cute *flower girls* + ring bearer

i may be a little bit biased, but i think we had THE cutest flower girls and ring bearer!! :) so cute that i even had the twins, skye and tyler, walk me down the aisle. they all did great and definitely upped the adorable factor of our wedding party! thanks to meg and dave for having such cute kids!!!

                                                          

 um, beyond cute-ville!! :]

            

 i've never thought they really looked alike until i saw these pictures. but they do look alike! :)

                                                                   

  one of my favorites!!

wedding mishaps

we had 3 pretty major mishaps go wrong in the 3 weeks prior to our wedding:

1. just about 3 weeks before our wedding was to take place,

i got an email from the site manager at the studio near downtown minneapolis that we were supposed to have our ceremony held at. he indicated that due to construction projects our ceremony would not be able to be held there. through some of gina's photography links, we actually found out that the building itself was not up to code and the inspector had come in and said that no events could be held there. so it wasn't the guy or his studio, it was the building and it's owners...

so i let that news sink in for about a week (while gina searched and put out some feelers for another studio) which freaked my mom out. she was way more nervous and uptight about this than i was. for some reason i just let it be and knew something was going to work out. my backup plan was to have the ceremony in mom's backyard but she put the kabosh on that. so my "real" backup plan was to have it at the reception site.

way back at the beginning of the wedding planning stages, i had contacted my church to see if i could have our ceremony in the old chapel of the church that holds tons of family history for me on my dad's side (my dad and his siblings were baptized and attended chruch there, i had been baptized there, and my grama's funeral was held in there). althugh, i had an aversion to using one of their ministers as i didn't know any of them any longer (i grew up with one minister for my entire church life and he had retired, so not using him felt too strange). so when the building manager told me i would have to use one of their ministers, i chalked it up to it was not meant to be.

after finding out our news and letting myself feel what i really wanted to do, i decided to try once more. i told the building manager our situation via email and waited. gina had a couple of other studio ideas but hadn't seen them before and was travelling for a week so could not see them until the week before the wedding. yikes! i got an email back and the building manager told me she had asked the pastor if us using our own officiant would be ok given our situation, and it was approved! horray! it was meant to be!!

so we got to have our ceremony in a place where my heart, mind and soul was happy. where my grama's presence was felt which ended up being so much more important to me than i had expected. i knew my grama would be there in spirit either way, but having my grampa say to me "mum is smiling" was beyond words & feelings for me! i'm so glad we got to have our ceremony in the chapel.!!

all pictures in the post care of our awesome-sauce photographer: leah

we even got to ring the VERY old bell in the steeple after our ceremony! the coolest thing! i hadn't rung this bell since i was very young, maybe 8 and it doesn't get rung often. loved it!!

2. somewhere in that 3 week prior time frame, i got word from my mom that her mom, my grama had fallen and was transported to the hospital. a little while later, we found out she had broken her pelves and would have to be in the hospital for at least 4 weeks. that meant no wedding. :( now, my grama is 94 and she loves to dance and have her ice cube. :) she would have been on the dance floor the whole night and would have had a blast! i'm so sad she missed it but so glad she took care of herself and is now back home. she was greatly missed.

3. one week before the wedding, al got a call/email from one of his groomsmen, ryan brohmer, who had just moved to south dakota from rhode island and taken an assistant track and field coaching position at a college. turns out, the head coach of the track and field team had been fired and brohmer was to take his place until they found someone else to coach (likely not to happen within a week). that would have been great for brohmer, except the track team had a meet in california the weekend of our wedding and brohmer had to go because they had to have a coach... down a groomsmen; and with only 3 on each side, we needed a replacement fast!

al quickly called a few of his close friends that were next in line to be groomsmen and they all had some excuse why they couldn't step in. all seemed viable excuses except for the fact that it was our WEDDING, not jsut some small thing that was not important. although we understood that our wedding being at 1 pm on a friday posed a bit of a problem for those 9-5 jobs, it made me feel so bad for al that no one was willing to step up and try to pull some strings to be a groomsmen for him... finally his college friend don, that i had never met and had been on teh track team with al, said he could do it but wouldn't be able to drive up from eau claire until after his test the morning of our wedding. luckily, don got his measurements in in time and made it in time to catch the bus to our ceremony! we cannot thank don enough! especially considering he didn't know anyone there except al and shane.

surprisingly, i was very calm and not too stressed about any one of these things. and guess what, the day went off without a hook and it was fabulous! everything worked out in the end: perfect ceremony site, sending grama pictures of the wedding, and we had enough {drunk} groomsmen! you'll have to excuse my tall brother's drunk lean in this last pic; he's pretty gangster. :]

wedding outfit details

time to get some wedding posts!! woo!! :]
shout out to our fabulous photographer: leah maria photography for all the pictures!!

first up: wedding outfit details

we'll start with the cutest of cute. my flower girls and ring bearer:

on skye: navy blue under shirt from american apparel, yellow dress with fabric flowers on it from old navy, tights from kohls, cutest lil gray boots w/ bow from target.

on ty ty: navy vest suit from jcpenney, yellow mini bow tie from babybystevie via etsy :]

on summer: navy ruffle dress from target, gray boots from target, (not on summer in picture) yellow cardigan with fabric flowers from children's place.

also, instead of flower petals, summer threw fabric squares in our colors.

on my girls: navy dress from target, gray boots from charolette russe, yellow shrugs crocheted by my momma using a pattern from nutsaboutknitting via etsy.

love the boots! so much i got a pair too :)

on the boys: gray vest suit and yellow tie from saavi, yellow socks by polo, homemade boutenierres (designed by gina, made by me) including a small fabric flower, tulle, and yellow ball wire.

shane playing the leg guitar, showin off his socks :)

as a special gift, i got al the only piece of packer gear i will ever buy him. i got him cheese shirt cuffs, but only because they were one of our colors. ;)

and here's the whole crew!

recap: end november, beginning december 2011

i made my very first cake/cupcakes. yellow cake, will have chocolate frosting soon... this is my only picture from christmas tree day. chuck norris took care of al and i :)
my big little brother turned a quarter of a century!

being stuck in traffic in downtown st paul is made a whole lot better

because of the millions of these guys! :]

we bought al a new(er) jeep and

we returned the old jeep (93) to it's original owners in wausau;

al was very sad to see ol' faithful go...

i finished crocheting my first wearable thing :) a ear warmer head band thing.

it needs to be wider and i made it a little to big,

but for the first try, it'll do.

i think it's supposed to worn with the hair up,

but i tried it on with hair down and it's not bad.

still working on my novel of a jury duty post. should come soon.

also, we got our wedding photos back this weekend!!!

7 months later

oh, so this is what my blog looks like, huh? 7 months since my last post but i'm completely ok with it. i will get back to documenting my life and thoughts now that i have a bit more time. to start back i would like to create a list of the big things i've witnessed, planned, lived through, learned, experienced, and will blog about for 2011 so far. here goes:

1. al and i got engaged!!! (early march) which helps explain the lack of time for blogging. **below: one of my favorite engagement pics of us taken by THE gina zeidler. :]

2. i began wedding planning. let me preface the rest of this number by saying i am a planner and i generally LOVE to plan/organize. and i did really love most of it. however, i felt very alone in my planning. al helped where he could as did my mom (for some reason, i had a hard time sharing things with her. i think that was because i really wanted to do it how i/we wanted it and i was afraid she'd disapprove/dislike/maybe be disappointed by some of my decisions). i had a crazy busy schedule this summer with softball 3 + nights a week and crossfit 3-5 times a week plus a full time job (hadn't done that in a while). and so trying to meet with everyone, draw inspiration, keep a common theme going, bring in all the aspects i wanted to and create/decide on ALL the decorations myself was tough. along with the nagging in my head that i wanted to impress certain people and give them some things they'd truly be excited about; a lot of pressure that i put on myself. in the end tho, i'm incredibly happy with how everything i planned ended up. i can't wait to see all the pictures and see how it looked from another's view point. **below: here i am on one of the many weekends spent creating. i tried to do as much outside in the nice weather as i could.

3. i got a full time, "big girl" job. i started in april. i am doing accounting, mostly accounts payable. it is enjoyable at times, not so at others. i don't think it's where i'm meant to be to grow myself but i'm learning a lot and getting great experience. also a plus: full time job paychecks to help pay for the wedding (which we were able to pay off before the actual day!!!).

4. i changed and challenged my eating habits. this is still a developing thing but i've come a long way! i tried and succeeded at isagenix cleanses which required cleansing (ie no eating just drinking cleanse juice) for 2 days at a time; never thought i could do something like that. i also did a paleo challenge with my crossfit crew that helped change and mold new ways of thinking about eating for me. i learned a lot! eating just a salad for lunch in hopes of dropping weight and being healthy is just not an option for me anymore, especially when i want to grow stronger and better with crossfit 5 times a week. i now (try to) eat to fuel my body instead of eat for pleasure. and if i can fuel my body with something that tastes great, even better.

5. i got the priviledge to live with my mom and al. i have been living back home (for the 4th time; yes boomarang is the correct definition for our generation) for a while but al had been living elsewhere, either in eau claire or in savage with shane and jodi. in may, he moved in with us to help us save money and we took over the basement. i am unbelievably thankful for mom and this is just one of the many reasons why. to be able to save money, have her around to chat with and go places with me, and allowing her and al to get to know each other better is worth more then i could ever describe. living with al is so much easier on us too especially with our differing work and busy schedules.

6. i fell madly in love with crossfit. i've always known i love sports and working out and moving and grooving. :] i started crossfit in march of 2010 but i was only going once or twice a week for a long time. it was fun and it was good, but it wasn't "wetting my whistle," if you will. after i got my full time job, i had to go after work and thus meet more of the people. i have always loved my trainer, malia, and to get to meet the other folks who work out there has created a little crossfit family for me. then i amped up the number of times i was going each week to 5, had a blast watching the crossfit games at our box, found inspiration & motivation from my co-crossfitters and i was more determined then ever. the games had created a dream for me of getting to a place where i could possibly even think about trying out for the games. that and seeing the physical changes in my body and realizing i had the means and potential to get my ideal body, i was in whole hearted. i can't imagine ever not doing crossfit. i digress because otherwise i could go on and on. :)

7. softball is my lifeline in the summer. i got to grow closer to my softball friends, meet new ones, and get back in touch with some high school friends who played this year. getting to be outside, be active, have a beer or 2 and be surrounded by friends & people who love the same things has no comparison. i love it!!! i kind of wish i would have counted how many games i played this summer and fall because between my 3 teams, a few tournaments and subbing quite often, the number had to be pretty large.

8. i got to experience jury duty. full blog post on this experience to come. but let's just say getting on a jury for a 2 week trial a month before your wedding when you're already super indecisive is not recommended, although it was a great thing to experience.

9. i got to experience multiple types of wedding showers and my bachelorette party. i had 2 traditional showers, a super fun kickball co-ed shower and a completely me bachelorette party. these will probably be posts of their own too so i'll leave it there for now.

10. i became jaded in my thinking and understanding of my relationship with a lot of people in my life. i am not sure i want to discuss this but i saw a quite on pinterest that kind of sums it up: "sometimes we expect more from others because we would be willing to do that much for them." it makes me a little sad but also has refocused me on those who are most important: al, mom, and me...

11. there were quite a few mishaps in the 2 weeks leading up to our wedding. some of these created stress, some astonishingly did not. this, too, will likely have a post of it's own for memories sake.


12. we got married!!!! it was a wonderful, fast paced day!!! we had a great time! once we get our actual photographers pictures back this will undoubtably get at least one, if not more, posts. :) **below: pics taken by my very talented bridesmaid, gina zeidler.




13. we sat down to plan out our future and were able to actually plan big, life changing things. this might not sound like a big deal, but to be able to sit down and talk to al about "adult" things and plan a far out future is so amazing. i have never felt like a "grown up" but i'm getting closer. next on our lists: pay off some debt and save for a house. we'd like to have a house within a year. or maybe we'll just add the addition on to mom's house that we've been joking about :)

dress up

today i went with my bridesmaids to the wedding shoppe on grand ave for my first official trying on of wedding dresses. i had previously been so excited for this day but last night and this morning i became very intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious about it. it turned out to be a good time and i had a great experience at the wedding shoppe. if you're ever going there, be sure to ask for savanna; she was awesome!! & she came from alterations originally so she knew a lot!

i was fearful of not finding a dress that i loved and that i really wanted since i don't want a traditional dress. but savannah found me great options and i learned what i like on my body and what i don't like.

at this point all i'm going to say is that i did not purchase a dress today, but the likelihood of me going back to the wedding shoppe for a purchase is good. :)

that being said i will not be showing any full dress pictures (to keep my fiance from seeing me and in surprise.) these pictures are of some details i like(d) of some dresses but are in no way any indication of what my dress may be. :)

photo credit to the AMAZING gina zeidler who i could not be more thankful to have as a bridesmaid!! i am so thankful for her and to have her and her beautiful ability to photograph situations around at times like this. she's that big, real, truthful, tell-it-like-is, view from the photographers side that i NEEDED to be there with me! i couldn't have done this without her; at least not as well. thank you sooo much gina!!! love you tons!!

now, for the pictures: here are some of the pics i brought along of dresses/details i liked.

our wedding is very much diy (do it yourself) and i am loving fabric flowers lately, so the flowers on this dress are a great detail to tie in!

here's savanna helping me into one of the dresses that had to go overhead (for some reason i much prefer stepping into dresses :]).

i was smitten with the back of this lace dress! and the back of most of the dresses for that matter :) i'm pretty sure i asked if i could take all my wedding pictures backwards

the bottom of said lace dress.

yes i'm a black clothing girl. and yes i did wear black undergarments :)

to be fair, it's all i had

the sparkly-ness of this dress was beautiful but the dress is so not my style.

but as my mom says, i do kinda look "chesty" in this one :)

peeping my ring next to some flowers!!

the thought is to sleep on it, see how i feel after some time goes by and we're going to another bridal shop tomorrow. we'll see were tomorrow takes me! :)

i also need to thank my other 2 bridesmaids for sticking it out with me!! meg: thank you for being there! for taking all the dresses off the hangers and zipping me up! and thank you for telling me i looked pretty in all of them :) i know that no matter what i choose, you'll like it. :) love you lots!!

and to my momma, for being there and taking the dresses when i needed you to. and for your input although it was much less then i expected it to be :) i'm glad you had some help this time figuring out how to strap up/zip up the dresses ;) love you bunches!!

lil twin kitties

i once again got to accompany the greeders (minus dave) to a small school kids carnival. summer (5) was her typical energetic, social butterfly, so we didn't see too much of her, but the twins were fun to play with and follow around.

last year, when meg and i took them they were far too little to do much of the actual games and things, but this year (once they came out of their shells) they were able to do most of them. it was so fun to see how much they've grown and see them interact with other people.

there is a self use face painting station and last year meg had the great idea to paint their faces like kitties, so i did the same this year because it was soo cute!

skye, the almost 2 year old kitty :)

and here's ty ty, the little blonde kitty :]

we actually got them to stand still, together and smile for a picture!!

that's a great accomplishment!!

i was determined to get a picture of meg with her twins since she's always the one taking the pictures. and the opportunity came for me when the twins were enthralled with a baby :)

my mom came along this year and she had a great time too. she even got to teach ty how to putt :) love their faces! must have been a great shot!it was a good time although very exhausting! :)