Wedding week....now over.

Well 8 months of planning is now over!! Steve and I tied the knot August 9th....and it was awesome. Here is the wedding week- from the brides view!!

Tuesday Aug. 5th- We packed and packed my car up to where we could not see around any of the stuff that needed to go to the mountain town and we were on our way!! That drive was one I would never forget. Steve decided he would drive which meant that I would tack on at least 30 minutes to the trip since the "Arrive alive" Herbert slogan meant driving like an 80 year-old man. The weather was beautiful- I just kept thinking all the people that have not been to Steamboat- their thoughts on the drive. We are so excited for this week that I am dancing in my seat to every song that comes on the ipod. Steve is just looking at me- probably thinking- "That is what I am marrying?" We get to Kremmling (stop for coffee at Big Shooter like we always do) we know that we are on the home stretch! We get over the Rabbit Ears pass where you can see Steamboat and the town and its just beautiful. I call the guy that will let us in the condo- and now we wait for the rest of the crew!
Ashley, mom, the Turners and Keysers get there and we start the week of with a dinner for mom's birthday- Huge steaks and mashed potatoes. Done and done.

Wed. Aug 6th- I had an appt. for my hair for the wedding day- then I get to see my cousin, Erik!! We met at the courthouse to get the paperwork for the marriage license and boy oh boy that was a sight to see! First of all- I just had my hair and makeup done so I look like a prostitute. Then I am coming in with a man that I am going to marry that thinks everything is a joke, and my cousin and I are joking about marrying each other. The lady thought that we all just did drugs, or that we at the very least need a refresher. The weather turned on us on Wednesday evening, but that did not stop us going to the hot springs where a bunch of us relaxed. Now this place of bliss is about 20 minutes outside of Steamboat and after dark you have to be 18 years of age because clothing is optional. Now it does freak you out the first time you look over and you see a blury white image of some body and no dark part of where there clothing should be....and I am not sure but old people think it is ok to go nude. What part of them thinks that their old body is attractive or even ok to show? To anyone? Even a mirror! So Erik's wife- Katy- is a good ol' southern bell (so she thinks) and thinks the whole clothing optional thing is bizzare. (As we all do- but we can get over it and enjoy the stars, the hot springs and the company of one another) Well Katy keeps seeing nude people. She starts freaking out. "There is one coming towards us now!" she tells me. And keep in mind that Katy does not have an inside voice. In fact half the time I think she is yelling. I want to tell her, dude. I am right here. (And I thought I was loud....I think Katy and I would be best friends if she moved to Colorado- both loud and awesome). I look over and I see my sister Ashley coming towards us. Pretty sure Ashley is not nude, nor does not look like a creepy old dude so now I think Katy must just be drunk at this point! She goes on to asking everyone she sees, "Are ya' all nude?!" which was the highlight of that evening and was the quote of the week.

Thursday Aug. 7th- was great, it was filled with Rio margaritas and river rafting which is never good for someone who cannot stay on a raft which was apparently Mama P. She tried so hard to stay on her tube, but every time I saw her she was under water and had the look of fear on her face. Now these rapids were not white water rapids, the were fast- but my poor mom could not stay a float to save her life, even losing her sunglasses at the bottom of Yampa. While we were all relaxing in what was like a lazy river- my mom was under water and losing her tube like it was 10 foot waves in an ocean....it was very odd. But Doug and Matt with their boxed whine was there to save the day- they were on a kayak to serve everyone drinks- so they ended up saving my mom! In the end, I have never laughed that hard in my life, looking down that river at about 40 tubes going down the river- all for Steve and I. It was so much fun....and I got sunburned...of course. Thinking that my wedding dress would cover my legs (so the sun would not hit it?!)- I did not put sunscreen on my legs so therefore I am an idiot. Thursday night we all ended up at the "Frat house" which was my friends from work's condo- which also happened to be right next to the Herbert's condo (they called us a lot asking if we could be more quite)....so that night we all continued to get drunk and also had a dance party USA. This is also when Meghan, Erin, Sarah and I had a brilliant idea. Meghan says, "Dre....you need to go streaking before you get married!" So I said..."Hell yeah I do!!" SO we all go out front of the condo and the street lights were so damn bright, but we did not care- although there was still so many people out that we were trying to figure out a plan when Erin had her pants down around her ankles yelling at a lady walking her dog. "Yeah thats right! We are going streaking!!" Funny thing was is that us 3 behind her were completely dressed. So then Erin pulled up her pants and we decided to walk up the road a little bit. So we pass this lady that was walking her dog- and we act like that did not just happen with Erin- petting her dog and saying how cute it was. She seemed a little scared of us. So we run up the street where we were going to get nude. I just keep hearing Katy..."Are ya all nude?!" You know it! SO we are all stripping off our clothes and Sarah says, "I am bare- just like I was when I was a baby!" so we are all nude running down the street laughing our asses off. Erin is in the front, followed by Sarah, Me and then Meghan. All of a sudden we see a figure. Erin says, "OH SHIT! It's Steve!!" So we all start running the other way. Oh shit...now here comes a car! So we all hide behind an electric green thing and all hide. Now we are all putting our clothes back on. Oh- another car. Back down. We did this for about 5 cars. We were laughing so hard. BUT the best part was is that we ran into the groom while streaking!!

Friday Aug. 8th- Time to rehearse the wedding! Now I never do understand this- I mean if you have been in a wedding before- you walk down the asile, stand pretty with your flowers, walk down with your guy- then drink. But for our wedding we wanted our wedding party to see the top of the mountain before anyone else. Plus with our crazy wedding party, Erin drunk most of the week, Neil and Pink are 8 feet tall, we have a bridesman and an usherette, a two year old that is a ring bearer, two almost 3 years olds dropping petals on the ground thinking that they should really not be on the ground and really in the basket, and Erik-who is a Reverand according to Google, we needed some practice. What's this? A sign that says Gondola closed?! Man I got sick of seeing that sign. So our girl Lindsey says we are not getting to the top. Apparently their doppler system is better then channel 9's and there is a big pocket of weather that is going to turn on us any minute!! SO we practice on the bottom. I tell the guys how I want them walking in, I tell the girls who is walking when, we have the flower boys try there flower baskets out for size and Jacob SPRINTS down the fake asile, Marcus the ring bearer cries his eyes out and will not take the bear and SPRINTS down the asile after my sister and cries even more. Well. This is going to be interesting. Well then mom and I go-I skip...of course- and then we do a quick run through. Erik starts doing his thing and I think in my head- this is going to be awesome! I have no idea what he will say tomorrow but even his welcome is amazing! Aunt Joy tell us that the sand ceremony should not go too fast because then there will be music playing and no sand pouring so Steve and I remember to not go fast with the sand. Done. After all this hoopla...My mom is going to go in a shuttle up to the top with the decorating crew to tell them what they have to do- I am in on that bus. But wait....the gondola is now open!! So we all get on- except for the Dymonds who were waiting for everyone at the house- So we all go up, the sun is out and it starts to be an amazing night. Everyone gets to see the top, it is great!

We all go to the rehearsal dinner at Steamboat Smokehouse- everyone is there having a great time! We give our little speeches and tell everyone thank you for coming then give out our gifts for the wedding party. It was a great time. After a few drinks and a different bar, I tell Steve that I will see him tomorrow on top of the mountain and that he cannot call me. After I wiped his tears away and told him to man up- we parted for the first time all week.

Saturday Aug. 9th- WEDDING! So I wake up today and I am laughing. Laughing mostly because how excited I am, and laughing because, I am getting married! I get a call from Jessica- Steve has already called her asking her a question. I leave my room to find my mom. We hug...it is sunny out too!! I get ready for the day, last time I do that as a single chick, weird. Or better yet, as a Price. Tear. Anyway, I am waiting for my bridesmaids to get to the condo so we can get our hair done- once they show up, we pile in the car. We get to the place (before its opened) and I am just looking at the sky. Blue skies, sunny....it is awesome. So we get in the place, Sarah Herbert and I go first with our hair. As we are all getting our hair done and makeup done it is weird thinking that this is it. This is the day. After thinking about this day your whole life, I am doing it. I am getting my hair done for my wedding. What the hell. So we are all done and looking beautiful and get back to the condo to pick up our dresses. When we pull up, there is a huge dark cloud that is over us. I do not like the looks of it and I kind of start to panic. Everyone keeps telling me it will pass, no big deal. While we are in the condo Jessica comes up to me and says, "Steve just called, Tim and Caleb are not at the gondola. Do you know where they might be?" Well Caleb said that they would be there, so I called him up. They are on there way. As I am on the phone with Caleb, Jess tells me that the gondola is closing and that they need to hurry. I tell that to Caleb, but I am numb with this news. What? The gondola is closed? How am I going to get up there? I have to get up there at 4? Better yet, the decorating crew is now stuck at the bottom. And Meghan? Where is Meghan? Every bad thought of the weather turning on us entered my mind. This cannot be happening. We get to the hotel where we were getting ready where Paula, our photographer, was waiting for us. We get ready, mom is on the phone trying to get the decorating crew up to the top of the mountain and to figure out what we are supposed to do. I am in this bra and skirt thing and I am watching my bridesmaids get ready. Again, I have waited my whole life for this. I look out the window and by this point it is pouring out. I mean the gutters are overflowing with water. I think to myself, "maybe this is the wrong weekend, maybe we should of done this sooner, maybe we should of waited till next summer...." everything that you think of- the "what ifs..." cross my mind. I keep praying to Dad...."Please let the sun come out!" It is my turn to get my dress on, I get it on and I am looking at myself in the mirror. The dress looks different this time. It is the day of my wedding. It looks whiter, it has more sparkles, it looks beautiful. We are ready to go- not sure where we are going, but we are ready! Matt and Doug are picking us up and they have ponchos and umbrellas for all of us. Mom is finding out where we go. I put the poncho around my dress, and we are off! We get into the car and I take up the whole front seat. It is pouring outside still and I am still hanging in there. I have yet to think what we are thinking as far as the outside wedding. We all get to the garage, where at this point, I would be walking to the gondola- but not this time. We are all loading on to the shuttle and the only thing I can think of is seeing Steve. I just want to get to Steve. We go up the windy roads....everyone I love is on this bus!! I look behind me, there is all my nephews, the decorating crew, Meghan, Erik- everyone. It turned out ok. I look at Erik. He winks. It will be ok. We get to the top. I look at Jess. We start getting tears in our eyes. She smiles, "This is it!!" I get so excited....of course, Steve is not outside yet. I sit in the bus till he is out. Everyone leaves the bus, I still sit there. I am getting nervous. I see Steve. Now I want off this thing. I get off the bus and fall into his arms!! Finally! I get to be with my Herb!! He says, "You look beautiful" and I just about die....he tells me that the grass is too wet to get married on. Patio is the next best thing. The rain has stopped but it is cold out and wet. We take pictures, which turned out amazing. The decorating crew is hard at work trying to get everything together, I am calm. I am hanging out in a room with my friends, the groomsman and my best friend, Steve. What more could I want. We get ready to go. We all follow each other like we did back in grade school when you are on a field trip. Erik is in the lead....he feels way to far away from me, but every time I see him, he winks at me which makes me feel like I am doing ok and everything is ok. One last wink and there they go. Sarah starts walking down the aisle. Oh shit...this is happening! Erin goes next. Ashley is now gone- the twins are doing fine without her! Jess leaves. Now its the twins turn. Well thank god Sam stayed back with us, he leads the twins down the aisle, tells them what to do. They drop their petals. No one is sprinting OR crying! Then Marcus. Steve has Nanne- which is his blanket so he is ok. Lindsey looks at mom and I. "You ready?" Here we go. Mom and I go down the aisle. "Just look at Steve," Mom says. I cannot stop smiling. Erik did amazing. I cannot believe I am getting married and there is my cousin, my best bud, saying everything that I wanted and needed to be said. He was great. The sand ceremony was funny....we were a mess and laughing the whole time, I even said- "Thats what she said," at some point. Our vows were great. I started off with, "I...Name..." Which got everyone laughing. In the end- that is how Steve and I are. People that are in love and love to laugh!

Dance party USA broke out and lasted for hours. I said Hi and Bye to 157 people....it was amazing. Steve and I break out our first dance- which started off slow and then of course broke out into a funny dance to sexyback!! In the end, I wish I could do it all over. I loved every minute of it. On the gondola ride down, there was silence. We were looking out over the city- all you could see is the city's lights. The whole thought of, "What just happened..." came across my thought process but I turned and looked over at Steve whose face was lit up by the glow stick that we had. He was so beautiful. I love this guy. He is my husband now. It was a fairy tale dream come true!