Anniversary #2

Tuesday, July 10 was my 2nd wedding anniversary.  I was more than happy to celebrate, seeing that our 2nd year of being married, was so much better than our first. We are truly falling into our husband/wife roles and life is so good!

I did a lot of reminiscing about our wedding day....and 2 years later I still smile ear to ear with the memories of the love I felt that day.  I can honestly say that my wedding day was one of the BEST days of my life so far.

I can remember being on cloud nine...all day....all night!  I've never smiled so hard in one day in all of my life.  I couldn't help it!  Love oozed out of every corner of that tent and I never expected to feel that.

I'm so glad everybody came...I'm so glad my DIY projects were a success...I'm so glad we composed our own ceremony...I'm so glad we didn't elope...But, most of all, I'm so glad ALL of my siblings were able to surround me with their love and support.

There are 2 sisters missing from this photo
(note:  I lost my brother Chris last year...he's the tall one on the left...so I will always cherish my wedding
as being the last "family" event for us all to celebrate together as ONE)

The night was spent laughing, catching up with old friends, screaming with joy, cheering and dancing.  I felt gorgeous and was making a life-altering promise to the man I love and nothing else mattered.

And....did I mention dancing?  Oh boy, did we ever dance!

I will always cherish these memories and I look forward to reminiscing about our wedding day for many, many more years to come!

Baby Sister got Hitched

My baby sister got married on New Years Eve.  It was by far the most beautiful, most formal wedding I have ever been to.

But, best of all....they had a photo booth!  I'm venturing to guess that my siblings and I probably used it the most. 

Here are some of the pics we took:

Of course, hubby and I got in on the action too.....

Here are a few other family pics. 
(my sister, the bride, is not in any of these pics because she is on her honeymoon and none are being posted until she returns and gives the ok)

Hubby and I

Dad, Me, Sister Rachel, Grandma, Brother Chad

And here we are in "birth order"...it's a family joke!

Some of the cousins....good genes sure do run in the family!

Sister and I

And, before I forget.....I have to give credit to my sister Rachel for all of these pics.  I forgot my camera as we were rushing out the door. (typical Amy style)

One Year

Today is my wedding anniversary! It's been a long year full of ups and downs (definitely more downs). But, we made it through and have come out on the other side happier and more in love than ever.


Happy Anniversary babe...I love you!

People are so Rude!!!

The image below is our DIY Photo Wall from our wedding.

I was contacted immediately after our wedding by a wedding planner about purchasing this from me.  Of course I agreed!  She also wants an inventory of all my other wedding items I'm willing to sell...Awesome!

I was recently approached by the wife of someone my husband and I know about renting it for a family reunion.  Since I haven't technically sold it yet, I didn't see the harm in letting someone else enjoy it.  Oh, if only I had known then what I know now!!

Yesterday was the family reunion so they came to my house to pick it up.  I helped them load it in the trailer and gave them specific directions that it needed to be laid flat in the trailer because it's top-heavy.  I even went as far as lending them a sheet to lay down in the trailer so the fabric wouldn't get dirty.

6 hrs later they pull up in front of my house with the photo wall basically in pieces!!  They tried to stand it upright in the trailer and the wind caught it and it flew out onto the pavement face down.  The legs on one side were broken off, one of the frames came right off, and the large antique frame in the center is broken into dozens of pieces and chipped all over.

I understand that accidents happen, but I specifically told them to LAY IT FLAT IN THE TRAILER!!!!  It's not so much that its broke, as I think I can probably come up with a way to fix it, but the fact that they were laughing about it!  They literally just kept laughing as if it was the funniest thing that's ever happened to them.  It's not so funny if you ask me!

And not that I would have taken any money from them, but maybe if they had OFFERED to give me some money to repair the damage I wouldn't be this pissed.

PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE!!!

Now I'm stuck with the following dilemma:  Do I put more $$ into the board to fix it in order to sell it to wedding planner?  I'm just not sure I will get my money back out of it.  Or, do I not sell it and just keep it for myself?  But, where am I going to store it?  It's huge.  Or, do I sell it damaged and consider it a loss either way?

Picture Overload

The wedding day was nothing short of amazing!  I've never smiled so hard in one day in my whole life.  I couldn't help myself.

I felt stunning and gorgeous, but most importantly I felt loved.  The entire wedding party radiated from the joy and excitement of the day.

I was on a high that lasted the entire weekend.  It was a dream come true to see all of our family and friends in one place.

It was a perfect wedding!  Literally, the best day of my life.  And to be honest, I wasn't shooting for perfection...it just happened that way!

I was making big, life-altering promises to the man I love and I was surrounded by the most important people in my life.

I danced like a mad woman and laughed and screamed with joy!

I'm so glad that that everybody came...I'm so glad that we didn't take on anymore DIY projects...I'm so glad I have such amazing women in my life...I'm so glad we composed our own ceremony and vows...

I'M SO GLAD WE DIDN'T ELOPE!!!

If I had known the wedding would be so amazing and that marriage would be this good, I would have had a MUCH shorter engagement.

To watch our families intertwine to a degree that they appeared as one made my heart melt.

Pro Pics

I received the link from our photographer to see ALL the pics she took of our wedding.  It took me about an hour to look at them all because of the sheer volume of pictures.  Well, that and I couldn't stop crying so I had to keep pausing the slideshow.  One word.....BEAUTIFUL!!

I can't wait to get the disc from her so I can start posting my favs. 

Warning:  I have a lot of favs!!

Wedding Recap - Rehearsal Dinner

As I stated in my first wedding recap, I loved the rehearsal dinner just as much as I loved the actual wedding.  I don't know if I've ever been so happy or smiled so much. 

The rehearsal dinner was a casual affair.  My fiance (errrr....husband) bought all the men Detroit Tiger shirts to wear and we served ballpark foods.  We had hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, pretzels, cheese and crackers and cookies.

The rehearsal itself went off without a hitch so we quickly headed straight for the food/drinks.  I can still hear all the laughter emulating throughout the tent from our family and friends.  I will never forget the moment that I stepped back and "took it all in".  I've never been in one place with so much love in the air.

Don and I smiled the night away as we drank, talked and toasted with our loved ones.

Everyone knows that the Rehearsal Dinner is where the real party starts....so here are some pictures from ours

Leaving the hotel heading to Rehearsal

Holding my "leaf" bouquet since we forgot to use the bouquet we made at the bridal shower

Matron of Honor - my sister Rachel with her "leaf" bouquet

Mom and Dad practicing the walk down the aisle

Dad shaking Don's hand and cracking a joke of some sort, I'm sure!

Nephew and Brother in Law cooking the food

Bridal Party

Bride & Groom

Detroit Tigers

It was a perfect, warm summer evening.  I had a great time and I know that all of our family and friends did too!

Wedding Recap #1

It's so funny because I've been following wedding blogs for almost 2 years now and after each bride got married I read their posts explaining how difficult they found it to start their wedding recaps.  I never quite understood why they were having a problem.  Start with the beginning and move forward...seemed pretty simple at the time.

And yet, here I am 13 days after my wedding and I don't have a clue how to begin putting into words the sheer magnitude of what took place and how I felt (and still feel).  So my apologies if my wedding recaps seem a little scattered, out of order, and filled with a ton of pictures.  I will also apologize right now for the sheer amount of posts that will soon follow.  There are SO many things I want to talk about (and so many pictures to post).

So, as I patiently wait for our professional pictures to come back, I will start with the days leading up to the wedding and will then move onto our rehearsal.

Our wedding took place outdoors at my mom and step dad's house so I spent nearly every waking hour in the weeks leading up to the wedding working in their yard.  And when I wasn't spreading mulch or laying down flooring under the tents I was finishing centerpieces and the other gazillion little details that needed to be done.

Besides all the "physical" work and the sore muscles I encountered, I would honestly say that the most difficult part of the entire process was when I finally had to open myself up to the idea that I needed help from family and friends in order to pull off this shindig.    It was terrifying planning this huge party by myself, but for some reason in my mind I found it "more" terrifying to have to ask for help in doing it.  And to my surprise, the moments in the days before the wedding where I recognized and accepted this as a necessity, will remain some of the most important and most memorable moments of the whole wedding process.

On the Friday before the wedding, my family, wedding party and close friends pulled together as a team.  We had people hanging paper lanterns, stringing lights, ironing the linens, setting up centerpieces, folding napkins, putting final touches on our photo wall, pulling weeds and blowing leaves, and so much more!  It was such beautiful chaos and it brings tears just thinking about it.

Centerpieces waiting to be distributed

200+ Paper lanterns

Brother in Law working on the photo wall

Grandma ironing the table linens

Best Friend Kevin blowing leaves off the "wedding aisle"

Bride to be with Mother in Law hanging Lanterns

As soon as everyone arrived and we started setting up and I could really see things coming together, it was as if someone waved a magic wand over me and all the pre-wedding anxiety was gone.  I absolutely, without a doubt, loved this day just as much as my actual wedding day.  Totally AMAZING!!!