Weekend Recap

Another busy weekend!

Luckily I was able to leave a bit early from work on Friday and headed to Purdue to meet my cousin Zach for dinner. We got some Hot Box pizza and breadsticks (LOVE) and then continued on my merry way to Indy.

I think my sister is lying about that baby sleeping, because everytime I see her and Gracie she totally does not sleep through the night. I think she's in for another bad bout of teething, because she had one on the top front that popped through the gums on Saturday. Poor little booboohead. She definitely felt under the weather, as is evidenced by this picture I took at lunch on Saturday.

Gracie and Grandma snuggle at lunch

The point of the weekend was not only for visiting but to ACCOMPLISH on the Katie-wedding-front. And accomplish we did. We found Katie's wedding gown, bridesmaid dresses, invitations, agreed on bachelorette and shower festivities and figured out what weekend would be good, and made to-do lists on top of to-do lists. I don't know about Katie but I feel like the whole thing is actually coming together now!

Gracie and Katie get a fun shot in at David's bridal

I gotta tell you, we went to this Posie Patch Bridal Superstore after David's Bridal, and it was a bit hell-ish. We had to wait about an hour and a half after our appointment to be helped by a bridal consultant which was crazy ridiculous. And there were about a million rude people there. We had so much time before she was helped for bridal gowns that we full-on picked out a bridesmaid dress.

Then her name was called and she started trying on dresses. I was so happy when she found "the dress"... she had tried on many dresses that would do and were gorgeous, but I kept telling her that she would know when she found The One. And she did! She came out of the dressing room with tears in her eyes proclaiming "This is THE ONE!!!" I was so happy for her that she truly felt that when finding her gown instead of being lukewarm about it and saying "Oh, this will do." Once she decided on a gown I realized with a jolt that the bridesmaid dress we had decided on just would not go with the wedding dress AT ALL. I turned to Katie and the other bridesmaid, Melanie, that we had with us and said "JUST ONE MINUTE. I'll be right back"

I must have looked slightly like a mad woman, tearing through the bridesmaid dress section, pulling dresses off the racks quickly and tossing them on my pile. I picked out 5 I thought would look good, we narrowed it down to three on the spot and then tried on those. Out of those three, the other bridesmaid and I wholeheartedly agreed on one and Katie liked it, so we were golden! It was so funny, we waited around for like an hour and a half at that place and the action went down in 10 solid minutes!

Once we were back at Katie's place and Gracie got some Tylenol in her system to sooth those gums, I decided to take some pics. No wonder I am in love with this little nugget, check her out!

Man, I love that baby.

On Sunday I drove home in a monsoon and Mike and I decided to go see "He's Just Not That Into You" At the theater we ran into Jay and Kim, who were seeing the same thing! So we ended up going to a movie with them totally without meaning to! Pequod's pizza for dinner was a nice way to end the weekend.... if you haven't been there you just have to try it - it's our FAVORITE!

Hope your weekends were great! Is the monsoon season around here crazy or what? I am thanking my lucky stars I purchased wellies.

Professional wedding pics!

We got our pics back today! Holy cow I love them ALL but here is my favorite:Here is the link to see the rest: http://www.jordanbarclay.com/client/Knowles/

August 30

Tonight I was cleaning the house and taking pictures of things that I wanted to remember but didn't want just laying around the house. This was the pic I took of my ribbon bouquet from the shower, that I used at the rehearsal dinner.

August 12

Today my parents had a brunch for friends and family that were still in town and the church members.

Jay and Kimmy!

Katie and her man, Drew
Yawn! Big night last night

August 11 - WEDDING DAY

The best day of my life. I had so much fun!! It was the best wedding I have ever been to (not like I'm biased or anything....)

Aydan and I pose before the big event!

Dade wouldn't get in the picture! I think he was scared of the big white dress!
A little bridesmaid dancing to lighten the mood
First dance

The cakes (Groom's cake shaped like a cheeseburger!)

AXiD girls

The guys sing to the gals

See http://www.flickr.com/photos/agstratt/sets/ for more pictures! I'll be posting our professional pictures there as well, once we get them.

Things I learned:

• It is very hot underneath a wedding dress. I was wilting majorly until Emily stuck a cup of cold water in my face and ordered me to drink as we were taking pictures. I think that cup of water alone saved me from dying.
• No one even noticed when they cut off the hard liquor. This is an excellent idea to do.... we did it when we hit a certain dollar amount, but I've seen it happen at a certain time also. That wedding, the hard liquor ended around 10, and that may have been a better idea than in our case.... because it lasted all the way up until 11. My mom came to me and said "Your money ran out. No more hard liquor." I think she expected me to whine a bit and pony up for a bit more. One look around told me that people had had enough and wouldn't even notice. My reply: "GOOD!"
• Pre-planning and preparedness saves your butt when planning a wedding. I kept all the wedding documents on a flash drive in my purse at all times, and kept my ipod with me in case we needed it to play songs that I really wanted played at the wedding . BOTH came in handy; the flash drive multiple times.

Seen and heard at the wedding:

• Chad, prior to the wedding, to Mike: "If I don't remember to tell you later, I had fun tonight"
• Peter: "Is there a doctor in the house? Because ours is broken!" After John lost his footing and pile-drived Dixon to the ground
• I looked over during the first dance and saw Jenn and Emily holding each other, bawling their eyes out. It was very touching to know that I have such good friends who love me so much. I love them very much too.
• Weile was stockpiling both Jack&Coke empties and sparklers (our favors). One errant spark would have sent him up in flames
• My friend's husband Tom Duff met his almost-name-twin Tom Duffy. Cool huh?
• We went to play craps at the casino after the wedding just to get a pic of me and Mike at the craps table in our wedding gear. Choater almost got thrown in the clink for taking the picture (note to Casino Aztar: security needn't be that tight. You make most of your money on slots) , but we got the picture nonetheless.
• When you (and by you, I mean Rogus) hand a drink to someone, make sure there is not a sheet of plexiglass between you and that person.

August 10

Today was the rehearsal & rehearsal dinner. I had so much fun, it was so good to see everyone and visit! After the dinner, we all went to my parents' house for some swimming, which was an awesome good time.

Pretty bridesmaids

Ring Bearers Lucas and Alex gettin' rowdy

Emily discovers a VBS prop in the choir room

July 21

Today was my shower and Mom's birthday. Here are some pics!

Katie and I get in for a photo op

Mom's Birthday Cheesecake... Jay told the waiter she was 21!

The birthday girl!

April 1

Happy April Fool's day! I didn't do a whole heck of a lot today except for sleep and do some invitations. Mike and I tied about 20 ties on the invites and I addressed about half of them. Good times! This pic is of the bed upstairs, which has been turned into Invitation-Assembly-Central.

February 13

Just so ya'll know, this window is on my shitlist. When I got our invites last week, I put them under this window at the bottom of the stairs so that I could take them upstairs and put them in the "Pile O Wedding Crap" in the loft bedroom. This morning, it occurred to me that I should move them out from under the window ASAP so that they don't get faded or anything, and when I looked at the invites they were covered in mud/water/dirt from the window, which I guess leaked. Yeah, I almost had a heart attack. Luckily, I had taken a few out and laid them on top, so those were the only ones that really got ruined, and most of them were OK. But seriously, WTF window?