Jeremiah & Hannah's Blog: July 2017

We have settled into our new apartment in Denver! Well, officially Westminster, CO in Northwest Denver. We flew up here for a few days back in the middle of June for an apartment hunting trip and it was very successful! We are really lucky to have some of Jeremiah's extended family in the area so we were able to stay with them and borrow one of their cars. Our first full day we went to ten different apartment complexes and had some good options... Small and expensive, but that's what we expected for the area. The second day we looked at a couple more places including a couple of condos. One of the condos was our largest, nicest, and somehow least expensive option! We both really liked this option and had a great conversation with the landlord while we were there. But we were a little apprehensive because it seemed too good to be true and we didn't want to fall into any traps. We talked it over with our families and did our best to verify that this was a legitimate deal and our last day of our trip we went back to checks few things, solidify our decision, and ultimately put a deposit down on the place! Success! We were really excited to have a place to call our own!

Our move-in date was July 1st so that meant we didn't have too much time left in AZ! Thus began night after night of time with friends and family! It was the best! Over the past couple years we have really established some awesome friendships that were hard to say goodbye to. But we plan to keep them up as best we can while we are in CO! Most of these goodbyes happened over food so we simultaneously got to eat at some of our favorite AZ-only restaurants too! We will miss you, Oregano's.

Anyway, the goodbyes were difficult but we managed because it was also really exciting knowing we were leaving to establish ourselves in our first apartment and together as a couple! Also, I knew we would be seeing my family just three weeks later, so that was a big bonus.

Friday, June 30th we rented a big 16-foot Budget Rental truck and managed to fill the entire thing! Who knew we already had so much stuff?? We packed in a couch, dining room table and chairs, china cabinet, stools, desk, dresser, bikes, and lots of boxes. Both sets of our parents as well as Nathan helped us load up so it really didn't take too long fortunately. Saturday morning we took off bright and early! Jeremiah and I packed up our cars (which were also stuffed full) with a few last minute things and met over at his parents house. Jeremiah and his dad drove the rental truck, my parents were in my car, and Jeremiah's mom and me in Jeremiah's car. We had a little caravan with the rental truck in the middle and with a few stops along the way for gas and food, no major bumps in the road, 14 hours later we arrived in Colorado Springs! Phew! It was a long, tiring day but we made it! Jeremiah's great aunt and uncle live in the Springs so we had a beautiful home and really comfy beds to stay in that night. The next morning Ralph and Jan provided a really nice breakfast for us and a couple other family members stopped over so we had a relaxing morning chatting with everyone! At about 9:30 we hit the road again for the last hour and fifteen minutes up to our apartment. Not bad at all compared to the day before! Once we arrived we pretty much immediately began unloading everything! Our apartment is on the second floor so it was a little tiring and somewhat tricky (aka our couch was nearly impossible, thanks to our dads for the help with that!!). We pretty much just dumped everything anywhere in the apartment so Jeremiah and I could slowly but surely get things situated.

Also notice I chopped most of my hair off!

That same night that we moved in we went over to Joy and Michael's house (some of J's extended family) for a Fourth of July party! It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of delicious food! After that we dropped my parents off at the lightrail station so they could get to the airport. It was strange saying goodbye! The next morning we joined J's parents, and some other family for breakfast and took his parents to the airport soon after that. So then it was just us and our new apartment!

The next few days we nonstop unpacked/organized. It was tricky finding a place for everything, but we somehow managed! We made trips to the store here and there to break up the unpacking as well. Since moving here we have also gotten my name changed at the bank, I got a Colorado driver's license (which was a bit of a headache with all of the documents we needed), gotten a gym membership a two minute jog from our apartment, tried a couple new churches, and other misc important things. We've also done a few more fun things as well! We live right around the corner from Waterworld, a huge water park here in Denver so we spent a very fun day there. We also spent a full Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park with Jeremiah's great Uncle Bill! It is so gorgeous! I'd been once before a few years ago, but the scenery was just as incredible this time around. We drove around a big loop that takes you to different lookout points and walked around/took pictures at many of them. We also dipped our hands in the Colorado river, had a wonderful picnic lunch prepared by Bill, and took a shuttle bus to Bear Lake where we walked the loop around it. We finished the day off at a yummy dinner with Bill as well. It was an amazing day exploring the mountainous side of the state and spending more time with Bill than I ever have. Plus it reminded us that we just moved to a gorgeous place!

One other thing that I have been up to here since we moved is a little part time job! I work MWF from 9-1 at a company called Wunderkin about 25 minutes from us! So it's not a lot of time, but it's a little extra money. Wunderkin is this company that makes little girls' bows that my sister loves. Heather knew that they were located in Denver and needed some help packaging and shipping the bows. She gave me the email of the owner of the company whom I emailed basically asking if they could use my help and she said, sure come in Monday! So I started that a couple weeks ago and it has been a good use of my time, since I would otherwise not be doing much productive until school starts.

Most of you probably know from reading that Jeremiah turned down a full time offer at Stryker in Phoenix so that we could move up here to Denver. Which meant that we were moving here without him having a job. So after a lot of persistence in the job search/application process, Jeremiah found out last Wednesday that he got a full time offer as a Mechanical Engineer with Lockheed Martin!! He and I are extremely excited! I just know that they are going to be so happy they hired him, because he is so talented and such a hard worker. He can update on more specifics of the job in his next post, but he will be starting in a few weeks after they have completed a background check. That means we have a few weeks of minimal obligations and lots of exploring to do!

That's it from us Colorado Dwights for now! As I said, our apartment is all put together so any and all visitors are more than welcome!

I’d say it’s about time that I give my take on the wedding day! First off, it was amazing! It was everything I hoped for and more (cliche, I know- but true). All of the hard work and time that we spent planning and prepping came together perfectly.

I’ll start back to two weeks before the wedding when I started getting what felt like a cold. I was annoyed at the timing but also relieved that it came two weeks before the wedding and not two days before! But this cold just seemed to hang on and just as I thought I was getting better, I got worse. Greeeeat. The weekend before the wedding I had my Bachelorette party that Jeremiah explained a little bit about. I was feeling pretty well that whole weekend which was a relief. I had a blast! We volunteered at Feed My Starving Children which was a great way to start the celebration. You are trying to pack as many food boxes as possible in the 90 minutes you have, so it was fast-paced and fun. Feed My Starving Children is a Christian organization, so at the end we had the opportunity to pray over the food being sent to Thailand and the woman who prayed also prayed for Jeremiah and me without even really knowing us, but just knowing that we were getting married. It was really special.

We stayed at the cutest Airbnb in Downtown Phoenix, had a bunch of delicious snacks, and talked a lot! Then I opened some presents, we went to the delicious Cibo Pizzeria for dinner, followed by Bitter & Twisted for really interesting drinks, and the Duce for drinks and dancing! We danced for a really long time, but I love dancing so it was awesome! The next morning we just had a casual morning at our Airbnb with brunch. It was the perfect bachelorette party for me. My sisters and other bridesmaids and friends who helped put it together did such a great job planning!

The best sisters and cousin.

Some of my very best friends!

The bachelorette party was just the beginning of wedding festivities and as I said my sickness was unfortunately not going away. So on Tuesday I finally went to a Minute Clinic and she told me I had a sinus infection. Perfect timing. Starting Tuesday I was taking quite a few different medications to wipe the sickness and slowly but surely I got better. I felt about 90% by Friday, the day before the wedding, and finally 100% on Saturday. Actual perfect timing!

Thursday morning most of my bridesmaids, flower girls, and my mom and I got our nails done. Thursday evening I spent time at the Airbnb that a lot of my out-of-town family was staying at and we just had a good time together eating food and hanging out! Friday morning we gathered things up to take to our rehearsal at 3:00 that afternoon. My parents were a big help in staying organized so we had a checklist of things to remember to bring and the rehearsal went very smoothly! Pretty much just everyone figuring out where to stand, when to walk, etc. It was much faster than I expected! After that we headed to Magliano’s for the rehearsal dinner which was fantastic. We had a very large rehearsal dinner (most of both of our families were coming from out-of-town) so it was a great opportunity to have conversations with everyone and thank everyone for coming. Plus, the food was fantastic.

My dad and I at the rehearsal!

Going to bed Friday night I thought I would have a hard time sleeping with all the excitement that lay ahead, but I actually got an excellent night’s sleep! Kind of funny, but it was good because I had a busy day ahead. I woke up feeling very calm, just excited, and that’s pretty much how I stayed the whole day!

As Jeremiah said, I got to the venue at about 11:00, as did my bridesmaids and the hair/makeup artist. The hair person got to work right away and did such an awesome job! I loved every single style that my bridesmaids got done! My mom brought a bunch of snacks into the bridal suite so while everyone took turns getting their hair done, we snacked, talked, and just kind of got prepared! It was a very casual, slow morning/afternoon! We also ordered lunch from Salad and Go, which I highly recommend. I got my hair/makeup done right in the middle of the bridesmaids and it took quite awhile, but that was fine because she did amazing!! I was a little worried because during my hair/makeup trial I had my hair in an updo, but decided the week of the wedding that I would prefer it down. So I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I showed her few pictures of styles that I liked and it turned out great. I was really happy I went with my hair down (or half-up/half-down technically!). I also am really not used to so much makeup on my face, so I kept asking people, “Are you sure it doesn’t look like too much??” They kept reassuring me that it looked good, and once we got the professional photos back I was very glad I had my makeup done because it turned out great in the photos! Oh, I also had a spray tan done because I had some bad tan lines on my shoulders, and I was skeptical about that looking okay, but it also turned out just fine!

As I said it was a pretty slow, relaxing morning and then 3:00 rolled around. That is when the photographers and videographer showed up and things started moving very quickly! I got in my dress, we started getting some pictures done, I had to record my vows for the videographer in the midst of that, and then suddenly I was back in the bridal suite after pictures just hiding out until the start of the ceremony! Our coordinator got everyone lined up and took the bridesmaids up, and then it was just my dad and I left in the bridal suite! Starting then I was getting a little more anxious, but honestly I still felt very calm. Then just like that we were right outside the doors of the ceremony, the coordinator asked if I was ready, I said “Yep!” with a big smile and they swung the doors open. Jeremiah had the hugest smile on his face and I looked at him and no one else the whole walk down the aisle. It was incredible that this moment was finally here! The ceremony was so wonderful. Alan, our friend/officiant gave the perfect sermon, we prayed, and exchanged vows. I was really glad we did both traditional and our own vows. I can’t believe I made it through my vows without crying. I had to take many deep breaths to keep from doing so, but I managed! Jeremiah’s vows were incredible. It was just really special! Then we had our braid ceremony which I am so glad we did! Jessica, our friend/pianist/Alan’s wife sang “God With Us” so beautifully while we braided the three strands representing Jeremiah (and family), me (and family), and God. Really a special moment and after we finished we just got to enjoy Jessica singing the rest of the song. Also, throughout the ceremony I managed to notice some of the decorations/details which looked incredible!! We had an amazing eucalyptus arch against the white backdrop and it looked soo good. Anyone who came to the wedding probably noticed that I was obsessed with eucalyptus. So we had the arch, we had eucalyptus down the sides of the aisle, in our bouquets, and incorporated into the centerpieces. The sage green of the eucalyptus was the perfect accent to the gray and navy I thought! Anyway, after the braid ceremony we prayed and exchanged rings and Jeremiah dipped me during our kiss! I couldn’t believe how wonderful the ceremony was.

We were whisked right back to the bridal suite after the ceremony for signing the marriage license and the start of our pictures. We had pictured just the two of us, then family and bridal party pictures while the cocktail hour was going on. Surprisingly my face was not hurting from all of the smiling! Guess I was just too happy to care about it! It was a little interesting coordinating our big families in the pictures, but we managed. Then it was time to line up for the reception! Such a fun party!! Jeremiah and I had practiced a few moves for the entrance to “Uptown Funk” which was a great start. Then we had our first dance which did not start quite so great. The DJ started playing the wrong song… A song which neither of us had ever heard before. I felt like I was looking around frantically, we were trying to figure out what to do, but we just kept dancing. We were both saying, “It’s okay… It’s disappointing, but it will be a funny story down the road.” Luckily my sister-in-law went and told the DJ the right song so he cut the first one off, apologized, and played the right song- “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by Michael Buble. The perfect song seeing as Jeremiah truly is my best friend. We also had a fun little choreographed part in the middle!

After that my dad gave a really sweet speech, prayed, and it was time for dinner. We were served our meal right at our table which was awesome that we didn’t even have to get up! We ate the amazing food pretty quickly and then started our rounds through the tables to say hello to everyone and thank them for coming. It was so much fun to get around and chat with everyone. One of the things Jeremiah and I have often commented on since the wedding was how amazing it was to have so many people we love so much and who love us right back all in one room. Really incredible and we can’t say thank you enough to everyone who celebrated with us!

Also throughout the reception we did the shoe/newlywed game, really special father/daughter, mother/son dances, bouquet/garter tosses, cake cutting, and a couple wonderful speeches from our siblings! I loved every single activity!! For the garter toss I had no idea Jeremiah and his groomsmen were going to have nerf guns and it was so hilarious! Such a fun surprise! Then of course there was a ton of dancing! The DJ chose perfect songs to keep everyone dancing and our dance floor was packed almost the whole night! It was a little loud, so I apologize to those guests who were not partaking in the dancing, but I had a blast! Needless to say my feet were absolutely killing me by the end of the night because I never took my heels off. The blisters on my feet are just now fully clearing up! Worth it though! At the very end of the night while everyone was getting ready for the sparkler send-off Jeremiah and I had the dance floor to ourselves for one last dance to “When I Say I Do” by Matthew West. It was a really special, quiet moment to end the night. Then the awesome sparkler exit to our decorated car thanks to some of the groomsmen!

It was really an amazing day and while it did go by rather quickly, I felt like I did a very good job of taking in each moment and memory and all of the excitement. The vendors that we chose did an incredible job of putting everything together on the day of as well. I have to give a huge thanks to my parents once again for hosting the celebration and helping with every single detail.

So that’s it! Jeremiah and I are married and I am now officially a Dwight! Even got my name changed at the social security office already. Also as Jeremiah said, we had an absolutely wonderful honeymoon in Cancun, relaxing, swimming, reading, and eating way too much! A perfect week!

Pretty much all of this was a repeat of what Jeremiah said, I just wanted to give my point of view as well! I plan to write another post in the next few days on happenings since the wedding and our move to Denver! Stay tuned!