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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Toasts

As everyone chowed down on Italian food, some of our nearest and dearest gave lovely toasts.

First up was my Dad (isn't he handsome?). He talked about how proud he was of us and referred to the Boston Marathon as a BM multiple times. It was funny, and really sweet.

Then Ryan's brother Matt, the best man gave a really nice speech. Public speaking isn't his idea of a fun time, so him standing up to say such wonderful things meant so much to us.


Ryan: Here's the on button. Don't touch it, it's already on.

Me: Touches it, turns it off, then has to turn it back on again.


Maid of honor #1, Allison, gave a meaningful speech that tied in Pride and Prejudice. I cried. She also doesn't care for public speaking, but she's a trooper!

Isn't she gorgeous?



Mary amused everyone with her rules of a happy marriage. She had everyone in stitches.


Apparently when I laugh, I LAUGH. There are so many pictures of my throwing my head back with my mouth wide open. I love them.


Here's Mary's speech:

For Stacy and Ryan, it always seems to come back to one thing: running. The day they met, for example, was at my freshman year state XC meet. She noticed him by his shaved legs. If you would like to thank me for the reason this happy occasion has occurred, I’ll be over there after the toasts.

Now, fast-forward to their engagement. It was at the starting line of the Boston Marathon. They met at a running event, were engaged at a running event, and I’m completely surprised they weren’t married at a running event.

So, although running seems to be you two’s number one hobby, be careful of a couple of things and follow Mary’s Advice to a Successful Marriage of Two Runners.

1. Don’t run with scissors. I know everyone says that, but seriously, bad idea.
2. Refuse to look at each others’ feet. That will surely end in disaster.
3. Don’t have 400 running Kenyan babies. I know Powerthirst is your number one place for advice, but just resist the temptation.
4. When you have children, don’t be too hard on them. Let them grow to at least 4 before you make them start training for the marathon.
5. Ryan, let me just say keep up the good work. Continue to restrain yourself from running when Stacy mentions Mormons or Hitler.
6. Stacy, don’t humiliate Ryan too much when you race. Also, know that when someone whistles when you and Ryan run by, it was directed at your good looks, not his.

Basically, if you follow my guideline, you two will have a happy marriage. Let’s toast to the newlyweds. I love you both and Congrats!!!!



We have some kick-*ss people in our lives. Siblings are like built-in best friends!

Did you have toasts at your wedding?

Photos courtesy of Gail Fleming.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

If you need shopping money, then you should enter my giveaway, it ends tonight at 7!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Garter

Ryan kept telling me that he had something "hilarious" planned for the garter toss, and he wouldn't tell me what it was. Anyway, he was the ultimate gentleman, despite his warnings, and the garter toss went off without anyone's head up my dress or something equally awkward.


Once again, another odd choice for "the next to be married"...Ryan's cousin Mike laughs when he talks about marriage. Though he is dating a lovely woman...

I was pleasantly surprised...no shenanigans and fun all around. I'm also glad that I didn't spend very much money on the garter since you toss it and all.

Did you do the traditional garter toss?

All photos courtesy of Gail Fleming.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Mother of the Bride Dresses

Don' t you love mutually happy events?

I'm winding down my wedding recaps and I've been wanting to thank you all for following along on the wedding planning process, and then DesignerApparel.com e-mails me wanting to give one of you all a $75 gift card to Nordstrom's!

DesignerApparel.com is buddies with online retailer's like Nordstrom's and Bloomingdale's, and they have this Mother of the Bride Dresses page that helps brides-to-be and their moms (and their partner's moms!) find the perfect mother of the bride/groom dress. They have designers like Adrianna Papell, Tadashi and Eileen Fisher, all of them that don't look bridesmaidy (some moms don't want to blend in to much) but don't look matronly, so it's a really good mix.

The traditional long-dress-with-a-matching-jacket dress didn't fit the style of our wedding, so both my mom and my mother-in-law got their dresses at Nordstrom's -- which is why I thought this giveaway was so perfect since I can personally vouch for what a great idea this is!

I even have proof! Here's Ryan and his mom in her pretty Nordstrom's dress (I am 99.9% positive her's was from Nordstrom's, but she ordered several and returned the ones she didn't like so I'm a bit fuzzy on what came from where)....


And here's my mom in her Nordstrom's dress! My mom walked in, we looked for 20 minutes and she bought this. It was too easy.


DesignerApparel.com also makes your life easier with nice touches like price comparison, free shipping notices and sale notifications.

Here's how to enter: Just comment and tell me something warm and fuzzy. Was your coffee order perfect at Starbuck's today? Are you rocking your favorite outfit? Have you caught up with an old friend lately? Are you pumped it's almost fall? You have until...let's say Thursday September 2 at 7 p.m., Central time.

Just a note: I'm not getting anything out of this contest. They e-mailed me, I thought you all would love it, and I personally used Nordstrom's for my wedding shopping. There's the full disclosure my friends!

Photos courtesy of Gail Fleming.

Bouquet Toss

I was pretty so-so on the bouquet toss...I know lots of people are eliminating them, but I didn't have a problem with it and I thought it would be fun, so I went for it. I'm really glad we did it, because it was much more entertaining than I thought it would be!

You know that scene in Glee, when the football team does a dance "Single Ladies"?





That's what I was going for. I don't know if anyone got it, but it seemed to be funny.


I 100% had a toss bouquet. I wasn't throwing one of my gorgeous bouquets anywhere!



And of all people to catch the bouquet, my 17 year old sister Mary! She better NOT be getting married any time soon!

Then we danced to Single Ladies. It was a blast, and I'm glad we included this kind of ridiculous tradition, because it was lighthearted and fun.

All photos courtesy of Gail Fleming.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

????

So, Ryan and I are in the market for a camera. We want something in between a point and shoot and an SLR, and we are not interested in spending more than $400 for absolutely everything (bag+memory card). A guy at work recommended the Pentax X90 Super Zoom Digital Camera. It has 12.1 MP, a 26 wide-angle optical zoom lens and a 2.7 inch LCD screen.

Here's the thing: I understand the difference between digital and optical zooms, and I understand megapixels and whatever, but I don't understand these things in relation to the kinds of pictures I want to take. I want to take really good action shots at cross country and track meets, and I want to take pretty pictures when I'm out and about with friends and family. I want to have enough control over my pictures so that I can work up to using the aperture and shutter speed and stuff, but I don't want it to be so high tech that it doesn't make sense to my liberal-arts-non-tech brain.

Do any of you lovelies have any ideas for us? Thank you for your help!

The Big Entrance

Running has been a major part of Ryan and I's relationship since day 1. I met him at a cross country meet and we got engaged on the starting line of the Boston Marathon, so incorporating running into the wedding was a no brainer....but it was harder to do than I thought. So when I got the idea to enter the reception song to the theme song from Chariots of Fire and have our wedding party slow-motion run into the reception (it started off as a joke but he thought it was perfect), Ryan was all about it.

I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves here, but if you want to get a better effect, the music is below.

The groomsmen all wore pencils behind their ears...you can't catch Ryan without his signature pencil. Don't worry, he wore it for all the pictures...he had a special "tuxedo" pencil in place. I met the man with a pencil behind his ear, and I married him with a pencil behind his ear.


Get it!



I would like to note that I practiced slow motion running multiple times, and I'm terrible at it, as pointed out by my lovely sisters. How awkward does that look? Don't worry, I did that in front of all my family and friends. In 4 inch heels.

I would also like to note that our wedding party were the absolute best sports ever about this. It was hysterical, everyone loved it, it was very "us," and it honored how important running is to us. Definitely wishing we had this on film!

How did you enter your reception?

All photos courtesy of Gail Fleming.