six years ago . . .

photo by Rachel Debell

This wonderful man asked me to be his wife!

I am so thankful!  It is a wonderful adventure and there is no one I would rather be doing life with.  

Kelly

happy us

We were engaged four years ago today!

Hard to believe.

What a fun day that was and we've had lots more since as well.

This photo was taken on my first trip to New Mexico to meet some of Adrian's family there.

three

Happy October 3rd and happy eve of our 3rd anniversary to us.

{photo taken of a university elevator floor number on a recent visit}

I looked back and realized that I never posted about our "rehearsal dinner" for our wedding so I thought I'd do that now. (I'm also retro-publishing part of this post back in it's chronological order as well.)

The venue where we got married had a lot of different events all the time so you didn't get to book it for an entire weekend or anything. Basically we got it for the day of our wedding and that's it. I think there was a high school homecoming dance there the night before our wedding.

We didn't have attendants and since our family members who took part in our wedding doing music, readings, etc. are all polished speakers, performers, etc. and our preacher is very accomplished at doing weddings and we certainly weren't his first, we decided that a formal "rehearsal" in the space was not important to us.

(Sidenote: our wedding ended up starting about an hour late because the deejay we hired did not have all the equipment he needed unfortunately. I guess if we'd done a rehearsal with him then the delay wouldn't have happened but it just wasn't practical given all of the logistics in play and it was fine in the end.)

So back to the night before the wedding . . .

We decided that we what was really important to us was actually getting to spend time with all of the wonderful friends and family who were coming to our wedding, particularly the many, many people who came from out of town and who we don't get to see just every day.

My old youth minister, Greg, once said that there are two times in your life when everyone you know and love is going to gather in one place. One of those is your wedding and the other is your funeral. Obviously, you only get to enjoy those people at one of those events. His point was to soak up that time with the people you love and who love you at your wedding rather than getting overly focused on details and things.

So . . .

we went a different route than the norm and had a big social at a park and invited everyone who was invited to the wedding to come the night before and hang out.

We made it simple by getting sandwiches, chips, soft drinks, etc., nothing fancy, and everything was just serve yourself.

That meant we got to enjoy

family

old and new friends

big hugs from people we hadn't seen in a while

beginning to be hospitable together as a couple

sweet conversations

watching our friends and family from both sides join together and pitch in to set out food, etc.

This was actually one of my favorite parts just watching all of the people that we love individually meeting each other, smiling, laughing, talking, working, eating and playing alongside each other. It was neat.

We talked and caught up on each other's lives.

People came from Alaska, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, other parts of Texas and even overseas. I may even be missing a place or two.

It was so very special to us!

We had simple decorations.

Many handmade by friends.

There was laughter,

football

hugs

and smiles!

I think it was absolutely perfect for us and I'm so glad we did it.

What a wonderful night that in some ways seems like so many more than three years ago.

Kelly

from the archives

These are what I was finding in my mailbox THREE Septembers ago!

Being engaged was so much fun. Being married is better.

Kelly

p.s. my cousin Jonathan designed our reply cards which I just loved.

I've seen those shoes somewhere before . . .

Betty was absolutely right in her comment yesterday that she remembered seeing those shoes from our engagement photos! Great memory, Betty!!

Wow, I was skinny! :)

I will be again and it's all worth it. :)

all photos by Rachel Debell Photography

wedding Wednesday - my dress

I got started on the dress shopping pretty quickly. My first shopping trip was with my mom, Mandy and Sweetie.

I also tried on my mom's dress.

It was then that I started thinking about wearing her veil

which I ended up doing for the ceremony. I loved the way it looked and

wearing the same thing she had worn when she walked down the aisle.

photo by my mom

I found my dress at a little shop called the Bridal Boutique and really, really liked it

a whole lot! Another bonus was that it was comfortable. A lot of people asked if it was

vintage which was fun. I always thought I would wear a big white poofy gown but when

I tried those on and this one on, I just knew this was what I wanted more.

photo by Rachel Debell photography

close up of the lace work on the dress

photo by me

Sweetie (my grandma) made a beautiful hangar for me to keep my dress on that

had one of my great-grandmother's doilies on it. That was very special to me.

Here is my dress hanging in the bathroom that I got to get ready in at the bed and breakfast.

photo by Rachel Debell

So here is my question now . . .

where is your wedding dress?

How is it stored?

I do not want to spend the money to get it "preserved". I would like to store it someplace somewhat out of the way and yet where it will not be damaged. So, I would just like to know where you put yours and how you have it stored. Maybe writing this post and getting your feedback will finally inspire me, nearly a year later to find a home for it.

Presently it is hanging here:

right in the entry of our closet . . .

It has been in the entry closet, the craft closet, etc.

It needs a good home.

Kelly

Wedding Wednesday - tying the knot party

After we got engaged it was so much fun to tell everyone

and celebrate this wonderful time in our lives with our friends.

Our friends Erin and Adam (pictured below) and their two sweet kiddos threw us a "tying the knot" party! We were greeted at the door by all of these fun knots of rope.

And inside was a handmade and hand colored sign especially for us!

Our wedding colors were evident, even on the mini blinds. :)

beautiful flowers in our wedding colors with more rope

were the centerpiece for our festive and fun dinner together

here are the four of us at our wedding and also Erin and I

What is something special that a friend has done for you?

Kelly

Speaking of weddings, I'd also like to send out a happy anniversary shout-out to Betty & Cliff today! Your love for each other is so fun to observe! love you guys!

wedding Wednesday - recap time

It's getting to be my favorite time of year.

Autumn!

I've loved autumn for a very long time and this year I have the

added sweetness of the memories surrounding my wedding to the most

wonderful man I could imagine to associate with this season.

I thought I would bring back "wedding Wednesdays" for a time and reminisce about our wedding a bit and share photos that I never put on the blog.

First, of course, we got engaged!

What a wonderful, wonderful surprise! That led to months of fun (and stressful at times, to be honest) wedding planning . . .

finally some getting ready . . .

and then welcoming everyone to our special day of committing our lives to one another.

more to come next Wednesday!

Kelly

camping

My husband grew up camping.

I did not.

He backpacked in the Grand Canyon with his grandpa. He lived in New Mexico.

I lived in hot and humid Houston.

The closest I came was staying with my cousins & my grandma in a camper WITH a shower & a toilet at Jellystone park KOA with lots of yogi bears around and a camp store where you could buy big yellow corn in little brown paper bags to feed to the various goats, geese, etc. on the property.

Then there was also the time that I went on a church family campout with my friends' Kori and Mindy's family and a whole bunch of other people from our church. There were cabins, some people brought trailers and some tents. I stayed in a tent with Kori and Mindy. It was a brand new tent as I recall. Being the city girl that I was, it didn't ever even occur to me that having a big ziploc bag full of homemade chocolate chip cookies that my mom sent with me inside the tent was a risky thing. um . . . a racoon ate THROUGH the wall of the tent to get at those cookies. I remember being impressed that my friends' dad didn't even get mad. I also remember being very sad about losing those cookies.

Oh dear!

So, I am going to venture into the world of camping as a married woman. I really want to like it. I would love to really enjoy the best of both worlds, camping some trips and nice hotels some trips as we travel as a couple and later as a family.

This is where I want to hear from YOU!

No horror stories please!

No discouragement.

What do you like about camping?

What are your favorite foods to take?

What tips do you have for successful, fun, romantic (is there such a thing?) camping?

Help a girl out. Thanks everyone! Have a great weekend! Kelly

wedding shoes :)

Did I ever show you my wedding shoes?  They are quite pretty I think even if they did rub blisters all over my feet.  :)  

After shopping for shoes (remember this post with the shoe in the purse?) 

There was also this instance of lining up the shoes in my closet and measuring heel heights to figure out what my most normal heel height was so that I would be most comfortable on my wedding day.  Then I would know which pair to take with me to my fitting even though I hadn't bought the shoes I would wear yet and then I would just have to find shoes to buy with the same heel height.  Simple, huh?  Oh the craziness of being a bride to be.  It was great but I wouldn't trade being on the other side of it.  

Here are the wedding day beauties!  

photo:  Rachel Debell Photography

catching up - Houston shower

In all the bustle of wedding preparations I never posted about my Houston shower and I absolutely must!  These women, most of whom I've known and have known me the majority of my life, went all out and made a very, very special and super fun day!  

They planned a picnic themed shower!  How fun is that?  Look at the quilt "picnic blanket" on the floor and the cooler for us to set our drinks on.  

All-Clad pans are something to get excited about for sure!  

My sweet mom gave us these cute little juice glasses with R on them from Anthropolgie!  

She also gave us the This Is San Francisco book since that is where we were going on our honeymoon.  I also bought a children's book while we were in Montreal last week.  I think it would be neat to have a collection of books for our kids from places we visited before we even had them.  

opening presents with my mom by my side

It was so much fun being surrounded by all of my extended family at this shower!  

Here's my Aunt Gail and my Sweetie

Look at this spread!  

the picnic basket with the daisies, fried chicken, watermelon filled with fruit, etc. were all such nice treats!  

pretty lemonade container and mini hotdogs

look at this ADORABLE cheese "ball" shaped like an ear of corn!!!  Complete with corn napkins, corn salt and pepper shakers and a corn brush.  Sooo cute!  

little ants and little hamburgers!  They were made from nilla wafers, york peppermint patties, green tinted coconut, sesame seeds, etc.  yummy and extra cute!  

me with all of my wonderful hostesses

What a blessing this was to us!  

Kelly