Wedding ABCs

May 14, 2005

Wedding ABC's

Justin and I have been married for 6 1/2 years and I wanted to share our special day with you. So here are our Wedding ABC's.

Attending:

I'd say we had about 150-200 guests

Bridesmaids:

I had 4 bridesmaids.  My best friend Lauren from elementary school,  Bonnie my sorority sister from college, Crystal my good friend from college, and Alex my old neighbor from Tennessee

Catering:

Our food cake from a butcher in Peoria and our cake was designed by Justin's Aunt Lil and was made by her friend.  

We also had a cookie monster cookie which was our groom's cake.

Dress:

I loved my dress! I got it at House of Brides in Schaumburg.  It was the most expensive piece of the wedding.  My dress was made by Impressions and so were the bridesmaids dresses.

Engagement:

Justin proposed December 20th of 2003 and we were married May 14th 2005.

Flowers:

Our flowers were done by Leo's florist in Peoria.  Well my bouquet was done by them and we rented two fake flowers for the alter.  The grooms flowers and mothers flowers were done by them too.  My mother in law maid the brides maids flowers.

My bouquet

Bridesmaid's- Justin's mom got the flowers at Sam's

Groomsmen:

Justin had 4 groomsmen- Darien his bestman and childhood friend, Adam his high school friend, Joe his childhood friend, and Tate his friend from the college years.

We also had two ushers Jason and Joel

Honeymoon:

Our honeymoon was to our now favorite resort El Dorado Royale in Rivera Maya Mexico.  We stayed 6 days and 5 night, which we now learned is not long enough.  We booked through Suzi Davis travel in Peoria.  We went May 16-21.

Invitations:

Our invitations were very simple and classic, silver and white with a Chinese symbol.

Justice of the Peace:

I suppose this means the preacher. Our preacher was Justin's childhood pastor Phil Summers.

Keepsakes:

As a keepsake for us, we had guests sign a book and take pictures with a disposable camera.

Ladies Night:

We had my bachelorette night in downtown Chicago.  Bonnie, Crystal, and I took the train into the city and stayed at a hotel.  We went to Excalibur and ate at the new Rock and Roll McDonald's.

Music:

Our wedding music was pretty traditional. We could not have dancing out our reception so Justin made a cd of songs from Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts that played during the reception.

Newlyweds:

Justin's parents got us a cool room at the Day's in for our wedding night.  Who would have thought the Days Inn Mortin would have a room like this.

On the day after our wedding,

we went to my parents to open gifts.

Old, new, borrowed, blue:

My something old ?

My something new was my dress and jewelery

My something borrowed  I don't remember if I had anything borrowed.

My something blue was my garter.

Photography:

Our photography was done by a friend of Justin's, he did a great job for a good price.

Question popping:

Justin recreated our first date of dinner and a movie.  I kind of messed it up a bit and he asked me in the Olive Garden parking lot in Peoria.  Afterwards we went to see the Lord of the Rings the Return of the Kings.  It was such a special night!

Reception:

We had make your own sandwiches, lots of cake, and music.  No dancing or drinking was allowed. So we had a post reception, reception at one of our favorite bars Sully's.
Feeding cake, none got on the dress.
 
Garter time

 Dad and Grant at the after party

Shoes:

They were horrible and I think they came from Payless.  Before the reception I changed in to comfortable red flip flops

Trash the Dress:

Nope...it's still at mom and dads.  Al thought I would like more pictures in it one day, I just do not want to trash it.

Unique:

Having our post reception at Sully's and then going to Richard's to play pool.  We got to incorporate some of the places we loved while dating.

Vows:

We recited traditional vows.

Wedding Woes:

Since the wedding was in Peoria, having to coordinate everything when I came down to visit was rough at times.

X-rated:

Umm....no.....

Young kids:

We didn't have a flower girl or a ring bearer. There were also very few children invited to the wedding.

Zzzzz:

The party did not end until pretty late.  We almost fell asleep at the hotel before heading to Sully's after the wedding.  The next day we drove to Chicago to mom and dad's before heading on the Honeymoon on Monday.

Thank you for reading my Wedding ABC's. It's always fun to look back at our special day!

New Years in Peoria

This year we got to spend New Years in Peoria, which as always was a lot of fun.  We went down Sat morning and hung out with Sarah and Joel.  We went to Panera for lunch, then Sarah and I went to Hallmark and Charming Charlies where I got a cool belt.  That night we went to EP's Time out for dinner with Joe, Adam, Mindy, Sarah, Joel, Amanda, and Joe.  It was a good time and I had the Ruben.  Afterwards we went to Sarah and Joel's and played Rock Band and hung out . Reggie and Kelly came over and we got to spend some time with them too.

Christmas in Peoria

This year we went to Peoria for Christmas like we do every year.  We went down on the 23rd and came home the 26th.  While down there we got to see Darien and his new wife Luci.  We also got to see Kevin and their mom and had lunch with them at Busy Corner.  Justin's parents got a new cat named Dandy, he is only 10 weeks old.  Sat afternoon Scott dropped the girls off and Melody came Sunday morning around 2am.  We had a nice time playing with the girls and doing crafts.  Melody and I got to catch up and hang out in the hot tub.  Friday night we went to Monicals for dinner and to the new Bass Pro in East Peoria, it was very cool.

Christmas with Mom and Dad

Mom and Dad came over for Christmas Dec 17th, the day we got Tobi.  I made manacotti for dinner and bought a Panattone cake.  We got mom and dad a Blu Ray player and new house phones.  They got us new pots and pans which we needed since our current ones are 40 years old.

Our Newest Family Member

Tobi

Meet Tobi, Guido's new brother.  Tobi came to live with us on December 17th.  My co worker Eddie was looking for someone to adopt Tobi because their dog Duke is allergic to him and they are having a new baby.  I said I would try and find Tobi a home.  Well once I saw Tobi's picture I fell in love.  The first few days with Tobi and Guido were rough.  We had Tobi in the bathroom at night and the bedroom during the day.  Poor Tobi cried at night which made it hard on us.  By day 2 I let Tobi roam free and was like you two sort it out.  Tobi and Guido now get along great.  The love to wrestle and lay on the bed and sleep. 

Fill In the Blank

1.   The last thing I ate was    Pumpkin and cheese ravioli from That Pasta Place   .

2.   The last song I listened to was   Paris by Jay Z and Kanye     .

3.  Using the letters in my name I can spell   (Emily) Em, My, Mile, Lime     .

4.  If I had to dress in one color for the rest of my life I would pick     green because it is my favorite color    .

5.  If you were to look in my bag right now you'd find   if it was my purse than my wallet, gum, keys, lock for gym,  and other stuff .

6.  When I finish filling in the blanks I'm going to   go play Gears of War 3.

7.  My all time favorite song to dance to is   Pour Some Sugar on Me  .