Just Married! (3 months ago)

Well, here we are... our first post as the Staal Family! As most of you know everything was chaos up until the wedding day, but thanks to wonderful friends and family putting hours of work planning and arranging everything both the weddings and receptions in Holland and in Portland were wonderful and c0mpletely unforgettable!

The wedding in Portland was also awesome! It was so great to see the family again and especially to see them in the Temple. That means so much to us and was certainly a day I have been looking forward to for a LONG time (most of my life) and I will never forget it. It was too bad that we didn't get too much hangout family time, but we look forward to that in our next visit (or when some of the fam comes to Holland!) If anything could have been done differently, we probably would have not had nearly an entire week inbetween the wedding and sealing in the temple... but even with that, it gave me time to get totally spoiled with parties and showers! It's fun to be the bride hehe! The weather was good and bad, but when we needed the sun we were blessed with big breaks in the clouds, and the weekend following the wedding was also nice.

We were sealed on April, 29 2009 in the Portland Oregon Temple, and had an absolutly GORGEOUS reception in the Stark St. Chapel. A huge thanks to all the people who helped and worked so hard on that too. It was really nice, and I was also really happy with how the bridesmaids looked :D

Just exiting the temple, We're MARRIED!!


Family of Richard's


Me and my cute little flower girls! I loved the dresses and bouquets!


Me with some of my best old friends from high school,
and with the coolest roommies plus Milly!

Brian did our family pictures. Here is one of them.

Oma Winnie, G-ma & G-pa Clark

Our first dance. (to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat)


Dancing with the dads. Siebe acting like he is too old to walk, but that old man still runs like a maniac!


Dancing with the moms. Mary loved learning a few steps from her new son-in-law.

Roomies and kids getting their groove on.


Elizabeth sang "To Make You Feel My Love" for us and it was AMAZING! (especially the little improve dance durring the intermezzo)

Cutting the cake.
Step 1: cut
Step 2: take a piece

Step 3: Smile and plot
Step 4: Feed... oh forget it! SMEAR IT ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Laugh, observe the damage, clean your nose out...

...And kiss with frosting all over your face.

Our pretty cake.


Cake table. Yummy brownies, delicious keylime cheescake bites, and the white wedding cake with strawberry filling :P


Our civil wedding was in Rotterdam on April, 23 2009. I got ready in the morning at Sylvia's (sis. in-law) house and Richard came to pick me up and see me for the first time around 11am. He waited at the bottom of the stairs as I finished getting my dress on, and had my flowers in hand. We were both so nervous, but when we finally got to see each other it was just perfect. He was so handsome standing there, and I felt like a princes. We then went off to do our photos in a location nearby (it was actually the trail where we had our first walk together when I came to meet him for the first time). Ofcourse we also went to a windmill in the area for a few pics too :). After that we had some lunch at Sylvia's with our wedding party just before we headed off the the Rotterdam stadhuis where we would be getting married

(city hall: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Rotterdam_stadhuis.jpg).

Wedding continued...

It was so beautiful, and we do have it all on film, but we need to translate/put subtitles for all of those who can't understand Dutch. Dinner and the reception were so fun and very beautifully decorated! Thanks to all who came to the wedding and/or reception! We are so happy to have been able to see you all and thank you for your wishes and support. The day wouldn't have been the same without you!

Here are some pictures of the grand event and then some...ENJOY!

The day begins. Me at the Keuter's house and Richard at the Staal home getting ready. Richard has the flowers brought to him and gets ready to bring them to me when he heads to pick me up.

And... when Richard is nervous about something he acts even more goofy than normal...(i.e. here wearing his sister's sun glasses)

Meanwhile, I am up early (not having slept much), took a hot bath, got breakfast in bed from Sylvia, and got straight to the hair and make-up business.

Richard ready to pick me up with flowers and his favorite of all things with 4 wheels.. a BMW.

Waiting.... breathing... approaching the door....

I came down the stairs and we saw each other for the first time on our wedding day. It was so sweet. One thing for sure, I am glad I doubled my mascara with waterproof over the top... and a good thing Richard wasn't wearing make-up :P

It was such a great moment though!

And there we are...

Posing while Richard opens the door for me

Here we are sitting on the wedding chairs listenting to our love story presented by our ambtenaar/justice who is also a friend of ours from church, Mirjam. She was AWESOME!

You may kiss the bride! Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. & Mrs. Staal!

Here we are exchanging rings. Also our cute little ring barers Calvin, Anouk, and Jesse.

It was hard to put fitted rings onto our sweaty fingers, but we got it.

Some of the wedding pictures taken where we first took a walk together 2 years ago.

Our friend Yeagi and a friend of hers play wedding march as we exit the room. It was so nice to have them play for us!

Just married and waiting outside for everyone to...

congratulate us!

This looks familiar... this one was a brownie cake made by a cousin, Zippora.

Now we have been married for 3 months and as soon as we got back it was back to BUSYness. For the first couple weeks we had to shower at Richard's parents house because the bathroom tiles needed to be grouted, and we have been organizing, packing and unpacking etc. Now the house is "done" and it is down to finishing touches, and then just adding things here and there as we go to make it home... but we can already see now that in being married, we have one big adventure ahead of us! FUN TIMES! Coming soon... some pictures of our home!