I know- it only took like 3 weeks, but we finally have wedding photos to show you!!!
We have 2 sets - 1 set has 40 pictures which were taken the day of the wedding. Those photos were taken by my good friend, Husband. (And what great photos they are!)
The 2nd set was taken the day after the wedding by Bryan Mitchell. We love how they turned out too.
Without further ado - here are the pics!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Well that was easy!
Hooray! We're married! And what a day it was!
*Jess and I were never nervous or stressed once
*We had 0 problems or concerns - the "worst" moment was when a relative of hers turned up and reminded us of "Cousin Eddy" from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". No, seriously - he even had light blue slacks and a blue checked jacket. He was only there for about an hour though, and he gave us a couple hundred dollars, so we were pretty alright with that.
*We asked our friend, Husband, to take a few photos during our ceremony, and man did they turn out great! We knew they would be good (and purchased him a gift certificate to a big photo place online in anticipation of said photos) but MAN- they look GREAT! I'd post some but don't have them on this machine, and am leaving for a honeymoon weekend in Chicago this afternoon. He has my permission to post the photos in my stead.
*Great food, good god was that pulled pork delicious! And the corn bread! And the Zingerman's cake! And the margaritas! We had almost a dozen chicken breasts leftover, which we turned into a delicious chicken and green salsa chili the following evening. Yum!!!
*Great friends! Almost everyone that was invited was able to make it - some stayed until 9:15pm - making it nearly an 8 hour reception- it was so great - there was Bocce ball, talking, drinking, talking, drinking, eating, etc. What a teriffic time!
*The following morning, Jessica and I met our professional photographer to take our posed family/posed alone pictures. We spent 3 hours with him in the law quad and arb, and here are a few shots! - yeah- he accidentally referred to Jessica as Jennifer once in the post, but whatever. :) We had a lot of fun shooting with him!
*Holy presents, Batman! I have no room to move in my bedroom! It is packed with all sorts of kitchen goodies! Thank you's will come after the honeymoon.
*I also didn't realize how tired we would be after the actual wedding and reception..... after the party, we helped clean up my parents' house (with 8 people it took about 30 minutes), drove to Ann Arbor, and checked into the Weber Inn.... where we konked out almost immediately. I say almost because we did open all our cards first.
*I also didn't realize that relatives gave that much cash for a wedding. I mean.... wow. It adds up quickly.
Anywho - thanks to all that came, thanks to all those that sent well-wishes! Maybe today I'll be able to stop playing with my ring and get some work done at work! :)
*Jess and I were never nervous or stressed once
*We had 0 problems or concerns - the "worst" moment was when a relative of hers turned up and reminded us of "Cousin Eddy" from "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation". No, seriously - he even had light blue slacks and a blue checked jacket. He was only there for about an hour though, and he gave us a couple hundred dollars, so we were pretty alright with that.
*We asked our friend, Husband, to take a few photos during our ceremony, and man did they turn out great! We knew they would be good (and purchased him a gift certificate to a big photo place online in anticipation of said photos) but MAN- they look GREAT! I'd post some but don't have them on this machine, and am leaving for a honeymoon weekend in Chicago this afternoon. He has my permission to post the photos in my stead.
*Great food, good god was that pulled pork delicious! And the corn bread! And the Zingerman's cake! And the margaritas! We had almost a dozen chicken breasts leftover, which we turned into a delicious chicken and green salsa chili the following evening. Yum!!!
*Great friends! Almost everyone that was invited was able to make it - some stayed until 9:15pm - making it nearly an 8 hour reception- it was so great - there was Bocce ball, talking, drinking, talking, drinking, eating, etc. What a teriffic time!
*The following morning, Jessica and I met our professional photographer to take our posed family/posed alone pictures. We spent 3 hours with him in the law quad and arb, and here are a few shots! - yeah- he accidentally referred to Jessica as Jennifer once in the post, but whatever. :) We had a lot of fun shooting with him!
*Holy presents, Batman! I have no room to move in my bedroom! It is packed with all sorts of kitchen goodies! Thank you's will come after the honeymoon.
*I also didn't realize how tired we would be after the actual wedding and reception..... after the party, we helped clean up my parents' house (with 8 people it took about 30 minutes), drove to Ann Arbor, and checked into the Weber Inn.... where we konked out almost immediately. I say almost because we did open all our cards first.
*I also didn't realize that relatives gave that much cash for a wedding. I mean.... wow. It adds up quickly.
Anywho - thanks to all that came, thanks to all those that sent well-wishes! Maybe today I'll be able to stop playing with my ring and get some work done at work! :)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Where we're at...
T minus 5 days people!!! Holy crap. Thoughts at this point....
I haven't posted nearly as much to this blog as I thought I would. Sadly, there just wasn't as much stuff going on with the wedding as I thought.
I need to remember to buy tonic. It has somehow escaped my list.
Oh. I have a list. It has day-by-day color-coded to-do's.
My list is roughly 3/4 a page long, and includes things like "bring dress to Fenton".
The "Bring" list items appear double - I have a separate list of things to bring.
That list is also color-coded by day.
I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I hope you like tequila. We bought 3 liters of it. And a TON of margarita mix. And we have a bartender. With blenders. :)
Because we aren't doing a traditional wedding, with a reception hall or ushers, we're trying to figure out how to let everyone know which table they're sitting at. We've thought about doing something like a baseball roster - several sheets of paper with people's names on them, each corresponding to a different table.... we've thought about doing the little name things with people's table assignments on them.... and for either of those- where do we put them? People will be pretty much coming around to the back of the house and sitting down for the ceremony, and then having to move for the food tent. Whatever.
I'm taking Thursday and Friday off from work so that I can spend time with Jessica figuring this kind of stuff out.
What's that? Am I anxious? No. I'm as cool as a cucumber. Its just another day... I mean- really - what is changing? Our tax information and her name. The way I feel about Jessica isn't changing. Our loyalty and devotion to each other aren't going to change. Our living situation isn't changing until we move to Columbus (neither of us have room for the other person's stuff, and we aren't about to get a big apartment for 1-2 months!)... so what changes? I mean, I really think that the big change was me asking her to marry me - that was a change in our relationship- going from being boyfriend/girlfriend, to knowing that we'll be together forever.
Still, I may end up in tears. (I'm definitely the crier out of the 2 of us.) I've only seen her cry twice, I think - once when things were on the rocks with her mom, and once early in our relationship when I challenged her to think about why she voted for Bush. (She thought I was attacking her- which I explained I was not- thats just how I debate ideas. She has never cried since then because of me)... I on the other hand, pretty much cry every other week. Mostly because of movies/TV shows. And I don't think I've EVER cried so hard as the time that we were watching "The Notebook" for the first time. I mean- come on! They died together in their sleep! (Sadly, I just got goosebumps thinking about it).
Uh.... wedding stuff.....
Oh - we have some things for people to do the day of our wedding! Err.... let me rephrase that.... We have some fun games that people might be interested in playing - we have a net for Volleyball OR badmitton- as well as 4 badmitton raquets and (get this) - a SHUTTLECOCK! I just like saying that. :)
We have lawn darts (blunt ones, sadly). We have bocce ball. We have a Nintendo Wii. We have board games. We'll have some photo albums so that people can laugh at us.... we'll have food. We'll have music (though no official dancing or dance floor - people are welcome to dance on the deck or in the grass if they want). The party lasts as long as you want (almost). Eat and run, or stay and play/talk - whatever people want to do is fine with us!
Anywho, we're excited to see how our day turns out - It makes it feel extra nice that we're doing things our way, and not giving in and doing things because other people want us to do them. Hopefully we'll post again before our big day!
I haven't posted nearly as much to this blog as I thought I would. Sadly, there just wasn't as much stuff going on with the wedding as I thought.
I need to remember to buy tonic. It has somehow escaped my list.
Oh. I have a list. It has day-by-day color-coded to-do's.
My list is roughly 3/4 a page long, and includes things like "bring dress to Fenton".
The "Bring" list items appear double - I have a separate list of things to bring.
That list is also color-coded by day.
I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I hope you like tequila. We bought 3 liters of it. And a TON of margarita mix. And we have a bartender. With blenders. :)
Because we aren't doing a traditional wedding, with a reception hall or ushers, we're trying to figure out how to let everyone know which table they're sitting at. We've thought about doing something like a baseball roster - several sheets of paper with people's names on them, each corresponding to a different table.... we've thought about doing the little name things with people's table assignments on them.... and for either of those- where do we put them? People will be pretty much coming around to the back of the house and sitting down for the ceremony, and then having to move for the food tent. Whatever.
I'm taking Thursday and Friday off from work so that I can spend time with Jessica figuring this kind of stuff out.
What's that? Am I anxious? No. I'm as cool as a cucumber. Its just another day... I mean- really - what is changing? Our tax information and her name. The way I feel about Jessica isn't changing. Our loyalty and devotion to each other aren't going to change. Our living situation isn't changing until we move to Columbus (neither of us have room for the other person's stuff, and we aren't about to get a big apartment for 1-2 months!)... so what changes? I mean, I really think that the big change was me asking her to marry me - that was a change in our relationship- going from being boyfriend/girlfriend, to knowing that we'll be together forever.
Still, I may end up in tears. (I'm definitely the crier out of the 2 of us.) I've only seen her cry twice, I think - once when things were on the rocks with her mom, and once early in our relationship when I challenged her to think about why she voted for Bush. (She thought I was attacking her- which I explained I was not- thats just how I debate ideas. She has never cried since then because of me)... I on the other hand, pretty much cry every other week. Mostly because of movies/TV shows. And I don't think I've EVER cried so hard as the time that we were watching "The Notebook" for the first time. I mean- come on! They died together in their sleep! (Sadly, I just got goosebumps thinking about it).
Uh.... wedding stuff.....
Oh - we have some things for people to do the day of our wedding! Err.... let me rephrase that.... We have some fun games that people might be interested in playing - we have a net for Volleyball OR badmitton- as well as 4 badmitton raquets and (get this) - a SHUTTLECOCK! I just like saying that. :)
We have lawn darts (blunt ones, sadly). We have bocce ball. We have a Nintendo Wii. We have board games. We'll have some photo albums so that people can laugh at us.... we'll have food. We'll have music (though no official dancing or dance floor - people are welcome to dance on the deck or in the grass if they want). The party lasts as long as you want (almost). Eat and run, or stay and play/talk - whatever people want to do is fine with us!
Anywho, we're excited to see how our day turns out - It makes it feel extra nice that we're doing things our way, and not giving in and doing things because other people want us to do them. Hopefully we'll post again before our big day!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Its been a while.
It has been a while since we last posted, but thats mostly because there isn't much to post about. We have 22 days left until the big day, nearly everyone has RSVP'd, (something we should look at soon since today was the deadline), and everything is pretty much on track. We'll probably take a trip to Costco next weekend to get the booze/snacks/disposable table settings, and to check out the flowers.... and we'll also go next week to get our marriage license.
Short of that, we're all set. We have the rings, we have the music chosen, seating chart has been figured out, Jessica just went for an alteration on her dress and everything fit well - in fact, she even got the dress fit so that she can wear flip-flops while in the dress! (Did we say it was going to be somewhat casual? :)
After spending Memorial day at our friends' house, and playing a fun game of bocce ball, we may go pick up a set for something to do at our wedding reception. It was a lot of fun- games can be really quick, and it doesn't require much setup or skill to enjoy it!
We are getting pretty excited- especially after seeing Jessica's sister get married 2 weeks ago. It was everything that we didn't want our wedding to be - we are so excited to be doing things our way - for instance, between the ceremony and the reception, those of us not in the wedding party had to wait almost 3 hours for them to finish taking pictures. Sure- there were cocktails and hor douvres, but COME ON! 3 HOURS??? Yeah- not at our wedding!!! It will be about 8 minutes, since we're doing pictures the following day! After we are officially married, we'll go change into something more comfortable, and we're going to enjoy the backyard bbq/picnic! We're also not doing the whole 1st dance thing, or the bouquet toss, or the garter thing, or the father daughter dance, or throwing rice, or little gifts of almonds for the guests. No, no, no. Too formal. Too many "haftas". I don't want to HAVE to do anything. I want to have a good time, and I want people to relax and treat it as an informal get together. We're hoping that there are very few people that won't know anyone, that way everyone has at least someone to talk to there.
So, yeah. This should be easy! Right?
Short of that, we're all set. We have the rings, we have the music chosen, seating chart has been figured out, Jessica just went for an alteration on her dress and everything fit well - in fact, she even got the dress fit so that she can wear flip-flops while in the dress! (Did we say it was going to be somewhat casual? :)
After spending Memorial day at our friends' house, and playing a fun game of bocce ball, we may go pick up a set for something to do at our wedding reception. It was a lot of fun- games can be really quick, and it doesn't require much setup or skill to enjoy it!
We are getting pretty excited- especially after seeing Jessica's sister get married 2 weeks ago. It was everything that we didn't want our wedding to be - we are so excited to be doing things our way - for instance, between the ceremony and the reception, those of us not in the wedding party had to wait almost 3 hours for them to finish taking pictures. Sure- there were cocktails and hor douvres, but COME ON! 3 HOURS??? Yeah- not at our wedding!!! It will be about 8 minutes, since we're doing pictures the following day! After we are officially married, we'll go change into something more comfortable, and we're going to enjoy the backyard bbq/picnic! We're also not doing the whole 1st dance thing, or the bouquet toss, or the garter thing, or the father daughter dance, or throwing rice, or little gifts of almonds for the guests. No, no, no. Too formal. Too many "haftas". I don't want to HAVE to do anything. I want to have a good time, and I want people to relax and treat it as an informal get together. We're hoping that there are very few people that won't know anyone, that way everyone has at least someone to talk to there.
So, yeah. This should be easy! Right?
Thursday, April 19, 2007
People are coming!
We got all of our invitations out this week, and even got our first reply! Husband and Wife - congratulations! You were the first to respond! (Though, knowing wife, I'm not surprised). :)
Next up.... Jessica's graduation, and her dad and grandparents meeting my parents. (We'll do the mom later). I anticipate this to be a pretty calm evening. After that, a trip to my parents' home to survey the area, and stake out a good place to put the tent. We'll also need to create a layout to give to the caterer.
Also, we've been talking about our honeymoon, and we're currently considering just going away the following weekend to Chicago. Something much more lowkey than the Caribbean. With Jessica's job search still coming up fruitless for Columbus, not wanting to ask for a week or two off after just getting her new job here in Ann Arbor (doing merchandising for Macy's) and all the books/computer/clothes I'm going to need to buy for school.... we're thinking that an exotic trip to the Caribbean might not be the best idea.
Toodles!
Next up.... Jessica's graduation, and her dad and grandparents meeting my parents. (We'll do the mom later). I anticipate this to be a pretty calm evening. After that, a trip to my parents' home to survey the area, and stake out a good place to put the tent. We'll also need to create a layout to give to the caterer.
Also, we've been talking about our honeymoon, and we're currently considering just going away the following weekend to Chicago. Something much more lowkey than the Caribbean. With Jessica's job search still coming up fruitless for Columbus, not wanting to ask for a week or two off after just getting her new job here in Ann Arbor (doing merchandising for Macy's) and all the books/computer/clothes I'm going to need to buy for school.... we're thinking that an exotic trip to the Caribbean might not be the best idea.
Toodles!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The Wedding From Hell
No...not mine. My sister's wedding. I want to hurt myself every time I have to go to one of my older sister’s wedding appointments. From dress fittings to trial run hair appointments, everything seems to go wrong and someone ends up crying. My little sister started crying at the dress fitting because her bridesmaid dress didn’t fit her, my older sister started crying because the florist went behind her back and tripled the price their original agreement and myself….I just sit back and laugh to myself because I find the whole situation to be quite humorous. I am sooooo glad that Ben and I are having a small wedding and that everything has been a breeze for us to plan. We haven’t had one problem so far. I think the hardest thing we had to deal with was picking out music for the reception.
Back to my sister’s wedding appointments….Over this past weekend, my sister had a hairstylist come to my mom’s house to do a trial run for our (my mom, my older sister, myself, my younger sister and another bridesmaid) hair for her wedding. As we were waiting for my older sister to arrive, she calls us and tells us that she has run out of gas on the freeway and her fiancé’s car is dead. Now most people would feel bad, but I just started laughing. Why? My sister and I used to share a car and every time it was returned back to me the gas gauge wouldn’t move when I would turn the car back on. That means she would put the minimum amount of gas in the car to make sure she could drive from Ann Arbor to Farmington Hills and back. It was so frustrating because I was the main driver of the car and I was paying for the gas myself. I even had to coast into a gas station one night because I could tell that the car was pretty much out of gas. Anyways…it finally caught up with her! It was great! We ended up having to go, get gas and find her on the freeway (she had to coast off the freeway on the left-hand side of I-275). As we were driving back, my mom called to inform her that the hairdresser was only going to do a trial run on her hair and not on the rest of us. She would do everybody else’s hair for the first time on the day of the wedding. Of course that was not what the original agreement was, so everybody started getting mad once again. The other funny thing was that the hairdresser is pregnant with twins and is due probably 5 weeks after the wedding. That could get interesting because she is planning to spend about an hour with each person – that’s going to be 5 hours. I don’t imagine that she is going to be exactly comfortable standing for that long in her eighth month of pregnancy.
I can only picture the day of her wedding being complete chaos with the way things are going. Again…I am soooo glad that I don’t really have to deal with any of this in the planning of our wedding.
Our wedding invitations came in yesterday…expect to see them in your mailboxes soon (:
Back to my sister’s wedding appointments….Over this past weekend, my sister had a hairstylist come to my mom’s house to do a trial run for our (my mom, my older sister, myself, my younger sister and another bridesmaid) hair for her wedding. As we were waiting for my older sister to arrive, she calls us and tells us that she has run out of gas on the freeway and her fiancé’s car is dead. Now most people would feel bad, but I just started laughing. Why? My sister and I used to share a car and every time it was returned back to me the gas gauge wouldn’t move when I would turn the car back on. That means she would put the minimum amount of gas in the car to make sure she could drive from Ann Arbor to Farmington Hills and back. It was so frustrating because I was the main driver of the car and I was paying for the gas myself. I even had to coast into a gas station one night because I could tell that the car was pretty much out of gas. Anyways…it finally caught up with her! It was great! We ended up having to go, get gas and find her on the freeway (she had to coast off the freeway on the left-hand side of I-275). As we were driving back, my mom called to inform her that the hairdresser was only going to do a trial run on her hair and not on the rest of us. She would do everybody else’s hair for the first time on the day of the wedding. Of course that was not what the original agreement was, so everybody started getting mad once again. The other funny thing was that the hairdresser is pregnant with twins and is due probably 5 weeks after the wedding. That could get interesting because she is planning to spend about an hour with each person – that’s going to be 5 hours. I don’t imagine that she is going to be exactly comfortable standing for that long in her eighth month of pregnancy.
I can only picture the day of her wedding being complete chaos with the way things are going. Again…I am soooo glad that I don’t really have to deal with any of this in the planning of our wedding.
Our wedding invitations came in yesterday…expect to see them in your mailboxes soon (:
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Quick update
Ok, its definitely been a while since we last posted, but thats because its been a busy couple of weeks. So let me break things down for you. In the last 3 weeks, we have secured the following:
Tent/table/chair rental
Photographer for the day after
Caterer/bartender
Cake
Invitations
Officiant
Jessica's dress
Ben's tux
We've also figured out how or where to do or get the following:
Booze, water, pop & snacks: at Costco
Flowers for table decorations: also Costco
Seating arrangement: pretty easy with so few people
Disposable plates, cups, flatware, napkins (Hey- we said it was going to be casual!)
Rings: we still need to check out Herman's, but we've found suitable rings in Ann Arbor, if we don't see anything we really like at Herman's.
So basically, everything is going well. We're actually somewhat excited about this now. We've remained stress-free (except for a little of Jessica's mom)... but really, I don't know why people make such a big deal out of wedding planning. Its been really freaking simple. Its like throwing any other party- except we're not making the food, and we need to make sure that people know where they should sit (to start).
The only things we haven't really thought of so far are:
What Jessica and I are doing after the party, and if/where we are going for a honeymoon. Thats just about it.
Tent/table/chair rental
Photographer for the day after
Caterer/bartender
Cake
Invitations
Officiant
Jessica's dress
Ben's tux
We've also figured out how or where to do or get the following:
Booze, water, pop & snacks: at Costco
Flowers for table decorations: also Costco
Seating arrangement: pretty easy with so few people
Disposable plates, cups, flatware, napkins (Hey- we said it was going to be casual!)
Rings: we still need to check out Herman's, but we've found suitable rings in Ann Arbor, if we don't see anything we really like at Herman's.
So basically, everything is going well. We're actually somewhat excited about this now. We've remained stress-free (except for a little of Jessica's mom)... but really, I don't know why people make such a big deal out of wedding planning. Its been really freaking simple. Its like throwing any other party- except we're not making the food, and we need to make sure that people know where they should sit (to start).
The only things we haven't really thought of so far are:
What Jessica and I are doing after the party, and if/where we are going for a honeymoon. Thats just about it.
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