Can You Hear the Crickets?

Hey Guys, sorry it's been so quiet around here recently... I have two reasons for this:

1) I'm kind of tired of wedding recaps. lol The wedding was more than 4 months ago... I've got other things on my mind now. I'll try finishing things up soon, but don't count on too many "and these are the steps to make our programs" kind of posts.... blah.

and 2) the BIGGER reason for the quiet-tude... we bought a house! It was one bitch of a process (when I have more time/energy I'll go into it in more detail), but long story short, we got the keys on the 23rd and are moving in after work this week and, for good on New Years Eve. I'm looking forward to waking up in our new house on New Years Day... but not looking forward to the moving/packing process to get there. =)

Home Sweet Home
(More photos to come... probably after we've made it look like home!)

The Tosses

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography)

The last set of "events" for the night was the bouquet and garter toss. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a traditional bouquet toss (i.e. call all the single ladies up front), because I have BEEN that single lady at friends weddings and KNOW how shitty it can feel... especially if you aren't even dating anyone at the time. I was thinking that I would make this little speech beforehand about the bouquet toss being open to everyone and it being a symbol of attaining a dream/wish/or desire (kinda like blowing out the candles on a birthday cake), but, I never got that far. When the DJ made the announcement that it was time for the toss, a good number of ladies jumped up and on the dance floor... so... I just went with it. lol

Holly caught it! (Though I was told that it smacked one of the flower girls in the face before Holly grabbed it... lol... I have yet to see proof of this however!)

A little while after the bouquet toss it was time to toss the garter. My BM Holly (already feeling "happy" due to several trips to the bar lol) decided to take it into her own hands to get everyone organized for the garter toss... only, we had no idea what she was doing. lol She grabbed the Best Man, dragged him onto the dance floor, all the while screaming for me to join her. We got out there together, and then she left... leaving the best man and I out there on the dance floor alone... so he started to dance. =)


Meanwhile, Holly was trying to find Jacob... only, he was in the restroom. Which, apparently, didn't stop her from going in after him! lol

Finally Holly had everyone wrangled, got the best man down on all fours, and got the toss moving! lol

I love this photo of Jacob's nephew... he REALLY wants that garter!

Jacob had to take a minute to figure out how to flick the garter backwards...

It didn't work. lol

Here is take two! =)
(Love the pout on his face! lol)

And, of course, the one who REALLY wanted it, got it... even if he is only 8. =)

(Guest Photo)
And, of course, the dance between the bouquet and garter catchers... I think Aiden is in heaven. ;)

Mmm Mmm Mmm!

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos are care of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography!)

Chocolate chip tollhouse cake with fudge filling, white cake with hazelnut filling and chocolate cake with Bavarian cream filling.... mmmmmm..... who WOULDN'T want this?? I know Sophie sure did! lol

(Guest Image)

Picking the cake for the wedding was, I think, my FAVORITE part of the wedding planning process. Who would have thought that you could just go into a bakery and they would GIVE you free cake! Mmm! Jacob and I ultimately chose to go with a traditional cake (none of the cupcake places used filling and that was just unacceptable to Jacob! lol) from Lamb's Bakery. I would have never thought to go to a grocery store for a wedding cake, but, let me tell you, they had the BEST cake and the best prices! It was delicious! And I think our guests thought so, too. =)





I told Jacob before the wedding that I would NOT be ok with cake being smashed in my face. I told him that I would be paying a lot of money for my make up, and my dress and that I would be VERY upset if they were tampered with. He took this to heart. lol




Apparently my mom came up to him later and thanked him for not smashing cake in my face. lol

Delicious!

Parents in the Spotlight

When Jacob and I were going back and forth over what song to use for our first dance, Micheal Franti's "Say Hey (I Love You)" came up. However, we determined that the song was WAY too fast for our beginner legs/moves to handle! lol But, Jacob still liked the song, and decided that he wanted his parents to dance to it after we finished our song (they swing as well, and he figured that they could handle the pace!). The did a great job (and the DJ kept them going for well past the length of the actual song! lol).

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

*Guest Photo

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography
I don't want to embarrass my new father-in-law, but this photo is just too funny NOT to share! =)

After Jacob's folks finished their dance, and we'd had time to catch our breath, Jacob and I had a surprise to share with our parents and guests. After a brief "thank you" speech, we presented them with one last slide show...

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

(Click on the image to go to the slide show)

After the laughs and tears that came with the slide show, we went right into the father/daughter and mother son dances. I had a much harder time picking a father/daughter song than I did our first dance. I had certain criteria that was making it almost impossible to find a song that I liked. When it came to the mother/son dance song, Jacob let his overall life motto reign -- "That'll work". lol

Father/Daughter Dance:

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

Mother/Son Dance:

*Guest Photo

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

*Photo courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

First Dance

Jacob and I don't have a "song", so it made it REALLY complicated to figure out what we were going to use for our first dance as husband and wife. I knew that I wanted something a little less traditional and maybe something a bit more upbeat. A couple of our top contenders were Brighter than Sunshine by Aqualung (anyone ever seen "A Lot Like Love"? LOVE that movie! lol), and You & Me by Dave Matthews.

Just for fun last spring we took a swing dance class at our local community college. After dancing together for a few weeks and learning some of the basic moves, we decided to spice up our first dance a bit and do a swing number rather than a back and forth sway-like-you're-at-a-high-school-dance thing. We tried dancing to our two top contenders (and a couple of others), but none of them fit or felt right... leaving me, to say the least, a little stressed out.

I spent many an hour obsessing about what song to use. I went through my MP3 player multiple times, accosted my CD collection, and was on high alert every time the radio came on. And then we found it:

Jacob and I did kind of accidentally fall in love (certainly wasn't expecting to meet the guy I would marry via a craigslist ad! lol), so the song kind of fit that way, plus, it was a great swing number. =) I really wanted to keep our selection a secret from everyone until the big moment, so it made it even that more fun when something so peppy started playing! =)

**Above photos courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography. Photos below via our fabulous guests and our photo sharing website.

Speech! Speech!

As dinner came to a close and Jacob and I completed our rounds, our best man and matron of honor gave their speeches.

I was lucky enough to have my good friend Josie as my matron of honor. I've known her since high school (more than 10 years now... yikes!). She knows a lot about me, and knows a different "me" than many people will ever meet now. It was nice to be able to have her give a speech. She told about how awesome I am (aw shucks!) and then about my relationship with Jacob from her end. As she lives in Iowa, this was a serious of phone calls along the lines of "I met a guy", "I like this guy", "This guy is moving to Canada with me", and "This guy proposed!". lol It was kind of sweet. Josie had only met Jacob once before we got engaged, so it was kind of funny to hear how the relationship grew from her point of view. =)

** All photos courtesy of Justin at Sky Blue Iris Event Photography

Jacob's best man, AJ, has been in Jacob's life since college. As you can tell by the photos below, he gave quite the animated speech!




His speech was fantastic and had everyone cracking up laughing. He told a story about first getting to know Jacob when they worked together in a hamburger joint on campus and the misadventures that they had one day. It was hilarious...

... however, back in our hotel room that night as we were recapping on the events of the day and I mentioned how much I enjoyed AJ's speech, Jacob said, "you know, like, 90% of that was made up, right?"

!!!

Apparently AJ is quite the performer and pretty good at the art of exaggeration and taking some creative liberties. But, it was still a damn good speech! lol