The first day.

August 17th marked the first "official" day of the wedding festivities. Granted, the weekend(S), (oh, maybe months?) before were consumed with wedding related activities, but, this was the first day where it was actually an "OH MY GOD, it's here!" type of day. Meaning, all the planning was essentially done and if there was something else to do? Well, kind of too bad at that point. Or, HELLO, firedrill. And really, we get enough of those as it is in our daily work lives so we pretty much were at the, "Oh, well, too bad" point if something wasn't done.

So, the first of our official planned activities for this sunny Wednesday before our wedding? Drive east of the mountains to Leavenworth? Remember Leavenworth? I've mentioned it several times on this blog (like here)- it's the little town nestled east of the mountains where Justin called home for many years of his life. Coincidentally, it's also where his good friend now owns a chocolate shop (S'Chocolat). And thank god we don't live closer because I'd weigh 500 pounds... meaning, I'd be there every day. Maybe even begging.  It is hands down the most amazing chocolates ever. We love them so much we ordered 350 of them for our wedding reception. And chocolates don't ship easy. SO, not only did we love them so much we ordered 350 of them, we loved them so much we drove 3 hours (1.5 each way) two days before our wedding to pick them up. THAT, my friends, is belief in a product.

We also had an ulterior motive of picking up Oliver as well. He stayed at his grandparents house in Leavenworth so that we could pick him up bright and early that morning. Kind of important that he was a part of the whole wedding weekend, don't you think? Son of the groom, future step-son, and a groomsman... not to mention we really sort of like having him around.

Above- a shot of Justin driving to Leavenworth. We left at about 7am to get there a little before 9am, as he had to work that afternoon. It was a beautiful drive.

A shot of me... clearly I had the easy job this day.

And a shot of the mountains. There's something so calming and serene about driving through the mountains, even if it's a quick pass through and we don't get to stay in them for very long. After picking up Oliver, we headed straight to the chocolate shop to pick up our goodies, and then to a quick breakfast at Sleeping Lady (One of our favorites and a place where Justin used to work...YUM, by the way) before heading back to Seattle with our stash of chocolates. After we got back- Justin went to work that afternoon, I got a few more things ready for the upcoming events, Oliver went to get a haircut and pick up his suit with Justin, then I went in to work out for a bit, brought Oliver home, we made dinner (an old standby, tacos), and we called it a night. All in all, a successful day.

Our 350 chocolates for the wedding reception.

And of course, our own personal box from Damian for the drive back to Seattle... it looks pretty here but don't be fooled. OF COURSE, we broke into it right away.