Mr. & Mrs.

Thank you to everyone who made our wedding day absolutely marvelous! We had such a fun time and we hope you did as well. Not to toot my own horn, but I thought everything went better than I ever could have expected! All my hard work and planning sure paid off! Ed and I like to joke that we'd love to have another reception because the food was just to die for. Plus, I think that Ed loved watching me bounce around the dance floor in my dress ; - )

If anyone would like to take a look, our photographer has a little sample of our pictures up on her blog: http://slmphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/rachel-and-edwin.html


Ed and I are finally starting to feel settled into our little flat. It's so nice seeing each other every day - now I have an extra hour free each night because I don't have to talk to him on the phone. We're enjoying using all of the nice gifts we've received from our wedding. (Thank you again for being so generous!). On Monday we went for a picnic with our old-fashioned picnic basket. On Tuesday I made a loaf of bread in the bread maker and made our favorite soup in our dutch oven. Last night we tried out our pizza stone and made a great pizza! We're having such fun in the kitchen that I don't think we'll ever go out to eat again...

Well, that's all for now! I hope to officially have my new name changed this afternoon! This is my last free day before my internship starts.... wish me luck!

~R.

Flower Girl Basket

Ok, I know that I said I would do a post everyday! It's hard to remember to, especially if I don't write it down on my long list of things to do.

Anyways, today I'll show you my almost finished flower girl basket. Our beautiful flower girl really wants to toss petals as she walks down the aisle, so I have the perfect little basket for her. She is going to look so adorable!!!

First, here's the supplies I used: Leftover wide satin ribbon and lace from my aisle decorations, a big pink daisy, and a little light pink Easter basket.

Basket supplies

 And here's my almost finished product. All I need to do is add a little ribbon around the basket.

Almost finished product ; -) 

I hope everyone has a great Monday! I know I will! I'm getting very excited because two weeks from now my cousin arrives from England!!!!!!

~R.

My Lovely Bridesmaids

sSo, I'm keeping up with my promise of blogging every day until the wedding. Today I have a picture of my bridesmaids. We're missing one (the lovely Morgan) in the picture, but she was still there in spirit!

Morgan, Katie, Me, and Sarah

Until tomorrow!
~Rachel

The Last Hurrah! One Month to Go!

I'm not the type of person who counts down to events, but sometimes you just need to have a change of heart, especially when you're getting married!

Instead of 'counting down' the days until the wedding, I though I'd be hip (that was for you, Nicole!) and do a post every day with something wedding related. Let's see if I can keep up with this! Hopefully it makes the time just fly by...

Today's picture is one of our church decorations that I made out of canning jars.

~R.

It's been a while, but 2 months to go!

Ok, so how do you fill people in on the past month and a half? To sum things up, I have been beyond busy with school, conference, presenting, re-writing, bylaws, oh yeah, and I'm trying to get married soon too!

First off, all of the dresses are in in, including my own! It's just perfect and fit's me like a glove. If anyone is getting married anytime soon, I HIGHLY suggest getting the hollow-to-hem measurement when they measure you for your wedding dress. What they do is measure from your collar bone down to the floor to make the dress your specific length. I cannot tell you how nice it is to try on your wedding dress and not have to worry about alterations there!

Let's see, as you all know, invites are out! When I get time, I'll be posting a separate tab about wedding info, just incase you need it!

Ed and I also had our first shower in March! It was a Pampered Chef shower, and let's just say we will be very pampered chefs once we receive all our gifts. Here are the highlights:

Ed helped open presents

And got slightly carried away with our new vase... 

Our hostess-with-the-mostest 

That's all for now!

~Rachel

Happy Valentine's Day!

This Valentine's Day weekend was a very special weekend for me. This was my first and only Valentine's weekend as an engaged man. This weekend meant a lot to me because with my fiancee being so far away . Any time we spend together comes at a premium. Rachel came this weekend on Friday night, and will not be leaving until Monday. While most couples get to see each other every day, spending even 2 days and 2 nights in a row with Rachel is something I get to do about once a month. So needless to say, I wanted this weekend to be amazing!

Friday night I got home from work, and Rachel was waiting. We made a delicious turkey pot pie dinner with some of my leftover smoked turkey, onions, vegetables, smoked turkey, covered with biscuits. Just a great comfort dish! We paired it with some Seinfeld. Just a great feel good night. To cap things off we frosted and decorated heart shaped cookies that Rachel had made using my Grandma's sugar cookie recipe.

Saturday was the big day of plans. Rachel had a conference planning meeting to go to in Menomonee Falls, so after a quick pot of coffee and some cereal, she took off. I got cleaned up and went out to get groceries. Rachel had gotten us a cookbook called "anyone can cook" which had a great recipe for Steaks with Pan Sauce. I had won some steaks at an office work party, so we were all set for a lovely Valentines day dinner. I got the supplies that we would need, and got Rachel a card for Valentines day.

After Rachel got back we had a quick lunch and went for a walk on Brady street. We ended up stopping at a store called Gloriosa's. It's a very fine Italian grocery store. They have all kinds of high quality noodles, sausage, cheese, sauces, basically any italian ingredient you can think of. They also have a deli with Italian dishes and some great canoli! I think Rachel could get lost in that little store for hours.

When we got back, it was time to start getting ready for our Valentines day feast. Rachel had decided to make a new focaccia bread recipe. It had fresh tomatoes and cheeses on top. She mixed up the dough and set it aside to chill. I got the steaks out and set up all my ingredients. I cooked the steak in a skillet, and then transfered the steak do a dish and covered the dish with foil. I then started working on the sauce. Melting some butter in the pan, we mixed in some beef broth, red wine, mushrooms, onion, and a little bit of garlic. I deglazed that until it was nice and thick. While I was working on this Rachel tended to her bread, baked a potato, and cooked some green beans.

Soon it was time for everything to come together. We had our wine, we had candlelight, and our entertainment for the evening was to watch Casino Royal. Casino Royal was one of the first movies we watched together, and it was the movie we watched when I asked Rachel to be my girlfriend. It was a fantastic evening. The steak was great, the sauce was amazing, the potatoes were perfectly cooked, and the green beans added a great compliment. It was by far one of the best meals I have ever eaten. After the main course, we exchanged our valentines day cards, ate our cookies, and sipped on White Russians.

Overall I would say that this was easily the best valentines day ever. I got to spend 3.5 days with my fiancee and start a lifetime of Valentines day traditions. I hope everyone else's valentine's day was as great as mine!

-E.

DIY Ring Pillow - Martha Stewart Inspired

It's finished! I've been a diy bride and made my own ring bearer pillow. It was hands down the easiest thing I've made for the wedding! Truth be told, I made this pillow two weeks ago and am just now blogging about it. I'm going to use the old "college started up again" excuse to explain my procrastination.

For those crafty brides out there like me, you've probably been searching for the perfect ring pillow to make for your special day. I found mine on Martha Stewart's wedding website. Here's the link to the pillow that inspired me, as well as a picture:

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/photogallery/creative-ring-pillows#slide_16

Martha Stewart Ring Pillow

I liked this idea but wanted to add my own spin to it. I wound up buying a yard of white satin fabric to make the pillow (with finished dimensions of 8x8). P.S. I have a TON of that fabric left, so if anyone needs to make a pillow, you know where to turn. To add some color to the pillow, I bought some pink ribbon that matches the pink rose petals that our flower girl will be tossing. Instead of making my own flower for the top, I bought a large ivory flower (I'm not sure what kind it is, but I'm thinking hibiscus). I choose an ivory flower because I wanted it to contrast with the white of the satin. I finished it off with a thin white ribbon that we'll tie our rings on.

Here's my finished product! I'm very proud of it! If anyone ever needs a ring pillow, I'd be more than happy to make one for you! 

Our ring pillow! 

Also, before I forget, if anyone wants a more detailed description of how to make a ring bearer pillow, you should visit this site. It was the best instructional I found, complete with pictures! 

http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/04/14/diy-ring-bearer-pillow-tutorial/

Now it's onto hemming thirty squares of yellow fabric for our tabletops.... thank heavens that our wedding is happening soon so I don't keep coming up with more and more craft projects!

Keep crafting!
~Rachel