My Speech

I've been wanting to post this on here ever since Julie's wedding, but I kept forgetting until today! This was my speech at my sister's wedding reception, and I wanted to post it here so I'll be able to keep track of it forever :-) What I'm about to post is a little longer than my actual speech, because I didn't want to read it at the reception. I thought that would seem more impersonal than just saying it, and in my nervousness I skipped a few things. But this was the major gist of it: (I sprinkled in some vintage photos of us and of Julie and Andy just for the fun of it)

Julie has always been miss independent. Growing up, she said she would never get married! I, being the complete opposite and hopeless romantic of the family, knew that she was wrong. I knew it was just a matter of finding the right guy. He was out there somewhere, just waiting to change her mind.

{Julie being the little ham that she is - 1995}

Julie's junior year of high school she came home from a youth convention all giggly and smiley, talking about a boy from her class who had been there. Julie was never giggly and smiley when it came to boys. So I knew that Andy must have been different. I wondered if he was the guy who would change her mind.

{Julie and I, Winter Sports Dance 2003}

I watched Julie and Andy begin dating, go off to football games and proms together, graduate from high school together, eventually go off to college together, and even graduate from college together. They have learned so much together about life and relationships. They have literally grown up together.

{Julie and Andrew, Homecoming 2005}

So since they have been together for so long, they know each other pretty well. There are a few things I feel I should warn Andy of...be he probably already knows them. Like the fact that if Julie is crabby, she probably just needs food. Give her a cookie and she'll be happy again. Or the fact that her moods are like the weather in Ohio...if you don't like it, just wait five minutes. I don't have to warn him about those things, because after 6 years together, he already knows them all!

{Me and Julie at Magic Kingdom, 2005}

All kidding aside, I am so happy that Julie and Andy are sitting here today, and that I, as the older and wiser sister, was totally right...I knew she'd get married someday. I'm glad she finally found the man who changed her mind...and I'm glad she found him so young!

{Us at the wedding, June 25, 2011}

***
I'm so excited for my sister and new brother-in-law!

{Julie, Andy, and Oopa, the new family, at the wedding - June 25, 2011}

Week in Review: Julie's Wedding!

Last week was a whirlwind of activity with Julie's wedding. I'm sure I'll be posting a lot about that this week. So today's "week in review" is a big overview of the fun wedding week!

~ On Sunday after church, Luke, JC, and I went out for some Five Guys and shopping. I bought some last minutes things for the wedding, plus these cute yellow shoes that I'm obsessed with~ Sunday evening we took my Dad out for Father's Day to Applebees. It was a fun night spent with family before the crazy week began!

~Later Sunday night, Luke and I watched Meet the Fockers, which was surprisingly funny! Sunday night movies are beginning to be a tradition of ours.

~On Monday I took a trip to Pittsburgh to IKEA with my family. We shopped there all morning, enjoyed a lunch at Steak and Shake, and then looked for a few more last-minute things for the wedding. It was a great time spent with my family, and the last really laid-back time we had together that week. ...this is the best picture I could get :-P

~Monday night I visited with my grandparents for a little while since I hadn't gotten to see my grandpa on Father's Day. We talked about the wedding most of the time.

~On Wednesday I received a panicked text from Julie saying she felt stressed out and needed help with wedding stuff. So I was at my parents' house for about 5 hours working on programs and other wedding-related things. Then my mom invited me to stay for dinner which was nice. Getting to spend so much time with my family the week of Julie's wedding was a real blessing. (I'm not sure how much Dad enjoyed his job of making ribbon wands :-P)~ Thursday was the day the real craziness began. I needed to clean my entire house because one of Julie's bridesmaids was going to be staying there, along with baking for the cookie table at the reception. I woke up early and didn't stop until my head hit the pillow later that night (uh, the next morning I guess) at 2 AM. I don't know that I've ever had a more productive day :-P

~The real excitement started on Friday! I went to the church in the morning with a bunch of family members and bridesmaids to help Julie set up the stage for the wedding. She got married in the new, HUGE sanctuary at our church, so a lot has to be done to the stage to make it feel "weddingy." We were probably there for 3 or 4 hours hanging draperies and setting up plants, flowers, and candles. As you can see, my dad was ready to crash after that, but we still had a full two days ahead of us.

~Friday afternoon, I went to my parents' house with Julie and two of her bridesmaids. Julie had made a slight mistake in the programs, so we were spending the afternoon gluing a little tab on each and every program to cover it up and fix it. Mom and Dad ordered a pizza for us, and we went to town. Below are Meredith and Sarah, two of Julie's bridesmaids, hard at work.
~Finally after hours of cutting and gluing, it was time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner! The rehearsal went well. Julie's dog was in the wedding, and it was my job to walk the dog down the aisle. It went pretty well at rehearsal, so my stress level went down a bit. I promise she's adorable, even though she just looks like a black blob in this picture
The rehearsal dinner was a Hawaiian Luau at Andy's parents' house. They must have been cooking for a month getting ready! There was so much food! It was all delicious, and we all had a great time. Here's a picture of all the bridesmaids opening cute wedding day survival kits from Julie

And a picture of the bride and her matron-of-honor ;-)

~After the rehearsal dinner, the night was not done yet. We finished fixing the programs, and then had to decorate the reception hall. We couldn't even get in until about 10:00 PM because there was an event there on Friday night! It was a late night to say the least, and I felt like a zombie when I got home around 1. But I think all of our hard work paid off

Are these not the cutest salt and pepper shakers ever?

~Saturday morning I was up bright and early simply because of excitement, I think. Shortly after getting up and getting ready the wedding preparations began. I went to the reception hall to help finish up some last minute set-up, then went to Mom and Dad's where Julie put a cute little waterfall French braid in my hair.

~At 1:00 it was time to head to the church to start getting ready! I had so much fun with Julie and the other bridesmaids! We got all ready and then had lots of pictures taken. Julie and Andy opted to see each other before the wedding and do most of the pictures then so their guests wouldn't have to wait forever at the reception hall. They did have a sweet little reveal moment where Julie walked down the stairs to him. I'm sure I'll be sharing more about that some other time. After that, we all walked to the old schoolhouse across the street from my house. We got LOTS of stares from people as we walked along the side of the road in our dresses and heels. haha! And a very strange man with no shirt and a beer in his hand watched the entire photo shoot from his picnic table. Umm, awkward. Haha... I can't wait to see the pictures though...the photographer had some very cool ideas for pictures including one of all of us walking down the center of the road. A somewhat busy road. So yes, we risked our lives for a good picture :-P Anyway, it was a really fun afternoon getting ready for that evening!

~Before we knew it, it was about time to walk down the aisle! I was so nervous that Oopa (the dog) would do something crazy. And all the other girls and especially Julie were feeling very nervous about the ceremony. so about 10 minutes before it was time to go out, we started a game of 20 questions. This helped so much, and we were laughing so hard by the end of it!

~The ceremony was so beautiful! Oopa and everyone else did great :-) I'm sure I'll write more about that later too.

~ After the ceremony, it was time to party! I am sooo glad we were able to do speeches pretty much as soon as we got there so I didn't have to be nervous about mine for long! I'll be sharing my speech sometime on the blog too. Anyway, the food was delicious - they had a mushroom ravioli that was to die for! The dancing was fun, and the company was even better. It was one of the best receptions I've ever been to, second only to my own. Okay, I may be a little biased :-P We danced and talked and laughed all night. So much fun!

**For anyone who read my post on Friday, please add to the list that JC can dance. Or at least he can Dougie ;-)

I am so happy for Andy and Julie, and can't wait to see what God does in and through their marriage. They leave for Scotland on Thursday, and I told Julie there better be hundreds of photos for me to drool over when she gets back! Haha!

Congratulations Julie and Andy! Love you guys!

Wedding Wednesday

On this Wedding Wednesday, I have decided to share pictures of all the little details that made our day special:

Pink lilies (My mom did all the flowers)
The cake which was Luke's grandma's gift to us. It was adorned with many flowers, as you can see.
The groom's cake made by my sister
The favors: we found these tiny, adorable little vases at Flower Factory for a very low price. We then ripped our hair out tying tiny pink and brown bows to each one, filling them with water at the reception hall with a little dropper, and placing a tiny rosebud or other flowers left over in each vase. I thought it was a cute idea, and I'd never seen it done before. But making them was a pain in the butt :-P

I just loved all the little details on our special day. My mom and sister are very creative when it comes to things like this, so I'm lucky! The pink and brown colors were just so "me" and I loved every last detail!

Stay tuned next Wednesday for my last installment of the Wedding Wednesday series! And then it will be our anniversary, and we will have been married for two years. I guess we are getting close to exiting the "newlywed" phase of our marriage, but I am going to cling to it for as long as possible. ha! I hope we always have that little bit of excitement in our marriage so that we always feel a little bit like newlyweds!

Wedding Wednesday

Today I thought I would share some of my very favorite images from our wedding:

Have you ever seen "27 Dresses" when Katherine Heigl's character says her favorite part of a wedding is the look on the groom's face as the bride walks down the aisle? That's why I love this picture :-)
And here we are as husband and wife for the first time
I love this one of us in the limo...we were so happy!
I really like this nice formal of the wedding party. I gotta say, I really loved those bridesmaid dresses! Although I have a sneaking suspicion that my bridesmaids DIDN'T. ;-)
Most people say this is their favorite, so I decided to share it. Although I really think the look on my face is just funny.
After the cake-cutting
I just feel like this one is very "us."
And he looks so cute in this one, I had to share it!
This is my absolute favorite picture. It somehow encapsulates the feeling of the entire evening :-)

Wedding Wednesday {plus} The News!

This Wedding Wednesday I am highlighting pictures of my maid-of-honor...my sister! And the reason is because (here is the announcement I have been waiting to tell)

My little sister got engaged last weekend!!!

She is now engaged to her high school sweetheart :-) They dated for about 3 or 4 years in high school and the beginning of college, then broke up because I think they both wanted a taste of freedom in college, but ultimately got back together because I guess they were meant to be ;-) So this past weekend, her now fiance proposed at the beach!

I hope she doesn't mind me posting this, but the first picture I'm going to post is of her ring. I think it's so unique and beautiful!And just for fun, here is a picture of the happy couple...taken last Christmas in Florida, but this is the best picture I could find. Stolen from her facebook page, so again, I hope she doesn't mind :-PI'm so happy for her! So anyway, on to normal Wedding Wednesday. Here are some pictures of my sister, my best friend, my m.o.h ;-)

She had to keep Luke's ring with her until we were ready for it in the ceremony. It was quite a task, as the ring was about 6 sizes too big for her THUMB. lol

And here she is giving her toast at the reception...she must have been saying something funny! lol

And...those are the only real close-up pictures the photographer got of my sister/maid of honor. Ridiculous. Even if I had actually gotten my pictures from her, I would have been dissatisfied. Anyway, there's a starting point for my sister's wedding planning: she knows exactly who NOT to hire to be her photographer!

Anyway, congratulations Julie and Andy!!!

Wedding Wednesday

Today I thought I'd share some images that were taken before the wedding. It was probably one of the most humid days of summer, and my hair did not hold up! I had it done at 10 or 11 in the morning at the salon, and by the time I got to the church, it was completely flat, so my sister and cousin had to re-curl it as fast as they could. And when they were done, it looked even better than it had the first time I got it done that morning. Anyway, it was CRAZY stressful in the few hours leading up to the ceremony!

P.S. We couldn't take the veil out of my hair while they did it. So thanks to my mother-in-law, Patty, who held the veil for me!
This may be the only time I ever display my make-up-less face for the whole world to see :-P
Thank goodness we had some food to keep us going! I believe Patty brought the food too, so she had a big part in saving the day! lol
Julie did my eye make-up for me, and I think I did the rest. We tried to do as much as possible by ourselves without having to hire extra people
Here's the groom getting ready
And the groomsmen..."New Suits!"
(pardon the bluriness...remember, these were pictures that I took of the wallet-sized pictures in the proof-book since my photographer never gave me my album or pictures that we paid for).

Luke must have had less prep to do than me, because he had time to play a leisurely game of pool :-P
Back to the ladies: here I am, putting my dress on
The Beautiful Bridesmaids, fluffing up my dress.
And this picture looks funny, but it is special. The day before the wedding, I still didn't have my "something old." I wasn't really too worried about it, but between that time and the wedding, I was given not one but two hankies that belonged to past family members, one from Luke's side of the family and one from mine. I thought that was really special! So I put them in the top of my dress so I'd have them with me all day :-)
And to end I'll add the quintessential "Dad sees daughter for the first time" and "Mom sees son for the first time" pictures :-)