The invites are coming, the invites are coming!

Yes, that was a lame Paul Revere reference, but I'm so excited about our invitations going out that I'm okay with it.  I feel like Matt and I looked at every wedding invitation imaginable before finding something that was perfect!

Of course I had to make them as complicated as possible, so I decided I wanted to hand draw the maps myself and a few other details.  After a lot of planning and designing (a special shout out to my co-worker Katie for your help), the invitations are done and I think they look great!  They are going to print early this week and will be in the mail soon!

Then comes the fun part - watching for everyone's responses to come in!  I can't wait!!

Engagement pictures, round two

You may be saying to yourself, "But I thought they already did their engagement pictures a long time ago?"  Yep, we are so high maintenance that we need multiple engagement sessions. :)  Due to our 6 month engagement, we imposed upon the fantastic Katie McDonald to take a few quick shots of us that we could use on a save the date, and decided we'd wait until spring to take the full session.  Because really, who wants to take pictures in winter clothes when you can wait and wear fun springy clothes?

We just had our real engagement session and we had a blast!  It was a long day full of location changes, costume changes, and lots of laughs as I got loopy and had a giggling meltdown.  Katie was fantastic to work with and put up with our awkwardness all day, and even managed to make us look like we knew what we were doing!  She was even dodging traffic in the middle of the street, and I had to save her from an oncoming biker at one point on a trail.  She was really showing her dedication to photography!

The highlight of the day was that Katie managed to get us access to the Iowa Cubs stadium to take some shots on the field!  Here's a sneak peak, or you can view more at Katie's blog.  Enjoy!

Thanks, Katie!  We love how they turned out!

The Wedding Singer

Matt and I have been debating for quite some time about what we were going to do for ceremony and processional music.  I wanted something super fancy like a string quartet or a harp, and Matt wanted something simpler like piped in music or a synthesized keyboard.  Needless to say, we were getting nowhere in this discussion for quite some time.

Recently we were at an ice hockey game with a group of friends when I jokingly said that a group of our friends who have a band should play at the wedding.  Suddenly we both realized that our friend Cory, the lead singer of the band/most talented musician we know, would be the perfect choice for our ceremony music!  Cory plays every instrument imaginable, has a great voice, and has a great repertoire of music to choose from.

As it turns out, Cory has always wanted to perform a concert on the stage at Simon Estes, so it's win/win for everyone!  We couldn't be more excited about our choice of musician.  Take a look, he's a natural!

Cory rocking the air guitar at a friend's recent wedding
Photo c/o Katie McDonald Photography

Fragments

This isn't technically a full dream but was too funny not to share.  When I wake up and remember a really long dream, I need a way to keep it pieced together so that I still remember it when I have time to write it all down.  Sometimes I call and leave myself voicemails, other times I write little notes about various parts of the dream.


I was just cleaning out my email drafts and found this little treasure that I never went back and completely logged.  This was from almost a year ago, so I definitely don't remember the dream, but it was so random that I had to share.  Please note - this was all one dream.


Took a trip to San Fran - ate at the My Way Cafe (this does not exist in real life)
Broken shoe
Katie McDonald's white dresses
Went to a Torch Run meeting
Matt playing outdoor basketball
Matt lost his son
Ran a 5k trying to find him
Went home and had new paint on house
Played bocce with Kati
Textile building
Crazy cat lady
Overnight party at Dan's house
Corey ate a lot of twizzlers
Flying Mango road trip
Drove a PT cruiser 


I have absolutely no idea what any of that means, but I really wish I remembered the rest!

The parking ticket

I was sitting in Matt's garage talking to Louie (my cat) about how it was time for him to go to sleep when I realized that Louie usually sleeps in the basement.  I went to the basement to see why he wasn't there and I discovered that Autumn (my other cat) had made friends with another impostor cat who was posing as Louie and had kicked Louie out of the house and into the garage.  I felt bad for Louie but I knew Matt wasn't going to let me have a third cat so I wrapped Louie in a blanket and snuck him downstairs with Autumn and Impostor Cat.

When I left Matt's house, I was pulled over for speeding and the officer that pulled me over found out that I had an unpaid parking ticket for $1376.  He told me that he would have to leave my car on the side of the road and take me immediately to jail.  I got to jail and checked in at the front desk where they took my duffel bag and showed me to my room.  I was a little upset because there was no TV, but they told me that I could watch TV in the community room during social hours, and they let me bring my Nook and my Droid.  I asked them how I was supposed to go shopping and they told me I could reserve a shuttle to the mall on my Droid and it would take me there whenever I wanted.

I got to the mall and realized that they hadn't offered me my one phone call, nor had they given me a chance to post bail.  I called my dad on my cell phone and asked him for $11,000 for bail, but he told me I would have to choose between bail or my wedding.  I was not happy, but I decided to get back on the shuttle and go back to jail.  I sat down on the ratty plaid sofa in the community room and started to watch soccer on tv when there was a knock on the door.  The jail manager told me that my dad was coming to pick me up, but that I had to leave all my Nike flip flops behind as a penalty.  So I said farewell to my flip flops and went outside to wait for my dad.

Children!

Don't get too excited, this is not a post about when Matt and I will have children.  Instead, I would like to introduce you to the two adorable children who will be a part of the wedding!

Our flower girl is Matt's cousins' daughter, Abigale.  Abigale is about to turn 5 years old and is absolutely adorable.  Our ring bearer is my friend (and personal attendant)'s son, Jaxson.  Jaxson will be 3 years old soon and is also adorable.

Here's proof:

Seriously, are these not the cutest children of all time?  We recently found a flower girl dress for Abigale that matches the wedding colors and tomorrow I will be ordering a tiny little tux for Jaxson!

Control

Hi, my name is Erin, and I'm a control freak.

This is not new information to me...nor is it news to anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with me, but it has become abundantly clear throughout the past several weeks. In planning a wedding, there are many decisions to be made, many tasks to be done, and many people who have offered to assist. However, the event planner in me has a great deal of trouble relinquishing control of, well, anything.

Other than handing a few things off to Matt (because I suppose it is his wedding too!) I have for the most part preferred to do things for myself for two reasons. One, it's generally more difficult to explain to someone what you want than it is to just do it yourself. Two, when you hand something off, you lose the comfort of knowing that it will turn out exactly how you want it. (Yes, I know, I'm ridiculous.)

I made this realization after discovering how weird it was to have other people planning a bachelorette party and a shower for me. While everyone is doing a fabulous job, and I have no desire to throw either event for myself, it's strange for me to let someone else plan something.

So for those of you who have graciously offered to help me and I have yet to take you up on it...and there are many of you...don't worry, it's not you, it's me. I have issues. Although I do have the occasional need for immediate advice or reassurance, (thank goodness for gchat!) I'm in good shape. On the plus side, if the wedding falls apart I will have only myself to blame. :)

Jamaica

I went on a vacation to Jamaica with my dad, my former coworker David, his wife, and my cats. When we got there we decided to go to the beach, so we all put on our swimsuits and headed out.  I had accidentally brought a lap swimming suit instead of a regular suit and when we got to the beach, David's wife wanted to know why I hadn't brought a cuter swimming suit to wear.  I went back to the room to find something different to wear and when I got there, the maids were going through all of our bags looting our stuff.  I started yelling at the cats for not protecting our stuff, and I shooed the maids out of the room.  Then as I was looking for something else to wear I realized I had only brought two outfits for the trip and a whole bunch of hooded sweatshirts.

Then my phone rang and it was my coworkers Mike and Brent, telling me that they were on their way to Jamaica for a work convention with another coworker, Amy.  It turned out they were staying in the same hotel that we were, and when they got there, Mike had a meeting so Brent and Amy wanted to go to dinner with my dad and I.  When we got there, Brent decided that he wanted us to take him white water rafting the next day, so I told him where to meet us.  Brent and Amy never showed up though, so I took my cats to go find them.  We got in the car and started driving around West Des Moines near the corner of Mills Civic and 50th, but they were nowhere to be found.

The silver boxes

I was in my high school gymnasium with my dad when suddenly I realized that we were surrounded by tiny silver boxes that seemed to have some sort of electrical current running through them.  I knew at that moment that we were in grave danger because the boxes were going to explode, but my dad wouldn't listen to me.  We were the only people in the gym, so I decided I needed to go get reinforcements to talk my dad into leaving the gym.

As I ran down the hall, I had a feeling that the silver boxes were scattered throughout the school and I needed to find Matt to get him out of the building as well.  I went to work and started looking in each of the offices, but I couldn't find him.  Then my office phone rang and it was Matt.  He was trapped in a tower on the other side of the high school and the only way to get to him was to walk over a tightrope that connected the DMU campus to Ottumwa High School. He also told me that the people who had set up the small boxes knew that I was coming after them and they would be trying to deter me from crossing the rope.

I needed to figure out a way to get my dad out of the gym and rescue Matt, but I suddenly because suspicious that my dad was in cahoots with the people who set out the boxes, so I decided to go rescue Matt.  I started to walk over the tightrope with hundreds of people on the ground below me cheering, and then balls started flying through the air at me that I had to dodge and jump over.  I finally made it to Matt, we walked down the stairs, and outside.  I took him to Hilton Coliseum and told him to hide in the tunnel with me because we would be safe from the electric current as long as we stayed there.

All about bridesmaids!

I stumbled upon this video today from the Dessy Group about the history and the role of bridesmaids. I thought it was cute so I'm sharing it with you in honor of my four fantastic bridesmaids!