More Wedding Planning~

Wedding Planning has kicked up quite a few notches now that we're in 2009! Saturday was my first day trying on wedding dresses. 20 dresses and an hour and a half later and nada. Nothing I loved and had to have. So... I have 3 more appointments at other bridal salons with the plan to buy a dress by Valentine's Day. Supposedly it takes at least 6 months to order your dress, get it in time for alterations, etc. The dress above is from the trunk show that I went to on Saturday. I tried this dress on and it was amazing. But I think we would have to get married in a ginormous cathedral for me to pull that one off:)

Other wedding preparations:

Today we reserved the bridal party's transportation from the church to the reception and you all are in for a sweet surprise! It's going to be great:) And on Wednesday I meet with our caterer to try out food for the reception. Oh and- I have to take membership classes at our church. So January 31 and February 14 from 9-3 (both Saturdays!) I will be learning. I can't believe the class is on Valentine's Day! But since it is for our wedding... I guess that is somewhat fitting. Of course Justin gets to come along for his fiance-al support. (My first step toward becoming a Lutheran- today I learned what a catechism is - and it is not a fancy name for a workbook! lol)

Engagement Pics

I've been meaning to post some of our engagement pictures from November... here's the link to view them all:

http://www.paulvphotoevents.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=355

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Use the email: rsjones05@hotmail.com to login.

Too bad I wasn't smiling in all on them. Justin mixed it up w/ the smile for most of the shots, but he looks better not smiling than I do:) We were really impressed with his use of lighting and the general lack of cheesy poses. I'm looking forward to seeing how the wedding shots turn out!

Wedding Dress Shopping

I made my first appointment today to try on wedding dresses! There is a trunk show (you view dresses by a certain designer, try on the ones you like, plus a discount if you buy that designer that day) this Saturday at a bridal shop that has come highly recommended. Can't wait!! You can check out the shop at: http://www.idascustomveils.com/

The rest of the trip...

Lonnie's Western Room, on Printer's Alley in Nashville. Printer's Alley is a string of dive bars that was home to Nashville's speakeasies during Prohibition. Western Room is where Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Tonya Tucker and other country greats sang early on in their careers. The guys sang Sweet Caroline and Friends in Low Places. Sounded really great when we were there (Several buckets of beer into the evening!) But once we listened to the video clips... oh well, its karaoke!

Justin and Ross... happy to be in Nashville's dive bars... similar to the bars in their Husker homeland.

Michelle and I... lovin Printer's Alley.

This really great band played at another bar (Fiddler's Steel Guitar?) on Printer's Alley. I thought they were great. Bought them 2 rounds of drinks Whoops!:) Total was under $40... tips included! Nothing beats cheap drinks, great entertainment, and great company. The servers and the rest of the bar were super friendly and down home also. Best thing was a guy serving hot dogs, nachos, and frito pies out of a little window that catered to the inside and outside of the bar, so under 21 could eat too. You ordered from the guy, then told the waitress your total ($9 for 2 hotdogs and a frito pie) and had her add it to your bill. Total honor system... so unheard of these days.

The night of the game... Mr. HuskerFan came out to drink too! This was at a big circle surrounded by entertainment venues pretty close to the stadium. One very, very tipsy girl tried to hit on Justin. He said thanks but no thanks, he had a fiance. She asked him if she (me) was there. Um yeah!! So I was only a teensy bit glad when she fell down a little bit later that night in front of tons of people. (No she wasn't hurt, probably didn't even remember it the next day!)

Ross celebrating the Husker win... (Un)fortunately, it was Michelle and I that drank the entire bottle! Ouch!!

Cheers to Huskers!! One glass down, the rest of the bottle to go!!

The Game: Nebraska vs. Clemson. Nebraska Wins!

The game was definitely the best game I've ever seen! Reasons include: nail-biting action, I was predominantly sober/awake, and the seats were comfortable!!

Justin and Ross... happy to be here, happy his fiance/wife is sober/awake, and looking forward to a win!

A great shot of the packed Nebraska side. We go all out! 24 hr drive what?!

Justin and I... so happy we won!! Now it's time to celebrate!!

The marching band... pride of Nebraska? Note all of the blue in the stands. Those are empty seats on the Clemson side! And they only had a 10 hour drive?

Our section, 438... row V was lucky enough to have 3 cheerleaders. This guy was one of them. He was great!! Mr. HuskerFan, you helped make the game great!! So did you, drunk white sunglass guy that I didn't get a picture of!

Myself and Michelle... note the token camo-wearing Husker fan in the back. We would have also had a lot of Carhart-wearing fans... but the weather was a pleasant 50 degrees. Windchill was lower... thats whats with the scarf!

A little pre-game tailgate action!

Alligator Farm. They don't call it the Gator Bowl for nothing.

We had extra time to stop by an "Alligator Farm", and to my surprise, they don't harvest purses and shoes here! This was actually way better than a zoo, with lots of close up access to the animals. We could even touch and get our picture taken w/ a 12 footer for $75. No thanks!! I like all my arms and legs just the way they are! This reserve is the only place in the world to exhibit all 23 species of crocodilians, plus they have the largest? alligator in captivity. All in all, over 300 alligators, plus birds and monkeys. Definitely worth the admission fee!
So you could feed the alligators with little pellets... and this is only a fraction of them!

I thought these little guys were prehistoric! Guess not!

This guy was waiting for me to fall in!

Castillo de ???? - St Augustine, FL

The fort had 3 sentry posts... but Justin didn't see any enemy ships coming into port. (Is it just me or is Justin missing some teeth in this picture?)

The dead grass was a moat back in the day!

Inside the fort...

The fort still had any original cannons... dating back to the 1600s. Crazy that they made these killing machines so pretty. We actually saw a guy stuff his little 3 month old baby in one for a picture. So Justin thought I should stick my head in one. I still have my head.

St. Augustine happens to be the oldest city in North America... founded by Ponce de Leon when he thought he found the Fountain of Youth. We happened upon Castillo de Something, the oldest fort in North America. It has been occupied in all major wars. Pretty cool to see. The jail was particularly creepy, with the stalest air you could ever imagine.

Yes we did!! 19 hours in the car and we made it to Jacksonville, Florida. Well, St Augustine for 2 nights, Jacksonville for 1 night, and then Nashville on the way back. Fun, fun trip. Our friends Ross & Michelle came up with the idea, and it was a good one!! Special thanks to our helpful dogsitters... you know who you are:)

Christmas 2008

Dad- super happy all of his kids came home for Christmas. And that he gets to feed 8 mouths again instead of just 1. :)

We went to the Indy Auto Show for all of the latest & greatest that Detroit has to offer... We thought it was hilarious for Scott & Matt to sit in the bug since they're 6'8 and 6'4. You should have seen them in the smartcar!!

For some reason I only have a few pics from Christmas... I think the rest are on Facebook? I'll have to track them down later. Scott got all the guys hats for Christmas- Nebraska for Justin and Illinois for Scott, Jeff and Matt. Don't they look tough...lol.