Not only was it just my first time attending Tessa's wedding, it was also my first time videotaping a wedding. Before the ceremony I was getting some b-roll and cutaway shots when the photographer asked me if I shot weddings often. I said nope, this is my first. She tried not to act surprised. I like to think I did a pretty good job for a first crack at it; however, I won't know for sure until I start to edit. I'll keep you posted.
Weddings come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Well, unless it's a Wardenburg wedding. Wardenburg weddings come in only large and extra large. My sister-in-law Tessa did a wonderful job putting together a lovely wedding in just three months. She looked beautiful and classy while committing herself to the man of her dreams in a quaint Lutheran church in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Not only was it just my first time attending Tessa's wedding, it was also my first time videotaping a wedding. Before the ceremony I was getting some b-roll and cutaway shots when the photographer asked me if I shot weddings often. I said nope, this is my first. She tried not to act surprised. I like to think I did a pretty good job for a first crack at it; however, I won't know for sure until I start to edit. I'll keep you posted.
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Today was a day of many firsts! It was my first time attending a bridal shower for Lucas' sister Tessa and Lucas' brother's fiancée Jordan. While some women may have multiple bridal showers, today's shower in Creston was the first so far for both these brides and probably the only one I will attend. In the same token, it was also my first time at a combined bridal shower. When my mother-in-law starting planning a shower for Tessa, she thought it would be easier for friends and family to attend one shower rather than this one for Tessa and one in the near future for Jordan. They had a great turnout with about 40 ladies showing up to celebrate the upcoming nuptials. Thankfully, Tessa and Jordan are both laid back brides. Many brides, including myself, would be too big of divas to combine their day with someone else.
While many guests knew both brides, some did not. That's where I came in. My mother-in-law asked me to plan some games for the party. I created a word find for guests to get to know each bride, a Q&A with the brides and grooms for guests to get to know the couples and bingo for guests to show their aptitude for most popular bridal shower gifts. Everyone said they had a great time and the games were fun. I hope they weren't lying to me... It was also my first time giving the specific gifts I gave. I came up with the idea of giving the toasting flutes and cake cutting set to be used at the wedding. Lucas and I got our flutes and cutting set at Things Remembered last year, and they are great. A few weeks ago I sent Jordan and Dane a few different styles I liked from Things Remembered and asked them to pick out their favorite. I then had the flutes engraved with their monogram and the cake server with "served with love." As a practical gift giver, I felt this was a great idea since these items are must-haves for most weddings. For Tessa, I gave her a self-inking address stamp. Lucas and I got our save the date cards and thank you notes done from Wedding Paper Divas last year, and they looked great. I still get occasional emails from them, and one was about the stamp. While it's not a necessity, it sure beats handwriting your return address on every piece of mail. I even used the stamp on the envelope of her card. She saw it and said, "Oh, this is cute!" I simply said, "Thanks." When she opened the gift, she seemed a little surprised to see the stamp but quickly put two and two together. The gift was so original I even impressed her mother-in-law! All in all, I would say the day was a success. Even the men had a good time. My father-in-law threw a fish fry at his house for all the men to hunker down at during the shower. Congrats to Tessa and Jordan! Can't wait for your bigs days! Getting married isn't a decision to make lightly. Celebrating your final days as a single lady isn't to be taken lightly either. That's why eight of us got together to bid my sister-in-law's final days as a bachelorette farewell in Kansas City. We started the party with a few cocktails, games and gifts at the hotel. We kept it classy by staying at the Holiday Inn.
After a few hours, we headed to the Power and Light district for the evening. Dinner at BRGR was a little disappointing for me. I ordered the first turkey burger of my life here. The only reason I did was because it had avocado, bacon, and a poblano pesto sauce. That all sounded amazing - even if it was on turkey and not beef. Not so much. The burger patty itself was dry and unseasoned. I couldn't finish it. Everyone else really enjoyed their meals and a raspberry tequila cocktail. Luckily, things went uphill from there. We walked the two blocks over to the PBR Big Sky bar, paid our $5 to get in, and stayed there all night. We thought we might bar hop a bit, but we were all having a blast drowning in flannel and cowboy hats. The bachelorette may have even rode the mechanical bull; I am unable to confirm or deny that accusation. The only part I disliked about the bar was that during my favorite jam of the month, Timber by Kesha and Pitbull, we all got pushed to the side of the dance floor so the go-go cowgirl dancers could perform a dance. This isn't a strip club, and I'm not paying to watch them dance. Oh, and all the broken glass on the floor was getting ridiculous. I don't recall getting into a bar brawl so it must have been one of the rowdy cowboys. While I'm no rowdy cowgirl myself, I'm glad my husband has made me just country enough to fit right in. T-28 days until Tessa says goodbye to being a Wardenburg! During my two-year residency in the Ingersoll neighborhood, I made it over to Gusto Pizza Co. a handful of times. The pizza is delicious. This isn't your Papa John's/Pizza Hut/Northern Lights stuff. This is fresh, original, tasty, thin crust pizza. One day Lucas mentioned there was now a second Gusto location in West Des Moines. I don't know if I was more surprised about the expansion of this great pizza joint or that Lucas knew something about Des Moines that I didn't know. I love my husband, it's just that usually I am the one introducing him to new things. This information came in handy twice already. When my parents were in town about a month ago, we took them to the new West Des Moines location. It had a very similar look and feel to the Ingersoll shop with modern, minimalist decor. It's located in a little strip mall on University near the Waukee city line. Then, Lucas' parents were in town and in the mood for pizza. We went back again. (So to be fair, this post is actually about my second time at Gusto Pizza's west location. I simply forgot to blog about it last month, probably because I was caught up in the glass-blowing which we did on the same day.) We ordered the Spartacus and the Saltimbocca which are two of the more popular pizzas. They were delicious. We were worried that we would not be able to finish both of them, but we polished them off without having to unbutton our pants. That's what I call success. So the next time you find yourself starved after power shopping around Jordan Creek, just jog up to University and relax with a delightful pizza and refreshing beer.
I'm so excited to help not one, not two, but four couples dear to me celebrate their nuptials in 2014. This weekend I did double duty with Lucas' family spending time together for Christmas and wedding planning. You see, both his sister and brother are getting married this year. Seeing that I just planned my own wedding, I wasted no time offering my knowledge and services.
I've been pondering centerpiece ideas for Dane and Jordan's wedding. The colors are navy blue and coral, and the date is set for December. Dane is quite the hunter and outdoorsman so, with the help of pinterest and my mother-in-law, we are trying to find a balance of feminine and masculine. We headed out to the store and found some great lace fabric and little coral and natural-colored twine balls. We have access to lots of round glass vases for floating candles and deer antlers. It was a ton of work, and mostly fun, planning my own wedding. This is really the first time I get to be hands on for someone else's wedding. I'm ecstatic Jordan and Dane are allowing me to help out. I'm also excited to help in any way I can for Tessa and Brett's wedding. My mom swears I should be a wedding planner... One month anniversary. One year of knowing each other. First kiss. First time to say, "I love you." First Christmas as a married couple. You can make a milestone out of just about anything. While Lucas may tell you I'm guilty of that, I truly believe having your first Christmas as a married couple is one to note. There's just something about the holidays and Christmas especially that feel a little different when you are sharing it as a married person rather than just as a daughter, sister, aunt, or cousin.
I guess it's the idea of becoming your own family and making your own traditions. It's trying to squeeze in both sides of the families within a few days just because you can. It's about wanting to give your spouse something special, not about spending a gazillion dollars on them. It's about being thankful we found each other. It's about celebrating our faith. We had a really great, married Christmas, and I'm excited to spend every future Christmas with the fun, loving, crazy, strong-willed man I call my husband. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words are 100 pictures worth? Too many. Yet 100 pictures is par for the course in my family. My mom, sister and I take a lot of photos. My dad, brother-in-law and husband, think we are crazy. While they may have a point, I think there needs to be some clarification. It's only crazy to take 100 pictures if you will never look at them again.
In today's time there are so many websites that can help you preserve and showcase your many memories. However, taking the time to sort through the whole lot, select the best ones, touch them up, and design an album is much easier said than done. I fully intend to look at all the pictures I take (because I'm not crazy) so I'm quick to print them off or create albums. Since I really enjoy doing it, I also like to do this for the crazy people I know. I print my photos at Walgreens so I figured I would get a quality product from the website. I've created and ordered numerous calendars from them over the past four or five years. Every year they look fabulous. (Kudos to you Walgreens because I am a walking commercial for you.) This year I decided to create a photo book rather than print out the photos and insert them into an album. I couldn't believe how customizable the books are. It gives you several layouts to pick from, but then you can adjust the size, move the photos around, turn them, add text, delete text, change the font, change the backgrounds, and on and on. Their calendars are not that customizable so it was a super pleasant surprise. I have high hopes the book will turn out wonderfully and look like I spent $50-$100 on it rather than the $20 I really did. I'll keep you posted once I receive it. Happy picture taking! Real or fake? No, I'm not talking about plastic surgery here people. I'm talking about Christmas trees. It's our first Christmas as a married couple, and we just can't agree on getting a real tree or a fake tree. Knowing what you know about Lucas and me, you may think you know which one is on which end of the argument here. It may surprise you though that I want a real tree and Lucas wants a fake tree. He's says a real one is too much work because we don't own a truck to haul it, we live on the third story, the pine needles will make a mess and no one will even see it besides us. He says once we get a house and host Christmas, we can start getting real trees. Since that will most likely be next year, I don't see the point to invest $50-$100 into a fake tree we will only use this year. Our final decision? No tree at all.
We still decided to head out to pick up some stockings and other smaller decorations. I've yet to get my own grown-up stocking. Growing up, us three kids had the same matching stockings since I can remember. It's about time for an upgrade! Luckily, there aren't real or fake stockings so Lucas and I had a much easier time coming to a consensus on those. We got classic red knit ones with our first initials on them (so Santa knows which one to put all the chocolate in and which one to load up with fishing lures). Roaming through the holiday aisles, of course, what did we come across? A fake tree -- a really small fake tree. We almost got it when we saw these cool (fake) pre-lit snowy trees with no leaves. I liked this idea because it's a little funky and contemporary but still a tree, and we can still use it next year to decorate one room while we have our real tree in another room. So while we both compromised, there's one thing I'm not getting much say in: Lucas' Green Bay Packers ornament. It's the only ornament he has or cares to hang up. As a Chicagoan, this is hard to allow. But since the Packers are having a terrible year, I figure it's the least I could do. P.S. Yes, that is a little light up dog on the table. His name is Simon. Hello Menomonie. I know two things about you: 1) You are home to my brother-in-law and 2) You are home to the University of Wisconsin-Stout. I can't make a judgment about you based on that little information so I had to come up and see you for myself. (To be truthful though, the only reason I even cared to come see you is because my brother-in-law is the offensive line coach for Stout.) You didn't give me the friendliest greeting with the all-day rain, cloudiness and haziness. But as I looked past your temporary appearance and focused on your inner beauty. I saw a quaint business district and some beautiful craftsman style homes. You had a a couple dozen dedicated fans who stood and/or sat through the endless rain during the Blue Devils game as they took on (and ultimately succumbed to) University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for their last home game of the season. But I would say your best attribute is that you surround Lake Menomin, which provides a beautiful view of Mother Nature for your 16,000 residents and numerous visitors even on the haziest of days. Next year though, we'll come to a September game to try to catch you at your prime.
Weddings these days are so personalized. You can do pretty much whatever you want to make the day exactly how you want it. One of the trends I came across as planning our big day was that instead of having a guest book, you have a guest quilt. This automatically appealed to me because I'm a practical person. What am I really going to do with a guest book after the wedding? Put it in a box and never look at it again. What would I do with a quilt that all our family and friends have signed? Wrap up in it every day!
I understand these things can get pretty pricey. Ours cost nothing thanks to the talented hands of Lucas' grandmas. They worked on the blanket for the past seven months and surprised us with it today when they came to visit us. I had totally forgotten we gave them a few pictures to use, and they turned out awesome. The hearts in the middle came from our ceremony program that I designed. The beautiful plum was one of our wedding colors. And all the messages are from our loved ones who helped us celebrate the most wonderful day of my life. Thanks to the grandmas for your hard work and talent. We love it! |