Things Are HAPPENING!

Woah long lull between blogposts. I apologize to anyone who actually reads this thing.

Alright, so the biggest news of all....

The invites went to print!!


Ahhhhh....there are mixed emotions. Those things are my babies! My blood, my sweat....well you get the idea. Sending them to the printer was a wild mix of relief and scariness all at the same time. I know they're in good hands, but I'm at a point now where I'm so anxious to get them back to see them for myself. And fawn over them. And pet them.    ....anyone who knows me knows I'm not joking.

The other thing that followed this up was the biggo order of envelopes and other paper goodies that go along with the invites. Not a big deal to most, but after eyeing this stuff for literally a year now and finally pulling the trigger, I've suddenly had doubts of "what if I don't like these anymore?" despite the fact that I've ordered paper swatches and samples galore. I know I'll love them, but it's all starting to come together!

Which brings me to our most recent (yet-not-so-recent-anymore-since-I-never-blog) trip up to TC over Memorial Weekend. MAN was that a good weekend! My sister was in town and we took her all over the place to see everything from the rehearsal dinner spot, to the reception site, to the church, to another food tasting (still delicious food, don't you worry), to a couple restaurants that we love up there (Red Ginger for the win!), and even stopped by the hair salon. Yes, we got into that much detail. I felt like a little kid dragging my mom by the wrist around at school being like "Now look at THIS! Now wait, look what we did HERE! Do you like it do you like it??"

Luckily, she ate it all up and was equally (if not more) excitable about the whole situation. We are AMPED! We even fit a little wine tasting up on Old Mission for good measure:

Ahhh... 2 lads :)

The other side effect to our weekend was the realization that we're 3 months away from our wedding. YIKES! We actually have to start making decisions on things, which is a weird concept for us since we've been engaged for almost two years now at this point. Things that people originally were like "Oh you have time to get back to us on that" were now saying to us "So what have you decided on that?"

Oops. Guess this thing is really happening :)

So I have many more updates to share, including my gorgeous shower that happened at the end of May and the fun that's about to happen with invite assembly (including an invite assembly party next weekend - yep, we get kind of crazy around here!). Much, much, MUCH more to come friends!

A Very Happy Birthday

Wishing a happy, happy birthday to the love of my life today!

We celebrated this weekend by going up to Traverse City, and then playing hookie from work today and relaxing around the house. While we did manage to get quite a bit of wedding planning done up in Traverse City (secured our DJ, taste testing for caterer, meeting with the priest, putting in a bunch of deposits), we definitely managed to balance work with play. We hit up one of our new favorite restaurants up there - Red Ginger. And when I say that it was the best sushi I think I've ever had, that is quite an understatement. We were ready to lick our plates! I can't wait to go back again :)

It was a very productive and fun weekend for both of us. It definitely solidified why we're having our wedding up there - the entire Traverse City area is so fantastic, clean, filled with happy and kind people, and a ton of amazing food and wine! I am so excited for even more trips up there, but more importantly, I can't wait to marry this guy :) Happy birthday baby!

Italy, here we come!!

Part of our honeymoon is booked!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Here's a look at where we'll be staying:

 
How did this happen, you ask? Well, Allen's parents were so, so generous and gave us their week-long timeshare to use for our honeymoon! Since it's a floating timeshare, we could go anywhere we wanted, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go one place we have always wanted to see.

The timeshare is located in a village called Loro Ciufueno, which is in the Tuscan region (yessss) and about a 45 minute train ride outside of Florence and Pisa. Perfect opportunity for some day trips! Since we are delaying our honeymoon by about a month after the wedding (this particular location wasn't available before then), we are also planning on flying in a few days early to see a few other areas of the country. We definitely would like to go to Rome, and wherever else we can fit in including lots of food, wine, sight seeing....and more wine and food ;)

Yay! So, so, SO excited!

What happens here...

...stays here.

In just a few short hours, Allen and I will be departing for fabulous LAS VEGAS with our friends Elaine and Paul! Today also happens to be our -1 year anniversary, which means that exactly one year from today we'll be in Traverse City celebrating with all of our friends and family! So surreal. Can't wait :) But in the meantime, we'll be out having an amazing time celebrating our -1 year anniversary and hanging with some of our favorite people! 

PS: Don't worry Mom, we won't stop at the Little White Chapel while we're there ;)

St. Joseph Excursion

We spent our 4th of July weekend up in St. Joseph, where we rented a house with a few of our friends. Nothing but gorgeous weather, tons of sun and the lake, and even hit up a few wineries in the process! It was such a great weekend, it was hard to come back. A few pics of the fun:

Gawgeous Lake Michigan sunset

Always sweeping me off my feet ;)

Our completely legal fireworks

PHOTOBOMB!

More updates coming soon!

Things going on

Why hello, strangers.

I have definitely been MIA lately (my apologies, for those who actually read this thing), but life has been busy busy busy! A few of the highlights:

School: I'll be done with my third semester of school by next Tuesday. YESSSSSSSS! I'm in serious need of a break, and luckily because I busted my butt for the past two months, I'll be rewarded with July and August off of school. I'm really excited, but I know this means I'll be dragging myself back to school in September. Temper tantrums will be involved.

Fun Stuff We've Been Doing: This past weekend was especially fun for me because we got to have our first Top Chef cooking night with Elaine and Paul. We've decided, since we're all fans of the show, that we're each going to take turns cooking fabulous meals, and then we will eat the meal while watching that week's episodes. I kicked off last week by cooking fillets with blue cheese butter on top, tomato and goat cheese tarts, and asparagus. It was straight yummy, don't be too jealous.

Another fun activity this weekend was our pig smoke-out with a bunch of the crew. Here's Jeff with his slab of pig:

Again, yummy. Luckily, there's more pig for us to cook up, so we'll probably have another event soon. Oh, and here are the flip cup champs after their victory on Saturday:

so gangsta

Fun Summer Plans: Allen and I have many fun plans coming up in the next few months, which I am super excited about (as soon as I can get out of school). A few tidbits:

• Over the 4th we're going to head to St. Joseph's with a few of our friends that we rented a cottage with 
• Trips planned for Traverse City, Chicago, and Vegas
• We have our 3-Day walk coming up in August (yikes!), with plenty of training and a fundraising event splashed in there as well
• Finally, my old next door neighbor and sudo little brother is getting married (yaaaay!) and so my family and I - sister included, yay! - will be up in Grand Rapids celebrating that craziness in August

Busy busy busy!

Wedding: So one little step of progress that we have made in our wedding planning is that we already completed our marriage class! Finally, one thing checked off the list. It was done through a local church, and it was actually really well put together, I have to admit. I really didn't know what to expect going in, but the one thing that I appreciated was that the speakers had an understanding of where the couples were today and not 50 years ago. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but it was 5 1/2 hours long so we're definitely glad we have that out of the way :)

Ok I promise, soon, eventually, I will have an official "this is what's happening with our wedding" update for everyone. I just don't want to put anything out there until it is signed, sealed, and deposited. We're close. We'rethisclose. Just have to get the paperwork in close. After that, I'll be happy and willing to dish :)