Sunday, September 6, 2009

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Not only are we lucky in love (cue the cheesy AWW!), but Dan and I have also had our fair share of good luck with winning a contest or two lately. I'm not sure why we have been so lucky, but I'm not going to question it too much! The Man Registry hooked Dan up with a "groom"ing kit and we also won a super-deluxe kitchen trash can from OneWed and Simple Human. We went back to The Man Registry a few days ago and bought a very stylish tuxedo T-shirt for Dan to wear to the rehearsal. Can you guess which version of this fashion classic he chose?

As you might remember from some time ago, I also won a contest from The Relentless Bride and got to design my own custom wedding garter from Hand Crafted Creations. While I'm not going to let just anyone sneak a peek on our wedding day to see it, I wanted to be sure that everyone knew how beautiful it turned out to be! I'm so happy with it, and am glad to have my "something blue" ready to go for the big day! Thank you, Victoria Joanne!



The Forgotten Blog

So if you check on our blog from time to time, you've probably noticed that it's been quite some time since we've posted anything. We've been way too busy getting everything lined up for the big day -- it's less than three weeks away! Things seem to be coming together as they should, but between work, raising our hairy children, trying to get in shape for the wedding, attempting to learn how to dance and pulling together all the wedding details, our dear little blog has been quite neglected!

We've came to find that one of the biggest stresses of wedding planning (besides a never-ending to-do checklist and budgeting!) is trying to make sure that we get what we want out of our day without offending anyone. It sounds simple on the surface, but it gets oh-so-complicated when you get in the thick of it! One element of the wedding that I have given some thought to was the idea of having a dollar dance at the reception. Is it tacky? Is it all in good fun? Opinions vary pretty widely. As a guest at past weddings, I never thought dollar dances seemed tacky and always had fun giving the bride or groom a few bucks for the chance to goof around and dance with them for a bit. But once we started talking about our reception, I got a little worried that guests might think it seemed like we were a money-grubbing bride and groom! And while weddings aren't cheap for the couple, we certainly know that guests are absorbing expenses to join us on our big day too!

So we thought we might come up with a bit of a compromise - we'd love to get to dance with our guests but don't want ya'll to think we want your money! As some of you may know, both of our families have been affected by Alzheimer's and we have raised money for the Alzheimer's Association in the past. What you might not know is that Dan and I were REALLY LUCKY and were the grand prize winners of the QUASH Sweepstakes in Indianapolis this year. The money we won was a HUGE help for us to be able to plan our wedding without having a lot of extra stress over the budget. So, we're thinking we'll do what we can to repay the Alzheimer's Association and do a dollar dance but give all the money to the organization.

What do you think? Does it a charity dollar dance sound like a good idea to you?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Bachelor/Bachelorette Party Weekend!

If you need to reach Dan or me this weekend, take a number! Dan will be celebrating with his friends in Louisville, while the girls and I are off for a FABULOUS weekend in Vegas, baby!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Dan's Surprise 30th Birthday Party

Sorry it took so long for me to share the photos, but here are a few of Dan's 30th birthday party!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Big 3-0!

Today is Dan's 30th birthday! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate at this surprise party last Saturday -- he was very surprised! I'll post photos from the party soon...

In the meantime, here's a photo of Mr. 30 making a tough guy face with Brad, his nephew and one of our ringbearers!


Monday, July 13, 2009

It's In The Mail!

Well, not quite yet... but tomorrow we'll be mailing our wedding invitations. My friend, former roomie and bridesmaid Kim Abbott (pictured below) designed them, so if you like the way they look -- compliment Kim, not us!

Please RSVP online at our TheKnot.com page.

THANK YOU, KIM!

Monday, July 6, 2009

DIY, Take Two

What, you didn't think I would have a DIY weekend and only complete one project, did you?! After finishing our wooden wedding box on Saturday, I needed a Sunday project! Dad and Janet came up to Indy for a cookout on Friday, and they brought my perfect subject with them!

Here's a before look at the porch swing I bought at Grandma & Grandpa's estate auction:

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I decided that red would spice up our white house with bluish gray trim! And I must say, I think it turned out quite well (with the help of Dan & Dave, who took care of the hardware aspects!):

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I also painted a birdhouse to match... sorry, no photos of that to share. Next step is painting our front door to match! Ah, I hope Grandma & Grandpa would be proud... they were so much better at DIY projects than I am!