*~*~ For Sale ~*~*

I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to make a post on here about the items that I am selling from our wedding. If you or anyone you know might be interested in these items, please direct them to this site.

I am really hoping to find someone that will have a great use for these items, even if it isn't for a wedding, everything is so pretty and I know that there is someone that could use all of it. All of the items are in great shape, even the candles are in great shape, someone could use them again and no one would realize that they were burnt once before.

Here is what I have and what I am looking to get out of them, but if you are interested, let me know, we can work out a deal.

6 Birch Branch Centerpieces $ 20 each / $ 100 set (set includes the extra hanging votives and tealights)
each centerpiece includes: 5 hanging glass votives and a battery powered flickering tea light candle along with cascading, silver disk, "strings" (made out of strong plastic)

14 Ivory Candles with a Green "Grape" candle ring and a 3" glass plate $ 4.50 each / $ 57 set
The candles are 3" Ivory, Unscented pillars and are only slightly burnt

5 Moss/Olive Green Candles with a Champagne "Grape" candle ring and a 3" glass plate $ 6 each / $ 27 set
The candles are 3" Honeydew Melon pillars and are only slightly burnt

14 Ivory & Pearl Pew Bows $ 15 - for all Ivory Pew Bows
Made of Sheer Ivory Wire edge ribbon, ivory tulle and ivory pearls, approx 24" top to bottom. Wire attached to hang bows
2 Ivory Pew Bows
Made of Sheer Ivory Wire edge ribbon and ivory tulle, approx 24" top to bottom. Wire attached to hang bows

6 Ivory & Olive Bows $5 - for all Ivory/Olive Bows
Made of Sheer Olive Wire edge ribbon and ivory tulle, approx 8" bow. Wire attached to hang bows.
2 Ivory & Olive Bows with hanging tulle
Made of Metallic Olive Wire edge ribbon and ivory tulle, approx 8" bow. A separate tulle "tails" is included. Can be put together. Wire attached to hang bows

2 pks Chocolate Brown napkins $ 3 - for both
24 in a pack, 16 3/4" x 16 3/4" unfolded

12 Sheer Chocolate Panels $ 2 each / $ 20 set
each panel is 28" x 3 yds

1 box 30 Pearlized tea lights in a plastic cup $ 8

4 pks Tablecover clips $ 1 each
6 clips in a pack

3 pks Ivory, Unscented Votive candles $ 4 each
24 candles per pack (one pack open, but has all the candles)

8 - 3" glass plates $ .50 each / $ 3 set
perfect to use under pillar candles

2 - 3" Champagne "Grape" Candle Rings $ 2 each

1 roll Moss Green McGinley Satin ribbon, 100 yards $ 15
2" wide roll, never used, 100% acetate

--------- For All Items as a set ---------
$ 200

You can contact me with any questions by emailing me: Rachel

Let me know if you are interested in any of these items.

Part 5 - Wedding Photographs by Joanna

This is the last "chapter" of the pictures from our wedding. I hope that you have enjoyed all of them. You are welcome to leave me any comments about them, just by clicking comments at the bottom of this post.

Here it is:

Have a Happy New Year, if I don't post again before then.
Thanks,
Rachel

Part 4 - Wedding Photographs by Joanna

Here is the 4th in the "series" of the Wedding Pictures by Joanna.
I hope that you all enjoy them. I have truly enjoyed looked at all the pictures.

Talk to you soon,
Rachel

Part 3 - Wedding Photographs by Joanna

Sorry, I forgot to post a slideshow yesterday. Here is the 3rd chapter.

I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas! I had a very nice Christmas!

~Rachel

Part 2 - Wedding Pictures by Joanna

I hope that you enjoyed the first slideshow of pictures.

They just keep getting better. : )

I will continue to post the next 3 slideshows over the next 3 days.

Yet again, Have a very Merry Christmas!

~Rachel

Now Showing... Wedding Pictures [Part 1] By Joanna

I will post the wedding pictures by Joanna over the next few days. I will post them in 5 separate sideshows.

If you want to see them even larger, just click on the image and it will bring you to my Picasa web album. You can look at them there.

I hope that you all enjoy them as much as we have.

Thanks,
Rachel

Merry Christmas

We just wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

(Do you like our Christmas colored monogram, it's the one from the wedding. I just love it so much I might have to keep using. I told Jeremy that it can be OUR logo.)
It is hard to believe that Christmas is only one week away. The time has just flown by. It is already our 2 month anniversary. It has been a very fun & busy first couple of months of married life.

I've had lots of people ask me "So how's married life treating you?" It's that infamous questions that follows "How are the wedding plans coming along?" and precedes "When are you going to have a baby?" But to answer every-ones questions, it has been wonderful. It is so nice to be married to your best friend. I enjoy spending every minute with Jeremy that I can. We have both been very busy since the wedding (I work part-time at a toy store & he is always messing with something) so there are many evening that we don't see each other until 8:30 or 9:30 at night. I guess I haven't gotten tired of him yet, as everyone has warned me will eventually happen. I hope that isn't ever the case, but I'm sure we will have moments were we need space.

Jeremy just bought us a new car on Tuesday. It is so nice, I am loving it. My car was getting "old" and I was really in the mood for something newer. Then we had a terrible mishap with an oil change (a whole other story) that forced us to have to get a new car even sooner. But it worked out for the best. We now have a nice white 2008 Chevy Impala. I love love love it. Jeremy loves it too.

I talked with Joanna (our wedding photographer) and she put our pictures in the mail on Tuesday, so depending on how busy the post office is, we should have our pictures within the next day or so. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get them tomorrow. It would be perfect timing and we could check all of them out over the weekend. Plus I know my family is really anxious to see them. I will be sure to post them up once I have them. Joanna shared with me that she sent me 5 disks that were full of pictures, over double what she has from most weddings. What can I say, she just absolutely loved our wedding. : )

I suppose that is all for now. I will hopefully be back soon with a posting of our wedding pictures. Until then, be careful while you're out and about and enjoy the season.

~Rachel

Tyler Matthew

Here are the pictures of the newest little guy:

He's the cutest!

Jeremy holding Tyler

It's my turn. :)

Have a great Day!
~Rachel

More Pictures to share...

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. It's my favorite and the food is always amazing.

I have some more snapshots, from guests at the wedding, that I wanted to share with you. I hope that you have been enjoying the little "teasers" until our professional photos are back to us.
I'm counting down, only 11 more days until she said she was hoping to be done with our wedding pictures.

One other thing, I became an Aunt for the 7th time on Sunday. Jeremy's sister Susan (she was the one with the adorable belly in the wedding party) had her little boy on Sunday. He came earlier than she planned, but it was still perfect timing. I will post pictures of the little cutie tomorrow. His name is Tyler Matther and he weighed in at 8lbs. 2 1/2 oz. and 20" long (or right about that).
It's crazy, I've only been in the family for a little over a month and I'm already an Aunt for the 7th time, this is pretty neat. I love having nephews and a niece (yeah, there is only one girl - poor thing!)

Have a great week. Maybe the next time you hear from me, I'll have our professional wedding pictures to share.

Have fun planning your Christmas celebrations!
~Rachel

Another Picture to Share

Some of you may have heard about a picture from our photographer, Joanna, that she had posted on her Blog after our wedding. It is a picture, taken with her antique camera, of Jeremy & I standing in a cornfield.

I wanted to share that picture with you. The picture is taken from Joanna's blog, click the link below the picture to read the full message she left regarding our wedding and read the comments that other left.

(link) I am not even kidding by Joanna

I hope that you enjoy the post she made. If you want to read more from Joanna and see some of her other work, follow this link: http://www.xanga.com/mymeanderings This will show you pictures of her family, other weddings, and her vacations along with messages about all of them. Once you reach the bottom of the page, click Next 5> and it will take you to her older postings.

I hope that you all have a great week!
~Rachel

Honeymoon Pictures

If you don't already know, Jeremy and I took a Mexican Baja cruise out of Long Beach. The cruise stopped in Catalina Island and Ensanada Mexico. We also spent a day in LA before and after the cruise. We ended up going to DisneyLand the day we got back from our cruise. That was so much fun. We really had a good time.

Here is a slideshow with pictures from the honeymoon.

Also, if anyone has any pictures from the wedding, I would love for you to share them. You can send them to my online photo album that I have created already. You just have to send us an email at jeremy08rachel.postwedding@picasaweb.com

1. Attach your pictures to the email
2. Put Wedding Pictures in the Subject line.

As soon as I get a bunch of pictures, I will put together a slideshow and post it on here also.

*Our Wedding Announcement was in Tuesday nights (Nov. 11th) newspaper. It looked & sounded really nice.

Talk to you all soon!
Rachel

A little Teaser (to hold us over)

Our photographer, Joanna Nunemaker, sent us a photo that we could send into the newspaper for our wedding announcement.

It helps hold us over until we get all of our pictures back. I think that this is a very beautiful picture. I think it will take about 8 weeks, from the wedding, till we get our pictures back, so we have a little over 2 weeks down.

Enjoy this one until we get more. I will be sure to post them when we get them back. I will also try to post some of the pictures that our friends and family have given us. If anyone else has some pictures to share with us, feel free to email them to me at rachel.n.p@hotmail.com


Until then... Have a Beautiful Day!
"The new Mrs. Post"
Jeremy & Rachel

**By the way, the wedding was beautiful, perfect and I would do it all over again. I'm so glad for those of you who made it, I hope you had a wonderful time. And we missed those of you who were unable to join us that day.

It's October... It won't be long now!!!

So the countdown has begun. Tomorrow is the first day of October, there will only be 17 more days until the wedding. I'd be lying if I didn't say I am a little nervous, but more in shock that the wedding is so close. It won't be long before I'm married.

So I think that we got all of our invitations out. There are still some that we didn't have addresses for, we are just going to have to call the people to find out where they live or send the invitations to a family member. All in all, I think things went well, with the exception of not putting 'and guests' on the envelopes. So to clear up any possible confusion, anyone who would like to bring a date/guest with them is more than welcome to do so.

I'm starting to work on the programs for the wedding. I hope that they go as planned. I have been waiting on them, longer than what I would like, because I need to meet with the preacher marrying us so that I can be sure to have the correct order for the ceremony and clear up any final questions. I am just hoping that all goes well and the programs turn out half as nice as the invitations.

Jeremy and I got our Marriage License yesterday. That was uneventful but very meaningful (I guess, if that is the word to use) since we have to get it before we can get married and it is only good for 60 days. That's kind of neat. I guess there's no turning back now (don't be worried).

I hope that those of you who have RSVP'd have found it easy to do. Either by calling the number (or using the Call Me button on the top right) or submitting it through our Knot.com wedding website. If anyone has any problems, please feel free to contact me. You can leave a comment either on this website or sign our guestbook on the other website. I will help answer any questions you have.

Well I best be getting back to working on the wedding things. I hope that everyone has a great week and I can't wait to see all of you in a little less than 3 weeks.

~Rachel

44 Days to go

Well, it's been a little while, so I thought that I would post a quick message.

September is already here, where does the time go? Next month is the wedding, there are only 44 days to go. It is crazy how fast the days go, yet it seems like Jeremy & I have been engaged for like a year or more. I guess it is just because we have both been so busy that we don't take much time to sit back and relax. That's good though, otherwise I would get bored and that has the tendency to get me into trouble.

Things are really starting to come together for the wedding, it really amazing and exciting.

I have already submitted our engagement announcement to the newspaper. And Jeremy & I can get our Marriage license anytime now. That's when you know that it won't be long... when you can get your marriage license.

I also picked up my wedding band this past week. It is gorgeous! If I can get some pictures of it sometime, I will post them. The band that we got to go with my engagement ring looks perfect with it, even though it wasn't made to go with my ring. It just so happens that the band has almost the exact same "curve" that my ring does. When we have mine soldered together, they should look like they were always meant to go together.

I have the invitations all printed, I just have to glue them together and stuff the envelopes and they can go out. I am working on them a little each night, hopefully I will have them all ready within the next week or so. I am aiming to put them in the mail around the middle part of September. We aren't doing RSVP cards, so they don't need to go out as early. Instead of the RSVP cards, I put a message inside the invitation saying that you could log onto this website and follow the link on the top right-hand side of the screen or call a phone # that will allow you to leave a message. I don't imagine that everyone will rsvp this way, but at least it gives some people options. I guess we will just have to wait to see how well it works.

This past weekend my friend Amy got married. That was so much fun, I was one of her bridesmaids, so it was nice to be with her on such a special day for her. It was also really nice to see what I need to be prepared for the days leading up to the wedding and the day of the wedding. Hopefully I will be able to answer the questions that everyone will ask me, before they even ask, that way it doesn't seem as overwhelming.

I have been picking out some new music for the wedding. I found the most beautiful song the other week. I talked to Sharon (my pianist) about playing that during the wedding. She is going to play it for me, I just have to decide when to play it.
Check it out here, if you have a suggestion as to when we should play it during the wedding (parent's processional, bridesmaids entrance, etc.) leave a comment at the end of this post.


I have been looking at different wedding programs. I am hoping to start working on the wedding program soon. I will have to have the music figured out before I can do too much with them, but at least if I have an idea I will be able to pump them out pretty quick after everything is "finalized."

I think that is all I have for now. It won't be long and you will get to see how everything, that I have been working on and mentioning on here, comes together. I will try to keep you posted as the days get closer.

Have a great weekend!
Rachel

64 days to go & Thank You's

I’m sorry that I’m not as good about posting as I was in the beginning. I haven’t had much to write about, and I’ve been super busy with work or going here or there. It seems like my schedule is more packed than ever before. I guess it is good though, it makes the time go fast.

Speaking of time, it is getting closer to the wedding. There are only 64 days left until the Wedding. It is crazy how fast time has gone. Last night I told Jeremy that we could get our marriage license any time after next Tuesday (Aug. 19) and he let out an ‘eek’ of disbelief. It is crazy to think that in about 2 months we will be getting married and starting our life together. It’s so close, but yet seems so far. But as me in a month and I might have a different opinion. I might be wishing for more time, time to finish things for the wedding.

Right now our wedding invitations are being printed. Once those are done then we will have to assemble them and stuff the envelopes. That will be a fun adventure, I’m sure. Maybe I’ll get lucky and get them back while Jeremy is on break from school, that way he might be able to help stuff the envelopes or something productive. He has been so busy with school that he has managed to get out of a lot of planning. But that’s okay too because most of the plans he doesn’t have much of an opinion on anyway, so rather than bug him, I can just move on with making the plans.

But more important than anything else, Jeremy & I wanted to tell everyone Thank You for everything we received at the shower. And for those of you who were able to make it to the shower, it was very nice to see you. I want to express my apologies if I didn’t get to talk to you and tell you thanks before you left. The shower was so much fun and Jeremy & I got so many amazing things. So again, Thank You!

Here are a few of the pictures that we managed to get from the shower:

I'll try to post a little more, but until next time. Have a great day!
~Rachel

Our Engagement Pictures

I wanted to share our engagment pictures, from this past Sunday, with you.

I love how they turned out. Julie did an amazing job and we all had a lot of fun. The day was beautiful and we couldn't have asked for better scenery to work with. We took all the pictures in Dayton either at the University of Dayton or in the Oregon District.

Julie is also doing another session with us this coming weekend, we are going to take some additional photos around home. Not like we don't already have a ton of great pictures, but we are just going to try out some different things.

If anyone is interested in booking Julie to take pictures for them, be sure to call her, I'm sure that she would be delighted to work with you. Here is her information:
Julie Wenning - Photography by Julie - 419.852.8122 - photobyjulie.net

You can also follow this link to see the larger pictures: Rachel & Jeremy's Engagement Pictures

As far as wedding plans go, things are moving along very well. Earlier this week, Jeremy & I met with Tom Knapke about our wedding cake. I brought him the picture of the cake that I wanted and we picked out the yummy flavors for the cake and all the fun details. So everything with that is all squared away.

That same day we met with Sharon Chaney, our pianist, to pick out our music to have played at the wedding. That was very helpful and nice to have figured out.

My grandma's friend, Joyce is working on the bouquets and boutonnieres. I saw a sample of the bridesmaids bouquet and it was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to see mine and all of the rest of them when they are done. I think that everyone will really love them. Joyce does amazing at everything that she does. (If you read this Joyce... Thanks! You are the greatest!)

I received the unity candle holder a few weeks ago. I love it, it's so elegant, I can't wait to use it at the wedding. The picture doesn't do it any justice, it is actually a matte silver and polished silver finish. I bought it from Lenox. I wanted something that could be used again and not "scream" wedding unity candle holder.

The wedding invitations are pretty close to being ready to be printed. I am going to meet with Sara Suchland, of Sarapaper, to go over the final details and before she prints them. I think that they turned out pretty well.

There are only 3 months left before the wedding, as of this coming Friday. I can't believe it, time is going so fast. It will be hear before we know it. I am excited though. I have waited for this day for so long.

I guess that is all for now. I will talk to you all soon!
~Rachel

A Rambling of Updates

Well I don't want everyone to think that I was “blowing smoke” or anything, but I did want to update you on the status of us buying the home. Jeremy and I did allot of talking and allot of thinking over the last couple weeks and we both made a decision to forgo buying the house. We wanted to make sure that we didn't get into something that we wished we wouldn't have, so that I why we decided to not buy the home. It was a hard decision since we both love the home so much, but we also know that we don't want to do something that will put a strain on our marriage and our life. We are both aware that buying a house is a huge decision to make and a huge financial burden. That is why we will wait a little longer before buying a home. Jeremy had suggested that we wait, to look for a home, until he is done with school. This way we will both be able to focus on buying a home and when we do find one we will be completely ready to make that “move.”

I want to thank everyone that helped us and supported us, it was a very difficult decision for us to make, but with the support that we had, it was a huge help. And after Jeremy and I made the decision to not buy the home, you could totally see a look of relief wash over him. It was great, I had the 'old Jeremy' back (the one with a lot less stress in his life).

So as far as that goes, we are good with that choice. Wedding plans are going really well. I have started working on the programs and the invitations are pretty much done, they will just need to be printed and “assembled” - any volunteers to help assemble the invitations are welcomed.

Jeremy and I booked part of our honeymoon today. You will probably be surprised by what we ended up picking. We are going on a Mexican Baja cruise. It is a 4 day cruise out of LA that will stop in Ensenada Mexico and Catalina Island California, it will leave the Monday after the wedding, so we are going to fly out to LA the day before and stay a day after the cruise so that we can check out the sites that LA has to offer. I don't know what I am more excited about: the cruise or going to LA. : ) Yippee! I am amazed that we were actually able to make a decision, we went from one thing to the next. Let's just say that our travel agent had her work cut out for her, working with us. Saturday I will go to the travel agency to book our hotel in LA and our flight. Hopefully everything will go as planned.

Just yesterday (Wednesday, June 18th) was our 4 month count down. I can't believe how the time has flown by, yet it seems like forever ago since we got engaged. I am so excited, I can't wait for our wedding day. I am super excited. Monday June 23rd will be our 6 year anniversary. Can you believe it; 6 years! That is a long time dating. I am so happy though.

There was one potential mishap that you can always count on, anytime you are planning/having a wedding... Our bridesmaid dresses came in, in the wrong color. They were chocolate brown with a champagne sash, opposite of what it was supposed to be. I tried to make it work, but with the guys chocolate brown tuxes, it didn't look good, especially since the 2 browns didn't match. So they kindly reordered the dresses and we should have the correct one in with time to spare. So hopefully there aren't too many other potential mishaps. I could deal with that one but I don't want to have to deal with too many more. : P

My mom and sister have started planning for the bridal shower, that should be a nice time. I don't know many of the details, but I know it will be lovely.
Well for now, I guess that is all the rambling I have to do. If I think of some other stuff to mention to you, I will be sure to share.

~Rachel

House Pictures

I told you that I would post pictures of the house as soon as I got some.

Today Jeremy & I were able to stop at the house today to look through it with his parents and brother.

From the pictures you will notice that there is still allot to be cleaned out. The house is still pretty packed with stuff, so hopefully it won't be long before they get everything cleaned out. So please disregard the clutter in the pictures.

Entry: The front door from the top of the stairs

Kitchen & Dining Room: To the Right, once you come up stairs. There is a door out to the front of the porch.

Kitchen: The "cozy" kitchen. You have a lot of cupboard space and the most important... a dishwasher!

Front Yard & Drive of the property, from the dining room window.

Front of the house: As you can see, the trees are sort of overtaking the front of the house. They will probably go away. The garage is in the downstairs/basement/lower level. There is a door out the dining room from the upstairs.

Yard & Pasture: Well this will be the pasture, but right now there are beans in the pasture. The owners leased out the field and pasture to a farmer. Hopefully we can get this worked out so that after the beans come off, we will be able to get it seeded with grass.

Computer Room & Sun Room: This is from the hallway, but the dark room is a computer room, there is a built in desk on the right side of the room. Just past the computer room is the Sun Room.Sun Room: The sun room is pretty nice area to just sit in and look out the back yard. The horses will be back there for awhile, until we can get our pasture reseeded.

Family Room: This is downstairs/ground level (this is going to be the most confusing part of this home, is the downstairs considered a basement or what do you call it. Anyway, the room is huge and has a "self" all the way around the room. The wall is actually built out further, making this shelf.

Family Room: Same thing, just a different angle, the room is at the bottom of the steps when you come down.

Storage/Utility Room: Isn't it lovely - just a typical storage area. There is a bedroom just off of this room. However, that is something that could maybe be switch around so that whoever has that room doesn't have to go through the lovely storage room every time they go to bed. This room is just to the right at the bottom of the stairs. There is also a wood burning stove down here.

After walking through the house, with a more observing eye, we have noticed the little things that we will need to do to the house, like shampooing the carpet (big time), painting the walls & removing some wallpaper (I wish wallpaper would have never been invented), doing some major weeding (you can tell that the owners were having a hard time with the upkeep), and eventually removing some trees and overgrowth. The house is pretty good, it just needs a little "face lift".

These are just a few pictures to help everyone get a little "taste" of what our house looks like. We are keeping the ball rolling with the bank and we have an inspection scheduled for Monday, so hopefully everything will go as planned.

It will be nice to make this house our home. I think that once we can get things all cleaned up and in order, then we can focus on the details. It will be nice to have a home to call our own. Of course, it will just be my home until our wedding. But at least we will have a place to call ours.

Have a great weekend!
~Rachel

A lot has happened lately...

Sorry that I'm not updating as often as I did at first. It just seems like there have been a lot of things going on, not necessarily wedding related. I did look at my "Wedding Planning Checklist" and I am not behind on anything, so that is a plus. Even thought I feel like I haven't done much work for the wedding, I just tell myself that it was because I got allot of it figured out the first couple of months of our engagement.

I have had a few people ask me about how the church situation went. Sorry I forgot to mention that the last time. What we determined was that our wedding was going to be at St. Paul's United Church of Christ in New Bremen. The church is large enough that we will be able to fit all of our guests in, without having to "squeeze" everyone in. Plus with the gas prices looking the way they are, if people have to drive a little distance for our wedding, they will be driving to the same general area, since our reception is in Minster. That will be allot nicer that having people drive a distance to Celina and then to Minster and then back home, so hopefully everyone can appreciate that a little.

Lately I have been working on the invitations for the wedding. Jeremy & I have decided to not use RSVP cards, he says that allot of people won't send them back, so we are just going to go with a panel card as our invitation. As a graphic designer, people have high expectations from you, hopefully everyone will see the time and thought that has gone into everything that I am doing for the wedding. Below is a monogram that I designed, this will most likely be used throughout the wedding. I thought that it was very adorable. You see, having the initials J and R, you have to be careful how you design with them, otherwise it looks like Jr. and that isn't what we're going for here.

I also ordered our unity candle a while back. It took forever to arrive, in fact, I had to call the company and talk to someone before they even sent it out. I don't think I would deal with their company again, but at least I got our candle. It is very simple, yet very elegant. Here are some of the sample pictures from the internet. Ours is the Ivory candle with the name Rachel & Jeremy engraved on the token.

My wonderful friend and bridesmaid Amy was able to pick up the glass votives that I need to begin working on the hanging votive holders for the birch branch centerpieces. I should be able to get those from her this weekend and hopefully will be able to begin working on those within the next week or so. Making the wire hangers will be the most time consuming part of the centerpieces. After I get all of those done, I will just have to arrange the branches in the vases and then they should be all ready to go for the wedding. Unless we add any extra details later on. I guess we'll all have to wait and see about that.

I talked to the lady about decorating the hall. I think that what I might do is rent some of the stuff from her and then between the bridesmaids and family, we should be able to get the hall decorated. I think that everything will come together beautifully.

My grandma's friend is going to work on the bouquets for me. That will be a huge help for me, so that tasks is pretty well taken care of already. I do have to begin working on the "isle runner" candle stake arrangements. Awhile back I had picked up some wrought iron garden candle stakes that I am going to put into a painted terra-cotta pot to use in place of an isle runner. I am not exactly sure what I will put in the flower pots to "decorate" them, maybe some flowers and probably a ribbon hanging on the candle stake, something like that.

I feel pretty comfortable with how the wedding planning is going. To be totally honest with you, I'm not nervous or worried that things won't get done. I know that there are some other people that are worried for me, they say that I'm stressing them out with how "carefree" I seem to be, I guess that isn't a bad thing. I will keep you posted if I start freaking out that things won't get done in time.

In the middle of July my other wonderful friend & bridesmaid, Julie, will be taking our engagement pictures. I am really excited for that. I think that we are going to some pretty awesome locations to take pictures, so I can't wait for that. If you haven't already figured this out, I am really into photography. I don't look at pictures just as a picture, I look at pictures as a piece of art. I love to see things that are different and really capture the emotion. I really trust Julie doing our pictures, she can see where I'm coming from when I tell her what I like about pictures. I think that she will do a great job and it helps having a friend as a photographer b/c you aren't as limited on where you take pictures at. I think that we are actually going to head to Dayton to get some pictures. I know that they will be amazing. Thanks Julie!

I also think that Jeremy & I have figured out what we want to do for our Honeymoon. We are planning on going out west and traveling around to different sites. We talked about taking a train out west, but I don't know if there are any that don't leave on the same day as our wedding. If we can't take a train out there, then we will probably fly out there and either rent a car or see about catching a train out there. I think that a train would be an awesome way to see some of the beauty of the west. Sometime Jeremy & I are going to set down and figure out all the different places we want to visit and then talk with our travel agent to see what she can help us figure out.

So the BIG NEWS...

As of 3:30 on Tuesday May 27th, Jeremy & I have become "homeowners"...
...well we still have the paper work and everything to do before it is official, but the sellers accepted our offer yesterday. That's pretty exciting for us, freaky, but exciting.
The property has 13+ acres with a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage home; there is also a horse barn, pasture and approx. 2 acre field and approx. 6 acres of woods. I am super excited about this place. Our First Home! I think I could see us living there for the rest of our lives. The house is on State Route 66, just south of Newport, in Houston. It isn't the first town that we would have picked to live in, but the location is great for us to get to work. Plus it sits way back off of 66, so it is kind of peaceful back there. The house has a sun room off the back of the house that you can sit in and just enjoy the scenery. I am so excited! Once I get some pictures of the house, I will be sure to post them. I just pray that the inspection turns out okay and that the closing goes well, those are the only things keeping us from officially owning the home. So just keep us in your prayers that everything will go well for us. It is much appreciated!

So for now, I think that is all the rambling that I have to do. I will be sure to keep you posted on anything new and hopefully I will be a little better about updating more often.

Only 4 months & 3 weeks until the wedding. Time will go super fast.

Talk to you soon
~Rachel

It's Been Awhile... Sorry!

Sorry, I know it has been a little while since I have posted anything on here. I sort of took a break from “wedding planning” since I had gotten a lot of stuff done at first.

I also wanted to let you know, in case you are wondering where some of the old posts have gone. If you go to the very bottom of this page, you will see a link for Older Posts that will bring you to the posts that are missing.

Jeremy & I stopped at the Minster KofC hall last month to check it out, it happened to be decorated for a wedding, which was really neat to see. I loved the way they had it decorated. They used white paper lanterns and hung them from the ceiling above the dance floor and head table area. The hall has a wire hanging from the ceiling, and they just hung all the lanterns from that. It was really neat they way they decorated. So Jeremy and I talked about it and have decided that we will go ahead and decorate the ceiling that same way. I think that I might do most all of the decorating myself. I haven’t decided 100% yet, but we still have time to figure that one out. And we are also going to string lights on the inside of the wire to add some additional “flare” to the ceiling.
Here is a picture of what I am going for:

This is also very similar, except all of the paper lanterns will be white. There will be different sizes hung at different lengths:

One other thing that Jeremy & I are trying to figure out is where to take our honeymoon. We want to do something that will provide us with allot of attractions to see. We don’t want to go and just sit on some beach; we really want to do something different and entertaining. We had always thought about going to Alaska, but in October it is too cold to go there. It is hurricane season in October, so that also limits us a little. We both would like to go somewhere that we don’t have to worry about a communication barrier, we would hate to be in a situation where we would get lost of need to talk with someone and have problems communicating. We have been talking about Ireland, but that is at the high end of our “budget” but we know that we would defiantly get our moneys worth there. But we aren’t sure. We haven’t really thought of too many other places. One place we had thought about, Merida (in Mexico), would be in an area that we would have to be worried of hurricanes. And as many hurricanes as we have been having lately, I don’t know that we should try to chance it. So we are sort of lost as to where we should go on our honeymoon. If anyone has suggestions, leave a comment or let one of us know.

For now we will just continue thinking of a honeymoon destination.

Hopefully it won’t be long and I will have more pictures to post of actual decorations for our wedding.

Have a Great week and enjoy the lovely weather. I know I am!
~Rachel

Wedding Flowers & Décor

Well my mission of finding flowers for the bridesmaid’s bouquets went very successful. After some disappointment, Amy happened to come across a pre-made bouquet that was almost exactly what I was looking for. It was a little small, but we used it as our sample and searched the store for flowers to make my own bouquets. I also added a little extra to make the bouquets a little more elegant and colorful. (I haven’t made them yet, but they will look amazing.)



I also found some awesome candle rings that I will use on the wedding tables. They will look so nice with an ivory pillar candle.

I found the same candle rings in a different color to use for the head table. They look like a champagne color in person. I haven’t decided if I will use ivory candles for these candle rings or if I will use another color. I will decide that later.

I am really starting to get excited now that I can start to visualize the reception décor. It really helps that I can use the “blueprint” from the hall to determine where all the decorations will go.

This Saturday Jeremy and I are going to meet with the lady from the hall. This will really help us see how people decorate for their weddings, since the hall will be set up for another wedding. Then we can get an even better idea for layout and what kind other things we can decorate and where to hang a sign and so much more. It will really help me picture how everything will come together.

Well as of today, there are 6 months and 10 days until the wedding. It can’t come fast enough. It seems like forever ago that Jeremy and I got engaged, yet it seems like just yesterday. I am sure that the time will go fast, but I am just really starting to get excited about how everything will come together and most importantly to see Jeremy on our wedding day. The day that we will finally be together forever, finally married. I think that will be the happiest day of my life.

Planning is going very well. I have had a lot of people ask me if things were getting stressful yet, and I have to say no. Things are actually going really well. I still think that some people are having a hard time “seeing my vision” but if they just trust me, it will all come together beautifully. Jeremy and I are doing things a little different than most people might do and I think that that has the tendency to make people a little unsure, but I think that they will look back and agree that it was great and that everything worked out just perfect.

So for now, I am just going to continue thinking of more wedding details but most of all enjoying this lovely spring weather. I was starting to hate the cold.

~Rachel

Photographer and Church

The last time that I posted I mentioned that I was still looking for a photographer, well Jeremy and I decided on our photographer. I am so excited to have her as our photographer. Some people may think I'm totally crazy, but our photographer is from Pennsylvania. I really wanted to find someone that did some amazing work and did some awesome editing. That is exactly what we have. Plus with Joanna coming from PA she will have a fresh eye for our town/area. I see so many photographers around here doing the same thing for every wedding and I really wanted to have something unique and different to capture our wedding day memories. I found Joanna through her xanga website that I frequently followed. (For those of you not familiar with xanga, it is similar to a journal, but online and you can post pictures.) Because of her xanga, I felt a connection to her before even meeting her. She will arrive the day before the wedding, so she will be able to scope out the area to get ideas for where to take our wedding pictures. She will also be able to join us at the rehearsal and the entire wedding day. I am very excited to have her as our photographer.

Before I booked Joanna, I was really struggling with deciding on a photographer. So many people told me “I don’t even remember the last time I looked at my wedding pictures.” For me, pictures are very important. I love to sit and look at pictures and I frequently pull out my old albums and look through them. I wanted something that I knew would really capture the special moments of our wedding day. After much thought and discussion, we decided to go with Joanna. I knew that she was really who I wanted and I don’t think that I truly would have been happy if I didn’t have her. And like they always say, ‘Don’t scrimp on what means the most to you’ and in this case pictures were what meant the most to me.

Here is a slideshow of some of her work. I can’t wait for her to take our pictures.

So Jeremy and I have been working on our guest list. Let me just say, the list is much larger than we anticipated. So we are going to sort through the list again and see if there are any people on the list that we haven’t seen for a long time and maybe remove them, but other than maybe a handful, I don’t think that the list will get much smaller. So because of this, we had to reevaluate the church. The church we were going to get married in only held 238 people, I know that would be too small to hold our wedding guests. So we are going to check into another church. And this church will be much closer to the reception which will make it much nicer on everyone, so that they aren’t driving too much for our wedding. I was really hoping to follow tradition and get married at the same church as my Mom and my Grandma, but I really don’t think that it would work. So hopefully everything works out.

We did get our DJ booked, so that was nice to be able to check off one more item on our list.

We have found a baker for our cake, now the hard part is to decide on what style of cake to go with and what it should look like. I have looked through numerous pictures and I think I am even more unsure now than what I ever was before. I might just stick with my original idea; it was a cake I designed myself. You’ll have to let me know what you think of the design. It was something that I just designed on the computer, and doesn’t show the dimension of the cake, so it looks a little awkward.

(Top Layer has brown scroll work at the top and bottom of the cake with a monogram in the center. Remaining Layers have white scroll work at the top of the layer with a brown satin ribbon around the bottom of each layer. The entire cake is iced with a tan buttercream icing.)

This Saturday (my birthday) I am going shopping with Amy and looking for wedding décor, particularly our wedding flowers. I am hoping to be able to find flowers that I use to make all of our bouquets. So hopefully I have some luck and can find exactly what I’m looking for.

I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope that you are all enjoying reading the blog. I have had many people tell me that they really love reading the posts and checking out the pictures. Eventually you will also be able to RSVP for the wedding through this site or our knot.com website. There is a link in the top right corner of the screen to direct you to that website.

**Oh by the way, I have had a bunch of people shocked when the find out or see that my dress is posted on here. So I thought that I would let you know that Jeremy doesn't ever read this so there are no worries. : )

Current Tasks being Worked on:

• Reserving our Officiant(s)


• Finding the "final" church


• Sorting through & Finalize our Guest List


• Start looking for Bouquet Flowers & Décor

Thanks Again ~ Rachel

Dress Shopping

This past Friday I made my first appointment to look for wedding dresses. I invited the bridesmaids, my mom and Jeremy’s mom to join us. It was rather overwhelming when I first walked in and looked at the room full of bridal gowns. You start to ask yourself, “Where do you begin?” It was fun though; we just started pulling things that seemed to match what I liked. Before long there was a dressing room full of dresses. I started to try on the different styles and look for the reactions of everyone. There was one particular dress that everyone loved, but I just wasn’t thrilled about. It was a little poofier than I wanted and it had the gathered material in the back, so many people have done dresses like that lately, I just wanted to stay away from that. After trying on a dozen or so dresses I found the dress I loved. It was beautiful! It was a fitted style like I was looking for, but will a little fullness at the bottom. The bodice was covered with silver beading that went across the chest and back to the left hip. It has a low v-back, which makes it look very elegant. Then I put the veil on. I wanted a longer veil, this one goes to about the back of the thigh and I plan on attaching it at the bottom of my head. The veil is beautiful, it matches the dress perfectly, and you would have thought that they were made to go together. I am so excited to wear the dress; this makes me so antsy for October to get here.



We were also able to find our bridesmaid dresses. They are a champagne color and will have a chocolate brown sash around the waist. (The picture shows a different color sash.) Unfortunately I was unable to find the color green that I really wanted, so we are going to compromise and have the girls carry green bouquets. I think that the dresses are really elegant; I know all of the girls will look beautiful in them.

I was also able to get an idea of what the guys tuxes will look like. They will all wear chocolate brown tuxes. Jeremy will wear an ivory colored vest and tie while all the groomsmen wear green vests and ties. So our green color will be tied in with everything.

Here is a vague idea of what everyone will look like the day of the wedding, just picture the guys in green vest not this blue color. It is bound to look beautiful.

We have also begun to accomplish allot of the beginning planning. We have a hall, church, cook, piano player and attire picked out. We are making the final decisions on a dj and photographer, which should be decided by the end of this week.

Current Tasks being Worked on:

Booking a DJ

Finding a Photographer

Reserving our Officiant(s)

Cake Ideas

If anyone as any suggestions for any of these topics, feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks Again ~ Rachel