Since I have so much to write about and so many pictures, I will be making this wedding weekend into 2 posts!
As you all know, I was out of town this past weekend to be a part of my Best Friends Wedding. As all mom’s are, I was a very nervous leaving my kiddos behind for 5 days. Luckily they were in the best care at home with my wonderful Mother-In-Law and Husband. It was an extra long weekend since one of the other Bridesmaids was planning on throwing her a Bachelorette Party the Wednesday prior to the wedding. I flew out early Wednesday morning and came home late Sunday night. It was super sad being away from the family that long, but if I am being completely honest, it also was a MUCH needed vacation. Although I don’t really feel refreshed since the 5 days were busy busy busy and jam packed with non stop fun. I will try and go day by day in the events while I was away. Here we go with Wednesdays thru Fridays events…
Wednesday:
Brandon dropped me off at the airport at 7:30am (which was way too early considering that in Denver rush hour traffic it took about 1 hour and 15 min to get there) Yuck! The Bridesmaid that was planning the Bachelorette Party, Tammy and her friend Kalona, picked me up from the airport at 1pm Vegas time. A little snit bit about Tammy. Her and I met up last week for dinner at the cheesecake factory in Denver since we both live in here. We decided to do a little “ice breaker” since we knew we were going to be spending a whole weekend together in Las Vegas for Candies Wedding. We instantly became Friends and the friendship really grew over this past weekend. So glad to finally have a great friend here in CO. I arrived a bit frazzled after calling home while I was stopped in Tucson to hear that Owen got his first ever bee sting and I wasn’t there to help him through it. So sad. Luckily Mimi handled it like a pro and got the stinger out and the swelling down in no time. Also a HUGE plus that we are now certain that Owen is not allergic to bee stings. Any who, Tammy, Kalona and I headed to the Excalibur where all us girls were staying for the night. We got all situated and started decorating for Candies Bachelorette Party. Once the room was decorated we got all fancied up and waited for all the guests and the actual Bachelorette to arrive. Candie knew we were having a Bachelorette Party for her, but the nights events were kept in secret, so it was a blast watching her anticipation for what was going to happen next.
All ready for the Bride to arrive! First on the nights events was to all meet in the Hotel room for a little Lingerie Shower, Wine & Appetizers…
Beautiful Lady!
Next up was a fancy dinner at the Camelot Steak House inside the Excalibur. Let me just say, dinner was AMAZING!
Her cousin Nydia, who I have also known forever, gave a beautiful toast to the Bride-to-be at dinner.
Nydia and I, love this lady. She moved to Florida so it’s been 4.5 years since I have seen her :(
After Dinner group picture.
Back row: Adrianne, Norma, Kim, Tammy, Kalona, Ashlee, Adela & Front Row: Candie, Me, Nydia
Two of my FAVORITE girls in the entire world. Too bad we all live in completely different states that are in no way close to each other. Looks like we have a great reason to plan annual girl trips :)
After dinner, we went down to the main entrance of the hotel to wait for our ride to come…
Here is our giant limo. We were trying to recreate a photo from the movie Bridesmaids, but I don’t think we quite succeeded. Hahaha, we kind of look more like a bunch of crazy ladies. O well, we had a blast!
The Limo picked us up, we cruised the strip for a bit and then came to our next destination, The Lavo Nightclub in The Palazzo Hotel on the strip. Wow, I believe it’s been well over 4.5 years since I have been to an actual Nightclub. Lol. It was so much fun. We had a table reserved for our party and we had a blast dancing/drinking the night away (something else I haven’t done in years).
After the Nightclub fun we headed back to the Hotel for some much needed sleep.
Limo ride home!
The Limo drive back to the Hotel was….interesting. Lol. Let’s just say it’s safe to assume we had a super fun night!
Hooray for a successful Last Night Out for the Bride to be! Love you Candie girl.
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Thursday:
There was nothing on the agenda for Thursday as far as the wedding goes mainly because I think all the girls needed a day to recoup, especially the Bride. Lol. After checking out of the Excalibur Candie dropped me off at the Sun Coast Casino which is where I was staying for the remainder of the trip. The Hotel and Casino is not on the strip but that was right next to the Wedding/Reception venue so they had lots of rooms blocked off there for their Wedding Guests. I spent the afternoon by myself taking a much needed nap, taking an extra long time getting ready all by myself with no interruptions, and enjoying my very rare peace and quiet! At about 3:30pm, my Aunt JoAnn and Cousin Rhonda came to pick me up. My Aunt and Cousin live in Vegas so we made it a point to get together while I was in town. My Aunt treated my Cousin and I to a fun night at a Dinner and a Show on Freemont Street. It was a blast and I can not explain how nice it was to spend an evening with those two ladies.
We went to a show titled Marriage Can be Murder. It was a comedy-mystery dinner show. It was so fun. It was similar to the game Clue and four people were murdered in the room around you. You are required to interact with the others around you and it is a 100% audience participation show. I was nervous at first because I hate being put on the spot, but boy was it a blast!
Here was the main host in the beginning. He was the first to die. And then of course the cops were called…
Then the interviewing process started. It was so fun. They chose people to interview and it turned into a mystery game about who killed who. Remember it was a comedy too so it was hilarious the entire time. They made fun of every person they talked to. They had little intermissions and you were encouraged to go around and interview people on your own to find out what would drive them to kill someone and what they would use to kill them with. Lol.
Here was Mimi another main host to the show.
My Aunt got interviewed multiple times. Hilarious.
People died around us left and right and in the end…
The girl I sat next to the entire dinner and show turned out to be an actress that was one of the main murderers. Lol. How funny!
My Aunt even won an award for the Best Supporting Actress In a Non-Supporting Role. Hahaha.
Cousin Rhonda, Aunt JoAnn and Me. Such a fun night!
Thanks again so much Auntie for meeting up with me and taking me to a fun show! Love you lots!!!!!!
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Friday:
After a much needed restful night of sleep, I was refreshed and ready for some wedding fun. Tammy came to pick me up at my hotel (she was staying with a friend so she wasn’t in the same hotel as me) to go grab some lunch, run a few errands and get all ready for the Wedding Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner. Tammy and I developed a great friendship over this trip. We were both dateless so we ended up spending a ton of time together. She is such a fun person and our personalities meshed great together. We both agreed that it felt as if we have been friends for years. No wonder we both have an amazing mutual friend, the Bride :)
Before I get into the Rehearsal stuff, I wanted to share a little hang up that happened on the trip. The morning after the Bachelorette Party I woke up with a painful bruise. It was super tiny, about the size of my thumb nail but it really hurt. I mentioned it to the girls that morning and they looked at it and pretty much giggled it off because it was so tiny. But it REALLY hurt. Any who, later on on Thursday the bruise was getting more and more painful and growing a ton. So here is what I woke up to on Friday morning…
So I can not really explain how I even got the bruise to begin with. I can recall the entire night, I didn’t drink THAT much, but I still don’t remember doing anything that hurt enough to get a bruise of this size. Anyway, I am thinking it could’ve been one of two things. 1) It happened when Candie kept making me switch shoes with her at the night club while dancing. She had these insanely high heels that I could barely stand in let alone dance in, so maybe I twisted my knee while trying to dance in her shoes, or 2.) It happened in the Limo on the way home when the driver came to a sudden stop and Candie came flying into my leg, she kind of body slammed into my knee. Lol. All of us girls think it was option 2 that did it.
Anyway, after waking up to this bruise and the fact that I could barely bend my leg I immediately started ‘Googleing” it to see what was going on. Every person who had a similar incident with a bruise growing in size and pain wise said it was a hairline fracture. Since we don’t have insurance until September, I was instant that I was going to ride it out at least until I returned home. Problem was that I was going to be in a wedding which required some pretty fancy heels that needed to be worn. So I iced it on and off all day Friday and Tammy and I went out and bought some Icy Hot and a Ace Bandage to wrap it in. After Icing it and applying Icy Hot it was feeling…okay. The Wrap was a bad idea though…
It made the wound look worse because it created some nasty purple lines in it. Yuck. Any who, the night still needed to go on, so I sucked it up, tried to drowned out the pain with lots of ibuprofen and showed up to the Rehearsal as if nothing was wrong.
The Rehearsal went great, minus the nasty 112 degree weather. The Bride and Groom to be looked so in love and so eager to marry one and other. So sweet!
After the Rehearsal, we headed to a Restaurant called Agave for the Rehearsal Dinner.
Tammy, Me and Candie waiting for all the guests to arrive.
Dinner was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!
And so was DESSERT!
Candie & Toby, Bride & Groom, Mr. & Mrs., call them what you want, they are SO IN LOVE!
They each gave a little speech thanking all their wedding party and then Toby gave his bride to be a sweet gift. He got her this children’s book titled “I LOVE YOU THROUGH AND THROUGH”. He is so sweet and perfect for my BFF. I could not be any happier for this couple. They were definitely meant for each other.
They gave the best Wedding Party Gifts I have EVER seen. Check out this super adorable Coach Clutch she gave all the ladies. We all used them for the wedding. She also gave us a picture frame with a special picture from the Bachelorette Party and a beautiful Necklace to wear for the wedding day! Wow, I was blown away. Thanks again Toby & Candie. It was a honor to be a part of your wedding.
More gift giving.
After Dinner, we all headed back to the Sun Coast Casino for a night cap and to hang out so all the Bridal Party could get to know each other before the Wedding Day. They have such amazing friends. I met some super great people that I really hope to stay in contact with for years to come :)
That about sums up Wednesday thru Friday in Vegas for My Best Friends Wedding. I will be back soon with Saturday, the Wedding Day. I am out of blogging time as the kids and laundry are screaming for my attention. Time to snap back to reality I guess.
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