Good evening, readers!
Well, it's official! Yesterday we got hitched, after months and months of getting fit! We are officially Mr. & Mrs. Emerson!
Of course we don't have our professional photographs back yet, but I'm sure we will be sharing lots of them on Facebook once we do. Until then we've gotten a few good photographs sent to us, but if you want to see more you should check out #flemerson or #flemersonwedding on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Bill and I could not be happier with the way everything turned out yesterday. At least from our perspective things went off without a hitch and everything was absolutely perfect.
On Friday we had our rehearsal and dinner. I was surprised at how many tiny decisions there were to be made at the rehearsal, an I eventually got exasperated. I just couldn't help but think that it shouldn't be this hard to have everyone walk down the aisle, sit or stand in their spot, and then walk back at the end. So I got a little frustrated there, but it ended up fine. They we had a delicious dinner hosted by Bill's mom Kris, which was beautiful. Afterward I went to the hotel and Bill went home.
My personal attendant, Kim, stayed with me in the hotel room. We got up pretty early Saturday and had breakfast before everyone congregated in my room to get their hair and makeup done. The hairdresser and makeup artist were right on time, at 9am. We ended up finishing the hair and makeup early, and headed to the church at 11:15.
At the church we relaxed for a few minutes before the photographer arrived at noon. Then it was time to get the dress on! The nature of my dress made it impossible for me to step into it, meaning I had to put it on over my head. I was concerned about it ruining my hair and makeup, but the teamwork of 6 people made it go on smoothly.
We spend the next 3 hours taking photographs in different locations both inside and outside the church. At 3pm we retired to our getting-ready rooms while the guests arrived, and then it was time to get married!
I think the ceremony went off without a hitch as well, but if you think otherwise you can keep it to yourself :) We had a reverse unity ceremony, which I thought was nice and added a feeling of inclusion to the ceremony. Afterward we grabbed our stuff and got straight on the party bus.
We stopped at downtown's Rice Park and took some photos, then we went to Keller park and took even more photos! Then we were ready to go to the reception.
One of my favorite parts of the day was our first dance. It was to the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli. We each entered through different doors at the reception hall and met in the middle for our dance. Its was super fun!
Then we ate after a nice heartfelt welcome by Bill's dad, Bob, and prayer by Pastor Dan. And we can't forget the singing of Johnny Appleseed led enthusiastically by Bill's Aunt Sue! The food was as amazing I remember in the tasting. Then we were on to the speeches! First was Maid of Honor, Sam, who actually passed her time over to my brother Chip. Let's just say there was not a dry eye in the house after that speech. Then came Best Man Rob, aided by the help of Mini-Best Man Nicholas. Another beautiful speech, which was then followed by my dad. Another speech that succeeded in making me tear up.
Then we had dessert, an ice cream bar. We went around to dismiss each table for dessert, which took way longer than we thought it would. When we finished we had just enough time for the first dances with our parents before the photographer had to leave, but it worked out perfectly!
We spent the rest of the night dancing away, with pizza and a french-fry bar coming out at 10pm to satisfy our late night munchies. Bill and I danced to our last song, "Save The Last Dance" by Michael Buble, at about 11:40 and made our getaway!
I have to say it was an absolutely perfect day. Everything went so smoothly, we had perfect weather, and I felt absolutely beautiful and confident, mostly because of the multitude of compliments I received. But also because I knew that I worked really hard to lose those 50 pounds to make myself worthy of those compliments.
There are way too many people to thank, but here goes nothing:
Kim, my personal attendant: Thanks for running around like a crazy person and keeping everyone on time! You were great at making sure I had everything I needed and that I was happy. Thank you!
Mom: Thank you for doing all the decorating on Saturday morning and for cleaning up after us at the church and at the reception late at night. None of this could have happened without you!
Kris: Thank you for a beautiful rehearsal dinner, beautiful decorations in the church, and for keeping us fed during a hectic day!
The entire wedding party: Thanks for being there and putting up with our crazy demands without a single complaint!
Dad: Thanks for walking me down the aisle. You physically and emotionally supported me when I needed it most.
Bob: Thanks for the kind words and welcoming me into the family with open arms!
I feel like I'm on an award show with too many people to thank and not enough time to do it!
One last thank you: Thanks to everyone who reads my blog, whether you comment or "lurk". It is because of you that I was able to lose the weight while planning this wedding, which ultimately led to a perfect day. Thank you for keeping me accountable!
I can't believe this is my last post. After more than 400 posts it almost seems surreal that I was able to continue this for so long. It was a great experience, but its time to put it to rest. Who knows, maybe I'll start a new blog to document my "30 before 30" journey.
Thank you for everything, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
Holy crap I can't believe I'll be married in less than 48 hours! I'm not nervous, even though everyone keeps asking :) I'm still mostly excited, and still not looking forward to being the center of attention for a whole day. But other than that I'm pretty calm. I think.
Today I had a very busy day, even though it was my first day off work. I answered lots of work texts, but it steal beats actually being there. I ran some errands and had a couple beauty appointments in the morning, and then I met my parents at Keller to bring all the reception decorations in. Since we can't get in until 10am on Saturday to decorate, Keller was nice enough to let us bring all the decorations there and store them until then. We put together all the centerpieces as much as we could and made sure we had all the other pieces there and ready to go. My mom has recruited some pretty reliable helpers to assist in the decorating that day, so I'm sure everything will go well!
While we were at Keller my bridesmaid Maddie and her parents Kelly and Howard came and helped us out with the decorations! We all had lunch together, and then we went to the hotel. Everyone else checked in, and I just dropped off the welcome bags.
PSA: If you're staying at the hotel make sure you get a welcome bag upon check in! Especially if you made a late reservation or possibly forgot to use the promo code, they won't know you're with the wedding! And trust me, you want the welcome bag :)
Afterward I went home and took a nap. I did get up at 5 this morning and go to 5:30 am weightlifting. That class was a little awkward because the instructor knew I'm getting married on Saturday and announced it to the whole class and asked a bunch of questions. As you can see, the whole "center of attention" thing is not really my deal. I'll do my best.
I spent most of the evening fielding calls, texts, and emails from various wedding party members with last-minute questions. Mostly about dress code for rehearsal dinner/wedding and other random stuff. I also did some cleaning so that the house isn't a total disaster when we leave for our honeymoon. There's nothing worse than coming back from vacation to a dirty house.
Tomorrow will be a big day, it's rehearsal dinner time! I've got some activities with the bridal party in the morning and then the rehearsal in the evening. I'll do my best to take some photos to share with you all tomorrow evening!
Until then, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
What an incredibly exhausting two days I have had! Once people at work got wind (or remembered) that I was going to be leaving for two whole weeks, all chaos broke loose. For those of you who don't know exactly what my job entails, I purchase all of the drugs and medical supplies for the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center. I'm sure there's a person like me at every hospital, human or animal. It's one of those things you don't think about... who puts in the time to order, receive, and pay for things like gauze, tongue depressors, and hospital gowns? That would be me.
So when I leave for two weeks, even though I have a backup who is just as capable as me, the chaos ensues. Between yesterday and today I've ordered aaaaaaaall the things. Which makes for a very tiring day, I must say. Plus, yesterday, I went to Zumba after work. By the time I got finished with today I got home and crashed. I didn't sleep, but I haven't really moved much.
Today was weird for me though, because people kept asking me if I am nervous for my wedding. Umm... no, am I supposed to be? I'm not feeling nervous or stressed. I'm mostly excited and looking forward to it, and a little anxious at being the center of attention for an entire day. But that's about it. Everything is planned really well, I think. Besides clearing up a few last-minute details I think it will be all good. So I'm not nervous. Is that weird? Now if only I could get Bill to practice dancing with me...
So tomorrow things really begin. My mom and I are going to the reception venue, Keller, tomorrow afternoon to bring all the decorations there. We can store them there until we go to set up at 10am on Saturday. I'm also going to be bringing the welcome bags to the hotel tomorrow so that all of you staying there will have a treat upon arrival :) I can't believe some of our out-of-town family members, including my very own bridesmaid Maddie Soypher, will be here tomorrow! It's finally becoming real, I'd say. So will someone tell me exactly what I'm forgetting to do? There's gotta be something; it just can't be this easy.
Also tomorrow I think I'm going to go to 5:30am BodyPump. I might be crazy to get up early on a precious day off, but it will probably be my last chance before the wedding, and then I'll miss it for an entire week! I hope I don't lose all my muscle in that time frame!
If that's the case I must be off to bed! Or at least to work on this library book that's due in two days! Can you imagine, I'm reading a book three days before my wedding because I'm out of wedding stuff to do? That's nuts.
Until tomorrow, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
So we all know I put a lot of focus on the scale, but sometimes that's not the only way to measure progress. We can literally measure it with our handy-dandy pink Singer tape measure. Since muscle weighs more than fat I'm hoping I've lost a few inches even if I haven't lost much weight.
So here's where we started:
Bust: 38"
Waist: 32"
Hips: 48"
Thighs: 31"
Arms: 16"
Here's where we are today:
Bust: 37"
Waist: 29.5"
Hips: 45"
Thighs: 26.5"
Arms: 13"
Wow, I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed with that progress! Specifically in my thighs and arms.
I think I may have mentioned this before, but my arms are the area of my body I am most self-conscious about. I'm incredibly happy that I have lost three inches there. Sure, there's still work to do, but that's pretty not bad!
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it in this blog, but last year at Chip and Sam's wedding we were invited to go zip lining with some of the family, but I was unable to go because my thighs were too big to fit into the zip lining harness. I told Bill that I was going to work as hard as I could to never be embarrassed like that again. And guess what? 27 inches was the max. Look who's at 26.5? Epic win for me.
So that's all the excitement over here. We're just dealing with last minute wedding stuff. I'm kind of enjoying people asking me things and just making decisions based on what I want without worrying what everyone else thinks. Not in like a bridezilla way (hopefully) just in a, "No one knows what's best for me more than me," kind of way.
Oh one kind of exciting thing did happen today. I went to Zumba and Body Pump after work, and in between classes the Zumba teacher asked me when I was going to become a Zumba teacher myself! So that was kind of flattering. I told her, "maybe after the wedding." So there's something to look into for my 30 before 30 challenge!
No more stats, as things are all crazy with the wedding coming up and I can't even remember if I ate lunch today. But I definitely ate dinner! And I'm pretty sure there's a pint of Halo Top in the freezer with my name on it :)
Until tomorrow, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
I can't believe we are getting married in 1 week! Which means this is the last Saturday I will be posting on this blog, which means it's the very last weigh-in I will have!
I am happy to let you know that I lost two pounds this week, bringing my final total of weight lost to 50 pounds!
So it's not the 60 pounds I had set out to lose. But I'm still very happy with it and feel like I look much better, feel better, and have more confidence than I did when I started. Here's my first before photo:
Here's my halfway through photos:
And here's my photos from today:
As I look at these now I can notice the differences, even though they're not world's greatest photos. We really need to get a better full-length mirror.
Thank you all for taking this weigh-loss journey with me. I am going to be making a second journey, although I don't think I will blog about out. After the wedding and honeymoon I'm going to start a new diet that I am calling "30 before 30." I want to lose another 30 pounds before my 30th birthday next March. If I can do that I believe I will have reached my health goals, if not my appearance goals. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to change to accomplish this yet, so I've been weighing my diet and exercise options to see how I can get there. I'll probably have to promise myself some really cool reward though. Like a vacation. Or a puppy :)
On Monday I will take my measurements and post for the last time so we can see how many inches I lost total. I'm not super confident in my ability to accurately measure, but hopefully we can get a rough estimate!
Wedding weather update: getting better! The chance of rain decreased to only 20%, and there's a high of 56 degrees. Now if it could just get a little warmer that day it would be perfect! We'll keep an eye out.
I hope everyone has a very happy Easter!
Until tomorrow, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
After writing this blog almost every day for the past 14 months, I have to say I've really learned a lot. I've had my good days and my bad days, but hopefully more good than bad, and I've managed to plan an entire wedding and lose a bunch of weight. But I think the best thing that came out of this was my fitness routine.
I've gotten to the point now where NOT going to the gym feels weird. I go 5 days a week, sometimes 6, and if you didn't count sleep time I might almost spend more time there than I do at my house. I get tired of being there sometimes; it would be nice to be magically fit without having to spend 10+ hours at the gym every week. But I've made friends there, and I always feel good after going. So I'm glad to have it and I know for a fact I will keep it up after the wedding is done.
Today I had so many different people at the gym ask me how many days until my wedding. Some were in disbelief that I was still coming to the gym a mere 9 days prior to the big day. But what else am I going to do? Everything is planned and done, I'm not stressed, and I'd otherwise just be watching Netflix or reading. So I might as well keep up on it! I'm going to miss two weeks for the wedding and honeymoon, why would I want to miss three?
Man I wish I had more exciting things to report from wedding planning land. You'd think this close to the wedding I'd have all sorts of stuff to tell you, but its all done! I'm just working on eating well, exercising, and doing all that personal stuff like whitening my teeth, trying to get these eyebrows in check with some gradual tweezing, and doing everything within my power to not get any pimples. Oh and obsessively watching the weather report. Maybe I'll report that daily here, along with my daily stats!
Today's stats:
Steps taken: 20,000
Calories burned: 3365
Calories consumed: 1445
April 22nd weather report: 40% chance of AM showers
Okay the weather report has improved, so that's good. My eating, however, has not. And I just did a weightlifting class, which always makes me want to stuff my face. But I can wait until the wedding to stuff my face :)
Until tomorrow, readers.
Kayti
Good evening, readers!
Definitely fell asleep early last night. Like 8:45 early. Just though I'd explain my lack of blog yesterday.
I'm still nursing the aftermath of my increased squat weight from Monday; my quads are still burning. Like I walk funny because it hurts to walk too fast. Sorry for the whining. No pain, no gain, right? I must have had aaaaaall the gain on Monday because now I'm having all the pain.
Yesterday I went to Zumba after work, thinking doing some moving would help with the quad pain. It was almost comical how hard it was for me to move. I'll have to remember not to do too much squat weight too close to the wedding; I want to be able to get my groove on!
Otherwise today was just a pretty normal day. It's Wednesday so I didn't work out. I did do a few wedding things, though. I sent the Bible verses we chose to the readers, Laura & Laura, so they can practice them if they want to. I also printed out all our travel documents, including our tourist cards, for the honeymoon.
Oh, we also had to call our DJ tonight. We are using a company that matches you with a DJ based on a profile you fill out; it's like eHarmony but for wedding DJ's. So we called our DJ, Jamir, a couple hours ago and I'm pretty sure we're best friends now. Maybe he's just being nice to get a bigger tip, but I think he did a good job of understanding what we wanted. I was nervous to call, mostly because I'm so awkward with new people. But it worked out well! One less thing to be anxious about.
After that I cooked Bill dinner, some shrimp scampi and salad. It was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself. Who puts water chestnuts in shrimp scampi? All the cool kids, apparently.
Sorry, Wednesdays are always such a boring day for me, which is why I don't usually blog on Wednesdays. It's the day where I catch up on TV shows or reading, maybe do some cleaning, and actually have dinner with Bill instead of coming home, scarfing something down, and immediately running back to the gym.
So we're just here, counting down the days and obsessing about the weather. And cheering for the Wild tonight, in the hopes that they win this series 4-0. Otherwise they'll have home game on our wedding day and possibly ruin the pictures I want to take in Rice Park.
We'll just have to wait and see!
Until tomorrow, readers!
Kayti
