Liz and Adam Wedding...

I attended a wedding of a good friend at the end of June in Boise, ID.  I was a bridesmaid and was so excited to share her special day with her and the day was beautiful.  In fact, the whole weekend was just awesome.

I flew in Thursday morning and was immediately swept up from the airport (along with another bridesmaid) and taken to our rehearsal day brunch.  We had delicious food topped off with frozen crepes and fruit drizzle, YUM, and caught up with old friends while meeting the rest of the wedding party.  With no time to waste we piled in the car to go get some manicures!!  We had the whole place to ourselves and enjoyed talking and getting pampered.  Seriously, all I did all weekend was get pampered.  I'm not sure us bridesmaids pampered the bride enough!!

After manicures we drove over to the wedding location (St. Chapelle Winery) for an actual rehearsal and all of us were blown away with how beautiful everything was.  The gigantic trees, view over the valley, lush grass...pretty amazing.  By that time everyone was hungry so we headed back to a rental house and had a rehearsal dinner.  CAFE RIO!!!  Hello, could not get any better.  I gobbled up as much as I could because I never know when I'm going to get it next.  :)  There were some speeches during dinner by both fathers of the bride and groom.  Both were very funny and emotional.  Then Liz and Adam handed out gifts to the bridal party and again, I felt so spoiled and lucky to be there.  We all spent the rest of the evening hanging out but as soon as the mosquitos decided to eat us for dinner, we called it a night although Liz and Adam were heavily involved in soccer tennis.

I stayed at a hotel with another bridesmaid and since we had both been up in the 4am hour, we were OUT as soon as we reached the hotel.  The next morning we were picked up by the bride and taken to the winery to start decorating.  Not sure why we showered prior to that because we were all in a full out sweat!!  Boise was set to have a record high temperature that day in the 100's.  Luckily we got done quickly and piled into the brides room for lunch.  Once the fan and AC got running, everyone was feeling good again.  We had a few hours until pictures but it's amazing how fast time goes when everyone is trying to get ready and organized.

 

Once everyone was ready, we set out in the heat for pictures.  The first people I saw when I left the brides room were my parents!!  They came to the wedding and showed up to the venue a little early.  So my Dad talked with all the people he randomly knew (which is always a handful everywhere we go) and my mom joined the wedding party while we took photos.

Then the time arrived.  The entire wedding party squeezed into the brides room to hide, we had a toast, did a cheer, and waited for our time to walk down the isle.  Oh ya, someone also had to make sure that Liz and Adam's soccer cleats were tied tight.  :)  The ceremony was beautiful, funny, moving, emotional, real, and not a cookie cutter speech at all. Liz and Adam were married by one of their best friends so everything was just very heartfelt.  Those two are very loved and you could feel that during the ceremony.  We all returned to the brides room, witnessed the signing of the marriage document, had another toast, did a few more pictures outside, then went out to the reception to eat, visit, and party.

All my friends from high school were there (a few missed this pic) so it was SO good and SO fun to see everyone.  Especially because no one attended our 10 year reunion the weekend before.  I visited with my parents a bit more before they left the reception and my dad came back to retrieve me once the event was over and cleaned.

I stayed at a hotel with my parents that night and we spent the next day together before my flight at 3pm.  They took me to their old house out in Star Idaho and picked me some mint leaves from the fields.  They talked about how much things had changed and it made me sad that something or someplace can create such fond memories for someone but can also be changed or bulldozed or built over.  Their house was still standing though so we were happy.   We drove into Boise downtown and even took a short jaunt on the green belt.  We happened to walk right onto BSU campus in front of the business building where my Dad spent 90% of his time during school.  So we peeked in some classrooms, took some pictures, and headed back to the car.  After eating at Red Robin and talking about how fast the weekend went, I was dropped back off at the airport for my flight home.  Sad.  The whole weekend was incredibly enjoyable and to top it off I got to spend time with my parents.  Luckily they'll be coming out in September so our parting wasn't too depressing.

The picture below is my favorite picture from the weekend.  Bridesmaids left to right:  Me, Suzanne (my hotel buddy), Brynn, Kim (both matrons of honor and our high school friends), the bride Liz, and her sister-in-law Pomei.  Lots of love to Liz and Adam and big thanks for letting me be a part of a spectacular wedding!!