Saying "I Do"

Pasta Making Class with the Hubby!

2012-02-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it's February already?!

You may remember that Chris and I took a pasta making class in Florence on our Honeymoon. It was a very personalized and private class, and it was a great experience. For some reason - I really couldn't remember how we made the pastas and when I tried to do it at home, and failed miserably. I have the pasta maker attachments for my kitchenaid stand mixer, and it was all very different from how we did it in Italy.

So, I signed us up for another pasta class at Sur La Table in Manhasset, NY, but this class also included 3 different sauces and 3 different types of pasta. We attended the class on Saturday and this place was so adorable! I had a very fun afternoon with the Hubs! When we arrived, we were each given an apron, a towel, and a clipboard with an information packet and our recipes for the day.

Individual work stations for each person were set up on two islands in the center of the room

Thanks Instagram!

All we did was create a well and add two eggs to this flour and salt mixture - super easy!

After we made our pasta dough balls, the dough needed to rest for awhile so we got to work on our sauces for the day! First, we made a Tuscan Sausage and Caramelized Onion Ragu (which ended up being my personal favorite). This sauce was so thick and flavorful!

While the Ragu cooked, we also made a Sun-Dried Tomato, Rosemary and Pancetta Cream Sauce. This was much easier and quicker to make, perfect for a quick weeknight meal!

We also made Walnut-Sage Pesto Sauce - but it didn't even compare to both our mom's Basil pesto recipes. I feel that pesto is best made with Basil, not parsley and sage, so this was just ok.
As these sauces cooked a little more, we got to work on actually creating the pasta. We were able to use the Kitchenaid pasta maker attachments or a hand crank that was on the tables. I used a hand crank maker when we were in Italy and since I have the KitchenAid attachments, I really wanted to get practice on using that, so I'd know what to do at home.

Chris rolling out our pasta dough

It takes two:

Using the cutter attachment:

Putting the pasta onto the sheets before boiling it:

Once everything was done, we all quickly dove in to eat our meals and I obviously was way too enthralled with my plate to take pictures of the finished products. Just know that everything came out really delicious! I liked the Ragu, then the Cream Sauce, and then the Pesto and I can't wait to try all of these things at home on my own!

I also LOVED this place - though the classes are a little pricey, I think they are totally worth it for a once in a while treat to do with anyone: moms, friends, sisters, husbands, etc. Sur La Table has locations across the country, so they might be near you, too! I can say, that I will definitely be coming back here for more classes - but it's now time for me to venture out of the "pastas" and try some new things! Spanish tapas anyone?!
Did you ever take a cooking class with your boyfriend/fiancé/hubby, or just in general?

My Wedding Shoes - Revamped!!

2012-01-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

I LOVED my wedding shoes, they were perfect for me, and comfortable to boot! I pretty much assumed that after my wedding, there was a very slim chance I would ever wear the shoes again and planned to either just store them away or donate them somewhere.

But two weeks ago, I decided to just take a chance and I dropped them off at a shoe repair place right next to my office. They said they could dye them no problem and told me to come pick them up in a week. Last week I went in to pick up these beauties!!!

I LOVE THEM!! I can't wait to wear these to one of the many weddings we have coming up this year, and I'm so glad that I will get some more use out of my wedding shoes!

Did/Will you dye your shoes after your wedding?

Friday Find: "Save" the Date!

2012-01-27T05:30:00.000-05:00

This is such a genius idea for a "Save the Date" video. This couple took the "save" in "save the date" quite literally and created a unique video to share with their friends and family. It took more than 2000 still photos and six hours to shoot in December, and now just 1 month later, this video has been seen on every continent, and appeared on the websites for Glamour Magazine and Martha Stewart.

Have a great weekend! Chris and I are taking a pasta making class tomorrow, which was a gift that I got him for Christmas! I'm happy to report I have a full week of posts ready for you next week so make sure to check them out!

Have a great weekend!

Portlandia Wedding Scene

2012-01-25T09:47:00.000-05:00

Haha this post had me laughing so hard this morning, I just had to share it...enjoy!

Friday Find: Making the Movies Jealous

2012-01-20T05:30:00.000-05:00

It was hard to refrain from posting the viral "Shit Brides Say" video that was put out by TheKnot.com this week, but I'm betting that by now, everyone has seen it. If for some reason you haven't, click here.

So, I was on the hunt for some new material for this week's Friday Find. Remember this proposal that I posted a while back?

Matt put this amazing proposal video together for his girlfriend - and little did I know, these two turned their wedding into quite the little franchise! After their video went viral, they created a website (http://www.mattandginny.com/) containing all their wedding information. Even more amazing, they had a song written just for them called "Making the Movies Jealous" and it was recorded by American Idol alum Kristen McNamara. These two must have quite the connections (or just loads of cash, I can't really tell which).

On top of that, it looks like they had an unbelievably gorgeous wedding by the looks of their wedding video, filmed and edited by Ray Roman (not to be confused with Ray Romano).

Making the Movies Jealous - Matt & Ginny's Official Wedding from Ray Roman on Vimeo.

Not that I didn't think Ginny was pretty in the proposal video - but I seriously would not have guessed this was her in a million years. How gorgeous does she look? How unbelievable is her dress? I just love this...

Happy weekend!

Friday Find: How RUDE

2012-01-13T05:30:00.000-05:00

This woman should be punched in the face.

No really.

What makes this video so infuriating and sad is the fact that she's not even doing it for attention or to be funny. I've seen many wedding videos where both the bride and groom take out their phones to update their facebook status or to twitter account...but it was a planned "bit", and it was intended to bring levity to their ceremony. This woman is being just plain rude, and I feel so awful for the groom who clearly looks embarrassed and upset the whole time she's texting. You can tell he's debating with himself if he should stop her or not...poor guy.

Happy Friday the 13th, I hope it's not too bad for any of you! I have a long weekend ahead...so today, really isn't looking so bad for me!

Congratulations are in order

2012-01-11T05:30:00.000-05:00

I have two exciting posts for you to read today...but not here. Yesterday I guest blogged for the newly married Megan at Butterfly Dreams and Things, where I talked about "wedding withdrawal".

I also want to congratulate Debi Sementelli on making the MyFonts.com Most Popular Fonts of 2011 list! Debi wrote a great post last week thanking all the people who helped spread the word about her font, Belluccia, and even thanks yours truly for some of the projects I did with the calligraphy she customized for Chris and me.

Debi wrote:

Former bride Laura Duni, of Saying "I Do" In NewYork blog, was also able to use Belluccia to add unique touches to her wedding. She created a custom stamp which she was able to use to customize napkins, out of town guests bags, post cards, and a name plaque for her guest book.

Be sure to read the whole post here, and congratulations to both Megan and Debi! I shall drink a celebratory glass of champagne in honor of both of you!

Source

Wishing Tree Tag DIY Trays

2012-01-10T05:30:00.000-05:00

Many of you may remember from my Wishing Tree post, that I intended to make some display trays with our wishing tree tags. Well I am happy to report that the project is done and it came out even better than I could have imagined!

I bought wooden trays at Michaels.
Before:

Then I de decoupaged some of the highlights wishing tags onto it. I still intend to add some tags to the outside perimeter, but for now this is how it came out! I didn't take too many good pictures, I did this quickly!
After:

What do you think?

Wagner Alumni Magazine Feature!

2012-01-09T05:30:00.000-05:00

This month, our wedding was featured in the Wagner College Alumni Magazine! See the feature below!

Friday Find: The Complete Package Wedding Video

2012-01-06T05:30:00.000-05:00

I've got a doozy of a wedding video for you today! This video comes complete with an adorably attractive couple, an awesome background song, very inspirational quotes from the officiant, followed by a Maid of Honor speech that gives me goosebumps, the newlywed game, gummy worms, heartfelt vows and lots of tears. Add in their Australian accents and I simply can't get enough of this video! I've watched it at least 5 times and I get choked up at the same parts every time.

Tuan + Kitty Cinematic Wedding Trailer "I said I love you, she said Thank you!" from Paper Cranes Productions on Vimeo. source

What's your favorite part of this video? It'll be hard to pick just one!

Have a great weekend! Chris, Zoey and I are off to Pennsylvania for a weekend of winter hibernating, and hopefully some good old cooking and baking with the fam!

"First Christmas" Ornaments

2012-01-04T05:30:00.000-05:00

Besides having an amazing first Christmas with my husband and being married, it was extra fun getting some really sweet ornaments from our friends this year.

Molly and I decided to start our own Christmas tradition this year and give each other an ornament each year. Molly got us this adorable "Our 1st Christmas Together" ornament for our tree:

Chris's cousin got us this wedding cake "First Christmas Together" ornament. It's actually a bell, and there are two rings hanging inside to ring it, very cute!

This ornament we got from Mike and Kerry. Not only is it personalized with our names and our initial, but it has three lines from our first dance song Steady As We Go, and includes our wedding date. Such a sweet surprise!

Then there's Zoey's First Christmas ornament which we made on Christmas Eve, with an imprint of her paw! Yes...we're "those" people:

Did you get any great ornaments for your first Christmas together?

2012 Blogging Brides

2012-01-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

Happy 2012 everyone!!! I hope your New Year's was amazing and you have started 2012 off to a great start! I for one, have lots of goals, resolutions, and lists and am ready to start of 2012 on the right foot! 2011 was obviously a great year for me, but I'm super excited for what 2012 has in store!

It's also that time again! Time to update the Blogging Brides list, and my 2012 list is even bigger than my 2011 list!! I look forward to following each of these ladies as they count down to their big day! Plus the few 2013 brides I have at the bottom.

If you are a 2012 Blogging Bride and want to be added to the list, please email me at info@lauraandchristopher.com. I'd love to follow you, too!

2012 BLOGGING BRIDES

January
1/7/2012: Megan @ Butterfly Dreams and Things
1/28/12: Natalie @ Bells and Bows

March
3/10/12: Mandy and Justin
3/16/12: Natalie @ A Unique Soiree
3/24/12: Tiffany @ Bride-Onicles of a Soon to Be Bride

April
4/14/12: Mel @ Adventures in Wedding Planning
4/21/12: Imperfect Obsession
4/21/12: "I do" on the Bayou
4/21/12: Elvi @ Life, Wedding, Nonsense
4/28/12: Hannah @ Hannah and Jon are Getting Married
4/28/12: Sharon @ Isn't This Thrilling?
4/29/12: Kristina @ Pretty Rambles

May
5/4/12: Teeny @ Sparkles and Cheaterpants
5/5/12: Karen @ The Adventure Begins
5/19/12: Mindy @ Budget Fairy Tale

June
6/?/12: Tina @ Life in the Fast Lane
6/6/12: The Kovacs Family
6/9/12: South Texas Wedding
6/9/12: Frances @ From Seattle, With Love
6/12: 2012 to Eternity
6/9/12: Petchie @ Petchie's Blog Book
6/2/12: Tracy @ B and T Wedding
6/16/12: Steph @ You're the Cheese to My Macaroni
6/16/12: Christi @ Blingy Bride
6/30/12: Taylor @ Future Mrs. Beede

July
7/4/12: Cab @ Ribbons and Ruffles
7/7/12: Alissa @ The Electric City Bride
7/12: Kevin and Julie
7/14/12: Micah @ Roses are Blue

August
8/11/12: Sarah @ Just the Two of Us
8/18/12: Ms. Panda's Wedding Planning

September
9/1/12: Lilian Harlow

9/1/12: Kelly @ The Whimsical Wifey
9/1/12: Holly @ These are the Moments
9/2/12: Kaela @ Joyfulbee
9/2/12: Melissa @ Cook, Drink, Marry

9/8/12: Nikki @ The Bride to Be
9/8/12: Legends of a Hummingbird
9/8/12: K @ Down at Fraggle Rock
9/15/12: Building Life Through Love
9/15/12: Miss Tattoo @ Tattoos and Lace
9/15/12: Viki @ Hobbies and Everything In Between
9/22/12: Christine @ Kits' Wedding Cornah
9/29/12: Amanda @ Twoninenine and Ever After
9/29/12: Shari @ The Blushing Bride

October
10/13/12: Sandy Toes Bride
10/12: Karen @ The Cupcake Bride
10/27/12: Cameron Wedding

November:
11/12: Musings of a Modern Bride

December:
12/7/12: My Autumn Dream
12/28/12: Eugene and Larren Tie the Knot

2013 BLOGGING BRIDES
5/12/13: My Amazing Fabulous Wedding of my Dreams
8/3/13: Cat @ Laissez les bon temps rouler

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! Especially my family, who I am missing this weekend...

And hoping that Santa brings you all everything you wished for...

I hope you fill your bellies with lots of good treats...(like Christmas Rocky Road Fudge!) YUM!

And lots of good cheer

Look! I found a use for our leftover Pilsner centerpieces from the wedding!

Here's to our favorite Christmas movies!

ELF

Buddy: I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands.

Buddy: First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.

A Christmas Story

Ralphie as Adult: Immediately, my feet began to sweat as those two fluffy little bunnies with a blue button eye stared supply up at me.
Mother: Come down so I can see you better.
Ralphie as Adult: I just hope Flick would never spot them as a word of this humiliation could make easier in life at G. Harding School a variatable Hell.

Splitting up the Holidays

2011-12-22T05:30:00.000-05:00

I have a confession: Chris and I have been together 7 years and we have never spent a holiday together, until this past Thanksgiving.

Both of us are deeply entrenched in our family's traditions and neither of us were willing to sacrifice that time with them. So every year I went home to Pennsylvania to spend the Holidays with my family and Chris celebrated with his family in New York. We told each other year after year "We're not dealing with it..until we have to", and now that we're married: well, we have to.

Though it may seem strange to some, I'm really happy we waited to celebrate together until now. For one, it gave me some great alone time with my family around the holidays that I wouldn't normally get, and made those holiday's all the more special to me as I knew we only had a handful of them left as just"us". I'm also glad it was a mutual understanding between us. Neither of us were "sacrificing" or "giving in" to make the other happy - we were doing what was right for both of us, and never held it over the other person's head. But the best reason for waiting to spend the holiday's together is that I am SO very excited for the upcoming holidays because I'll finally spend them with Chris. It's a new thing to look forward to and the start of our holidays together as we know them, as a family.

So this year, we both spent Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania and we will now celebrate Christmas in New York. We will probably alternate those holidays each year, depending on where Christmas falls in the week. Being 2 1/2 hours apart, it's not worth trying to split up the one day between the two families. That would make for an exhausting and stressful holiday.

Last year's Christmas was very bittersweet for me, as I knew it would be the last one as just me, my parents and sister getting up on Christmas morning to open gifts. And though it's still bittersweet for me this year...I have to say that I am extremely excited to wake up Christmas morning next to my husband and for us to celebrate Christmas morning with our puppy, Zoey.

How do you split up the holidays? Will this be your first holiday away from your family?

Saying "I do": The Stats!

2011-12-21T05:30:00.000-05:00

I initially started this blog to keep my parents in Pennsylvania up to date on our New York wedding plans. I never expected for it to turn into a way to share and connect with other brides the way that it did. I've met some wonderful people through "Saying 'I do'" and absolutely love that I have a place where this entire experience is captured forever. Through the blog, I was able to do giveaways, score freebies, write for other blogs, and have some elements of our day featured.

Features:

I did 30 unique blog posts for Weddzilla.com
I was a featured Blogger for The Knottie Diaries at Theknot.com
I blogged for GetMarried.com
Our Save The Dates were featured at Wedding of the Season
Our DIY Calligraphy projects were featured at Lettering Art Studio
I was a featured "Bio of the Week" on WeddingBee
At least 20 ideas from my blog have been pinned to Pinterest. Not a LOT, but pinned non-the-less!

Site Visits:

Over the past 2 1/2 years, I've gone from having 300 visits a month, to well over 2000 visits a month.
The most visits I had in one month was 2,589 in April 2011
I have accumulated 2,814 comments

320 of them are from my mom

What started as 1 follower (Hi mom) has grown to 139 and 181 unique RSS Subscribers
People from the following countries have visited my blog: the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, India, Ukraine, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Belgium, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Brazil, France, and many more...
This is my 330th post
I've had almost 83,000 total visits to my site
My top 5 most popular posts of all time were:
Wednesday Wedding Poll: Crying
To cake topper or not to cake topper?
Internet and Anemone Addiction
Bridal Shower Hostess Gifts

These were most visited because of Google image searches. Many brides Google image search cake toppers, anemones, and bridal shower hostess gifts. The Crying Poll? I'm just not sure why that is the most viewed post but apparently, people are very interested in knowing if they will cry on their wedding day.

Source

True story: I got a ton of traffic to this post because I have a picture of "Michelle Tanner" from Full House. Not sure if I want to know why so many people are Google image searching her...

So there's a little Saying "I do" trivia for you! Make a little drinking game out of it this holiday season!

Do you keep track of your blog's stats? What program(s) do you use?

And they lived happily ever after...

2011-12-20T05:30:00.000-05:00

Cheesy title for today, but it was way more romantic than "The End." Alternate title consideration was "To Be Continued..."

Well here I am at the very end of my wedding recaps. I literally do not have any more to share with you about our wedding. I have shared every last detail of our day with you and now 55 posts and 23 Friday Finds later, I am literally at the end...in a somewhat symbolic end to 2011.

It's been a great journey so far, and you have been with us every step of the way. You were with us when we got engaged in the Bahamas

After visiting 13 venues, we finally decided on The SandCastle in Franklin Square, New York.

You were there for our TWO engagement parties:

We had our engagement pictures taken at Wagner College:

And we sent out our save-the-dates

We picked our band, photographer, florist, and hotel and I had my bridesmaid dress fitting day:

We had our cake tasting!

I found my wedding day shoes!

You were there when I picked my dress! (Even though I made you wait to see it!)

You saw us mail out our invitations:

You were with me for my Bridal shower

You were there when my mom finally picked her dress!

You were with us when we got our marriage license

You traveled along to Atlantic City for my Bachelorette party!

You witnessed Mickey and Minnie personally wish us a happy marriage!

You were there when we hit the 30 day mark!

You helped me pick out which Guest Book to have!

You saw every last detail of our wedding

And traveled to Italy with us on our Honeymoon

Thank you for following us on this incredible journey...the laughs, the tears, the stress, the excitement, the love!!!

But this is not the end of Saying "I do"! There are over 50 blogging brides for 2012 over on my Blogging Brides page, and I so look forward to following them all as they count down to their big day in 2012. I love weddings, and with all the weddings Chris and I will be attending in 2012, you can be sure I will still have LOTS to share!!

To be continued...

Monday Find: Roller Coaster Wedding

2011-12-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

I don't have a post ready for today, so I'm sharing another wedding find! Despite the fact that this couple seems slightly odd....This is certainly interesting.I like the fact that right after they say "I do" they head off on this roller coaster ride...quite symbolic!

Friday Find: Disneyworld Proposal

2011-12-16T05:30:00.000-05:00

Friday Find: A Trash Can Proposal in Disney World! I've seen this talking trash can before in Disney and have always thought it was so funny. So clever to incorporate it into his proposal! Only in Disney World right? God I love Disney....

Part 1:

Part 2:

Happy Weekend before Christmas!

Wedding Gifties!

2011-12-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

Chris and I are very blessed and we got some amazing wedding gifts from our friends and family. My parents got us this beautiful Waterford candy bowl, which is currently holding Christmas balls and candy so you can't really see the beautiful designs on the bowl, but it's been a perfect addition to our home!

Molly and Mark had this really awesome artwork made for us! It has all the details of our wedding day and it's in our wedding colors! It's kind of like an official, beautiful marriage certificate! I WILL hang this in our room this weekend!

My Uncle John and Aunt Margaret live in Hong Kong. They brought back this beautiful vase, which I have a poinsettia arrangement in right now:

The vase is gorgeeeous!

Our friend, Danielle, made this candle by wrapping our invitation around it and adding some embellishments!

Christina and Kenny got us this adorable plaque:

But some very special gifts were the ones that Chris and I got for each other. I got Chris a new engraved money clip. He is very difficult to shop for, and I had to really try and think of something that he could use that would be special. I got him a nice money clip from Hammacher Schlemmer and had it engraved with his initials at Things Remembered.

Source
100 dollar bill not included :(

On the morning of our wedding, Chris had his brother drop a gift off at the house for me! I was expecting a new watch, which I had hinted ~~made very clear~~ I wanted.

But when I opened the box and it wasn't my new watch, I really couldn't be too upset when I saw these beautiful diamond earrings instead!

Every time I wear these...I think of our wedding day, and as a result, these are extremely special to me. Kudos to the Hubby!

Did/Will you exchange gifts on your wedding day?

Christmas Presents for Zoey

2011-12-14T05:30:00.000-05:00

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to show off Zoey's first Christmas presents!! I participated in the Canine and Kitty Gift exchange hosted by Gator Tales and KJPugs.

I was paired with Elle and her dog Charlie Brown from ElleSees, who has an amazing fashion blog (seriously check it out!). I came home on Monday to a box at my door and Zoey was super excited to see what was inside for her! She was immediately curious about these new toys. Chris and I left her to play with them while we prepared the rest of our dinner when all of a sudden we heard whimpering coming from the living room. We rushed in to see what was wrong, but she was still happily playing with her toys...I'm pretty sure she was crying from sheer excitement.

Like the little lady that she is...her favorite of the three was the ice skating boot..she loves her shoes!

Not sure which one to play with next...

I love how she holds her toys

In addition, Elle included a recipe for Salt Dough ornaments to make an imprint of Zoey's paw in the dough for her first Christmas.

Salt Dough Recipe (Yields 15 ornaments)
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cup warm water

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Mix flour and salt. Gradually add water and mix well. Finish mixing and kneading with hands
3. Roll onto floured surface and cut into shapes (press Zoey's paw into the dough)
4. Place on cookie sheet, make hole in top with a toothpick or straw
5. Bake 1 hour or until hard

I remember making these as a child and I will definitely be making these this weekend, I can't wait!

Thanks Elle and Charlie!!

Our Thank-You Cards

2011-12-13T05:30:00.000-05:00

We got our thank you cards through our photography studio, and received them about 3 months after our wedding, mostly because I put off deciding which picture(s) to use. I got started on writing out our 185 Thank you cards Labor Day weekend and had them all out in the mail by the first week of October. I worked on them constantly...I felt like I didn't see Chris for weeks because I was always working away after work. The front of our thank you card had my favorite black and white picture from the church, and the back had a close up of our faces:

Front/Back

Though I suppose "etiquette" dictates I should have them out within three months, I am quite proud and happy with the fact that I got them out just under the 5 month mark. I had hoped to do them in 3...but such is life.

Many people asked me if I was going to have Chris write some of the thank you's or if I was doing them all myself. Truthfully? I wrote them all myself. Honestly, I preferred to write them myself. I have much better handwriting and for as time-consuming as it was, I had a method to my madness and a master plan to accomplishing the task at hand. I didn't mind doing them all myself and this was in no way anything that Chris demanded or expected of me. Many people told me I was crazy...but that's the way that it worked out for us.

So Chris' job was adding all of our return address labels, which I had made at vistaprint:

vistaprint.com

And also adding all the stamps to the envelopes

Source

Easy and mindless - but he still had a small part in helping me out. Getting the last of these thank you's out was a HUGE relief, and that is a project I am more than happy to be done with.

What about you? Did/Will you have your husband write some of your thank-you's? Or, will/did you do them all yourself?

Preserving the bouquet and cleaning the dress

2011-12-12T05:30:00.000-05:00

Drying or preserving your bouquet(s):
I didn't know what to do with my bouquet, or what I'd eventually do with it, but I did know that I wanted to have it dried in case I thought up some idea later on. So I asked my mom to take my bouquet and my sister's bouquet home to hang up to dry. She took the bouquets apart and hung them with ribbon on hangers in the guest room closet, where they dried over the next month.

They are still at my parent's house, but I'm hoping to put the bouquet back together, spray it with some dried floral preservative spray from Hobby Lobby, (which I'm convinced is just hairspray) and leave it in a vase next to a picture from the wedding.

Source

Cleaning your dress: The last thing we had to think about was getting my dress cleaned. By the end of the wedding, the bottom of my dress was filthy!! My mom was too scared to take it to the dry-cleaner for a few reasons. For one, her friend from work recently went into her closet to get her wedding gown for her newly engaged daughter to try on. When she opened up the garment bag, the entire dress was yellow! It hadn't been preserved very well and she thinks the chemicals from the Dry Cleaner reacted to the dress over the years. Another friend of mine had some damage done to her dress when she took it in for dry-cleaning! After our dry-cleaner recently ruined a white shirt that I had dropped off to them in April my mom said "No WAY am I taking your dress to the dry-cleaner" and she began researching how to clean it yourself. Unfortunately, I don't have any before and after pictures, but let's just say that my mom did a great job of getting the dirt out of the bottom of the dress by gently hand washing it with mild soap and water!

What are/did you doing/do with your bouquet and dress after the wedding?

Friday Find: Skyscraper Proposal

2011-12-09T09:56:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Amanda at Twoninenine and Ever After for winning my Bridal Hair Clip giveaway!! Email me at info@lauraandchristopher.com and I'll put this beauty in the mail for you!

Friday Find: It's another "Proposal Friday" here! I couldn't resist this proposal. This guy has some serious hook-up to get this to happen. How cool is this??

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Post-Wedding Recap: Freezing your Wedding Cake

2011-12-07T05:30:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day to enter my Bridal Hair Clip giveaway!
The winner will be announced on Friday!

There are a lot of things that happen after the wedding that you don't think about until...well after the wedding. When I came home from the hotel the morning after the big day, I was suddenly faced with a couple of immediately pressing tasks before we left for our honeymoon.

Firstly, I had to pack. I hadn't even remotely packed for our honeymoon and our flight left at 7:00 that evening! Luckily my mom and sister helped me with this, and we were done pretty quickly.

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I also had to wrap up the top layer of our wedding cake to freeze it for our one year anniversary! Storing your wedding cake, or pieces of your wedding cake needs to happen right away if you're leaving for your honeymoon. We took some time to wrap the cake in plastic wrap and foil because that was all I had on hand. I just read online that you shouldn't keep your cake on a piece of cardboard because it will dry it out even more...whoops. I clearly didn't really know the "proper" way to store a cake for a year, but here's hoping that it's still semi-good next May!

Looking at this picture now...I actually don't think this is our actual wedding cake! That looks like chocolate on the bottom there, and is that all icing on top? LOL I'm confused....

We stored it in our mini freezer where it's currently taking up way too much space. Lesson learned and advice: I WISH we had just cut 2 slices of it to save because there's no reason for us to have a whole cake to ourselves in May.

We almost had a crisis when a friend came over this summer and unplugged our mini-freezer in order to charge her phone. We noticed the freezer leaking the next day! Luckily, we caught it in time, and everything was still very frozen inside. So all was not lost!

Did/Will you be saving the top tier or pieces of your cake? If you did, was it still good one year later?

Bloopers! The Pics you DIDN'T see:

2011-12-06T05:30:00.000-05:00

Don't forget to enter my Bridal Hair Clip Giveaway!

Obviously, things are bound to go wrong on your wedding day. A perfect day, can have many not-so-perfect moments within them. Here are the top 10 blooper pictures from our day!

1. A picture of someone taking a picture? Even during our ceremony...Chris' dad had to be on the phone!

2. Like Father, Like son I guess....he updating his facebook relationship status, no doubt.

3. Whoops! My veil fell out! Good thing Sister was there to fix it!

4. The tunnel was quite windy...which made getting pictures difficult:

5. Married one hour, and already nursing the bottle....

6. But apparently he was just following my mother's lead!

which led to...

7. Did we need a picture of the videographer's assistant? Not sure why this was in our proofs, but it's kinda funny. They were a part of our day too!

8. Whoops!! How'd that get in there?

9. I have no idea what I am sooo pissed off about here, but I do NOT look happy!

10. And the number one BLOOPER picture: I'm sorry Father-in-law...are we boring you with our marriage?

Did you have any blooper pictures on your day?