August 8th will go down in history...

Here are a few of the "Sneak Peak" photos from our photographer Emily (www.emilygphotography.com). She is truly amazing!

It's official!

We are officially the Linhares Family! On a GORGEOUS summer evening, surrounded by our dear family and amazing friends we were married. It was such an amazing day and it flew by so fast. I am so glad we had our friend Robbi film the ceremony. It's true what people say, the ceremony was a total blur. Really most of the whole event was. We don't have our official pictures yet - but hope to have a sneak peak soon! In the mean time here are a few from our friends. We'll try to get the ceremony up here soon too!

Top 10

I have never planned a wedding before. Shocking, I know. ;) Anyway, after Alan proposed, I started jumping on all the wedding websites I could find to learn about all the things we needed to do. Save the dates, engagement parties, wedding invites, engagement photos, registering, honeymoon, location, catering flowers, etc...the list goes on and on! What I have also learned is that depending on where you live in the US - there is a litany of things you aren't supposed to do. In that vein, we decided not to put where we were registered in our wedding invitations. Bad Move! Apparently here in the good ol' NW people want to know where you are registered and what you want!! I have been fielding requests for info from family and friends, as has my mama. So today, she asked me to put together our Top Ten (each) and send it to her. I thought I would post it up here, just in case. We are registered at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond. In both cases, you can look up our registry online, which is quite nifty. Please don't send anything to our home address though as we are leaving town Tuesday and won't be back for almost two weeks. If you want to ship something, please send it to my parents address - contact me offline for info.

I filled this in for Alan - but I think I did my best guessing! :)

Liv
1 - Dishes - Target
2 - Flatware - Target online
3 - Down Comforter - BB&B
4 - Any of the bedding sets - both stores
5 - KODAK 8IN DIGITAL FRAME - Target
6 - Bose Sound Dock - Target
7 - Knife Set - BB&B
8 - Double Curved Nickel Shower Rod - BB&B
9 - Wii Fit - Target
10 - EA Sports Active Kit (Wii) - Target

Alan
1 - BD 12V Drill and Stud Finder Combo BLACK & DECK - Target
2 - Apollo 58-pc. Home/Office Tool Kit - Target
3 - Laser Level Studsensr Bulsey, BLACK & DECK - Target
4 - Anything Wii related on the registry
5 - Waffle Iron - Target online
6 - Camping gear! - Target
7 - Homedics® Quad-Roller Massaging Chair Cushion with Heat - BB&B
8 - Dual Charging Dock with Two Rechargeable Batteries for Wii Remote - BB&B
9 - Dexas® POP™ Ware 3.4-Quart Green Expandable/ Collapsible Silicone Colander - BB&B
10 - Oxo Good Grips® One-Handed Simply Tear Paper Towel Holder BB&B

ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

after a week of 100+ weather, we are now enjoying a nice cool morning. i went to check the 10 day forecast and they are calling for 79 degrees and scattered THUNDERSTORMS on August 8th. oy! i am so asking the universe to consider a different day for that . i wouldn't care if it rained most of our honeymoon, just let us have a lovely wedding day. please?! :)

g'ah!

we are getting so close!! just a little over a week out. we are both excited and exhausted already. between trying to figure out the last few details of both the wedding and making sure our home is taken care of while we are gone, we are both feeling a little wiped out. this ridiculous 106 degree weather isn't helping either! it's alright though, soon enough we will be happily married and enjoying a week off together!

it's all shaping up quite nicely. it's going to be an amazing day with family and close friends. we are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life who are willing to travel to share in our day. as well as the AMAZING friends and family helping us with actually preparing the wedding location, food, shuttling folks around, grilling, - you name it! thank you thank you thank you! please know that we appreciate all you are doing!! and a special shout out to my mama, who is a complete saint! she has done so much for us and we can't say thank you enough. see you all August 8th!

Family Time

This past weekend Alan, the boy and I were able to head south to Roseburg to my family reunion. It was the first time I had been in a couple of years and with the wedding around the corner it was nice for the guys to meet more of my side of the family. The boy had a great time. Lots of freedom to ride his bike around the campsite. There were lots of second and third cousins near his age, so he was able to make friends. We spent all day Saturday at the river. Much like me, the boy is quite the waterdog. he had a good time playing games with me in the river and then having a splash fest with Nena.

Sunday we left the boy to spend the week with Nena and Pa. He got to go boating, fishing, swimming, play with the dogs, a trip over the mountains to Grams house and then to the High Desert Museum. Mom said he made friends with the neighbor boys and went swimming with them too. Sounds like he had a really great time.


Nena and the boy in the Umpqua River


Nena and the boy at Fall Creek

19 days and counting!

Wow! We are 19 days out and I am ready to be done with this. I feel like my life has been consumed with wedding stuff. We went to my family reunion this weekend and it was the first thing folks asked about. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely in love with my partner and can’t wait to be married to him, but all this lead up is killing me. I don’t know how some ladies plan a wedding for multiple years. :)

That being said, I am feeling really good about where we are at. We were supposed to be having a small backyard wedding in the country. Assuming everyone who has actually sent back a “yes” RSVP comes, we are now at 150 people. So we are figuring it all out. All the big planning stuff is done! We are catering the event ourselves, so the few days leading up to the wedding will be very busy with food preparation. We also decided to DJ ourselves, so we have to get the play lists together and loaded on to the I-pod.

I have my dress – the dress is now altered, pressed and hanging happily at my parent’s house.
We have my e-ring back from the jeweler all sparkly clean and our wedding bands are at my parent’s.
Guys have their tuxes ordered
Cake ordered – We are having bottom layer white cake with raspberry mousse, middle - lemon poppyseed with lemon mousse, top – coconut (made with coconut milk deeeeelicious!) with coconut mousse and a chocolate with hazelnut mousse grooms cake.
As I mentioned, we are getting married in my mom’s bff’s backyard. We are twinkly lights as it is an evening wedding...
The photographer is amazing and paid for!!
The ceremony is written
The brides maids all have their dresses
Flowers ordered
Wedding night hotel room booked


To do:
Finalize guest list for rehearsal dinner and get directions to everyone
Set-up the wedding site!!
Pick up tuxes
Figure out ride from wedding site to hotel
Pick up wine & keg
Pick up fresh foods and prepare them – we are catering ourselves! oy!!
Waiting for the final BM’s gifts to arrive so I can wrap them all up.
Finish the programs – I have the text done, just need to print them and put them together!!

It's all coming together quite nicely. I am really looking forward to a week off with my honey for our mini-moon in Florence Oregon. As some of you know, I lost my job in March, so we decided to post-pone the bigger honeymoon we were planning until later when we could really afford to do what we wanted. It will still be nice to get away for a week at the beach!