I could not have asked for a more perfect day. The week before our wedding, Southern California experienced a heat-wave with triple digit temperatures, but thankfully when I woke up the morning of our wedding, the high temperatures had let up, giving way to the most beautiful, breezy day.

I met up with the ladies of our wedding party at the cottage provided by Ponte and we began getting ready. My sister did my hair and make-up, which I absolutely adored. I’m not sure how much she enjoyed working with me, as she had to listen to my concerns every step of the way, but she stayed professional and kind-hearted, assuring me she still needed to blend this and smooth that and everything would be fine.

After we were done getting ready, we met up with the guys to take photos prior to our wedding ceremony. I had asked Stephen a couple weeks ago what he thought my dress looked like (all you bride’s-to-be should do this; it’s hilarious) so I couldn’t wait to reveal to him just how off he was. He’d given me quite a detailed description, explaining how the straps went over my shoulders and the back was a deep-v. He told me about the satin fabric, how it gathered across my body and had a little beading across the top. I was cracking up on the inside, but simply told him, “We’ll see.” When he saw me for the first time in my wedding gown, he took a second to take in the moment, then began laughing and told me, “Whoa, I was way off!” The fun and laughter continued as we took photos with each other and our wedding party. We were privileged to not only have awesome photographers, but they also happened to be our friends, which gave us all the freedom to be relaxed and have a good time. (I was fortunate to get a sneak-peak at what’s to come, since I had to have a few shots to share with you!)

Knowing my tendency to run late, as well as realizing our guests would be traveling quite a ways to our wedding, we decided a while back to have our cocktail hour prior to the wedding ceremony. This would allow time for guests to get to our venue and relax before the ceremony. Who am I trying to kid? It allowed our entire wedding party time to take a trip to Starbucks (which also happened to be a fun place for more photos!)We drove back to Ponte after hours of preparation and fun with our photographers and began the celebration. Our ceremony was such a touching moment in my life. I felt like a little girl all over again when my father met me to walk me down the aisle. He told me I looked amazing and then led me on the path to my husband-to-be. Stephen looked stunning and I was so honored to become his wife. Our ceremony was not without flaw, which was perfect. There were laughs and tears and tons of love felt from everyone. We moved on to dinner, then outside to the patio for dancing and desserts. I was pretty impressed with everyone’s dancing skills and ability to keep the party going all night long!

As Stephen and I reminisce about our wedding, we can’t help but smile and talk about all the love we felt and how much fun we had. More than anything, we wanted our wedding celebration to be a gift to our friends and family who have waited patiently (for the most part) for ten years for this day. Our hope is that everyone had a great time and felt as loved as we did on our wedding day.And on that note, I leave you all with my final blog post as a Bride-to-Be. It has been an honor to walk through my engagement with you and a true blessing to have such a talented friend in Laura. Thank you all.

With Love,Mrs. Jenn Glenn-Doreck

All photos courtesy of Ever After Photography.