Our Wedding Day ~ July 31st, 2010

I can vividly remember waking up on this morning. I slept okay the night before, much better than I did the night before our rehearsal day and dinner. The great wine and company must have made me at least tired enough to get a few hours of rest. My maid of honor Rachel stayed the night with me after the rehearsal dinner in the bridal suite to keep me company and ensure I didn't stress over details all night long. As soon as we woke up, laying in bed, she said, "Today is your wedding day! How do you feel?" And my response was, "I feel good". I wasn't nervous, or stressed, or overhwelmed... yet. We woke up, put on our "wedding day getting ready outfits" which consisted of a white Bride tank top for me and adorable bridesmaid/maid of honor tank tops for the girls. I also wore a cute white sweatsuit. The hoodie was embroidered with Bride on the front and Happily Ever After on the back. My capri pants had Bride across the bottom as well to match, and I had comfy white slippers embroidered with my new monogram: HMS!

Mikaela, Me, Lara

Beautiful Bridesmaids

The other bridesmaids came to the suite at 8:30am to begin hair, make-up and mimosa drinking. Above is me with two of my bridesmaids, Mikaela and Lara, all gussied up before I got done! The suite was so big that none of us were stepping on each other, everyone could get ready in the room together and we had lots of space for music, tv and even a mini-yoga session! This wonderful lady from the hair salon that I have gone to since middle school came to the suite and did all of our hair and make-up for us. She was AMAZING!!! One right after the other, we sat down with her to get ready. She was so quick and so good at what she does. Everyone was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! My parents and grandma came up to visit for awhile, Andy's mom stopped by, Andy's sisters Robyn and Gena popped in for a quick visit, and all the flowergirls and our junior bridesmaid got their hair curled- which they all loved! It was so nice having a great space and lots of loved ones to spend the morning with as the excitement built for what was to come that day.

Now, I didn't stress about a lot of things prior to the wedding. I kind of figured nothing goes perfectly and not to sweat the details. But I was panicked about one thing and one thing only. THE WEATHER! Mother Nature is so unpredictable and with the way our summer was going, I was convinced that it was going to be either 105 degrees with terrible humidity, or thunderstorming. Neither of these options worked for our planned outdoor ceremony. One of the balconies from our suite overlooked our ceremony site, so I could peek out all day, check the skies and see them set-up the chairs, flowers, and stage for our ceremony. Lucky for me, the weather turned out to be PERFECT! It was in the mid-80's, low humidity and sunshine. We definitely lucked out and I was so glad to not have to stress too much about it on the day of the wedding! I had getting ready to worry about!

At 12pm, my mom had planned for the resort to bring up a catered lunch for all of us to share while we were getting ready and hanging out in the suite. It was delicious, and hit the spot after several hours or prepping for pictures around 3pm!

Our delicious spread

Girls Loungin' in the suite

My fabulous maid of honor Rachel & I enjoying mimosas

Then, it was my turn to get all dolled up! My hair and make-up lady did an even MORE phenomenal job getting me beautiful than she had even at my trials. I told her to make me look like Carrie Underwood- and she did! I felt absolutely amazing and beautiful and I can't thank her enough for making me feel so wonderful on my wedding day.

Curlers!

Carrie Underwood In-Progress

All done!

Mother of the Bride & Bride

 Since there were SO many people getting ready, we took a little longer than we anticipated. We weren't ready for pictures until about 3:30pm, so we only had about 30 minutes to head downstairs, take some pre-ceremony shots with the girls and my family, and head back to the suite so as not to run into any guests or heaven forbid-ANDY! While we headed out the back to get some shots, our photographer's assistant went to grab some shots of Andy and his boys at the front of the resort. While we were taking pictures outside, a man and his 4 little girls were walking around watching us. The man looked awfully familiar to me as a sports fan, so since it was my wedding day, I actually had the courage to ask him if he was Shaun Alexander, a running back in the NFL. Turns out- it was! I even had the guts to actually ask him to come take a picture with me in my wedding dress! He was so nice as to come visit with us for a few minutes with his beautiful daughters and take a picture for memory's sake. It's a moment I'll never forget. The football obsessed bride has a wedding picture with an NFL running back! Perfect!

After running around and rushing to get some pre-ceremony shots, we headed back to the suite to wait for the "phone-call" from our fabulous coordinator, Leslie. In the meantime, I opened my wedding day presents from Andy. He got me 3 beautiful Tommy Bahama Hawaiian print sundresses for our honeymoon. They were beautiful! He also got me a snorkeling set for our trip to Hanuama Bay. Such a thoughtful and practical gift from my soon-to-be hubby! As soon as I finished opening, we got the call. It was time to head down to the ceremony site. I remember waiting in the back room for the rest of the bridal party to walk down the aisle and get set. Waiting for my dad to come stand beside me. I was nervous. I hate being the center of attention. I was terrified of everyone staring at me! But I was also SO excited inside. To see Andy. To have him see me. To finally after 7 long, wonderful years, to say 'I Do'!

My handsome, beaming groom

The boys all set

My favorite girls all set

Here Comes the Bride

Perfect

The ceremony was absolutely perfect. It was a little too windy to light our unity candle, but our officiant did a fantastic job of still tying in the meaning of the unity candle and incorporating it in our ceremony despite the wind. It all went so quickly. One minute I was walking down the aisle with my dad, and the next, Andy and I were walking back out together as husband and wife! It really is true what they say- everything happens in the blink of an eye! After the ceremony, the bridal party and families gathered for more pictures while everyone headed to the cocktail hour to enjoy. We arrived just in time for the kick-off of the best party of my life.

Room shot

All of my details coming together

Place settings

Our delicious and beautiful wedding cake (and wedding bobble heads that Andy had made as a surprise!)

Groom's cake- Go Dallas! (Made by my mom)

Best weekend of my life

Cake-cutting, and nice, clean cake feeding :)

After the reception ended (the best night of my life, might I add) we all headed to the bar inside Lansdowne resort for the after party. When that closed, about 20 of us headed back outside to an area called the firepit and sat around to enjoy each other's company. I never wanted the night to end. In fact, when Andy and I headed to our suite for the night- I cried to him that it was the best day of our lives and I was so sad that it was all over. We were both so unbelievably touched by how many of our friends and family came out to celebrate with us. The immense amount of love we have surrounding us is more than we could ever imagine. I can truly say that everything about my entire wedding weekend was perfect, and I couldn't be more happy or more lucky to now be Mrs. Heather Saulitis. I love you Andy! Thank you for the best day of my life. It's in my heart, as are you, forever!