Well, my sister’s wedding weekend came and went! I wanted to hop on here and share pictures (that I took) from that now, to do the event justice.

Friday, I had class. I stayed at school a while after to study and get ahead for the weekend, and because I didn’t want to brave the 111 degree heat. This heat wave is insane. It’s been over 100 in San Francisco which is unheard of!

Saturday morning, I woke up at 4am to catch an early flight to Seattle for the wedding. My sister got an AirBnB for the wedding party, and it was incredible. It was giant, and right on the water with an amazing view. Since everyone seemed to be running around/gone, I was able to sneak in a couple of hours of productive studying in a place far more beautiful and temperate than my kitchen table!

My entire family knows that my favorite GF cookies ever are from a place inside SFO, so my parents brought me some. When you wake up at 4am, it’s totally acceptable to eat cookies at 9am right?

The day before the wedding, we had a couple of crises to deal with, as was expected. The fire I had to put out was the lavender syrup. My sister DIYed a lot of this wedding, and it had a ton of personal touches. She made lavender syrup for lavender lemonade at the wedding, and blackberry lavender mojitos at the reception. Unfortunately, we discovered mold in the syrup. I volunteered to make fresh lavender simple syrup. 8 liters worth.

Finally, the ingredients, and lunch in the form of a Panera salad, arrived.

Then we got to work boiling down the syrup. For anyone interested, bring 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of lavender to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, turn off the heat, and that’s it!

The complication was getting the massive amount syrup cool enough to bottle it!

Finally, the syrup was made and we headed off the the rehearsal. They got married at Gasworks Park, which I had only seen by duck boat before on a previous Seattle trip. The site was on top of kite hill, with a 360 degree view overlooking the lake and Seattle.

Afterwards, our big group headed to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner.

^Gotta get a picture with the bride!

After dinner, we migrated to ice cream, Kurt’s Farm Stand. It was really good. Their plain vanilla (Jersey Cream) was the best plain flavor of ice cream I’ve had. I was in the mood for chocolate, but the rose I tried was amazing too.

Afterwards, we spent a good 20ish minutes walking circles of varying sizes around our car trying to find it. Whoops.

On wedding morning, I started with a 3 mile run and soaked in the cool, non-smoky air. The views weren’t bad either!

Then, it was time for everyone to get ready! I broke out the orange-peach-mango mimosas.

We had hair and makeup people come.

^Isn’t she stunning??

And with the dress:

I ended up being last for hair and makeup, which ended up being kind of a disaster when we were running late, and I was rushing around with maid of honor duties (including getting the dress on). I was undecided on hair. I NEVER have my hair curly, and it doesn’t like to hold a curl at all. I haven’t had my hair curly since prom in high school. After everyone else’s curls looked so pretty, I decided to go for it. I was hoping for just curls near the end, and I think I needed to have expressed that better….on top of that, after makeup and getting the bride’s dress on, my curls were already falling out so they touched them up, but I think that just made it look super messy/slopping. I had literally one minute to look in the mirror and put my dress on before we had to rush out the door, and I honestly did not like my look at all, and didn’t recognize myself…I was able to alter my makeup a little bit, but it was not the best situation, given these pictures are going to be there forever!

Somehow despite a crazy hectic couple of hours, we made it to the venue for pictures right on schedule.

Look how pretty the bouquets are!

Right before pictures, we ran into the most adorable pup. That cheered me right up!

The ceremony was beautiful, and went off without any major hitches! It was perfectly them, and had some great personal and unique touches. I also loved that there were geese wandering around in the background at the top of the hill.

Here’s the happy couple!

The reception was about a half hour drive from the park, at a beautiful rustic barn with an adorably sweet dog.

The wedding was hot air balloon themed, because they got engaged on a hot air balloon. My sister MADE all the hot air balloon decorations!

Blackberry lavender mojito (I might have to have a party just to make this).

Pup hanging out at dinner getting all the love:

Dinner (they had a special GF plate for me <3 ):

Cake+cake cutting. They had a caramel apple spice layer, a chocolate buttercream layer, and a blackberry buttermilk layer.

Then, it was time for toasts! I thought everyone did a great job. I had the last one, and I think I was the person everyone least expected to do a sappy toast, but I had to bring it in.

I did try some of the cake because in the scheme of things of gluten and worth it, amazing wedding cake is definitely worth it. They also had a pretty mango sorbet for me.

Then, it was time to get the party started!

The big surprise getting set up:

^What happens when vet students go to weddings….

First dance:

Father-daughter dance:

Groom-brother sword fight:

More dancing:

Hot air balloon rides! Yes, they had a hot air balloon for guests to go up in! And yes, I did go up!

Make your own s’mores. My sister got super fancy s’mores from a high quality chocolate place, and let guest make their own with a blowtorch.

Nerf gun war:

And before we knew it, it was time to send off the newly weds. We sent them off with a nerd gun salute, and off they went, into the night!

It was a great day, and went off relatively free of disaster! I wasn’t the one planning the wedding for 2 years, and I feel the post wedding blues a little bit!

I got to take home some of the party favors, homemade chocolate. The groom loves making chocolate, like the entire process, starting with roasting his own beans. So it’s legit. And look how cute!

And now it’s back to reality. We’re easing in though, with lots of snuggles:

I hope you all had a great long weekend! I know I did 😉