I now pronounce you...

HUSBAND AND WIFE!

It is official. We are Hank and Amanda WELCH!

To sum up the wedding - perfect! Every single thing about the whole entire event was spectacularly perfect. We arrived in San Francisco very late on Thurday, November 2 with our friends Jason (he performed our ceremony!) and Dawn (Amanda's Matron of Honor) and the weather was drizzly and damp. The two weeks leading up to the wedding had rain not only on the wedding day but for two days before and two days after. We kept thinking, "Isn't this supposed to be sunny California?" However, when we got to Monterey on Friday afternoon the sun was shining and it was beautiful from that point on.

The wedding day was fantastic. Amanda, her mom (Beverly), Dawn, and a family friend (Kristie) spent the day on 17-Mile Drive and had a great and tasty lunch at Pebble Beach while the Welch Family, Jason, and Pete & Alice Adams also did 17-Mile Drive (be assured the bride and groom never saw each other before the wedding). We all arrived at the wedding site to find absolutely perfect weather and breathtaking scenery.

We had written our own vows and the words were perfect and will always be a special memory from our wedding. We were so lucky to have those we love the most with us to celebrate the start of our lives together. It was literally a perfect day in every way and a perfect way to start our lives as Mr. and Mrs. Welch.

Hank's dad and Best Man, Hank, Amanda, Dawn (Matron of Honor), and her husband and our good friend who performed the ceremony, Jason
Married Couple!
So in love!
The bagpiper who played - - fantastic!
The new complete family
Everyone - - literally everyone who attended the wedding

One of my favorite pictures - - we took this just as we were leaving for the reption

at the reception

pictures, pictures, and more pictures

Hank arrives!

Hank looks so excited to be getting married!

The Welch family before the wedding
Amanda & Mom arrive

Hank reads his vows (you can see some of the views in this pic)

The Ceremony

Ceremony and our guests

You may kiss the bride

Does it take a house to make a home?

We certainly hope not! We're pulling for "Home is where the heart is." :)

So, here's the scoop. We terminated the contract on the house many months ago. It was a super hard decision but we know we ultimately made the right one. There were many, many mistakes made on the house some of which changed some of our favorite features of the house. To say we lost faith in the builders is an understatment so after much thought and prayer about it we cut our losses and let the house go.

That left us in a little pickle as we were six weeks or so from the wedding and no place to live. We eventually found a darling loft and we are the first people to live there. It's a great location and we love some of the neat features - exposed brick walls, vaulted ceilings, historic building. We'll get some pictures up in the near future.

It's definitely not a free-standing house and while it is darling, it's not without it's faults. But, for now, it's our first home. If home is where the heart is then we are definitely home!