Our (mini) honeymoon

Mike and I spent the week immediately following our wedding up in northern Michigan!  Manistee to be exact.  At my grandma's house (although she doesn't live there anymore...that would have been a little weird).  Sounds like it could have been about the lamest honeymoon ever, but it was so much fun!  And free, which is why we went there. ;)  My dad and little sister even came up to the house the weekend before our arrive and stocked the house with food and wine (including a surprise chocolate cake in the freezer with our names on it!).  They even went out fishing and caught us a Salmon, filleted it and put it in the freezer so we could have fresh salmon for dinner.  They really thought of everything, it was such a sweet surprise!

This is Mike and in downtown Manistee, with the Manistee river in the background:

It was really the perfect relaxing honeymoon.  From my grandma's house, it takes all of 5 minutes to get to the beach.  So of course we went there just about every day. :)  We have fantastic weather too!  And if there's one good thing about having a hotter than blazes summer, it's that our frigged Great Lakes finally warm up to the point where they're tolerable!  So we not only lounged like bums on the beach, but we did a little swimming too!  It was great.  Here we are, caught in the action:

We only did two "outings" all week, but they were a blast!  First we traveled about 30 minutes south to Ludington State Park.  We rode our bikes around a bit, then took a long hike on one of their many trails.  It was pretty neat actually - there was a boardwalk where you walked out over the water, across to an island then back again.  Then the trail went up kind of high so you got a great view of the water.  Very pretty!

But after just one trail we were exhausted.  So we decided to call it a day and head into town for a beer.  On the recommendation of my friend and fellow-blogger Taryn, we had dinner at Jamesport Brewery.  I had a delicious burger with very yummy steak fries.  And oh my goodness, the most amazing blueberry hard cider!  It was soooo delicious, I would go back just for that!

Our other outing was up to Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas to do wine tasting in Michigan wine country!     If you are a Michigander and you've never been up there, YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!!  It is so much fun, you really must go, even if just for a quick romantic weekend get away.

Last year we did wine tasting in this area for the first time and fell in love with the area (and also got engaged! but that's another story...).  Last year, we camped at Traverse City state park and did two full days of leisurely wine tasting (one day on each peninsula).  This year, being seasoned experts at this, we decided to just hit our favorite wineries on both peninsulas in one day (it's a surprisingly short drive from top to bottom of the peninsulas, so this wasn't hard to do).

Two of our favorites (both of which offer FREE tastings!) - Leelanau Cellars and Chateau Chantal!

Not only is wine tasting a fun activity, but you can also bring home some delicious souvenirs from your trip!  Whenever we found a wine that we both loved, we bought a bottle to take home with us.  Now we have an entire case of wine to enjoy together.  And whenever we open a bottle, we'll be reminded of the great memories of our honeymoon!  Which makes it taste so much better than wine you buy at the grocery store. :)

Now, I referred to this as our "mini" honeymoon because the real honeymoon is yet to come!  We're headed to...(drum roll please)...Italy and France!!!  I am BEYOND excited!  We'll be there for a full two weeks.  We're starting out with 2 nights in Naples, were we'll see the ruins in Pompeii and Herculeneum.  Then we'll travel south to the Amalfi Coast and spend 3 nights in Praiano, 2 on the island of Capri (I think I am most excited about Capri - I've heard it's magical!).  Then we take a long train ride across the country to Venice!  We'll spend 5 nights there.  And finally, we cap it all off with 3 nights in Paris! (well, Mike is actually spending a whole week in Paris to present at a conference there, but I fly home after only 3 nights)  Talk about a food adventure!  I cannot WAIT to taste all that these two food-famous nations have to offer. :)  I'll be sure to take  lots of pictures and blog about it when I get back.  Until then, arrivederci and au revoir!

We did it!!!

Well, after 11 long months of planning a wedding, we finally did it!  On July 24, 2010, Mike and I got married. :)

I am so happy to report that it was an absolutely PERFECT day!  I had myself all prepared to roll with the punches and embrace any disasters that might arise, but not a single thing went wrong!  We had an amazing time with all our wonderful friends and family who were there to celebrate with us.  It was everything I dreamed it would be and more!

We did have a couple of near misses though.  But hey, if nothing almost went wrong, I wouldn't have these entertaining stories to tell, now would I?  The night of the rehearsal dinner, it was POURING rain!  Like the kind of hard driving rain that will get you good and soaked even with an umbrella over your head.  And of course I was wearing a light weight white sun dress.  Lets just say, good thing I remembered to wear a slip!  My poor sister and maid of honor, unfortunately, did not bring an umbrella.  She came into the church soaked from head to toe!  I felt so sorry for her, but it was kind of funny nonetheless.

We had our rehearsal dinner at Pizza Papalis in Greektown.  We ordered a bunch of pizzas and had them sitting on a table near our group.  I didn't even see it happen, but apparently some lady (most likely pretty drunk) came over and took a piece of our pizza!  I knew at that moment that the stress of the wedding had finally gotten to Mike.  He is usually so calm, but he flew out of his seat and went right over to confront her!  He even called over the manager to let him know what had happened.  The lady promptly ran out of the restaurant.  All in all, it was pretty funny.

The weather forecast for wedding day was scattered thunderstorms.  It had been this way all week, so I had made my peace with having rain on my wedding day and I was determined it wouldn't get me down one little bit.  The morning of my wedding, I woke up to gray skies, drizzling rain...and yet somehow it was still insufferably hot and sticky!  We just had to laugh about it though.  I told Mike, "Of course, it's just our luck to have about the worst weather possible for our wedding day - hot, humid, AND raining!!"  Consequently, we did our pre-ceremony pictures indoors, in the hotel atrium and pool area (which thankfully were very pretty!).

But by the time I had to walk around outside the church to get to the front for my entrance, it had stopped raining entirely, and we were able to able to get some great post-ceremony pictures outside.  By the conclusion of the ceremony, the sun was peaking through the clouds, and we were able to get some cute wedding party photos outside.  And it only got better from there!  For the rest of the afternoon, the sun was shining and skies were totally clear.  At the end of the evening, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset that filled the reception room with beautiful shades of orange and pink light - which just happened to be...our wedding colors!!!  You would have thought I had planned it that way.  Truth is, I didn't even realize the giant windows faced west, it just happened to work out that way!

The funniest event of the day happened as the bridal party and I were preparing to walk down the aisle.  I had both my mom and dad walking me down the aisle, but only my mom was there.  I looked around and asked, "Has anyone seen my dad?"  Everyone said no, but he's probably with the groomsmen, who apparently had not joined us yet.  I assumed they were right and relaxed.  A few minutes later,  the wedding coordinator has everyone lined up for the procession, Pachabel's Canon is playing, and the first pair of bridesmaids & groomsmen is out the door and down the aisle.  Only then do I look around and realize, everyone else is here, but still no dad!  At this point I'm really beginning to worry.  I'm a nervous wreck anyway and on top of that, half my escort is missing!  I managed to catch the wedding coordinator's attention and I whispered, (this time quite urgently), "Where is my dad?!!"  She jumped up and ran to look down the hall, came back and said, "Don't worry, he's just putting his cuff links on."  Now the doors to the church have closed, my mom and I have moved over to stand in front of them, I'm taking deep breaths, all ready to go...still no dad!  My mom made some smart comment about how I should have just had her walk me down the aisle, and all I could think was, "really not the time mom!!!" [my parents are divorced and do NOT get along]  After what felt like an uncomfortably long delay, during which I kept thinking, "I hope Mike doesn't think I'm back here having second thoughts!" my father finally joined us.  I didn't even have time to ask him where the *bleep* he had been when the doors to the church flew open and it was go time!  I only later learned that despite being there a full hour in advance, my dad for some reason never bothered to put his tie and cuff links on.  I'm guessing it wasn't until the wedding coordinator came back to get him that he remembered.  Then he suddenly got all nervous and shaky and couldn't do it himself!  The priest actually put had to put his tie on for him, causing himself and Mike to miss their entrance cue!  But thank goodness someone was there to help him, otherwise who knows how long I would have stood there for!  Note to self, I need to send that priest a really nice thank you card...

But honestly, that's it!  Everything else went off without a hitch.  I was seriously pinching myself all day the next day, thinking, "Did that really happen?  Were we honestly lucky enough to have a perfect wedding day?"  I guess the answer is yes!

Here's a look at what our special day was like, from start to finish.

Making myself beautiful!

Remember the hair flower, bracelet and clutch I said I was making?  Well here they are!

Getting into my dress...

...with a little help from my sister

One last look before I walk out the door!

The bridesmaids, doing their thing

Mike, ready and waiting downstairs

Coming down the glass elevator for our "first look"

Mike seeing me in my wedding dress for the first time

Yeah, we were pretty geeked to be getting married :)

It was raining, so we did pre-ceremony pics by the pool

And then it was off to the church!

Mike getting his bout on, with a little help from his sister, Mary. (she even wore the jewelry I made for her!)

My gorgeous bouquet!

And my bridesmaids' bouquet

My wedding party.  They all looked so pretty!

The ceremony programs I worked to hard on!

This is me getting really nervous thinking about all those people who are about to watch me walk down the aisle.

Jeff, Mike's friend; Mary, Mike's sister; and our adorable little ring bearer, Gavin

John, Mike's brother, and Kathy, Mike's sister

Andrew, my brother, and Mary, my sister

Our flower girls - Regan and Lauren - who seem to be taking their job very seriously!

My lovely sister, and maid of honor, Katie 

My mom and dad, escorting me down the aisle

Wasn't our church amazing?  I still can't believe we got married there!

And finally, the getting married part. :)

I now pronounce you, husband and wife!

And everyone cheers. :)

Thank goodness, the hard part is over!

Making it official

By then, the sun had come out, so we went outside for some pictures

Cocktail hour (didn't our reception venue look fancy?)

Meanwhile, in the locker room, I was busy getting bustled!

The escort cards I made, and hand stamped

The card holder cage that I decorated

The pretzel rods that we hand-dipped in chocolate.  We designed and made the tags too.

I just love how the table settings turned out!

Yup, I made the table numbers too.

Finally, we get to sit down and relax for a minute!  We did a sweetheart table, which allowed us to have some much needed alone time!

Our dance lessons, paying off!

Mike dancing with his mom

Aren't little boys in little ties just about the cutest thing ever?

Poor Ben looks tired

With my sisters

This one cracked me up. :)  Remember those flower balls I worked so hard on?  Well, at least it's good to know they didn't go to waste after the wedding!

At the end of a very long - but very happy - day 

And last but not least, our get away car.  While was so nicely decorated by our groomsmen, Rob and Jeff.  There's actually a super funny story behind this.  It was apparently a last-minute decision to decorate the car, and they didn't have any supplies on hand.  So they went down to the locker room (our reception was at a private golf club) and stole the shaving cream.  Then they searched the parking lot for random items (including someone's lost golf club head cover) and taped them to the back with electrical tape that they found in someone's car.  It doesn't get much classier than that!