One of the scariest things I have every done!

And it involved food! No I didn't eat something crazy, I agreed to make my sister in law Rachel's wedding cake! Talk about scary! I was pretty confident I could do it, but at the same time you never know what to expect. It was a crazy few hours making it, and I definitely had some freaking out moments, but once I got everything figured out it was all good! I don't have any professional photos, but hope that Rachel will share some with me. But for now here it is!

This cake used pretty much all the skills I had learned in my cake classes so far, and then some I had to pick up from the internet. It was actually a lot of fun (once I got the fondant on, dang it my teacher was right about using cake dummies!).

I think my favorite part was the Anenome on top. I made that a few weeks in advance and was so excited I got it to turn out.

I am thankful Rachel let me make my first wedding cake for her, I can't imagine if I would have done this for a non family member.... YIKES!

Wedding #1

We got to be part of Rachel (Adam's Sister) and Jordan's special day as they were sealed in the Mesa Temple on August 27th.

Loved the dress!

This was after the sealing at the wedding luncheon, SO Cute!

I was not happy with my camera that night, everything was turning out blurry. This was the only semi decent picture we got, and obviously someone else took it! Adam is holding our nephew Brycen, he was more interested in the food than the Camera.

One absoultely wonderful year!

Adam and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary a couple weeks ago. We had a wonderful weekend! We hit the driving range on Saturday morning, then went to lunch at Texas Road House (where we had our very first date), went to a movie, and spent the night at the Biltmore. The Biltmore was awesome. We had actually stayed there on our wedding night but we got there so late and had to leave early in the morning, we didn't really get to enjoy the resort. So this time around we got to walk through all the gardens and even play on the putting course. So fun! Here are a few pictures from the Biltmore.


It's taken me awhile to post because I was sick all last week. I also wanted to share some of our wedding day photos since we haven't done that yet and since they take a long time to load (because Rachel did such a fabulous job on them and they are superior quality!) Its taken awhile to get it all done. So here are some of my favorites!

My dress - I LOVED my dress. I knew it was the one from the minute I saw it online. I was so fortunate to walk into the bridal shop and find it in my size! I didn't even need major altering, just a little hemming since I am short and I was NOT going to wear heels.

My wonderful husband - isn't he so handsome? And yes I made him wear a bright pink tie that I don't think he will EVER wear again. Probably not even if I begged.

My flowers. Of course I wanted hot pink, and of course I had to have Tulips. Adam's mom was great about going to florist after florist til she found one that agreed to do tulips. Most of them refused saying they wouldn't last through the day. We agreed to add a few Gerber daisies for support (another of my favorite flowers). And they survived the whole day! They were absolutely gorgeous!

I had fun taking all of our pictures, I know Adam didn't quite enjoy it as much as me, but I love all the different angles, and the fun pictures we have.

This one is great because you can see my sweet flip flops! No way was I spending the whole day in high heels!

This is probably my favorite picture of us together.

All of our Family and Friends that came to celebrate with us:

In case you didn't know or hadn't figured it out, we got married in the Mesa, AZ temple.

We took most of our pictures before the ceremony, but I love this one taken right after, because I can just see the pure excitement on my face!

This next set is from our Reception at Adam's families house. We got to have it outside in their front yard and it was beautiful!

More tulips! These were still gorgeous when we got back from our honeymoon. All the florist told us they would open up too much so we were scared to put them out too early. They didn't hardly open up at all!

My throwaway bouquet:

The cake was one of my FAVORITE thing. I saw this in a magazine and Adam's mom gave it to a family friend to recreate. It was perfect! Not only that but it tasted great. We served Tres Leches Cake and it was soooooo goooood.

Cutting the cake; Adam tried to claim I shoved it in his face first, but we have video proof to the contrary.

And our first dance as Husband and wife.

We had such an amazing day surrounded by Family and Friends. I don't know how it could have gotten any better!

sAn dIEgO!!!

Adam and I went to San Diego for our honeymoon. I had never been before so of course our #1 stops were Sea World and the beach! The weather was perfect everyday we were there - even warm enough that we got a little burnt at Sea World. We forgot to take our camera everywhere so unfortunately we don't have picture of everything - like the "Zonkies" in Tijuana (thats the name I gave the donkey that were spray painted to look like Zebras - they were on every street corner in Tijuana). But here are a few we captured.

Adam made us sit in the "splash zone" at EVERY show. Luckily we only got "splashed" in the dolphin show (ok, it wasn't just splashed - we were soaked!). Oh and no we did not coordinate our outfits to match the water - I didn't even realize we matched until I saw these pictures later!

We took two pictures at the beach and Adam is smiling better in the other one - but I like this one. It shows his typical I hate taking pictures face. He later blames the scowl on the Sun.

The new me!

I know, I know, its been a month since I've posted - but I've been just a little preoccupied- I hope you'll all forgive me!

Well, I am now officially a Button! And in case you haven't already considered it, yes I have been told almost daily that I am indeed "cute as a Button". Luckily I lived for years being teased for my last name so I think I can handle it.

For those of you who missed it... my wedding day was PERFECT. For those of you who were there thank you so much for all your love and support! It truly was the best day of my life. None of my worst fears happened - my DRESS made it through the day in one piece with no stains, rips or tears; it didn't rain; my cake was AMAZING; the food was DELICIOUS (I did get to eat some cause they sent us with a care package); the reception was BEAUTIFUL; and we have some WONDERFUL pictures and video that captured the whole day! (you can view pictures from the temple at www.fotosbyflint.com - click on online viewing and choose Abbey and Adam. Warning - there are over 400 of them (and that doesn't include the reception) but they have been narrowed done from over 1400!) Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures from the reception soon. And of course the best part of the day was getting SEALED to my dear sweet, now husband, ADAM.

We are still planning for our reception in Boise this weekend. It's going to be great to have more of our family and friends join in celebrating with us- including many of you.... Plus, I'm not gonna lie, I can't wait to put on my dress again! One of my favorite things from my reception in Mesa was all the little girls who seriously thought I was a princess. That rocked! Watch out all you Disney princesses, your job is in jeopardy!

Planning a Wedding...

So many of you reading this blog have experienced planning a wedding so nothing I say will be new. But I thought it would be fun to document some of my journey with a top 10 list of things to remember when planning a wedding:

#10: If you can find someone you trust to plan everything - let them! Adam's mom is taking care of just about everything in Arizona. She calls me when she has questions and then takes care of it. Its been WONDERFUL! Its so nice not to have to stress out about planning two events.

#9: Find free (cheap) things. After asking a few people, I found out that our Stake has chocolate fountains and anyone can use them. SWEET! Do you know how expensive those things are to rent?

#8: Take a classic and make it uniquely yours. I had been struggling with what to serve at the open house in Boise. Well I decided to do chocolate fountains but I didn't want to do the same thing that everyone does so we are having a chocolate fountain, caramel fountain and peanut butter fountain. Yeah, who knew? Turns out you can run just about anything thru a fountain!

#7: Use your family and friends as your #1 resource. My aunt is the wedding coordinator in her church and she just happens to have a beverage fountain. Another aunt has a "lemon" (one of those like you see at the fair) and she's going to do homeade lemonade for us. An old roommate does graphic design and offered to help us with the invitations. Another roommate does flowers and will help arrange them in Boise. Let people know what you are planning and you'll be surprised at what you find - it makes those details so much more special too.

#6: Go to a Bridal Show. I didn't know what to expect and was afraid it would be a waste of time. However it was a GREAT resource. I go to try lots of cakes all in one spot and many of the vendors gave the attendants coupons. While the only thing I ended up using from show was my "cupcake lady". It was worth it. I never would have found her otherwise and she's great. Very very good prices and she'll make as many flavors as I want.


#5: Be flexible. Pick a few things that are the most important to you and focus your time, money and effort on just those things. Not everything will be "perfect" but if the important things are you can be more flexible with everything else? What was my number #1? My dress. I got really really really lucky and the dress I had saw on the internet and loved was in the store and in my size. Here is what it looks like:OK - thats not me in it and this picture is ivory... but you get the idea. It was the lace around the bottom that made me fall in love!

#4 - Carry a small notebook in your purse and write down EVERYTHING. Colors, reception ideas, internet sites, stores to check out, list of people to invite (with space for addresses as you get them), prices for decorations, food etc. Its great to have everything in one place and have it always handy.

#3 - If your fiance has an opinion on something listen. Adam always says "whatever you want is fine" and "I just want you to have everything the way you want". So on the RARE occasion he actually has an opinion I try to listen. When we were trying to pick our reception site in Boise I had said we should do it at the church building where we go to church and where we met.... Well Adam kept saying "are you sure?" Finally I gave in and looked at the church building closer to his house. We went with his suggestion-I think we made the right choice.

#2 - Continue to have a life. Don't let the wedding consume you. Talk about things other than the wedding with your friends. Stay interested in their lives too.

#1 - HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If anyone has any other advice feel free to comment!

THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!!

I can't imagine a better Christmas. It was filled with tons of family and friends. Our annual Heck women's Christmas party was bigger than ever with over 30 of us attending. My mom's family even had a great surprise when my uncle who lives in Alaska showed up unexpectedly at our Christmas party - there were lots of tears and smiles- a moment I'll treasure forever. And of course one of my favorite Christmas traditions - Grandma Heck's breakfast.

However this Christmas was extra special because it was my first Christmas with Adam - my future eternal companion. Since many people reading this blog don't know our story, I'm gonna share some highlights of our first few months together:


How We Met

In the summer of 2007, they "invited" those of us who weren't students to leave the Boise Idaho University Stake... so my roommates and I obeyed and began attending the Boise Idaho 7th Ward. It was a very small (OK small can't even begin to describe it!) but the Bishopric was awesome (I actually work with the Bishop) and we were all given great opportunities to serve. That's where Adam and I first met. However neither of us were interested initially. We both had interest elsewhere and it took a few months for things to properly align before we made it to our first date.

Our First Date
Actually we probably need more of a background leading up to the first date. It seems both of us have differing stories on who liked who first. I am convinced Adam was interested in me first and he thinks the opposite. I guess it doesn't really matter now, because since we both thought the other was interested I guess it made us interested ourselves. So that's how our first date came to be, Adam thought I liked him and after "Operation Pumpkin" (see posting in October) he decided he was right and that he better take me out. Good thing he did!

So on October 19th we had our first date. We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse where we waited for a table for over an hour - if Adam hadn't had a gift certificate I am sure we would have left. Afterwards he suggested we go Salsa dancing. We had a good time - well most of the time was a good time. Adam was a great dancer, but wasn't the best "protector". I got hit on by this short girl. She kept trying to get me on the floor and all but dragged me out there. I kept turning around to look at Adam with a look of "PLEASE SAVE ME" but all he did was laugh! I can't believe I even gave him a second chance after that one. Adam actually knew what he was doing on the dance floor and we had a lot of fun - even when his watch got tangled up in my hair and I almost finished the night off bald! We had some great laughs on that date.

The Proposal

Everyone always wants to know "how did he propose?" Well, it just kinda happened. We were just talking and basically decided we wanted to get married and he said "well I guess I should ask you then?" and I responded "probably" (not thinking he meant right then) and he said "I know this isn't romantic or anything, but will you marry me?" I of course said yes! The next step was picking out the ring, and we thought maybe he could surprise me then and ask me. Well, that didn't work so well either. Adam ordered the ring on the Internet and it happened to show up while we were in Oregon for Christmas. When we got back, Adam walked inside first, saw the package and put his computer on top so I wouldn't see it. Dan, Adam's roommate didn't know what was going on and later said, "hey yeah, I saw your 'terrorist' package came in" (it had shipped from the middle east). Well, I whipped around and looked obviously excited. So Adam made me wait a whole 15 minutes before he gave in and gave it to me. And here it is! I LOVE it!