Celebrating THREE amazing years on August 12th!

This Show Us Your Life - Wedding Dress Blog Hop is probably one of the most fun of all Blog Hops/Carnivals! What girl (married or otherwise) doesn't love to drool over other girls' wedding gowns?! Thanks, Kelly, for a chance to share and yet another great way to end the week in the blogosphere!

(Note: The photos are less blurry if clicked on to enlarge.)

1) When was your wedding day? August 12, 2006

2) What day of the week was it? Saturday

3) Did you get married in a church? Yes, Leonardtown Baptist!


















Here my beautiful bridesmaids are helping me get situated into my dress. This was an Eden gown. Very reasonable prices with great variety of styles to choose from and stunning quality!

I originally thought I was going to go with a ball gown (and tried on several), but when I saw this dress online, I knew it was more me. We didn't have an absolutely huge wedding since neither of our families lived in Maryland (my family in MN and Jeromy's in WV), plus it was mid August so I thought the more A-line option might be a little cooler than a poofy Cinderella dress. And of course it turned out to be 70 degrees with no humidity. In Southern Maryland, that's pretty much a miracle!!

4) How many in your wedding party? three bridesmaids (Jenni, Christina, and Elizabeth), four groomsmen (Brad, Dan, Matt, Chad), and my flower girl (Ally)

5) Where was your reception? Bryant Avenue Baptist Church in MN (a week later) and Webster/Bolair, WV (two more weeks after that). Everyone who attended the wedding was invited to the Coffee Quarter after our wedding for a dutch lunch. Things would have been different if we didn't have a far-away wedding!

6) How many guests were invited to your wedding? Whoever wanted to attend! The whole church!


















For some reason, the sanctuary shots turned out kind of yellow. Maybe playing around with Photoshop would help but we haven't tried yet.

7) How long did you wait to Tie The Knot after your proposal? 5 months exactly. March 12th to August 12th

8) Who did you hire as your photographer? Joe Pelletier

9) Did you have a DJ or a band? we didn't have a traditional reception


















Sort of blurry shot of a dad giving away his daughter. (He could sleep through literally anything - ha!)

These next couple photos are very special to me, especially now that my dad has passed away. I am so very grateful he lived to see both of his children married and well taken care of.

10) Did your father walk you down the aisle? YES! Thank you Jesus!

11) What color were the bridesmaid dresses & groomsmen vests? cute strapless black cocktail dresses with a few big periwinkle flowers from Ann Taylor Loft. I though they were SO adorable!

12) What was your first song? The congregation sang "How Great Is Our God" and "In Christ Alone (My Hope is Found)", and Dan, a groomsman played and sang an amazing song he wrote just for us!!! Called, "All the While".


















13) How long did it take to plan the wedding? 5 months

14) What type of limo did you get? how about a rental SUV

15) Where did you go for your Bachelorette/Bachelor Party? Jenni planned a fun little girl party the night before the wedding. We had yummy food and some crazy gifts! Jeromy and the guys went out for dessert and hung out at his place.














16) What type of wedding gown/tux did you two wear? Eden A-line strapless, not quite empire waist, light embellishment down the front and an extra half overlay with lace trim. You'd have to see the picture, I'm not great on dress terminology! :)

17) How was the weather? Can you believe it was a cloudless 70 degrees, NO humidity, in Southern Maryland IN AUGUST!!! That never, ever happens!

18) Where did you go on your Honeymoon? Sunny Seattle! (we actually got sunburned!) We spent a night in a Victorian B&B in Annapolis first

19) What was your favorite part of your wedding day? wearing the gown, saying the vows we had written ourselves

20) How long have you been married? It will be three years next month!


















21 What was the worst part of your wedding day? my literally ghetto up do. I wish I had chosen someone else to do my hair. I could have even done it myself!

22. Did you see your husband before the ceremony? No, I was hiding in the nursery. We did pictures after the ceremony.

23. What kind of flowers were in your bouquet? blue hydrangeas and white roses. The girls carried calla lilies.

24. What were your "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue? Didn't really care about this but...
Old -- Diamond earings from my great aunt
New -- everything else I was wearing!
Borrowed -- Sandi Riggleman's tiara - thanks again!
Blue -- bouquet :)


















White roses and blue hydrangeas. Perfect. Nail polish color choice, not so much....

25. Did you light a unity candle? Yep, while Dan sang. We made our own. Tip: Try to buy the least amount of wedding "things" as you can. Most of them, you can find a way to craft them yourself.

26. Did you cry during your wedding? No, but I cry at everyone else's wedding! It's the adrenaline. You're in "go" mode.

27. Where did you buy your wedding gown? At a small bridal shop in Vienna, VA

28. What flavor was your wedding cake? We had three different kinds at our Minnesota reception. I think two white and one chocolate, all with different fillings like almond, raspberry, and I think lemon. Cake was our one big splurge. We went with Queen of Cakes in Edina, who is spectacular! She's been featured in Brides magazine for a spice cake before.

29. Did you smash cake in each other's face or were you "nice"? I think we tried. It wasn't our actual wedding day so there wasn't as much pressure surrounding the day, but we were wearing our wedding attire so we were careful. I LOVED getting to dress up twice!!!



















30. Did you freeze the top layer of your cake and eat it on your first wedding anniversary? Yes we did! We didn't even take it out of the box, just threw it in my parents' chest freezer and then ate it when we flew home about ten months later. It's not like we could have taken it with us on the plane!

31. When did you open your wedding gifts? When we got back from our honeymoon and reception. And absentminded-me left my little notebook with our "thank you list" in it on an obscure shelf in Target! I was so mortified and I hope our relatives are over the generic thank you's they received. DON'T DO THIS!

32. Did you have a bridal shower? Yes, at The Tea Room in La Plata, MD with Heather Lanham, Danielle Fields, Amy Morris, and Barb Darden. I wish I had known more people at the time!!!


















A week after the wedding we hosted reception in Minneapolis, MN in a stuffy church gym with no A/C. Of course that day it was muggy as all get out. But still a wonderful day, and free of pressure since the ceremony had been the previous week. The reception also happened to fall on my 26th birthday, which made the event even more special. I'd never had such a big to-do birthday party in my life! And I probably won't again until I'm over the hill! :)

The best perk of the day was that I got to wear my dress a second time. Not many girls get to do that! Plus I did my own hair that day and I liked it better. Go figure!

This is us and my best friend from my childhood, Jamila (who just married this past February, I might add!). She and her parents lived two houses down from my house, and we met when we were two years old! My mom just sold her house on that street not two weeks ago, or our parents would all still be living "two doors down"!

33. The night before your wedding, did you sleep much? Not really. I would have taken a sleep aid if I had one!

34. Did your bridal party deck out the get away car? Couldn't, since we were driving a rental up to Annapolis that afternoon!


















35. Anything special about the day/time of year you were married? We originally planned on an October 21st wedding - exactly 1 year after we met. But circumstances changed (like my host family moving and Jeromy's 6 month lease expiring) where it was better to move up the wedding. So August it was! I had loved the idea of a Fall wedding and since I am not a lover of summer, so God was extra gracious to give us perfect weather! Our anniversary is a week before my birthday, so I have mixed feelings about that!

36. Words of wisdom? A. Always give your spouse the benefit of the doubt. You know who they are. B. Budget monthly/weekly personal spending money for each of you. No questions asked!

What I Learned in Kindergarten

The other day I was thinking of a funny kid story of mine from kindergarten. Hubby and I had been watching America's Funniest Videos when one of the clips prompted the memory. Just the whole idea of laughing at someone's expense.

Why do we get so much glee from the sweetly ignorant things little kids say and do? They never seem to run out of ways to entertain adults with their quirky antics. (Unless, of course, the antic falls into the "naughty" category. But even then it tends to attain a few laughs after the fact. Or, at least, after the mess is all cleaned up.)

If there ever lived an ignorant child, I was her. I always seemed to ask questions none of my other peers had, which often made me feel foolish and dense. Nevertheless, my lack of common knowledge as a child certainly must have afforded my family and teachers many a chuckle in my expense.

Now that I am an aunt, however, I realize a lot of it is provoked, because Jeromy and I frequently provoke our 4-year-old ultra-gullible nephew, Isaac, for a few laughs! Poor kid, he has no idea!

It was Springtime in Minnesota. Spring is always a big deal in the barren tundra land that is my home state. The buds are popping. The air is warming up so that you can safely put away your winter coat in favor of the glorious windbreaker. (Well, almost safely. I have experienced many a late-April blizzard in my day.) The birds are returning with bleached feathers and Southern accents, the lakes are crowded with runners and rollerbladers sweating out their Spring Fever on the paths, and the school year is quickly vanishing along with the last traces of dirty snow.

During the long-awaited Spring Thaw, Minnesotans are ever in a collectively unshakable good mood, even on Mondays.

If you cannot tell, I have been reading Garrison Keillor. Forgive me. :)

This such Spring of 1987 was much like any other. Except that the Twins would actually play an amazing season that year, but that's irrelevant to this story. Ha!

As Spring is given to the theme of "new life", our teacher decided to teach us about the life cycle of the butterfly. We learned about how a butterfly begins as an unsightly caterpillar, then perches on a leaf and hides in a cocoon until he develops wings and breaks out and flies away. What a perfect Spring unit for kindergarten!

For an object lesson, Mrs. Provart had us each craft our own little cocoons to display around the classroom, using what resembled (and probably was) homemade play dough. We were excited! First, we threw on our jackets and headed outdoors to find a twig, on which to attach our makeshift cocoons. Getting to go outside during non-recess time was always the best treat!

I have to say, I probably would never have remembered this project at all, since I was only 6 years old, if not for the incident that ensued.

I don't know if I thought I would recognize a twig when I saw one, but I looked and looked all over the school yard and found not one little twig. All my classmates didn't seem to have the same problem as I, snatching up their finding from the ground and promptly running back to get in line at the door. I was too busy looking for my own twig that I never bothered to look at what the other kids were picking up.

Finally, every last student had found a twig and was lined up to go back inside. Except for me. My child mind simply did not know what a "twig" was. A slight desperation came over me. My teacher noticed me, head down, nervously pacing under the big tree in the yard and came over to see what the trouble was.

"Did you find a twig? We need to go back into the classroom now."

I felt like crying, I was so embarrassed. I didn't know why I couldn't figure this out but that all the other kids could. Not wanting to admit my uncertainty, I exclaimed, "I can't find a twig!"

Mrs. Provart furrowed her brow. Of course, there were twigs everywhere underfoot, but I didn't know it. I have no idea what she was thinking when I told her I couldn't find one, but she bent down to pick up the first twig lying in front of her, handed it to me, and said, "Ok, let's go - it's chilly out here!"

Was I ever dumbfounded, holding what was, apparently, a twig, in front of my face. I clearly remember thinking, 'Why didn't she just say she wanted us to find a stick?'

After getting inside I noticed that my twig was smaller than everyone else's. It also was broken, barely holding together in the middle. But it was too late to go back out to find a different one. If only I had known, I could have found the best twig for my cocoon!

This was probably one of the first times in my life I recall feeling ridiculous and being resentful about it. 'How come I didn't know a small stick was a twig? Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Why didn't Mrs. Provart show us what a twig was before making us find one by ourselves?' Though apparently, I was the only one in my class in the dark. How silly! I remember feeling bothered at the thought.

That day I learned what a twig is. I also discovered that there was much to know in this big, wide world, and that the learning might not always come easily or naturally. I learned that sometimes you will even feel foolish in the process, but that those are the lessons you never forget.