Our Story

Once upon a time, in 2004, two college friends went on a trip.

He asked her if she wanted to go for drinks. She said yes.

They sat at an outdoor cafe and drank Coronas and talked for hours.

Those Coronas in 2004 led to an apartment in Indiana in 2005,
a cross country move to Maryland in 2006, and a diamond ring in 2007.

The diamond ring in 2007 led to one of the best nights of their lives in 2008.

In 6 years together, we have shared three apartments in two different states.
We opened a joint bank account, adopted a dog, and jointly purchased a car... all before even being engaged. We planned a wedding, dug ourselves out of credit card debt,
and spent 9 months waiting....

And then late, late, late on October 26, we got to
meet the daughter we'd been dreaming of.

It's been 12 days since this little girl stole our hearts and
I can't imagine a better way to spend
our second anniversary
than holding my husband's hand and staring at this little face.

Pregnant Bridesmaid: The Dress

I told you I was going to be a pregnant bridesmaid.

Not just pregnant. Very pregnant. 34 weeks pregnant. The kind of pregnant no one wants to be at anyone's wedding because what would you wear?

You'd wear a convertible dress by NataJane, obviously. I placed the order on July 30 and told her I'd love to have it not later than September 15 so that I could practice wrapping it. Well wouldn't you know, it came today.... and I immediately ran upstairs to see if I could figure out how it works.

I didn't even waste any time getting out my good camera, so sorry for the super grainy pics. Here's the dress from the front:


And here's my.... 29 week belly:
The dress is cut with a bit more fabric in the front so that as my belly grows, the hemline doesn't ride up in the front. Oh, and those are the heels I ended up with - the Katie & Kelly Grace Leather Slingback in gold. They have a tiny 2 inch heel and are pretty comfortable.

I'm thrilled about this dress for 2 reasons: it covers my upper arms (which are never good, especially not pregnant) and it allows me to wear a real bra. For a dress with such a low v-neck, you'd expect more boobage to hang out, but I was able to pull it in a way that really covers everything. I'll just get some double stick body tape to tape the dress down and I'll be good to go. And the dress itself? Beautifully made and so comfortable!! NataJane was awesome to work with, answering my many questions and sending out fabric samples so I could make sure the color matched the other girls' dresses and shipped early so I could practice wrapping it. I love Etsy so hard.

Oh, and you can kind of see the pearl necklace I ordered from Etsy... I'm thinking maybe I want a long chain so it hangs an inch or so lower. What do you think?

Just over a month till the wedding... I can't wait!!

Pregnant Bridesmaid

In 8 weeks I'll be walking (waddling?) down the aisle as a bridesmaid for my close college friend, E. She picked out beautiful JCrew bridesmaid dresses that everyone ordered back in March... except for me. We didn't know how big I'd get - I'll be 34 weeks for the wedding - or if it would be worth it to order one and have it altered to hell. After talking to one of the very helpful JCrew bridal consultants, I found that altering one of the dresses that much would really ruin how the dress lays and besides that, there wasn't going to be enough room in the boob area in even the biggest size they have.

E told me to just "pick a dress in a fall color", but I wanted to get as close to the JCrew spiced wine shade as possible because.... it's her wedding. Duh! I'm already going to be huge, why throw a complete new color into the mix and draw more attention to myself? After weeks of searching, ordering swatches, and keeping my fingers crossed, I found a super fun dress that I'm really excited to wear!

It's the Coda Wrap Dress, by Etsy artisan NataJane (photo from her shop). The description says it'll fit size 2-14, and NataJane is adding a few inches of fabric to the front so that the hem line falls straight despite my bump. The merlot sample fabric was a veeeery close match for the JCrew spiced wine, and I'll be wearing the dress wrapped like the bottom right hand photo.

Now I'm on the hunt for gold accessories. I'm in love with this necklace:

source

I think it'll look great with the v-neck of the dress. I'm not sure on the direction I should go for shoes, but I love these and think they'll look great with the dress. I'm thinking maybe do these for the ceremony and pictures, and then have a back up pair of flats for the rest of the day?

source

I'm really excited for my dress to come in! I was a little hesitant after reading some reviews for other convertible dresses online (not in NataJane's feedback - hers was all GREAT!), but I was running out of options and knew that I wouldn't be able to custom order anything this late. Then I saw these awesome photos on WeddingBee and figured if this group of girls could make a convertible dress work, then I could, too.

How great are these???The girl on the left has hers wrapped the way I'm going to:
Here she is again:

The last three photos were pulled from WeddingBee!

I hoping my dress comes with instructions... how creepy would it be to email Mrs. Pencils to ask for instructions for the blond girl's wrap? Probably just as creepy as it is that I'm stalking her blond bridesmaid. Yikes.

Random Happiness

Even though my wedding was well over a year ago, I still love to read WeddingBee and generally click through a few times a day to see what everyone is up to. Yesterday morning there was a post from someone trying to book their honeymoon asking about the Secrets Capri Resort & Spa in the Riveria Maya, and since we honeymooned there and had a fabulous time, I decided to log in and post a response.



I hardly ever log in any more, so I was pretty surprised when I had a private message. It was from a bride who saw my wedding photos and loved the flower I wore in my hair. She wanted to know if she could buy it, or at least know where I had purchased it so that she could look for something similar.

I am too sentimental to let that flower go, so I sent her the site so she could purchase one herself. But her message made me so happy... and that was the motivation I needed to finally get my butt in gear to finish up my professional wedding album. I just have to send in my edits on the proof they sent - and really, all I need to do is make sure there's at least one picture of every family member in there and change the photo on the front cover. That's it! I have no idea why it's taken so long.... well, I do. It's because I'm lazy. But I'd really love to get my album before I deliver this child, so it needs to be done by this weekend. That's my self-imposed deadline. This Saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.

Show Us Your Life: Wedding Receptions!

I know I'm insanely late on this one, but I'm really enjoying this series of "Show Us Your Life" cause it gives me a legitimate excuse to look through our wedding pictures again (like the half finished wedding album isn't excuse enough....). And so, without further adieu...
Right after cocktail hour everyone was ushered into the ballroom and Warren G's "Regulators" came on as the bridal party was introduced. It was amazing. Then we came out (Rihanna's "Umbrella") and went right into our first dance, "Bless The Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts.
Our first dance was everything I could have ever hoped for. We laughed, we sang to each other, we talked about the ceremony and how we were actually married... and it was just us in the whole room. I don't remember actually hearing the song play or seeing anyone else. I do remember laughing. A lot.


The pictures above were taken about halfway through the dance. Know how I can tell? I'm not wearing my veil. I wanted to wear my veil all night (it's really only acceptable to wear a veil when you're a bride, and you're only a bride once) and our dance started out with it attached to my head.... I guess it wasn't attached securely enough, though, because it slipped right out during our mid-dance dip. Check it out:

See the comb falling out? I didn't even realize it was gone until someone came out on the dance floor to retrieve it! After the dance I put it back on.... it really was a fabulous veil (thank you, Bre!!) and I really did wear it all night.

After our dance, we went into the toasts. First, my handsome brother-in-law:

It was sweet and heartfelt, and I'm truly glad to have him as my older brother (in law).
Next up was my beautiful Maid of Honor, who (as she said in her speech) knew "Ryan and Katie before there was a Ryan & Katie".
She's known both of us since freshman year in college and gave a loving and very funny speech. Just look at my reaction:
After the speeches, Ryan's uncle gave the blessing and dinner was served. As dinner was finishing up, we treated our guests to a classic college sing-a-long. Back in college, it was a rare occurrence to have a house party without breaking out the guitar and everyone singing Billy Joel's "Piano Man". Our good friend Dave played both the harmonica and guitar, and our other good friend Chris took the lead on vocals:And the rest of the boys joined in:
I think the dance floor opened at the point, but I'm not sure. I was having a great time, stuck to my new husband's side, mingling and dancing and laughing with our guests. When it was time for the cake, one of my husband's best friends gave a toast:
His speech was funny and sweet, and I remember feeling so loved. And then we cut the cake, which apparently required massive concentration (note my tongue):
After the cake we did our parent dances, and then opened the dance floor for real. Everyone danced all night long, which is exactly what we wanted.



Here I am with FIL, my father-in-law:

Check out my MIL in the chocolate brown dress (in the middle):

Here's a great shot of my sister (the blond), my best friend (dark hair with the deep side part), and my beautiful mom (far right in the mocha-colored gown) rocking out:

The whole night was amazing. I spent a LOT of time laughing. Sometimes in people's faces, as seen here:


The last song of the night was "Don't Stop Believing" (Journey), and it was so much fun.... God, I really loved our wedding. And I really love this guy:
Thanks for stopping by! Check out all the other wedding receptions at Kelly's Korner... see you next Friday for more "Show Us Your Life" (or tomorrow for the midwest recap!).

Wedding Day Details

It's another fabulous Friday, and Kelly is again hosting Show Us Your Life!

Last week was Show Us Your Wedding Gown, and this week it's Show Us Your Bridal Party, Flowers, and (my favorite part) The DETAILS!

First up, my beautiful girls:

From left to right they are my college roommate, my youngest sister, my younger sister, me, my college roommate, my best friend in life, and my friend from college.

They wore Alfred Angelo style 6493 in navy blue. Here's a shot where you can see the dresses in full:

It also shows off our flowers pretty well. I just loved my wedding flowers! They were just simple hand tied bouquets of white, cream, and blush flowers, but they really made me happy. Here's a close-up of the girls' flowers:

They carried just roses and hydrangea. You can even see their pearl bracelets, which I had made to match the colors of the flowers. My bouquet was made up of roses, hydrangea, and mini calla lillies:
Oh, and before I forget, here's a shot of the guys:

The groomsmen wore black tuxes with navy blue ties and vests from Men's Wearhouse. Ryan wore the same styles, but had a white tie and vest. He's the handsome devil right there in the middle.

OK, so you've seen the bridal party and the flowers... now I have just a few detail shots for you. First, our sweetheart table:

Our programs... I hand made them and they were totally awesome:

There were numerous bottles of 'Dre floating around the bridal suite. We like to keep it klassy.

My heels - they were Blue Tux kitten heels that I got on sale for $25 on ShoeBuy.com!

My gift to Ryan were map cuff links. One had a tiny map of Albuquerque (it's a special place to us) and the other was a map of Annapolis, which is where we were married:

Here's a shot of our invitation, rings, jewelry, and my perfume. I wore Vera Wang. And yes, you're seeing 4 rings in that shot... I ended up with two wedding bands :-)

And finally, my wedding day clutch. It was custom made by Cadie Briar Custom Designs. The outside of the bag is navy raw silk, and the inside is a cream and brown pattern. She also added my new initials and wedding date:

I have tons more I'd love to show you, but I'll save it for the next installment. I believe next week is going to be Show Us Your Reception, and I've got lots of fun pictures from that. Thanks for stopping by!!

The Gown

This is my first Friday ever participating in Kelly's Show Us Where You Live series!

Sadly, I didn't participate in the actual "where you live" segments because, well, I live in a white-walled rented townhouse that isn't too interesting... at the moment. That will all change come the fall, when we start painting! But back to Kelly - since she ran out of rooms in the house to feature on Fridays, the series is now called "Show Us Your Life" and the first item up is show us your wedding dress!

I wore Maggie Sottero's "Karen Marie" in diamond white, purchased at Jefre Bridals in Greenbrook, NJ.

I went dress shopping with my mom, sister, and maid of honor; all three made the 3 hour trip from Jersey to help me pick out the gown of my dreams. After trying on almost every gown in the Greater Baltimore Area , I finally settled on a gown. It wasn't the Maggie Sottero, and believe me, I settled. I was sick of trying on gown after gown, afraid that nothing would give me that "this is the one" feeling that everyone talked about.

The dress we settled on was beautiful, but didn't fit me quite right in the bewb area. The seamstress swore to me she could take the gown apart and make it work, so we put down a non-refundable deposit. I didn't feel like I was making a great decision, but I had made A decision and that was fine. But then I got nervous. Really nervous. So nervous, that I told my mom I had second thoughts on the gown. She let me in on a little secret - she was nervous, too. She also told me that she had just always pictured me in a strapless gown (the one we put a deposit down on had straps). Funny thing is, I had always pictured myself in a strapless gown, too. I went back to the shop with my first dress and bawled my eyes out. They were WONDERFUL and completely refunded the deposit. That afternoon I went dress shopping alone (I know, who does that?) and tried on gown after gown after gown.

And then I put on the "Karen Marie" and I knew it was The One. I knew it even without anyone to tell me. I knew it when it was all laced up in the fitting room with no mirror. I knew it when I walked out and the woman in the waiting area (waiting for her daughter to come out) looked up from her magazine and her jaw dropped open. I knew it when I looked in the mirror and despite being 15 pounds heavier than I would be on my wedding day, I felt beautiful.

I was so confident, in fact, that I placed the order without anyone having seen me in the dress. Of course, for the next 6 months waiting for the dress to come in I started to worry. What if I was wrong? Should I have had someone look at it on me before committing to it? The day I went in for my first fitting I was shaking like a leaf. I was worried sick that I'd put it on and I'd hate it. Honestly, I thought I was going to throw up as the seamstress laced it up. I didn't look in the mirror until she was done. And when I did look in the mirror, I burst into tears. I loved it.

I loved the corset back:

And the simple, structured, non-sparkly construction (ok, and the fact that it made my waist look tiny):The lack of pre-fab sparkle on the dress meant I could add those details myself. I added a simple brooch to the hip, in place of the huge silk flower that came with the dress:And Swarovski earrings:

I love this shot of everything put together, taken just before I was able to look at myself:

And then I saw myself in the full length mirror across the room. My "Holy Crap, I'm a BRIDE!!" face says it all:

Our first dance; you can kind of see the bustle, which promptly broke thirty seconds later. I ended up carrying the train all night, which I secretly wanted to do anyway.

And here's one of my favorite shots of the night. We had just come down from the top of the tower and were giggling about something:

Even though I' love to take you through my entire wedding today, I'll save you the boredom :-)Thanks for stopping by!