Deja Vu

No, I'm not planning my bachelor party...not yet anyway...just kidding Kendra! It's time for my first official post!

On Saturday, we went to the wedding of Kendra's cousin Gina and her new husband Brandon, now the O'Connell's. It was almost 3 years ago, in January even, that I first attended St. Patrick's Catholic Church for the wedding of Lynn and Chris Meyer, (Kendra's sister and my friends.) I arrived late and was fortunate to get a seat in the balcony for the standing room only event, (just a tip, arrive early on June 5th). Due to my elevated seat, I was only able to see the bride, the groom and the priest throughout the service. It wasn't until the wedding party was announced later at the Park Ballroom that I first laid eyes on my beautiful future bride Kendra! She was the maid of honor that day and I was just a lowly guest, way too shy to talk to such a pretty lady, and she spent most of the night on the dance floor anyway. I would have to wait another 6 months before I saw her again, this time on our first date.

Showing up at the St. Patrick's church this past weekend brought back some memories. This time I arrived early, thanks to my ride from Lynn, Chris and baby Ben. We got a seat on the main floor and were able to see the bridesmaids enter, the second to the last one in was my favorite...I even got a smile and a wink from her on my way back from communion! This time when I got to the Park Ballroom my future bride was there waiting to talk to me and she even brought me out on the dance floor with her many times.

It was fun to think back to three years ago to how it all began, and how in 5 months, it'll all come full circle as the next wedding we'll be attending at St. Patrick's and the Park Ballroom is our own!

Take Care,
Paul

It's 2010....we're getting married this year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I can't believe how quickly 2009 went, but time flies when you're having fun and we definitely had a fun 2009!

Paul & I started 2010 out on a very productive note, by beginning another house project this weekend. Friday, we began cleaning closets and taking loads to the thrift store (yeah!). We then moved on to clean (top to bottom) and paint the 2 bedrooms on the main floor. It took 2 coats of paint, but looks awesome now. I impressed myself by installing mini blinds in both rooms by using...get this...a drill!! The rooms look fresh, clean and organized! It's amazing how much work you can get done by having just one more day in the weekend. I wish every weekend could be a 3 day weekend, don't you?

This next weekend, Paul & I will be attending my cousin Gina and her fiance Brandon's wedding. We're very excited and know it will be a great time! Paul and my wedding will be the next one on the schedule after Gina & Brandon's...can you believe that? Oh, remember how I said there are/were 7 grandkids getting married within a year on my side? Well, we learned this past week that the local paper (New Prague Times) will be doing an article on my Grandma and her 7 engaged grandkids. It should be a pretty neat story. I'll post the link when the article runs!

Well, as far as the wedding planning is going...bachelorette party and shower plans are being made, save-the-dates and invitations are about to be started, and reception decorations & flowers are being discussed. This month will be packed with wedding discussions, meetings, decisions, etc. I hope Paul is ready for this!

Oh, I don't know if I mentioned this, but Paul & I will also be going on vacation this month! We love vacation! Our good friends, Ryan & Stacy, are getting married on January 22nd in Jamaica and we decided (long before we were even engaged) that we'd join them for the celebration...so kind of us to give up a week in freezing cold Minnesota to have a blast in warm, sunny Jamaica, right? ha! We're so excited! This will be our last vacation as an unmarried couple...well, unless of course Paul decides to surprise me with another trip in the next 5 months!! ha! (A girl can dream, right?)

Anyway, we hope to have many more updates to share as this month progresses, but for now we'll keep you in suspense!

We hope you're all doing well and continue to do so as we start out this exciting new year!

K&P

PS: I'm nosey...who's out there? Drop us a comment so we know who's following our blog. First person to comment will be featured in our next post. (Not sure exactly what that means, but I promise we'll make it good!) ha!

Christmas Cookies & Wedding Cakes...

Well, it's certainly beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I spent the day baking Christmas cookies with my mom, sister-in-law, and cousin. We ended up making over 5 different types of cookies (and maybe sampling a few too!) As you can see my mom has quite the collection of old aprons and we've made it a tradition to wear them whenever we bake...it's kinda fun!



Now for the wedding updates...for those of you who don't know, I've decided to wear my Grandma's wedding dress for our wedding. My Grandma Adeline is my Mom's Mom who wore the dress in 1943 for she and my Grandpa's wedding. My Mom and I went to play BINGO with my Grandma a couple weeks back and I asked her permission to wear her dress. She teared up and said "Yes!" I was so happy!

We will do some alterations on the dress to make it a better fit for my style but overall I intend for it to stay as close as possible to its original style! I'm very excited to see the final product!

The same (awesome) woman who will be altering my dress is also making our wedding cakes (yes, we're back to the idea of cakes instead of cupcakes). She asked Paul & I to put together a list of some of our favorite cake flavors...wow...ok...we can do that! I'm excited to see what she comes up with as we've given her some "creative freedom" on the actual cake design.

On the "girly side" of things...I've been working with some former classmates to organize hair stylists for the bridesmaids for the morning of the wedding. I've also ordered and received all the bridesmaids' dresses which is nice to have checked off the list!

While looking at jewelry for the bridesmaids, I had a change of "vision" (oh, how dramatic, huh?) for the wedding color scheme. Originally I had been leaning toward a pink & green color scheme....but now I've settled on a green, blue, ivory, brown scheme. I asked Paul how he felt about my new idea and he said "It will all look brown to me" (due to being partially colorblind)...which I then interpreted to mean "I love it, Kendra!"...Oh, it's nice to have such an agreeable fiance! ha!

Paul is working on deciding what meal will be served at the reception of our wedding. The reception site has a big menu that we can select from and with so many weddings lately, we've been able to sample many of their menu items ahead of time. We hope you all end up enjoying the meal....and cake...and overall, just the whole day! (but if not, then at least you know who to blame for the meal selection! - kidding!)

I finish up my last final exam of the semester this week and then we can focus on enjoying the Christmas season AND getting this wedding planned! It's now less than 6 months away!

Thanks for checking in!
K&P

PS: Did I mention I have another cousin that got engaged? Just last week! Congrats Jake & Gina!

Bye, Bye, Bye...

Update: Paul read the post....and the boy-band, pop songs have been removed...dang.

Probably for the best!

Weddy, Set, Go!

How often do we begin by apologizing for not posting often enough? Too many times...and today won't be different. So, here it is....Sorry. Ok, now let's move on!

This Saturday will mark the start of the "6 months until our wedding count down". I know you all have that marked on your calendars and have been anxiously awaiting it. Well, rest assured...it's almost here!

Hmm...what kind of updates do we have for you today? Well, I will be ordering the bridesmaids' dresses tomorrow, which is pretty exciting...mostly because I was actually able to convince 9 very different ladies that they'll "just love" this dress. I rock! (Now, fingers crossed that they actually will!) I will definitely be happy to have that crossed off the old wedding planning list.

We started our wedding registry...which is pretty fun but also difficult. Our house is not very big...and some of those "small" kitchen appliances just may end up being stored in Paul's closet. (Sorry Paul - ha!)

I've spent several evenings, playing songs on YouTube to try to get our list of wedding songs together. The scene usually plays out like this...

Paul: (while watching football) "Go, Go, Go....NOOOOOOOOOOOO..."
Kendra: "Hey Paulo...do you like this song?"
(song plays loudly over the sound of football announcers)
Paul: (leaning in to hear the announcers) "Yeah...it's nice."
Kendra: "Ok, it's on the list."

I then proceed to add numerous boy-band, pop songs to the list. One of the 2 following things will happen as a result....

1) Paul will read this post and promptly ask me to remove these songs from the list
OR
2) He won't and we'll walk down the aisle to something by N'sync, like maybe this....



Boy, you're in for a show!

Paul & I recently booked our trip to Jamaica for our friends Ryan & Stacy's wedding in January! We're very excited for Ryan & Stacy...and to have such a great excuse to hit the beaches during a MN winter!

I have 3 weeks of class left, 2 huge presentations and a final exam. BUT, after that...it's wedding planning boot-camp. We've got to get the bulk of everything nailed down (tight!) so by the time I head into second semester, we're good as gold or at least solid as silver....we'll take what we can get.

The picture of us, above, is from Thanksgiving! (Thanks Dennis!)

Thanks for checking in!
K&P

PS: Hope you're ready...Paul's been practicing some pretty crazy dance moves lately...who knows what kind of choreographed routine he'll work up in the next 6 months? Just consider yourself warned. (He's going to love this post! - ha!)

The Wedding Party!

TWO posts in ONE day....what's going on!?!? Ha! I've been told by some disgruntled followers (my coworkers!) that we need to get better at updating the blog more often....so we're working on it! You'd think that seeing me 5 out of 7 days a week would be enough....some people!!

So, let's talk wedding...it's time to meet Our Wedding Party!

The Ladies...

Matrons of Honor:
Joleen (Kendra's sister)
Lynn (Kendra's sister)

Bridesmaids:
Kara (Kendra's sister-in-law)
Megan (Paul's sister)
Gina (Kendra's cousin)
Sarah (Kendra's cousin)
Traci (Kendra's college friend & teammate)
Amber (Kendra & Paul's good friend)

Flower Girl(s):
Madison (Kendra's niece)
Baby M. (if a girl!)

Personal Attendants:
Natalie (Kendra's college friend & teammate)
Krista (Kendra's college friend & teammate)
Gretchen (Kendra's cousin)

The Men...

Best Man:
John (Paul's good friend)

Groomsmen:
Matt (Paul's good friend)
Pete (Paul's good friend)
Chuck (Paul's good friend)
Mark (Paul's brother-in-law)
Chris (Kendra's brother-in-law & Paul's good friend)
Jeff (Kendra's brother)
Eric (Kendra's brother)
Jesse (Kendra's brother-in-law)

Ring Bearers:
Joey (Paul's nephew)
Brady (Kendra's nephew)
Benjamin (Kendra's nephew)
Baby M. (if a boy!)

Ushers:
Kyle (Kendra's cousin)
Brian (Paul's cousin)


That's 29, counting Paul & I!! Sounds like the perfect wedding party to us!

Ta-Da!

Our house is (almost) done!!! I hate to say it's completely done because frankly, it seems as though it will NEVER be completely done! However, I can say confidently that this particular project is about 99% done! I've included some before & after pictures in this post! We're pretty proud! Seriously, sometimes I go outside just to sneak another peek of it - ha!

Thanks again to all of our friends & family who helped us get this massive project done!