Wedding Day Recap: Our First Dance

Click here to hear our first dance song...

J and I only practiced our dance one time between our last lesson and the time we actually had to do it in front of everyone else.  We practiced the day before and I had taken lessons in my wedding shoes, but I had never danced in my dress.  I was actually kind of nervous before we started, but I knew that J was probably more nervous than me (he doesn’t like to be the center of attention) so I had to make sure I didn’t make him more nervous.

I really wish I had a video of our first dance all ready to show you, but I don’t yet.  It went really great and we had fun and we got lots of compliments.  All I’ve got for now are pictures…

We also did a father/daughter dance to “Stand By Me”… a song that has always reminded me of my dad… it’s one of his favorite songs.

J and his mom had their mother/son dance to a song that she chose, “A Song for My Son”.

And then, it was time for the wedding party’s next performance.  Once again, I didn’t ask any of them to do much before-hand… but I did drop the hint to the girls that we’d be doing the “Cupid Shuffle” to get the party started.  The night before at the bar, we taught some of the guys to do it, even though most of them were being losers and not participating… well, this time they did  :-D

And then everyone joined the party!!!

Next Up: Wedding Day Recap: Some Time Alone Together

Wedding Day Recap: The First Look

I was scheduled to be the first one ready so Jason and I could have our first look.  It really hadn’t been that long since we’d seen each other… not even 24 hours, but I was so excited to see him and I was so excited to get our day started.

If you remember from past posts, I got really emotional during the rehearsal and started to get emotional as I was putting on my dress, so I knew that this was going to be an emotional part of the day.  Part of the reason we saw each other before the wedding is so I had a chance to touch up my makeup after the tears, and I was hoping that getting the emotion out ahead of time would mean I could hold it together during the ceremony.

As I walked out of the room and down the hall, I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself… and then…

well, I think the pictures do the best job of telling the story (photos by Catie's Captures)…

and then it was time for my dad’s “first look” of me…

It was really great to get to have this time with J and with our parents.  Afterward, it was time for a quick makeup fix and then some pictures with the wedding party.

Up Next: Wedding Day Recap: Wedding Party Pictures

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there.  I wish I could have celebrated with my dad today, but he gets to see me in a week, which I'm so excited about, and there's some BIG news coming that probably made his Father's Day pretty amazing... no I'm no pregnant.  News coming soon... maybe even tomorrow!

In honor of my dad, here's the song that we are going to dance to for our Father/Daughter dance... enjoy!

Rehearsal Dinner - CHECK

My mom and dad have been super helpful with the stuff that we still have left on our "to do" list.  My mom's been keeping up with the new line of vests and ties that our tux shops (more to come on tuxes later).  My dad has been really helpful with the rehearsal dinner.

He went over to a restaurant for us last week and got us information on their large party options.  He scanned all of the info and emailed it to us and it looked great!  Jason called about a week later and booked the room and we OFFICIALLY have our rehearsal dinner booked!

We are doing it at a local chain, at a restaurant called The Factory.  No... it's not a clever name... it actually is an old factory that they turned into a restaurant a LONG time ago.  It's nothing too fancy on the outside, but my mom says the food is good and it seems like they do a great job with large parties.

They are making us a custom menu for the dinner, with our names and wedding colors, and we can put whatever we want to on there.  They suggest the following options on a menu...

• 2-3 appetizers
• 1-2 salads
• 3-4 entrées
• 1-2 desserts

Another great thing about this restaurant is that they are only making us pay for what people order.  There are lots of places where you pay $30 a head no matter what anyone eats, which is fine if you have people who eat a lot, but we are getting married in July... really... no one eats a lot in the middle of summer.

SO, if we put appetizers on our menu and no one orders one, we don't buy any.  If the only thing someone orders is a salad and a dessert (which sounds like a good idea to me), we aren't required to pay for an entire entrée for them. SWEET!

So, we can cross another thing off our list, and this was one thing that I was actually pretty worried about, especially with us being so far away.  A big thanks goes to my mom and dad for their help with the stuff like this that we can't do alone.

Hope your week starts out great!!!

Slacking...

I'm sorry I didn't get anything written over the holiday weekend.  My parents were in town from Indiana so we had a weekend full of Thanksgiving, shopping, sleeping and activities.  Here's a quick recap...

Thursday - Turkey Trot in the morning, ran my fastest 5K ever!!!  Don't get too excited, I'm still slow.  Thanksgiving lunch/dinner with friends and some football and napping


Friday - midnight shopping (lots of good deals) and Steak n' Shake before going to bed around 5:00 am.  Then a day full of recovery once we woke up.  Dad and J went to see Harry Potter and mom and I did some more shopping.

Saturday - Mom and Dad caught up with old friends and J and I had 2 basketball games to work.

Sunday - a trip to the monstrosity that is the Dallas Cowboy's Stadium for a tour, then lunch and then some very skilled packing before mom and dad headed home.

It was much too short of a trip, but I'll see them again in a few weeks!!!

Also a very important part of their trip was the chance to get some wedding stuff back to Indiana.  They took a TON of stuff home with them... their car was packed really really tightly, but it's out of our apartment!  Although, I must say, it does not look a whole lot different in the "wedding corner" as I call it, so I'm not really sure how that happened.

There will be TONS of stuff do while we are in Indiana for Christmas and our to do list consists mainly of our DIY projects... pomanders, favors, centerpieces, card box, and the list goes on and on.  We also have to set up some meetings so we can get some stuff done, but I'm hoping that we can do that all in one day so that we can enjoy the holiday time and not spend the whole time on wedding stuff.  More to come on this later.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend... just a little preview of what's coming up in the next couple of weeks on the blog...

1. The Indiana to do list
2. Ring Bearer Pillow
3. The bouquets 
4. The pomanders

Stay tuned  :-D

Be Thankful...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I know that I have about a million things to be thankful for.  My mom and dad are driving down from Indiana to spend the holiday/weekend with us and I can't wait for them to get here!!!

We have also been blessed with a new addition to J's family. HIS SISTER HAD A BABY GIRL TODAY!!!! I'm an almost-aunt again and I can't wait to meet her!!!

We got some sad news a work this week... one of our co-workers had a stroke and heart attack last Saturday and passed away.  It was a shock to all of us... we just saw him on Friday and he seemed happier than we've ever known him to be.  I can not even begin to imagine what it will be like for his wife and kids to lose him so suddenly, especially so close to the holidays.

It really makes me thankful for the amazing family and friends that I have in my life... the parents who will drive 15 hours to spend the weekend with me and J... the friends who go shopping with me at midnight on Black Friday and no matter how exhausted we are the next day, we always plan to do it again next year... the co-workers who are like a second family and who make work fun.  I am so lucky to have great people in my life.

I've talked in the past about how ridiculously large our guest list is... somewhere around 400 people... but these are all people who have been an important part of my life, of J's life and of our parents' lives.  We are thankful for these people and we want them to be there to witness and celebrate the start of our new life together.  Not everyone is as fortunate as we are to have that many people who have offered support and love, and for that, I am very thankful.

Boutonnieres

The boutonnieres were a chance for us to do something cool, the way we did with our Mothers'/Grandmothers' corsages... something fun and unusual.

This is one of the very first things I saw after we got engaged and loved it immediately.  J and I love to cook together and one of my favorite things about cooking is how you can completely change the way something tastes by just adding some spices.

So, I saw pictures of herb boutonnieres and knew that it would be perfect!  They are going to be super cheap and easy to put together and they are going to make the boys smell delicious  :)   Here are some examples.

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A little mint, a little lavender, a little baby's breath and viola!!! you have a great boutonniere!!!  I can't wait to play with this and decide what ours should look like!

Tuxes

I have seen a lot of weddings lately where the groom and the groomsmen have not worn tuxes.  I understand that if you have a more casual style to your wedding then tuxes may not be appropriate.  I did give J the option to go with something other than tuxes, especially since our ceremony is outside in July, but he decided that he wanted to wear one!

I'm kind of excited by this for a few reasons...

1. I'm really excited about the boutineers that we are going to make and I feel like they would look awkward without the jacket to put them on... and when I say that I "feel" like they would, I really mean I've seen boutineers with no jackets and it and it does look awkward.
2. Unless people are buying the exact same brand of pants, shirts, etc. then the guys will not match.  I know that's a little ridiculous of me, but I like symmetry and I like things to match if/when they are supposed to.

So, we have looked at a few different options on vests and tie colors at various stores.  We also had to keep in mind that we have guys from all over the country, and I would prefer if they were all measured at the store that we are actually buying from since I feel like they probably train their employees the same way.

J made a comment one time that he liked how white on white looked on the groom.  I took that to mean, that it was he wanted to look like.  Although that's not really what he said, he still likes it and I guess we've decided that's what he's going to go with.  My dress is not white, so he will be wearing ivory.

We do have the option of purple or lime for the groomsmen.  The bridesmaids are wearing purple and the purples are not the same so we decided to go with lime for the guys.  We will probably do purple for my dad and maybe for the ring bearer (if he wears a vest), but that hasn't been finalized.

Here are what the ties (left) and vests (right) look like for our wedding party:

J

Groomsmen

Dad

The only one I'm still unsure about it my dad's.  I have seen some weddings where the dads are in a different color than the groom and groomsmen.  I have also seen weddings where the dad wears a different color tie and the same color vest.  That will definitely not be happening... in our colors, whoever was stuck wearing a different color vest and tie would look like The Joker.  Any thoughts/opinions are welcomed!

My Dad...

It's Father's Day... I don't get to hang out with my dad for another few weeks, which sucks... I need to get myself closer to the fam.  Just need a job to get us there...

The wedding we went to yesterday and the fact that today is father's day has caused me to think a lot about my dad at my wedding.  I'm an only child, and I wouldn't call myself a "Daddy's Girl", but he has always been the first person I called when I needed to know how to do something, or when I wanted someone to tell me what I should do.

I went to a wedding last night and watched my friend's dad with tears in his eyes all night, from the moment he walked her down the aisle.  As soon as he started to tear up, J said, "that's going to be your dad", and it made me think about the fact that I have not really talked to my dad about the wedding day.  I know he loves J, and I know that he was excited (and appreciative) when J asked his permission to ask me to marry him.  He's excited about the wedding in the sense that he is inheriting a "son", but it makes me wonder if he feels like he's losing his little girl.  I don't know if he's excited about the fact that I'm going traditional (dad walks bride down the aisle, father daughter dance) or if he doesn't want all that pressure  :)

I know it will be an emotional day for me... I cried 3-4 times last night watching my friends get married... but I am really starting to wonder how my dad will handle it.

What a Weekend!!!

I know I made a list of “things to come”, but before I can do that, I need to create a point of reference on how quickly this all happened. Looking back on the 5 days we spent in Fort Wayne, I’m pretty impressed with everything that we accomplished.

All you have to do is look at our itinerary… yes… we made an itinerary. You have to plan down to the minute when you are planning to interview 4 photographers, visit 4 reception/rehearsal dinner locations, try on dresses at 3 different places AND find time to eat and go to church on Easter Sunday.
We arrived on Thursday and didn’t schedule anything so that our parents could meet and spend some time getting to know each other. We also had the chance to talk to our parents about everything that we had found during our research and presented them with the following schedule for the weekend:

FRIDAY, APRIL 2ND
9:00am Goeglein’s Reception Hall
10:30am Catie’s Captures - Photographer
Noon LUNCH
1:00pm Ceruti's – Woman’s Club & Bergstaff Reception Halls
3:00pm Allen County War Memorial Coliseum Ballroom
5:30pm Photography #2
7:15pm Dinner – Grandma’s House

SATURDAY, APRIL 3RD
9:00am Photographer #3
10:30am Photographer #4
Noon - LUNCH
1:00pm Wedding Place - Lexi
1:30pm Parkview Field (Possible Rehearsal Dinner) – J
3:00pm Wendy’s Bridal - Lexi
5:00pm David’s Bridal - Lexi
7:00pm Dinner – Casa Grille

SUNDAY, APRIL 4TH
Easter

MONDAY, APRIL 5TH
Noon Leave for Airport

We did a decent job of planning. Only a few things changed. We cancelled the appointments with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th photographers (more info on this later) so we finished up a little early on Friday and I was able to move the first dress store to 11 am and go see Parkview Field with J. Even better on Saturday, most of the appointments took less time than we had planned so we were able to shorten the day and eat dinner earlier, which was good because I was STARVING!

We got to enjoy a really nice Easter with part of my mom’s side of the family and just relax. Monday looked like an easy day, but it too started early and included a lot of signatures and check writing… again, more info to come in one of those.

The moral of the story is, we got A LOT done and can proceed with a lot of other things now that we have a date booked. If you haven’t noticed above this post, there’s a countdown to the date… only 448 days until our wedding on July 2, 2011!!!