Much Needed Girl Time

Over the past month, I've been reminded multiple times of how many wonderful females are in my life. I can love Kyle because these women taught me to first love who I am and to be comfortable with all my quirks. It is no wonder that a weekend away with them added up to one unforgettable (for the most part) time!

My first bachelorette party (yes, I got 2!) was in Denver, Colorado. My good friends from college, along with my sisters, organized a weekend of fun activities. I can honestly say that I had the time of my life! Everything was just perfect, and reminded me of all the good times we've spent together in the past.

We stayed at the Curtis hotel downtown, walking distance from bars and activities. From a pretty tame dinner and martini bar hop on Friday night, to a spa day on Saturday, to a wild night of dancing and debauchery on Saturday night, even my Sunday morning hangover could not put a damper on the fun.

I learned a few things during the course of the weekend that I feel the need to pass along for your benefit:

• My sister does not like me trying to find her a date to my wedding at a bar
• Flabongos draw a lot of attention
• Bouncers love bachelorette parties
• I know a lot about Kyle! (We played a game [see picture below] where I had to take a shot if I guessed an answer wrong for trivia questions the girls had made Kyle answer)
• I need to remember to take pictures before entering a club and sweating my mascara off
• Drinking at altitude= bad hangover
• Wear your most comfortable shoes
• Avoid throwing glasses into the street, or kicking newspaper boxes
• Don't plan for breakfast the morning after your bachelorette party (before noon)

Here are some photos:

The whole family got involved for dinner the first night!

Martini Bar Hopping

Spa Time- complete with spritzer!

Muddy feet but happy ladies!

This is where the trouble started...

A 3-course meal with drink pairing per course!!!

Delta Gamma Pride!

This spells trouble...

Now this is what fun looks like!!! Bride sailor hat AND crown!

This is called a flabongo... I only took 1 over the course of the night!

The Friday night gang! Cassie, Sarah, Melissa, Kaycee, Jenna, Amanda, Erica, Jill, Irina, Katie

Wedding Review!

Unless any of you are planning on a quick engagement, I think that we have officially attended our LAST wedding as two separate last names! That makes it #24 out of 7 years. We are really touched that we had so many friends and family who wanted us to help celebrate, and hope that they are all excited to be a part of our day.

This past wedding celebrated my college friend Sarah, who really became my friend after college, but the sorority started it all! Sarah is part of our ski gang, always reliable for hitting up the slopes and going down any run with you. She married Jason in Wyoming, the first time I've ever been there, and here are some of my favorite details from the wedding:

J Crew bridesmaid dresses and cowboy boots!

When they left up the aisle, the sign said "Just hitched"

My friend/bridesmaid Jenna's son Arthur and the cute (and delicious) program!

Love this dress for her! So elegant!

This location was just gorgeous! The rain even held off just long enough for the ceremony!

Check out Kyle's Western digs! And can you start to see the difference in our size?!

The place cards and menus- Baby's Breath centerpieces were also aisle decorations.

Gift table with cute banner, and nice card box!

Candy bar!

So many delicious cupcakes, so little room on the diet for sweets :(

I absolutely LOVE this cake. It is just perfect.

Me with Sarah

All the Delta Gamma ladies! We are a cute bunch.

Meet and Greet- Maid of Honor 2

Cassie, the youngest sister, always having to wait for everything in life, well, you also had to wait quite awhile for my blog post about ya! SORRY!

Cassie just graduated from Purdue with a major in Biology, and is moving on to Veterinary School at the University of Minnesota in the fall. I am very excited that my wedding will be the first one she's been in! I'll be setting the bar pretty high, I know!

Cassie was the wonderful sister who really nailed the bridesmaid dress shopping. She and Amanda both tried on numerous dresses, but Cassie's eye for the unique color and modern style first spotted the dress we wound up picking.

Now that Cassie is an "adult" it has been fun taking her out, getting to introduce her to my many girly drinks, and with that our whole family has had some fun times out on the town over the past year and half.

I also get to share my love of the Golden Anchor of Delta Gamma with my youngest sister, both things I have a lot of pride in.

Hope that Cassie enjoys choreographing our wedding party dance with me in the upcoming weeks when I return home for a wedding planning visit! :)

Check out the size of those pancakes! In Albuquerque

Delta Gamma Sisters!

At Breckenridge Brewery, we tried the flight!

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The girls in Denver at Maloneys!

In Denver fall 2011, check out the creeper Kyle!

With the hat collection- Christmas 2011

Shots at Harry's Chocolate Shop- Purdue

Christmas 2011 Limo ride!

Our snowman!

At the DG house at Purdue

Wednesday Wedding Review!

I am very excited to share some of the awesome details of my good friend Jill's wedding on April 21. First, the wedding was held in the beautiful chapel of the University of St. Thomas, where so many friends from my high school attended college, so I was quite familiar with the area. The reception was located in a historic country club on Lake Minnetonka, where we were fortunate enough to stay the night (due to the college friends being procrastinators, we got rooms there instead of the reserved hotel!) 

Jill and Justin

We all knew the Jill's wedding would be epic, as she kept mum on the details throughout the past year of planning. In college she was notorious for her intricate scrap books in the sorority, and when we saw the invitations, we knew that she had put her skills to the test.

Then, we arrived at the reception to rapidly enjoy as many cocktails as we could during the 1 hour "pregame", complete with drink holder in our friends' baby stroller :). Only when the doors opened to the dining hall did we take in the entire picture. See the following pictures for all the details:

The card box- AMAZING!

The appetizer- spinach dip love!

The homemade (wrapped) candy bar

Centerpieces and glittered table numbers

The Guest Tree

Delta Gamma Love

The Lovely Paige Eden

I am so excited that we've booked our photographer. She seems to be equally as excited to work with us. Photography, as I mentioned earlier, is incredibly important to me. I wanted to feel absolutely sure that I would love my pictures, and even though we had to turn down another excellent photographer, we are incredibly optimistic that we're going to be in love with our wedding photos. I can visualize the wall of our home, covered with portraits and candids of the most important day of our relationship. Although I posted this before, visit Paige Eden's website for a preview. I also have to admit that one of my primary reasons for even checking her out was a recommendation from what I consider to be the most reliable source out there, a Delta Gamma.

When we first met with Paige, we felt like she really cared about getting to know us and our story. She seems to cater precisely to our style (really candid and creative), and she was a champion at answering our questions and dealing with Kyle's requests for frisbee pics...

The absolute BEST thing about booking her was her response to our invitation. We had asked, as the subject line of the e-mail, "Will you be ours?" I figured it would be witty and fitting for wedding photography. She was in agreement when she posted this on her Facebook page.