Dan and Jessica 's Wedding in Woodland Hills, California

The story of our wedding

It was the most a wonder filled, amazing day ever!We decided on a small intimate wedding with only our closest friends & relatives. We had 30 people, total who supported us throughout the day.My husband and his daughter danced down the aisle, I was led down by my parents. We spoke our own vows and were given lovely words of wisdom and encouragement from the rabbi. The ceremony was the most fun ever. In all honesty, I wanted the focus to be on us, and with more than half the audience, children under 12, I didn’t want the kids to be bored or for parents to worry about entertaining them, so we planned the most epic treasure hunt ever for them. When we entered the reception hall, we made an announcement that the goody bags on a far table each had the name of a child on it, in each bag there was an instrument that would help them solve the treasure hunt. The rules were: they had to work together AND they had to complete the hunt before the end of the wedding. If they succeeded, they’d find a treasure of $20 marked for each child, if they didn’t, we’d use the money for our honeymoon. They were off in a blur. We had hid puzzles and clues throughout the temple. One child had a ring of keys- only one would open one of the boxes, one child had a flashlight that could read the invisible message that would lead to the next clue, one had batteries that fit a walkie talkie that we hid...they had so much fun, they completely forgot to eat the meal. We probably should have done pictures before the hunt, because wrangling them for some pictures was difficult- but it was wonderful . It was so exciting making the hunt with my fiancé (and keeping it a secret from everyone) and it was great seeing them so into it-- I would have liked to have kept the prize money... but I was so happy that they played together to earn the prize, and they got to the last treasure of the money right before we cut the cake, so they enjoyed dancing with everyone and that was fun too! (Yes, that’s a Star Wars theme cake, a gift from me to my husband.)The ceremony was just incredible. There was so much love and support, and by keeping it small, we got to interact with everyone, it was intimate and fun.Our most eyebrow raising guest (when I tell other people) is that we invited my husband’s ex-wife, her fiancé and his children. We are friends with them and spend a lot of time with them. It was important to us that they were there, we want all the children to know they’re loved by all and there’s no anger or jealousy due to the divorce of our marriage. I made my husband’s ex-wife’s fiancés daughter (there’s no easy word for that relationship) my flower girl because she considers herself their step-sister and we didn’t want to leave her out of the girls planning and fun of the wedding.Everyone warned me it would be over fast, but I wasn’t prepared for the time warp I experienced. The wedding was over in a blink of an eye. I can’t believe how fast it happened. We knew the ceremony would end quickly, so we had invited everyone to our house after the ceremony for a late night pool party- it was nice to get super comfortable and just chill and laugh with everyone. The wedding was amazing and I loved every minute, I look back on it and am filled with such love and pride. The only thing I wish someone- anyone- would have told me, was about the day after. After so much planning, and preparing, and anticipating, and being “the bride” with all the well wishes that accompany that title, the day after was jarring. It was like a million times worse than the day after your birthday, it was sad, that there was no more planning to do, I had spent so much time obsessing about every detail and I didn’t have anything to occupy my every thought anymore, I didn’t know what I’d do with my time. And I just wasn’t prepared for it that feeling of emptiness. But the day after that, we left for our honeymoon and that was incredible also, we had so much fun and, now, I’m a wife with the most incredible, amazing, loving, wonderful husband in the world and I couldn’t be happier. I love being married, I loved my wedding and I love the memories I have of it.