Chelsea and Joey get married!

We were so happy to be a part of two of our favorite people's wedding: Chelsea and Joey. I met Chelsea when I moved out to Phoenix for our new gigs at the Arizona Republic. We experienced the Phoenix summer together, all while sleeping on our air mattresses. Our Midwest upbringing didn't prepare us for the heat, but sharing experiences with Chelsea made the summer even more fun and enjoyable! Luke met Joey at the Republic, as well. Together, they created some great sports pages and Joey sky-rocketed into his own business: 5M Sports. If you get a chance, check it out. And if you have any reason to use his expertise-DO IT! He is rawesome.

They moved to Chicago in the spring of 2009 when Joey got a new gig at Chicago Tribune Interactive. Chelsea works at a newspaper in Northwest Indiana covering transportation.

Joey proposed to Chelsea on a trip to San Diego at Point Loma. They loved the trip so much, that they wanted their family and friends to come out there for their amazing wedding. What a great idea it was! Everyone had such a great time...what isn't to love about celebrating two people's love for each other in one of the greatest cities in America?

Luke and I's adventure to the ocean began early on Friday, January 29. This was also Luke's 30th birthday! He was so excited to be in San Diego on his birthday and to see Joey and Chelsea. We have made a couple trips to San Diego before, and every time we pass by billboards around the small town of Dateland advertising "Date Shakes." Since we had a little time to spare, we figured we would stop off and see if it was worth all the hype. It wasn't :( We were so disappointed. It was waaay too gritty and didn't have a good taste to it. It was like a protein shake.

This photo was taken before I took my first sip. :)

We got to town around 11:30 a.m. and stopped by Old Town. We met our cousins, Toni (my cousin on my mom's side) and Doug (Luke's cousin on his dad's side) at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, Cafe Coyote. They make homemade tortillas and have great margaritas. It was so nice to catch up with our cousins, and a few weeks after our visit, Toni got engaged! So much love lately! :)

Luke wanted his photo taken in front of the wagon. It was his birthday, so I couldn't tell him no. :)

After lunch, Doug and Toni had to head back to work and we made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Best Western on Shelter Island. Our room faced a harbor and it was wonderful waking up to the sound of the water and birds.

The view from our room on Shelter Island, San Diego.

After we checked in, we unpacked and got ready for rehearsal. The wedding was to take place at the Wedding Bowl, a flat area along a cliff in La Jolla. By far, the best place to have a wedding.

Chelsea practices walking down the aisle!

The most-gorgeous sunset at the Wedding Bowl.

After rehearsal, we had dinner at a pizza place back over by our hotel. The pizza was amazing and Luke found out that Chelsea's maid of honor, Alycyn, was also celebrating a birthday that day. So we all sang happy birthday to them and got to see some childhood photos of Joey and Chelsea while we enjoyed some delicious tiramisu.

After dinner, it was time for bed. We had a lot of partying to do the next day!