Wedding Party Party

On Saturday J and I hosted a party for our wedding party. We really want our wedding to be as fun as it possibly can be, and our wedding party plays a huge part in making that happen. These people are our best friends and if they have to walk down the aisle together, they could at least know each other. I figure, the better these people know each other, the more fun they will have. We rented out the party room in our townhouse's community and it worked perfectly! I made a bunch of appetizers, everyone brought their own beverages and we had March Madness proudly displayed on the TV. I was absolutely shocked and beyond thrilled that almost our entire wedding party was able to attend. The only person we were missing was my little sister (and Junior Bridesmaid), Kara, because she had a dance competition. Other than that all the bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, personal attendant and second Junior BM were in attendance.

I had so much fun! Everyone got along great and were really making an effort to get to know each other!

Me with my brother and sister! :)


The Bride, Groom, Best Man and Maid of Honor!


The (almost) F_____ Ladies! Me, J's step-mom, sisters and of course Bailey!


My BB, Sissy and I showing off our super tall hooker heels


I got to have all of my girls together for the first time!

they may be gorgeous, but they're fun too....


It was quite a production getting the entire wedding party together to pose for a picture, but it was good practice.

and a crazy one, kinda....


My favorite picture and favorite part of the night...after our group pic friend/groomsman Jeff gave a quick toast to me and J and our amazing wedding party! Then we all put our hands in and shouted "1,2,3 Shit Show!" (Embrace the Shit Show is the theme of our wedding......because with our family and our friends we just have to embrace that it will be a shit show no matter how hard we try.)

Just love this! J and I look so happy surrounded by our favorite people! :)

And like all good parties, our party ended with some Tooters!

2010

2010 has been one for the books. This year has been filled with trials and tribulations. It has been a challenging year and an extremely exciting year. I should have known that with the way this year started it was going to be amazing. We threw a last second party together and it just so happened our 6 closest friends were free. It was without a doubt the best New Year's I've ever had and was a perfect way to set the tone for the year to come.

In March, with the help of my family, we took a leap of faith and started a business. March 1st, 2010 will always be the day we opened Coffee Buzz's doors. It has been an unbelievable experience so far. It's be so exciting and hard and stressful and gratifying and scary and just all around consuming. I think overall our first year was a success and I am optimistic that 2011 will bring great things for Coffee Buzz.

Along with the rest of Minnesota we got to celebrate the opening of our brand new baseball field, Target Field. J and I were lucky enough to go to several Twins games at the new stadium and felt so lucky to be apart of such a big event in Minnesota history!

In May, I was lucky enough to take a three day trip to New York City with my mom! We shopped, ate way too much and fulfilled one of her longtime dreams of seeing Bon Jovi in concert! It was a trip to remember!

I was also lucky enough to be a part of three weddings this year. In May I was a bridesmaid in my friend Brianna's wedding.

I was the Maid of Honor in my mom's wedding AND gained a step-dad and two step-sisters!


Then, just last month I got to dance the night away at one of my best guy friend's wedding.

This year also marked a huge milestone for me! I went from absolutely hating running (well, I still sort of do) to running my very first 5k. It was a huge accomplishment for me and it was really fun!

It was also a huge year for J because he turned 30!!! I threw a huge party for him and made sure to make this milestone good and celebrated! It was such a fun week!

And, of course, this is the year that my best friend and love of my life asked me to be his wife! For this reason 2010 will always be so special! 9/2/10 was the best day of my life and I CANNOT wait to walk down the aisle in 2011!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve! Be safe and cheers to a wonderful 2011!

OMG

Welcome to Monday blog friends! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! We sure did. Once again this year was filled with flying all over town trying to see as many people as we possibly can. We spent Christmas Eve afternoon with my dad playing games. Then, Christmas Eve night was spent at J's Aunt and Uncle's which is always hilarious because his family is a minimum of 35 people. Then Christmas morning we were at J's dad's for breakfast. Next, we went to my mom's for Christmas dinner and finally we headed up north to Milaca to spend Christmas night with J's mom. Whew, I'm getting tired just thinking about it. Needless to say we are both exhausted. We are so lucky to have so many people who want to see us but it really does get so tiring bouncing from place to place. I can't wait until we have a house and can host!

Our families were extremely generous this year and we both received some pretty wonderful gifts! Among my favorites are...

Tim McGraw's Number One Hits from my little sister....I haven't stopped listening to it!

Tiffany's "Eau de Parfum Atomiseur" from my mama!

A super cute light blue (my fave color) cover for my Nook along with a screen protector and ear phones from my Auntie Lisa.


Bobby Flay's "Burgers, Fries & Shakes" cookbook from my dad! There are soooo many amazing recipes in this book! I cannot wait to try them and of course share them with you! Caesar Salad Burger, anyone?!


Habanero Mango and Green Tea Wasabi hot sauces from Blair's Heat collection! Sooo excited to try these!!!

AND, thanks to my extremely generous family I now have enough money to buy the wedding shoes I thought I could only ever dream of!!! I am sooooo worked up! But, I'm not sharing those with you until I have them in my possession! Plus, they deserve a post all their own! Swoon!

Like I said, we spent Christmas evening and Sunday afternoon up in Milaca with J's mom and step-dad. A while back J's mom had found a couple of huge boxes filled with pictures of J and his sister Nicole when they were little. We spent Christmas night going through these boxes and it was so fun! It was hilarious seeing pictures of everyone so young and emotional looking back on memories from so long ago. Amidst all these family photos I found two pictures that I will FOREVER treasure! And honestly, finding these pictures was the highlight of my Christmas!

The first is this picture of J when he was 5 years-old. First of all, HOW CUTE IS HE?!?! Seriously, if my kids are half that cute I will be thrilled! He has not changed one bit and I love that! I've known J my whole life, but he's 4 years older than I am, so I don't remember him at this age. It was so amazing seeing baby pictures of him and seeing how damn cute he was! I am seriously OBSESSED with this picture.

This next picture was a complete SHOCK! Like I said, I have known J my entire life and our families have always been close. But, my parents were best friends with J's dad and step-mom, so I never met his mom until we started dating. So, imagine my surprise when I found a picture of myself in their pile of family photos!!!!

I'm the little one with the balloons on either side of my head, J is in the white shirt and his sister Nicole is the crazy one in the cast. I have pictures of J and I when we were younger but none from this far back! I spazzed out when I found it!

All in all it was another fabulous holiday! Now, back to another a week! Can you believe 2010 is almost over? Time is flying by way too fast!

Holiday Card!

We sent out our Christmas cards last week and I am so happy with them! I am really excited for everyone to get them!

Here's a closer look at the pictures I used....just because I love them so much!

Family picture taken up at J's mom's

Cutest dog on the planet

Picture from the Twin's new stadium Target Field

From my mom's wedding in August

J proposing!

First pic as an engaged couple!

CornerHouse Benefit

On Saturday, J and I (and his parents) joined my parents for a benefit at the St. Paul Hotel. The benefit raised money for CornerHouse, a place where abused children can safely go to get help.

Children come to CornerHouse after the most violating acts imaginable are committed against them. They come here to begin the process of sorting through what happened toward the ultimate goal of healing. CornerHouse provides a safe place, where children are first and they are always listened to.

For twenty years CornerHouse has been a safe place in our community for skilled and compassionate professionals to interview child victims of sexual abuse and violence. Police, prosecutors and child protection workers come together here around the needs of the child while at the same time developing the best information to perform their duties in our system of justice. Since 1989 CornerHouse has interviewed and provided medical evaluations for hundreds of children. The evidence gathered in these has been used to provide justice for victims and their families.

A pioneer in the field of forensic interviewing, CornerHouse trains other child abuse investigators throughout Minnesota, the United States and world. The name CornerHouse is recognized as the highest standard in the field.

http://www.cornerhousemn.org/

 

 The benefit had a "Let's Dance" theme and had a "Dancing with the Stars" like competition. Local celebrities were paired with professional dancers and had fifteen hours to learn a ballroom routine. They performed at the benefit and were judged by three guest judges and the rest of the audience. The audience could purchase poker chips (proceeds went to CornerHouse, of course) and then each couple had a large vase on the bar and the audience would place their poker chips in the vase of who they thought should win. Those votes and the judges scores determined the winners! It was such a fun idea and a really great night raising money for a really great cause. 

Me and my hot date

Me, J and our parents

Not the best pic, but one of the couples performing

Epic Saturday

This past Saturday was one for the books. For starters, last Tuesday I received a message from my friend Dana. Dana is one of my good friends from college who now lives in North Carolina. Dana's message was to inform me and our other close girlfriends that she was going to be in town! She has family in Wisconsin and flew in to Minneapolis and was going to drive to see her family, and she had a couple hour window on Saturday she was hoping to use to see us! I was so excited! It broke my heart when I did the math and realized that I hadn't seen Dana in four years! But, it also made me that much more excited to see her. Only problem is that Saturday was a Gopher game day and we were going to be tailgating. Luckily, it worked for Dana and everyone else to meet up on campus so that I could do both. It was so amazing to see her and meet her gorgeous daughter. There were a lot of tears and it was really bittersweet. It was a tease to only get to see her for an hour, but I'll take what I can get. It's amazing how we can go four years without seeing each other and just pick up where we left off.

Jenny, Jessi, Dana, Me and Courtney

As for the rest of Saturday, it was business as usual. Tons of friends, tons of beer, tons of food and another Gopher loss. The loss didn't matter though because we had so much fun. We had our biggest tailgating crew of the season and I hope everyone who was a first-timer had a blast! 

Burgers, brats, bacon wrapped jalapenos and baked beans were just a few of the treats being grilled

The crew

Me and my baby sister

My favorite new friend, Sara

My friends Courtney & Josh...or Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

And, I have to take a second to wish one of my very best friends a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Today is Christina's birthday and I hope that it is a very happy one! Love you!