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 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

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