Back to the real world!

Here I am. Please hold your applause. I know you have all been anxiously awaiting my return. I come back bringing many stories of wedding bliss. I don't want to make this post into an enormous read, so let me give you highlights.

The Rehearsal Dinner

This event went off pretty well. I was a bit worried with all the new family meeting each other for the first time, but it was smooth sailing.




We had dinner at Habana on 6th street. The food, drinks and tres leches was very good. I enjoyed seeing everyone sitting together and having a good time. No late night partying for me. I went to bed rather early. Matt stayed out and locked me out of the house. Good thing for Jesse's climbing skills. He made it into the bedroom window and got us back inside.

Wedding Day
Lucky for me we got to sleep in a little bit. Matt and I awoke together, and quickly got all our last minute packing done. Poor Matt, he was incredibly stressed out and wasn't himself. I guess it started to hit him all at once. But I digress...

Two hours later I am back at The Driskill in the bridal suite getting my makeup done.

It was nice to have my old high school best friend, Kyle Mills, make me pretty. My mom and all the girls arrived and the pictures began.



The Meet-up
I really wanted Matt and I to see each other before the ceremony. Since I am blessed with anxiety and panic attacks, I knew being together would help ease the stress. It did. I was so happy to see him and vice versa. Sarah got some amazing shots of us together alone. My advice on this, do it. Screw tradition. I was so relieved and comfortable being with Matt. Then we had more time to devote to wedding party pictures. Once again, Sarah did an amazing job with the photos outside The Driskill and in the back alley.








The Ceremony

Wow, we had a very short and sweet ceremony. Our officiant, Mike, was a delight. I really enjoyed our vows and readings. It was hard to look at Matt and not smile, laugh or cry. During the vows I started to tear up. I almost lost it and I could see Matt's eyes start to water. I held it in though and we kept on going. I did hear a few of the groomsmen sniffling (especially Jake and Martin!) and I knew my Mom was crying so I avoided looking over. I found a really interesting part of the ceremony called the "Box, Wine and Letter" ceremony. Basically, you write a letter on how much you love the other person, seal it in a box with some wine and glasses and seal it. Then if you have problems in the marriage, you open up the box together, read the letters and drink the wine. If you never have to open the box, then you save it for your 10th anniversary and read the letters with enjoyment! I had never heard of this before and really liked how unique it was.




The Reception

Oh words cannot begin to explain how much fun we had. The food, the cake, the dancing was AMAZING! Our first dance was so romantic. I fell in love with Matt all over again.

It was fantastic to see everyone on the dance floor. Then the music turned old school and we had that dance floor packed! It was great to let loose and dance with so many of our friends. Of course Ryan stole the show with his moves. Matt and I joked that it looks like Ryan is the attention whore of our dance photos.

I will let the pictures tell this story.





After the Reception


After we left The Driskill in our wedding pedicab, we took a run around downtown and headed back to the inside bar.


But before the bar, we spent our last moments upstairs with Sarah....



We got to spend more time with all our friends at The Driskill bar and invited the rest of the group upstairs to our bridal suite to continue the festivities with a few bottles of champagne.












The Honeymoon

We flew out to Mexico the next day around 11. The hangover wasn't too bad. I hate flying so my friend Mr. Xanax helped me out with the flight. We arrived in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico within a few hours and began drinking! We stayed with the Palace Resorts once again, this time choosing Aventura Spa Palace.

It's an adult-only, all-inclusive resort that caters to your every need. The food was excellent, the staff was incredibly nice and friendly. We didn't leave the resort though. We spent Sunday-Sunday eating, drinking, sleeping, laying out at the beach and pool and doing what most honeymooners do :)
We had a BLAST!







But now we are home. Matt has a business conference in Dallas this week so he had to leave early Monday morning. I got to stay home from work and open presents. Hooray! That was fun. Now I have a very dirty house to clean this week. Jake was very kind and watched the kids while we were gone. But now I have to throw out old kitchen glasses, pots and pans, etc and replace them with new ones! Really that's my only big chore. Mowing and watering the gardens needs to be done but it looks like rain is in the forecast for the next few days.

Oh, I do get to attend my first Oklahoma State homecoming this weekend. I am flying out Friday night and meeting Matt in Oklahoma for the game. Hooray! Since OSU is now ranked in the top 10, it should be exciting. Plus we are playing Baylor, so I am hoping for an easy win. Another plus....we get to hang out with Martin and Jessica!

Ok, enough from me. I'm pooped.

I am now Mrs. Mitchell!!!!!

It's here!

I'm sitting at Wet Salon waiting for my future MIL to get her hair
done. Finally a chance to rest for a bit. It still hasn't hit me I'm
getting married in 3 hours!!!! Holy shit. Can you believe it? Well
I'm going to try my hardest to enjoy the day and try and remember it.
Thanks to my little friend, X, I have been doing very well thank you.

Well this is Dawn Beenan giving her final farewell as a single girl.

Hugs n kisses

Sent from my iPhone

Exchanging gifts early...

Matt and I decided to give gifts before our company came into town.
He bought me this beautiful blue topaz ring I have been looking at for
awhile. I love it!!!!

I made him an album with my boudoir pics. I went for the burlesque,
pin up look. He was very pleased, to say the least! I was impressed
how the photos turned out. My photographer is amazing!!

So close....

I can’t believe my wedding is 2 days away. I consider myself very lucky for keeping my cool these past few weeks. I do owe a lot of it to xanax. What a friend that beautiful pill has been to me.

Everything is pretty much done. There are a few things I need to get done on Friday, but nothing that will kill me. I’m slightly irked with my dress issue that came up recently. You can see my review on yelp. I’m pretty much over it, but it was my first “wedding drama” I had to deal with, so it’s staying with me slightly. The problem is solved and I should drop it. Another slight problem has been the music. Our DJ comes highly recommended, which basically means they are expensive. Well, I sent them our ceremony and reception play-list and they don’t have the majority of it on file. So it is my responsibility to get them a CD with all the songs. Isn’t that what I’m paying you for? It goes to show that most brides out there have TERRIBLE taste in music. We are not playing your typical wedding march crap like that. That’s what you get for trying to be different – more work.

Ok, enough bitching from yours truly. I am stuck here at work for another day and my plate is completely full. I have a huge pile of paperwork to work on and I don’t know if I can make a dent in it. The xanax is not helping me at all. I’m too goofy to be serious.  But I am looking forward to my massage in an hour. Then a fun waxing appointment after work. All these appointments and money. I can’t wait for it to be over and I can get fat and hairy once again.

I take that back. I am very, very happy with my weight loss. I haven’t been this size since Kim’s wedding. It’s a fabulous feeling to look at yourself naked and smile. Plus all the clothes I can wear again! It’s like a shopping trip in my closet. All the clothes pushed to the back are brand new to me!

Now back to work. No more fooling around. I know my 4 readers will be sad to see my lack of posts in the next week but be ready for a full blow picture blow out on the 13th.

Steam room, sauna and jacuzzi

Beautiful flowers eveywhere

That's the indoor pool barn

My day at Lake Austin Spa

Was the most fantastic day ever! And I didn't spend a moment thinking
of the wedding!

It's a good weekend to own a pedicab.

ACL begins....

I DID IT!

10 days on the Master Cleanse. The best part about it was not cheating. It’s really hard to go all those days without chewing. Past cleanses I have sneaked a fingertip of peanut butter, or put something in my mouth, chew it and spit it out. This time I never came close to doing that. It’s amazing how much willpower one person has. I had it in my mind to not cheat and be completely honest with myself. Besides, cheating would only defeat me from looking good in my dress.

I lost about 10 lbs and that was nice. I feel fantastic, but a bit on the tired side. The next few days are actually the hardest for me. Once you are off the lemonade, you have to gradually introduce liquid, then solid food back into your system. It’s hard when you get a whiff of something delicious and you want to eat like normal. Believe me, I have had many experiences of coming off the cleanse the wrong way and have paid severely. So today is my orange juice day. OJ and water. Tomorrow is OJ, water and vegetable soup. You then progress from salads, nuts, fruits, etc. The book recommends you don’t introduce meat, dairy, fried foods into your system for about a week. No problem! I can’t make any promises during my honeymoon though.

So here I am. 9 days out. Finishing up those last minute things that drive me crazy. I am incredibly excited about Saturday. Matt bought me a half day at the Lake Austin Spa. So I will be spending a beautiful Saturday getting pampered. Mmmmmmm I love spas.

day 3

is coming to a close. i haven't thought much of food, besides my drive home. having work and the wedding on my mind 24/7 helps. my wii fit tells me i am losing pounds every day, which makes me happy! (shhh....it's only water weight dawn, don't tell your mind that.)

i'm so exhausted mentally and emotionally. i can't wait for life to get back to normal.

Aaarrgggggg!

I'm sitting at a light next to mcdonalds. Typically I wouldn't be
drooling like I am now. Day 1-3 is always the hardest on my nose.

Sent from my iPhone

torture thine name is dawn

18 days till the wedding. working out has been pretty fun for me, i do enjoy running now, thanks to nory, and i love doing the shred but the weight is taking its sweet ass time to drop off me. yes yes i know muscle is heavy and blah blah, yes i have muscles i have never had before but.....i'm not happy.

so i have decided to add a bit of torture into my life, as if i don't have enough with this wedding, and start the master cleanse. my main goal is to do a little bit of cardio/walking on the cleanse to kick start my weight loss. i know the MC is not the answer to a healthy life, as it detoxes your body and makes you lose a ton of water weight. basically you gain back everything when you begin eating again. the first time i did the cleanse i lasted 14 days and lost quite a bit of weight. i kept it off for a while, but did not exercise a bit.

not this time. i'm going to stick to working out after the wedding and keeping my cravings out of my tummy. words of wisdom by yours truly.

by the way, it's freezing in my office.