- Honeymoon -

Our wedding photographer was amazing. Kelly Manno. If your guy puts a ring on it, look her up stat. We love her spunky, easy going, and inspirational personality just as much as we love our wedding photos! [CLICK HERE to see our sneak peek on her blog!] On the wedding day, she stood behind the camera lens and snapped away at our every move.  She has an amazing gift of capturing life and love and everything else in between.  We are so grateful for her.

Unfortunately, we didn't hire a photographer to trail behind us in Hawaii and preserve the beautiful landscapes we saw and capture the memories we made.  Here, it was up to Brian and me to stand behind the lens and snap away.  As we started to review some of our pictures, we couldn't help but notice an interesting thing: our camera never quite captured the richness and beauty and depth and perspective that our eyes did.  The only way to keep this unique and beautiful world was to blink our eyes and preserve the memories forever.

These moments below [among millions of others] are photographs engraved in our minds forever.  In a meager effort to share our photobook with you, here are a few "blinks" from our honeymoon... ;)  Enjoy!

*****

Monday morning came bright and early; our flight was at 7:00am. It was 30 degrees when we left St. Louis and 85 when we arrived in Maui! For the entire week, we were immersed in sunshine and rainbows.  Thank you, Lord, for this awesome awesome weather!  
-blink- 

Five suitcase-pecking chickens met us at the rental car desk.  Interesting, to say the least.  Get away.  
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A bouquet of red roses awaited our arrival in the hotel room. "Who put these in here?!" "I did, babe!"  My husband is so thoughtful and romantic. I think I'll keep him around for a while! ;)  
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"Lei'd."  Oh yeah, pun intended... ;)   
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We are fond visitors of God's country!  
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Penguins in Hawaii?  Ok, we'll take it.  
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Halfway through the week, I found my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! A lifelong good-luck charm...sweet!  
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Breath-of-life wind, gusting so gracefully across the water...  
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Every day, we walked along the beach hand in hand.  I've been dreaming this moment with my soulmate since 5th grade.  
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Apparently Hawaii names their roads and beaches after us? Coo.  
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We marveled at allllll the spectacular flowers.  I seriously couldn't stop marveling.   
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Are these even flowers?  
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Five claps for romantic oceanside, candlelit dinners!  
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One of my favorite things was staring out over the ocean as it glowed in the soft night light.  So peaceful and pacifying and wonderful.   
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Our vacation package included breakfast in this restaurant called Swan Court.  How awesome and relaxing and gorgeous to sit there every morning and watch the waterfalls flowing and swans swimming!  
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We are in paradise. Just the two of us.  
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We drove the 6-hour long Road to Hana. To get to the city at the end of the road, we had to twist through verdant rainforests and swerve along the winding shoreline roads.  
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Spotted: waterfalls around every corner!  
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Convertible top down, music playing, and frequent stopping to observe luscious rainforest plant life like we had never seen before.  It was beautiful.  
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Say cheese!  
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Trees actually grow this way?!  
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Fr. Meconi: here in spirit. ;)  
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It was just the two of us most of the time, but every now and then we made a new friend!  
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Brian's siblings scheduled a helicopter ride as our wedding gift. Craziest ride of my life! #love  
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Future pilots?  

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1700-foot waterfalls.  Wowza!  
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Rainbows popped up every direction we turned.  Holy moly.  

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Hey, baby! Yeah, that's my smokin' hot husband.  

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Booty shakin', fire twirlin', luau lovin'.  

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I was the passenger of this FORD Mustang for the week. Inside joke for a select few, don't even ask.  

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Hawaii has a Starbucks on every corner. Hell yes!  
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Sipping Blondies, laughing together on the deck of a sailboat, and watching the sun disappear into the sea.  This is the life.  
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True story, babe.  

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Aloha, Hawaii... We will never forget you!!!  
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Cheers to the best week of our lives; double cheers to knowing that this is only the beginning of our always exciting and ever changing lives together!
-blink-

- MARRIED! -

We walked down the aisle, said the vows, slipped on the rings, and.....

.....WE'RE MARRIED!!! :) 

Stay tuned for more wedding and honeymoon pictures!

- Angel Seamstresses -

Thank you times a MILLION to both of our sweet mommas, my Grandma Penny, and Becky at Alterations A to Z for helping fix my dress! Even with four-inch heels, I still would've been tripping over this sucker without some major hemming action.

I can't even begin to count up the hours my mom spent sitting on the floor sewing this dress! #saint

Hugs and kisses and chocolates [and whatever else she requests!] to Becky at Alterations A to Z for helping bustle the back. This wonderful woman has taken care of me for homecomings, proms, pageants, and weddings for almost 10 years now. Thank you, Becky! :)

Tons of thanks to all the talented angel seamstresses! I'm happy to have such talented family [...especiallllly when the time rolls around to start sewing some baby blankets! Hehe!].

- Father/Daughter Dance -

I have been waiting so long to spoil the secret of our father/daughter dance!  All of of it was choreographed by the wonderful dancing sisters, Alicia and Hallie Schneider! [The first video clearly shows how rough we would've been without them!] We could not have done this without you two; thank you so so much for 1) welcoming us into your home and 2) teaching us the moves over and over and being so patient! We love you!

[Don't forget to pause the music at the bottom of this page before you push play!]

The practicing part:

The showtime part:

- Loading the Trailer -

The flowers are loaded into the trailer, and the Stieren house is officially de-wedding-ized and ready to hit the road with all these decorations! 

St. Louis, I hope you are prepared for everything that we are about to unload! ;) 

- Finishing Touches -

Tonight, we finished writing thank you cards and wrapping gifts...

...finished threading ribbons through the programs...

...and finished the bridal bouquet! [...Which couldn't be finished without a chainsaw, obviously.]

Thanks for your last minute help Susie, Marchelle, Kate, Dena, and Joe! [Poor Dena and Joe stopped by to drop our wedding gift off and got stuck working for a few hours!]

By the end of Wednesday, there was nothing left to do except get our nails done and then have a celebratory margarita! 

Cheers to the culmination and completion of wedding week! [And it's only Wednesday!]

- "M" -

We got this dainty little tissue pack to tie on my dad's wedding gift at the rehearsal dinner!

[The sad part is, they will probably be depleted on Saturday before we even start our march down the aisle!!]

Hehe. Love ya, Dad! 

- More {DIY} Candied Pecans -

One last batch!  [Love how my mom wakes up and automatically dresses in our wedding colors!]

- Bubble Wrapping -

Vases, frames, mirrors, and everything else "breakable" are bubble-wrapped, packed, and ready to rock and roll! 

[6 days......yikes!]

- Tying Loose Ends -

Thanks to Aunt Margy for helping us tie up loose ends to lots of unfinished projects! Programs, wedding wands, and gift bag filling kept us busy for several hours! :)

Thanks, lady! Love ya! 

- Hotel Gift Bags -

Today, we filled the hotel gift bags with all of our favorite things! [We'll be dropping them off at the hotels on Thursday so anyone with early check-in will still have a chance to get their goodies.]

Check out these posts to see how the bags came together:

• Chocolate-covered pretzels
• Candied pecans
• Chocolate spoons
• Schlafly beers
• Door hangs

My very favorite part of the gift bags: "her favorite" and "his favorite."

Thanks, Margy, for your help! Thanks, friends, for booking hotel rooms so this project could keep us so busy! ;) 

- {DIY} Glitter Gourds - Part II -

...And they're finished! [CLICK HERE to see how they started.]

- P's and G's -

I love the way our parents' and grandparents' wedding picture frames turned out! I made little display cards today with their names, anniversary dates, and churches.

The frames will be displayed on a fireplace mantle at the reception [and hopefully in some sort of creative collage in our house afterwards]. So excited! 

[Even more than the frames, I love how my mom and aunt are so diligently working on wedding wands in the background!]

- Bridesmaid Gifts -

Bridesmaid gifts are wrapped and packed! 

- {DIY} Wine Glasses -

[Can't tell who all these are for without spoiling the surprise, but] I love these flower glasses!  Dad painted them Friday night...

...and I personalized them!

So excited to wrap them and give them away! 

- Unwrapping and Shining -

With the wedding one week away, we invited some of the family over to help finish up our "to-do" list! Happy Friday night to them... ;) While one table of people was stuffing programs, the other was unwrapping lots and lots of candles and shining lots and lots of mirrors. 

[After a few beers, Uncle Matt thought unwrapping the candles with his teeth would be easier than using a knife!]

Thanks Matt, Lisa, Larry, Pat, and Blake! 

[We have the most helpful wonderful family!]

- {DIY} Door Hangs -

One more thing to stuff in your hotel gift bags! 

[I think we'll be hanging an extra large one of these on the honeymoon suite doorknob!]

- {DIY} Programs -

Letting a stranger create the wedding programs = absolutely unfathomable to a Type A bride.

So what was the solution? 

...DIY, of course! ;) 

After these were perfected and printed, we rallied up some family members to help assemble the pages and tie the ribbons on the outside. (Definitely glad to delegate out this part of the work!)

Thanks to George Press for printing. Thanks to Pat and Larry for spending their Friday night stuffing!

- {DIY} Bathroom Basket -

"To our favorite ladies: Whether your skin feels dry or your hair out of place, you're not feeling so fresh or whatever the case; we've put together a basket to help you along. ...Now hurry back out before you miss the next song!"

The women's bathroom is all stocked up for you, ladies! 

- Work Shower -

A big thanks goes out to the wonderful labor and delivery staff for throwing me a shower at work this week! 

Our 4am party was complete with a huge spread of food, a Cosmo magazine full of everyone's "best advice," and the greatest friends and co-workers a girl could ever ask for!

The cutest cupcakes from Barbie!

I love my nurses!!! So lucky! :)

- Happy Halloween -

This groom is creative AND romantic! ;) 

At this time in 12 days, we'll be standing at the altar getting ready to say, "I do!"

Happy Halloween from the [soon-to-be] Flemings! 

- Hotel Parking -

A couple options for parking:

1) The hotel charges a one time fee of $10-15 per day.

However, if you plan to park your car one time after the church and then ride the shuttle to the reception, 

2) The Stadium East parking garage only charges $5. [It it $5 in and out every time, so make sure you will not be leaving!] This parking garage is across the street from the Drury and Millennium, so it's just as convenient [and safe, we were assured] as the hotel parking garages.

- P's and G's Weddings -

We love these pictures from our parents' and grandparents' weddings!  

Mark and Resa Stieren
February 2, 1985
St. Raymond Catholic Church (Raymond, IL)

Ron and Ann Fleming
September 29, 1973
Church of the Ascension (Mt. Olive, IL)

Carl and Martha Beeler 
June 5, 1954
St. Maurice Catholic Church (Morrisonville, IL)

Jim and Penny Stieren
June 27, 1959
St. Mary's Catholic Church (Farmersville, IL)

George and Beverly Dragovich
June 24, 1950
Church of the Ascension (Mt. Olive, IL)

Dean and Viola Fleming
October 12, 1946
First United Methodist Church (Staunton, IL)

So excited to display these at our reception hall! :)

- Housekeeping Items -

As the wedding is only two weeks and some change away (YIKES!), we wanted to mention a few housekeeping items:

-- The hotel blocks have now been released. If you are still hoping to get a room, the Drury has agreed to give you our group rate should a room in the hotel open up.  Last we checked, the Millennium still had plenty of vacancy.

-- Please plan for city traffic on wedding day! Especially with the bridge construction, St. Louis weekend traffic is always unpredictable.  Hopefully traffic will cooperate and you will be able to beat the wedding party down the aisle! ;) 

-- We have reserved free parking in the Laclede parking garage on the corner of Grand and Laclede. The garage is a block away from the church, so also save time to park and walk.  Meter parking is also available on Lindell Blvd. [Make sure your meter has enough time, though, because the cops love to write tickets on this street.]

-- As much as we would love to dismiss row by row after the ceremony, it is not feasible with the time limitations we have before the next Mass starts. The reception doors open at 5:45 pm, so we will begin our receiving line at the reception hall at this time. 

-- For any Catholics in the bunch who will be looking for a Saturday vigil Mass to attend between our ceremony and reception, please CLICK HERE. 

-- In between the ceremony and reception, we encourage you to check in to your hotel rooms.  We are providing a shuttle from Jed's Transportation to continuously loop back and forth between the hotel and reception all night. The first shuttle will depart from the front door of the Drury at 5:30 pm.

Feel free to contact us with any questions! We are so excited that you can be a part of our special day and are looking forward to celebrating with you! :)

[17 days to go!]

- Pampered By Britney -

She makes my hair pretty for the wedding, and I sit in her chair and drink margaritas...

...Sweet deal!

A million thanks to [ex-Madison County Fair Queen and newlywed!] Britney for always fixing my hair exactly the way I like it!  I'm so happy we kept up this friendship from the pageant days, but even happier that I have the world's best hairstylist! :)

- {DIY} Chocolate Spoons -

More goodies are finished for the hotel gift bags! Mom dipped the spoons and I decorated them...

Quote of the night: "Do you think people know how to use a chocolate spoon or should we include instructions?!"

But seriously, do they? :/

- {DIY} Chocolate Pretzels -

In the middle of the Cardinal cheering and the pecan packing, we decorated our white chocolate-covered pretzels! 

These hotel gift bags are gonna be rockin' with all of our favorite things!