I have toured it twice once when we first found it in October and another time when my mom came to visit during Spring Break. She loved it.

We are having a rather small wedding. We choose to only have family and a few close friends. We are only having a Best Man and MOH. Our dog Getty will be our ring bearer and my younger brother is going to be an usher and lead Getty down the aisle.

Our wedding colors are Tiffany Blue and Bright Pink. However, it has turned into a pretty pink wedding. I am glad Rafeal is such a good sport about it and does not mind very much.

I have a bunch of DIY projects going on. I am very thankful I have a creative family around me.

Card Box--Done

Favors

Towels--Done

Photo screen/Table--Done

Getty’s Tux and boutonniere--Done

Room Signs

Invitations--Done

I am at school right now, once I get home I will post some photos of what I have plus I will dig up my dress post and our engagement post.

[VTStephanie]

Well since I am not really savy on this site I thought it would have taken a bit longer to find my old posts..

Anyway, here is the link to our engagement photos
http://forums.onewed.com/showthread.php?t=22058

Here is the link to the dress! Of course I have now seen my actual dress in person and it is SOOO much prettier in Diamond White. I pick it up tomorrow from alterations! Can't wait!!!
http://forums.onewed.com/showthread.php?t=22841

[VTStephanie]

Oh yes! My shoes! This is my little secret for the wedding! I have only shown 4 people and I can't wait! Since my dress is so big I don't think anyone will see them till the reception :) I really am excited for photos!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/image002.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/image001.jpg

My mom is not a pink fan...much less as wedding shoes, but she thought they were really cool.

[TeacherSonja]

Wow, your wedding is soo close! You look lovely in your dress, and the shoes are so cute!

[VTStephanie]

Well I picked up my dress yesterday! I am so excited, I can't beleive it is so close! I took it to my Aun't house because I don't want FH to see it. I don't think he would peak..but I am not taking any chances.

My Aunt has been working on some projects for the wedding I gave her. I can't believe how nice they turned out, I knew they would, but this is even more than what I was expecting.

Here is the card box she made. It took us a bunch of stores to find boxes that would work together since they were different sizes. We spent the day shopping for supplies a few weeks ago and I can’t believe this is how the bag of stuff I left her with turned out. I think she did a fantastic job.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0003.jpg

Next is Getty’s suit. He is my little Italian Greyhound. Here are two cruddy cell phone pics. I have NO IDEA why I didn’t get out the normal camera.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/SSPX0131-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/SSPX0132-1.jpg

The suit was a bit plain and since we are not have a black tie wedding my Aunt and I decided he need to have a light pink tie in order to match the wedding. She made that and her boyfriend made his cute little boutonniere. She also made a few changes to the sizing so it will fit his neck better. Here are some pics of the new and improved suit.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0001.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0002.jpg

I can’t wait to try it on him. When I do, I will be sure to take some more pics with a real camera this time.

[VTStephanie]

Next, is one of my favorite projects that we have done for the wedding yet. Rafeal and I wanted to do something extra special for everyone taking a week off to come out for our wedding. So we are placing Welcome Bags in every room at the cabin. We are filling them with all sorts of goodies. We decided to make great use of the monogram Brandi provide me with. My Granny is amazing with computers and embroidery. So we upload the monogram to her computer she fixed a few things and this is what we came up with. Here is Rafeal’s and mine.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0005.jpg

All the girls will get the main letters in pink as well as their own personalized wash cloth and the guys will get the main letters in teal as well as their own personalized wash cloth. We made 26 towels and 26 personalized washcloths total.
We are going to hang them on the towel racks in each of their bedrooms. I can’t wait to see everyone’s reaction to them.

Next, here are the invitations my Aunt and I made. It took a while to figure out what I wanted but after a few hours of work and a lot of paper samples I think did well. BTW- The blue envelope for the RSVP's was changed to teal!!!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0586-1.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0588.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0587.jpg

I didn’t take a photo of a completed one. We put a wax seal on the outside flap and we used the same Tiffany Blue envelope to send out in.

One splurge I did make was on the cake toppers! I searched high and low for the perfect one. I could not find it anywhere until I clicked on a link somewhere and a few more links after that, I found Nicole Clark. (I think someone else on here used her as well, I did a search after I found her here on the forum)
I can’t believe how well she did on the dress! And yes, I had her make Getty as well. :D

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSCF1961.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSCF1964.jpg


I have a few more projects going on and a few finished that I haven’t taken photos of yet because they are not at my house yet. Once they get here I will post them.

[VTStephanie]

Well I decided that I would go ahead and knock out the favor tags early this morning. So now I can check favors off the list of things to do :D Here is how they turned out. My Aunt has the actual bags they will be attached to, once I get them I will post pics.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0063.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0061.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/OneWed/DSC_0065.jpg

[Docsgirl]

Everything looks so great! And it's coming up soon! :D

[WebLady]

Everything looks great Steph!

I love Getty in his tux :wub: I love the topper with Getty too! The monogramed towels look great too!

You are getting married in 12 days!!

[VTStephanie]

Well today FH and I are running around crazy. We both are almost done with finals (last one is tomorrow). We graduate Saturday and head out to the big cabin Sunday morning. My MOH flies in tomorrow!! My parents on Thursday..it is going to get really crazy really fast. I can't believe we are getting married in 8 DAYS!!!

FH and I went out and got some basic programs at Michaels....not what I had planned but...I really didn't have a choice in the matter. We also picked up bubbles and some extra ribbons in case we need them.

Tonight I am going to work on the programs and hopefully come up with something we both like.

Once my MOH gets here I hope we can get some of the main projects left knocked out.

I also have a huge zit that decide to rear it's ugly head right above my lip. I get those cystic ones so I hope it goes away qucikly.

Thats aboout it, I am just trying not to stress out to much with all the stuff going on before we leave Sunday.

[WebLady]

Hope everything went well ... congrats to you guys ... can't wait to see pictures :)

[VTStephanie]

Our wedding week was PERFECT!! Our families loved the huge cabin. Here are a few teaser photos until I can set down and get something typed up and put together.

We are on our honeymoon for the next 2 weeks so I am not sure how much I will be able to post until we get back. The first seven days will be in California. We flew into San Francisco yesterday and we are staying here for 2 nights then headed to out to Yosemite for a few nights then we are going up Napa Valley and the Somema area. Rafeal booked a super nice Bed and Breakfast on the coast for our last three nights.
On June 1st we fly from San Francisco to Las Vegas for seven more days of fun. Our first 3 nights we will be staying at the Venetian in the bella suite ( I can't wait). We are going to see Terry Fator Tuesday night (Rafeal was able to book front row seats for him). We are going to head out to Sedona, AZ to another amazing Bed and Breakfast for two nights and then we will go visit my Grandma in Mesa, AZ before we head back to Vegas June 7th to fly home.

Anyway, here are a few pics from our wedding week. My little brother took all of these photos. Once he gave me the camera back he told me he had taken over 900 pics. I have a lot to go through but these are some on our fave's so far.

Our Cake
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0209.jpg

The Cake Toppers (made by Nicole Clark)
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/IMG_9570.jpg

My Dad telling Rafeal, during the dollar dance, that was the last dollar he was going to give me :bbwink:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0541.jpg

Rafeal and my Mom's reaction
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0542.jpg

My Grandma and I
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0496.jpg

[VTStephanie]

Ous Kiss :D
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0638.jpg

Leaving the reception
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0735.jpg

Once we got back to the big family cabin after the reception
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0864.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Wedding%20Week/DSC_0808.jpg

Our Ring Bearer (Our Italian Greyhound Getty)
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Getty/DSC_0571.jpg

This is the only pro-pic we have so far. The photographer sent us a teaser photo. I am glad Rafeal has a good sense of humor and loves Getty :bbredface:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/sweetvahokie/Getty/PEO_0524.jpg

[Mrs.Goff]

You were a beautiful bride, your cake look yummy. Getty looks great, so exciting to see someone included their fur-baby.

Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs.!

[horse345]

I'm glad you told me you had some pictures up here! Very nice and I love your dress!

[VTStephanie]

Thank-you guys so much!!!!!

[TeacherSonja]

Congratulations! You are a cute couple!