Saying "Goodbye" to Saying "I do"

After three years and two months of Saying "I do",  planning a wedding, attending, then recapping thirteen weddings, connecting with a huge network of brides and meeting people I never dreamed of meeting, the Saying "I do" chapter is over. I've ridden the newlywed bride train as far as it will go, and it's time to get off. I've been struggling with closing this up for some time, and  even started blogging at elsewhere for awhile, but I just wasn't catching my stride there, trying to make it something I wasn't, and not being true to myself.

I really enjoy blogging, I love having a place to capture and record all the great moments of my life and having them here to look back on. I've always been that way: my mom and dad have 20 scrapbooks I made just of High School to prove it. Maybe it was a way for me to cling to my past...I think it was just a way to preserve it. Luckily, blogging is faster and cheaper than scrapbooking, and so, I am not done with blogging, just blogging elsewhere.

Any wedding related posts will still be posted here (we have 3 more weddings coming up in the near future), but this will not be where I blog regularly. I was not modest about linking here on facebook or really anywhere I could, and for the future I'd like to keep a little bit more of a low profile, which is why I'm not linking to my new blog here. I'm  not going completely off the grid, if you were a regular follower, you'll be able to find me, and most of you already have! (edit: Here is my new blog: http://littlemomentsbigmoments.blogspot.com/)

Thank you to the followers, the commentors, the friends, and the one time visitors (holla to this post which keeps a steady stream of visitors every single day!)

If you are just coming here for the first time, sorry you missed me! You can read about  my wedding here.

I am also still regularly blogging for Russo's on the Bay! 

Bye for now!

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Heather at High Heels & Flip Flops, who won the 12 oz. bag of  granola from Laurie's Granola Creations. 

Heather send me an email with your mail information and we'll get that bag out to you as soon as possible!

Thank you to all who entered!

Happy A-Day Zoey!

Only one more day to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter! 

I can't believe it but a year ago today, we brought home our little puppy, Zoey, from Sarah at Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue, after I saw Zoey (then Rita Hayworth) on petfinder.com.

She was 8 pounds, and followed me everywhere. She came down with a pretty severe case of pneumonia soon after we got her and after a month of medicines, weekly nebulization treatments, and lots of vet bills, Zoey was better and adapting to her new home.

Happy A-Day (Adoption Day) to you Zoey! May the next year be filled with just as much treats, bones, cuddling, and walks as the last year has been for us! I created the below movie using the imovie app on my ipad. It was my first ever attempt to learn imovie, so I did this on my commute home one day last week for fun, but I thought it came out great! It's safe to say I am officially hooked on imovie.

Our Wedding Album

Don't forget to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter! 

It only took 16 months, but we finally got our wedding album and parent's album!! Chris and I have a very large album to call our very own. The editor at our photographers said it's the largest album she's ever made. Given the fact that our photographer lost some of our photos (yea, it really did happen), we pretty much were able to get this album however we wanted it, without any extra cost. Given how upset I was with them, they really did a fantastic job with the album even though it's 15 pounds...quite literally.

 

Recognize our cover? (Hint: Look at my blog header).

Our parents have a 6X6 clone of our album. It's the perfect size to take to visit with friends and family and they are very happy with it.

(Still has the protective plastic cover on the front)

I get such a great feeling as I look through these pages.

It feels very "final" to finally have the album in our hands. It makes me emotional to look through these pages and look back on our day. It makes me emotional to think that these are the same pages our children will turn as they look through "their parent's" wedding album as young children, teenagers, and young adults...planning their own weddings some day.

This feels very final. A perfect completion to the ride that was planning and having our wedding. 

Friday Final Post on Ashley and Greg's Wedding

Don't forget to enter the Laurie's Granola Creations Giveaway to win a free 12 oz. bag of all natural, organic granola! Anyone can enter!

I spent the week recapping Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part 1 here and Part 2 here, and now I'm going to close out the week with a full recap of their wedding that I put together using animoto. After all, what wedding is complete without one?!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!!


As always you can read my favorite Friday Wedding stories of the week on Storymix Media's blog.

Laurie's Granola Creations **GIVEAWAY**

Today I'm going to introduce to you the amazing-ness that is Laurie's Granola Creations. Laurie is the mother of a friend of mine and she has created her own all-natural and organic granola that has become wildly popular!

What makes this granola different than most is that it is made with coconut nectar, coconut oil, and coconut palm sugar. It is a healthier version than other granola because it has a low glycemic index, plus all the countless other health benefits of these coconut products. Laurie's Granola Creations comes in 3 different flavors:

• Organic Turkish Apricot
• Organic Date
• Original

Now for the fun stuff: I've tried this granola and it really is amazing. It's perfectly sweet and adds the perfect touch to my yogurt or cereal without all the added "crap" of store-bought granola!

Laurie's Granola Creations is giving away a 12 oz. bag of "Happens to be Healthy Granola" to one lucky reader of Saying "I do".

Happens to be Healthy granola is a delicious mixture of oats, seeds, coconut and other natural and organic ingredients that contain vitamins and nutrients to promote optimum health to support a strong immune system and boost energy. There are many creative ways to use this granola that tastes great and HAPPENS TO BE HEALTHY too! It is crunchy and stands up to• Milk• Fruit• Yogurt • Ice-cream without getting soggy

TO ENTER:

1. Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite thing is to eat with granola (yogurt, cereal, smoothies, plain!) That's all you have to do!
For additional entries:

2. Like "Laurie's Granola Creations" on Facebook and leave me a comment that you have done so.

4. Like me on twitter and leave me a comment saying that you have done so.

5. Tweet the following: "I just entered @LWoodsNY giveaway to win a free bag of granola from Laurie's Granola Creations. Enter here! http://ow.ly/eLeY3" and leave me a comment saying you did.

Anyone can enter! Contest ends at midnight EST on Monday, October 29th, 2012 and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012, good luck!

Ashley and Greg's Wedding Part II

After the ceremony and cocktail hour for Ashley and Greg, we walked into the reception room at the New Haven Lawn Club, which was beautifully decorated and just plain beautiful!

The bride and groom were announced and they shared their first dance to "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.

We then heard from the Maid of Honor and Best Man

When the speeches were over, we were treated to a special performance by the bride herself! Ashley is a natural performer and Chris and I saw her sing and act many times while we were at Wagner College together. She sang an adorable song called "Sorta Love Song" by Paul Loessel and Scott Burkell. Paul Loessel was the person who helped facilitate Greg's proposal to Ashley on the stage of the Broadway Musical, Wicked.

See Ashley perform her whole song here!

While this was going on we were served salads followed by a lemon sorbetto intermezzo!!

Then we were served our meal. I ordered the Thyme Maple Glazed Chicken with Crispy Sweet Potato, Blue Cheese, and Herbs, Saute of Applewood Lardon and Garlic Spinach, with Smokey Green Onion Deep Red Sauce. Can we say amazing?? Chris got the steak which I forgot to take a picture of.

After a bit of dancing, it was time for the cake cutting. I loved this simple and elegant cake with the peach satin ribbon, flower icing, and simple Monogram "A" for their cake topper. As you know, I've been to a lot of weddings, and I usually don't like to proclaim anyone as having "the best" of something. But...I'm gonna break my rule this time and announce that this was the BEST wedding cake I've ever tasted. Hands down, no contest, the BEST. If I hadn't had my wedding yet, I would order my cake from here...even if I had to pay extra to ship it from Connecticut. Ashley ordered it from Fusion Bakery in Middletown, Connecticut, and it was strawberry with Italian butter cream. YUM!

But they didn't stop there. No...Ashley and Greg had a cupcake table!! Flavors included: Limoncello, chocolate, red velvet, vanilla and carrot cake.

 

 And just when I thought it couldn't get any better than that....this happened:

A shot glass of milk with the softest, warmest, most amazing chocolate chip cookie ever.
I died and went to sweet-tooth heaven.

While all the sweet-tooth satisfying madness was happening, Greg and his mom danced to "How Sweet It Is" by James Taylor.

 

And Ashley and her father danced to "My Girl" by the Temptations.

 

Then Ashley did the Bouquet Toss:

The garter toss...a fun and tastefully done tradition:

I'm not sure what the odds are of this happening...but the Best Man caught the bouquet (standing off to the side) and his WIFE caught the garter (also standing off to the side!) It certainly made for some funny memories for them.

And once all of that was done, what was left to do? We dance and take pictures of course!!

As we left, there was a basket of pink ribbon cookies with a small note that a donation was made to Susan G. Komen For The Cure to help fight breast cancer.

Congratulations to Greg and Ashley! We are so happy and excited for you both!

As I mentioned yesterday, Greg is the co-founder and CTO of UnTappd, the social networking app for beer drinkers and lovers. For more information, and to download the app, visit the website here.