we made it: one year!

I can't believe it's been a year since our wedding week. At this time last year, my best friend from Florida was in Erie, helping me with whatever I needed. I had just picked up my dress, my family, friends and I were going crazy with last minute details. I was back living with my parents. My niece could barely sit up on her own, now she's a full-fledged walking toddler.

If you're a more recent follower, you can catch up on my wedding using the "my wedding" labels, though that will take you back a year of planning! I didn't put too many of our pictures up after we got them back, so here are a few favorites in honor of this special week:

Ah - my family :)

We took almost all of the bride + bridesmaid pictures at my aunt + uncle's house before the wedding. They recently sold their house, so I'm even more honored to have so many gorgeous pictures on their beautiful property.

Where Josh and I attend church together. One Sunday a month, we are on stage helping to lead worship to this beautiful church. I have gone here all of my life. Though the building is new (built in 2007), the people are the church, and we were so blessed to have so many family, friends and church family there with us.

This bridal party was the best. I mean, look at all those gorgeous girls! And all those super cool dudes!

Our pictures were done by my long-time, very good friend and at one point, mentor, Danielle Hartland. She did an amazing job and I couldn't be more pleased with everything she did for us.

Kimberly of Make Way for Cupcakes did our gorgeous and delicious cupcakes. They turned out exactly how I had envisioned and my family was happily stuffing our faces with leftover cuppies for days after the wedding.

Our first dance song was written by my cousin Paul, who Josh was friends with in high school. It was so awesome having so many family and friends doing things for our wedding day.

Tell me about your wedding experiences! What was the best part of your day or a friend's wedding you attended? Other than walking down the aisle to meet my hubby and say our vows, our off-site picture time and reception were both a blast. I can't really pick - I loved the whole day!!

If you're interested in viewing more pics (my gosh, there are so many pics), look me up on Facebook - I have three albums!!

wedding toast

as is customary in England, my dad gave a "Father of the Bride" speech at our wedding. i asked him for a copy of the speech so i could hang on to it and possibly put it in our wedding album (that some day we will do - my sister is going to design it for us, so it's all on her time!).

anyway, thought i would share the speech/toast for anyone interested. below is what my dad emailed over to me. i only made a few changes to make any confusing sentences work, since he read off the sheet but added things as well.


A Wedding Speech. August 20th , 2010

I cannot believe that we have finally come to this day. I can now relax and stop being ordered around! This has had more planning that a military maneuver! 

Where has the time gone? My little Amy, Amers has turned into a young woman overnight, has it really been 26 years? Amy was an excellent baby, she slept well, was obedient, honored her parents; looked after her sister…oh wait that was Rachel! Amy was my best friend, when I was doing jobs around the house, she wanted to help, she knew which tools I needed, which was good because I didn’t. We played games and read books. She has spent years working with me in Children’s Church, things were always better when she was there to support me. 

But now a new phase has come, a new “man” has arrived to take over the protector role.

Josh, I hope you are ready! Last September Josh and I went out for lunch. I knew he was after my permission and after questioning him about his faith, his love and commitment I gave that permission. Father’s this should be something we should get from our daughters suitors!
 
Josh seems a very cool and patient guy…I said “Do you get angry and raise your voice?” He said he didn’t, but Amy did! I agreed!

I was impressed with Josh one night recently when we were starting a bonfire in the backyard because Amy wanted “S’mores!” I got out my chainsaw and chopped some trees down and we started lighting it, Josh rubbed two sticks together and whoosh we were ready, but there were no sticks for the marshmallows!
“I’ll get a knife.” I said.
“No, wait,” was his reply. Josh opened his pockets. He sorted through various guitar picks, music books, X box games, cash, laptops…and produced a pocket knife. I could not believe it! This guy was all right, he was like one of the Hardy Boys! (Rambo)

Now it is time to for you to take over and Josh, I leave the upkeep of Amy’s Honda Civic to you. Josh it will be your turn to kill the bugs…(Centipede Story) - you could kill it with your knife!

Amy is full of passion and spirit! She is lively and creative, talented and beautiful. She is yours to
look after and protect. Welcome to a family with a long line of emotional females! A verse from Ephesians 5 vs 25 to finish with:
“And you husbands must love your wives with the same love that Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.”
I have taken many years to learn that, but if you wish to be successful, then make sure you pray and work things out, don’t stay angry with each other…I can honestly say that by realizing that I am never right…wait I was right 13 times one year! Makes my life a lot happier. Be romantic and loving, the way to win Amy’s heart is by watching Pride and Prejudice together!

Raise your glasses!

wedding details: hair accessories

it's been a while (like, over a month) since i posted any more details about the wedding. seeing as we just past the two month marker, i thought it would be appropriate to post some more wedding fun.


originally i did not want to wear a veil for the wedding. you know, wanted to be a rebel, wanted to be "different," but my mum made my sister's veil as well as a few other friends', so she wanted to make mine as well. after trying on several dresses and testing out veils, i was happy about wearing one. my sister, mom and i all seemed to be drawn to one in-particular. this veil was about waist-length and had crystals lining almost the entire thing. then we checked the price - $29.50. seriously. veils like this usually are at LEAST over $150.00. this veil had been damaged - the crystals were falling off, and not until a few days before the wedding did we even notice it had some holes in the center. we didn't even care. i bought the veil and my mum bought more crystals and spent over 4 hours fixing it. it cost less than if she were to have made it herself from scratch, though i'm sure it took longer than she originally anticipated. i only wore the veil for the ceremony and pictures after, so i was totally ecstatic about paying that price.

i wanted to swap out the veil for some sort of flowery or feathery fun for the reception, just like many brides these days. i couldn't find anything i really liked and then my mum decided she could probably make one of these on her own. so, with a combination of satin, lace, chiffon and toulle (not to mention a super sparkly broken antique earring), she created my flower.

it meant so much to me to have these personal touches on my wedding day. my mum is so wonderful and talented in so many ways. she did so much for the wedding and put so much time into our special day. my mum is truly an amazing woman!!

here are some fun veil and flower pics (i grabbed some from my photographer Danielle Hartland's proof site, so they've still got her watermarks on them. i'll have to update when i have higher resolution pics):

my first (successful) etsy purchase

WARNING: while this post is about purchasing from ETSY, it is also about wedding details...so...be warned.

one thing i really wanted to get for my bridesmaids was cute clutches or handbags that were different, fun, a pop of color and re-usable. i feel like i succeeded with 3/4 of these requirements.

since my girls wore PINK heels (Mossimo, from Target) i decided on PINK purses (i knew KT wouldn't be happy about it, but i did it anyway). after unfortunate evens from my first attempt at purses on Etsy (didn't hear back from the vendor for months after paying 1/2 of the money up front), i decided to go for something really different.

photo by Danielle Hartland Graphic Design & Photography 

(actually, her assistant Miranda took this one!)

i discovered Poppy Punch Etsy shop while doing a general bridal clutch search on Etsy. i was more than pleased with the results. Toon worked close with me on personalizing my clutches (allowing me to pick my fabric and add a silver chain). She also gave me a discount (well, i did order NINE bags...eight bridesmaids and one bride). i picked a pink flowery pattern for the girls and the same pattern in orange for me. they might not be able to use these again too often, but they were a great deal, looked awesome in pictures (so far that i've seen), and shipped quickly (they came from Thailand) and *cutely* wrapped.

i would definitely recommend Poppy Punch for personalized, fun and funky clutches! there are so many gorgeous bags on their site!

photo by Danielle Hartland Graphic Design & Photography

photo by Staci

wedding details: the dress

if you've been following my blog, i know i've posted a lot about details for our wedding. now that it is over i feel it's time to share some of those AWESOME details. i feel like i have a story to tell about almost each piece i wore, so i'm going to break up the posts that deal with my attire.

The Dress:

my dress was Iliana by Maggie Sottero. the dress was shown online in silver, so originally i had the idea in my mind that i wanted that. i had been browsing Maggie dresses over six months before we even got engaged, and this was one of the few i picked out that i looked at daily. like, seriously. daily.

i totally envisioned myself wearing this dress at our wedding. when the dress hunt started towards the end of that year (2009), i checked three bridal stores out and had a favorite from each place. none were the Iliana dress. i was so incredibly close to getting another beautiful dress from David's Bridal, but i walked away from all three stores without purchasing anything. i could not commit. i had plenty of time before the wedding, but i felt i needed to nail the dress before any other details could be envisioned. i knew i needed to try those other Maggie dresses i had been pining over for months. i finally called the first store we stopped at and asked if they had them. and i gave them like, 15 dresses to check. i think they only had three of these. Iliana was one of them.

i was SO excited to try it on and as soon as i did, i knew it had to be the dress. i was nervous my mum wouldn't like it as much because it was so simple (no beading, one fabric), but the way the dress fit me, the fabric, the straps, the amazing train and how it looked in the back - all made this dress so unique and glamorous, everyone loved it. i did go with the ivory color - i described it to people as melted white chocolate. how could one NOT love that!?

to me the dress was perfect, especially for my now-husband. he is a minimal kind of guy (you should see our apartment!), so i knew he would appreciate a dress that wasn't busy. also, my engagement ring is very simple and modern, my wedding band is just a plain, flat-edge band. the style of this dress dictated simplicity and modernism in our wedding theme, with punches of crazy details in things like the shoes and jewelry.

i don't have any full-length dress pictures yet, but this is one of my favorites from our photographer's set so far:

lies! okay, this one is from my sister's series of pics:

honeymoon!

for our honeymoon, we went to the hot and humid city of Playa Mujeres, near Cancun, in Mexico. we stayed at the Excellence Resort. it was pretty much amazing. all inclusive, awesome food, gorgeous rooms and interiors, friendly and helpful staff, beautiful pools...could not have asked for more!!

our flight down had no issues, though we had two layovers and our first connecting flight had already been boarding for 1/2 hour when our first flight landed in the airport. luckily we didn't have any issues making our way to and ONTO that flight. it was another quick one (both the first flights were about an hour), and then we had a relaxing 3 1/2 hour layover before the 3 hour trip to the Cacun airport. i heard a rumor that the floor in their airport was dirt...um...yeah, that's not true. it's very nice there.


by the time we got outside the sun was already going down, but the heat and humidity were ridiculous. Erie can be quite a hot and humid place, but it's never close to as bad as the humidity during the day. 

we spent the first evening getting settled in our room. we ordered room service and checked out all the fun amenities in the room (the dual-faucet shower, in-room safe, mini-bar, balcony and our awesome view). it was too hot to go outside. plus the pools were already closed, it was dark already and we were exhausted. our room had a beautiful king-sized bed, double sinks, l-shaped couch, jacuzzi and balcony with an awesome bed/couch thing and table and chairs.

on Monday we spent the morning sleeping in, ordered some yummy room service for breakfast, then changed into our swimming gear and explored the resort. we hung out in one of the larger pools adjacent to the spa and REVIVE bar. it was gorgeous. the water was so warm, and it wasn't that crowded either.








Monday night we ate at the Toscana Italian restaurant for dinner. We had a bottle of wine (they served 2 whites and 2 reds that were included in the "all-inclusive" package), bread baked with garlic and parm cheese with oil & vinegar for dipping, a bruschetta sampler, i had minestrone soup (AMAZING) and josh had caprese salad. my main course was lasagna Florentine, josh had spaghetti bolognese. for dessert: tiramisu and strawberry gelato. definitely was my favorite place, we went there again on Friday night.







we spent most of our time relaxing in this pool, which we could see from our room. it was amazing, not crowded and a little cooler temperature than the other pools we tried.









 





we only went to one other restaurant for dinner, called SPICE, this one was Asian/Japanese inspired. it was also delicious. i had coconut soup (very good, lots of chunks of chicken and not too sweet), Thai fried rice with chicken (delish) and flan (weird, but okay). josh had spring rolls, steak and noodles and some sort of ice cream type dessert.  
 

our trip was SO awesome and fun. i would definitely recommend it. Excellence Resorts have several other locations as well; i would love to try their Jamaica or Dominican Republic resorts as well.











ugh, i apologize for the horrid-ness of how this blog post looks. apparently Blogger's new picture formatting does not like me one bit!!!

wedding days!!

so...the wedding's over...and technically so is the honeymoon. everything was totally awesome. the wedding day was an absolute blast. my family was awesome, the food was great, the bridesmaids so helpful and fun, my DJ, photog and videographer friends were AMAZING, and my groom - was the perfect groom. we had such a great day.

here are some pics from my photographer and great friend, Danielle!

only a few weeks left...

things are pretty awesome right now. work is busy, which is great, but also a little stressful as we'll be leaving for 10 days in only a few weeks! Josh's roommate moved out this weekend and took lots of the kitchen stuff, so we took out our silverware, plates, cups and pots and pans. it's pretty awesome getting our new stuff out. also, we plan on moving my couches and all the big stuff this coming weekend...then i'll be moving back with my parents for a few weeks until the wedding!! can't believe we're under three weeks now...ah!!!!!!

that's all i have to say about it right now.

yay!

wedding update...ONE MONTH!

so. i know you're all sick of my wedding posts, so i'll try not to say too much. here's what's on my mind at the ONE MONTH marker before the big day.

• i hate jewelry. i can't pick anything for the life of me. also, my collar bone sticks out, causing certain necklaces to flip on me. ANNOYING.
  
• also, i'm just in general too indecisive. we should have had a three month engagement so i didn't have time to buy 3 pairs of shoes or decide between 4 different hair styles.
  
• my good friend Danielle is doing our wedding photos. she just posted some from a wedding last weekend and they are SO AWESOME. i get more and more excited for her to do them every day!
• we have to finalize ceremony music and our vows. should be easy...you'd think.
• i have to pick up our marriage license.
• i think i'm going to have enough money to pay for everything...i think...
• i cannot WAIT for a week of just laying around and hanging out with Josh. it's going to be awesome. all. inclusive. no. kids.
  
• i'm not stressed. i'm excited. but i'll probably be stressed day of. i think i'm gonna need some anti-anxiety meds.
• i'm excited to turn Josh's apartment into "our" apartment. he's probably not as excited (to get my crap in his townhouse) as i am...
• alicia is coming up to Erie a few days before the wedding! i'm so excited to spend some time with her and my other bridesmaids!!
• my sister is amazing. she took so much time to work on our invitations, and she did a beautiful job. i'll have to get her to take some pics so we can show them off.
• RSVP's are due Friday. i'm nervous people didn't get their invitations. i'm also nervous we aren't getting people's RSVP's, but at least we can contact people and make sure of all that.
• SIMPLICITY is the new term for the wedding. i've got ideas in my head of how i want our day to look, but it's literally not possible to look that way with 1) reception location, 2) amount of guests we're having, 3) we don't have time, 4) we don't have the resources/money. new goal: simplify everything. no one is going to care how the cookie/dessert table looks and what color flower petals are on the table. i may care now, but i won't care day of! (josh has been telling me this for 9 months)
  
• i can't wait to marry my best friend and the most wonderful guy i know!
  

sorry i've been distant...

i've been lacking in blog posting and blog reading/commenting recently. things are crazy in my life, maybe more so than usual! also, i have no internet (or tv...cable...) at home, so that puts a wrench in posting and reading. here's what's been keeping me busy...

• wedding planning. duh!! we bought our rings, finalized the flowers and put down a deposit, met with our wedding coordinator at church, had my trial run with my hair stylist, made some decisions and purchased some super fun gifts for my bridesmaids, been planning day-of schedule, thank you cards from the shower are written and sent, invites sent out & RSVP's coming in, next dress fitting is Monday, i attempted to make myself a necklace and failed, i bought shoes...again...
• roomie moved out so the place is a little empty. a centipede tried to take her spot but, with the help of my dad, i killed it (that is another story)
  
• i've started packing up a few of my own things in the town house
• Josh and i joined cell phone plans and both of us got the new iPhone 4!! totally love it, though the limited data plan sucks major and i still can't type/text on it worth crap. but the display is amazing. cameras and face-time are amazing (when face-time works, that is...)
• work is very busy, which is great, but also unusual at this time of year. things are normally a little more calm now, and they might be if it weren't for the huge project that's been consuming the majority of my time. we're hoping it's finalized and ordered next week and ready for install in Sept-Oct!
• Josh's brother's wedding is this weekend; he's in it and i'm photographing it
• Josh's bachelor party is next weekend, which means he's off for 3-4 days with 4 of his 6 guys to New York City

i'm sure MORE things have been going on than just this, but it's time to get focused. have great weekends everyone!!

my bridal shower!!

my amazing mother, father, sister, bridesmaids, aunt, neighbors and several other family members helped throw me the most amazing bridal shower ever. we braved the unpredictable Erie weather and threw it outside (and it down-poured in the morning for about 15-20 minutes), but was clear (AND HOT) for the shower.

the shower was "English Garden Tea Party" themed, complete with teapots, teacups and old victorianesque gloves as centerpieces. it was pretty amazing. the food was also delicious - tea sandwiches, chicken salad croissants, and assortments of scones and trifles. i was surrounded by the women i love and was given some wonderful gifts.

here are some pics... (taken by Rachel and Katie)

thanks to all my amazing friends and family for a great shower!!!!!!! check my facebook for more pics!

bachelorette weekend: days 4 &5

ok. i'm sick of this last post just waiting to be posted.

here's some shots and bullet points from our last day(s) in Florida:

visiting the worlds greatest gift shop...and being severely disappointed.


Hollywood Studios!


more at Hollywood Studios


in line for possibly the back stage tour. at this point, my camera told me i had taken too many pictures (oh, you know, over 700). i started deleting the junk ones to make more room...


roomie got chosen to participate in the Indiana Jones stunt show! totes fun!


Muppets in 3D. it was good, but it was freezing in there. kind of ruined it for me.


end of the day - Magic Kingdom. my camera battery died right before we left Hollywood Studios. also, Alicia had to go to work for a bit, so we took the shuttle to Magic Kingdom. i didn't think about it, and had to carry my huge dead-battery-now-useless camera around the rest of the day. ANNOYING.

my trip - was awesome.
my friends - are awesome.
my life - is awesome.

update, mostly about wedding progress...

haven't updated in a while...still have a day left to finish on my Bachelorette Weekend series of posts!!! things have been insanely busy of course, as is my normal lack-of-posting excuse. work is very busy, i am completely immersed in a HUGE hospital job (which is awesome, but stressful), plus all the other work we have going on.

tonight is my 2nd Bachelorette Party with some of the girls that couldn't make it to the Florida trip.

tomorrow is my shower.

wait. what?

TOMORROW IS MY SHOWER.

i can't even believe it. we're almost at the two month mark!!!

we are 99% done with DESIGNING the wedding invitations. hopefully we'll get them printed and assembled...and dare i say it? SENT OUT? next week!??! i dread the amount of money i'm going to be spending on postage.

yesterday, josh and i picked up my ring and ordered his (mine we ordered a "sample" first because they didn't have anything like what i wanted in stock. it was PERFECT! plus, they ordered it in my size, cause it's now my ring, so i got to see EXACTLY what it would look like). i'm making josh keep it so i don't stare at it and try it on every second i can (cause i totes would).

we're slowly making the purchases for the reception decorations.

i'm changing my mind about shoes and jewelry. big surprise there.

i have my hair trial in two weeks!! so excited about that. still working on details about what to do about coloring my hair...

we got to hear the song my cousin wrote for us!! now we're just trying to make a decision on where exactly to put it!

kristen is slowly moving her stuff out into her new place! it's sad seeing our 2-years living together coming to an end, but i'm so excited for both of our new life stages! i can't wait to see her house (tomorrow)!!!

so, things are moving along. life is good.

bachelorette weekend: day 3

highlights:

• awesome town & country van rented and driven by Alicia
• two hour drive to Anna Maria Island to Manatee Beach
• almost-white sand, almost-clear super-warm water
• relaxing with some of my favorite girls
• 90 degree temps
• taking full advantage of "continuous shot mode" on my camera
  
• sipping frosty drinks and eating yummy app's by the ocean
• fun lights in the town & country van and feeling pretty awesome about it
• power-women songs from the 80's (including but not limited too "house of love" by Amy Grant and Celine Dion, "because you loved me")
• dressing back up in our LBD's and bachelorette box gear
  
• downtown universal, one club, avoiding creepy guys, finding a bachelor party and telling the bachelor "congrats" and "marriage is cool," staying till last call, mistaking people's genders and staci hating me cause we had her out past 3 am!

sunday was probably the best day. beach time and dancing with some crazy-fun girls. LOVED IT!!