Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: The Boys Strike a Pose

After the boys got ready they took lots of pictures both at the hotel and the church.  I wasn't there so I don't have much commentary to provide so I will just let the pictures tell the story:


Cowboy boots


The Boys with the Jersey
Our awesome florist Jenny Zeman from Floraljaz 

Nick and the Groomsmen
Nick, Groomsmen and Ushers



One of my favorite pictures of Nick from the day

Sorry for the lack of stories- maybe I can convince Nick to add some to his blog!  Next up the girls meet at the church.  

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year on Thanksgiving I wrote a post called "To Give Thanks" and I thought it was good practice to stop and remind myself of all the blessings I have in life.  I try to be thankful everyday of all the wonderful things I am so blessed with but as always life sometimes gets in the way.  For that reason I am going to start my list off with:

  • Having a designated time every year to remind us of how important it is to stop and be thankful.
  • My amazing supportive husband
  • My wonderful family that has grown in many ways this year.
  • Our house!  (It was around this time last year that we started looking for a house and now we have lived in our home for almost 3 months we can truly recognize what a blessing it is)
  • Our great friends both in St. Louis and across the country.  Getting married this year has given us the opportunity to spend time with many of our friends we don't see very often and it reminds me of how truly lucky we are to have such amazing friends.
  • Our church
  • Our good jobs and stable income
  • Spending a week on the beach
  • The great weather we have had in St. Louis lately- it really has been a beautiful fall
  • My pets
  • Great memories- again this year has been filled with lots of amazing memories and I think it is important to remind myself that that too is a wonderful blessing
  • My health
  • Music
  • Book Club (an excuse to read a good book and sit around with good food, wine and friends once a month)
This list could go on forever but honestly just the exercise of stopping and creating a list is a great way to remind me of how absolutely blessed I am.

Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: The Boys Get Ready

While we were finishing up at the salon the boys all met at the hotel to get ready.  This was the point in the day when our photographers joined the fun so most of these pictures are from them:



Getting Ready and watching football


Cowboy boots






This jersey was a gift from our good friends Justin and Diana.  You can't really tell in the picture but the McGeehon is done just like last names on the back of Cardinals jerseys and the 11 is done just like the back of Cubs jerseys. We decided to have our wedding party sign it and it will make several more appearances in pictures throughout the day.

Once the boys were done getting ready they took some pictures at the hotel and then headed to the church for more pictures.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

We are Famous....

ok so maybe not really famous but our wedding was featured in the local St. Louis Bride and Groom magazine and I thought it was worthy of a second wedding post this week.  Here is a link to the online version of the publication:  St. Louis Bride and Groom Wedding Album.

Thanks again to our great photographers, John and Susan Lawing!


Wedding Wednesday: The Day Begins

**These next couple of posts are going to be pretty picture heavy so I broke them into a couple of posts.

Our wedding day started with my sister and I getting up bright and early.  We left my house and met my mom and aunt at the hotel.  We left my brother-in-law and my niece at the house to get ready before they headed to the hotel for some swimming.  On our way to the hotel we stopped to get breakfast at Einsteins.  As we were leaving Einsteins my sister realized we had my brother-in-law's keys.  Luckily we realized before we got too far from the house and that crisis was averted.  Once we picked up my mom and aunt we headed to Dominic Michael in Chesterfield to get my hair and make-up done.  My aunt did a great job making sure we had some pictures from the salon:

My mom finishing a tutu while she waited

Makeup


The wonderful Crissy beginning the very long task of curling ALL of my hair



My sister's favorite look from the morning!
Almost finished.
The finished look


While we were at the salon the boys were putting the finishing touches on the ballroom and getting ready at the hotel.  Next week's post I will share some of those pictures.  

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: Rehearsal Dinner

First a little background on our rehearsal dinner.  During the planning process Nick and I talked a lot about what we wanted in a rehearsal dinner.  Some of the things on the list included an intimate dinner with our families and friends in a setting that was conducive for conversation, a way to say thank you to all of our family and friends for everything they have done both for the wedding and well our whole lives, and we really wanted dinner to be a representation of us.

So how did we accomplish all of that.  During wedding planning we had talked about ways to incorporate our love of baseball into the wedding, but just couldn't come up with a classy, traditional way to do that as part of the reception so Nick suggested making our rehearsal dinner baseball themed.  Nothing over the top, just some cute baseball touches here and there and I think Nick's parents did a great job capturing that.  We also wanted the food to be something we both loved and ideally a St. Louis-y food that we could share with our non St. Louis-y guests (yes I just made up the word St. Louis-y).  Enter Dewey's pizza.  This is on the top of our favorite St. Louis restaurant list and definitely my favorite pizza in St. Louis.  We also thought it would be easy and who doesn't like pizza.

The location of the event kind of also just fell into our laps.  When we were looking for a place to have the reception Nick had called the Kirkwood Train Station, knowing they held events but nothing more and discovered the space was really only big enough for about 50 people.  Not going to work for our reception but then we thought what a cool place for the rehearsal dinner.  It definitely lent itself to a nice intimate dinner and had some great character as well. As a bonus it was also very convenient from the church and the hotel- pretty much a no brainier.

The night turned out to be a great chance to relax and chat with all our family and friends.  Here are a couple pictures from dinner:

Thanking everyone for being there
Lilia and Emily with her new jewelry/music box

Gabie, Katie and Sara

Jenna showing off her new tie for Saturday

My grandparents and a good shot of the cute centerpieces Nick's parents made

Unfortunately we didn't get a ton of pictures from dinner, but it was a good time with good people and good food and life doesn't get much better than that.  

During dinner some of the guests also excused themselves to vandalize my car (some of which I still haven't managed to get off).  Here is a little sampling of their lovely work:



Obviously it was my family not Nick's based on their choice of team (this also got cleaned off quickly- didn't think it was a great idea to drive around St. Louis with this on my car- especially on my wedding day)




Turns out we also got off pretty easy.  One of my brother-in-laws friends who was supposed to attend the wedding and then couldn't was in on the original plot which included rewiring my brakes to the horn so that every time I used the breaks the horn would sound.  I will take window chalk any day over that!  

After dinner we went back to the hotel and opened a few early presents from family so they could be there when we opened them and then it was off to bed.  
 
I stayed at our house with my sister and her family and Nick stayed at the hotel with one of the groomsmen.  When I got home and climbed into bed I found a wonderful gift and letter from Nick.  He had gotten me a pearl necklace and earrings set and wrote me an absolutely beautiful letter.  We had never really talked about exchanging gifts but we both ended up getting something for each other (he got his on Saturday).  I was very touched by the gift and both the pearls and the letter are something I will always cherish.  I was initially disappointed that I already had jewelry picked out for the wedding, but I did quickly think of a way to incorporate the pearl necklace into the wedding but more on that later.  It was time to go to bed for the last time as a single girl!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Wedding Wednesday: We Rehearse

Next on the agenda (yes there was an agenda broken down in 5 minute increments for the entire weekend) was the actual rehearsal.  We all met at the church and the fun began.  It was pretty uneventful but our wonderful photographers took lots of pictures so I figured why not share them :)

**Sorry this is going to be a picture heavy post- actually most of these will probably be pretty picture heavy but I will try to tell the story where appropriate



Made with the bows from my shower gifts

Emily swinging her flower ball as she walks down the aisle






Baby Payton

Maid of Honor, my sister Sarah and Best Man, Nick's brother, Trevor

Katie and Brandon 
Jenni and Jon

Lilia, Ethan and Sara

Jenna and Emily




Just cause she is so cute- and if you are wondering her onesie says "This is my little black dress" very appropriate for the occasion!

All in all it was pretty uneventful so not much to share other than the pictures.  Next up rehearsal dinner!