Lauren's Wedding

I have been traveling every three days for the past 2 weeks so I have reconnected with several people and have several things to yet blog about. One of those things is that one of my dear friends from college got married over the weekend. She was such a beautiful bride and it was so fun to see everyone who could make it. I was in North Carolina for less than 24 hours but every minute was worth the early morning flights and time away from home.

My iphone doesn't do justice to how beautiful she looks so I borrowed a photo from her facebook from her photographers at Project: Life Photography. She looked so good!

Now onto my less than glamorous iphone photos.

 They got married under this amazing tree. It was gorgeous and most of the people were under it's shade (sorry James, who sat in the sun for the ceremony and the reception). The weather was in the 70's and felt glorious for the ceremony.

Before the ceremony, we got to grab these adorable lemonades and drink them before/during the ceremony. 

 Their ceremony was so God-centered and honoring which was so refreshing after being to our share of weddings where God isn't a part of the ceremony or only casually mentioned.

 Tyler and Lauren have known each other for a while but started dated almost 3 years ago and have been long distance for most of that time. Having my share of long distance, I am so happy that they will finally get to be together.

 So good to spend time with these girls! (Liz and Katelyn)

 First Dance

 Jenelle, me , Lauren, Katelyn, Taylor, and Kate. Had so much fun talking and laughing with these girlies over the weekend.

We decided that at least one of our friends needs to get married a year to keep our mini reunions up. Kate volunteered as tribute for 2 years from now haha She is so witty!

A Friends Wedding

We went to Adam's co-workers wedding this weekend and it was really fun. Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car so I couldn't take any pictures. I took a few on Adam's phone though hehe

How beautiful is this?

My cute date ;)

The ceremony was very simple and pretty. The reception was in Lake Geneva in a beautiful building right on the lake. The building was two-thirds windows and was beautiful. I really like the decorations and the food.

 The cupcakes were so good and they had chocolate covered strawberries. Yum! I didn't know a lot of people at the wedding since they were mostly Adam's co-workers from the summer but it was really fun to see him in his element. It was a fun dance party as you can see from these pictures. We were the only sober people and were cutting a rug if I do say so myself. haha it was a lot of fun! 

Adam was hilarious!

 Everyone thought he was the life of the party. It was really fun hehe

 Getting my groove on haha

I'm glad we went. It was the start of our wedding season and our first wedding as a wedding couple.

Wedding

Sorry! This is way overdue. I wanted to post a long time ago about our wedding but thought that I would wait for the profession pictures. We got those a couple weeks ago and it has taken me this long to write something about them.

Our wedding day was wonderful. We had so many friends and family support us especially for our wedding being the Great White North. Speaking about the North, we were so thankful that our weather was pretty mild. It was in the 30's, no precipitation.  (The next day was rainy and not pleasant at all.)

I was so happy with our choice of photographer. She captured the day perfectly and got some many great candids of all our friends and family. Love it!

I just wanted to thank the many people who helped with our wedding (if I miss you, it's not because I'm not thankful, it's because I'm forgetful!-- so sorry)

Abby
You are such a good friend to me. You took me from high school to post-grad. What kind of admissions counselor does that? I appreciate your help over the years from places to live, jobs, or simply being a listening ear ( I still remember you telling me that rainy days are perfect for ducks ). But I truly appreciate your friendship over the past year when we lived in Indiana together. I loved crashing at yours or your parents house, playing games, and just hanging out together and talking about life. I could not have done this day without you! You were such an encourager and helper (there are endless pictures of you helping that day, you are wonder woman). I loved spending the day together. You are incredible. I can't wait till I see you next (possibly this weekend?)

she made these flowers and helped with 

so much more of the crafty stuff that day!

Marie

Girl, we have been through so much together. Three years of living together will do that. We have so much history and inside jokes. So happy we are still friends and can share life together even it means mostly phone convos and google chats. Thank-you for standing next to me on my special day. I am so thrilled you could be a a part of it. You helped me so much that weekend from putting on my shoes a million times (every time I switched clothes and shoes throughout the day) to making sure I had transportation every where.  I know that one day you want to live in New York but have you heard that Chicago is just like New York but cleaner? Also I live close to Chicago so.... Just saying.

Kindra
You have been a life saver over the past two years. I am so happy that we became closer during college. You have taught me so much about life, God, finding good deals, and having a good attitude no matter what cards you are dealt in life. I am so happy that we got to live near each other in Lexington and then Indiana.  I will treasure those times forever. You are a truly great friend! Can't wait till I see you next!

Asbury Amigos

These were the friends that could make it to our wedding from Asbury and both Adam and I were so appreciative. We had several people that were surprised that we had so many people travel from out of state and frankly Adam and I were pleasantly surprised as well. For those of you who couldn't make it, we still love you! For those of you that did, THANK-YOU! I know that you guys helped out so much. There are so many pictures of you guys working behind the scenes that we had no idea so much happened in the weekend leading up to the wedding. Thank-you for your friendships and servant hearts. Each of you have impacted us over the years and we are forever grateful. That weekend was so amazing and we loved seeing each and every one of you. I love this photo! So much history and love represented here.

 This picture must have been after the Hewetts and Cunninghams left ;( You guys drove soooo far and we loved you being there with us on our special day!!!


Family
We are so blessed with incredible families. I was so happy that so many of mine could make it to the big day (I have 6 siblings, all married and 4 of them have kids). I love my family. Looking over the pictures, I was reminded of how much they have shaped me for who I am today. From aunts and uncles to grandmas and siblings, they are such witnesses and role models for me. Their relationships with Jesus inspire me daily to grow closer to the Lord. Within the last year, my sisters and I have started calling each other on lunch breaks throughout the week. Those times have been so valuable to me to catch up and grow closer to my sisters even though we live a part from each other. Thank-you for the help and advice that my family provided us over the months leading up to the wedding and even the weekend of the wedding.

I am also so thankful for Adam's family. They have taken me in as their own and I truly feel like I am a part of their family. They were so helpful with the wedding and since have checked in on us to make sure we are doing okay and it feels really nice to belong.

Thank-you Grandma for making the long trip!

This picture is hilarious. I love the wedgie face Kenny is making.

Adam's dad did our ceremony and did a fantastic job

Being the sixth girl to get married in my family, my mom had a lot of experience with weddings. She helped me so much and I love her ;)

Church Ladies (plus some husbands)

Our food was homemade by 3 ladies from the church. It was incredible and saved us so much money. They went above and beyond not only preparing the food but also in serving it. Adam and I were blown away by their service to us. 

We were also helped by a few other people in the church who ran our sound, played the ceremony music, and even did an impromptu filming of our ceremony.

Pastor Earl and Tami

Donna and Fred (music & videotaping)                          Marla and Randi (he helped run the sound for the ceremony)   

Jane and Bob Droese Thank-you so much for letting Adam live with you this past year and for letting me crash the week before the wedding! It was intimidating to find myself in a new city with technically no place to stay. Jane and Bob opened their doors to me and whomever would need a place to stay throughout the week before the wedding. It was so kind!

Kelly and Jennifer
These ladies were my encouragers and helpers at work. I learned so much from them this past year. I am so thankful they were put in my life.  I miss them so much!

Sarah Ward and Taylor Keller, 

They performed the special music for our wedding and did an incredible job. They were so willing to jump in for the music even though they hadn't ever done that song or performed with each other. We loved it!

I just love these pictures! So cute.

We're so happy and thankful for all the help for our wedding weekend!

p.s. I uploading our pictures to facebook and this is what greeted me when I checked my facebook today. 130 notifications!

Receptions, Hangouts, and Parties

 friends of Adam's family, his parents, and us at the reception

This past weekend, Adam's Dad's church threw us a reception. It was so thoughtful and sweet of them. Diesel Doug or Pops as Adam likes to call him has been the pastor at this church for the past 8 or 9 years. We wanted to invite more people to our wedding but our venue only allowed for 120. The church was very understanding but still wanted to show their love and support for us. It was very, very nice of them.

Adam's sister (Sarah), her boyfriend and grandparents

It was nice to meet a lot of the people at the church and have time to talk to them for than a few minutes before or after a service. I have been meeting a lot of people lately (Pop's church, our church, curling, networking events, new friends, etc) so I hope I can remember their names next time we make it down there but it was really fun. We decided to sit at table with open seats instead of sitting by ourselves. We choose the table with a lot of older people. You would have thought we were celebrities. Haha it was so funny. They luhoooved that we chose to sit with them.

After the reception, we met some of Adam's high school buddies and their girlfriends at a restaurant. It was really fun to see them again. Adam's friends are very welcoming and instantly make you feel a part of their group. And always, always when they see each other they give hugs when they see you and hugs when you leave. For a person, who likes touch, it feels good to get hugged by friends. After the restaurant, we went to Game Works, which is an arcade for adults. This basically just means there is a bar there too. The guys of course, took this as an opportunity to challenge each other at various games for money. Best of seven. Winner won $30. From skee ball to pac man and everything in between they played and Adam won. Hehe it was fun when he won mostly all the game and I wasn't his opponent. Then we all played games with the extra tokens they had. Adam and I played basketball and I was beating him for a while.... Then I got tired. I'll take a rematch later. In the end, I think there were 700 some tickets so they guys split them and all got candy haha #sogrownup
 (I'm so sad I didn't take more pictures of this whole day. It was so fun!)

Monday we took the National Championship as an excuse to have Milwaukee friends over. I threw my first semi-dinner party up here and it was a success. We had steak sandwiches (think green peppers, onions, steak bits, a worcestershire sauce, etc), color coded fruit for the teams playing, and artichoke dip (a recipe from Leighann). I'll have to give that later because that was a true hit and oh so easy.

I was going to make the fruit into the letters of the teams playing but I didn't want the bananas to get brown in case no one ate them and I didn't really have a platter to put the said fruit letters on so... this is what we had and I think it was just as good ;)