Yep, one last article about our wedding. How sad. Everything is now finished, Thank-yous were sent yesterday and I finally uploaded our photographer’s photos to my site. Jen Sieveking who did an awesome job on our engagement photos also did our wedding photos. Her sister, Jamie was her assistant for the day and made it even more fun. Anywho, I have them in five different categories listed below (if you haven’t already seen them). And if you are interested in ordering/purchasing any prints let me know and I’ll send you the link.

Pre-Wedding
Ceremony
Reception
Portraits and Family Pictures
Photowall

Yes, my blog has been consumed by all that is my wedding. And I say, with the time, energy and money spent on it, I should at least get a couple of long articles for it. And I’m still on a wedding high. Personally I can’t even believe it. I never, ever get tired of talking about it and it just gets worse when I see new pictures or when I just recently watched the DVDs.

Day after the Wedding
We stayed at the Embassy Suites that night and got up early, packed up and went home to drop off all the stuff we had. Then we headed to Pleasant Hill for the gift opening/brunch. Deb put together a great brunch for us, so delicious. I got to take pictures…having a slight withdrawal from the day before. Then we opened all the gifts. Usually I get uptight about people watching me open gifts (I hate the attention), but I was so exhausted that it didn’t even phase me. And holy gifts, we got some truly amazing stuff. Again we felt the love of everyone. Another humbling moment for us. And with dad’s packing talent (and it is a talent) we got everything in my tiny Saturn.

Days after
Yes, we went back to work on Tuesday. I got so much shit for this, but I only had to work Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, and it was kind of fun to talk to everyone. It reminds me of working on your birthday. Then that next week we went to Chicago.

Mini-Honeymoon
We did want to get away, but not too extravagant since we are planning London in September. We stopped in Aurora to visit family. We got some pizza and just hung out. Got downtown around 9:30 p.m., went to check-in and the hotel lost our reservation and they were booked. Thankfully they found a suite on the top floor next to the pool and outside terrace for us! Sweet! It was an awesome room, awesome view, awesome whirlpool tub with awesome robes. We spent our time eating at great places, Brazzaz (again), a yummy, upscale burger joint Rockit and we tried Pizzeria Uno. Side note: we have tried Pizzeria Uno, Giordano’s & Lou Malnati’s and this girl is a Giordano’s fan. We also went shopping, shopping, shopping. Nick got a lot of stuff, I bought one truly blinged out sweatshirt. We had drinks one night at Rock Bottom. We swam, relaxed and read a lot. On Wednesday we got wasted at 6:30pm, passed out by 7:30 and tried our hardest to salvage the night, but it never worked. We also had a minor scare with Evie, but everything is good and my poor brother had to deal with sick dog. Other than that little hiccup, it was a great time!

Present Pictures.
Mini Honeymoon Pictures.

Sorry, I could have shortened this, but I wanted a somewhat detailed version of the greatest day ever. I have to start by saying our wedding was absolutely the most perfect wedding for us. I wouldn’t change a thing (other than the heat). We set out to have a very personal wedding with a party for our reception and from my perspective it was exactly that. I could relive that night over and over, it was magical.

Starting the day off classy
Evie was slightly annoying throughout the night, so my night of sleep was a little touch and go. I got everything together that I needed for the day, drove her to the kennel and headed to Kari’s for a bridal brunch. She threw a great little gathering of some VIP ladies in my life. She had amazing breakfast and delicious drinks, including a “build your own bloody mary” bar. My good friend Drea also helped with set-up and making some very yummy sweet bread (zucchini!). Also, some intimate gifts were brought and yep, I got a little embarrassed, but they were all very nice. And if you haven’t heard/seen, Nick got me a gift which was amazing! Kari L, came in with a small, beautifully wrapped gift. I asked who that was from, she said “me” (to throw me off). They had to leave first due to their hair appointment so I opened what I thought was her gift…while unwrapping Ally walked by and said “oh, you are opening Nicks”, so then I was a little shocked. Unwrapping, it is a jewelry box, a ring box, then a gorgeous, so-me ring. I was so shocked that in front of everyone this classy girl said “Holy Shit, What the Fuck”. Obviously I loved it.

Appointments! It takes hours and a team of great people to get me looking decent.
Next was hair appointments for the bridal party. Hannah (and her assistant) did an amazing job on everyone. It was great to watch the girls get their hair done and see Kari and mom before I left. I was actually done early, which got me to my house to pick up my dress then to my make-up appointment early. My make-up was pretty dramatic for me, but that is what I wanted for a late afternoon/night wedding. After that I headed downtown, I was a little worried about finding Terry (that was the plan, find Terry so I could get a close spot to the Temple), but my phone went dead, so I circled a little bit and ended up finding a real close spot. Terry helped me lug the heaviest dress on the planet. Once I got into the Temple, I was so impressed by the staff, they already had all my menus, table numbers, guest book, etc. out, which was the job I gave Jan and Joy…I was so happy about all that. I then hung out in the back room, by the air conditioner and cooled down until I had to get dressed for pictures. The back room was pretty fun. People coming and going and everyone so excited. It was a lot of good energy.

Picture me rollin’
Getting dressed for pictures was pretty easy. All my girls were ready to go and Jen (our photographer) was awesome with her sister/assistant that we love, Jamie. Girls got the pictures done. Then Nicholas showed up. And a little side note: throughout the day I was getting bits and pieces of a pretty crazy night that the groom and dudes had before the wedding. At one point someone told me he didn’t get to bed until 5:00am (that ended up being a slight exaggeration), so I figured he and the groomsmen would be a hurting unit for the wedding. However, it was just the opposite, everyone was just excited and in great moods. My brother was suffering a little due to neck issue that he is still dealing with, but you would have never known it if you saw the highlight video. So we were done with photos within an hour. Easy breezy.

Ceremony, the big kahuna
After photos I basically hid in the back room, talked to some peeps and waited. I was as cool as a cucumber. I loved that I wasn’t a nervous wreck and that I really could enjoy everything. Then we were called to the hall. I heard a big roar of laughter in the ceremony room. Nick escorted Mother after Mother and Grandma after Grandma, then he went to go get another Grandma only to realize there were none left to get and realized it halfway up the aisle. The bridal party went down (Vitamin String Quartet’s Hallelujah), then my turn, escorted by Mom & Dad we squeezed our way through a very tight and crammed aisle. Let me say this, once we got on the riser I didn’t notice anyone but, Dee, Nick, Tim and Kari. It was like it was just us in a room. And within that space was like a big ball of love and good energy. It was so awesome. Dee did an amazing job, it was very personal, thoughtful and detailed. You would have thought she had been doing ceremonies for years. I can’t say how perfect it was. Our bonus parents both did a reading, they were both incredible and touching. Then the vows, Nick suggested we write our own. I must admit I was not jazzed about this. I have a hard time with words, believe it or not. However, I am so glad we did. Both of ours were unique and ended up pretty mushy for us. The ring vows were a little more difficult given I had to repeat after Dee, not a strong suit of mine, but I got through it with flying colors. Then signing of the marriage license. And ta-da! The Leeperlands are official! Hells Yeah. We exited the hall and headed to the upstairs hideaway while guests had cocktail hour. We chilled with some friends and just hung out for a 1/2 hour. That was so nice.

Party!
We were announced on the balcony to the Imperial March, which contrary to some people might thought was my idea. After that was a whirlwind. I can’t believe five hours goes by like seconds. We cut our “cake” and then sat at our sweetheart table, which was a great idea. Got to eat a little, i loved that spinach salad, yummy. Jen and Eric toasted us, which was so sweet. Then we did our first dance, which we tried to show off our Waltz moves, haha, apparently we forgot all of them so we box-stepped the whole time which was fine with us. Then we did some more pictures with Jen, checked out the photowall, then tried our best to get to everyone to at least say “hi”…we failed hardcore. We got to maybe half the room. Danced a little more and then the night was over in a flash. I am so glad we had Jen & Jamie and our videographer, Lance there to document.

My Top 10 Moments/Highlights
Not that this article isn’t long enough, but I just wanted to say what my favorite moments of the day were.

1 - The love. After being introduced and looking down over everyone from the balcony it was so awesome to see all our friends and family gathered to celebrate with us. Just so much love, it was truly humbling.

2 - Our vows. The moment, the words, everything will just be dear to my heart.

3 - The Back Room. Hanging out with my ladies and spending some time with my mom beforehand was awesome. Especially since she was lame and didn’t make it to the bridal brunch.

4 - The Bridal brunch. I cannot emphasize how needed and appreciated that was. It was truly the best way to start my day with some great friends and family. Perfect. Not to mention this is when I got my gift from Nick.

5 - Sweetheart table. Genius. Thank you, Derek & Kari for the idea. It gave us some time to chill with each other.

6 - Dancing/Music. Seems like when I looked on the dance floor there was some awesome happenings. I think one of my favorites was Miley Cyrus came on and there was my good friend Tia getting down. My brother was also another star on the floor, the highlight video really captures that. He was trying to drag me out there all night.

7 - Cake. It was delicious and I didn’t even get a piece until the next day (mine was taken away at the wedding by mistake). Considering this was part of our theme, I glad it was good.

8 - Photowall. It was awesome to get people involved, dad did a great job building and designing it and I can’t wait to see the pictures.

9 - Ring of Fire. What started as just a fun dance and paying tribute to Grandpa got into a whole group dancing along in a huge circle. It was so awesome.

10 - Into the Mystic. The perfect way to end the most perfect night.

Regrets, not really, things I might have done a little differently sure. One, I got married in July in Iowa…not the smartest month to pick, but at least we were indoors. I was pretty much a bucket of sweat all night, but who cares. And second, we didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone, we tried and it never happened…but I think that is the nature of the beast and we didn’t want a receiving line. I just hope those we didn’t get a chance to talk to know we appreciate and love them and hopefully they had a good time.

And finally to wrap this novel up, I think one of the best things is talking to others about what was going on around them and their stories and pictures. I can’t say it enough, it truly was the perfect wedding for us and it couldn’t have gone any smoother. We are so blessed to have so many family and friends that love us and support us and share that incredible day with us. And what it boiled down to is I married one hell of a guy.

PICTURES (so far):
Mom’s Pictures
Jan’s Pictures
Dee’s Pictures
Kari L’s Pictures

Since I was off getting married and such, I completely forgot to blog about some pretty fun and interesting things that happened the weeks before the wedding. So, here is a (believe it or not) short version of the two weeks prior.

Couples Shower #4 (The Trolley Bus Awesomeness/Gallbladder attack)
Our very dear and awesome friends Derek & Kari threw us a “stock your bar” couples shower, Saturday the 12th. The plan was hang out at their place for some food and drinks then hit the town in a sweet ass Trolley. We did just that, hung out with some friends, ate amazing food, drank some amazing drinks, opened gifts (bar-themed related) and loaded onto the trolley heading to Star Bar. Right before we loaded up Nick started mentioning a pain he was having in his lower side/ back. Thinking it was just a pulled muscle we decided some aspirin and beer would do the trick. Halfway on the ride to Star Bar it got a little more serious, by the time we got to Star Bar we were looking for a ride to the hospital. Luckily our friend Luke lived close and was willing to shuttle us to the emergency room. To our shock and amazement we got in right away, though it took a while for a doctor to actually visit. During that time period Nick progressed to awful. He was doubled-over in pain, now nauseous and miserable. Doctor came in and determined it was one of two things: kidney stones or gallbladder issues. Morphine was given, tests were ran and three hours later the diagnosis was gallstones. The doctor advised us that it might be wise to remove the gallbladder prior to the wedding, but it was probably livable if Nick did wait. Noted. With some minor discussion and a referral to the surgeon’s office we decided to remove that gallbladder before the wedding. We arrive home around 12:30pm and in true Nick fashion wanted to find our friends and finish the couples shower. And that is what we did, we found most of them at Wellman’s Rooftop having a pretty good time. If anything, that is one memorable shower.

Gallbladder week
With the consult on Tuesday we found out that the earliest they could schedule Nick for surgery would be that Friday and even that was a stretch. Slightly bummed it wasn’t earlier, we decided still to get it done with before the wedding. Friday came and Nick’s surgery was scheduled at 1pm, we had to be there at 11am which was when the stupid tornado sirens were going off and the wind was awful. The whole trip there was kind of annoying. We sat in pre-op, he got prepped, where a nurse with a great sense of humor remarked on “his cute little legs”. However, 1pm came and they wheeled him off. I actually passed by the surgery board and saw “NL” - “Dr. Roe” - 1pm…it felt very TV Drama-ish. I sat with Deb and Paul in the waiting room until Terry showed up. He had quite a trip since he ran into all the bad weather. Around 2:30 we got an update, his gallbladder was infected and enlarged which meant they had to increase the incision which ultimately meant that the healing time would be much longer. Once he was in post-op we got to see him and it wasn’t good. Apparently his reaction to anesthesia is very similar to mine, not good. He couldn’t wake up, he had a massive headache. Eventually we got him in the car and headed to Paul and Wanda’s. Nick stayed there for the weekend because of my weird work schedule. They did an excellent job taking care of him and Terry stayed the weekend too. If you ask Nick what the worse part was he would say it was the extra gas they left in his stomach (which is normal).

Week before the wedding
Nick came home and we did some crafting, he rested up and felt pretty normal by Friday. I had appointments all week, including my final fitting, a make-up trial and hair coloring. It was a pretty busy week and to finish it off we headed to dad’s for his birthday party. It was a good time and it was good to relax with some family.

Wedding week!
This is the week of awesome. I worked Monday and Tuesday and the rest I took off, which was perfect. Nick and I still had some stupid crafting to do, we put ribbon on the menus and constructed some of the table numbers. Note to soon-to-be brides: I would say never again would I assign seating! Not only do you have to worry about the physical table numbers, the place seating cards and then the RSVPs and where to sit people…it was the most time consuming and stressful thing I did, no joke.

Wednesday: Met Kari for lunch at Gateway Market. And then hit the ground running, to do those last minute errands. That night we got everything organized for the rehearsal dinner.

Thursday: The only day during this entire wedding planning that I had a mini-meltdown. While heading to World Market I got a phone call from Mom telling me that Dee has been sick and there is a possibility that she wouldn’t be able to officiate. I was fine on the phone and once I hung up and Nick asked me what was going on I broke down. I think it was just the stress of the day. After a few conversations we came up with “plan b” and Nick and I headed to our final walk through at The Temple. The final walk through went so good, actually beyond good. It helped ease any stress I was having. Then we headed to Perry picked up the heaviest dress in the world. I never realized how big it was until I put it in my office and I had no room. That night was rehearsal. When we arrived everyone was there, yes, including our amazing officiant! And she looked great. Rehearsal went great, we got done early which meant we got to socialize a little. It was perfect. Dinner was at Centro, it was so yummy. The drinks so good, the family so awesome and our fantastical friends who I consider part of the unofficial wedding party Derek & Kari joined us. Afterwards some of us headed to Raccoon River for a little more fun. After Raccoon River Nick and I went home to make his scotcheroos and my “crack” dip for Friday. Note to soon to be brides: Thursday rehearsal are actually better, you get all day Friday to have fun and relax.
See Mom’s pictures.

Friday: What a Friday! Nick took off to downtown and I wouldn’t see him until pictures on Saturday. I woke up, got my ring cleaned, picked up a few things for spa day and then headed to The West Glenn Spa. The bridal party and moms were invited to a day a relaxation and food and it was the best ever. It was so good to hang and talk with everyone. We had the whole mani/pedi area to ourselves. Wine, water and tea were complimentary and we had quite the spread. I got a pedi, mani and one hour massage. The massage pretty much knocked me out, it was so relaxing I really couldn’t even focus afterwards, it was that good. It also was mom’s first mani/pedi and I was worried at first, there was quite a large scream when she first put her feet in the water (apparently it was too hot). After that it went real well. Note to soon to be brides: Do something like this to pamper yourself, it was amazing. That night I met up with Drea, Tia and Kari for some mexican food which was the perfect ending for the day.
See Mom’s pictures.

It was a fantastic weekend. period.

On Friday, we went down to the courthouse to get my birth certificate, our passports and the marriage license. It was a very easy, carefree process (other than my mini-breakdown during the name decision). I’ve decided (if you haven’t heard) to keep my last name and that’ll be another article later. After telling the lady who was doing our license that the courthouse should have a bar, we headed to Open Sesame with our witness, Kari and our witness’ husband Derek. After another delicious meal there, Nick and I did some East Village shopping. Later that night the boys went out as Kari and I enjoyed the night outside on their deck. Very nice night.

Saturday night was the Andersen/Leeper couple shower at the Red Monk. It was all themed around our honeymoon in London. The tables had fun facts about us and places where we are going to visit. The food was authentic english pub food and it was amazing. So delicious. We played a little trivia game, I did horribly, Nick did awesome. Then we opened gifts and it was much better with Nick by my side and drink in my hand. We got some great gifts and got to see a lot of people, in fact most everyone was there, so that is awesome. The cake had one of our engagement photos on it and it was a very yummy cake. Everything was totally us and we really appreciate all the planning that Nancy, Connie, Marsha and Kari did.

Here are the photos from me & mom