The Wedding: Wrap-up

So I know these have owned this page lately, but I have one last wedding post for you. We got our super amazing professional photos back from the best wedding photographer ever, Amanda Williams. I want to share some of our favorites with you, because she did a great job of capturing the day.

Beware.... there are a lot of them...

 I see you are gangster... I'm pretty gangster myself.

 Here's a little "Abbey Road" reference.

 Album cover time!

 Wind courtesy of one of the bridesmaids.

 We also don't look at explosions.

 Nature cooperated and displayed the wedding colors.

 Gotcha!

 

   

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers 'aint got nuthin' on us!

 

What a wonderful day. And these last 3 months since have been some of the best ever! Thank you sweetheart, I less then three you.

Wedding Recap 4: The Reception

Well, I'd been holding out for our professional pictures before posting the wedding recap finale, but I still don't have them. So I guess you'll just have to put up with one more wedding post when they DO come in! For now, I'll take you through our reception.

After taking lots of glorious pictures around Ann Arbor we headed into the Michigan Union.

The Union is a gorgeous Art Deco style building (which worked great for our 20's/30's vintage look!) right in the heart of Ann Arbor. Those big windows on the second floor nearest the camera are where we were going to party the night away! We were in the Pendleton Room, which is a stunning little number that seats about 100. I personally like it better then the main ballroom as it's got great details and a fireplace at one end.

We decked it out in copper and cobalt blue, with accents of gold and orange. You could see the blue ceiling floods from the street which just added to the anticipation! But once you got inside, this is what you saw:

Well, that's what you saw if you were my awesome friend Samara and got there before the room filled with people! I'm glad she got this picture, because we didn't arrive until later.

Our short centerpieces. There were tall ones on some tables as well. Also check out my DIY table numbers!

While we were taking pictures our guests enjoyed drinks and hors d'oeuvres (shrimp tempura, bruchetta, and california rolls to name a few) and listened to Ron Newman play some gorgeous piano. Then we made our entrance! After the DJ announced us and our party into the room we went straight into our first dance. I thought it ended up running very smoothly, and I love our song (Call Off the Search by Katie Melua). I didn't even trip on myself!

I love this photo of my parents watching our first dance.

After that came dinner. London broil, asparagus, garlic russet potatoes... crap, I'm making myself hungry. So as dinner was finishing the party started! We did the father/daughter and mother/son dances. And we also included an anniversary dance:

"Anyone who's been married less then a day, less then a day go sit down..."

We did all the cheesy stuff, cut the cake, threw the bouquet, all of it. In the midst of the dancing my mom noticed some people who hadn't been there before... crashers! My dad grabbed one by the scruff of the neck and threw him out the door! His friends followed meekly behind... There was a big cheer and the party continued on. I actually think that's quite the compliment that people would want to crash our party!

Shortly after that, we must have been partying too hard because suddenly the music stopped! Instantly our friend Rick ran over to the (now vacant) piano and started playing chopsticks! It was hilarious, and the music came back on shortly thereafter. Apparently in their anger at getting tossed, our crashers got into the electric box outside and flipped the power off!

After the reception started winding down some of our friends accompanied us to Bar Louie, which is a really nice bar/lounge up the street a ways. We had a few more drinks and I chowed down in a most un-ladylike fashion on some french fries. There was actually a bachelorette party there and she came over and got a picture with me in my dress.

Then Brian and I went back to our beautiful hotel room and had some of the great champagne and strawberries my Grandparents ordered for us and PASSED OUT. Truly, we could not have hoped for a more amazing and perfect day. It's been almost 2 months now and I can't think of it without grinning like an idiot. I think our friends and family had fun too, and I'm so grateful that we were able to start our marriage off on such a happy note!

Wedding Recap 3: The Ceremony

I swear we're almost done with these... I have some fun stuff we did to our bathroom last week to post once I find my camera cord! For now though, lets continue the wedding recap before I forget everything that happened.

When Betty motioned for the girls to come upstairs I was so nervous! But we walked up the steps and got in line and I could see through the mullioned glass that everyone was seated in the church and it looked beautiful. I saw a few people sneak in late too at this point. But this is when everything became ok, I just wasn't nervous anymore! It's go time!

Here are some pictures of the gorgeous church taken by my oh-so-talented friend Samara:

Inside, and then outside:

The ceremony was short, sweet, and beautiful. And nothing went wrong. I'm sure we didn't step at all the right points, but I doubt you could tell.  Here is my dad walking me down the aisle:

The minister (who we LOVE btw) did a great piece. It was about your 'marriage box'. You can only get out of marriage what you put into it. It stuck with out guests as well because several people told me at the reception how much they liked that message. We lit our beautiful unity candle, and suddenly after only 20 or so short minutes he was pronouncing us married and I got to kiss my new husband!

Back out we go:

Then our parents and us stood near the door and had our receiving line. Brian and I laughed about it later because we both got skipped by a few people. Then we went back up to the alter to sign the license and take our family photos. Our photographer was the amazing Amanda Williams, and she is a goddess! She was so efficient! After those pictures we went to take our more fun/artsy shots with our wedding party while everyone else headed off to the cocktail hour.

We don't have our professional shots back yet, but she did send us a couple sneak peaks from the after-ceremony pictures! Midway through we had to take a time-out to take off my cathedral veil and bustle up my giant dress! Neither were easy tasks...

(I made my bolero, you like?)

I'm really excited to get the rest back. After that it was up to the reception, which we could see through the windows of the Michigan Union, was going to be awesome!

Wedding Recap 2: Getting Ready!

Let's continue the wedding day saga... I swear there will eventually be more pictures. I haven't gotten them back from the photographer yet!

About 8 am on October 23rd I snapped awake when there was a sharp knocking on my hotel room door. I ran to answer it and my mom and little sister were standing in the hall. They cheered "Happy Wedding Day!!!" And I officially started to freak out.

We started the day with a big family breakfast at Angelos, an Ann Arbor breakfast staple! And by we I mean me and my family and grandparents. Brian was noooowhere near! I totally did not do what you're supposed to on your wedding day and avoid grease (I guess it helps a nervous stomach to avoid that stuff?). Nope, eggs, bacon, toast and home fries were on the agenda! I was so excited it was hard to sit still. After a nice breakfast we went back to the hotel. I didn't need to be at the hair salon until 11, but the girls were arriving there, and I didn't want to sit still!

When I got there my bridesmaid Emily was just finishing up, and she looked like a total rockstar. My maid of honor was supposed to be there, but we couldn't find her. So we decided to try the beauty school down the street (they are the same company, but one is a school, the other is the official salon, it's a little confusing). Sure enough, she'd made her appointment at the wrong place! It was a little tight in there, so Em and I went for hot apple cider at Biggby. We wandered around town until it was time to go back to the salon.

I loved my hair and makeup! They did such a great job, and it was a lot of fun. They even gave me a hand massage! When we were all pretty my mom and sister went back to the hotel while my girls and I went to get some lunch. We went to Potbelly's on the corner of State and Liberty. Like they often do, they had live music, so it was a great lunch. And did I mention I was doing all this while wearing a cathedral length veil? Those aren't easy to get around in!

After picking up my dress at the hotel we went on to the church! There the girls did their makeup and got dressed, and I jittered around the room nervously. The flowers arrived (they were perfect!) and so did the photographer and videographer. I wasn't allowed to get dressed until the last minute. So pictures were taken and my parents showed up. The guys were upstairs, and I was jumping out of my skin.

My girl Katie and I as we were getting ready!

While we waited for the go-ahead to get me dressed we played old games like 'telephone' and 'down by the banks of the hanky panky' to pass the time. Then suddenly it was time and I was dressed and ready to go! We took a few portrait photos and then it was time for the ceremony. While we waited downstairs I felt like I was going to throw up, and my dad looked like he felt just the same!

OMGWTFBBQ

We interrupt your blog-post-hiatus to bring you the following:

1. I have a new job

2. I got into grad school

3. We are getting married in 3 DAYS!!!!!

Deep breaths.... I'll elaborate soon hopefully.

Wedding Prep Weekend Extravaganza!

So this weekend was crammed full of wedding prep! On Friday night my maid of honor came out and took me for mani-pedis! It was super super nice, even if we did almost get 'shanked' on our way out! It wasn't in the nicest part of town...

The next morning I had my second dress fitting, it went really well. The bustle is awesome and she's taking it in just a smidge more, so I'll have 1 more fitting before I'm all done.

After lunch my mom and I went to the salon for hair and makeup tests. They totally NAILED the look I was going for, I was thrilled. My mom still isn't satisfied with hers, so we're still figuring that out. Before we left they took my hair down and styled it down so that it would look fab and not ruin the surprise for my bachelorette party!

We had an absolute ball. We had a limo and went to dinner, a chocolate party, wine tasting and VIP'd at a club! I will never forget how awesome that was, I seriously have some of the best friends on the planet! The next day we went to breakfast, and then I went home to celebrate some family birthdays with surf 'n turf!

What a weekend, now it's back to regular life!

We interrupt your regular blog schedule...

I just wanted to take a moment to apologise for our rather sporadic updates the last couple weeks. We are now 1 month out from our wedding! Eeeek! Needless to say that means we've had a million demands on our time, so posting has become a little tricky to keep up with.

Rest assured single reader,  I have a new post in the works and I'm sure we'll be back to a more predictable schedule once the madness ends.

By the way, I'm always on the fence about this, would anyone actually be interested in reading posts about our wedding plans? I tend to keep them away from here because I know some people get sick of hearing about weddings, etc. Let me know in the comments!

An Epic Tale of Love

Wow. While I'm still reeling about the fact that Brian actually made a post I figured I'd tell a story.

It's a story about love, marriage, and building a collection of phony-baloney proposals.

Brian and I have been engaged for almost two years now. Our wedding is less then two months away and we're super excited about it! So of course proposals and wedding stuff has been on the brain a lot lately, and that includes our Cedar Point extravaganza last weekend.

We were trying to think of things to do for the ride cameras on the coasters, and somebody said we should stage a proposal on the Magnum (the original big-drop!) and of course, then it had to be done. And it turned out so well that we bought the picture:

And don't worry, that's not really my ring in his hand.

I'm not sure how these things evolve, but we are now on a mission to stage whatever random proposal stories we can come up with so we can totally mess with our future kids later just for fun. Some will real photos, and some may have a little help from photoshop.

Yes, I know. We're weird. Don't act so surprised!

Also, Cedar Point remains one of the coolest places ever.

It's Thursday?

I don't really have much to say today besides

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOTALLY AWESOME SISTER!!!

She's sixteen today, so everybody watch out and stay off the roads ;-) I'm going up to my parents tonight for dinner in celebration. Fun will be had. Oh, and that message is pink because she loves pink, I think her whole world is pink.

And since I'm here I thought I'd share a picture of my prison cell:

And those piles aren't NEARLY as organized as they were that first night. I am almost done though, hopefully I'll get my life back soon. Also, it's amusing and annoying how my handwriting sometimes is great, and other times these envelopes look like they were addressed by a drunk 5 year old.

Gasp! *pant* *pant*

Sooooo I'm exhausted. I haven't posted anything in a long time. Why? Because I have been up to my eyeballs in crap to do. Listen to what I did just ONE of my evenings last week:

1. Picked up my veil from the bridal store 30 minutes away.
2. Updated both my resumes and website (may or may not have to do with the fact I'm applying to a grad program)
3. Made and ate dinner.
4. Completely printed and cut out remaining wedding invitation components.
5. Weeded the front and back yards. (anyone ever seen Jumanji? Yeah, it was about like that)
6. Payed bills
7. Emailed almost every wedding vendor.

Yeah. One evening. Between 5pm and 11pm. They've ALL been like that lately. Mostly it's wedding stuff, but we just have so much going on these days almost none of my personal projects I'd like to do are going to happen for a bit.

With 3 months to go I'll be happy when it's all over actually. Then we can go back to being primarily lazy people with completely random stuff on the brain instead of guest lists, alterations, and postage.

Also, I actually began this post on Friday, but as you can see, it is not in fact Friday right now. What happened? Oh, just a storm of apocolyptic proportions. So mid-post, we lost power. And it stayed lost. Almost the whole weekend. It came back eventually, but it was a very very hot weekend!

Wait, what weekend?

We had a jam-packed weekend this time around! We were social Friday night, but then Saturday-Sunday Brian worked and I pounded away on wedding stuff pretty much the whole time!

It also included a fabulous trip home to my parents. My mom and I worked on wedding details for about 4 hours! It was tiring but awesome. It always feels good to get that much done. Then we had a nice dinner on the deck of pretty much all my favorite things: flank steak, baked potatoes, french cut green beans with almonds... yum. It all ended rather abruptly though when the dog ralphed under the table...

Here's a picture of said adorable ralpher:

Aww, isn't she an adorable 80 pounds of white fluff? BTW she's fine, she just ate something she shouldn't have.

Slacking... but not really

So I've been a total slacker on the blog front... but I swear that doesn't mean I've been lazy! In fact it means the exact opposite! I've been swamped.

Lots of extra energy has been going into work the last few weeks, lets hope I get a breather before too long.

This week has been crazy wedding stuff week. I've worked more on invitations, had long conversations with my mom over the guest list, poured through iTunes, booked a videographer and hemmed and hawed over how to stay warm in my wedding dress during outdoor pictures. Also tonight is tuxedo-pickin'-time!

I also have finished painting the bathroom (for now). And hung curtains in my as-yet-unpacked studio. But alas, no pictures as the above mentioned mania keeps driving it from my mind.

Flowers and Weddings and Girly Stuff

So the few flowers that are on our property are blooming! Well some of them. We have roses and hostas and lilies and iris. And only 1 each of the last two. But the roses are going NUTS. They are on the side of the house surrounding the chimney. After the trees came down I got out there and weeded everything, and it's already looking a lot better, but I want to post a REAL before and after, so you'll have to wait to see what they look like. Rest assured they are covered with hot pink flowers and look horribly neglected at the same time.

Some of the branches came down with all the rain we've had, so I cut myself some stems for inside! It was a tricky process, these bushes have thorns the size of my thumb... but in the end I think it was worth it. They're so pretty! Also why is it that mangling living plants for decoration makes me feel 'civilized'?



Also, in other estrogen-fueled news I spent about 6 hours last night starting our wedding invitations! I have the primary piece designed, and now printed. But I still have to finish cutting them/embellish them all, then there's the backing card, and I still have to do the RSVP and other stuff. This might take up much of my home time in coming weeks. I do want to post a picture of what I did last night, but there won't be another until they go out. Don't want to completely ruin the surprise!