So earlier this week, Shannon and I headed out and picked up bubbles for the wedding. We brought them home and spent the evening tying bows on the bubbles. We had ribbon that we originally going to put on the M&M tins.
It actually worked out pretty well, since we only had two bubble containers left, when we ran out of ribbon.
So on Wednesday, Shannon joined me at work and my co-workers threw us a wedding shower. This one was was put on by Deb (in my group). She setup the breakroom in our wedding colors, took care of getting the cake and collected money from our co-workers and went out and bought us presents.
It was pretty nice. She seperately asked Shannon and I questions and had a little contest to see who knew us better (turned out to be Michelle). Out of five questions, I think we both missed 1 when we were asked what the other thought..maybe it was two.
I was surprised at how much they had gotten us. It was pretty cool.
Thanks a bunch Deb for spearheaded that for us!
For the wedding:
Chicken Cordon Blue
Iowa Pork Loin with Ginger and Garlic
Smoked Prime Rib with a Horseradish Cream Sauce
And for the veggies and gluten intolerant, we have some Stuffed Green Peppers.
Rice and Potatoes, Tossed Salad, bread and butter.
Mixed Nuts, M&Ms, relish tray, Meat cheese & fruit tray
For the Cake:
Alternating layers of Chocolate and White cake.
Groom's Cake:
Orange
We went down to the Polk County offices and picked up our Marriage License.
We brought Brandon along as a disinterested party, to sign for us.
So basically all that really stands between us and marriage is a few signatures...
So we got our first present (via UPS) late last week. It was from Shannon's uncle and aunt. Pretty nice....wasn't expecting it, but it looks good on our kitchen counter.
Sunday we headed out to the fair. We had gotten pre-sale tickets for cheap, but were also given tickets from Patrick that he had gotten through his work.
We parked near the capitol and headed to the fair on the shuttle.
It was nice, we wandered around, looked and animals (including cats). In our wanderings we ate some fair food. First Shannon had a lamb burger (ok) and I had a lamb-ka-bob (very good). We had some fried cheese curds (good). We stopped by the Bauder's Ice Cream stand and got some shakes. Then we found the fried sweet stuff stand, and since we neither had not tried anything, we got Fried Oreos (ok), Fried twinkie (I can't eat plain twinkies, I find them disgusting) (good), and a fried snickers bar (very good). We sat down, had some lemonade.
We then headed in to an air conditioned building, ran into Lindsay and I signed up to give blood (today). We headed over to find Josh, Adam, Tiff, and Courtie at the arm wrestling tournament and after getting lost, we eventually found them. And the rain started.
Arm wrestling..is...boring. 30 minutes of action, 20 minutes of waiting. If it was poor planning on their part, or whatever, I just got bored quick...Shannon was bored even quicker.
We said good-bye to the group and headed out in the rain...we got turned about, directed in the wrong direction by the information booth, but eventually found our way back to the shuttle stop and headed back to the capitol...or so we thought. We actually got stuck in a line of busses waiting for a train to cross the road...
By the time we got back, the rain had stopped and we headed home.
That night we put together two more invitations and sent out announcements with a picture to my mom's side of the family (32 envelopes, yes, big family, lots of people, can't afford to invite them, not that they'd probably show up anyways).
We are actually almost out of one of the types of stamps that we bought (5 remaining).
Wednesday, we've scheduled time with Brandon (as a witness) to go down to get our marriage license.
So Wednesday night we stayed in and packed M&Ms We mixed up the colored M&Ms (3 5lb bags) with the custom printed M&Ms (7 of the 8 8oz bags), and then put about 1/4th of a cup of M&Ms into the tins to go on the table. Taped the sides so they wouldn't open and then in a box...
It took us...about 2 hours to do it. I thought it would take much longer.
Last night, we headed over to Chris and Pat's to watch Rear Window. It was pretty good. I had seen many paradoies of the movie so I had the general idea of what it was about. It was good. I enjoyed it. Shannon did too. Afterwards we hung out for a bit and then headed home.
Last night, I asked Isaac (youngest brother) if he could be the attendant for the guest book and programs...
For those of you who have seen it, he would be the baby that was wearing lederhosen in one of my high school senior pictures...
He said yes.
I'm still worried about the pen though...maybe we should get another one (not as expensive), that still looks nice.
So we met with Dave at The Bake Shop in Windsor Heights, and confirmed the design of the wedding cake (4 layer, alternating white and chocolate), the colors used (white, pink..and uh...green?), what it should be based off of (the design that Adam made for our save the date cards). And also having the Claddagh on the cake.
And since we are expecting to fill the room, we also wanted to give people the oppertunity to have seconds on cake, so we're gonna get a a grooms cake...Orange cake with orange frosting. Should be good.
So that's take care of and paid for.
Chaching!
Meeting with Bake Shop tomarrow (wedding cake).
Scheduled to meet with caterer next Saturday.
Got paper for programs last night.
Got the program designed the night before.
Waiting on responses from people...gonna send a few more out.
Work wedding shower in progress.
Bridal shower in progress too (any updates Jen?)
gah...so much to do.
So Friday night we went and saw Talladega Nights with a bunch of cribbers, in celebration of Josh's Birthday. The movie was funny, I enjoyed myself. Afterwards we headed over to Josh's to party down. We did, to some extent. He had the DDR set up and the X-Box 360. Much fun and sillyness was had. Shannon and I had to go home early, since we had to leave for CR very early in the morning.
Saturday morning, we left he house, and drove to CR to make it in time to be photographed by 10:30 AM. When we got there, we hung out for a bit and the photographer arrived. Now the house was full, being that all of my Parents, brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in law, and nieces and nephews, except for two brothers in law and one sister.
First up they tried, their darndest to take a picture of the nieces and nephews...this was a chore. Babies sliding off laps, children running out into the yard, crying and etc. Eventually through some sort of magic, the photographer was able to snap a few. Then we tried for a few entire family shots, and then some Original family shots. After the children shots, it went relatively quickly.
We then had a birthday party for Maren (niece) and Isaac (youngest brother). We were joined by the Roundy's (Maren's Dad's side of the family), which contained an army in and of itself. We all feasted on grilled hot dogs and the things to go with it. It marked, probably the first time I had a hot dog...in probably 10 years...
Afterward, in bringing up help in setup and take down of the wedding reception and etc. I got quite a few volunteers to help from my family and my oldest sister (Cara) also offered to make a picture album of my life.
Shannon and I headed out, stopped to pick up a new kitty carrier, and then headed over to the Mattas. We ate with them at the Genghis Grill and then had dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. Genghis Grill was a whole lot like HuHot, with a few diffrences.
We then headed the their house and played a game of Trivial Pursuit.
The next morning we ate at Granite City for brunch...good as always...The main diffrence between here and there, being that they only had one line for the brunch buffet and here had two.
Afterwards, we headed over to Shannon's parents, where she tired on her dress, while I read the paper or watched TV. And then we headed home.
I setup a meeting with the baker for Thursday morning to finalize cake things.