One Month

Today marks the one month anniversary of Aaron and I being married.  We had a beautiful wedding surrounded by people who love us.  There were some major catastrophes: forgot to pay the caterer the day before the wedding and had to make my dad run out there that morning, minor catastrophes: who knew sparkling cider didn't always  have twist off caps, and some not so pleasant conversations with family members that day.  All of that said, it was a WONDERFUL DAY!!! I had the best matron of honor, mother in law and mom taking care of everything for me.  The weather was PERFECT!!!! It was overcast (great for pictures), sprinkled here and there, and sunny when we drove home as Mr.and Mrs. Wood.  The food was great, everyone pitched in to help clean up and best of all, everyone gave us compliments on the most important part: the wedding ceremony (especially the vows).

Now that we've been married one month I thought I should finally bring myself to blogging about our wedding and marriage thus far. 

We have had a few disagreements so far (where to put the dish towel, whether or not to kill the ants who keep rudely invading our apartment and freaking me out, and when to get up/go to bed).  All of these things are just little things that will be resolved in time.  We also have decided Thursdays are "our" night.  We have bible study Monday, Aaron has men's study Tuesday, Wednesday we hang out with the McKenneys, and the weekends are full of hanging out and church events so Thursdays are dedicated to US. 

We have also had many joys this month: getting a TV Tuner card for the PC to turn it into the TV so we take the big bulky TV out of our living room and put it in the game room, spending lots of time with friends, getting to spend much more time with Brandon, and getting our car inspected for free and it passing (after gettting a new windshield washer pump). 

We have been enjoying being married and all of the joys, challenges, and everyday stuff it brings. 

I plan on writing more later but right now it's back to work for me.

Two weeks

A lil over two weeks to go and I was doing ok with stress levels until yesterday when it hit me I had a ton of stuff missing from my to-do list and I'm not sure how to get it all done.  None of it is really major stuff but man it's scary knowing there is only two weeks until the wedding. Holly and my mom have been great about helping out where ever possible.  Friends have been terrific if not for Sally helping out so much and offering advice not sure how this all could get done.  That said, Aaron is coming over for the next week or so to help  me get some cleaning organizing done around the apartment since I don't really have a ton of time for it.  He is a lifesaver.  Can't wait until the wedding is over and we can actually enjoy spending time together instead of mostly wedding planning.  We have been enjoying watching 1990s X-men together and we watched Blindside with Holly.  We've also spent time with my family the past two weekends.

This weekend is our last  premarital counseling, Pastor and Vikki are having us over to their house and that's very exciting except that not allowed in April weather word is supposed to appear.

Next weekend we have our bachelor/bachelorette parties.  That is very exciting to me.  So excited to spend time with bridesmaids and friends and family and such.  Kristin has her final dance performance as a Slippery Rock Dance  Student that weekend also so Aaron and I will be attending with our friend James.  So proud of her.

We are so excited yet I'm  freaking out.  Can it be May 2nd now and we are married and relaxing??? Please??? That'd be great. :)

Erie Bridal Shower

was amazing!  I'm so thankful that Holly, Sally, and Liz worked so hard to put together a great bridal shower for me.  When I first got there, they were setting out the food, had a card box and gift table set up and also had a plate that everyone got to sign that I had to bake when I got home but now it's safe to wash and use for food and stuff.  Kinda cool!

I was so excited to greet all of my 30+ guests.  My mom, sister, and Grandma H were able to come up.  That was very nice.  I got to see some friends I haven't talked to in a long time: my friend Michelle who I used to spend Thursday evenings with until I got really busy with wedding planning, Ramonita and Jean co-workers from CCDS, my cooperating teacher from student teaching, my boss and the children I nanny (I don't know what the correct verb would be so I just made it into a verb), one of Aaron's professors.  Also there was Aaron's mom, sister Court, Aunt Sally, and some of the family from his dad's side of the family. 

The first thing we did was eat lots of yummy foods: Holly's chicken, cheese, rice, broccoli casserole, bagels from Panara, a breakfast casserole, muffins and more.  Yum Yum Yum! While we ate, I tried to visit with lots of friends, family and those that care about me.  It was a great time.  Then we played a game that was also fun but crazy for most of us.  It was so HARD.  We were given the last name of a tv couple, you had to name the husband, wife and tv show.  Out of a possible 75, I think the highest score was a 46.  Pretty challenging.

Next we played make one of your five team members into a bride using TP.  Which is a classic game.  I didn't want to participate but Aunt Sally and Courtney stole me as their bride.  There were some really good ones though.  Aunt Sally told me I looked like a cross between a nun and a terrorist. YAY!  I believe our friend Carolyn Schuler won the contest YAY!

Then it was time for opening gifts.  I got lots of wonderful gifts: hard-anodized cookware, new flatware, towels, a wedding hand making kit thing that I'm uber excited about, and lots more.  Holly took pictures of me with my guests whenever I opened their gifts.  That was a very nice touch as well! Did I mention I have wonderful friends and family?  I love them all! 

 

Aaron and his mommy before

We had a great time! 

 

Playing the first game/talking
 

 

Greeting Michelle, not a great picture but one of the few I have of me from that day.

Dollar Dance???

Aaron and I think we would like to do a dollar dance, but typically, you pay a dollar to dance with the bride/groom and get a shot. . . we aren't having alcohol.  Do you think this would still be acceptable?  Do you think it is a waste of time.  I think sometimes people like this because they get a chance to dance with the bride and groom and talk to them a little bit more.  I'm just trying to get a feeling for what's acceptable/what's not when there's no alcohol involved.  Maybe we could have an alternative like chocolates or something?  I am open to suggestions.  Thanks,

Toaster

Long time

No post.

I realize I haven't posted anything in a long time.  The main reason for that is: I'm planning a wedding! YAY!  I can't believe it.  The wedding is 2.5 months away! Amazing!  Aaron and I seem to be getting most of the things done that we need done.  I still need to call back about the cake and tell them what we want on it. 

We have our first bridal shower 1 week from today!  I'm so excited.  I can't believe it's here already!  I don't really know much about it either.  I just know that I am very excited to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time.  :)  

Aaron and I are working very hard to get everything to come together.  He's working very hard at school and work right now.  He's taking 3 online graduate level classes and working 4 days a week thus leaving him with little time for wedding planning but he still tries so hard to make it work. 

We have started our premarital counseling and that is AWESOME!  We love it.  Our pastor and his wife are just amazing.  We love them so much.  They were so much fun to talk to during our 1st session that we can't wait for me.  We are going through a book called "Before You Say 'I Do.'"  It is taking a long time to go through it but that is quite alright.  It asks a lot of good questions.  Although to be honest, so far Aaron and I have talked about most of these topics.  As we get further into the book I'm sure that will change. 

Sally, my friend and MOH (matron of honor), has been helping me with the flowers.  We have almost all of the bridesmaid flowers done, we have the corsages put together we just need to put ribbon on them.  I need to buy one more flower for a bridesmaid because I apparently can't count.  I still need to wrap my bouquet in ribbon, but it's at least assembled.  I also need to buy the flowers for the boutonnieres (hardest word for me to spell, never get it right btw).  I'm having a hard time finding the flowers that I want, which is slightly frustrating but I also don't get to go to the store much so we'll see when I actually get out there what I find.  So far no luck.

Hopefully in the next month or so I will be having a favor making party and inviting some friends to help us make the favors.  Many of my bridesmaids aren't in Erie so I might be relying on a few friends for this area. 

I also still need to make the centerpieces, I just haven't quite figured out how to do it yet. *bites nails*  I'm sure it will come together and Aaron gets done with classes March 20 (ish) which will also help.

March 20, is also the date of my second bridal shower (the Pittsburgh/my side of the family/people who live in Pittsburgh one).  I'm also excited about that.  Apparently mom, Aunt Susan, my sisters, my aunt Marie and Aunt Shirley have been working pretty hard on it.  It's nice to hear my family is working together on this.

Also because of wedding planning, mom and I get to talk more.  I think that she really likes that.  So that is a good thing.  I know she feels bad because she's not in Erie to help out more but, it's ok.  We really want to do as much as we can on our own anyway. :) It's tricky trying to find a balance of showing you're responsible and paying for your own wedding, and letting your parents feel like they are helping you on the last shabang or whatever.  I guess some parents feel like it's the last thing they'll really be able to help their daughter with so they are very glad to help.  But I also don't want my parents to take out a loan to pay for my wedding (BAD IDEA).

The wedding website seems to be going over well.  We've had quite a few people respond via the website and that's AWESOME!  It makes me very happy.  I was very happy to put so much of Aaron and I into our wedding.  I got to design our invitations, Andrew helped us to design the wedding website, but it's really still very much us.

The only thing that is making me sad right now is that I'm having some issues with my grandparents about whether or not they will be coming to the wedding.  If you could be praying about that I'd appreciate it.  I really want them there but the reason they give for not wanting to come is rather silly and childish and makes me upset.  I don't want to cave to their wishes (because we can't afford it) but, I also want them at my wedding.  So please be praying about that. 

I think that is probably all for now.  Hopefully I'll be better at keeping you updated in the future.

Wedding updates

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time . . . sorry about that.

Ok, so here is the line up in terms of bridesmaids/groomsmen for the wedding.
Sally McKenney - Matron of Honor  escorted by Best Man Brandon Campbell
Elizabeth Ellis escorted by Andrew Chernauskas
Robin McConkey escorted by James Price
Colleen Wallace escorted by Andrew Law
Kristin Placek escorted by Justin McKenney
Sarah Wood escorted by Dan Kubacki
Courtney Wood escorted by Brian Baldwin
Flower PRINCESS (she told me that today) the little girl I nanny escorted by Ringbearer Colton (My nephew)

(We were supposed to have 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, but 1 bridesmaid we found out is going to be due with TWINS around the time of the wedding so she decided to withdraw from the wedding.  I'm so excited for her but will miss having her there with me.)

The girls all were allowed to pick their own dresses from Milanoo.com.  The bridesmaids will be in sage and Sally (MOH) will be in grape.  They also can pick their own shoes as long as they are white. 

I'm planning on having calla lillies for the main flowers, but not sure what to use for the complimentary flowers, if you have any suggestions please let me know.  I was thinking sweet peas at first, but I can't really find many artificial sweet peas (I'm going with artificial because of finances.)

We also know what our favors and centerpieces will be.  We will be having the wedding and reception at Grace Church in McKean!!! Praise God.  The wedding will be at 1:00 pm on May 1, 2010 and then the reception will be at 3:30 most likely.  We have our photographer, my former neighbor is altering my dress for me, her daughter is going to do my hair, and we have a dj.

I'm panicking a little though, not sure why.  We have the containers for our favors, just need to fill them and come up with tags. We know Andrew C. will be doing our wedding website for us.  Hopefully we'll be getting that done over Christmas break. 

We are registered at Target and will be registering at JCPenney.  We're just having a hard time getting to the stores with Aaron's schedule. 

Hopefully mom and I can work on getting shoes, my veil, and some flowers done over the Christmas break.  We'll see though, not sure what will happen. 

I'm getting very excited. My sister sent me pictures of me in my dress, and I'm even more excited now.  I really love my dress.  It's gorgeous!  I'm so excited.  I have 4 possible invitations lined up (once we get our wedding website, I'll probably start printing them.)


Please be praying for us as we continue to prepare for the wedding.

Hairstyles

More help with wedding planning.  I want an updo for my wedding, (I sweat too much not to).  I don't know what to do.  I want to be able to wear a veil, possibly a tiara, and hopefully a blusher (the part that goes over your face).  I don't find a lot of hairstyles that I like though.  I don't want just a french twist, it's my wedding, I've wearing french twists FOREVER.  Don't want a bun, I danced for 10 years.  I want something that will still look pretty after (if) I take the veil off.  I don't know.  Any ideas?  Please email them to me if you have any ideas as I don't want Aaron to see them obviously. Thanks.

PS. I hope I'm not turning into Bridezilla.

Need some help with ideas

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the centerpieces for our wedding.  We both would really like to incorporate photos into our centerpieces and DO NOT want flowers in the centerpieces.  We were thinking of doing the photo cubes with pictures of us through the years, but they are only 2" by 3" and I'm not convinced now that they will be big enough.  To be honest we will probably have about 30 tables but we don't want to pay an arm and a leg on centerpieces.

If you have any ideas PLEASE let me know. 

Oh and by the way I have been busy planning for the wedding lately, and got terribly sick this past weekend (fever of 103 Saturday, 102 Sunday and finally back to normal today).  I also have a terribly annoying cough that seems to think it is important to stick around.  I disagree but we are fighting. 

Anyway on a happier note, on Friday we heard that there is a 90% chance we will be having our wedding at Grace Church in McKean.  We meet with our photographer this Sunday and we get to meet with the wedding coordinator from Grace Dec. 5th.  Things are starting to come along.  We are nearly certain we have our guest list finalized also (although my mom hasn't had input yet, so that may change but I'm hoping not as we are very near 350 people.)  We picked out our colors of Sage and Grape (that's what the bridesmaid dresses are called).  And I got photoshop for my birthday HOORAY! So I get to work on designing our invitations! HOORAY!  I've always enjoyed trying to design things and I feel like it will be very special if I do get to design our invites.  Thanks again everyone!

Wedding thoughts

So we are hoping to get married May 1, 2010.  Right now we are hoping to reserve Grace Church for that day since it is very REASONABLE to have both the ceremony and reception there.  AND we could have OUR pastor marry us.  Which is EXTREMELY important to us.  We love our pastor very much. But I'm not sure what we will do if that falls through.  Finding a place within our budget for 250-350 people will be a challenge I'm sure. 

Also I'm trying to find bridesmaid dresses for under $50, that are not too short and not revealing.  Talk about another challenge. Modesty is very important to me. I know that in the end everything will work out but man I get stressed out so easily.  I'm like already freaking out about a lot when I shouldn't be. 

Now it is time for me to go though so that I can get together some clothing to wear for our engagement pictures this weekend.  Provided I can do some laundry at some point tomorrow *wink wink* Holly??  I just don't feel like doing it at work tomorrow for some reason.  Any suggestions of what to wear?  I'm thinking an orange sweater with either jeans or a skirt, but it's not necessarily super flattering so I was thinking of bringing another outfit too but I don't know what.  Probably another sweater, haha cuz I'm a dork like that :)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Whitten

This past weekend I went to my friend Dana's Wedding. She was one of my closest friends in high school. We traveled to Ann Arbor Michigan to witness this special day and I am so thankful that I went.
Outside the church they had a rock painted with the date, time and couples' names.

Dana and her daddy walking down the aisle. She's so cute!

Only picture I have of the whole bridal party :(

Andy's vows

Dana's vows

Rings!

Unity candle :) They poured their candle during the ceremony. It was neat!

pouring the candle!

First kiss

Yes you are seeing candy sprinkles being thrown at them!

First dance!

saying goodbye :(

Baby Fever

I have baby fever/wedding fever. In the past few weeks:
1. I found out one of my best friends Sally is pregnant.
2. My friend Dana is getting married this June.
3. My friend Nikki from high school is very pregnant and due soonish.
4. Rein and Alexa had baby Xander on Monday.
5. John and Michelle had baby Emma on Wednesday.

So now I'm wishing I was getting married and having babies and such (in that order of course). But I need to be content with where God has me right now and right now I'm apparently not meant to be married. So I will wait, although it is getting harder to wait with all of the weddings and births and things!

Mark and Brenda's Wedding

So yes, Aaron and I have gone to a lot of weddings lately, as a matter of fact it's been 4 in the matter of four months. One a month for four months. Anyway, Mark was a great friend of mine in college. He was literally like the big brother I never had. We joked around all the time and I could really trust him to confide in him. When we were in school together he was a few years older than me and he was praying that God would give him patience to wait for the one person God had picked for him. Then about a year ago Mark and Brenda got engaged. I was so excited. Then on Saturday they invited Aaron and I to spend their special day with them. What a blessing! I love Mark so much and Brenda seems like such a sweetheart! I hope God really blesses their marriage.


Wedding ceremony-ness. I couldn't get very good pictures because I had a lot of people in front of me.

Brenda's dad officiating.

Cute :)

my appetizers. . . i know, like you care right?

First dance as a married couple.

pretty cake!

look at the layers of chocolatey ness

I'm a bit obsessed with Calla Lillies like seriously my favorite flower ever! SO PRETTY! Even when made out of icing!

It sparkles

Brenda was laughing because she just gipped her friends out of taking a picture of them kissing.

Cutting the cake

Father Daughter Dance, I loved her dress btw, well the top not so much the bottom!

Father Daughter Dance

Mother and son again!

This was only about the fourth time I tried to take his picture and he still didn't pose nicely.

Much better!

Andrew and Scott, old buddies reunite!

Why do I always look about 12 years old?