abbyrosephoto.net
although we are safely in chicago in the chronology of our lives, we are actually only in the middle of recording our costa rica trip for posterity because SOMEONE dropped the ball on blogging; no need to single people out. he knows who he is. and he promises he will indeed complete recording our adventures, long after they concluded, perhaps long after they are relevant to this blog, because i said so (getting married gives that phrase a lotta clout). and to be fair, we did come home and have a whole wedding/interstate move issue to distract us. but we wanted to give our poor blog a breath of life and catch everyone up on all that's been going on. eventually.
first of course, the wedding. sigh, what can we say about it...for the past several days it's been a broken record: we loved our wedding, the wedding was perfect, we had the best guests, we had the time of our lives, etc etc etc. there is literally nothing less than jubilant we can say about the whole weekend--everything went off without a hitch and was a total blast. after doing some very last-minute prep when we got back to the states (my mom literally planned this whole extravaganza start to finish...we just had to make sure we got a marriage license), the games began friday night in ann arbor.
many of our contemporaries were kind enough to cruise out a little early to the mitten so we could have our last hurrah in ann arbor together. and hurrahing there was...dominick's sangria, the brown jug patio, dancing at ricks...we did a number on our little college town and some of us have the scars to prove it ;)
finally, a dominick's reservation!
a great group from the front, but fant*as*tic from the back...
party bus!
after a quick greasy breakfast, we paid for the good times saturday morning when the bridal party trekked across metro detroit for our 10am rehearsal. that was one of the longer mornings of our lives, i imagine, but a necessary evil. thanks everyone for firing up! and in the suprise of a lifetime, thanks mullaney for being the first person to show up to the rehearsal--still wrapping my mind around that one...
the ladies had a nice luncheon, and then everyone reunited for the first big event of the weekend, our rehearsal dinner. can we just pause for a second here and say, we LOVED this night. while the wedding was spectacular, it's a whole different event if you made it to the rehearsal dinner--more personal, more time to get to know other guests, and i think everyone knows us a little better after that night as well.
my lovely maidens! you are the best!
from L to R, my cousin marissa, her boyfriend brian, me, david
the colombian contingent mixing with some gringos
me, my aunt linda, and her gorgeous daughter marissa
we purposely set up the night so that people would be up and mingling, but we failed to take into account that this would mean we'd never get to eat! the food looked really good though...and aside from that, we wouldn't have changed a thing. the room was beautiful, everyone was smiling, the speeches were funny, cute, and really moving. and nobody fell asleep during the slideshow! that we saw, at least. the whole night was a total success, and we think it set everyone up to enjoy the wedding even more.
ah, the wedding. after four straight days of rain, the clouds parted on sunday, may 31, and the gods smiled down on us. clear blue skies, cool breeze, it was a *perfect* day for a wedding. the girls had a ton of fun beautifying in party suite 301 (and if you're getting married in michigan, i had amazing hair and makeup people from luigi bruni--patty and amber--that i recommend enthusiastically--contact me for their info)
i think the only calories ingested that day came in the form of mimosas...
...while the gents had a cutthroat bocci ball tourney (thanks for making sure david was always on the winning team...). does anyone have pictures of that, by the way?! the bridal party met up for pictures shortly before the ceremony, and the rest is history! the place was gorgeous (thanks, mom!), we felt our ceremony really reflected who we are, and the party was AWESOME.
courtesy our awesome photographers: abbyrosephoto.net
abby rose photo--don't stop believin'
abby rose photo
we managed to pull off all the things most important to us--making a grand event like that really personal for our guests, creating a sense of community between bride and groom sides, and just having FUN, as well as a couple of minor details--we hope you loved the food, and thanks for dancing ALL NIGHT LONG!
i'm sure these are tears of joy to finally have me off their hands...
husband and wife!
the hora we promised my mother would *never* transpire...
one of the best parts about being a bride is the endless supply of dance partners!
we weren't sure exactly how to pull of something of this magnitude, but somehow it all came together. we know, however, that most of this has to do with our incredible guests. the two of us can only do so much...you guys truly made the night and the whole weekend as amazing as it was. there is no way to adequately describe what it feels like to see that group of people in the same room--we wish we coulda pumped everyone full of stimulants so we had as much time as possible to talk, catch up, hang out, etc. as much as we were thrilled our wedding had arrived, everything is so enhanced by how loved we are by so many stellar people.
how cute are these mini flappers?!
jeannette (isn't she BEAUTIFUL?!), jim and deena ultman
um sph nutrition class of '08--nice work on the reunion, guys!
andover high school, class of '02
it was just amazing to know everyone was there to celebrate with us because they care about us, and all overcame obstacles to make that known. we are flattered, we are grateful, but most of all, we are unable to express these emotions as well as we'd like. thank you, everyone, for making this the best, most memorable, most beautiful weekend of our lives. it was just fantastic to share the time with old friends, family, and to add so many new friends and family to our lives as well! we hope that many of you were able to do the same.
abby rose photo
while we'll never be able to recreate it to that degree, we are already brainstorming ways we can keep riding the wave...ten year vow renewal/ reunion, anyone?? maybe in sunny san diego? and in the meantime, let's seriously get down to business on planning a chicago weekend before the arctic winter sets in! thank you everyone for making our wedding weekend the BEST. now get your butts to chicago!! much love and thanks--ash&david.
