And now our journey begins...

I totally forgot about my blogger!

2009-04-23T09:15:00.004-04:00

So, I haven't posted a blog in months. Actually, I think the last one was right before the wedding.....and with Facebook being my main source of Internet communication, I wonder if this is even worth it? But, I will give it another shot.

Jump forward 6 months from my last post and it is now April and we are finally starting to see signs of Spring!!! Woooo Hoooo! I cannot express how happy I am to feel warm air and see the sun shining bright. Maybe it's time I add a few more sunglasses to my collection...

Anyways, when Matt & I bought our house last July, one major thing was missing. A deck! So that being our next project, I will be sure to post pictures of that once it gets started. Matt has his heart set on getting it started ASAP, but with his busy schedule, I don't see how he thinks he can squeeze this in.....

Well, well, well....

2008-10-14T23:42:00.002-04:00

Now the time REALLY has come.........with only 4 days away from our BIG day, I must say that I am quite calm, considering....It was definetly nice to have today off today and I guess I should say yesterday as well, since I went to Chicago to pick up my dress!!!! That was an adventure, talk about being paranoid with precious cargo!!! Anyways, today I went to Studio 690 to get an eyebrow wax, all-around pedicure, full highlight, manicure, and cut and blow dry and 5 hours later I was at my parents house enjoying a nice steak dinner with my Grandparent's from South Florida (even though I should have just had salad)...so now I have been home for a bit now staring at my closet trying to decide what to pack for this weekend. I don't understand how I can so easily pack for a honeymoon we are taking a week from today, but I can't seem to get anything together for a 4 day weekend???

Well surprisingly enough, that is all I really have to say except, Goodnight and I am glad I have a limo coming to pick me and my dress up on Thursday AM so I don't have to figure out a way to transport it again! See you all on Saturday!!!!!! xoxo

Holy Shit

2008-10-06T21:04:00.002-04:00

12 days and counting,, you remember my posts when it was in the hundreds????? I feel like I could rant and rave for hours about my thoughts but, ,I won't bore you with that........I'm not so much nervous about getting married as the "whole" walking down the aisle...............THAT is where I start to think, OMG......what if I fall ,what if people think I look ugly??? But then I realized, it's not about about what they think or if I fall(hopefully not), but how I think and feel about everything and I think and feel GREAT and can't wait to walk down that aisle and marry the man of my dreams (even though he might be a farmer) :) Toodles till then !!!!

WoW

2008-09-03T09:24:00.002-04:00

Okay, if you scroll down to one of my previous posts from February..........it is titled 232 days and counting. Can you believe that now we only have 44 days, 15 hrs and 35 minutes until the big day???????????????????????????????????????? Thanks for the countdown timer Jen!

Ok, Ok.....

2008-09-02T13:22:00.002-04:00

So I know it has been a while since my last blog, almost 5 months to be exact! But with working 7 days a week since my last blog and finalizing wedding plans, lets just say I have been a little busy! Just wanted to let everyone know I was still alive and kicking........more posts to come soon......

The weekend is finally here.

2008-04-05T11:44:00.003-04:00

I know I have been slacking on my blogging since I have been down here in Texas. Work is pretty busy and honestly I just don't have much to blog about these days!

Brian and Ania finally made it in late last night. They were originally supposed to land at 10:39 well that turned into 11:00, then 11:15 and when I was about to leave I thought I better check, just in case, low and behold they were now not landing until 12:06am! It was hard enough to stay up until 10:36 and it was now WAY past my bed time! But, I am happy that they landed safe and sound. I knew I would be sluggish this morning at work, but going to Mexico today after work is keeping me perked up! Apparently things across the border are still not quite as safe as it should be, so we opted to go over this afternoon rather than tonight. Well, I think what I was waiting for is FINALLY coming through the fax.......So Im out!

I just tried to add the pictures, but for some reason I cant move the, oh well!

I guess I have a few things to write about now........

2008-03-26T16:54:00.002-04:00

I made it to Texas this past Friday, surprisingly. I think I was the last flight to get out of O'hare that day due to the unexpected blizzard that was vastly approaching........a part of me was wishing my flight had gotten canceled so that I could spend one more weekend home, but I guess I was destined to spend it in Texas. My brother and Ania were supposed to fly in that night but there 7pm flight was canceled at 9am.......they attempted to go stand by on the Noon flight, but no such luck there either. I was kind of bummed bc I was all excited to go to Arturo's with them on Saturday and drink Margaritas all day and get sloppy! Trust me, it doesn't take many, no matter how big your tolerance is! Thankfully, they will be here on the 4th and we can just make up for lost time then.........

Well that is really all I have to say for now, lame I know, but I haven't really done anything to exciting since I have been down here, except shop, but that is no news to anyone who knows me!

Ten days till Texas........I haven't decided if I am excited or annoyed

2008-03-11T14:16:00.002-04:00

So I am leaving for Texas next Friday, well technically next Thursday since Matt and I are going to spend a night in Chicago bc I have to run by Pricilla of Boston to look at a couple of things.......guess he will have to wait in the car! My dress is not in yet, but I have to look at a couple of accessories that came in and I don't want him to see them of course! I just can't believe the wedding is coming up so quickly..........7 months to be exact!!!! When people told me that it goes by so fast, they certainly were NOT kidding.....

Texas

I am off to Texas for exactly 4 weeks....not as long as normal, and I am certainly thankful for that. But I shouldnt speak to soon bc I do not know if I have to go back after Europe....One thing I am happy about for sure is that I will see sunny and warm weather!!! It has been windy, but I will take that any day over 30 degree temperatures up here. I have definetly felt that since we have been engaged, I have not been too excited to go to Texas as I have been in the past......?? I wonder what it will be like next year when we are accually married......maybe I am feeling this way because I am in the middle of wedding planning..........I guess we will cross that bridge when we get to it next year.........I will be sure to post pictures of the sunshining while I am there!!!!!!

Ok, so I lied!!!

2008-03-03T15:31:00.002-05:00

We didn't end up going to Noma on Saturday night..........we ended up going to Ruth's Chris instead bc it was closer and Matt wanted that instead :) Which was fine with me, bc I love that place!!! So, Lori, we can now make a date and go to Noma together!

Trash the dress.........

Has anyone heard of this new trash the dress trend????

Sick of the same old, same old....

2008-03-01T15:31:00.003-05:00

For a long time Matt and I have been doing the same things about every other weekend....go to the same restaurant, the same bars, etc......don't get me wrong, we love the restaurnt we go and have fun at the bars.....but we are just looking to change it up a bit....When I went to Sephora last weekend to stock up on new make up, which I absolutly love by the way(ill tell you about that after)....the girl ,who so graciosly helped me for over and hour, was telling me about this Asian Fusion restaurant called Noma....it is a restaurant/martini lounge....for some reason I started thinking today about what we talked about, and I couldn't remember the name for the life of me, but then all of the sudden I found this paper with a map of all the restaurants in downtown south bend, and there it was! TADA!!!! So I search all over the internet and could not find a link to their website, so I clicked on some random person's blog that happened to pop up bc she had written her review on the place.....and also the website link......So we are headed to Noma tonight to check out, what I hear, is the new IT place of South Bend.........I will let you know how it goes tomorrow!

ps-about that new make-up.....it's bare minerals.....by far the BEST make up I have ever used.

232 days and counting!!!

2008-02-28T15:03:00.007-05:00

So as you all can see I am getting more and more excited as each days passes about our upcoming wedding. I am quite certain that we are right on track as far as planning goes, so far! Matt and I are going to meet with Nancy next week, YES, Matt is accually coming along this time. It's about time considering I have been working with her for over 2 1/2 months now. Just kidding Matt, I love you and know you are a very busy man! But I am happy he will be tagging along (although im not sure he is hehe) because we need to start looking at some possible invitation styles since I will be off the Texas soon for several weeks, then Europe, and want to kind of get an idea of what we like and don't like (but im pretty sure we kind of know what we are looking for at least I do). I definetly want him there for the invitation browsing without a doubt. Don't get me wrong, I am not booking anything, choosing anything, etc without running it by Matt first. So far, there have been no disagreements and I hope to keep it that way. Luckily Matt is a very happy go lucky kind of guy and generally goes with the flow. Trust me people, if it were up to him, this wedding would be happening in a barn with a potluck dinner and kegs of busch lite and he would be happy(just kidding)....unfortunatly for him, I am a quite bit more high maintenence than he is(not kidding).

Onto the next subject...

LEAVING FOR EUROPE in 55 days!!!

As some of you know, my Mom and I are heading to Europe this Spring. We are leaving on April 24th and returning on May 4th. We are going to visit Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris! We planned this trip back in like June before any of this wedding stuff was even thought about...and then in November when we got engaged, it kind of slipped into the back of my mind until my beloved travel agent sent me an email a few weeks ago with some train schedules for us to look at :) I can't believe it is already less than two months away!

We are spending 3 nights in Amsterdam, 3 in Brussels, and 3 in Paris as well! I can't wait to see the hotels that we are staying at because they look amazing!

Check them out below:

Amsterdam

Brussels

Paris

Christian Louboutin here I come!!!!!!!!!

That's all for now..........!!!!!!!!

weekend recap!

2008-02-20T09:32:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I know I am a little behind on this....but I have good reasoning. Shelly (fish) and Garrett (farrett) came to visit this past weekend and I have just been catching up on things since they left. We had such a blast together, I am so glad that they came up. It was a first trip to Michigan for them both and honestly, I think they really enjoyed the peacefulness of being in the middle of nowhere! We didn't really do anything special just hung out at the house all day (while poor Matt was busting his ass off at work to try and leave early) then went out to dinner each night, had some drinks and came home and hung out more! Matt did take Garrett out snowmobiling for a couple of hours on Saturday which they both had fun doing since obviously you can't do that in Florida and Matt doesn't get a chance to go that often.......So all in all I would say it was a great weekend........gotta go for now!

Who knew designing a monogram could be so difficult????

2008-02-13T10:33:00.003-05:00

I just got the proof for a potential monogram and I didn't like it....ughhh.. There was just something about the way our initials looked....perhaps, well nevermind..anyways, I guess we are back at square one again, I thought maybe I am just being to picky,but Nancy assured me that I was not being difficult, bc this is a very important part of the Wedding bc it will be carried throughout the event that we will want it to reflect our personal style......

What am I supposed to do now???

2008-02-11T18:28:00.000-05:00

First I will give you a recap on what I did this weekend.......Friday we went and checked out this band call The Cheap Dates and they were awesome! The reason we went to see them is because the two members of the band are also in Montage, the band we hired the play at our Wedding Reception! They were so much fun and had such great energy, so that just got us so much more pumped about having Montage. As most of you know, we love so many varieties of music, that we knew right off the bat that we wanted a live band........and these guys are going to rock!

Sooo Saturday we went to check out the Michiana Home Show and it was not really what we were looking for. Matt and I are going to build, eventually haha, and were hoping that there would be lots of different contractors there, but it was more for people looking to update rather than start from scratch. But at least we tried! We have a few people in mind in the area we would like to contact so I guess we will start with them!

Now onto Sunday......can we say BLIZZARD???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my God, it was 3 degrees all day with wind chills were -20 and the wind was blowing 40 mph like ALL day.....Matt and I went to lunch at Lindy's, 2 miles away, and it took us almost 15 minutes to get there bc we could not see a damn thing! But we seriously didn't have anything in the house and we were bored so we braved it.........not a good idea haha. Sooooooo bc of the lovely weather we had to reschedule dinner with Todd and Lori again!!!!!!

Monday.....I finally started addressing the Save The Date cards!!!!! Although I only did 3 pages of addresses.....but its a start!

PS-Blackberry RIM is out, ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so I cannot make or receive calls...compose or receive emails.......but for some reason I am still getting voicemails and txt messages........So if you need me TEXT me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR its still so cold!

PPS-Shelly and Garrett will be here on Thursday and I am so EXCITED!

Yep, I'm not going anywhere today.

2008-02-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

I didn't go to Grand Rapids today because...

Nancy said the weather was pretty bad and only supposed to get worse.
It was pouring down rain, which melted all the snow, which then turned the roads into an ice skating rink.
The rain turned to snow about 35 minutes ago, and this is what we have accumulated so far!

Nice, huh?? Welcome to Michigan!!!!

Luckily, Matt and I had already pretty much decided on the monogram style we liked, so I just emailed the idea to Nancy and she will work her magic and get me a proof. I must say, without her I would be going crazy.....well, more crazy than I already am ;)

What to do about this weather???

2008-02-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

I am supposed to drive up to Grand Rapids today but..........apparantly they are supposed to get 8-10 inches of snow today, so I'm thinkin that's not the best idea???

What a long day...but at least I got my header done!

2008-02-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Lori, I now have a really cool header! Well, accually the credit should go to her sister for posting the instructions on her blog....Anyways, now I am finally getting a hang of this blogging thing and can start working on a custom layout...if only I can figure out that whole blogroll thing, I tried it and didnt really know what was goin on!! I'm heading to Grand Rapids tomorrow to meet with the Nancy and discuss a few things with her...but the main reason is we must decide on a monogram design, so that we can get that out of the way. I want it to be different from your ordinary monogram, so that is why we are putting so much time and effort into it, rather than just design something myself on word. The details are going to be the key factor to our Wedding, so everything has to be perfect! It's going to be a long 8 months.........

I almost forgot!!!

2008-01-30T11:02:00.001-05:00

For some strange reason we went to the Legacy in Sister Lakes on Saturday night, but we soon realized we were out of our element....check out the advertisement on the wall!

I'm cold......and how about a Mexican Fiesta Super Bowl??

2008-01-30T10:02:00.000-05:00

So I must say, yesterday was probably the weirdest weather I have seen since I've lived in Michigan. It was 45 and raining when I was heading home from work and by 9pm it was 15 and practically a blizzard outside! It certainly didn't make for a pleasant driving experience this morning. But what can you do? I just drove slow! OK, so anyways, enough about the crappy weather..I was looking on Rachael Ray's website looking for some Super Bowl Sunday food ideas and she has some great recipes on there. The Giant Chicken Taco Nachos sounded great to me! I love her recipes because she tries to help make certain dishes a bit healthier, just by making a few little changes like using baked corn chips rather than fried. Every little bit counts, right?? Well, I guess I should get to the point of this whole blog, huh??

We have decided to have some people over to watch the big game on Sunday. So I am trying to put together a menu to please everyone and I think we have decided to have a Mexican theme. Matt and I love Mexican food and it happens to be one of my specialties when it comes to the kitchen and not to mention I think everyone enjoys some good mexican grub every once in a while. I was also thinking of making some fun drinks, I am sick of the seeing the same old thing, beer, wine, vodka and soda, bla bla....so I am going to try this new and improved version of the Tequila Sunrise and for those of you beer drinkers out there you must try this Mechelada Maria. So call me or text me if your coming on Sunday! It will be at la casa de Seel because my Parent's are in Texas and let's face it, their basement is badass!

Ok, Ok, so I'm still new at this whole blogging thing

2008-01-23T15:20:00.001-05:00

I have been on myspace for a couple of years now and I am a pro when it comes to vamping my page.......but I'll be damned if I can do anything cool with this site yet!!!!!

Guest List

2008-01-16T16:01:00.000-05:00

So far the only thing that has been stressfull about planning this wedding, has been trying to narrow down the guest list. Although I would love to invite everyone I know.....but it is just virtually impossible. So I am having to go over and over the list of names to try and narrow it down, and it is def hardy than anticaped. Mostly, because I do not want to hurt anyones feelings.....

I feel like crap today....but I'll tell you about my trip to Grand Rapids anyways

2008-01-16T08:32:00.000-05:00

Just before the Holidays, I had a slight case of bronchitus. I am starting to think that I did not recover from it fully, because today I feel horrible. My chest hurts really bad when I cough and I have a sinus headache. I called my ENT Dr. and of course, they can't get me in until NEXT Thursday!!!! That is ridiculous in my opinion. I think that they should keep at least one appointment open each day, for cases like myself who need to be seen immedietly. So I guess I will be going to the walk-in, again, where they probably won't prescribe me the right medicine, which is probably why I never got rid of it entirely in the first place!!!! But anyways, back to Grand Rapids....

So yesterday, I got to skip out on work(one of the perks of being very slow/having dad as my boss) and go to Grand Rapids to meet with my wedding coordinator and Florist. I was quite excited about this, since we had only met with the Florist briefly once before. I must say, I was VERY impressed with his visions of what he pictured for our Wedding. I won't go into great detail because I still want the decor to be a surprise, but Cymbidium Orchids and Cala Lilies will play a big part. So I am just hoping when we get the estimate it won't put my parents into cardiac arrest, although I'm pretty sure whatever the number we will be able to hopefully work around. So everyone keep your fingers crossed for me. So after the Florist left, we talked about Ceremony and Reception music. I am thinking about bringing in a Pianist for the Ceremony and then having a Jazz trio for the Cocktail hour. Matt really likes the idea of having some jazz in the mix, so I just hope it all works out and a good one is available. So between the 2 hour meeting with the Florist and 45 minutes or so with the planner, lets just say I was sick of talking about Wedding stuff. So she suggested a place for my Mom and I to go for Mother of the Bride outfits. So off to Daniel's we were...

What a great store! I had never heard of it, but I will def be going back. They cater to both men and women and also have some great accessories as well. After trying on about 12 different dresses, my Mom was going to settle for one she really liked, but not sure she loved, until I brought in one more that I found hidden on the rack, and it looked fabulous on her! So all in all, it was a successful trip.

Engagment Party

2008-01-14T14:10:00.001-05:00

My parents threw Matt and I an engagment party this past weekend. What a great party! I was a little nervous about it at first, but that quickly wore off after I saw how much fun everyone was having. Two of my best friends Jodi and Jenn came up from New York and Florida and I have to say that I was more excited about seeing them two than anything else!!! This was both of their first trips to Michigan, and I am really happy that they enjoyed themselves. Now they have seen where I live, and can stop wondering what it looks like over here. My Grandparents from South Florida came as well, and it was really great to have them there also. Anyways, back to the party....we had about 65 people there at one point and that is ALOT more than I anticipated. We sent out about 75 invitations, some of whom we knew would not be coming, but we wanted to send them one anyways. We had our good friends from Timberline Inn cater the party and they did a wonderful job, we had shrimp cocktail, stone crab claws, smoked trout, beef tenderloin skewers, and the list goes on. The food was fabulous and everyone must have enjoyed it because the only thing we had left were a handful of meatballs. Ed was smart when he was putting the menu together, he brought over some Italian Beef for sandwiches, he figured with all the drinking, people would be ready for a midnight snack, and he was right. My Grandma was heating it up and making little sandwiches, my brother walked upstairs and said people were lined up like they were at a soup kitchen. Needless to say, there was not one slice ove beef left. Now, on to the clean up...I think my dad counted 12 beers left, out of 8 cases, 2 empty gallon size bottles of Crown Royal, 1 and 1/2 gallons of Captain Morgan gone, 1 gallon of Canadian Club, another of Makers Mark, 2 empty MAGNUM sized Grey Goose bottles, a case of wine, and another of champagne. All in all, I would say it was a great party.

I guess I will give it a shot

2008-01-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

So my good friend, Lori, has one of these blogs and I thought it would be a neat thing to do. So, here I am. I am getting Married in October and I'm thinking maybe this will be a good way to vent about the stresses of Wedding planning, since sometimes I'm sure other people don't really want to listen to me talk about it all the time....so they can read about it!