THE WEDDING!! (and...) Week in Review (September 22 - September 28)

Tuesday (21,552 steps) - Work in the office. After work I ran to Cherry Creek to pick up a few things before going to Green Mountain Brewing for run club! I ran with Mo and Colfax again and only stuck around for one beer.

Wednesday (14,271 steps) - Work from home. Apparently, I hadn't done any packing (or even writing any packing lists) outside of what I needed for the wedding.  I did, however, have time to run to REI to pick up my newest unnecessary purchase:

This is a Selk'bag...

Everything else I hadn't planned, so I spent my morning between emails and work getting everything ready. We double and triple checked all of our stuff. Ben took Ariel to her last cross country meet of the year because I couldn't get off work QUITE that early. A  had told us there were no spectators allowed, so Ben headed up to the AirBnb. Turns out, I was able to watch her from the road. She had a great run, getting a PR! She was just edged out of top 10 overall (?!?!).

As soon as she was done, we headed up to Vail. Our only stop was at the Target in Silverthorne to pick up a curbside delivery. Arrived just after dark to our amazing weekend house!

Heather and Lora came over to join us for dinner.

Thursday (13,682 steps) - Planned to sleep in, but of course that didn't happen. Ariel, Pika and I met Heather and Lora at the pavilion for a run. Upon arrival, we realized that the venue did not have the planters of flowers on the patio like we planned on! Luckily, I had a wedding planner to handle all that, so we went for our run. I had mapped out a 3.5 mile run around town. On the way out we actually saw Ben driving into town, so that was fun. It was pretty running through the neighborhoods, and ... WE SAW BEARS. Real.Live.Bears.

We went into town to eat lunch, with Ben meeting us there after he was done with his errands. THEN, we had to go to the florist to BUY flowers because the venue told us they "lost the flowers in the freeze a few weeks ago." You mean... the freeze everyone in the entire country knew about a week beforehand? Ugh.... At least we found someone that was able to help us. There was a nail salon next door and Ben convinced me and A we should get our nails done.

It's probably been 15 years since I have gotten my nails done (and these are A's!)

No recollection of the rest of the evening, although I'm sure we ate something at some point. I do know I stayed up way too late waiting for Lisa and the rest of the Texas clan, but they were really delayed and I finally went to bed just before 11:30.

Friday (5,773 steps) - The big day!! I was of course up before my alarm went off. Had some coffee and chatted with everyone before Ariel and I had to head out for our errands. First up was stopping to get our hair done. MK did an AMAZING JOB!!!!

Ariel

Me!

We had just enough time to scarf down a breakfast burrito from Yeti Grind before heading over to get our makeup done. I couldn't believe how great she made both of us look. Before we knew it, it was almost time to go back to the BnB to meet with the photographer! We walked around Walmart for a few minutes to give Ben time to get out. After a photo shoot and making sure we had everything, we headed over to the venue around 3:15.

A high school friend gave this to me as a joke. I will never drink this, blech

Before I knew it, it was time to get dressed! I definitely wanted to wear heels for the wedding because I'm a midget. Ariel is a few inches taller than me, and Ben is 6'2" - so more than a foot taller! I channeled my inner "punk" from high school/college and wore some cool Dr. Marten boots:

While I was doing that, Ben was being all handsome and getting his picture taken too:

Insert heart emojis here

We did a "first look" - which was probably a good idea because Ben is pretty emotional, and I was a bit worried about him losing it during the ceremony. There was a really pretty area not more than 100 feet from the venue where we were able to get some really great shots.

Then it was time to get Pika ready!

And then a picture before heading out.... all of a sudden the time is here!!

The ceremony started right at 5:00 - and being folks that aren't super traditional, Pika walked Ben down the aisle (to the same song I would walk down with, because he didn't just want to "appear"). I LOVE THIS PICTURE:

Carrie signaled me and A to walk down the aisle (also not traditional):

Other than me facing directly into the sun, the ceremony went very well. Ben definitely got choked up and really struggled to get through his vows (but thankfully we opted to not use microphones so no one could hear him anyway). Perfect weather, perfect colors. Everything we were hoping for!!

Before we knew it... we were done! All the planning over in just a few minutes, and finally time to relax!! Rocky Mountain Taco was set up with their food truck in the parking lot and Outer Range was on hand with a few kegs of beer. We did a few pictures before the sunset - the rest are from a sneak peek our photographer sent over.

My niece Julia, Ariel, Ben, me, sister Lisa, niece Alyssa and her boyfriend Chris

One of my favorite pictures (without me, haha) is of my niece Julia and Ariel:

We were very busy throughout the evening. Ariel gave the most amazing toast/speech EVER:

Our first dance was basically a disaster since neither of us dances or has any rhythm, but we had SO MUCH FUN being terrible at it.

My absolute favorite picture!!!

Ben did NOT shove cake in my face, so that was nice

My expression in during the bouquet toss is pretty hilarious - I think I was just concentrating really hard since the first attempt ended up with the bouquet hitting the ceiling, so I had to try again. My niece, Alyssa, caught it!

I have no idea where the evening went. We had about 6 hours of time and it went by in the blink of an eye. I know there was a LOT of dancing (and I can't BELIEVE no one got the full "Thriller" on video, because that's been a goal of mine for like a decade). With that said, I recognize that having a "COVID" wedding is a little nuts, but with just under 70 guests, everything felt safe and comfortable, and we had an amazing and perfect night.

Saturday (8,982 steps) - Prior to the wedding we planned on doing all sorts of fun and outdoorsy things. Then once we got up to the mountains and realized we had the most amazing BnB ever, we basically did nothing. Heather and Lora stopped by before heading back to Denver. We picked up Rachelle and went to Vail to walk around.

Since we had beer left over from the wedding, we borrowed a tap and set up in the garage...

Also, Ben got me the cutest ring holder in the world!

Sunday (5,893 steps) - Um.... another day of nothing? Ben realized that Greg was still in town, so he invited him over to help us work on the keg. We had leftovers for lunch, went and got coconut margaritas from Agave, picked up burger fixings from the grocery store. Ben grilled for dinner and we watched Pitch Perfect. (Am I wrong in thinking this was basically a perfect relaxing day?)

Monday (12,270 steps) - We had to be up by 7 to start packing and cleaning up the house to have time to get everything done by 10 when we had to check out. We ran a few errands and then stopped at Outer Range to drop off the keg and have a beer before heading into Denver.

The drive was fine and uneventful. The evening was spent unpacking. Ben and I picked up Torchy's for dinner. What a way to end an incredible week!!

Stats:

• 82,423 steps (probably 4-5,000 more, but I didn't wear my fitbit during/after the wedding)
• miles run
• No cross training :(