Introduction

Posted by: Dan on Jul 22, 2007

If you’ve come to read our story from the beginning you can start by clicking here. Or better yet, you can find a full list of the articles here!

Welcome to “Engagement to Wedding” a blog that will chronicle the adventures, highs and lows, and all around great times that Brooke and I will be having as we plan our wedding.

I wanted to have a little keepsake of the every day events that we go through on our way to uniting as a couple. Over the next 10 months I know there will be a lot going on and in that time a lot of the little things can get lost in the confusion. Since I’m sure we’ll always remember the “more important” aspects of the planning it’s those little things I fear will slip from our memories. And that’s precisely why I wanted to do this blog.

I’m not sure if this blog will be beneficial to the internet community as a whole but hopefully as we continue to plan our wedding we’ll have some helpful advice to other future couples.

With that said… enjoy yourselves.

We're married!

Posted by: Dan on Jul 18, 2008

Wow, I can hardly believe it. Brooke and I are officially married, back from the honeymoon and just about all settled in to the new apartment.

I plan to come back here and post more details about the wedding, reception, honeymoon and the other wonderful events soon. I don’t want to rush those posts.

The reason for this post is to let you know that this blog will remain active to talk a bit about the lives of two newlyweds and what you can expect after you get married!

Oh I also wanted to thank everyone who helped us make our special day such a wonderfully beautiful day full of memories, love and lots of laughter. Listing everyone would end up being the world’s longest blog post so instead I’ll do the typical, “you know who you are”.

Thank you all, we love you all very much.

Honeymoon Pictures

Posted by: Dan on Jul 08, 2008

The honeymoon was a blast! So until I get a chance to post about that enjoy some of our honeymoon pictures by going to my honeymoon picture set on flickr.

The Wedding Day (Dan's Version)

Posted by: Dan on Jun 28, 2008

I posted this after the wedding day because obviously there was too much going on that day to get any computer time.

The night before the wedding I wasn’t nervous at all. In fact getting to sleep was pretty easy – probably due to the busy day, rehearsal dinner and the few beers I had. The night of the rehearsal dinner Ted and Matt let me know that they would be coming over to grill out before we headed to the church. Pretty cool, hey?

The morning of the wedding I woke up, shaved my head, shaved my face, showered and dressed. I had a few clothes to iron so I cracked open a beer and started the ironing. I wasn’t too far along before Ted and Matt showed up with some of the best looking pieces of meat I’ve seen in a while. They fired up the grill, we cracked open some beers and started cooking – or at least Ted started cooking.

We relaxed out on the patio, talking and waiting for lunch – which turned out to be the best steak I think I’ve ever had. We finished up, I gathered my things and we headed to the church. Ted and I jumped in one vehicle and Matt went alone. On the way to the church we “lost” Matt – he stopped to grab us some sodas. Excellent.

When we arrived at the church my buddy John was already there, as was the photographer. I talked with the photographer for a while – I think once Matt showed up we grabbed the tuxes and headed inside. We were shown where the guys would be getting dressed and before long the majority of the groomsmen were there. I was a pretty laid back time, talking, joking around and having a few pictures taken. My mom and sister stopped in to peek at me – actually there were quite a few people in and out of that room during that time.

Once the guys were all there and dressed the photographer took us outside to snap some pictures. It was pretty fun and we even got one or two funny pictures in there. After that it was back inside to wait for the wedding.

Now, the plan was, as we were told, that about 10 minutes before the ceremony the church wedding coordinator would come and get the guys, walk us through the church to a back room where we would wait for the priest to come get us. By 2PM (the ceremony start time) no one had come to get us. Around 10 after 2 the wedding coordinator comes to our room going, “You’re late!” Yup, she forgot to come get us. So she rushes us out into the church – at this point I still think we’re going to the back room so we’re practically running through the church. Turns out because we were late we were just going to the front of the church – worst wedding entrance ever! And to top it off, because she didn’t come to get us I didn’t get to see my family walk down the aisle, and I didn’t get to see my mom and Brooke’s mom light the candles used to light the unity candle.

So there I am standing up at the altar waiting for my bride. As the bridesmaids, ring bearers, and flower girl come down the aisle I can feel the biggest smile on my face to date – I could tell because my face actually hurt. That smile would not (and still hasn’t) left my face.

Then the time came. The music starts and in the back of the church I see my bride and her father. Now, I’m no good with words, but I’ll just say that Brooke looked *stunning*. I had no clue as to what her dress looked like before hand. I had no clue as to how her hair or make-up would be done. Really the only thing I knew was the jewelry she would be wearing. Man alive, she was beautiful!

At this point I still wasn’t nervous, but I was light headed. I have this issue where I lock my knees when I stand and at this point (yes, even this soon), I figured I could be in for some trouble.

The majority of the ceremony is a blur to me. I just know that I could not take my eyes off Brooke and I thought my face would freeze in a permanent smile (which I think it has). I do recall forgetting a few of the words in the vows though – which I knew I would do. But really it went rather well.

Before long the words I’ve been longing to hear were said, “You may now kiss the bride.” Yes, it was official, we were married. We headed back down the aisle as husband and wife and I knew (and know) that life will be good. We waited a bit at the back for the rest of the wedding party and the guests and before you knew it we had to head back into the church to get some pictures.

The picture process, in my opinion, is not fun. Don’t get me wrong, I want the pictures and the memories, but there’s no quick way to do it. Add a person here, take out two more there. Where’s this person? Do you want this picture, or that picture? I was happy once it was over.

Now I forgot to mention that during the ceremony it started to rain (and thunder pretty good too!). Originally we were going to head to a park near the reception hall for some picture but figure with the rain that we should hang out in the church and get some more wedding pictures. It was on the advice of the photographer that we figured heading to the park may be worth a shot. The reception hall was a ways away and the though was, “it may not be raining out there.” We we gathered our stuff and headed to the limo bus.

The limo bus was a great time. We ran out of beer on the ride out and had to stop off at the store for some more beer. So here’s Brooke in her wedding dress, me in my tux and a few people from the wedding party running into the grocery store for a case of beer. Good times.

By the time we made it to the park it wasn’t raining so we got a few pictures there before it was off to the reception.

I thought the wedding ceremony was a blur, but the reception seemed to fly by at the speed of light. We made our entrance and headed off to cut the cake. Then it was up to the head table before getting some food – excellent food at that. I wasn’t even close to done with dinner before it was time for cake – excellent cake as well. We did our grand entrance and got right to dancing. Of course with me that means just doing the dances I have to do. What can I say… I’m not a dancer.

Shawn – our DJ was great. He did a great job of keeping everyone involved during the night. Fun little games, great songs, it was wonderful.

Brooke and my first dance as husband and wife was wonderful. It was great holding her in my arms giving us some “alone” time for once during the day. Honestly, even though you wouldn’t think it, it felt like we were the only two there to me.

The father-daughter dance. The mother-son dance. All good.

The speeches – almost forgot about those. Both Bettina and Ted did a wonderful, wonderful job with those. I’ll let Brooke talk about Bettina’s speech though. Ted did a great job, and even surprised me with a can of Pabst beer! he referenced it as “cheap beer” which almost enticed a riot from my side of the family. He did say later that me meant to say, “good cheap beer. Hey I didn’t care, I had the beer in front of me.

The night flew by. It was great (great, great, great) getting to spend time with family and friends. I just wish there would have been more time since I know I didn’t really get to sit and talk with everyone I wanted.

Near the end of the night, my cousins, decided I was in need of a few shots. Which by that point they were right. Took a few shots with them, bid a few guest farewell and before long it was time to pack up and head to the hotel.

At the hotel – I don’t know what the desk clerk’s issue was but it took forever to check in. We eventually made it to the room though, exhausted as could be, but still we made it there as husband and wife.

(Wow, sorry about the novel of a post here! I guess I too long winded!)

Under the One Day Mark

Posted by: Dan on Jun 27, 2008

As I sit here tonight after the rehearsal for the wedding I notice that it’s only 14 hours until the ceremony. There’s a lot to reflect on, the memories, the laughs, the love and the support – among other things.

I’m looking over the past few months, in particular the past two weeks or so as the wedding as really been the focus of every day life. I realized something, I really am blessed with the friends and family that I have. Actually not just the friends and family that I have but Brooke’s family and friends.

Tonight was the rehearsal – the wedding run through and the dinner and it all went rather well. But it was an eye opener, in a good way. Seeing my everyone together at the church tonight made me see the quality of people in my life. I could look at each one and know that no matter what happens (or has happen) in life they’ll be there to offer ever ounce of their being to help. They all mean the world to me and hopefully then know that no matter the situation I will be there for them.

Brooke’s father gave Brooke and I a gift tonight, a putter. I honestly wish I had a copy of his speech to post here because it simply blew me away. I think it touched a lot of people because there were a few individuals shedding a tear (I won’t name names).

The other night I sent out an email and mentioned to people that if they wanted to say a few words at the wedding reception that they were more than welcome to. I also know that not everyone is comfortable doing to. A few hours later when I checked my email again I got a very touching letter from my mother. It’s something that I’ll hold dear to me for many years to come.

I can’t say how many times I’ve had friends and family call me to see if Brooke and I needed any help with the wedding plans or putting things together.

As we passed out a few gifts tonight to those who are a part of our wedding ceremony I just kept thinking to myself, “In a million years I could not be blessed with a better group of people in my life.”

Brooke and I wrote out some thank you notes to pass out to those who are in the wedding tomorrow but it was hard to do. How can you find the words to say thank you to those people who mean the world to you? How can you tell these people how much they mean to you and how they’ve helped you become the person you are today? These are the people who’ve loved you all your life. Who’ve cared for you, offered up not only their lives to you but their undying friendship as well.

Somehow thank you doesn’t seem to do justice to everything you’ve given us. So from the bottoms of our hearts Brooke and I just want to say that we love you all and we thank you for everything you’ve done for us.

General Update

Posted by: Dan on Jun 18, 2008

Well there’s been a lot going on lately as we get closer and closer to the wedding date. Which is why I’ve been pretty bad lately about keeping this blog up to date – sorry about that. Really, I am sorry.

I’m happy to report that thanks to Brooke and her mother we now have a new caterer for our reception. Who’s the new caterer? Ellen Zilli’s Catering – at least I’m pretty sure that’s the place. Brooke told me the name an the only thing I can keep in my head is “Ellen’s Catering” so when I did a search that came up.

Here’s a quick run down of how we got to this point (with the caterer anyway)…

As mentioned before we found out that the IRS was after Woody’s Steak House. We were told that instead of paying Woody we’d pay the IRS. But how can Woody’s afford food if he’s not getting any money? So we decided to look for a new place.

We found that out on Saturday night. I called Woody’s but no one answered. Left a message for the catering department but no one called back. That next Monday Brooke called Woody’s and the IRS with little help or information from either. I believe that Monday Brooke and her mom went searching for a new caterer. They found Ellen Zilli’s Catering and started talking with them.

Wednesday I officially canceled with Woody’s – which at the time I was told he would send our deposit back to us. Which is nice if two things happen – 1. He actually sends it. 2. The check clears.

Saturday Brooke and her mom met with the Ellen Zilli’s Catering and pretty much took care of everything.

There’s more to the story but Brooke would be better at filling in that information. Plus my short rundown was getting long.

With a new caterer secured we’ve been working on a number of other things. I finished the Moo MiniCards which will be part of the wedding favors. I placed the order last Tuesday and we received the shipment this past Monday – they turned out pretty well too!

Both Brooke and I took care of the seating chart – at least how the people will be grouped. Now we have to assign tables and I have to make the actual chart.

And then today… yes today we headed down to the court house for our fishing license. Okay that was my little joke… I told Brooke when we got inside I was going to tell them, “I’m here to get my fishing license” and see what they’d say. Anyway we had all the necessary documents and the cash (which one of the couples there didn’t have – ONLY CASH, NO CHECKS!). Everything was filled out and we were on our way.

In the mean time we’ve been… okay I should only speak for myself here… I’ve been stressing out a lot. I’ve been short tempered, very short and moody. Which is not like me at all. I really hope that a week on the beach will cure me of that. If not I know having the most beautiful wife at my side surely will!