Prayer Buddy

My Advent Blog Prayer Buddy was Meg of A Complicated Life. I'm so glad Sew told me to participate in the Advent Prayer Buddy! It has been a pleasure reading her blog and praying for her and her DH during this Advent season! I hope that she checks out this blog and knows that Doug and I will continue to pray for the two of them! They are an amazing couple! Merry Christmas Meg! It also was fun to discover that Shannon from A Friend of Gianna had me as a prayer buddy! Thanks for praying for Doug and I!!

Practice makes perfect!

In order to make things run smoothly for the wedding... we had the traditional rehearsal followed by a dinner. The rehearsal started with a blessing from Fr. Richard over Matt and Mary... My MOH and her husband, who was also one of our ushers. They were celebrating 10 years of marriage that day!! Fr. Richard also presided at their wedding, so it was great to have him perform our wedding and the blessing! The rehearsal went well and the dinner was great. It was hosted by Doug's parents and was super YUMMY! We gave out our gifts and said thanks to everyone that was involved in the wedding! I think I was more nervous at the rehearsal than at the actual wedding! It seems very real to me when my dad and I were practicing walking down the aisle. He cried the whole way down. Gotta love him.

My sweet flower girls practicing their walk!

The bridesmaids all got personalized Snugg.ies with their names on them!

Wedding... Wedding... Wedding...

Doug and I have been married almost two months now... I figure it's about time to do some posts about the wonderful day! So here it goes...

My best ladies! They are the best bridesmaids and friends a girl could ever ask for. The wedding weekend officially started with the "Bridesmaid Brunch." All the girls (and Beth's little one's... John Paul and Madeleine!) headed to one of the best brunch places around, Bub's Cafe, for some yummy food and great conversation! It was wonderful to have all my best friends in one place! After all, my little group of friends spans two states and four cities. So to have everyone together was fantastic! And for me to be the bride... even better!! It was soooo fun!! After lunch we got our nails done and chatted! Great great fun!

Jessi. We have been best friends since college. We met our freshman year and have been inseparable ever since. We were Delta Gamma sisters, roommates, classmates, etc., etc. I was in her wedding and we have seen each other through EVERYthing!! Jessi knows me better than most and I treasure her friendship. She is a wonderful friend, a fantastic mother and I was honored to have her stand up beside me as a bride.

Beth. I met Beth about 5 years ago at the Frassati Society of Young Adult Catholics Conference. I wasn't even suppose to be at that conference... had other things to do and did not really want to go. It turns out that going to the conference would be one of the BEST decisions of my entire life. I'll save the whole story for another post, but the conference totally changed my life. I left the conference with some fantastic lifelong friends, one of those being Beth. Beth is one of the most fun people I have ever met. You cannot be around her without smiling and laughing! She can take ANY situation and make people smile and feel welcome. She is one of a kind (in a good way) and love her tons!

Donna. I met Donna at the Frassati Society Conference as well. I got to know her and her family pretty fast... I moved into their basement after knowing them only a few weeks! I needed a place to stay and they had one awesome basement! I stayed there until my apartment and roommate were ready. Donna and I became great friends during that time... we would stay up late and watch General Hospital and talk and talk and talk. It's one of the things Donna does best and one of the things I love most about her. Donna is generous and loyal. She moved away to Florida last year right after I met Doug. When I first mentioned Doug to her, she started planning the wedding. It was wonderful to have her here for the wedding... and my shower earlier this year. She is one of the best people I know and I will cherish her always!

Mary. My MOH. She is one of my very best friends. I am so lucky to have her in my life. We met through church at a Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP) weekend retreat. We were both in sweats and hoodies and I knew right away we'd be tight and we have been ever since. We spend countless hours on the phone with each other everyday. She knows me inside and out. She can often tell exactly what I'm feeling without me even saying anything. She is an expert at calming me down from any and every situation. I often say that chatting on her couch is the best therapy money can buy! And it's free! She has the most adorable family and I love being a part of it all! Mary if kind, caring and simply the best. When Doug and I were first getting to know each other, he asked me who my best friends were. I told him all about Jessi, Donna and Beth and how wonderful they were! Then I got to Mary and I said, "She knows me sometimes better than I know myself. She is super fun and kind and I will cherish her always. I know I've never been arrested and I really don't plan too... but if I did... Mary would be the one I would call to bail me out. And she would. " Love her!

Donna, Mary, Beth, John Paul, Jessi, me and Madeleine at the Bridesmaid Brunch.

Me and little Madeleine.

Merry Christmas!

Doug and I celebrated our first Christmas as husband and wife. It was a lot of fun this year to trim our tree and decorate! I've had a bunch of Christmas stuff in storage for years and it was great to finally be able to use it! We got out Christmas tree from Beth... and it is great! We were able to put up some new ornaments and tons of ornaments from when I was little! Yep... even baby's first Christmas from 1977 is up on the tree! We have a fireplace, so stockings were hung by the chimney with care! We bought an angel for our tree topper and we both love it! Once our new home was set for Christmas, we were ready! We started off the holiday week celebrating with his side of the family. We opened presents and had dinner. It was great to see everyone, including his sisters, who had flown to Indiana for Christmas. Celebrating with my mom and dad followed. They arrived safe and sound from Ohio for Christmas Eve. We went to a beautiful and very full mass and back to our home for presents and dinner. Doug and I were suppose to head to Florida for our delayed honeymoon on Christmas day. However, due to weather and cancelled flights, we stayed home bound. While were we disappointed, we were able to have a very peaceful Christmas at home, which was nice. My parents headed back to Ohio and we headed out to the China Buffet. That's one thing we did on Christmas that I hope will NOT be a Christmas tradition! We continued the weekend watching movies, trying to use all our new wedding gadgets and watching the snow fall. Not bad, not bad at all! Merry Christmas everyone!

Our first Christmas tree.

The stockings my mom made us!

The beautiful Holy Family Statue that my parents gave us.

Dad and I.

So happy! Best sheets ever! My mom made us half flannel (for me - I'm always cold) and half regular (for Doug - he's always hot) sheets!! We made some for my parents last year! They are great!

Happy couple.

Ahhh... Doug and Dad reluctantly wearing their Santa hats.

This is SO true!

I think this shirt perfectly describes my blog! HA HA!!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS!!!

I have seen this video a few times before and stumbled upon it again today! I LOVE it! It makes me SO proud to be Catholic and makes me tear up a little! When I count my blessing, my Catholic faith is at the top of the list!

Now this is fun...

My hanger/wedding picture made it to an ETSY page!! I ordered this so cute hanger and now it is one of the featured one's on the website! SO FUN!!! Check it out!!! Click here! And if you know someone getting married or having a baby... this makes a GREAT gift! I just ordered a few more!!!

Wedding Picture Preview...

I haven't had any time to blog since the wedding... but I will do it this week!! In the meantime... check this out! It is a preview of our wedding images!! They turned out AMAZING!! I can't wait to see the rest of them!!!

A Wedding Recap

For a wonderful wedding recap... please visit Beth's Blog. She describes it perfectly!!

WE ARE MARRIED!!!

We are off to our honeymoon! The wedding was WONDERFUL!!! We will post more pics later... but here is a preview!!!!

Ahhh.... Love this one!!

I enjoyed every minute!!

So happy!

Flashback Friday

Since we are getting married TOMORROW... I thought I'd post some pictures of our engagement! It was perfect. I suspected that the engagement might be happening. I'm not sure why, but I just had a feeling. So I dressed up and headed up to meet Doug. He was looking very handsome and was a little quiet. We spend some time together then headed over to the Barnes and Noble where we met. I admit, I was thinking Doug would be pulling out a ring. We walked around the store for a long time, then headed out the store... without a book or a ring!!! We went back to his place and were hanging out on the couch. He started talking about how much he loved me. What do I do? I say, "I need to go to the bathroom." Since I thought he would pop the big question at the book store, I put the engagement out of my mind and figured it would happen another time. I wasn't thinking that he had started to propose!! When I got back, he continued with the love stuff... and out came the ring! He asked me to marry him and I just kept looking at the beautiful ring. He asked again... and I said "YES!" I was very surprised!!! Turns out he had the ring with him the entire night! The proposal was perfect -- just two of us and a super surprise! We called our friends and family to tell them the great news. And then took our first family photo -- Smokey is even in the background. Trust me, that wasn't planned.

And now the time has finally come for the wedding!!! I still cannot believe that tomorrow I will become a Mrs! I cannot wait!!

Yep... Smokey is in the picture. Our first family photo.

So happy!

Yeah!

Engagement Video!!!! And TWO DAYS!!!!

Our engagement video is up on the Northernlight Filmworks blog! John and Jennifer Moon are so talented and we are so lucky to have them filming the wedding THIS WEEKEND!!! They are great to work with and they were there to film as Megan took our engagement photos. We will be playing the video during the reception as people arrive! I think it turned out super cute!!

Click here for the video!!

And did I mention that we are getting married in TWO DAYS!!!!!! Oh my goodness!!!! I am beside myself with excitement!!!! Whoo hooo!!!!

Ladies Night!

With the wedding quickly approaching (5 days!!!) ... I'm a bit behind on my blog posts! I had a very fun ladies night out a few weeks back with some of my best friends! All my 'friend worlds' collided... my work gals, college gals, church gals! It was fun to have them all in one place!! We started out at a little Mexican dive and then hung out at my house! Here are a few shots!

I can't wait to say I DO!!!

One of my bestest friends... Sarabeth and myself having a 'little' drink!

My friend Heather, Beth and myself.

Jessi and Amal

All the ladies.

WHOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!

WE'RE GETTING MARRIED IN 10 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are on the blog!

We are blogworthy! Check out the pictures and our awesome photographer's other work!

Engagement Pictures!!!

The very talented Megan Grandi from Megan W Photography took these images of us for our engagement photos! Love love love love love them!! I can't wait until she shoots our wedding! We should be up on Megan's blog soon!