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Hey Guys...I need your advice!

I want to title my re-caps (a la Weddingbee bloggers), but can't decide! I've come up with four options and have a poll over to the right. Please vote! Voting closes on Wednesday at 5PM PST. If you choose other, please leave a comment with any suggestions! Re-caps will begin Thursday!

Hurry up and don't wait! (If you're reading via Google Reader, its just a quick click away to voice your opinion) Read more!

I'm finished...

with lying to all of you! I'm scanning our rehearsal pictures as I'm typing this! Re-caps will start this week...I promise! I hope you all are still interested in seeing how our day played out! Sorry for stringing you along, but its been very hard for me to find motivation when it comes to wedding stuff. I'm just over it all, but I still want to share our day with you all, so hang on...things are about to get fun around here!

One last teaser from the reception. We had just finished our first dance and were moving into the bridal party dance. I just like the picture!

Picture from our wonderful photographers.

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Psst...

Remember me?!?!

Hopefully so! Just checking in! I'm still sorting through our pictures, but I have good news...I'm almost done! I plan on using my day off on Friday to scan our rehearsal pics. My goal is to start re-capping next week! I feel good with that time frame too! I hope you all get a long weekend and are able to enjoy it! Here's another pic to tide you over. It's my bouquet, showing off the charms and our rings!

Picture by our wonderful photographers

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Changing My Name...Step 2 & 3

First off, I've sorted completely through one of our CD's of pictures and am on to the 2nd one! I'm hoping to finish this weekend, so hopefully recaps can start next week!

Alright, so after taking care of my name change with the SSA, my next step was the DMV. I headed to the office that's the closest to my work yesterday during lunch. I was assigned my number at 12:55PM. I sat and waited until my number was called at 1:40PM and I was happily walking out of the office by 1:45PM. Yes, it really only took five minutes once my number was called. The process was fairly easy. I gave her my filled out form, which I received along with my number, our marriage license, paid my $22.00, got a new picture taken and that was it! I should have my new ID within 30 days! I'm really glad I got that out of the way, since I was dreading that step the most!

One tip - before you start doing any of these things, practice signing your new name. I felt like an idiot and like was back in 2nd grade learning cursive! My signature is pretty rough, but I'm sure it will get better with time...hopefully!

My next step is bank and credit cards. We have a joint account, but I still have my own account open for easy money exchanges with my family (there's never any money in here, but its my old account that's the same bank that my family goes to). I had to go to USBank (where our joint account is) today, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and attempt to change my name there too. I wasn't sure if I needed to wait for my new ID, but since I have a temporary (piece of paper with the changes) slip with my ID, I was good to go. The helpful teller entered all my information and said new cards would be mailed out, but my current ones will work until I get the new ones...good news there! Not sure what I'd do with out my debit card!

So that's where I am with that! Seems like its getting easier as I forge ahead, but we'll see! I still have quite a few more places to change my name - work (sent an email today, so kinda started), passport, credit cards and one more bank. I'm sure more little ones will pop up, but I'm hoping to knock out the big ones fast, otherwise, I won't get it done!

Here's another teaser for you! It's my favorite picture so far of me dancing with my dad!

Picture by our wonderful photographers

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Changing My Name...Step 1

I'm going to try to keep you entertained until I sort through our pictures. I started on Friday, but haven't looked at them again since...so it might be awhile, but I promise they will be coming in the near future! :)

With not much to think about anymore (i.e - wedding planning), I swarmed my brain with all the potential ways I could change my last name. I knew that I would always change my last name, but I was struggling (BIG TIME) with dropping my maiden name...FOREVER! I had come up with the following options.

1. Heidi Marie MaidenName HisLast - thus having two middle names
2. Heidi MaidenName HisLast - dropping my middle and using my maiden as my middle
3. Heidi Marie HisLast - the traditional route

Well we were driving to dinner last Friday, I brought up my indecisiveness to Mr. 2SB and gave him the options. He said either 2 or 3 and thought I was kidding with option 1. I talked to two of my recently married friends (who were also my BMs) about what they did. Both went with the traditional (number 3) route.

After doing some research, I found that Option 1 gave a lot of newly-married ladies some problems (with Social Security and DMV). A lot of places give you a hard time unless you go the traditional way. I was willing to fight my way to have the name I wanted, so I went back to being in 5th grade...I signed all my potential names (you know like you did with your 1st bf back in the day...don't kid yourself, you know you did it!). I decided I liked Option 3...the traditional route the best. Done and done!

Its been fairly slow for me at work, so I left early to get the process started. (Every state is different, so make sure you do your research to figure out what you need to do first.) In CA, you have to go to the Social Security office first. I was not looking forward to going to this office, but I drove a little out of my way to go to an out of the way office...hoping it would be less busy. Turned out, I was right! I arrived at the office at 2:45 and was out by 3:20...not bad at all! I was anticipating at least an hour!

Here's what you need to bring to the SSA:

• Current SS card (this is not listed on their website, but you forfeit it when you apply for your new one...at least I did, so I hope that's normal)
• Photo Identification (I used my passport and didn't need to show any other proof of identity)
• A copy of the Marriage Certificate
• This form - filled out
  

They take the form, verify your information, have you sign a piece of paper (with your new name) and with in 2 weeks, you (and I) should have your new card. You probably also want to bring something to pass the time...I brought a book, but didn't really need it, but you can never be too sure!

So, that's that! My next step is going to the DMV, but in CA, you have to wait at least 48 hours from when you want to the SSA because the DMV verifies your information with SSA. I'll probably hold off until next week beacause I hate going to the DMV (I have never experienced a worse DMV then the ones in CA...last time Mr. 2SB was there, it took him 2 hours to change his address), but I'll get there and be back with Step 2!

Just cause I like to...here's another teaser! I think its self-explanatory and I realized I never showed you my veil (probably because we, I mean my dad, bought it when we were home for Christmas and I didn't see it until the week before the wedding, so I forgot what it looked like)!

Pic from our amazing photographers

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The Last 6 Days Before the Wedding...Day 6

Previous Posts in this series:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

I knew for most of this "Day Before The Wedding" Day that Mr. 2SB and I would be a part, which was ok. Three of his groomsmen, 2 of my uncles, my 2 brothers, my dad and Mr. 2SB were having some sort of golf tournament (if you remember, I was sick of hearing about). By the time they got done golfing, the remaining groomsmen and Mr. 2SB's family would have arrived. So, all the guys were going to get their tuxes after golfing, but before our rehearsal. (Got that...yeah, it was crazy!)

My mom, sister/MOH and FSIL B had made appointments in the morning to get our nails done. I think they were all fairly relaxed, but I had a million things running through my head! While my mom was finishing up her appointment, the three of us went to UPS to pick up a package that was the wireless adaptor for my parents picture frame. After that we went back and got my mom and headed to Target for some last minute things (waterproff mascarea, shower curtain hooks so the pew decorations could be hung at the reception venue, etc)...I think I was at Target almost every day while we were in MN, except for the day of and day after...didn't have time! After that we headed to get the beer for the rehearsal dinner on ice. We stopped at the liquor store and got the cooler and ice, then headed to the rehearsal dinner location to get it loaded up. After that, we dropped off FSIL B so she could get ready and my mom and sister/MOH dropped me off because they had a "secret" errand to run. I got the soda on ice while they were gone. When they got back they informed me that they saw Mr. 2SBs family downtown (its not very big), so I was relieve that they had made it!

We had a little down time before BM B was meeting us at my parents house before rehearsal. So we just kinda relaxed and the replacement glasses were delivered. My goal was to be ready to go when BM B showed up, yeah, that didn't happen. Mr. 2SB got back from golfing, got his stuff ready for the night and he was out. I was helping him and pretty much just wanted to take a nap, but no time for naps! BM B showed up and I threw on my dress, touched up my make-up and brushed my hair (I decided not to curl it), so I guess I was ready soon after she got there.

We loaded up the gifts and everything else we needed and we were off to rehearsal! And that my dear friends is where this stops! I think the rehearsal and dinner is a part of the wedding, so that's where my offical wedding re-caps will begin! We received some pictures from my SIL (how fun...I have siblings-in-law...yeah, I'm a nerd...I now!), but I have to scan them first. I will try to get that done this weekend, so I can start my re-caps soon!

I wish I could tell you that my re-caps will start next week and be done short lythere after, but I can't! We got our pro-pictures yesterday (which are great by the way), so I need to sort through 3000+ images...no that's not typo...three thousand! A lot are duplicates, so I need to pick the best ones and get them in order. We have 2 DVD's full of pictures from two different cameras, so I need to make sense of them. Trust me...they are not all keepers and I wish I could remember what was going on in some of them, but I can't!

So that was most of our craziness in the days leading up to the wedding! I left out all the times we were drinking because I don't want you all to think I'm a lush...that week, I was, but I needed to sleep people! I highly recommend drinking in the days leading up to your wedding...it helped me relax! The craziness is definitely not over...we had some "things" come up the day of the wedding...which you'll have to hang tight to hear about!

Here's the last teaser before the re-caps...

Me and my maids...how hot are we?!?!
Pic by our fantastic photographers

I'll be back to start re-capping ASAP, but give me at least a week...I'll try to pop in, but no promises! I plan on starting the name changing process next week, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

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The Last 6 Days Before the Wedding...Day 5

Previous Posts in this series:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4

We woke up on Wednesday and I immediately asked Mr. 2SB how his foot was. He was feeling good and ready to get out of my parents house. Not in any part due to my family, just that he's a busy body and being down for the count for an entire day, is just not his thing. I wished it would have been me...I would have milked that!

Both my parents had taken the rest of the week off, so before we all parted ways, we discussed where we were going and what needed to be done. Mr. 2SB and I needed to get the beverages for the rehearsal dinner. Being from a small town has its advantages, so my dad took care of the alcoholic drinks and boy did he score...big time! He got 5 cases of beer for about $90 plus the use of a cooler large enough to hold said beer and the ice to fill it. In case you're wondering...that's $1.33 per can! My kind of deal!

While he was doing that...here's what Mr. 2SB and I did.

• Went to bank to get cash for ceremony musicians
• Went to Target so Mr. 2SB could get a nice belt...he left his in CA
• Stop by the florists to drop off ribbon for BM bouquets and bouquet charms

We also stopped by the local suit shop. Mr. 2SB's tux was free, but since both of the ring bearers came from the same family, we decided to pay for one of those since the little tuxes were the same price as the big ones...something that still doesn't make any sense to me! We walked in and the owner was there, same guy we dealt with in December. He said that they had just gotten our order together. So we walked over to take a look, but something was wrong. Mr. 2SB's shirt was ivory, when we had ordered black. And the groomsmen shirts were alternating between ivory and black...something was off. So the owner re-checked the order and low and behold the company that sends them the tuxes had sent 6 ivory shirts and 4 black ones, instead of 6 black and 4 ivory. The owner assured us it would be fixed by Thursday...since everyone would be in to pick up their tuxes. We paid for a little tux and we left...feeling very happy that we had stopped in.

We grabbed some lunch and headed home. I think my dad and Mr. 2SB went golfing again (I clearly can't remember how often they went...I was kinda glad to just have them out of my way!) and my mom and I headed back out to our reception venue. I had to drop off the card box, picture frames, slideshow DVD and guest book. We talked over some other details (like using the pew decorations) and talked with the head chef. Everyone was in good spirits and we were off!

Back at home, the guys were getting ready for "Man Cave" which involved grilled meats, poker, cigars, drinking and probably some other stuff I could care less about while us ladies were headed for a fun night out. We met an assortment (mom's friends, aunts, family friends, etc) of ladies out for dinner. Then my mom, FSIL B and I headed over to the bowling alley (which has a very nice bar) to continue the evening. My sister/MOH was meeting us out. While we were waiting on her, my friend C also came out. My sister came and informed us that she was running late because she had missed her original flight out of Pittsburg that morning. I was glad she didn't say anything earlier because I'm not sure if the stress level could have handled that! She got there and that's all that mattered!

We headed home and broke up the "Man Cave", which by the looks of things, was probably a great thing! We all enjoyed some more talking, I had a minor freak out and then people started to call it a night. My freak out was completely warranted...at least by me and my sister. The guys were golfing the next day and had been talking ALL DAY about how they were going to do it. I was sporting a pretty nice buzz and I said that if they talked about the golf game any more, I was going to get violent and leave marks. I didn't say it that nicely, but you catch my drift. The talk had been swirling all week and I really just didn't care to hear about it anymore. Since all the golfers weren't there, I didn't think any decisions should be made until that next morning. And then it was done. Being a bride does have its advantages...you get to freak out on your entire family and they just sit and take it! Hehe...it was kinda fun though!

So that was day 5! One tux crisis diverted...but were there more?!?! You'll have to stay tuned...the fun is just starting!

And to keep you interested...here's a pic of the bridesmaids bouquets...pic by my sister/MOH!

You can find our florist here.

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