Our wedding week ;-) + :-]

What an awesome week we had in Montana! We really loved being home and we couldn't have picked a better week to be there...the weather was seriously amazing.

We arrived in Bozeman on Saturday afternoon (8.16) and Scott, my mom and I all drove to Helena to visit his mom and also for an art show that Scott had at our friend (and groomsman) Papu's new store, four-O-six. The store looked amazing and it was so great to see the turnout that evening. Mr. Papu sure knows how to throw an art party. Hopefully he also attracted some new business, although I swear he must know everyone in Helena already. :) I'd also like to give Laura and Caroline props for the yummy treats (they baked some of it themselves) and wine. They did a great job and it was all so organized...everyone was super impressed and Scott sold quite a bit of art. The extra wedding cash REALLY helped!

Sunday we met up with the pastor who was marrying us, Matt Randles, to go over some last minute details. Matt did a great job on the ceremony and I can't believe we cried less at the actual wedding than we did in the days before the wedding! We were such saps, but gladly we must had gotten most of the teary-eyes done before the ceremony. We also stopped by Canyon Ferry lake to see Heather, her husband Jonny, Ashley and a bunch of their friends. Heather and Jonny bought a pontoon boat that they take partying on the lake as many weekends as they can. It was a sweet party boat and we did some swimming and wake boarding. My white ass just tried to stay out of the sun (it has a covered deck) since a sunburn and a wedding gown don't mix! After that, we drove back to Belgrade and had a nice dinner at my parents new house. That evening we picked up Marika from the airport and she stayed with my parents and us at the house for the week. It was so nice having her there...we met in Australia 6 years ago, she was there when Scott proposed in Italy 2 years ago, and she flew in for our wedding all the way from London.

Most of the beginning of the week was spent lounging around my parents house looking at the beautiful view of the Bridger mountains and enjoying the peace and quiet. We also ran a bunch of wedding errands and got all the wedding details finalized. It was non-stressful and just what I'd hoped for! Wednesday night my parents hosted a BBQ at their new house...it was kind of an unofficial house warming party for my parents friends and our family, as well as a casual party for the wedding party and their families. It was so nice! Jonny had smoked up some awesome pulled pork and we set up a volleyball net, horseshoes and croquet. (Marika's parents also arrived that evening from Rome so they enjoyed the festivities as well.) It was really nice weather and it even waited to rain on us until it was too dark to play anyway.

Thursday meant party time - the bachelor/bachelorette parties! The girlies met at my parents house and we assembled some wedding favors, painted our nails, drank some cocktails, ate snacks and got ready to go out. I also got my all important spray-tan! The boys went to get their tux fittings and then headed out to play folf (frisbee golf) and have a BBQ. They started drinking at 10am and were still drinking well into the night until 2am...I don't know how they were all still standing by the time we met up with them that night! Makenzie, my best friend and maid of honor, planned a fun-filled night for us - it helps that she's good friends with the owners and used to bartend at the place we went that evening (317 in downtown Bozeman). While the boys were farther down the street at another bar, we pulled up to some tables, ordered many rounds of drinks and shots, (maybe even got on the chairs and danced) and had full control over the music playlist. The boys showed up a little too drunk and a little too early (we didn't even get to finish our bachelorette games), but we all still had a blast. The best part of the night was when Scott and I looked up at the widescreen TV in the corner of the bar and saw our faces plastered on it! Kenzie had a surprise for me...a 15 min video that she made of pictures that she had collected from our friends and family. It was so cool and there were some really hilarious ones of us in grade school and junior high. I was such a sap with all the memories that I started crying (happy tears of course)! I love you Kenz - that was the best! The night was capped off with pizza and a ride home from our DD, Jonny. I still have no idea how we crammed so many people all in one Explorer...I think I counted 10 or 12!

I thought there would be more people totally hungover on Friday, but everyone was actually pretty perky and awake. We headed up to Big Sky to check into our cabins and get ready for the rehearsal. It was again a perfect weather day. We had our rehearsal with the wedding party at Moonlight Lodge and then had a rehearsal dinner at Lone Peak Brewery. It was relaxing and we all just chatted, played some shuffle board, ate some awesome food and drank some beer that they brew right in the back room. After dinner it was a fairly early night. I got back to our cabin (I roomed with Kenzie, not Scott), put on my swimsuit, opened a bottle of wine and my friends and I got into the hot tub right away. It was much needed and a perfect way to relax right before my wedding day!!

Ahhh, the big day! We woke up, had some coffee and some breakfast snacks and started to get ready for the day. The girls had their hair done in my cabin so we all hung out for the day. I gotta say thanks so much to Felicia, Kenz, Jill and JJ for helping out so much with the decorations - you guys are the best and everything went so smoothly thanks to you. I swear I didn't have to do anything the whole day...you guys made sure to take care of it all and I appreciated everything more than you know. Most of the rest of the day went by in a big blur. Everything happened so fast and I'm still so shocked that all the planning and prepping for one day comes down to it going by in the blink of an eye! Seriously what is with that! This is what I do remember of the day:

The girls and my mom helped me into my dress. I went down to the lodge to meet Scott...our photographer planned a spot for us to see each other for the first time that day. Of course, we got teary-eyed and he even brought me some wild flowers that he had picked earlier in the day when him and his friends went folfing (yes, they also have a folf course in Big Sky). It was so sweet and he looked so hansome!! After our first meeting, we took pictures with our parents and the wedding party. Everyone looked so gorgeous...I think my parents said (more than once) that Scott and I must have the best looking group of friends ever...I and totally agree. :) Our guests started showing up around 6pm and we were ready to start the ceremony at 6:30pm. It was perfect timing as it was still nice and warm outside and the sun just went behind the mountain so no one was blinded. This is where things really start to get fuzzy...it was so overwhelming being the one in the wedding and the center of attention, instead of just a spectator. The 15 min ceremony went great and there were many tears and laughs. One of my favorite memories was when Scott said "I be wed" instead of "I thee wed". One of his favorite memories was when I pulled a tissue out from my dress in between my boobs to wipe my eyes. :) After the ceremony, I remember taking more pictures, having a shot with the wedding party, doing our grand entrance, eating dinner, making toasts (which Kenzie, Robert and Brian did a great job on...we were laughing and crying), cutting the cake, first dances (my dad and I were so cute during our dance and my sisters even came to join in; and Scott and I just loved our first song(s), yes we had 2), more dancing, bouquet and garter toss, more dancing...and I even got serenaded by all our guy friends with "You've lost that loving feeling". Scott and I said goodnight around 12:30am and headed off to our cabin - Scott carried me to the car and Jill and JJ drove us up to our cabin overlooking the whole Big Sky valley. It was amazing, we could see all the stars out, and we were in the hot tub with drinks and some more of our cake within minutes. Ah, what a great ending to a great day.

The next morning we had a brunch, hosted by our good friend and usher Brady and his girly Elene (Brady and Elena - you guys rocked it and everyone loved the brunch)! We had Brady's famous brown-sugar bacon, tons of other breakfast goodies made by Brady and Elene and opened our presents. After that, we all said our goodbyes and Scott and I headed back to my parents house to relax before our flight "home" the next day.

Holy crap what a jam-packed week. All the planning for 2 years finally paid off and we had the best wedding we ever could have asked for. Our best friends, our families...what more could we have asked for (besides if it was free - hahaa)?! It was all like a dream, except I have pictures to prove it. :) You can see all our pictures, and ones that others took during the week, at our Kodak photo album:

www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp

You can go down to the bottom and click on "browse all albums" link to see all the photo albums we have uploaded. :)

Cheers - Melissa & Scott

I passed my CPA exams!

FINALLY!
After a year of studying for my CPA exams, I found out that I passed my last one...I checked online on the last day of our honeymoon. It made for a great ending to a perfect vacation! :) Now all I have to do is take the required ethics exam (which is a take home test, whew) and fill out all the paperwork...which actually takes awhile. So although it may still take a year or so to actually have my CPA license in my hand, there'll be no more stressing and wasting my weekends away studying. I will now have more time to keep up on my blog a little better. Haha!

Mr. and Mrs. Abel :-)

Wedding date: 08.23.08

Wedding location: Moonlight Lodge, Big Sky, Montana

Honeymoon location: Fiji and Sydney

(Pictures here by Lindsey Steyee, LLS Photography)

More pictures and info about our big event will be coming soon...
Love,
Melissa & Scott

Long time no blog...

Well, it's been too long, I know. I've been so so busy with work and studying for my CPA exams and wedding stuff and so many countless other things this fall and winter. I will hopefully have some time in the near future to write more, but don't hold your breath waiting for it. :) Until then, here are some recent happenings and very exciting news in my world:

• Scott's final thesis presentation was Dec 20th and he passed with flying colors! They unconditionally accepted his thesis project (which is very hard to do and means he doesn't have to work on it anymore) and officially graduated on Dec 21st!! Three and a half years of grad school and a very gruelling thesis project with many many long nights and he did it....I'm sooooo proud of everything he's done and his accomplishments are tremendous. Now it's on to finding that perfect job. ;)
• Scott also won an internship (he competed for it against probably a hundred others from around the country) with a prominent graphic design company in SF called Pentagram. It's a 3-month paid internship with such a great company that just having it on his resume is a jump ahead for other job offerings. He starts Jan 7th! Woohoo - that means dual income so we can pay for the wedding.
• I found out I passed my first of four CPA exams, the one that was the toughest (for me at least). One down, 3 to go...
• Scott's mom, Marlyne, got to come visit for Christmas and Scott's graduation. She was here for 10 days and we had so much fun showing her around the city (San Fran) and having her visit, especially for the holidays was wonderful. It was her first time and our first time NOT being in Montana for Christmas. It was snow-free but a great time!
• My parents, Vince and Cathie, are coming to visit on Jan 3 for about a week. I'm so excited to see them and show them around as well! Scott and I never get bored of showing people around this area...there's just so much to do it's hard to narrow it down. I can't wait to see them! It's both my parents' and Marlyne's first time visiting Scott and I since we've been living here (over 3 years now) and I'm really glad we got a place with an extra bedroom so no one has to camp on the couch like college students. :)

Well, that's all the excitement I can think of for now...back to studying for that second CPA exam that I take soon. Gotta leave plenty of time this evening available for getting ready to go out for New Year's Eve festivities.

Hope you are surrounded by many good friends loved ones as we enter 2008 and that the year brings you all the good things you deserve. I know I'm looking forward to 2008 more than any year in a long time...I'll finally be married in the fall to the man of my dreams and look forward to seeing all my family and friends sooooo much!

HAPPY 2008 EVERYONE!!

Lots of love, Melissa Y

Avant Grande Art Show

Saturday, September 15, 2007 :
Four pieces of Scott's art got featured in an annual art show in San Francisco called the Avant Grande (hehe, cute name huh), which was put on by Starbucks and the Academy of Art. It was in a great venue, there were yummy appetizers, mini desserts, plenty of beer/wine...and of course, a coffee bar. There was a really great turn out, but most of the people there only knew about it because of word of mouth. Hello Starbucks, I think you can fork out some additional money next year to advertise! Anyway, as many of you can guess, there are lots of Academy students that work part time at one of the many Starbucks in the city. Therefore, there are plenty of art students and this show is a good chance for artists to get their work out there.
Scott had plenty of his business cards gone at the end of the night, which is great. Now hopefully all those people go to his website (http://www.scottabelonline.com/) and buy some art! After all, we need to pay for our wedding, peeps. :)

But seriously, it was a wonderful show and Scott got a lot of great response on his art. I love his huge pieces of digital fine art, which are his newest in the collection. He had one guy in SF want to buy the San Fran piece, but wanted it bigger as he had lots of wall space. Scott wasn't sure how it would look blown up from 13"x19" to about 40"x60", but it turned out beautiful and they are my favorite pieces so far. We have a large Rome piece in our living room above our couch and it looks amazing with our vaulted ceilings.

Great job at the show babe! You rock and your stuff looked amazing!

Labor Day Weekend

I finally got out of the house for Labor Day weekend! Scott, Robert, Liza and I took a nice long weekend off to join the rest of the crowds out camping. We went up to a place called Bass Lake about 2 1/2 hours from our apartment...just outside of Yosemite. It was a great recommendation from my aunt Gina, who I also got to see that weekend. She performs (plays guitar and sings) at a place called the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. It used to be this old logging railroad back in the day and the huge steam train now runs twice a week to give visitors and tourists a ride. There's even a great BBQ and a train ride up to an open are where they have a bonfire and sing old fashioned and fun songs for entertainment. On the train ride up we even got stopped by train robbers! :) It was really fun...and great to see my aunt, her work friends and fellow entertainers, and her boyfriend Dale.

After the Railroad on Saturday night, we set up camp in a campground near Bass Lake. The next day we spent all day on the Lake and rented some canoes to get around. It was a hell of a workout and very fun. I'd never been in a canoe before - it was crazy trying to paddle around all the boats and jet skis in the water. I swear they almost tipped us over a couple times. But still it was really fun, I'd do it again. We ate lots of yummy BBQ while camping and I loaded up on the s'mores - because this was the only time we got to go camping all summer. How sad is that!! We also got to take a nice hike that overlooked the lake and played around on some of the cool trees on the trail.

It seemed like such a short weekend! Booo...there goes the summer. Oh well, I absolutely love fall here in the bay area. It's the most beautiful season here and also the warmest for San Fran. Hopefully I'll have time to keep up with some blogs for the next month before I head into my busy season during Nov-Dec. :)