Weekend Recap {anniversary in NOLA}

So we have officially been married for a year as of yesterday!  I must say, I can't believe a year has flown by since we started out on this journey together.  We have had ups and downs this year; Bryan's dad passing away, my mom being sick, settling into a new life in Houston, starting exciting new jobs, and adopting Barley!  Without Bryan in my life as my husband and most importantly, my best friend, we wouldn't have gotten through the rough times and been able to celebrate and enjoy the best times!

*ahem sappy part over*  So we went to New Orleans for the weekend, left Friday morning and came back last night (one more day would have been ideal), and we had an AMAZING time.  Neither of us had ever been and now I think we can't wait to go back.  So here, to summarize, are multiple photo collages:

Cafe du Monde beignets & coffee (excellent.), anniversary glitter on our table at Arnaud's Saturday night, walking Bourbon Friday afternoon & evening.  Dinner at Arnaud's Saturday to properly celebrate.  

(don't worry guys...food pics are below!)

Bryan had gumbo, shrimp and grits, and creme brulee.  I had the Arnaud's salad, pork tenderloin with truffle mashed potatoes (duhh when don't I try and eat truffled things?), and pecan pie.  Um I had never had pecan pie before guys....what's wrong with me? It's delicious and perfect and I want more.

Because we are us, we obviously had lots of drinks too:  Ketel & soda (my go-to), a nice red blend, a grenade (because you have to, right?), and a beer sampling at a local brewery.  

So the upper right is the restaurant we ate at Saturday evening, and the other three are of the outside courtyard/building of the apartment we stayed in.  Let me say that Airbnb did NOT disappoint!  The place we stayed at was super cute, very charming, and gave us a really awesome local experience for half the price of a hotel.  We were walking distance (5 minutes) to Bourbon, 10 minutes to Cafe du Monde, and 10 minutes to the streetcar stops near Canal.  Amazing.

This is my "sightseeing" collage.  Streetcar we took the the WWII museum (oh yes, btw it POURED rain all day Saturday so we couldn't do the cemetery tour we wanted to do.), a beautiful and wonderful second line wedding parade!  It was so fun to see, and seriously I almost cried it was so great to see the bride and groom's family ready to celebrate with them!  And everyone had the great umbrellas you see to beat the rain!  

Ok so there I am doing my creep face in front of Marie LaVeau's voodoo house....excuse the red wine teeth. Our place was next to a voodoo temple, I'll be honest I was a little sketched, but we bought glass rings at Marie LaVeau's because we are tourists and they're a cute and cheap reminder of our trip.

There is a copy of FDR's speech the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked.  The WWII museum was incredibly powerful and moving, I would recommend it to anyone who even remotely enjoys history. Very informative and lots of amazing pieces on display to see.  Really gave you an accurate feel for what an undertaking the war was. 

Finally, Jackson Square and the Saint Louis cathedral.  Gorgeous.

 So a final few pics--Bryan's alligator burger with slaw, me unlocking the Historian Level 5 badge because I'm a history badass and there's no debating that now....internet agrees, y'all!  

My peanut butter-bacon-green tomato double cheeseburger.  Everyone go put peanut butter on your burger now!  This stuff is made for being on burgers.  This is the second time I've had one so yes, I'm also an expert on this, and foursquare would badge me if they could.

Bryan & I at Cafe du Monde on our rainy Saturday morning, and finally, the perfectly cork wine menu at Patrick's Bar Vin, where we spent a couple hours post-dinner Saturday enjoying some delightful reds.

So there it is y'all....we also bought souvenir for our niece and nephew (alligator jerky, a mardi gras mask, pralines, and voodoo dolls), got ourselves an original photograph by a local artist to frame to remember our trip, and just basically had a great weekend enjoying ourselves and celebrating one year of marriage and great things!

Off to Nashville! {bachelorette party time}

Woo so today at noon I'm flying off to Nashville for one of my besties' bachelorette parties!  She is getting married in November in Chicago and I absolutely can't wait!

I am a little sad to be gone from Bryan and Barley, I always worry about my boys when I'm not around.  But, it will be so great to see a few girlfriends this weekend!

Here are some photos of my prep for the weekend, as well as memories of bachelorette parties past to tide y'all over while I live it up this weekend! If you have any tips for fun in Nashville, leave it in the comments! We are doing a pedal tavern tonight, and then bars on Broadway after and on Saturday night.

Clearly our priorities are in line.  

Mmm this is probs what I'm wearing Saturday night! Boots & dresses.

Torn to-do list of dreams, a fishbowl of racy questions, a BUCKET because, yes. And of course my mom and I last August at my bachelorette.  If you're from Chicago, we are at the one and only Big City Tap.  Yeah, oh boy. 

That was before I drank the vodka-soaked gummy bear juice and leaned out the trolley window telling everyone I liked their dresses....

See what I mean? We know this weekend is gonna be classic. 

Have a great one y'all! 

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words {wedding wednesday}

Today I wanted to talk about some of the photos I'm especially happy I have, because as a bride or groom, there are a lot of details you miss, and also a lot of photos you'll wish you had of moments at the end of the day.

I loveee so many of ours, but going through them now, 11 days ahead of our anniversary, it's fun to realize which pictures I really like!  I'm also excited about photos, because at the end of the month, Ms. Meg from Everyday Meg and Meg Cady Photography is taking our one year anniversary photos!  Cannot wait to share those on here.

One of my "fluffing"--we have a whole lot of these actually!

An overview of the church mid-ceremony

The second after we walked down the aisle.

Our second kiss as husband and wife!

"Wedding stuff"--ok the details you spent months planning, but might forget about:

Low centerpieces & tablescape

My bouquet with dad's tie wrapped!

Centerpieces & tablescapes

Champagne glasses two of my bridesmaids got us, chargers, placecards, etc.

Multiple shots of your cake--we have about 30 I bet.  And I love them all!

Close-ups are important too!

I am so happy that we had the time to take photos in multiple places--church, the woodsy area behind church, and throughout downtown Milwaukee--near the river, in an alley, on the street, etc.  And there was still time to hit up a bar too!

Church photos, with the veil fully extended and showcased.  

Something a little closer.  Through the trees.

More urban from our downtown shoot--these were probably my favorites.

If you can, one with a team mascot you love!  Go Badgers!

Casually walking and talking and laughing.

Close up and being weird together

Further out, more romantic, with my veil wrapped around us.

Finally, the last batch I'm so happy we have are huge overview photos of our room.  I think the place we had our reception was one of my favorite things about our wedding--the room is huge and beautifully lit, and just gorgeous.  

Empty, pre-guest arrival

During our first dance

During dinner, everyone is seated

Dancing!  Always, always get pics of the dancing :)

Find my other Wedding Wednesday posts here:
Our Proposal Story
Wedding Overview
Little & Personal Details 
Wedding Attire

Messing Up His Proposal Plan {wedding wednesday}

So, my lady love Lauren posted her engagement story and so now I have to as well!  Hers is so great and well-thought out and planned beautifully, and she didn't do anything crazy to mess hers up!  And ours is the exact opposite, so here we are.

See, showing off my empty left hand two months pre-engagement!

Basically, it was April 2011, and I had sort of given up on the idea that we were going to get engaged any time soon.  Bryan was working at a job he didn't love, we had decided to move in together in July, with me moving from Chicago back to WI, and commuting to school a few nights a week there...basically we were busy!  So I imagined we would get engaged in 2012, when I was done with grad school.

I would say, and Bryan would probably agree that I ruined his proposal scheme a little bit.

He said he was going to come pick me up the Thursday evening before Easter in Chicago because he had off on Good Friday.  So, we were all set for that to happen, and then earlier that week I started having bad panic attacks, so I went to the doctor on Wednesday, and got a slew of news from them and basically needed to slow down a little.  I was working part time, interning part time, going to grad school full time, and in general had a lot happening that year. 

So, I decided to go home early, and I left Wednesday night. 

Well, that was all good and fine for me, but poor Bryan had been planning to propose when he came and picked me up that Thursday evening. 

All of a sudden I was back in Wisconsin, and he had to re-configure everything.  At this time, he was working 4 am to noon every day in a lab, and so we planned to go out to lunch on Thursday.  His dad had recently finished a total renovation of an empty house that Bryan's church wanted to sell, and his mom was the realtor for it.  

We were on our way to lunch, and Bryan said we had to stop at the house to make sure that everything was ok there, just check in on it for his mom and dad.  This was a pretty normal thing for us to do, especially since no one had been there in a while, and the reason it was gutted was due to a pipe burst and resulting flood damage, so obviously no one wants that happening again.

Obviously, no one expects to get engaged in a model home, but that's exactly what happened.  We were upstairs, and Bryan stopped me and gave me a big hug and said he was sorry I had had such a bad week, but he that he loved me and would always be here, and that we were going to spend our lives together.

So my response was, "I know, I know, we've talked about this before..."  Basically I blew it off because we had talked about getting engaged a lot at this point, and I really didn't think it was going to happen for a while.

Oh but hi, then he was down on one knee!  And omg, he is asking me to marry him!  So I said yes, and he stood up, and we were hugging and kissing, and I said, "Are you serious, you're not joking?"  And then he got out the ringbox, and BAM!

obligatory crappy ring pic from a Blackberry!

So then we were engaged!  We eventually made it to lunch and had celebratory beers, of course.  The next day we took this picture, the obligatory left hand out photo.

Eventually, we did get real pictures taken:

 

So if you have a great engagement story where you did or didn't blow up your fiance's plans, share it!

Wedding Wednesday with Follow the Ruels

A couple weeks ago, Lindsey over at Follow the Ruels a/k/a this pretty lady, put out a call for wedding advice!

So I thought I would answer!  And while I don't consider myself an expert by any means, I do think we had a really fun wedding, and more importantly (to us, at least) was that it reflected us 100%. So head over to her blog today, and check out the post which is a compilation of myself and other blogger's wedding planning advice!  Enjoy, brides-to-be! Supersized Wedding Wednesday at Follow the Ruels

For those of you new to my blog, maybe stopping by from Lindsey's, here are the posts I've done on our wedding previously: Wedding Retro-Post #1 :: The Big Picture Wedding Retro-Post #2 :: Little Details Wedding Retro-Post #3 :: What We Wore Sidenote, for everyone who might be wondering why my blog looks so lame, it's because I'm planning a total overhaul very soon, and also, my computer is being really junky so I just have very little desire to hop on and fix basically anything right now.  Lame & sad, I know.

Wedding Retro-Post #3 :: What We Wore

First, a few of the details on my dress, plus a perfect hanger one of my MOHs got for me at my first bridal shower!

That ginormous bejeweled flower was probably my favorite!

About 6-8 inches of lace all around the bottom

via

Here is my dress in all it's glory on a size 0 model!  Sweet.  It's by Maggie Sottero.

Simple ivory shoes

Pearl bracelet was part of my wedding gift from Bryan.  He got me two sets of pearls-one was a bracelet, necklace, and earrings.  The other was 100 inches of pearls that you can style about a million ways.  I am totally afraid of wearing such legit jewelry still though!  The super sparkly bracelet I put on with my surprise dress at the reception. Dangly, sparkly earrings and a perfect clasp bracelet were great accents to my dress.

Lacing the back in, which btw, my dress was still a little too big the day of the wedding, but I sort of gave up on noticing it at some point!  I had a lot of issues getting my fit right, and had it taken in probably a total of 2 1/2-3 sizes down from where it started...but.....

  I am not exaggerating when I say I lost at least 7 lbs. the WEEK before the wedding just from nerves (I was eating burgers, tacos, chicken fingers, basically all trash for the week before and couldn't gain half a pound), but I promptly gained it all back eating and drinking our way through Vegas for a week!  

 Fluffing, a/k/a the most important part of a big ol' dress

Handsome getting dressed

Our rings, derp! Thanks best man for holding them  and not losing them.

These cuff links were a part of Bryan's wedding gift from me.  They say "B <3 S 9.22.12" and "See you at 1" which is when our ceremony started.  We secretly love that our initials are BS...so I def didn't go the route of S<3B for that reason!  He also got an engraved crystal bourbon decanter. 

Black tux, ivory vest, ivory tie

Really showcasing that cathedral length veil.  Lovvveed it.

The girls wore long black satin dresses that had a v-neck front and the same v in the back.  They gathered a bit at the waist, and looked exactly as classic as I hoped they would! I gave the girls simple dangly earrings and a matching bracelet to wear!

The guys wore black tuxes, and eggplant (although they look pretty purple here) ties and vests.  This was a happy accident the day before.  They were supposed to have black vests and just purple ties, but whatever it looked great! 

Close-up of my tricked-out second dress! I didn't plan on having two, but then my mom loved this one so much we went all out..you knnnowww...this thing only happens once so may as well get two dresses.

In all it's secretive glory.  Bryan knew nothing about this dress.  Total surprise, the DJ had him sit in the center of the dance floor on a chair and then I came out all, "whhhat?! oops!"

Clearly this was a party dress so I could really get down.