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!

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!

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!

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!

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:



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!):



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!

DIY Weekend

Dan and I had a fun, relaxing 4th of July weekend-- cookouts, shopping, fireworks. We managed to squeeze some wedding productivity in too! I snagged some reception decorations from a former bride I found on Craig's List and we stopped by Men's Wearhouse and changed our tuxedo choice-- the guys will now be dressed in chocolate!

A while back, I came across a blog post about a wedding tradition from Holland. Indianapolis Wedding Blog offers a better description than I can write:

The Wooden Wedding Box Ceremony has recently been introduced in the United States but comes from Holland. The couple getting married is to find a strong wooden box that will hold one bottle of wine and two wine glasses. The couple then writes letters to one another, expressing their thoughts about good qualities that they found in their partner and the reasons for falling in love with each other. Without reading each other’s letters, the couple is to seal them and put them in the box with the wine and glasses.

The wooden box is taken to the wedding and during the end of the wedding ceremony, the officiant will announce to the guests that the couple has written letters to each other and put them in the box with the wine and glasses. The officiant will explain that should the couple ever find their marriage in serious trouble, before making any irrational decisions, they must open the box, drink wine together, and read the letter that they wrote to one another to reflect on why they fell in love with each other in the first place. The hope is that there will never be a reason to have to open the box until the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary celebration.

At this time in the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom are handed nails and a hammer, and each hammers in a nail to seal the box shut. The rest of the ceremony continues on in the traditional way, but your guests will be talking about what a unique and touching idea this was and will remember your wedding as one that stands out above the rest.

Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be able to include this in our ceremony. However, Dan and I both really liked the idea so we decided to go ahead and do it... just not during our wedding. We'll probably hammer it shut the day before, but we decided to go ahead and get started on it early. WoodenWeddingBoxes.com sells boxes, and while they are nice enough, I figured we could make our own! So that's exactly what we did. I found a plain wooden chest at Hobby Lobby:

I burned our names & date into it:

Couldn't forget to include the date I made it on the inside:

And then I stained it. Voila!

Next, we're going to have Father Wilmoth bless the box. And then we'll fill it with wine, glasses and our letters, hammer it shut... and open it on September 26, 2019!