Sunday, June 27, 2010

Recapping the Rehearsal

Where to start with the rehearsal...oh yes, two hours before everyone was set to arrive, the skies opened up with crazy wind gusts and rain pulling trees out by their roots, knocking branches down all over the city.  And many of our bridesmaids, groomsman and other family were out driving in this mess to our home.  To top it all off, we lost our power.

So, I had 37 people coming over, and no power in 80+ degree weather with high humidity and dusk looming.  Awesome!  Teddy and I ran all over the house and lit candles so we could see, and we prayed that the house would stay cool (ok we were dreaming here).

As we were waiting for the final wedding party attendants to arrive everyone enjoyed themselves in a highly humid, hot house, getting hotter by candles being burnt for light, and drinking lots of still cold beer!  By 6:30 everyone had arrived and we got all lined up for for the rehearsal.  Here are all the guys in place waiting with Pastor.


So, just as Melissa (our day of coordinator) got all the boys lined up we noticed a miracle...the power was back on!!!!  So, we took a quick pause to close all the windows, crank up the air conditioning and blow out the candles.  Phew!!!

Then the practice procession could begin.  Mom came in with Michael and of course Fozzie.  While he wasn't going to be at the big day, Fozzie had to be part of the celebration.


All the bridesmaids followed after that.  Here they are all lined up in the living room/make shift wedding location.


Dad and I were next.  Melissa was giving us our final pointers to remember for the big day, and then we were off to head to the end of the aisle. 


We all then got the quick run down from Pastor Ledogar.  We went through it all so fast, but Teddy and I thought we got the jist and were ready for the big day. 


So, we were wrapping it all up and about to head to dinner, but before we went, people were still having some fun.  :)  Especially Teddy's sisters.  Let me introduce you to my new sister-in-laws and their crazy antics. 

This is Erica, she loves making crazy faces at cameras.  I have lots of pictures of her making this face.  I think she was about finished with the steaming hot and humid rehearsal at this point.  :)


This is Beth, she is Teddy's youngest sister, and she along with Jennifer took tons of great pictures here at the rehearsal and on our wedding day.  She lives in Columbia, so we were so excited to have her in town for our big day. 


This is Jennifer, the oldest of the sisters who did an awesome job with the pictures.  She was having some fun with her sisters, I think.  :)


So, those are my three new sister-in-laws.  They are always fun, and constantly make me laugh.  I think part of the reason Teddy is such a great guy is because of these three ladies.  I'm excited to have three more women in my life that I can call sister!

As we were wrapping it up to head to dinner, Anthony was trying to stir up some trouble.  I don't remember what he said, but I do remember it was trouble!  Teddy is just happily smiling for the picture, while I'm squishing Anthony's head. :)


I love this next picture.  I think it's so cool how my sister is right there through the chaos of the room as everyone is running around.  She looks so cute with her flower headband and fun dress.  She made all the ribbon bouquets for me and all the girls.  They were all so fun, especially Nilam's.  If you look back at the picture of the girls standing there, check out Nilam's bouquet.  Sara gave her this crazy one that nearly took out an eye. 


I love this picture of dad and me.  He looks so happy and excited. 


Here is a picture of Teddy with all his sisters.  It's rare that this group is all together at the same time and place, and this picture is just so perfect.  They look so great.  And they are all smiling nice and looking at the camera!  That's even more rare.  Don't believe me...look at the next picture.  This is the way nearly all their pictures end up looking.  :)  Those crazy Lach's...oh wait...I'm a Lach now!  I'm going to have to join the party.  
 

After we wrapped up the rehearsal, we all headed to Clara's for dinner.  It was awesome.  We had cheezy garlic bread and stuffed mushrooms as appetizers, and then salad.  For dinner we had family style of:  rigatoni with meet sauce, cheese tortellini with vodka tomato cream sauce, chicken parm, and sausage and peppers.  We finished it off with some chocolate ice cream for dessert.  Everything was delicious, service was fabulous and it was an amazng time.  It was the pre-party to the big day.  When we were driving home, I said to Teddy that if our wedding was half as good as the rehearsal it would be amazing.  Below are some more pictures of the tables of those attending the dinner.  Fun times for all!


Thanks to everyone that participated in our day from the bridesmaids/groomsman, to those doing readings, to the picture takers and greeters.  You all played an important part, and you are so important to us.  We love you guys!

Wedding recap should be coming soon...

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day


Dad, last night you gave me away, but I'll always be your daughter.  I love you so much.  Thank you for being you and for always being there for me.  Happy Father's Day!!!!


Our Wedding Day!!

All I can say is wow.  What an amazing day.  Teddy and I are so blessed.  When you are as lucky as us to be surrounded by the most amazing family and friends, I think anything is possible.  Our wedding last night was just perfect down to every detail.  But more important than anything was being able to share with everyone that we love how much we love each other.  Thank you all for being part of our day.  We had the time of our lives and will never forget any of it. 

Also, I know everyone wants to see pictures. We have some great shots from throughout the day thanks to Teddy's sisters and others that so dilligently took pictures with our camera. I promise more recaps and pictures soon, but here are a few.




Saturday, June 19, 2010

Our Wedding Day is Finally Here!

I can't believe the day is finally here.  Nearly three years of dating with almost two of those years of being engaged.  Today it all changes and you now become my husband.  We weren't the fastest at identifying the spark.  We took nearly 9 years to go from acquaintence to friend to something more, but it was well worth the wait.  

We've had a lot of fun, and too many great moments to count.  I hope this day is the start of even more.  I love you more with each passing day, and I cannot wait to meet you at the end of that aisle.


Sunday, June 13, 2010

Thanks to my girls!


After what seems like far too long, last night I was able to hang out and have dinner with my girls, Stacy and Nilam.  We were celebrating Nilam's birthday, her return from her trip to Spain and Morroco and me being 1 week from the wedding date. 

While we don't get to see eachother as much as we used to, we always have an amazing time together.  We also had the boys with us as well, Tom & Teddy. 


We had dinner at Mr. Benny's in Mokena.  It was really good.  The owner kept coming over to our table to open the wine because we told him Nilam was a spy from a competing steakhouse.  It was pretty amusing.  Stacy and Nilam gave me a really nice gift, which was a charm for my charm bracelet of two rings to signify the wedding.  We had a great dinner talking about old times, hearing about Nilam's trip and talking about the festivities for the wedding next week.   


Stacy even preordered us all special desserts in advance of the dinner.  It was so nice to have a night out with friends and get away from all the stress of finalizing the wedding details.  I love you girls! 

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Garden Update - June

It has been three weeks since I planted my flowers and garden in my yard. With all this rain and heat it has been growing like crazy! So, I thought I'd give an update with pictures to show progress on the vegetable garden and flowers.
Also, today we had RJ's from Lockport spread mulch around all our landscaping and what a difference. They were fantastic, they weeded, they trimmed back some of our trees, and they spread all the mulch. And, they started out doing it in the rain! What a difference it makes to the yard.

So, let's look at some pictures.

The garden in June compared with May below


I've noticed the biggest growth in my tomatos and zucchini plants.

There's the zucchini!  What a difference in just three weeks.

This is the cherry tomato.  I'm already starting to see tomatos growing on the vines!

So, those are just some of the veggies, but they are all doing great.  I can't wait to taste some!

Onto the flowers.  Here are some comparisons of my flowers from May to now.


June vs...

May


June vs...

May


June vs...

May

So far, everything is looking really good.  The mulch really finished it all off.  With how quickly it has all grown in just three weeks I can't wait to see how it looks by the end of the summer.