A Wandering Weekend

This weekend brought more relaxation. Saturday was Cameron’s fantasy football draft day so he headed out early to go play a round of golf at Turkey Creek with some of his opponents before the official draft. From what he has told me, he’s happy with his team, but we’ll see as the season gets closer. His teams are often plagued with injuries and one player is already out for a week or two with a sprained shoulder!

I, on the other hand, slept in a little before heading to Mellow Me Out for a wonderful massage. Christina and Kim met me there, where they got different treatments. The massage was definitely in order. From all the moving, and removing thanks to all the great wedding gifts, I developed quite a pain in my right shoulder – so bad that the week before the wedding I couldn’t lift a glass of champagne to my lips! The masseuse really worked on that shoulder and my lower back, but my favorite part had to be when she massaged my hair – 5 wonderful minutes of her just running her fingers through my hair. It did leave my hair a little greasy. Both Kim and Christina commented on how relaxed I looked when I emerged from the dark. We went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch after our lovely treatments.

From there I picked up Mel and headed up to Chico. This was not a planned trip until Friday when I found out my wedding band was ready and I could finally get my engagement ring back. The wedding band is so beautiful, much more than I had expected. Pictures definitely don’t do it justice, so you’ll just have to see it in person. After my mom and I picked up my ring, Mom, Dad and I went to Sin of Cortez for dinner. They only recently started serving dinner. Too bad they haven’t all along – it was fantastic. But the dessert was the best – banana cooked in sugars and rum and served with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

I drove back to Elk Grove that night so I could wake up at home on Sunday, as my plan was to focus the day on cleaning up the house. And that’s pretty much all I did Sunday. It was a success, as except for a little more cleaning and vacuuming in the TV room, and a few more dishes to wash, we have a livable downstairs. We now, however, have 6 large trash bags full of recyclable items.

We aren’t sure how we will ever get caught up with recyclables, as our recycle bin is small and only gets picked up every other week. We’ll try though. Wedding Gifts are for the most part accounted for, almost put away and almost all the thank you notes are written. I just need to buy the stamps and mail them out. The last few will have to wait for when more envelopes arrive, which are on order as we speak. I’ll probably finish the last of the downstairs stuff this week and focus on upstairs next weekend, but luckily upstairs isn’t as bad as downstairs was – we had little paths to walk through all the boxes!

Cameron took me out to Sushi for dinner last night. We tried a place called Mikuni, one that Sara had mentioned to us after her mom read a good review. It is a chain special to Sacramento and Northern California. It was pretty good, not as good as our place in Fremont, but somewhere we’d go again and much better than our first experience with Crazy Sushi.

And that was our/my weekend.

Love Always,
Sarah

Reception Soundtrack

On with the soundtrack. The first song selected was the song that would play while our wedding party was introduced. This song was Me & My Gang by Rascal Flats.

The next song played was played on piano by my dad as Cameron and I danced for the first time as husband and wife. The song was John Michael Montgomery’s I Swear.

For the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dance, Carly Simon was singing a version of You are My Sunshine. This song held special meaning for my dad and I. When I was little, my dad would buckle me into the kiddie seat on the back of his bike and we would bike out into the orchards near our house to visit a farm that had Lamas. Amazingly, in all those trips out there, we never did get spit on. Any how, on our way there and back, my dad would sing You are My Sunshine to me over and over again at my begging requests.

The next song played was for the Wedding Party dance and their dates. The song we chose for this was Kenny Chesney’s Don’t Blink.

All the “official” dances were followed by the following playlist. While some of the songs hold some kind of meaning behind, it would make this post twice as long and then other songs, Cameron put in here only because we like them or they are good party songs.

Hella Good – No Doubt
Get this Party Started – Pink
How Forever Feels – Kenny Chesney
Swingin’ – John Anderson
Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You – Bryan Adams
I Want You – Savage Garden
White Wedding Part 1 – Billy Idol
Boombastic – Shaggy
Wild, Wild West – The Escape Club
Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It – Will Smith
Mo Money, Mo Problems – The Notorious B.I.G.
If you Get There Before I Do – Collin Ray
Livin’ on A Prayer – Bon JOvi
Cradle of Love – Billy Idol
A Techno Mix of ACDC, Nirvana, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Guns n Roses
Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
Life is a Highway – Rascal Flats
Love a Little Stronger – Diamond Rio
Truly Madly Deeply – Savage Garden
Twist & Shout – The Beatles
Surfing USA – Beach Boys
Zoot Suit Riot – Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
One Week – Bare Naked Ladies
Tubthumping – Chumawamba
Love Shack – B52s
Summertime Blues – Alan Jackson
Kokomo – Beach Boys
Somethings Gotta Give – LeAnn Rimes
Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
Can I get a… - Jay-Z
Ghetto Supastar – Wyclef Jean
Earth Angel – The Penguins
AM Radio – Everclear
Daisy Dukes – 2 Live Crew
Pump It – Black Eyed Peas
Pony – Genuwine
Nothing Bout Love Makes Sense – LeAnn Rimes

And that was our reception’s soundtrack. Hope you enjoyed most of the music if you made it!

Love Always,
Sarah

Ceremony Soundtrack

Cameron worked very hard on our wedding soundtrack and while it didn’t go off quite as planned, we did want to share with you all the songs you should and might have heard at the wedding. As the list is actually quite long, today, we’re sharing the ceremony soundtrack.

Prior to the Cameron’s skydive entrance, the following list of songs were supposed to have played. I don’t believe this happened as the truck that was to be used for the sound system was instead used to drive people to the ceremony site and was driving on the airstrip when Cameron was about to land.

Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House - Garth Brooks
Mercury Blues - Alan Jackson
Back When - Tim McGraw
Blue Clear Skys – George Straight
Summers Comin’ – Clint Black
Ain’t going Down (Til the Sun comes up) – Garth Brooks
Indian Outlaw – Tim McGraw
Better Life – Keith Urban
Good Run of Bad Luck – Clint Black
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) - Big & Rich
Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) – Garth Brooks
Days Go By – Keith Urban
You Can’t Take the Country Out of Me – Alabama
Beer for My Horses – Toby Keith & Willie Nelson
Cadillac Ranch – Chris LeDoux
Down on the Farm – Tim McGraw
I’m in a Hurry (And Don’t Know Why) – Alabama
Rock My World (Little Country Girl) – Brooks & Dunn
Should’ve Been a Cowboy – Toby Keith
Check Yes or No – George Straight
Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident) – John Michael Montgomery
Chattahoochee – Alan Jackson
Big Time – Big & Rich
Hometown Honeymoon – Alabama
You’re my better half – Keith Urban
Nothin’ to Lose – Josh Gracin

This play list was then to go silent until it was radioed in that Cameron, Matt and Nick had jumped. The song you were supposed to hear up until their landing was Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf.

Then while the boys got out of their gear and into their shirts along with a little time to freshen up, you were supposed to hear Alan Jackson’s Good Time.

I believe you did get to hear the next song, which was for Cameron driving the hay ride with the wedding party. This song was supposed to continue as the girls walked down the aisle – She Thinks My Tractors Sexy by Kenny Chesney.

I walked in to Big & Rich’s Lost in This Moment.

And finally, our exit song: Life is a Highway by Rascal Flats. Not sure who picked up on it, partially because many people couldn’t here our vows, but Cameron’s vows came from this song. My vows came from Shania Twain’s From this Moment.

Tune in soon for the Reception Soundtrack.

Love Always,
Sarah

Life Back to Normal

Life seems to be back to normal, which I have to say is a welcoming feeling. While Cameron and I both enjoyed the planning and execution of our wedding, it was all-consuming at times, especially at the end. As the wedding date neared, I did start to feel sad that the planning was ending and the day would soon be here and gone, but now that’s it’s gone, I can focus on other things and relax completely – no more wedding to-dos floating in the back of my mind or feeling guilty if I want an evening off from everything and just veg in front of the TV.

This past weekend was spent getting the house organized, unpacking and putting away wedding gifts and packing up all that the gifts are replacing. My mom arrived around 8 AM Saturday morning after dropping my Aunt Laurinda off at the airport. We both ended up snoozing a little more until a pesky salesman came knocking. Definitely need to go get a No Soliciting sign at Target soon. Other than that, we ran a few errands – we never thought finding a pumice stone to remove toilet bowl rings would be so hard! Turns out the grocery store is your best bet – we learned this after searching at both Target and Linens N Things. The water is pretty hard here so those pesky rings appear quite quickly.

We also stopped by my favorite home store, Home Goods, and found a cute little bed side table for our guest room.



Both my parents would be staying with us that night as they had another wedding to go to in Lincoln. This meant I needed to get the guest room in some kind of shape. I did pretty well too, if I can say so.



There’s still a little shelf unit I need to move in there from the garage and boxes to unpack, but at least my parents could walk in there and sleep after an hours of cleaning. Before the bed had been stacked with the boxes and there was cat toys and beds on the floor. I also want to go back to Home Goods and get another one of the little tables. It just works so well with the room and bedding now.

My parents had a lovely time at the wedding that night, but they had to admit when they got home, they are glad to be done with weddings for the season. We all had a lovely breakfast on Sunday at Mimi’s Café. Then my parents headed home. Cameron and I proceeded to take a well-deserved nap before heading to Old Sac and Evangeline’s Costume Shop. Our friend Tui is having a 70’s themed birthday party in October and she suggested the shop for outfits. We didn’t find anything yesterday, but I’m sure we’ll find something in time for the party. We then walked over to the K Street Mall and caught a showing of The Dark Knight. While it was a well-done movie, we think the hype we have heard about it made us expect more, and we both found it to be a little long.

Love Always,

Sarah

Ceremony Words

We're married! I can't believe the big day has come and gone. It was more than we could have expected and it was wonderful to see so many friends and family come together to celebrate with us, but we have to admit we're also glad to get back to life as usual. I'm back at work today and Cameron goes back tomorrow.

We know many of you were not able to hear our vows during the ceremony, so we'd thought we'd dedicate our first post as a married couple to the entire ceremony. Below are all the words read and said during our beautiful ceremony. Enjoy!

Welcome.

We have gathered today to act as witnesses for Cameron and Sarah as they join their lives as one. We celebrate with them the love they have found in each other and support their decision to commit themselves to one another.

How would one describe how we came to be gathered here today?
Was it chance?
Was it destiny?
Or was it fate?

What are the chances that two people, with two different lives could have a few chance interactions with each other and end up standing here before us today? They were unaware that the first encounter between them, from the first glance of acquaintance would emerge this point of commitment.

At some point, they decided to marry. Some sooner than later, from a moment of near hyperventilation, to this moment.

All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “Yeah right”, and continued with “I’m never getting married” and “if we were, how would we do it” and “lets mess with our families and say we’re getting married in Vegas” – all those late night talks that included “I need to finish school first, then I’ll start to think about it” and “if we were to get married the ranch would be nice” to “stand in front of the chapel and I’ll take a picture” All these things, and more, are the real process of this wedding.

The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.” Even if they are stolen from song lyrics. Look at one another and remember this moment. Because the first time you looked at each other it was unknown that at some point in time, no matter how hard you both tried, it was destiny that the two of you would end up on an airstrip in the middle of a ranch surrounded by friends and family.

Cameron and Sarah, your family and friends have gathered here today to wish for you a love; a love that will only grow stronger as the years go by. We wish for you a life filled with love, laughter and joy.

Cameron and Sarah have chosen to write their own vows to one another. I now ask them to read those vows to one another.

Cameron’s vows:

Life's like a road that we travel on
one day we’re here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes we’ll just face the wind
There's a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and our love soars
Come ride with me to the distant shores
This, I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my wayI wanna drive it all night long
Let’s get ready, let’s get set,
We’ll take this journey in the vette
Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now more than I loved then
This is the road where we begin
Together we’ll travel this world and see the lights
The darkest days and the brightest nights
There's no load I can't holdA road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
This I’ll promise you again and again.

Sarah’s Vows:

From this moment life begins
From this moment you are the one
Right beside you is where I belong, From this moment on
I give my hand to you with all of my heart
I can't wait to live my life with you,
I can't wait for it to start
You and I will never be apart
My dreams came true because of you
From this moment as long as I live I will love you,
I promise you this, There is nothing I wouldn't give
From this moment on
You're the reason I believe in love
All we need is just the two of us
From this moment on

Now for the rings, please.

May these rings be blessed by the love you two share. From this moment on, your lives are joined, like the circle these rings make; there is no beginning and no end. These rings symbolize the love you share and the commitment you are making today. May these rings remind you of the vows you have just taken.

Cameron, please repeat after me:
I, Cameron, take you Sarah for my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, through all of the good and bad. This ring is a token of my love and affection. May it always be a symbol of my love for you throughout the years.

Sarah, please repeat after me:

I, Sarah, take you, Cameron, for my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, through all of the good and bad. This ring is a token of my love and affection. May it always be a symbol of my love for you throughout the years.

Cameron and Sarah have joined together today as husband and wife as witnessed by all of us gathered here. They have given themselves to each other, declaring their love for one another by the giving of rings. By the power vested in me by the state of California, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now celebrate with a kiss.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you for the very first time, Cameron and Sarah Cenedella.