Our Wedding! (Old myspace blog from melissa)

Well we are back and let me tell you it was a BLAST! Some people may not know what we did so let me fill you in...We decided after lots of stress and decisions that the best idea was to go to Vegas to get married. My dream was a beach wedding in Hawaii or Cancun but by doing that we would have limited people coming because of costs. We decided having people share this amazing memory with us was important and a different kind of dream so we decided Vegas was the way to go. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family that love us. We ended up having 20 people fly out to Las Vegas to be part of our special day! We thought we would get some family members and a friend or 2, but we never would have dreamed that this many people would come! Of course Vegas is a vacation in itself so people were enjoying that side of it as well, but they did come for us and it meant so much!We started out by flying out Thursday morning January 3rd from the city. There were 8 of us on the same flight! We all got matching wedding crew shirts so it made the trip fun! Another couple from the college that I work at actually came and got married the same day Justin and I did so that made it all even more fun!Well we got to Vegas and had to go get our license and find the chapel and all. It was a busy busy day!Well Friday rolls around and at 10 that morning the other couple got married. It was a very fun and pretty ceremony. After that it was time to go get ready, we were getting married at 4. And as you can tell by the pictures we did do a little traditional things such as a Wedding Dress and Tux. (By the way, the hardest part of a destination wedding is bringing a dress and tux. Our flight didn't have a hanger place so we had to put them above us in the small little compartments! My mom brought a steamer though so it all worked out). So throughout the afternoon we got all ready and got to the chapel. We had a photographer that was a little....different. We actually got in trouble by him twice for laughing---turns out we weren't showing the emotion he wanted us to. I guess weddings aren't suppose to be fun! Good thing is one of our friends that came is actually a great photographer---we think of her as a professional (she did our engagement pictures as well!) so we weren't worried about him. We were not allowed to have cameras in the chapel though so we had to improvised. We left the wedding in a limo and headed back to our hotel for pictures. We were staying at the Wynn, and if you know anything about the Wynn then you know it is beautiful, amazing and classy! This was a wonderful place for pictures. We did not have April's high dollar professional camera and the pictures still turned out gorgeous! She is the best!The next day we finally had a full day in Vegas with no wedding stress or responsibilities so we were able to go and do some fun things we had planned. I have been to Vegas once before, but this time seemed like my first in the fact that it changes so much and there are so many things to do that you can't do it on one trip. I know most people head there to gamble or party, but Vegas has so many fun things to see and do that have nothing to do with those things! The lights and people are so captivating!Well Sunday our trip ended and we all flew back together. As much fun as we had, it was very nice to come home together. The weekend before we left I moved into the new apartment/townhouse we now live in. Then the day before we left we moved all of his stuff in. So we came home to boxes and a mess! We have started getting things arranged now and it is pretty fun setting up house together! We aren't your typical couple at all! We were best friends long before we were anything else so we would rather eat a frozen pizza and play nintendo then go out to eat and on a real date. We just enjoy spending time together and I think that is the most exciting thing we have to look forward to, every day we get to do that! God blessed us so much and we do not deserve the joy and happiness that he has given us! Our love and friendship was built on Him, so I know that a foundation like that cannot be broken!So as much as I like the uniqueness of my old last name Gribble, I am so excited and ready to see what the future now holds for Justin and Melissa Smith!
Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! We appreciate it so much!!!