The Men of the Mille Wedding

So after bugging Jeff for months and months he has FINALLY asked all of his groomsmen to be in our wedding.... and now Jeff gets to write a blog entry!!

This will be my first and only time I am allowed to write anything on this and I will try to not be too brief with my descriptions...

Best Man: Christo Wille

Christo is my Brother and I met him in 1992 when he was born, we have known each other longer than any of my other groomsmen and I am excited to have him as my Best Man for our wedding. He is a Junior in College at University of Arizona and is majoring in Business (like his older, wiser brother did). Christo enjoys doing whatever people do in Tucson (Sorry to anyone who lives in Tucson), attending concerts and hanging out with his fraternity brothers.

Groomsman: Buki (AKA Matthew Yabuki)

Buki has been one of my roommates/housemates for the last two years and has become one of my closest friends from College. I met Buki my freshman year when I had bought some Angels playoff tickets to sell. I still remember the day Buki met me in the Horton (dorm) lobby and we exchanged tickets for some cash, a great friendship was forged that day! Buki works at Target as an ELT and shares a great love of sports with myself and is the commissioner of our fantasy baseball league.

P.S. All you single ladies out there, he is available ;-) 

Groomsman: Alex Feldman

(Sorry Alex, We couldn't find a photo with both of us in it) 

I have known Alex since 6th grade when we were in the same class together. We grew up in Middle school as best friends and hung out with each other all the time including playing little league baseball against each other. We attended separate high schools and colleges but have always stayed in contact. Alex moved out to California last year and we have somewhat rekindled the friendship. Alex takes some credit for Rachel and myself starting to date, as he helped me sticky note her car and ask her to prom our senior year. Alex has also been planning a speech to give at our wedding for many years. (Sorry Alex I just put a lot of pressure on you). Alex works for a Marketing company in Costa Mesa and enjoys taking me on 20 mile bike rides and hanging out with his girlfriend, Katie.

Groomsman: Zach Ross

Zach was one of my housemates last year. I met Zach my freshman year at Biola, as we were both business majors so we shared many classes together our first year and throughout out time at Biola. Zach and myself share a great love for playing and watching sports and also a hatred of the Lakers/Kobe Bryant. Zach got married a couple of months ago to Tavea (one of Rachel's bridesmaids). Zach currently works for BDO (accounting firm) in Costa Mesa

Groomsman: Mac Christensen 

Mac was one of my neighborhood friends in Arizona and we went to school together from 5th grade through High School. We have spent a lot of time together through the years, playing pool basketball, video games and golfing together. Some of the best memories we have had together were skiing together in Big Sky, MT. Mac invited me to come with him and his family twice while we were in college and it was always a great time hanging out with him and his family for a week. Mac currently works for Pepsi Co and lives in Sacramento, CA. 

Groomsman: Drew Hall

Drew was one of my housemates for the last year and a half. I met Drew through Zach my freshman year of college. Drew, like Buki and Zach really enjoys playing and watching sports and plays in a fantasy baseball league with us. Drew has always been a pretty good athlete but in the last year I finally found a sport that we both enjoy and I can beat him at, Golf! We spent a lot of time over the last year playing golf together and trying to give him some tips to help improve the slice. Drew got married about a month ago and now lives in Visalia, CA where he teaches Middle School PE.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoyed getting a little insight into my side of the Wedding party. The planning has been coming along well (thanks to Rachel's hard work) and things are slowly all coming together. The next big event is what I think may be my favorite piece of planning, cake and food tastings over Thanksgiving!

-Jeff

298 days till "I do"

Wedding Update

With 381 days left until the big day, we have accomplished a lot...especially for being a little over a year away from it.

Photographer:
We have booked our photographer! Doug Williams from Greenlight Photography, Doug used to attend our church back in Arizona. We are really looking forward to working with him, and he will also be shooting our engagement pictures. If any of you have takled to me about photos I have been very strong in my stance to not doing a first look before the wedding. Well, we have decided that we do want to do a first look after all!

DJ:
We booked our DJ as well. We talked to one DJ but we weren't completely sold on him and wanted to find other options. Then some friends of ours told us about their DJ they had at their wedding, so we set up an appointment to Facetime with a DJ (Eric from Got You Covered Music . Come to find out he was highly recommended by my on site coordinator Mollie too. So we talked to him and he really fit what we were looking for and we booked him!

Most importantly...while Jeff and I were home over Memorial Day weekend we went to talk with our youth pastor Tony. We asked Tony if he would officiate the wedding, and he said yes. We couldn't think of anyone better to have officiate our wedding. He has known us for so long and seen us grow up in the church. Him and his wife are the sweetest people (and they have some pretty sweet kids too!) We are so happy and excited to have Tony as part of our wedding. (Hope you don't mind I stole a picture from you to post!)

One last thing, I had to completely rethink ALL my flowers!! What a panic moment (don't mock me). I went to AJ's to talk to the florist (Who is AWESOME by the way). I told her the flowers I wanted and she told me they wouldn't last 10 minutes in the heat. Well my mom and Jeff's mom won, they didn't care for the flowers/centerpieces I had chosen. So now I have beautiful flowers that I am just in love with!! 

381 Days till "I do."

Bridesmaids, Flower Girl & Ring Bearer

Before I get into what this blog post is supposed to be about I have some updates. Saturday May 26th we officially signed our contract for our wedding! This time Jeff got to see the venue (even though he has played golf there before). We talked with Mollie some more, I cannot explain how great she is! I think I could be completely stressed and then talk to her and I wouldn't be stressed any more.  The only questions Jeff had concerned the food tasting and golf haha :)

Now on to what this post is about....

I officially have all of my bridesmaids!!! I am so excited and blessed to have these girls there supporting Jeff and I on our wedding day. I also have my Flower Girl and Ring Bearer. So for my bridesmaids I decided to get creative and ask them in a cute and fun way.

                                   

Maid of Honor: Michele Randall

 
I have known Michele since we were just babies. Our parents went to Scottsdale Bible Church and her mom taught our preschool Sunday school classes. Michele and I have been through a lot together, good times and bad. She has been living in New York City for the past two years and just graduated from the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. She is also engaged and will be getting married in the fall of 2013.   Asking her to be my maid of honor was a little tricky but her fiance Jordan Collier was a huge help! I tried to send her the champagne like everyone else got, but the post office informed me that you aren't allowed to mail alcohol. After a short freak out I messaged Jordan and he came to the rescue. I sent him all the supplies and he went out and got her some wine and then gave it to her for me. I am so excited that Michele is my MOH and can be apart of my wedding, I can't imagine anyone else as my MOH but her!

Bridesmaid: Caeli Wille

 






Caeli is Jeff's little sister. I have seen her grow up into a beautiful 16 year old girl. She is extremely funny and one of the best dancers I have ever met. Caeli is going to be a Junior in high school in the fall and will be on the Varsity Pom Squad. I am so excited to have her be in the wedding and part of me and Jeff's big day.

Bridesmaid: Carly Morgan

 






I met Carly in 2008 when we both got jobs working summer camp at Lifetime Fitness. When I first met her I thought she was 25 and then I found out she was my age. We worked summer camp together a lot and then we ended up working birthday parties together on the weekends after summer camp ended. Carly became my workout buddy. By workout buddy I mean that she told me what to do and I complained and laughed at all the ridiculous workouts she was having me do...like dead bugs. Carly and I worked at lifetime fitness together for 4 summers and now we are "life long friends who met at Lifetime Fitness...lol" I love this girl and I'm so excited she is in the wedding!

Bridesmaid: Lauren Johnson

               


I also met Lauren in 2008 working at Lifetime Fitness. We both worked teaching preschool where we had about 25-30 preschoolers and had to corral them around the gym to the bathroom...talk about a challenge. Later she became the supervisor for the Junior camp and I worked with her most of the time. When I moved out to California to finish school at Biola, she moved out to SoCal to go to Cal State Long Beach to get her Masters Degree. She has been my SoCal buddy and we try to hang out as much as we can. She is such a great friend to have out in California and I'm so excited she is able to be in the wedding!

Bridesmaid: Tavea Hampton (Soon to be Tavea Ross)

                





I met Tavea at Biola. She was one of my roommates for my Junior (fall semester) and Senior (spring semester) year. I had only met her one time before I moved into an apartment with her and 2 other girls. Luckily Tavea is the nicest and most friendly person I have ever met. We hit it off and became pretty good friends, which was a good thing since Jeff and her soon to be hubby are pretty good friends and love to talk :)

I have such a great supportive group of girls as bridesmaids and I love all of them!

Flower Girl & Ring Bearer: Amelia & Lucas Miller

My niece and nephew are going to be the flower girl and ring bearer. Lucas will be 5 by the time we have the wedding and Amelia will be 4. This is the conversation I had with Lucas tonight about being in the wedding. Me: Lucas you're going to be in me and Jeff's wedding! Lucas: But I don't have clothes to wear. Me: Well we will get you clothes. Lucas: Did mom and dad say it's ok? Me: Yes! And Amelia will be in it too! Then he ran to where my brother and sister in law were and asked them if he could be in my wedding and when they said yes he got super excited. It was so adorable!

Well, these are the bridesmaids. Jeff still needs to ask his groomsmen so once he does that I will have him post those. Although it will probably be a brief post lol.

This week is busy busy, we are talking to a bunch of flower vendors trying to get that whole situation figured out. Wish me luck!

-Rachel

396 days till "I do"

The Venue & The Date

Well, after a lot of tears, frustration and negotiation we finally have our venue and wedding date! We will be getting married at Troon North Golf Club June 29, 2013!

Troon was the first venue that Jeff's mom, my mom, and I visited while I was home for spring break. From the moment we walked in and saw a TV monitor with : Troon North Welcomes the Future Mr & Mrs. Jeff & Rachel Wille, I was loving it. Everything about the venue was perfect....except for the price. It was a little more than we had anticipated and had liked. After that it was all down hill from there, I was so frustrated because every other venue we looked at was more expensive than Troon North. I also couldn't get Troon North out of my head. After a lot of talking with Mollie (the wedding coordinator there) we finally reached an agreement. She is so great and everything at Troon is so perfect!! I was so excited Wednesday when I got the email saying she accepted our final budgeting proposal.

So in 415 days I get to marry the man of my dreams at Troon North :) We are going home in a few weeks and get to sign the contract then!

The Dress!

Last Monday my mom and I set out to look for the perfect dress. Knowing that I was going to get engaged in April or May, I had already set up appointments to look at dresses prior to getting engaged. This was because I wanted to get the dress at home with my mom, and I didn't know when I would be back in town. Our first appointment was at Schaffer's Bridal.

We arrived at Schaffer's and my consultant Lisa was waiting. She was so great! I told her what I was looking for and my price point and she took me over to an area with a bunch of dresses. It was definitely a challenge looking through all of the dresses, they weren't the most gorgeous things on the hanger. I ended up pulling 5 dresses to try on.

The first dress I tried on was beautiful and I loved it, something I wasn't necessarily expecting right away. Then the second dress I tried on was different than the first and I loved it too! I became a little overwhelmed because I didn't think that I would find one, let alone two dresses I would love right away and especially not the first two. Feeling a little overwhelmed I tried on the remaining 3 dresses, but luckily I didn't like any of them. I put the first dress back on again and this time I didn't like it as much. The first dress was a discontinued dress so they were selling the one they had on the sales floor. The problem was it was a size 12. That meant they would have to alter it about 10 sizes smaller and that would change the entire look of the dress. Also, there was so much dress that it was wearing me. So that was an easy decision to make. Then I put dress # 2 back on and I absolutely loved it!. We walked over to the area where they have veils and I tried on a bunch of veils. It was perfect! We still had two other appointments to go to so we told Lisa we would probably be back but we felt like we needed to go to the other two appointments. On our way out to the car I told my mom I just felt like canceling the other two appointments because I really loved the dress I had found at Schaffer's.

We decided to go to our second appointment anyways. At this place I didn't like any dresses, but felt kind of bad so I tried on one dress just cause. The customer service was bad and the dresses were just not what I was looking for. As we walked out I made the decision that we were done look and all I wanted to do was go buy the dress at Schaffer's. We were back at Schaffer's within 30 minutes of leaving. Lisa was very surprised and happy to see us back. That's when I told her I was back to buy dress #2! We took a lot of pictures and filled out the necessary paper work. I also picked out my bridesmaid dresses while we were there too!  I am so excited about finding my dress and the bridesmaid dresses. We even found my nieces flower girl dress on Etsy later that day!

-Rachel

We're Engaged!

On Saturday April 7th I was sitting in my room watching one of my guilty pleasures, Shahs of Sunset, when my mom walked into my room. She told me to turn off the T.V. and  said I needed to go. She handed me the keys to her car and an envelope. I opened the envelope and found a note:

Rachel,

Step 1: Prepare for an adventure.
Step 2: Give your mom a hug and ask to borrow her car.
Step 3: Make sure the car has some gas in it.
Step 4: Proceed to where our first date was (hint, look at the gift card) [There was a Chili's gift card inside]

Ground rules of the adventure:
If you have any questions or if there is an emergency call (480)-xxx-xxxx
Take a picture at every stop and take anything you find with you.

So I quickly got dressed and left to begin my adventure. I drove to Chili's and went inside where I asked the hostess if she had an envelope with my name on it. She looked very confused so I explained to her that I was on some sort of scavenger hunt and there was supposed to be something for me there. She still looked confused so she said she would go get ehr manager. I started to worry because I really didn't know what I was supposed to be doing at Chili's. Finally, the bartender came out with a rose and an envelope. By this point I was shaking and everyone who was sitting in the bar area was starring at me as a struggled to open it. The next clue said:

Congrats on finding the first clue, only 14 more :)  [Later I found out this was a lie to throw me off, there were not 14 clues]

Please proceed to the spot where we danced the night away in our younger days and look for 2 yellow balloons by the office entrance. Your next clue will be waiting there....Hint: it's where the wolves live and learn.

So I headed to my old high school, Desert Mountain. When I pulled up I didn't see any balloons. So I walked over to where the office was; still no balloons. I walked around and around, and didn't see anything. I was really confused so I text Jeff's dad. He sent me a picture of what I was supposed to be looking for: it was a picture of balloons tied to a sign. I walked to where the sign was and there were no balloons. Then I found the envelope on the ground by the sign. My next clue was....

Proceed to a place where you can "look out" over the valley, if you pass Palisades you have gone too far. (Then there was a map) 

This next spot was a place that looks out over the valley thats kind of between Scottsdale and Fountain Hills. With the A/C blasting I hurried over there. When I arrived there was a group of tourists taking pictures and they all gave me strange looks when I got out of the car and cut the balloons loose with my keys and opened my next clue...

Your next clue leads you to where the name of the city you are currently in gets its name. Hint: Water shoots from here every hour.

Proceed East on Shea toward the 87 (I don't know cardinal directions, luckily I know the city well, I also don't know what the 87 is but I assume that is the B-line) , make a left at Saguaro Blvd, and then a right at Panorama Dr once you pass the water feature. Your next clue is attached to a place where you can sit (look for the yellow balloons).

So I drove to this next place except I didn't know that there were two streets with the same name. Jeff didn't realize this till after he had left the clue there (he told me this after). So I saw a parking lot and parked. I got out of the car and I see about 20 benches; none with balloons. I was beginning to think, great not again! Then I decided that I should just keep driving. I drove a little further down and there they were!

"Enter the gate and go to where I make my swing great."
There was a map of the country club where jeff lives with satellite view of the country club and parking lot. There were arrows showing me where to park and where to go. Then it said to text Jeff's dad a picture of the fountain before I left. When I didn't read was that his dad would be giving me the 2nd part of the clue.

I arrived at the country club and saw the 2 yellow balloons. Since there were people around I decided not to cut the balloons free especially because they were looped. So after a couple minutes of the loop I looked around wondering what I was supposed to do when one of the golf bag attendant guys told me to get in the golf cart. Not knowing that the second half of my clue was on my phone I was like ok I guess that's what I'm supposed to do. So as the guy is driving me to wherever my destination is he asked me if I was on an Easter hunt and I told him that I was pretty sure I was about to get engaged. As we pulled up there was Jeff standing on the 1st tee of the golf course with a rose in hand. I walked over to him and he gave his little speech and asked me to marry him and of course I said YES!!!! Then his brother Chris popped out from behind the bushes with a big cheer. Chris had been hiding taking pictures of the whole thing! It was amazing and perfect. I am overwhelmed with happiness.

We drove back to Jeff's because we had planned to have dinner with his family and as we were pulling up I saw my family members cars. We went inside and Jeff's family and grandparents were there and my family, brother, sister in law, and niece and nephew included were there! It was such a fun and exciting time :)

-Rachel