Meet Zoey!

Meet the newest addition to our family!!

ZOEY!

Zoey is a 3 month old rescue! She is believed to be a lab/dachshund mix, but her exact pedigree isn't certain. While she only weighs 10 pounds now, she is expected to be about 20-25 pounds fully grown. We literally just brought her home last night at 8:30...so we still have LOTS to learn about this little girl, but we are already loving her so much.

Bringing her home

 We have wanted a dog for quite some time, and are so excited to have this little puppy in our lives!!

Friday Find: Disney Proposal

I know, I know...it's been done before right? Disney + Flash Mob proposal = Been there, done that. But this one had my jaw literally dropped to the floor, while simultaneously smiling from ear to ear, and tears filling my eyes. Really...it happened. I could watch this one again and again and again...

Things that make this flash mob different from others:
1. He hires professional dancers, and the choreography is tight and seriously amazing
2. He's an AMAZING dancer himself, so it's not just a goofy guy trying to dance.
3. He plays dumb the wholllle time and once he jumps in, her reaction is amaazing. she immediately realizes what's happening.

Hats off to this guy for pulling off a unique and very surprising proposal to his girlfriend..and for being such a fierce dancer!! If you don't want to hear his talking - start at 1:25.

Wedding Recap: The Limbo

In addition to our guests taking over the stage, at one point throughout the night, some guests tied together napkins from the tables and started a limbo! Many people joined in right away!

As did our mothers!! who maaayyy have cheated a little:

Even I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try a little limbo...in my dress!

And yes...never one to pass up on an opportune moment.....I used it to show off just a little:

Though this was completely impromptu, I'm very glad that whoever tied those napkins together, started this up!

Did/Will you have the limbo at your wedding?

Wedding Recap: Our Band - Arcadia

Our band, Arcadia, was phenomenal and definitely was a key factor in everyone having such a great time at our wedding. From Frank Sinatra to Lady Gaga, they played a wide range of music that satisfied everyone young to old. They kept our dance floor packed from 7:30-1am!! Picking a band was one of our hardest decisions. We listened to at least 8 or 9 bands before deciding on Arcadia and in the end, we could not have been happier with our decision.

ElizabethP.

 

While I don't have many pictures of our actual band up on stage...I DO have lots of pictures of some of our "guest" singers throughout the night: Here's Chris with his dad and co-worker, Vinny - who led us in a fantastic rendition of "Build Me Up Buttercup"

Then a family friend, Mike, takes the stage...he's in an actual band so he was no stranger to the stage:

Chris' brother joins in on the fun

Oh no...taking over!

The crowd cheers our singers on!

 

 

Turns out...we had some talented guests that night! In the end, we finally let the band get back into one piece and they played the night away. We can't thank Arcadia enough for their fantastic talent!

Wedding Recap: Our Ice Luge

Chris and I are not really heavy drinkers...or even big drinkers. However, our venue did offer an ice luge for our wedding reception, and we were on board for it. The last, and only, time I saw an ice luge was a friend's basement apartment party in college sooo this brought me back!

Unfortunately, many people didn't even know about it, and said to us afterward "There was an ice LUGE?!" It lasted about half the night, and for those who did find it....it was a huge hit. I feel bad that it wasn't announced and that a lot of people missed it, but I also think there would have been a huge line and it would have served as more of a distraction if everyone waited in line for it.

Dancing around our ice luge...not sure why..

Wedding Recap: Menu Cards

My menu cards were another DIY labor of love, and was another project that had me going back and forth to Staples many times.

I used a lot of downloaded fonts for these, which I created in word. I had to save each sample as a PDF so Staples could print it exactly the way I saw it on my screen. After talking to someone in the print center and dropping off my purchased ivory cardstock, I emailed the file to my local staples for them to print a sample. The first few samples weren't right. The margins were way off and it wasn't perfectly centered on the page. They suggested I print just one at a time meaning that half of each page I print would just be garbage. Plus it would cost more because I'd be printing twice as many sheets! 

I realllly had to play around with margins on this many, many times to get it right and honestly, I'm not even entirely sure what I did to get it right, but it finally worked. I have .17 margins all around and in page setup I selected "Mirror margins" instead of Normal. That seemed to even it out just right.

To break down the fonts:

• The top fan decoration and the dividing line between appetizers and entrees is called separates and can be downloaded here. This offers TONS of different ornate symbols for you to use in your printing!
• The word MENU is "Engravers MT"
• The "Appetizer, Pasta, Salad, and Entree" is in Chopin Script (Downloaded Here) 
• The meal name is "Copperplate Gothic Light" and 
• The description is written in regular old "Times New Roman."

So Staples printed and cut all my menus for me, which was great, but it needed a little something else. We tried a ton of different corner punches. I really wanted an ornate corner punch in these, but after each of us ruining about 5 of them, we realized we just didn't have that kind of margin of error. I guess if the cut wasn't exxxacctly a 95 degree angle, it wouldn't work. I was really disappointed in these punches. (But was able to use them for our out-of-town bag postcards)

I bought a Martha Stewart Crown Corner Punch. That one worked better, but was wayyyy too big and looked awful on these:

We finally settled on a simple Martha Stewart rounded corner punch, which I was still happy with and lots of people told us they liked how that looked.

Chris working on the corner punches

But I still felt it needed a little something. So we affixed little green gemstones to the design in the middle...

and viola, our menu cards were complete!

Sorry, this is a terrible picture!

Our work station:

Our menu card in action at the wedding:

E.Phillips

RTowers

Unfortunately, I don't have many food pictures. As you may recall from this post, these were our dinner menu options:

Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb

Served with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Sauce

Grilled Filet Mignon

Served with Bordelaise Sauce

Roast French Breast of Chicken

Stuffed with Provolone, Ricotta, Sun-Dried Tomato,
Served on a Bed of Sautéed Spinach, and served with Madeira Sauce

Pan Seared Porterhouse Pork Chop

Served with Sweet Cherry Pepper

Parisian Potatoes and Cherry Wine

Pan Seared Atlantic Salmon

With Oyster Mushrooms, White Wine and Cream Sauce

Pan Seared Striped Bass Mariciara

With Shrimp and Kiwi Mussels

Vegetarian Special
Portabello, tricolor peppers, eggplant marinated and grilled over an open flame

Our appetizer crab cake:

RTowers

Chris' beer

RTowers

At our sweetheart table ready to eat our dinner:

Friday Find: Cute Engagement

Catch up on our wedding on our Wedding Recaps Page!

It's another engagement video! At least this one isn't a flash mob (buuut I have a really good one of those saved up for the coming weeks so be prepared)! I think this is a really cute, and unique proposal, and the girl clearly doesn't suspect anything. I like that we don't really hear them speaking until the very end when she comes over to the camera...so while this is obviously a very public proposal - a part of it remains intimate enough for them since we can't really hear what's being said.

A Dang Engagement from dave jacobsen on Vimeo.

At least their dog didn't ruin their engagement video like this guy: 

Haha, whoops! Better luck next time! Have a great weekend :)

Wedding Recap: The Speeches

Chris' brother, Michael, and my sister, Melissa, did a great job with their speeches on our wedding day. They were personable, charming, serious, and also really, really funny! My younger sister wowed me with her poise and effortless delivery!

She talked about that time I tripped her while she was running around the house pretending to be a horse. And how she retaliated by going up to my room and literally dumped everything in my room onto the floor...

She recounted the time we used to run around my Great Aunt and Great Uncle's pond in Green, New York to scare all the frogs that surrounded it. One time, one lone frog was out just a bit too far from the pack and I stepped right on the poor little frog's head and crushed him...I cried myself to sleep that night. It's a sad story, but one that we've laughed about many times since, and she will never let me live down!

She mentioned the first time she met Chris, and that she thought he was really annoying at first, but over time realized that we were perfect for each other. Because pretty quickly on, he felt like her older brother....because were were both "bullies" to her...out of love of course!

My Grandpa has a good laugh, and clearly is loving seeing Melissa up there with us!

And proud Mama as she watches on with my cousins: Lizzy and Joey

I could not have been more proud and happy with Melissa's speech.

Next up was Chris' brother, Michael, who turned on the charm and like Melissa, cracked a few good jokes at his brother's expense!

I think his hit line of the night was: "Laura deserves someone who's loyal, kind, etc., and I can see why Chris would want to take her off the market before she had a chance to find that."

 And this is also a proud mama having a good laugh during Michael's speech, probably at the above line:

Michael talked about how I make the best ice cream he's ever had (my ice-cream maker is my favorite kitchen appliance), and how Chris was always there for him, ready to tattle at a moment's notice.

Finally, a toast to us!

Next up was my dad, who welcomed everyone to the party and delivered some heartfelt words welcoming Chris to our family.

And then...there was Chris' mom...who led a rousing chant of our new last name...totally impromptu, yet pretty hilarious.

Next up:...it was time to EAT!