The weekend after our housewarming/surprise birthday party and Carl’s actual birthday, we flew out to North Carolina-Blowing Rock for my sister-in-laws wedding. It was a quick trip there and back but was good to see Carl’s sister get married, all of the family and get out to the east coast.
the pond outside of the front of the resort
the bride and groom got married by the willow tree
Carl and I had an awesome southern lunch at a place in Blowing Rock
Also room and time for wine-It’s 5 o’clock somewhere
These were the center pieces and the two taller vases made it all the way to NC from the Midwest.
‘I’m So Fancy’
We clean up well- Carl’s aunt took this photo! It’s a good one!
The wedding was at the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC. It was about a 2hr drive north of Charolette. The drive up there was pretty cool with the green lush mountains. There was some road construction that made us feel like we were back in the Midwest.
On Friday night, everyone was hungry and needed a drink, so we ventured to town and hung out at the Blowing Rock Brewery. It was a pretty neat place because we sat outside and it was good for people watching.
On Saturday, Carl and I went into town to grab lunch and we stumbled upon this place- Rustique the food was fantastic. In the picture above I had a Trout Reuben- it was cornmeal crusted with gruyere, sauce, coleslaw and pancetta and Carl had pulled pork! It was so good, Carl tried my trout and said it was pretty good.
The centerpieces are part from my friend Teri’s wedding and Carl’s sister bought some from her so they made the trip from MN to WI all the way to NC.
I love the photos of Carl and I, we don’t always get photos of us so these turned out great. My dress was a coral color and Carl’s tie was a navy color, we coordinated pretty well. And a surprise to Carl’s family- he was dancing and they were surprised. Oh yes! Carl dances and we may have shut down a few wedding dances before! 🙂
It was a good weekend and wedding full of memories, family, love and laughter!
When we woke up on Sunday morning, it was so chilly, we felt like we were back in the Midwest! It was cold!
Last weekend, we had a wedding to attend. It was a lot of fun, probably one of the best times we have had at a wedding. A friend of our’s son was getting married. The wedding was at a venue I haven’t been too only have heard about. We had time to stop at one of my favorite local establishments for a drink. The decor was beautiful. The bride had a dress that looked stunning on her.
Carl and I literally danced our feet off! I would like to say I had the hottest date and best dance partner, obviously I am bias! 🙂
Dancing the night away
My sister and I
Centerpieces
haven’t stopped dancing
It was a fun night and a good distraction from house stuff.
On Friday, we drove to my sisters with Arie to stay there because it was close to the reception area. Carl and I got to have a fun Friday afternoon date and ate at Washington Square. Here are some photos from the day, it was a busy long day. Carl set up the reception tables for her because there were minimal people to help that were not in the wedding in the timeframe we had, her mom and a groomsman helped him. Thanks so much Carl for what you did! I didn’t get a picture of them-oops, but they looked good. 🙂
So the last picture has a story-some of the groomsman, once they had enough liquid courage started calling me the “sexy doctor”. Then they started asking me random questions and saying I was cute. Ok, thank you! Then one of them asked if they could call me Mindy. Then I got it Mindy Kaling, I said sure you will probably never see me again and won’t remember it the next morning because you’re drunk. So I had to do a side by side photo. I guess if I have to be called anyone or look like anyone, she’s a good one to look like! 🙂
Arie knew we were going somewhere because we were packing
Look at that face
What a nice Friday date
Carls burger
Arie was taking Finn’s (my sister’s dog) toys out
What a beautiful day
Two of the other bridesmaids
Carl and I! He was hunky! 🙂
Love him lots!
They had a rock band
Freebird!!!!! 🙂
Me and my bestie! She was a beautiful bride
Do you see it?! lol
Congrats and best wishes to my friend! Thanks for throwing a great party! 😉
Man did time fly! I feel like we were just printing our invites and putting center pieces together. I must admit, I am glad that stuff is over. Carl and I had a rather mellow, low-key, laid back wedding but making sure you remember everything is a task! The only thing I forgot was my niece’s burlap basket to hold flowers, I don’t think I saw the flowers that went in it. She ended up having a flower wrist thing and a little bouquet so it all worked out. I figured I was on my game if that was the only thing I forgot and we were 2.5hrs from home! I’m kind of a super freak when it comes to schedules and lists.
Here is our wedding invites and RSVPs.
These were our centerpieces.
This was our card box that Carl and my brother did.
Manicure-love this OPI color
One of the Captains of the boat married us
We are walking along side Lake Superior on Brighton Beach
I love this photo!
A year later, Carl and I went back Up North to celebrate our anniversary. We stayed north of Duluth, about 80 miles in Schroeder, MN at Lamb’s Resort. I actually grew up staying at Lamb’s, so my memories from there are great and have only gotten better. We would recommend Cabin #11 or Cabin #12 based on your view of Lake Superior.
We drove up Friday early in the morning and stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park for a few hours, the weather was beautiful! We drove to our cabin and there we did some more hiking and rock climbing. It was great cabin time, we had a bonfire every night and roasted marshmallows, hotdogs and I tried jiffy pop for the first time! YUM!
On Saturday we got up and found a diner in Silver Bay, MN for breakfast and then we headed to the Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors, MN. That landmark is one of the most photographed ones, Carl has never been so we did all the touristy things while we were there. On our way back to the cabin, we stopped at the Silver Bay Marina where we climbed more rocks. Saturday night was spent by the bonfire, chatting, listening to nature, playing cards, reflecting on our relationship and what the last year has brought us.
Sunday, was our actual wedding anniversary. We got up and drove north to find breakfast and found Bluefin Bay. Interesting enough, Carl worked on their website. We split a wild rice, mushroom, pepper and onion omelet and it was delicious. On Sunday afternoon we drove south to Duluth for the evening. We had a complimentary dinner cruise with the cruise where we had our wedding. It was a great end to our anniversary weekend. We had a couple of drinks and an appetizer at the Canal Park Brewery then we made our way over to the Vista Fleet Cruise for our dinner and boat ride. The weather was about the same as what it was on our wedding, windy and cold. I wore a dress with a cardigan and I was cold. I saw other people wearing jeans, sweatshirts and jackets, I wanted to wear that instead. lol It was cool, to be back on the boat and remember our wedding day. Some of the staff on the boat were also there the night of our wedding, they had remembered us and our wedding. We had a chicken dinner with champagne.
My gift to Carl was MN Gopher football tickets. I didn’t realize how important the games are that I picked for us to go to, he was impressed. I also got him “vacation rings” so when we go somewhere or are doing something that we don’t want to wear our wedding rings, we can still have a band on. We didn’t wear our rings on our honeymoon and we got some questions. lol Carl gave me a beautiful anniversary ring (it was written in his wedding note to me)!
On Monday we were on the road back home by 7am, we couldn’t wait to get home and see Arie. Later on Monday night, we met up with my co-workers to do our draft for our fantasy football league. They were nice enough to include Carl! lol
Thank You for letting me share our fun weekend.
I will do a “Part Series” of posts so go in order to see all the photos.
A month or so back Carl left for a week to Chicago for work and left me a sweet note. 🙂 I also randomly, pulled out video clips of our wedding and our wedding album, it really made me smile and made happy.
I posted a few weeks back about the canvas collage we were doing on our big empty wall, here is how it turned out.
Here are a three main photos again.
We order two of our favorite shots from our wedding.
Waiting for two more.
Collage complete.
Thank You Carl for hanging up the collages.
A big Thank You to Traun Photography for the beautiful wedding photos. Please check them out, they are fantastic photographers. They also have personal photo blogs too. Dan Traun and Cynthia Traun
Here are a few photos from the boat and the ceremony. Again, our photographers- Traun Photography rocked our photos. They captured some great moments of us on the boat and during the ceremony.
“Get me to the boat on time” 🙂
Our ceremony site aboard the Vista Fleet Harbor Cruise
the centerpieces
Carl’s mom made the sign for our advice jar
Our homemade card box and wedding favor can koozie
Card box, Carl and my brother did all the stenciling
Wine box
My flowers and our wine box
This ship was coming into the harbor and our guests got to see the ship come in and aerial lift bridge.
We have received our wedding photos and we wanted to share a few of our favorite ones from the day. We had fantastic photographers Traun Photography, we can’t say enough how professional and amazing their photos were. They really captured all the love, laughs, and emotions from the day and we know get to re-live that through memories from the photos.
We did our photos in two locations: at a local park and a rocky beach. The park had lots of great photo opportunities with great color and textures and the beach was perfect along Lake Superior with crashing waves, big rocks and beautiful scenery!
This is right before Carl turned around
And then the “First Look”
So much excitement and emotions. We will not forget this moment
Love the detail in this photo
I love this photo!
The color in this photo is fantastic
Love the detail
A beautiful spot our photographers found in the park.
At Brighton Beach
We are walking along side Lake Superior on Brighton Beach
Our rings
Here are a few photos from the Friday before the wedding when we were checking out photo spots for our first look photos.
We were really excited or maybe really tired and hungry.I love this photoNo, you first. No, you first!
On Monday, the last day of our wedding weekend, we drove up north to Two Harbors. When we left to drive up there it was super foggy. We really enjoyed our drive up there and back, the weather was beautiful and we made little stops along the way. We went to the Break Walk and then stopped in town at a coffee shop and then made our way back to Duluth then home to get to our big pooch Arie, we couldn’t wait to snuggle him. We have to admit that we happy when everything was done so we could enjoy no stress. Everyone has asked if we have felt different and we haven’t because we have been together for over 6.5 years, so this is a continuation of our relationship and now Carl has to wear a ring! 🙂 haha
We had a great wedding weekend. We feel so blessed and thankful for all of our friends and family who travelled to Duluth for our special day. We are glad that you made it special. We can’t wait to see photos from our photographers.
Here are photos from our Monday trip!
This is how foggy it was Monday morning from our resort
another photo
This is what the Break Walk looked like. There was only 4 other people.
It was so eerie because you could not see the end.
Love this photo of us!
This is what was at the end of the walk way
It was really foggy.
Carl walking back.
the fog was starting to burn off
In the time we walked back and along the side, the fog burnt off.
this was behind us.
Carl took this photo of me.
US!
We stopped at another Break Walk
Love this photo of Carl.
Buchanan Historic Marker
Saw a ship while we were driving back to Duluth
The Aerial Lift Bridge
Good bye-Duluth, thank you for the memories of a lifetime.
When we got back home and got our pooch, this was our result.
The wedding day has come and gone. Carl and I stayed one more night in Duluth to relax and take everything in. We stayed at our favorite place in Duluth- Beacon Pointe which was great. On Sunday, we spent time with family in the morning before they all headed back and then we grabbed lunch with friends at Fitger’s Brewhouse. We checked into our hotel and we both crashed for a few hours then took a nice long walk down the lake walk along Lake Superior. We had Mexican food for supper. There was crazy storms that night, good thing our wedding was the night before. 🙂 That night we sat and read our cards and notes from the blessing jar. We have great family and friends.
Here are a few photos from our Sunday in Duluth.
Carl and I by the boardwalk the morning after. Bright eyed and bushy tailed.
A ship was coming in.
There were some good waves.
It was pretty windy and kind of chilly.
My Jameson and Cider for lunch.
After 6.5 years, I know get to call you my husband.
The view from our suite
great view.
Carl’s favorite photo I took.
crazy waves.
I love this one of Carl.
Out for a walk!
enjoying each others company and the sound of the waves.
Go Blondie! 