Looking back....(The beginning)

It's been some time since I last checked in here. Now it is July 28, 2011. 12 days after our wedding. This will be a 4 part blog. I decided to break the event down into three parts. The beginning, the middle and the end and a final thoughts section. There are so many thoughts and memories I would like to share, I just hope I do the event and the participants justice. So, sit back, relax and enjoy our wedding from the point of view of the Groom (for those of you keeping score at home, that would be me!)
July 15...
I was able to get this day off, originally I was supposed to work only half a day, but after looking over the last minute details, I decided that the whole day would be needed to get things done. In the morning I took my Dad to a doctor's appointment and then shopping down on Mission St. I got home around 12pm. Ulisa (Bride) was getting ready to do some last minute shopping with her Mom. My first task was to go get the rings cleaned and then some quick shopping for traveling supplies. I get to Serramonte and go to the jewelry place and ask for the cleaning service, of course it was not available. The person who cleaned the rings was not in and would not be back until the next day. However, they did steam clean them, which was better then nothing. I also went to another jewelry shop and the lady cleaned the rings with a liquid solution and gave me some bags to put them in. I got the last minute things at Target and went back home.
I met up with Ulisa and her friends (Elmira, Alina, Wilmer and Juan) at the Olive Garden. We were talking and catching up with each other. It was nice to have them in town and being able to spend time with them. After we left the restaurant we went over to Ulisa's Mom's house and picked up the Champagne to take to Dominic's. We also picked up the wedding dress and other items that would be included in the wedding ceremony.
Our first stop was the flower shop, we went to pay for the flowers that would be in the church. After that, we headed to Dominic's to drop off the champagne, place cards, table numbers and the seating charts. We did our final check in with Roger (the hall coordinator) and moved on to check into the Embassy Suites. After the check in and dropping off the items, Ulisa and I went over to Party City and picked up some fake rings to place on the pillow.
Now the fun part.... We headed out to Holy Angels church for our rehearsal. For the most part everyone was on time (except for 3 people [1 I knew about, 2 that were just late....]) Now, we had to find Father Jun. During this time Ulisa was speaking to Tito and Al (the music and choir contact) and finally Father Jun came out. Now, I do not want to speak bad about anyone, so I will just say that I really hope that the next time Father Jun performs a wedding ceremony, that he is more organized. I will admit, I was getting frustrated with the lack of disorganization and was just trying to calm down. However, I did have to laugh when Father Jun freaked out when he saw Elmira and Olga (who was filling in for Amilcar) walk down the isle together. But at least now we had some type of order and some type of plan to go into the ceremony tomorrow. After the practice, we practiced how we were going to take the pictures due to a short window provided the next day. We were running late, so I sent my sister and most of my family to the restaurant so we wouldn't lose our reservation. Two things that were supposed to happen were 1) the rings needed to be blessed (Didn't happen) 2) we needed to confess (after locating Father Jun, who had left, he was able to do this). The rings did get blessed during the ceremony the next day. After my confession, I headed out to the restaurant to meet everyone else.
Now, everyone is at Celia's in Daly City. This is where we had the dinner after our civil wedding. Once again we made the personalized menus and I had the people in attendance sign the guest (book) jersey. One person missing was Adri as she was still on the way from NOLA. We all had a really good time at the dinner, a few drinks and told a few stories. Alina and Juan were snapping pictures with their new camera (which I can't wait to see) and then it was time to go. We said our goodbyes, I had a quick meeting with my Groomsmen and gave them their Groomsmen gifts. For Amilcar, Charles and Arnel I gave them engraved rock drinking glasses and for the junior groomsman, Lil Will, I got him some baseball cards, a Giants wallet and a Tim Lincecum dog tag.  I also gave Brian his birthday gift. Ulisa gave Alexia her bridesmaids gift and then had to go as she needed to pick up Adri at the airport. I said goodbye and goodnight to Ulisa and went to the house with Lil Will.
We called it a night at around 12:45am. I was surprised that I was able to get to sleep so fast. It was already July 16th. The day was finally here......