An Update!

This weekend marks the 6 month anniversary of The Newlyweds. They got married on January 7th this year and had a wonderful wedding. They've settled into their own domestic routine and have started their life together.

But it's always fun to look back...

I knew that he must REALLY like her when he asked her to cut his hair after she had been in cosmetology school for only a month. That's a sign of courage in a man.

 Although he looks a little nervous here...

Bonding with the family. In this instance, going camping together in January. And then deciding to go swimming in a nearby spring. 

When it's a balmy 44 degrees outside.

Wearing silly hats together... 

Declaring your love on the garage door...

Spending time together.

And then before you know it, you find yourself a bridal store with your sister and your mom, trying to find "the one".

Finding "the one" and then getting ready to meet your groom.

And then your groom sees you...

and you begin your journey together!

Happy 6th month anniversary kiddos, sure do love you!

Time To Move On

With everything in life, change always comes. And now it's time for this blog to change. To come to a close.

Tonight after spending some precious family time together, my daughter left our family home and went with her husband to their home. The first night back from their honeymoon and it's as it should be. It's as the Lord designed life to be. We are closing a chapter but beginning a new one!

So I won't be posting any new stories here. But that doesn't mean I've decided to stop blogging...I'm just going to be blogging somewhere new. And when I figure out where that is, I hope you'll visit once in a while!

Thanks for sharing with me the craziness of a daughter's wedding...maybe someday I'll have The Grandma Chronicles to share!

We Have A Winner!

Lord help me but I ordered 850...and that means the answer is C...and our winner is...Cathy B from Atlanta!

It's Giveaway Time!

*********** Comments Are Closed***********

Confession time...the happy couple stole an idea for their wedding reception from another happy couple's wedding reception. There, it's done. Out in the open.

Ok...well now I feel really bad.

Alright, technically it was the bride and me, not the groom who stole the idea. Truthfully, the groom wasn't even in the same state when we perpetrated the crime.

That's better. I guess.

Here's what happened. The bride, myself and the father of the bride traveled out of town to the wedding of the daughter of two of our closest friends. We had a wonderful time (except the three and a half hours I spent crying in the backseat after the bride hurt my feeling...earlier that morning the comment had been made, "I bet Mrs. Dana never asked Melanie to put green glitter candles on her tables."...just hateful I tell you).

Anyway, the bride, the groom, the wedding, everything was just beautiful. And then, as we headed to our table, we saw them. They were sitting neatly tucked within our napkin, just waiting for us. They were classic. They were retro. They were just about perfect.

They were monogrammed matchbooks.

They were missing piece to the table setting we had been searching for all those long autumn weeks. And then suddenly, as quick as walking into a room, the puzzle was complete. We should have monogrammed matchbooks at the happy couple's reception too!

When we returned, the bride showed the groom the matchbooks we brought home and he thought it was a wonderful idea (I guess that makes him an accomplice after all, ha!) so we set out to order them. The happy couple decided to change it up a bit and split the order. Half matchsticks (in the slide out box) and the other half matchbooks. We decided we would get 150 of each for (you guessed it) a total of 300.

The happy couple ordered 150 matchboxes that evening and the next day I was going to order the matchbooks. The price the happy couple quoted me was decent so I thought the matchbooks might be even a little cheaper. But when I got to the checkout it was way over what the happy couple had paid for the matchboxes! But being in the midst of monogrammed matchbook mania, I hesitated but a moment and then clicked the Place Order button. And then promptly forgot about them.

10 days later as the happy couple and I were standing in the garage, looking at who-knows-what now, Ted stopped by for his daily visit. Ted is our UPS guy. We've become very close. Last week, he and his wife asked me to be in the delivery room with them when their first baby is born.

Ted had stopped by to deliver the matches. In a really, really, really big box. Really big.

Now the happy couple's order was perfect. 150 matchboxes. My order? Notsomuch. And here's where the giveaway comes in...you get to guess just how many matchbooks I actually ordered.

Here's how you play:

Leave (just one!) comment with your guess of (A, B, C or D) and when times up, I'll put all the correct guesses in a bowl and pick a winner!

Whatcha playing for?

(1) One $25 VISA gift card

so here we go.......how many matchbooks did I really order?

A. 350

B. 550

C. 850

D. 1150

Comments will be closed Saturday, January 15, 2012
at 11:00 p.m. Eastern

Sign Here. Initial There. Date Here. Retina Scan There. Thumbprint Optional.

A tree arrived at the house the other day, packaged in a long brown tube.

It's the happy couple's guest book.

When I asked the bride, "what kind of guest book would you like to have?" I thought she might say, ""oh, you know, one with nice binding and a pretty silver pen."

Nope. "I want a tree!"

What the bride meant was yes, she did want a tree, but a tree printed on a large sheet of paper with lots and lots of leaves for the happy couple's guests to sign. So we went to our laptops and the search began...

And I was surprised to find so many different options, not only trees but lots of other unusual items people are now selling as "guest book alternatives"...

You can buy clothes pins stamped with the happy couple's name and then your guests hang their well wishes on a small clothes line set up near the bridal party table. In addition to leaving well wishes, your guests can also get same day service on 5 pieces of dry cleaning if it's left before the hor douves are served.

Another idea is pebble notes or wishing stones. Each guest receives a small smooth stone in which they write their fondest wish for the happy couple. These also come in handy if there's a line for wedding cake. Just a couple of well placed throws across the room and you've got the distraction you need to cut in line.

There are signing platters, signing dishes, signing cards, signing hearts, and finally signing puzzles. Each guest signs a puzzle piece and then on the honeymoon the happy couple puts the puzzle together to see who came to the wedding...yep...on the honeymoon...

Our happy couple decided to go with the tree but then they also wanted a traditional option and so a guestbook with nice binding and a pretty silver pen was also purchased. And then a 16 x 20 mat with one of their engagement pictures mounted in it was also needed for guests to sign well wishes.

It's going take people an hour to get from the foyer to their seats...

It. Is. Done.

Well, the big day has come and gone...about 96 hours ago my little girl walked down the aisle into the arms of her prince.

So why did I stop blogging? Well as we got closer and closer to the big day (which btw occurred only a few days after Christmas...I think the happy couple planned it that way just to see how close to the edge they could push me) I realized I wasn't able to give the attention I wanted to give to the 'ol blog and help plan the wedding. And work full time. And take care of the bride's siblings. And be nice to my husband. And eat.

So something had to give and since I wasn't budging on the "give up eating" option, the blog got put on the shelf. But now that the happy couple are on their honeymoon (the one wedding item I didn't have to provide a credit card number for) and the bride's siblings have clean clothes (thanks Aunt Lynn) and my husband thinks I'm the cat's meow again and we ate something other than fast food two nights in a row, I thought I'd finish the tale we started months ago.

Stick around, it may be fun!

Bouquets & Rice: Week 16 - Odds & Ends

Well, today is a big day...it's the bride's shower! Another milestone on the way to the wedding. The bride is very excited, so excited that she decided at 10:45 last night that she needed to color her hair for the big day. I went to bed with the same hair color.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The bride picked out ribbon for the bouquets the other day and after 22 minutes of standing in the middle of the ribbon aisle, in front of hundreds and hundreds of spools of ribbon, discussing the subtle difference between "fern" and "olive" she finally picked a ribbon color.

It was cream.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The happy couple received their first wedding gift this week. And this is the groom's special gift-opening teeth-technique...

True story...this gift was from a couple of our oldest and dearest friends...and the husband is a dentist.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night as I was falling asleep the thought popped into my head that Christmas is a mere 50 or so days away. Then a few weeks later is the wedding.

I got up and washed a load of clothes. And then I colored my hair.