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!

Rehearsal Day/Dinner

Friday, July 30th officially marked the kick-off of the Heather-and-Andy wedding weekend extravaganza... 7 years in the making. My maid of honor, Rachel and I, had arrived at Lansdowne the following evening for a little girl time before all of the festivities. We rolled up with two SUV's packed to the brim with wedding things, checked-in, went out to dinner at the resort and then went back to our room to watch wedding movies and drink wine. Lansdowne was kind enough to put us up in a BEAUTIFUL and HUGE bridal suite with plenty of space for all of the pre-wedding preparations to come.

 I had a really hard time falling asleep that Thursday night in anticipation of all that was to come, so I tossed and turned until waking up early Friday morning to begin the celebrating. We met briefly with my wedding coordinator at the resort to hand-off oodles and oodles of boxed wedding goodies to be used for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. As we left the meeting, my bridesmaids were at the front desk checking in! Everyone was so excited to be there and to get started. We headed straight out to a nearby salon for our group mani/pedi's. I was so touched to have all 6 of my beautiful girls join me so early in the day to get our nails done together and grab lunch. It was so nice to have a little girl time before all of the family began arriving later that day.

After lunch, we headed back to the resort to shower and get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that evening. At 5:30pm, we all met back in the resort lobby. As soon as I walked out of the elevator, I was overwhelmed! There were about 50 friends & family members waiting in the lobby to head to the rehearsal site together. It was so amazing to see SO many people that Andy and I love altogether. It was even a little strange to literally know every single person in a room, so it was a daunting task to visit with everyone and thank them personally for being there to help us celebrate. But it was so great to walk off and see Andy (who I hadn't seen since arriving at the resort Thursday night) smiling and so happy for such an awesome weekend. The rehearsal went well, even with ALL the people involved, and I felt very confident that everything would work out just perfectly on our big day :)

Immediately following our rehearsal, the girls headed back up to the suite for a quick champagne toast,

...and then it was on our chartered bus to Tarara Winery for our rehearsal dinner. Tarara Winery is the place where Andy asked me to marry him, so it was the absolute most perfect setting for our rehearsal dinner. Andy's mom and dad hosted a BBQ-style dinner, with delicious wines to drink, great food, and even better company in our awesome friends & family. The weather was PERFECT! Not humid, not hot... a gorgeous night for a fun dinner on the back deck at the winery. My mom even made our rehearsal dinner cake that was so perfect and so "Me and Andy". We both really enjoyed having the opportunity to give some very important thank-you speeches to our friends and family, and were able to present them with gifts for being such an important part of not only our wedding, but our lives in general. It was so fun spending time with everyone we love in a smaller setting, with everyone so excited for the big day! We are both so lucky to have these people in our lives, and our rehearsal dinner was a perfect beginning to the most perfect weekend of our lives.

25 days...

until THE DAY! We are busy putting all the finishing touches on everything from flowers to music to seating arrangements and placecards. Andy just returned from his New Orleans bachelor party and I will travel with my favorite girls to Atlantic City in a week and a half for my last night out as a single lady! I can't believe the day is almost here! When we got engaged in October, it seemed like a lifetime until the big day, but here it comes! Looking forward to the last special moments, lifetime memories and I DO'S!

World Cup 2010

I love the sport of soccer. Once every four years, the mecca of all soccer events takes place somewhere in the world, where the best 32 teams on the planet battle it out in an effort to represent their country proudly on a global stage. Now, I don't just love soccer every four years like some "soccer fans". I love soccer all the time.

I played soccer from the young age of 6, beginning in the house leagues, growing into Washington Area Girls Soccer (WAGS) where I traveled all around to compete against some of the areas best teams and athletes. I played 4 years of soccer in high school, one year of J.V. and 3 years of varsity. I was honored to be the Annandale Atoms Varsity Soccer Co-Captain my senior year of high school. I even went on to play intramural soccer at Virginia Tech. Needless to say, soccer is in my blood.

The World Cup is like a soccer fan's dream. I have been looking forward to World Cup 2010 since... well....since World Cup 2006 ended. The event almost has the same feeling of electricity and excitement as the Olympics, except it's only 1 sport. I love the inspiring and heroic story lines, the cultural pride that exudes from players and fans, and the competitive do-or-die nature of the sport. It excites me to see casual sports fans take more of an interest in the sport of soccer and follow the tournament. It gives me chills to see the national pride demonstrated across the country. But this World Cup was unforgettable for a different reason...

I grew up in a neighborhood in Northern Virginia called North Springfield. It was (and still is) the coolest neighborhood in Annandale High School's district. The "coolest" kids lived in North Springfield. North Springfield Swim Club (NSSC) was THE place to be during the warm summer months. Kids, friends of my mine included, left their own neighborhood pools to lifeguard at our pool.

There was a boy that grew up right down the street from me. I can almost see his childhood house through the trees by my parents' house. His name is Clarence Goodson. Clarence is 2 years older than me (I will always remember, because he and I happen to share the same birthday). He swam on the NSSC swim team with me. He went to all the same schools as me. He played with me and other neighborhood kids on a daily basis. In fact, one of the things we did most was play soccer. We played in my front yard, our neighbors' front yard, all over the place. Who would have guessed where all those pick-up games in our front yards would lead him someday?

To make a long story short(er), Clarence Goodson was named to the United States Mens National World Cup Soccer Team in early June 2010. Someone I know. Someone I grew up with. Someone I played soccer with. After all his years of hardwork and dedication, he achieved the ultimate soccer player's dream- to represent their country in the World Cup. Clarence was a substitute on defense and unfortunately never got the opportunity to see playtime while in South Africa. But I hope he knows how proud we all are of him. And how special it was for all of US to see his dreams come true. When the USA lost to Ghana in the round of 16, eliminating them from World Cup 2010, I had tears in my eyes. Not because we lost (okay, maybe a little because we lost) but because I knew it was the end of his World Cup experience... probably forever. Clarence will be 32 come World Cup 2014. He probably won't make the team again. But for a few great weeks- he got to live the dream. Congrats Clarence! You've made North Springfield so proud!