August 12, 2012

First look. We chose to see each other before the ceremony. Highly recommend.

Watching guests arrive before the ceremony.

It's really hard to sum up your wedding day in a blog post. I also don't want to go on and on and on. So I will try to keep it simple. Everything went wonderfully! All the minor (maybe even sometimes major) meltdowns beforehand were worth it because everything went so smoothly that weekend. Instead of rehashing the whole day and citing my imfamous timeline (which we actually stayed on, or were ahead of schedule I would like to note), I think I will stick to a THANK YOU post (with a lot of pictures). We have so many people to thank... our parents who helped to and provided to us a celebration that we will remember for a lifetime. Our fabulous bridal party, especially my sister and brother-in-law who held the whole thing together and all of our generous and wonderful guests who travelled to be with us for our special day.

Bridesmaids

There are also a few beyond amazing vendors that made of day truly special. Andy Booth is not only Pittsburgh's best DJ, but also such a super nice guy. Michael Williams and his wife Jennifer of Michael Will Photography who were the coolest photographers ever and helped the day to go extra smoothly. I can't wait to see the pictures. The people at Pittsburgh's Grand Hall at the Priory who thankfully are more type A than me. And then Maryanne Evankovich who literally saved the day with all my dress alterations! And Kelsey Reagan, my favorite cousin-in-law, who stayed up all night making a cake and cupcakes that were beyond what I could have ever imagined as perfect both visually and tastefully :) and Dee's florals who made my crazy hen and chicks love work into a wedding. And the Church Brew Works for hosting our rehearsal dinner and maybe making a few unwanted donations to our bridal party's kitchen cabinets. This is a lot of people now that I'm listing them all. Finally, Father Tom at Christ Church Fox Chapel who took us on and married us after THIS whole ordeal!

Checking out cupcakes!

Cupcakes by Kelsey!

Matt and I are so lucky to have such great people in our lives. We can never thank everyone enough for helping to bring the day of our dreams together. Now if only it didn't have to go so fast and we could do it all over again, it really would be perfect.

Our favors featuring both Pittsburgh and Boston

Reality Check

The wedding is over. The honeymoon is over. As if that's not depressing enough...school starts (for teachers) tomorrow. Even worse yet, because of the chaos that was my August...I have nothing prepared for school. I have a feeling this week will include a lot of late nights at BES. Talk about going from one end of the spectrum to the other...

I promise a wedding post this week as well as a honeymoon one. I am going to upload all my Hawaii pictures to facebook at some point today. And hopefully work on those blog posts as well so they actually do get posted. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I will try to keep from crying.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

Yes friends, it's here..."wedding weekend." Here is a look at all the things we took to the reception venue this morning. I think this shall be my last post until after we get back from Hawaii. So tomorrow starts the Life and Times of Erin blogging vacation. Don't miss me too much. And on a last note...Happy Anniversary to my parents who have been married 37 years today!

August

August is finally here! I say this happily for now. Come August 25th I may be singing a different tune. For now, though, here are five things I've been up to:

1. Friday was my last day of babysitting. I will miss my friends and our adventures. I will not miss this...

2. This weekend I made tons of recipes. I used an old favorite that I will freeze and take on our vacation with us for snacks along the way and some new ones too. Look for them in upcoming posts. I also got to use my new KitchenAid mixer for the first time ever. That thing is magic. I should have got one years ago.

3. We also went to my friend Nicole's wedding. It was beautiful and was in one of the coolest venues I have ever been to. Check out this picture of her and her dad. Isn't it awesome?

4. Matt and I spent yesterday evening trying to organize and pack for the next two weeks. This is what our bedroom looks like right now. You should see all the stuff I have already taken to Pittsburgh...

5. I went into BES today to try to get a jump on organizing my life there. So depressing. This summer has gone so fast. It was nice to get some stuff done so our vacation will be a little more mentally relaxing. 

There's my five. August has already been busy, but it's about to get a lot more exciting. I think I have a post of two left in me before I take a blogging vacation...I'm sure the post will be wedding related. 6 days!

Recipe of the Week!

Sweet Potato Chips

So this is just one of those recipes that randomly occurred one night. There was one sweet potato in the house. I don't really like sweet potatoes. Matt loves sweet potatoes. It really just needed to be eaten. I love chips. Like LOVE. I can't buy them at the grocery store, or really be near them, because I will literally eat the entire bag and still want more. I love chips. So I tried making some sweet potato "chips." I tried slicing the sweet potato as thin as possible. I tossed them in olive oil and laid them on a cookie sheet. I sprinkled them with salt and cayenne pepper, and flipped them about half way through the cook time...until they were golden on each side. 

They were decent. Not really chip-like, maybe more fry-like. Worth a try if you are a sweet potato fan for sure. Also, incase you were wondering...I only like BURNT hot dogs. Usually they have to be Nathan's brand too. 

Guess What?!?!

Yep! I finally did it. I took the plunge and bought myself a new computer. I already feel like I was missing out on so much for like the past 2-4 years. I also feel like I wish someone would make everything just be the way I want it to me automatically. My plan for cleaning has definitely suffered. The price you pay...YAY!

Long Time, No Blog

TEN DAYS and no blog post!!! Can you believe it? Maybe you can since my blogging habits have seriously gone by the wayside this summer. I did seriously intend to write a post 2 days ago then ran out of time, and then yesterday I even sat with my computer with the blog page open, but guess what happened? Yep, my antique, original MacBook Pro deciding blogging was far too much for it to handle. And even now I am using Matt's computer so I don't have to wake mine from it's slumber and argue with it. This is a problem I fully intend to solve before getting married. A new computer is going to happen ASAP.

Anyway, speaking of wedding. Last Thursday night we traveled to Pittsburgh (I can't believe this was a week ago) to get our last wedding details taken care of. We got our marriage license, I had my dress fit, I wrote a lot of emails, finalized numbers, etc. It was busy. I almost had my first official, full-on bridal meltdown on Monday morning. I had to get my hair trial done which I didn't want to do in the first place, but I sure am glad I did. It was a hot, hot mess. I made the poor girl redo it since it looked like I was going to the 8th grade dinner dance. The second time was only slightly better and still not what I asked for. This is when I almost freaked out, but somehow held it together. The third time it was going in the right direction, but not quite there. I'm sure I was definitely talked about the rest of the day. Bridezilla.

I guess the other main highlights include the Penn State sanctions (maybe we should say lowlight)...I'm sure you can guess my thoughts on this. I think I've decided not to blog about it. I'm accepting it and moving forward because I believe that Penn State is Penn State. We will prevail.

Lastly, I only have six days of babysitting left this summer. I'm excited for a nice vacation, but at the same time I will (sort of) miss my little friends and this also means summer is flying by way too fast. I hate that! I think those are my main updates for now. More reliable posts to come post computer renewal!