Tag: Wedding

08.23.2014-Wedding Day

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The weekend and day is finally here. It feels like yesterday that we had just gotten engaged, the time really flew by. We felt good with how wedding the schedule was going. We got to Duluth when we wanted and ran our errands and the rest of the time was spent with family on Friday. Our parents and siblings all arrived to Duluth on Friday which was extra special and fun. Saturday morning we had rehearsal which went well and getting ready was a breeze.

Most people said that you won’t stick to the timeline, clearly they don’t know me. 🙂 We were right on schedule for the majority of the day, minus the ship that was coming under the Aerial Lift Bridge before the ceremony that we had to wait for before departing the dock.

I do not have photos from our wedding day, because we didn’t want to be “that couple” and be attached to our phones. We also had an “Unplugged” wedding ceremony, so our immediate family on the 3rd deck-upper did not have phones or cameras as we wanted to enjoy our ceremony and our 2nd deck guests watched on screens.

Our guests boarded the boat at 6:30pm and our ceremony was after 7:00pm and was less than 10 mins. Then it was time to party, heavy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. It was laid back and easy going, exactly what Carl and I wanted.

Photos from Saturday, I only have a handful of photos of me getting ready that my brother and sister took.

 

Days to “I Do”

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Almost there!  The big day Saturday August 23, 2014 in Duluth, MN onboard the Vista Fleet Harbor Cruise.

We have been pretty busy the last month or so. we were inundated with checklists and timelines. A midst of all the crazy, I only forgot the flower girl basket and a hammer, not bad, I would like to think! 🙂 My sister helped with the centerpieces the Sunday before, while Carl and I worked hard to get the finishing touches done the week of.

Here are some wedding-prep photos.

 

 

We had a great get away to Duluth. We left early Friday Morning and returned Monday afternoon.

Here are some photos of Thursday, Friday before the wedding.

Happy Wedding Weekend!

-Blondie

Duluth Trip in June

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Carl and I went to Duluth in June to check out the boat where we are having the wedding and to check out a few places for photos. Also, we forgot it was Grandma’s Marathon so we hit all the road closures, what a joy. We are getting married the weekend of the Duluth Air Show, probably not a great idea but not real choice either. Oh well! 🙂

Here are our pictures from the trip, it was fun!

 

Hope you enjoy the beautiful photos, we could not have picked a better more picturesque place to get married! We are excited, 27 days and counting! 🙂

-Blondie!

Wedding Update… T-Minus 27 days!

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The countdown has begun, we are under 30 days before the wedding and only 27 away! It’s go time, get your game face on! haha Ok, not really. I am trying to tell myself that because we are getting married on a boat, it won’t be as stressful as a big formal wedding, who am I kidding right! It’s all in my head is what Carl would say! Thanks, Honey!

We have gotten Carls outfit picked out, we did that over the July 4th vacation. He will be wearing a beach themed outfit with Linen pants and a 100% cotton shirt. He got nice shoes from DSW as well, it is a outfit that he will be able to wear again. Both of the dad’s have their outfits figured out, they are wearing Hawaiian shirts keeping with the boating theme! 🙂 We want everyone to be comfortable and have fun.

Two weekends ago I went to Duluth to do my hair trial run.

Here are a few pictures.

photo 1 photo 2 photo 3

I was very happy with the style so lets hope that it stays with my thick mop of hair! 🙂

Changing Directions…

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This year thus far has been very busy and full of lots of changes and challenges. I had been working my job for approximately 3 1/2 years and that means that I have been in a car for two hours a day for work. I was driving 50 miles one way. It was starting to get old and I was seeing the health toll it was having on me. So I started looking for other positions within my agency. I am so happy to say that I took a new position almost two weeks ago and I’m excited. The miles one way is only about 23 miles which that will cut down on the wear and tear of my car. I am driving north now versus south, back into the city and away from the cornfields. I must say, I do miss the people that I worked with dearly, that was the hardest part of leaving.

This new position is very different than the last. It is more positive, different type of stress and a different setting. I feel the life coming back to me. It has been nice to get home at a decent time, I have to get used to having an extra hour and half a day. Carl and I have been playing basketball with our extra time. 🙂

So that is partly, why I haven’t been blogging, just busy with cleaning up my caseload from the last position to taking on this new position. I felt that for my health, sanity, driving and the challenge it was the best move I could have made. 🙂

Along with the job change in the midst of wedding planning, I am in a Sjogren’s flare up. I didn’t realize what it was at first, I just thought the bumps/rash meant I was allergic to something, I completely forgot that a symptom of Sjogren’s is a skin rash, inflammation and all the other good stuff that goes with it. The weird thing is that I didn’t/don’t feel stressed; however, my body is telling me different. So now, I’m back on prednisone which I am less than excited about, I have a steroid cream I put on the rash and I’m taking Zyrtec. Not what I planned a short period before the wedding. My sister said that I am going through two of the things that cause the most stress, job change and a wedding. Yikes.

We are trying to get things figured out and looking at our time lines for the wedding. hopefully we will be ready to go.

Cheers to changes!

-Blondie!

Photos with our Pooch

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Hello,

I am back again. I feel like a groundhog that pops their head up from the ground and then they go back in. I apologize, things have been busy beyond belief.

In June Carl, Arie and I had a day full of photos with our photographers. I will share a few. We had fun with them, until about 15 mins into photo taking, Arie rolled in something gross and greasy from the woods. Our photographers site is traunphotography.zenfolio.com. Please check them out! We loved our photo session! 🙂

 

Happy Wedding Planning!

-Blondie!

Update on wedding planning.

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Wedding planning is somewhat coming along. We have sent out the wedding invites last week and the RSVP’s need to be back by July 28th. Today I finished the rest of the center pieces and Carl helped me assemble them. We have three left to do. I have talked with the florist to get the flowers figured out and I have figured out my hair appointment for the wedding day. We both have been pretty busy with work, so the planning has gone on hold somewhat.

I know the last post that I did was about trying to find shoes! I found some! YAY, the fifth pair was a charm. Here is a picture of the shoes. My dress is hemmed and all ready to go so that was exciting.

photo They are from the flip flop store at the Mall of America.

On Sunday last week we hung out with our wedding photographers and then took photos of Arie and us.

The planning continues.

 

Planning Madness…

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Centerpieces: 

In the last two weeks, Carl and I had been to Hobby Lobby about 3 times. We went to get the floral pieces for our centerpieces which we practically cleaned them out of. Then I had a friend help me with the centerpiece, she used to be a florist. She said we needed different stems. So we went back to Hobby Lobby and bought other stems. My luck they didn’t have enough stems and I was going to have to order online and then to find out the next day everything we got went 50% off.

So Carl was so sweet and went back to Hobby Lobby on Thursday last week to get our difference of money back and then he picked up more flowers. We will have approximately 20 centerpieces, that is for the second deck and then the first deck. We are also using wine bottles, because I wanted to go inexpensive and we figured, we have A LOT of bottles for when we bottle our wine. So I will continue to work on our centerpieces. I will not be posting pictures as I would like it to be a surprise for our guests. 🙂

Shoes: 

I found two  pair of shoes that I am trying to decide between. One pair is from DSW, they were “strappy” and I felt support, I liked them. The other pair was from David’s Bridal everyone else liked them, They only had a strap around one side of the foot. I went back to David’s Bridal to look at them again. They didn’t have my size and they didn’t have the color and if I bought them to just try  on it was a final sale. 😦 So I was looking online at the site and I found a silver pair in that style that I could order and then return if need be, they should be coming tomorrow. I will meet up with my two personal attendants/best friends to have  them help me figure out which ones to get. I must say, I am to the point that I just want to get a cute pair of flip flops instead, we’ll see what I plan.

Decisions, Decisions.

Odds and Ends: 

Carl’s parents worked on a few projects for our guest table. We saw them on Friday night to celebrate his dad’s 60th Birthday! We had a great time. They showed us the projects, they did a fantastic job and they turned out great. They also brought my jewelry and Carl’s ring, it all looked fabulous. Lots of thank you’s go out to them. 🙂

So right now, the big thing is to figure out my shoes so then I can go get my dress hemmed. And to finish our centerpieces. The last half of April weekends are booked and all of May weekends are booked. We won’t have much time to get some of our stuff done, so we need to do it now.

Happy Sunday.

-Blondie!

The One…

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Do you remember the episode of Friends where Monica is looking for “The One” wedding dress at the consignment store and she gave whistles to Rachel and Phoebe.

Friends_ The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress (Ep. 717) Video

This episode makes me laugh at how intense Monica was.

TheOneWithTheCheapWeddingDress

My experience was not quite that dramatic nor intense. I went with my parents to David’s Bridal on President’s Day and it was quiet in the store as we were the only ones there. I tried on an array of dresses and there were a few we liked. My mom said we could keep looking and see what else is out there. Over the next few weeks, I was online looking for styles. I was struggling to figure out where to look and what I was interested in. I talked with a handful of friends who had to gone through the dress shopping experience. Many gave the places they looked and had success. I continued to look online and found a few I liked at the Wedding Shoppe Inc. in St. Paul on Grand Ave. I asked my close work friend Vicki to go with me and we met my parents there. She took off work and it was her birthday, what a great friend right! 🙂 I tried on a handful of dresses there as well. It was between two dresses that I liked. I probably tried them both on like 3 times. We are getting married on a boat and wanted one that fit with the theme of that as well.

Well low and behold.

i-found-the-gown

I was a bit nervous looking because every place I called would say, oh man your wedding is in August, you need a dress like now. Most places were saying it would take 4-6 months to get one ordered in, then alterations would need to be done. I was getting a little anxious about that. Lucky for me, the girl who helped us found the dress I liked in a smaller size and it fit really well. So I was actually able to buy off the rack. 🙂 That was a huge stress reliever and both my parents were happy about that. I extend a large thank you to my parents for meeting with me and helping with the dress. IT is very much appreciated.

I will go in June to get the alterations done. I am not posting pictures as I am keeping it a secret. It is a Mori Lee Design, if you would like to know! 🙂

Major item checked off the wedding list.

Save the Date… And Many Blessings.

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Since getting engaged, it has been pretty crazy busy with wedding stuff and working. The week we got engaged, I think my mom and I talked on the phone more than we ever have in my lifetime. My mom asked us a few questions regarding our wedding when, where and date. We didn’t have a specific date, we were more interested in a August/September wedding and we wanted it in Duluth, MN. Why Duluth, you ask?! I have many memories in Duluth as a child with my parents and now Carl and I have fun memories in Duluth as well. We thought it would be a great place and a mini vacation spot for our guests as well. We gave my mom a few different lodges up in the area and she offered to call around to get the specifics for us. My mom and dad called us one of the evenings and said what about a boat. All I could think of was what I told Carl about eight months ago when I said, wouldn’t it be cool to get married on a harbor cruise in Duluth. Obviously, eight months ago, neither of us knew we would be engaged and that the comment would become a reality.

From the date we got engaged on Friday January 31st to the following Wednesday February 5th, we had a date and venue and owe many many thanks to my mother. My mom called and emailed tirelessly for three days. And now it is settled that we are getting married on August 23 this year on the Vista Fleet Star Harbor Cruise. My mom was a rockstar to have found a place for us in that short period of time and where we wanted it and when we wanted it.

The following Monday, I sent in our Save the Date’s to get printed. Carl designed them and turned out great.

save-the-date

Now that the biggest part is taken care of, we can breathe a little better. But now I need to find a dress and don’t have a lot of time.

Happy Dress Hunting.

-Blondie!