Wedding Weekened Recap 5/15/15

The day went far too quickly!  Ryan and I drove to Chicago last Friday for my dear friend Shae's wedding...and the time just flew by!  I was greeted by some great friends from high school offering up their congratulations to us.  The setting for the wedding was glamorous and I definitely shed a tear or two...or seventeen.  It went too fast, as I'm sure Shae can attest to!  Here's a little recap in pictures (the best part).

Wedding Selfie

Unity Wine!!

 

My beautiful, MARRIED friend! :)

So Thoughtful...warm fuzzies were had. :)

Grateful for these girls in my life.

I just wish we could do it all over again and again and again!

July Wedding Fun (Recap)

Right in the middle of the summer, we had an awesome opportunity to reunite with many of our good friends for Kyle and Kerri's wedding.  It was a beautiful weekend, and we all had a good time.  On Friday night, some people came to our house for some drinks and hang-out time.  We took advantage of our sun room and had a great time.

On Saturday, Ashley, Andy, Emily, Nick, and I brought some breakfast to Steve and Amber so we could hang out with them and meet baby Kingsley.  She was so adorable, and it was wonderful to see their cute little family!

Later that afternoon, we headed out to the Rehn wedding.  It was a little hot, but absolutely gorgeous.  We went to the Broken Saddle Saloon before and after the wedding.  We had a great time catching up with friends at the reception and then Ashley and I line danced the night away at Broken Saddle.  It was hilarious, very fun, and we must go back someday! :)

I have two more weddings to look forward to in October and I'm looking forward to more dancing! :)  Happy Thursday!

Weekend Recap: August 23-25

It was another packed weekend, as they all seem to be these days.  But I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Friday was a spontaneous double date night with Emily and Brad.  We grabbed a quick dinner and then we went shooting.  Yeah, right? Me shooting a gun?  Ha!  I wasn't certain I would even touch one, but by the end of night, I had shot three different guns, multiple times.  Holy cow!  It was fun, but still pretty scary.  But I'm still glad I did and I would do it again.  After shooting, we went to the Circle Tap for a couple drinks.

Saturday was Emily's first bachelorette party!  It was the most beautiful day, we couldn't have asked for a better experience boating and swimming on Lake McBride.  I have loads of pictures, I'll try not to share them all, haha.  Somehow, about nine hours flew by without us even noticing and we had to head in before it got too dark.  Kelsi, Sabrina, Emily, and I had another adventure later that even, but I won't delve into details ;-)

On a side note: Emily has some of the most amazing friends.  I fell in love with all of them on Saturday!  She's one lucky girl to have those ladies in her life. 

Sunday was the day of rest.  We drove home early and I slept a couple more hours, then I laid around all day and participated in two fantasy football drafts.  Watch out friends, I feel two wins coming this year!

What I'm looking forward to this weekend: spending time with Hannah (my Little) on Friday, enjoying Saturday outside hopefully, and flying out for Vegas Sunday night! :)  What do you have planned?

Weekend Recap: July 19-21

This past weekend was a super weekend.  We headed up to Des Moines after work on Friday and spent the evening playing games and catching up with the Reeds and Ashley and Mat.  And of course, playing with Mickey.  Sadly, no pics from this fun evening.  However, on Saturday morning, I busted out the camera.

Emily, Ryan and I headed to the Des Moines Farmer's Market and it was awesome, as always.  Good food, good music, good weather...couldn't have asked for a better start to the day.

After the market, we headed to Ankeney for some bonding time with Tessa and Daniel and their new baby, Beatrice (Bea).  I love holding babies, and seeing friends, and eating breakfast food.  It was a great Saturday morning. 

After our drive home and a nice long nap, I went to a 30th birthday party with my parents and then went home with my mom to decorate for Emily's (my sis) bridal shower!

Sunday morning, I showered, got ready, and headed back to me Mom's to finish decorating and cooking for the shower.  It was a beautiful afternoon.  Lots of love for my sister and lots of laughs with each other.

How was your weekend?

Wedding Weekend Recap: Lindsey and Kyle

This past Labor Day Weekend, I got to be a part of my oldest friend's wedding!  I've known and been friends with Lindsey for the better part of seventeen years!  I was so blessed to be able to keep in touch with her while she's been in Morocco and so honored when we had a heart to heart about her wedding and she asked me to sing in her wedding, because of our long musical history together and the fact that she couldn't imagine anyone else doing the job.  :)

So of course, I attended the rehearsal on Saturday out at Grace Camp in Dewitt, IA, and I immediately fell in love with the location!  It was gorgeous out there.  After attending a nice rehearsal, eating a yummy rehearsal dinner, and getting to know some of Lindsey's other friends, I had to stop a moment and take in the beauty of the location.  It helped that it was sunset as I was driving away!

Notice the white chairs in the distance?

On Sunday, I first stopped at my parents house to watch part of the air show, since Lindsey's wedding was later in the day and then around 3:00, left for Grace Camp.  It was hot, like really hot, for the darn sweater I was wearing anyway, but I got used to it.  I got to see (and hug!) Lindsey right when I got there and she looked smashing!  We snapped a pic together and then I rehearsed with the other musicians.

The wedding was beautiful, the music went really well, I particularly liked my duet with an old high school friend, Hans.  Lindsey looked stunning, the bridesmaids looked great, Kyle look handsome...it was all just beautiful!

And unfortunately, my camera died right after Ryan took that picture of us signing.  So I don't have any pics from the reception, but the food was good, and they didn't skimp on their beer selection either: Blue Moon or Berry-Weiss.  I drove, however, and enjoyed some iced tea! :)  There were beautiful favors from Morocco.  They were these cute little tea glasses in different colors with painted decorations.  The slide show was great and the wedding party introductions were sweet.  Despite being a little crowded in the location, it was a great evening and I hope Kyle and Lindsey enjoyed their party!

Happy marriage to Kyle and Lindsey!!

Wedding Weekend Recap: Brooke and Ryan

This past weekend I had the pleasure of being the MAID (technically matron) of honor in Brooke's wedding!  So I took Friday off to help out with all of the decorating, to participate in mani/pedis, and of course, to work out all of the kinks at the rehearsal.  We ended the day with a super great picnic at the park where Brooke and Ryan met.  It was a stressful day, but also lots of fun!

First thing in the morning, we woke up from our sleepover (with our funny sleeping arrangements) and started getting ready for the day.  We gathered our things and headed to our hair appointments!

We spent the rest of the morning getting ready at the church, perhaps with some adult refreshments to help calm the nerves :)

We followed the ceremony with a surprise from Brooke's step dad; a limo!  So we rushed to get our stuff gathered and get the party started!!  We drove around getting some pictures taken and stopping at Bent River for some brews.  

We got to the reception and partied it up!  It was so much fun, great music, lots of dancing, yummy cake, and good friends. 

I also got to spend the evening with my wonderful husband, reminiscing about our wedding day and how much fun we had and hoping that Brooke and Ryan enjoyed their special day as much as we did!

Finally, and I know this was a really long post (sorry!), I just had to share the link to my maid of honor toast, which was, of course, sung!  Once I hit 100 views, I get to go on the Today Show right? ;)