The Ware Family Blog

New Family Member!

2009-02-13T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone! Sorry it has been so long since we have updated everyone. After Christmas ~~everything got slow around here and~~ we did ~~not really~~ have a lot to share. But I promise we will get better! I do have a few things to share, and quite a few photos to share as well!

A few days before Christmas we celebrated our niece Janae(our flowergirl)'s birthday. She turned 2! We had fun watching her eat her little cake and open her presents.

Christmas was great. We received some nice prints of our professional wedding pictures from my mom, a quilt and a framed picture from the wedding from Gary's mom and we bought ourselves an iJuke. Here are a few pictures from Christmas with Gary's family.

We celebrated the New Year with a bunch of friends at Casa de Pico and then went over to a friend's house and we played games until midnight. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to spend it with a lot of people. We barely made it until Midnight! I think we are turning into that old married couple too soon. lol. Just Kidding.

In the beginning of January we celebrated our good friends Graham and Leslie's daughter's first birthday. Happy Birthday Frannie! We brought Janae with us as we usually do when we go to a kid's birthday. lol.

Then a little later in the month we went to Balboa park for the Tet Festival which is the Vietnamese New Year. We heard about it from the family of the little girl, Xuan, that I take care of. Her dad is Vietnamese and so we met up with them for a few minutes before we left.

And last but certainly not least! This past weekend we celebrated my 24th Birthday. We went out to eat at Claim Jumper and Gary had got me this awesome Owl purse, a hanging spinner for outside and a cute little voodoo doll keychain. That was on Saturday, and then on Sunday we went out to the Petco in Mira Mesa where the El Cajon Animal Rescue was doing Pet Adoptions. We went with an open mind knowing that we might not find what we are looking for, but after thinking about it a lot... we adopted....

Phyllis! Isn't she cute?! She is a terrier mix we are told but she looks a lot like a Jack Russell to me. She is one and a half and we totally lucked out that she was mostly potty trained. We have had her 6 days now and she has only peed in the house twice! She loves going on walks and curling up on the couch with Gary and I while we watch TV. She is still a little weary of strangers that come to the door and barks at our guests. But she is getting better. I taught her how to sit this week using clicker training. I am so glad we got her. She has made us both very happy!

14 Days 'til Christmas!

2008-12-11T23:15:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone! Hope everyone is doing well and getting as excited about Christmas as we are! It is definitely looking and feeling like Christmas around here. This past weekend we got our Christmas tree... a live one! I really wanted a live tree this year and Gary being so awesome said we could get one. I decorated it, then Janae our niece came over and tried to help but ended up taking a bunch of ornaments off. It's ok, I would pick them up but I have been sick all week and it hurts to bend down and stuff. So for now there are ornaments on the floor.

Gary spent all day Sunday putting lights on the house. So exciting. It was a long day of stapling, trips to home depot and blown fuses! But now they are up and that is all that matters!

As I said earlier I have been really sick this week. I am not sure if it is just a cold, or the flu but I am taking meds. I feel achey which makes me think the flu. Ugh. Hate being sick. I have had to cancel some babysitting which I never do! But I need to rest up and get better to have energy to keep up with the kids at work at babysitting.

Here are some pictures to share.

Our Christmas lights.

Here is our Nativity Scene we received from my Step Dad's mom, Grandma Ora, as a wedding present.

Our Tree minus a lot of ornaments.

Us getting our Tree.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-30T14:33:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their loved ones. Gary and I traveled up to Santa Clarita to visit my family for Thanksgiving. The usually 3 hour drive took us 5 hours! It was so long and tiring. But we made it to my mom's right at dinner time. Perfect. Dinner was Delicious as always.

We spent the next couple of days there. I went shopping for Christmas ornaments with my mom and Gary helped my Step Dad put the lights up on the house.

We are home now and getting some things done before the work week starts. I have a living room full of Christmas Decorations to go through and put up tonight. :-)

Quick Update

2008-11-25T00:55:00.001-08:00

Courtney and I were talking the other day, and she brought up a good point. On our thank you cards we put a link to our blog, but we haven't really updated it. Being that it's after midnight, and I have to work tomorrow I am going to make this update pretty quick. So if this is the first time here please take a look around. You will find all of our pre-wedding adventures. If you are a repeat visitor, what do you think of the new layout? Courtney took the time to spice it up a bit, looks good huh? So since we have been married everyone has been asking us the same 2 questions: How does it feel to be married, and When are you having kids. Well I will answer the first one, if you want to know the answer to the second you need to keep reading. Marriage life is great! After a year of wedding planning it feels so good to come home and not have to worry about doing wedding stuff. =oD Since we have been dating for so long I didn't know if it would feel any different, but surprisingly enough it does. (in a good way of course) It's like a game of house that never ends.

Courtney is doing well at the preschool. Just about every day she comes home with a cool story about something that happened during her day. I recently started a new job as a Search Marketing Manager at a company called Covario. I have been there about a month now, and so far I like it a lot.

This will be our first Christmas in the duplex, and we can't wait to start decorating.

I know that wasn't much of a update but I promise the next one will be better!

I can't believe 3 months have already passed since the wedding, and Christmas is right around the corner

Busy Busy Busy

2008-09-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

Gary and I are back to work and trying to get our new place in order. We have been doing a lot of Gardening, Decorating and Cleaning the past couple of weekends. We have so much stuff, it's crazy. I guess that is what happens when two pack rats live together.

I legally changed my last name to Ware! Woo Hoo! I spent 40 mins at the Social Security Office on Monday, then had to go home because I forgot my ID... then came back for another 40 mins. And yesterday I spent an hour at the DMV. I had to take a new picture too.

Other than the craziness of unpacking and putting together a new place, everything is going great. We have been married almost a month now!

We have been spending a lot of time out with our friends. Here are some Pictures of us out to dinner with the Howards and us during Bowling night!

Wedding Photos

2008-09-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

The photos that the photographer took are finished use the links below to check them out.

Here are some of her faves
http://www.dreamstudiosonline.com/Courtney&Gary/

Here is the gallery where you can see the rest of the pictures and purchase them.
http://www.Printroom.com/pro/DreamStudios
password is Courtney

Wedding & Honeymoon Photos

2008-09-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, we have created an online galley to keep all of our wedding and honeymoon photos. When you get some time check them out.

Wedding Photos
http://gallery.me.com/garyware#100030

Honeymoon Photos
http://gallery.me.com/garyware#100012

If you took photos at the wedding that you would like to share you have the ability to upload them to the gallery. Keep checking back because when we get copies of the professional photos we will upload them as well.

We're Home!

2008-08-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding! It was one of the best days of our lives and it would not have been as special had all of you not been there. We just got back from our Honeymoon in Hawaii last night, so we will add some wedding pictures a little later!

~Courtney

It's Almost Here!!!

2008-08-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Just a few things to tell you 5 days before the Wedding!

1. I looked up the weather for Malibu and the high on Saturday will be around 79. How perfect. I think the nighttime might get a little chilly so maybe bring a sweater!

2. Our Hotel we blocked rooms off at is filling up fast! If you have not made your reservations yet, I suggest you hurry! Thousand Oaks Best Western. Mention the Ware/Vickers wedding for our special group rate Discount.

Call: 1.800.600.6878

Best Western Thousand Oaks Inn
75 West Thousand Oaks Blvd
Thousand Oaks, CA, 91360

Go Here: http://www.thousandoaksinn.com/

3. The drive to Calamigos Ranch takes about 25 minutes from the Hotel, or 1 hour from Santa Clarita, and 3 hours from San Diego! Plan Accordingly as the ceremony starts at 6:00pm. There will be signs directing you to the Parking Lot for our Wedding once you get to the Ranch.

One Last Thing... It will be a full Moon!

Can't wait to see you there!

Any Last Minute Questions?

Email Gary : Gary@Garyware.net

Email Courtney: JamesDeanJeans@yahoo.com

The invitations should be on their way

2008-07-13T23:15:00.000-07:00

Yes you did read correctly, we hope that you receive your invitations in the next couple of days. Courtney's step-dad Pete took the invitations to the post office last Monday, and when we heard on Friday that the people in Valencia still haven't received their invitations we started to get worried. Courtney's mom called the Post Office, and they said they had no idea where they could be. They called a few other Post Offices and they hadn't seen them either. Since the return address is a Spring Valley address, and they were mailed from Santa Clarita we didn't know what to expect. Well magically after the conversation on Friday the people in Santa Clarita received their invitations. So with that said we believe everyone else should start receiving their invitation in the next few days. If you have any questions about anything you can always give us a call or check out our wedding website. Also if you do not receive your invite by next Friday please let us know.

Another Busy Weekend!

2008-06-30T00:15:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

We had another busy weekend. We attended my Friend Danielle's Wedding on Saturday. It was beautiful. I have known Danielle since 1st Grade. Crazy. We also put together most of the Invitations so they can be sent out this week, so keep your eye in your mailbox! All of my Bridesmaids now have their dresses, I have my shoes... and a lot of other things I am too sleepy to remember. We are less than 7 weeks away!!!

- Courtney

Details, Details, Details...

2008-06-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

This is my first time posting on our blog so bare with me! Now that we are 63 Days until the wedding, everything is getting crazy! Over the last few weekends we finalized the cake, flowers, photographer, DJ, Tuxes and Bridesmaid's dresses, and today the Napkin Color. LoL. And a bunch of other stuff too. The wedding is getting so close and there is still so much to do! We just ordered our invitations which should be here soon! We will let you know when we send them out. Hope everyone is doing well and as excited as I am for August 16th!

- Courtney

Swimming with Janae

2008-05-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

Today I got to take Janae to her swim class. It was a lot of fun and boy does she LOVE the water. Check out the slideshow of our fun in the water.

The latest adventures in wedding planning

2008-04-19T23:44:00.000-07:00

So today Courtney and I went to check out some florist for the wedding. The first stop was a place called Celebrate. Celebrate looked more like a flower studio then a flower shop. Lets just say that we didn't like that place too much. The people were not nice, and as a way to justify their high prices the seemed to complain about all of our idea for a centerpiece. nonetheless we still asked them to create a sample centerpiece for Courtney's mom to review. Celebrate also sells stuff to make invitations, and to our surprise we saw the envelopes that we likes, so I took down the name, so we could research them later.

On the way back home we all agreed that we didn't like their attitude, so we decided to pop into Charmaines, which is a florist near Courtney's mom's house. Now that was a flower shop, it was nice and cozy and they had flowers everywhere. It was almost like being in an enchanted forest. The people were really nice, even though they were swamped getting flowers ready for a wedding. It turns out that they are doing the wedding for the lady's son that we want to do our cake. So we asked them to do a sample centerpiece too. Let the best florist win!

I don't know if anyone received it, but our first newsletter FINALLY went out. The place that we have our wedding website has a newsletter feature, so I had scheduled the first one to go out on March 31st. Well I don't know what happened, but it finally went out on Thursday. So if you did get out we're sorry if you received more than one, we are not trying to SPAM you. If you didn't get it maybe it got stuck in your junk folder or you didn't sign up to receive updates from up. Either way you can see a copy of the newsletter here It was our first attempt, so there is not much there, but there will be more as we get closer to the big day.

In other news last Sunday my mom and I ran in the San Diego Mud run. It was my first time running in a mud run, in fact it was my first time running long distance. It was harder then I expected, but I did better then I expected. It took me 34 minutes 30 seconds to finish. I finished 34 in my age class, and 180 overall. It was a pretty cool experience. Courtney, my sister, and my niece came out to support us. You can check out the photos below.

Well that's about it for this update, make sure you keep checking our wedding website, and this blog for updates

The Wedding is Off

2008-04-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

April Fools!

I've gone the whole day and didn't get to play any tricks on anyone. so I hope there are no hard feelings.

Anywho, since you are here here is the post of the week. Over the weekend Courtney and I went to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond to add things to our registry. It was a lot of fun, and I got to use the scanner gun!! When the workers saw that we were wedding planning they were so nice to us. The guy at BB&B told me more than I would like to know about pots & pans and knives. And a lady in the bedding dept helped us pick out some cool sheets. So make sure you check out our recently updated website to get all the info. We are trying to use the newsletter feature of the website, so if you want to stay updated make sure you click the "stay updated" button and add your name and email address.

Well that's about it for this week. Only 4 months, 2 weeks, & 1 one day till the big day!

New Registry Account

2008-03-25T01:03:00.000-07:00

We just created a registry at Target. Now we have a good variety to choose from. We have some time this weekend, so we are going to go in store and add more items. YAY!

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

We hope everyone had a really good Easter. We spent the afternoon with my family, and we got to watch our niece Janae hunt for easter eggs. We posted some pics for you to enjoy below.

Cooking Class with Sam The Cooking Guy

2008-03-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Courtney and I went to a cooking class that was put on by Sam The Cooking Guy. The class was on Mexican food, and it was held at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center. Courtney told me that this was the place that Pete's daughter and Son-in-law got married.

Sam went over 6 dishes and 2 cocktails. Our favorite was the Chicken Enchiladas (YUMMY!). Throughout the evening he told funny anecdotes, and at the end of the night he stayed around to chat, take photos, and sign autographs.

Last month Sam sent out an email saying that if we made any of his valentine receipes to send in photos, and he would send in a pair of Sam The Cooking Guy Hoodies to the winner. I sent in my photos, and to my surprise I was the winner. So when it was our turn to take a photo I told him thank you for the hoodies, and when he realized who we were he gave us both big hugs. He autographed my copy of his new book, and our program from the class. We both had a really good time, and it was refreshing to see that Sam was same the happy go lucky guy that you see on TV.

6 Years of Love

2008-03-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

Look at this cool video that Courtney made.

6 Years of Love

The Wedding website is finished!

2008-03-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

We just finished our new wedding website. It has lots of good info on the BIG DAY!! When the official invites go out you will be able to RSVP on the site. Check out the site and let us know what you think. www.garycourtneywedding.com Also make sure you sign the new guestbook, and take our quiz.

5 Months to Go!

2008-03-17T23:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, time really is going fast in five months from today, Courtney and I will be in Hawaii on our Honeymoon. We still have TONS of little things still left to do, but Im sure everything will start falling in place over the next few weeks. Yesterday while Courtney and I were in LA we met with my friend Alex to see if he would DJ for us. Alex is a club DJ/Promoter/Producer/Recording Artist. This would be his first wedding, so he said he will bring his friend who have done weddings before. In other news the new website design is about finished, so make sure you check it out, and let us know what you think.

Traveler's Joy

2008-03-11T22:24:00.000-07:00

We just signed up for a registry account on Traveler's Joy.com Traveler's Joy is a registry site that will allow you to contribute to our Honeymoon. We have listed some things that we would like to see and do, and if you are interested feel free to chip in. We decided on Hawaii as the destination for our honeymoon, and thanks to Courtney's Step Dad Pete, we will be staying at the Kona Coast Resort Phase II Resort on Kailua Kona. Courtney has never been to Hawaii, and I haven't been since I was 4 so we are both really excited to explore the Big Island.

View our registry

We have a hotel picked out.

2008-03-06T23:20:00.000-08:00

If you plan on staying the night we would advise staying at the Best Western Thousand Oaks Inn They have a group rate set for the dates of August 14-18, 2008. To receive the group rate you must call 1.800.600.6878 and give the code WVW or you can mention the mention the Ware-Vickers Wedding.

Best Western Thousand Oaks Inn
75 West Thousand Oaks Blvd
Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
(800) 600-6878
View Map

First Registry

2008-02-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

We have our first registry setup at Bed Bath and Beyond There is not much on there at the moment, but when we get more time we are going to take a trip down to the store and add some more. Keep checking back =oD

First Post

2008-01-13T18:17:00.001-08:00

Welcome to our wedding blog, we will be posting our wedding progress here. Be sure to check back to get the scoop.