Made of Honor Contest-Part 3

Made of Honor Contest-Part 3

  When I started blogging in November, my sole reason was to document this pregnancy.  As I went along, it was fun to record the activities I did with Solis and other things-like the memories of our wedding.  I never intended to write 3 posts about our wedding.  But once I started, there was just too many pictures to cram into one post.  If you missed the first 2 posts, click HERE or HERE.

After Shaun and I said I do in front of our family, friends, tv cameras, a few B list celebrities, and the press, we walked back to our hotel for a private cocktail hour at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant.  Sony was super generous in making sure the hors d'oeuvres and drinks kept going.  While we were stuffing our faces and having one too many drinks, the movie premiere was going on next door at the Ziegfeld Theater.  We already had a private showing in Sony's New York offices earlier in the week.

 

Finally it was time to head to the after party at the Metropolitan Club.  Our friends rode the party bus, Shaun and I took the carriage and our parents took a limo.  Can I just say again, how awesome it was to be spoiled like that??!!

The after party/reception was a blast.  And it happened in a blink of an eye.  Our 30 friends and family were joined by around 500 other strangers guests.  There were 2 different rooms filled with food and drinks.  I think it's safe to say that our friends enjoyed the endless flowing of drinks on Sony's expense :)

The first thing we did was meet up with Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan that was taped for ET.  They gave us a wedding present (and by they, I mean Sony flipped the bill for that).  They gave us his and her watches that I never would have dreamed of buying in this lifetime.

I love this picture b/c the stars were giving us wedding advice and it was such a real moment.

Shaun and I were introduced to the whole crowd, had a champagne toast and then our first dance.  We chose Keith Urban's Making Memories of Us.  
See all of our new friends watching us? ;)

Cake time was next.  I believe that cake cost around 5 grand.  Um yea.  Ridiculous!

Here's an idea of how crowded it was.  Felt like a college party.  But with rich people.  This picture is of me, Shaun, Patrick, Shaun's mom, and Mary Hart.

We met Elisabeth Hasselbeck and her husband-super sweet people.  Lindsay Lohan's mom-huge trainwreck and wouldn't stop talking to my dad all night.  The RH of NY were there!  Even Michelle Williams was there b/c her best friend Busy Philipps was in the movie.  There were more but I can't remember-the night was literally a blur, it happened sooo fast!

 Around 1am, we headed back to our hotel.

 Our flight left the following evening and then it was back to reality for these 2 teachers.  Luckily, we only had one more month of school before summer break and then we had our 2nd wedding in August.  After that wedding, we took our honeymoon to Paris and Venice-which Sony generously paid for.  They even showed clips of our honeymoon on ET for the DVD release of the movie.  And then-just like that-our 15 minutes of fame was done and we never heard from the Sony people again.  But that's ok.  Because I now had a husband and I was a Mrs :)

Here's a picture of Solis watching our wedding last year.

39 weeks

39 weeks

I wrote this post last weekend but since Solis spent the weekend at Grandma's, couldn't get a picture till now.

Baby is now the size of: A small watermelon.  Solis was born at 39 weeks and weighed 7.1 pounds so I'm assuming that's what I'm carrying around.

Total weight gain: 26 pounds

Maternity clothes: Same old, same old.

Sleep: Still good!  I know a lot of expecting mamas have a hard time sleeping with pee breaks, leg cramps, etc so I'm especially grateful that God is giving me restful sleep.

Favorite meal this week: Ever have one of those nights when you're tired of eating healthy and cutting up 10,000 vegetables?  That was me this week and we had strawberry pancakes with whip cream.  And yes, we used a whole can of Reddi wip for this meal.  And when I say we, I mean Solis & I.
Cravings: Sweets.  It's going to be hard to cut back on those desserts when I can't hide behind my baby belly anymore.
Exercise: 4 days of running or elliptical, around 35 min each time

Pregnancy aches & pains: Just a little bit of rib pain if I sit too long and some of those crazy shooting pains in my groin but I seriously can't complain for being so active at 39 weeks. 

Best moment this week: Hearing from my mid wife that baby boy is still head down.  May seem routine to any other mom but I still can't believe that I might be able to go through with a vbac.  It's also weird to think I delivered Solis at 38 weeks and 6 days.  So if I had chosen a repeat c-section, this baby would be out by now!

Looking forward to: Our anniversary!  One last dinner alone.  Going to savor every quiet minute of that car ride and every bite of my food.  Having children makes you appreciate the little things :)

Celebrating our doggie's 5th birthday with ice cream.

 Turned an ordinary grilled cheese and fruit meal into something fun.  Solis responded with, "This is the best thing ever!"

Made of Honor Contest-Part 2

Made of Honor Contest-Part 2

The day of our wedding was a Monday.  Unusual for a wedding but typical for a Hollywood movie premiere.  It was also pouring down rain.  But we didn't care.  That's what all the Sony people were there for....to make us forget about that!  The morning of our wedding, we woke up and headed to the St. Regis to meet Mary Hart.  She was going to marry us since it was being aired on Entertainment Tonight.  We went to her suite for a meet and greet.  She was so professional and kind to us and had flawless skin!  Then we went back to our hotel and met Denis Reggie who is a celebrity wedding photographer.  Again, he was super nice and professional and we truly felt like everyone was trying to make this day about our wedding and not just about the movie premiere.

Around lunchtime, they sent hair, makeup and nail people to my hotel suite-all while being videotaped still.  After getting primped by the best of New York, I was sent to a private room in the hotel to see Shaun.  Then it hit me.  Like a ton of bricks.  I started crying to my maid of honor Sarah and asked if this was really happening.  At times throughout the week it was hard to remember that we were actually getting married b/c there was SO much excitement with everything Sony was doing for us.  After pulling it together, I made it to that room and ran to my husband for our private moment (with the cameras of course).

Then our family and friends came to see us and wait for the movie premiere our wedding to start.

Soon it was time to go down the street to the Ziegfeld Theater for our wedding.  The premiere was obviously inside but our wedding was outside-under a canopy since it was raining.  My dad and I took a carriage down the street.

And then the most magical moment of my life.  With a full orchestra playing Canon in D, my dad walked me down the pink carpet (passing the press, paparazzi, all the Sony people who were with us all week, and our friends in the stands).

The wedding scene.  You would have never guessed it was a chilly, damp evening.  Sony did a fabulous job making everything beautiful.

 The paparazzi-obviously there for us and not the movie stars :)

 Patrick Dempsey (his wife behind him) and Sylvia Weinstock watching us get married-how crazy is that?!

The ceremony was short and sweet and before we knew it, we were pronounced Mr. & Mrs. Bollinger.  We had around 30 friends and family there but it was also live on the internet so everyone else could watch it back home.

 

And then the 2nd best moment of the night.....meeting Patrick Dempsey!!  Let me tell you, he is F-L-A-W-L-E-S-S in real life.  So McDreamy.

The embarrassing picture of me gawking at McDreamy (along with his co-star Michelle Monaghan and Mary Hart)

Still can't believe this is one of our wedding photos.

This post is super long so check back for the last one-our reception and after party!

Made of Honor Contest-Part 1

Made of Honor Contest-Part 1

Today marks 6 years since I lost the title Miss Golightly and became Mrs. Bollinger.  Crazy to think how fast time flies.

Backing up...

I was a high school track coach and my athletes thought I'd be the perfect match for their previous coach (Shaun).  They introduced us at a track meet and the rest is history.  (Fun fact: those girls were our guest book attendants at our 2nd wedding since they were our matchmakers!).  We only dated a year, became engaged in March, and were planning a late summer wedding.

 One night I stumbled across a contest online.  It was a chance to get married in NYC at the movie premiere, "Made of Honor", plus a ton of awesome prizes (honeymoon in Venice & Paris!).  I entered on a whim.  Long story short, we won!  So about 6 weeks after getting engaged, we were off to NYC to get married.  Crazy fast.

Sony Pictures flew Shaun, his best man, myself, and my maid of honor to NYC.  A car was waiting for us at the airport and drove us to our new home for the week-the London Hotel.  For the next couple days, we had assistants and drivers and received the royal treatment.  They put mikes on us daily b/c they were showing footage from our week on Entertainment Tonight.

Sony had a jam packed itinerary for us.  First up was getting our marriage license.

Picking out wedding rings at Damiani.

 Kenneth Cole gave us wedding shoes.  I got to take home silver and ivory heels.

 Wedding dress fitting with designer Selia Yang.  
I choose this dress from 3 beautiful dresses.

Cake tasting with the famous Sylvia Weinstock.  She was a spunky old lady!

 A shopping spree at Victoria Secret

Hair at Oscar Blandi...he had quite the vibrant personality!

 Taping a segment for Entertainment Tonight

Dance lessons with Maks of Dancing with the Stars! :)

Makeup with David Evangelista-he was so much fun!

The week leading up to our wedding was so much fun and something we will always look back on with the happiest of hearts.  We still can't believe we won this contest.  It was a once in a lifetime experience that God blessed us with.  The perks were amazing- having a driver take us anywhere we wanted in NYC, free meals, a luxurious suite to stay in, an assistant who got us any request (looking back, I should have used her more!).  Our family and closest friends came to NYC for the wedding, which I will detail in another post.  So come back tomorrow to see our wedding pictures....and Patrick Dempsey! :)