Engagement Pics

These pictures were taken at the Liberty Memorial in downtown Kansas City, MO
Matt proposed at this very location on October 10th, 2008
It's one of our favorite places in the city

Taken by our lovely photographer www.jenifriendphotography.com

We love Jeni!!

Maid of Honor Dress- finally

Well, took my 14-year-old, soon-to-be step-daughter, maid-of-honor (hyphens anyone?) shopping to get her a dress yesterday. I wanted to wait as long as possible, a: the color I want is a fall color and I didn't think there would be this color out until fall and b: she's growing like a weed. We hit the mall and after about 2 hours, I think we were both done. I hate mall shopping to begin with, throw in too many people and I burn out quickly, I can't believe I made it two hours. We found many dresses we liked, but not a single one in the right color. She kept saying, "let's go to David's Bridal, let's go to David's Bridal". Well, I pretty much think that David's Bridal is owned by the devil, but finally, I was like fine, let's just go stop in. We had to buy off the rack, no time to order a dress. There were two I really liked. The other one was a little more formal, but it was a full out bridesmaid dress. She wouldn't be able to wear it again. So, she really liked this one. I thought it was young and appropriate. I just hope it's not too summery. You can't see it, but the scoop of the neck is braided and the back is criss-cross stripes. It's not me, and I probably wouldn't have picked it out, but she likes it and is comfortable in it, so there you go. My step-mother made me wear the most horrible bridesmaid dress and I said I refused to do that to this girl. I wanted to make sure she liked it and she loves it. The chick at David's was even pretty cool. They wanted me to fill out all this paperwork and were asking me about my other bridesmaids and my dress (already have it lady, thank you very much). To try on bridesmaid dresses??? No thank you, she pretty much let us be after that. Oh, but some girl found her wedding dress while we were there and they announced her name over the loud speaker and made her ring a bell (SHOOT ME)

Oh, but the other one was so cute. Am I having buyers remorse? Oh, did I mention that this one was on sale and the one I want is not (of course)

Fun Phototography

I think this is hilarious- Matt grabs my ass 1600 times a day, we'll see if the photographer catches it
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My favorite- candid groups of people laughing- you have no idea what's so funny but it makes you smile
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My wedding flowers

So, fall wedding, no budget, love fresh flowers, love color, this is what I came up with. Don't you love it in fall when everyone starts putting out their mums? They are so full and colorful. I always wanted a big full bouquet. So I thought we'd do mums, just grab them together at the base, cut the stems and wrap a ribbon around them. They are so full, it would just be a canopy of color. Ta-da! A bouquet for under $10. I really wanted red and I thought my matron of honor, who will be in brown, could carry yellow mums and my maid of honor, who will be in red, could carry orange mums.

Fancy multi-colored mums

Then I saw this and I thought- screw the red. How amazing are these mums? This is some kind of hybrid, I'm thinking I won't be able to find it at my local nursery. I did learn of Belgium mums while compiling this gallery- they are much fuller than regular mums.

My other mum post here

My Latest Rummage Sale Find

I got this quilt at a church rummage sale. It's all hand embroidered and covered with birds and flowers. I'm not a huge quilt person, but this is art. It's amazing and I got it for an absolute steal! Here are a few favorites off if it. But each one is unique. I wish I knew more about the person that made it!

Penguin

Mallard

Woodpecker

Water Lilly

This owl is why I bought it, I love it!!

First Engagement Pic!

This is the teaser we got from our photographer- I'm so excited to see more!

Our (non alcoholic) drinks

So, we will have a few people that aren't big drinkers at the wedding. Plus, quite a few teenagers. I wanted to have something besides tea and water for them. We'll have lots and lots of booze- I come from a good ol' Irish Catholic family. I didn't want to be like oh, we have beer, wine, champagne etc or.....coke. We can't afford Jones soda or something cool like that so, with a little help from Matt's sister Sheila (who has become my awesomest helper lately), this is what we came up with.

I looked into Pomegranate concentrate- ugh, just too expensive.

So, I bought pomegranate cherry juice at hy-vee (huge bottle for about $3.50) and raspberry cherry juice (again, at hy-vee, huge bottle for $1.88!) and we sat around and experimented different proportions and using 7-up or generic lemon-lime, (we hate sprite, too sweet). So we decided it's best 1/4 juice to 3/4 pop and we liked 7-up, more fizzie and less sweet. Putting a fresh squeeze of lime is very important- adds a little bit of needed tartness. (Later we mixed it with vodka and it was delicious!). We'll call them Fizzies or something to make them sound fancier than they really are.

They are more pretty than good, but I think people will like them, plus give them something fun to drink if they don't want alcohol.

Heritage Table- Almost done!

Just missing Matt's parents and maternal grandparents!

Very Back- My Maternal Grandparents, my mother and father
Middle Row- Matt's paternal Grandparents, my step grandparents, my step-mom and dad
Front- My paternal grandparents lookin like bonnie and clyde!

A few details from my wedding

Well, I didn't think I'd be on here until after the long weekend, but it is pouring out and well, here I am. I don't put much actual details from our wedding planning on this site, so I thought I'd take the time to post some stuff. This is where we are having the reception- not ideal, but nice. Plus it has an open alcohol and catering policy and you get the place pretty much the whole weekend- done.


This is the "Allegro" (middle movement) from Mozart's "Organ Fantasie in F" K. 594 pulled from Bob Swift's December 8, 1991 concert commemorating the composer's death of December 5, 1791. We will be using this as our recessional music changing the last chord to major though.




This is the song we are going to have Matt's sister Sheila sing as people are getting seated. She is a high saprano, so this song is perfect. This particular video is so wierd, but you get to hear the song. I heard this song when I was probably in high school and thought to myself "I want that in my wedding" and it will be!




Now we just need to find a song to play for the processional, I'm struggling with it....