The Wedding!

For anyone who ever said the wedding day would go by as fast as ever. Thank you. When pretty much every single married girl I encountered on the face of the planet warned me of this phenomenon I figured, “Hey, maybe they are on to something!”

First off, Greg and I probably had the worst weeks of sleep ever. We were both worried about tying up loose ends at work and would wake up at all hours of the night worried about some silly task that we needed to jot down or remind someone to do! I would also wake up with questions like, “How were we going to get home from the reception?”, “How were we going to get all of the stuff we needed to get out of the reception hall before we leave the reception” and my favorite… “How are we getting to and from the airport for our much needed honey moon????” Thankfully all of the questions were solved quickly once I remembered to write them down at 3 am!

So, the wedding day. My little sister and I stayed at a hotel near the church. Our talented and patient hair dresser and make up artist Candice showed up around 10:30 am and we got started. Time first seemed to move slowly. It was just the three of us... Chatting and doing hair. Then my cousin Tabitha and her friend came by. They visited for a little bit and then went down to do some swimming outside. Angie came to have a little fun with pictures while we were getting ready. Then Jenny and Beth came to start getting ready and to get their hair done. At some point my mom showed up. The photographer and videographer (and her assistant came too). My other friend Erica showed up so she and Angie could take the programs to the church to hand them out and my Aunt came by to ensure that I wasn’t about to pass out or go insane. And luckily my good friend Jill came by to get my seating charts because the substitute event manager at the hall could not read a diagram that consisted of many NON MOVING points and 19 tables that really needed to be set up how the regular event manager designed it. That is how we arranged the seating chart…

At some point in the early afternoon my mom went and got some champagne to help all of us take the edge off because at some point after noon and before 3 pm time sped up. Magically there became no time left. My cell phone began to ring constantly with text messages and vendors calling me with crazy questions. I thought I might explode.

Next thing I knew it was 3:30 pm and we gals needed to get our booties in the limo and to the church! We arrived at the church with no problems. When I saw Jason, I had a hard time. More like an overwhelming moment that was easily contained. I had difficulty because my dad wasn’t there but also because he was willing to stand in for my dad which was a really big task. We shared some discussion and some jokes and then proceeded to hide me from Greg which was annoying because I really wanted to see him. That would be quite hard without him seeing me!

While walking down the aisle, I stared at Greg and did my best to smile and not cry! He later told me he thought something was wrong! I just wanted to stare at him because I didn’t know who to look at otherwise! I wanted to talk to him so bad once I got up there but we couldn't talk about anything until the wedding was over!

The ceremony was beautiful. Amy and Aunt Jenny did a wonderful job reading. Deacon Eric did a wonderful job with the homily and Father Mike kept us all on our feet! After the ceremony there was little to no time for visiting. We had a million and one pictures to take. Once that was over we went to the City of Warren for some outdoor pictures by their artwork and beautiful flowers. Sometime around 6 pm we headed over to the hall for the reception.

Greg and I had so much fun at the reception! We danced a ton and got to visit with everyone even if just for a brief moment! We had fun watching everyone go in and out of the photobooth and be silly in there! The night blew by and once the night was over… neither one of us could believe it was done!

We are so glad to have gotten to see everyone and we are grateful to all of you who came from so far away to share our special day!

Now we are off to our much needed honeymoon!

The Finishing Touches

Wow. Right now there are only 4 days until our big day!

Greg and I have spent this past weekend putting the final touches on all of the little projects we have going on. The seating chart is complete, the timeline is almost finished and our wedding ceremony is planned.

We are both quite excited about the wedding, the celebration and of course, the honeymoon! Sunday we will be heading over to England for 4 days and then over to Ireland! We cannot wait for the adventure - together!

Well, with all the craziness that we have been dealing with... We have to laugh. When people send us funny things, we laugh and laugh hard!


We hope you find this just as humorous! This photo is from Greg's birthday party a year ago this past May. Someone who I am related to with really good digital imaging skills came up with this! Don't worry Greg doesn't have his tongue pierced...yet!

We will be seeing you all so very soon!

Veil Drama

What an accomplishment! After months and months of working on, ignoring and procrastinating having to work on my veil... It is almost done! There is about one hour of work left to do on it and it will be complete! It is perfect with a few minor flaws that make it home made - that I don't think anyone will notice, unless I start telling people after a glass or two of champagne!

I am so grateful to my Aunt for helping me get through a project that I really had no clue of what I was doing. I am also grateful for stumbling across a young woman's website that had step by step instructions for what to do. I thought about posting a picture, then I decided... There are only 28 days until you get to see it!

Greg and I are so excited for the wedding which is quickly approaching! We are putting the final touches on some minor plans and just making sure we tie up all the loose ends with vendors.

We cannot wait to see everyone and celebrate!!! Oh so soon!

Watch Your Mailboxes!

It is official! At about 9:20 am a very large quantity of invitations got dropped off at the local post office near my house. I am hoping that a majority of them make it to the intended recipients, but after the wedding shower invitation fiasco... who knows!

I was very nervous dropping them off. I have read and re-read these things hoping that I got them all right! I didn't see any misspellings or inaccuracies, but that doesn't mean they are there. I also had to purchase just a few more stamps because I was about 10 short for the response cards! Those will go out tomorrow - or Saturday because it is late and I am tired!

So the shower is in just 10 or so days! I cannot believe that time is moving so quickly! Greg and I are excited to get many of you together to meet and chat and enjoy a nice lunch!

See you all very soon!

The Baptism

Yesterday Greg was baptized into the Catholic church! It was such a beautiful ceremony. It was also a 5 hour long event! I am proud of Greg for the commitment and the hard work he did to get to this point!

We Get To Have Our Cake And Eat It Too!

We tackled yet another big one on the list this weekend! We finally ordered our cake!

I think it is safe to say that Greg and I were a little more than annoyed and suprised by the cost of a piece of cake. Never mind the tackiness of some examples and the horrible taste of others... We didn't really know what we wanted to do because we refused to pay so much money for something we were not impressed with!

After flipping through many wedding magazines and cake books we thought out all of our options. Do we want to go all out? Do we want a fake cake with a sheet cake in the back? Do we want to just forget the cake and have a dessert table? Yikes!

This weekend we had another appointment with a woman who makes cakes. We spoke on the phone a few times, I explained how we just wanted simple and it felt like no one could just do simple anymore!! She agreed and promised she could and would do simple.

Greg and I met up with her, after about 10 minutes we had our cake design picked out and she had our color samples cut from my little samples of fabric that I have. We paid her and left with the little mini cake that she made us.

Yeah.. yeah... we bought the cake from her before we even tasted it! That is because we could tell by the little cake she made us that it was the right frosting!

For less that one third the cost of a cake from out here in the city we got exactly what we wanted. Once we got home and tasted the cake... we were soooo pleased with our decision! I don't think I have ever seen Greg so enthused with cake in my life. There is hardly any left from the sample one! We may have to call her sometime in the next 110 days to get another one! LOL!

Tasting Our Dinner

Greg and I finally had a tasting at the reception location. As a consumer, I found it so strange that venues will not let you taste the dinner you may or may not be eating until you book the hall! We had trust in the Mabry Center that the food would be just fine... but like anyone else spending a lot of money on a reception, we wanted to be sure.

Finally a date worked out that Greg and I could make it to the hall. It ended up being Saturday, February 2nd. I also timed it to have one of the chair cover vendors come to the hall. I was able to have my chair covers chosen before the tasting - which was one more thing that I didn't have to worry about!

Once the tasting started it was pretty straight forward. Get up, get food, taste it, if you like it have more... or not. Try the fondue machine, drool over and step away slowly and carefully! Like most of the other gals there, we used the excuse that there was fruit under that yummy chocolate that made it OK to eat! LOL!

In the end, Greg and I discovered a few things that we didn't like a few things we liked and even more things we loved. I am very glad that we had the opportunity to try some of the food before having to choose a menu in just a few months! I think three to be exact!

The Honeymoon is Booked!

It is official on Sunday, June 30, 2008 Mr. & Mrs. Gregory Hall will be in the air over the Atlantic Ocean heading to London England. Once our trip is over in London, we will then head to Dublin Ireland.

We have our flights and hotels booked. We may book a few day tours but otherwise we plan on exploring the countries on our own as we go. There are a few things that are "must do's" for us...

1. Stonehenge
2. Kissing the Blarney Stone
3. St. Patrick's Cathedral
4. St. James Gate / Guiness!
5. The London Eye
6. Parliment
7. The Royal Air Museum

There are so many other places we want to explore, but we will just have to see what we are able to accomplish in such a short time!