Old Soul, Young Heart

I thought it would be cute--since I have a brother and Philip has a sister--to do a "sibling dance." Also, I had never heard of that before, so I thought it was a unique idea. So that's what we did. We danced to "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King. It was fun.

We got three things this weekend for the house so far and will get three more tomorrow! Purchase #1:  Bedding for the guest bedroom. I saw a yellow and gray set that I really, really wanted at Kohl's... but it would've ended up being like around $300 total and that is not in our budget. So this 7 piece set from Bed Bath and Beyond was only $80 with my 20% off coupon. I will get a couple of yellow throw pillows and some yellow window panels, because I like the idea of a yellow and gray bedroom and Philip's black furniture will look really nice with it. Purchases #2 and #3: Downstairs half bath vanity and sink. We also got a mirror to match. The half bath on the main floor definitely needs a facelift and this was on sale at Lowe's this weekend, so we couldn't pass it up. We actually don't know if it'll fit yet, but we'll be at the house on Wednesday to measure (and to do the inspection!). We also got paint chips! (Is that wh

Life is just the craziest. We offered on the house in Towanda last night and after a few negotiations (that went until 11:15 pm)... we got it!  On October 11, this gem will be ours! It is exciting and scary and overwhelming all at the same time. We're so lucky to be able to purchase our first home together. :)

Me and daddy. He's so cute. Our dance together was "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys. My dad loves the Beach Boys. I will always think of him when I hear any song by that group. The Beach Boys remind me of cruising around town in my dad's old hot rods. (My dad has always had some sort of antique vehicle and we went to the Hot Rod Nationals in Columbus, Ohio a few times when I was growing up. Super fun vacation for a kid. I mean, it really was.) I also love that song because it's at the end of Love Actually and that part always makes me cry. The words are true and it just makes me think of how lucky I am to have a loving family and how my life wouldn't be as good without them. So it seemed perfectly appropriate. Philip and his mom danced to a song that I don't know or remember. :( Someone told me it was very heartfelt, though. Also I feel bad because I was talking to people the whole time and didn't get to watch them. But their pic

Philip and I have never had a song. He is a music person and I used to be, but his taste in music is not exactly what you would play at a wedding reception (nor would he want his taste to be what you would play at a wedding reception). So the music part in general was somewhat difficult. I have more mainstream taste than he does, but thinking of a good, classic, not overly used, and non-cheesy first dance song was a bit of a challenge. For a long time I thought our first dance song would be "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis. It's Elvis; how can you go wrong? I was a fan and Philip was too, but towards the end I felt like he wasn't as excited about it. Then I thought of the song, "The Way You Look Tonight" by Sinatra. Honestly the first time I heard this song was in the movie My Best Friend's Wedding . (A lot of songs always come back to the movies for me!) I mean, the first time I saw that movie I was probably 13, so to know of Frank Sinatra

I am so very unapologetically behind on Marriage Monday. You don't care. I don't care. So this week I'm talking about other fun things that were at our reception. I knew I wanted a unique card box because I think card boxes in general are pretty tacky and ugly. At one point I was thinking of doing some Up inspired things and I thought a mailbox would be super cute--Philip and I could paint our hands and names on it, ya know. I didn't end up doing the Up  stuff, but I still had a mailbox for our cards. It was like $12 at Home Depot and my uncle Randy made a little stand out of wood so that it would stand up properly. It was one of the last things that I decorated, so it looks not great... but it was cute enough! My dad painted the flag silver for me haha. (The purple stuff is removable if anyone wants to use this for their own wedding!) I was pretty pleased with how our seating chart came out. I designed in it a Word document and then just had it blo

It pays to sign up for e-newsletters from companies. You get all sorts of free stuff at your birthday! (Thanks to Hannah for the idea to get all of these emails. Worth it!) Free bowl of noodles from Noodles & Co. Free double steakburger and fries from Steak N Shake Free 10" pizza or half chicken from Tobin's Free entree from Moe's Southwest Grill Free sandwich or 8" pizza from Schlotzsky's Free scoop from Baskin Robbins Free sundae from Culver's Other deals: BOGO Blizzard from Dairy Queen BOGO creation from Cold Stone $5 off at McAllister's

Right after dinner, we cut the cake. I was really against walking right in and doing the cake even though I've seen other people do that. I understand the reasoning behind it (get it over with, gives people time to cut it up for the guests), but I just always think that's so weird because dessert comes after the meal. So we waited until we were done eating. The cake turned out cute. (Though I wish that photo would've been taken from an angle where the top wasn't mashed looking, but that's okay. I realize that I'm way too picky.) I thought about doing a cake topper, but couldn't decide on something, so I just decided to go plain and it was fine. Cake toppers are ridiculously expensive... another unneeded cost. The cake was hard to cut! It was super thick--double layer, of course--and we really had to saw through it and it took a second! Also, it was really awkward trying to feed each other food. All of the other photos have a big brown do

But love goes on forever.

The tables at the reception gave me a bit of an ulcer; they were perhaps the most stressful thing for me in terms of wedding planning. I had a vision of what I wanted them to look like and it just wasn't coming together as I hoped it would. I knew I was going to do candles somehow because flowers are ridiculously expensive and just an unneeded cost. I originally bought some candle holders from ebay to use as the centerpieces. They were black and I asked my dad to spray paint them silver for me. The paint didn't stick and it just made them look super cheap, so I was pretty upset about it. I had spent a little money on them and didn't have enough left in the centerpiece budget to buy or rent different ones. Philip's parents caught wind of my dilemma and offered to pay for me to rent what I wanted. I was so thankful because I got a trio of glass candle holders from I Do Events in Washington and they turned out so lovely. I put all of this pressure on myself to

We were pretty excited for the food. I mean, I can only speak for myself here, but Philip really liked the food when we taste tested it at Eastland a few weeks prior. We were pleasantly surprised with how great it was. It's actually kind of scary to choose your reception venue without having tasted their food, because what if it's awful? And now you're stuck with a nice looking venue but no one's going to enjoy the meal? Well, we didn't have that problem! I made these menus for every seat. Yes--I made over 100 of these menus. I asked Eastland to fold the napkins this way so that the menus could fit inside. Luckily they were totally on board when I brought them a printed out tutorial on how to fold the napkins. I mean, I was trying really hard not to be micro-managey, but c'mon... I wanted it the way I wanted it and it was great because the girls at Eastland were like, "Awesome, we finally get to do something different!" I can't believe I

After walking in, we went right into speeches. My aunt Peggy was up first. Poor thing didn't have her reading glasses, so she couldn't see what she wrote! But she said some super sweet things. :) Michele was up next. Bringing up watching hockey again haha. Love her. Then Trey went. I think this pic was taken when he said something about the only time Philip went rollerblading by himself was when he met me at the skatepark haha. I love this picture because of how wide open and awkward my eyes are and how hilarious Brooke looks. Awe... hugging after the semi-emotional best man speech. :) Let's get this party started! Looking back, I wish that Philip or I would've said something to the group about thanks for coming and spending the time with us. I think it's always nice when the couple says something before people dive into food. I had thought about it ahead of time, but knew that I'd be nervous for it and I had already had enough

Late again. Sorry! We got to Eastland Suites and had a pic with the limo. (Woot!) Then we lined up outside of the double doors and awaited our entrance into the reception.  It was nice to be in the little lobby area for a minute because they were playing our pre-determined cocktail hour songs. (Well, duh!) But it just felt fun because it was actually happening. After choosing the songs and figuring out in what order they should be played and putting them on a cd, they were actually being played. And I said to Philip, "Awe... it's this song. This is such a good song." And the reception was about to start. After so much planning, the party was happening. And then all of a sudden I heard the intro to the song "Celebrate Good Times" and for a moment I freaked out. I said, "This isn't the right song!" And the wedding coordinator at Eastland Suites calmed me down by saying, "No, no... he's just trying to get everyone's attent

For awhile I've been thinking about getting a second job. We're trying to save more money for a down payment while also paying off credit card bills and anything extra will be helpful. A couple of weeks ago I phone interviewed for a merchandiser position with American Greetings and then I had an in-person "interview," which was essentially her saying, "Welcome to the team," which was exactly what I wanted her to say, because--honestly--I want my second job to be as easy as possible. This little job means that I'm going into stores that carry the cards, straightening them, and putting out and ordering products. I've done a lot of training online, but this past Wednesday and today were my first days actually working in a store. I must say that I am not a huge fan. I have a few problems with the American Greetings company right off the cuff: Their cards are super expensive. I personally send a lot of cards (probably more than most people) and I h

I've been in a bit of a funk lately, hence the reason why I'm behind on Marriage Monday. It was difficult to come up with a theme for every week until our one year anniversary, so bear with me on this one. It's lame. We had the Eastland Suites limo take us from the chapel to the reception. Unfortunately it wasn't big enough inside to fit everyone from our bridal party (even though our bridal party was small!). But we had myself and my groom, Michele, and the boys. We popped the champagne (both the bottle that I bought and the bottle that Eastland Suites gave us) and had a grand little time during our 10 minute drive. Luckily Michele had her phone with her and was able to take these pictures.

The normal Marriage Monday programming is interrupted to give a little review of our wedding venue - Evelyn Chapel. Well, you all originally heard (read) the saga of the wedding venue. The general prerequisites for considering a space was that it was indoors, small(ish), and somewhat spiritually/religiously affiliated. Secondarily, we wanted a spot that was generally easy to get to from the interstate since literally every single one of the Philip's family members/friends was coming from out of town. After sending a lot of email inquiries and visiting Evelyn Chapel and Calvary United Methodist Church, I knew I really had my heart set on the chapel. Though it wasn't the easiest to get to, it is what I wanted--simple, pretty, calm, and intimate. The planning process at Evelyn was great, though they do have a few rules to follow. The rules really make a simple service a requirement. Our little wedding planning helper (I can't remember her name--Emily, I think?