Ring for the Mr.

Gary has never been a "jewelry" type guy. He only wore his class ring twice and once was the day he got it. So, he is a little leery about wearing a wedding ring. I wasn't having any of that though...I told him he MUST wear his wedding ring...at all times...no if, and's or but's. :)

When we went shopping for rings, he was drawn to the tungsten carbide ones. They're tough and usually have more of a "manly" feel to them. He didn't want anything fancy, no design in the middle, nothing too shiny...so here is what we ended up with:

It has a brushed finish in the middle with polished rings on the edges. I'm not sure exactly how thick it is but it's not thin that's for sure. Some of the thinner bands looked dainty on his thick fingers. We can't have that now can we.

All in all, I think he's happy with it ( I have even caught him wearing it around the house a few times - he's going to kill me for posting that!). And I like it too which is good.

Music to My Ears

Being that Mill Race Village is part of the historical society, that means that all of the buildings are also historic. Which means they're old. Which means the chapel doesn't have much of a sound system...rather, it doesn't have a sound system at all. So, I saw it as the perfect excuse to hire live musicians for the ceremony. I scoured the internet looking for local musicians at a decent price. We ended up going with Garza Violins and hired a violin duet to perform all of our ceremony music. They came in at a decent price and their music coordinator was a pleasure to work with.

As for music itself, that was a tougher decision. I didn't know much about classical music before I started wedding planning...but I sure do know! So what did we end up with? (Hint: when you have clicked on a link and are finished listening, just hit the back button to return to the post!)

Prelude
Sheep May Safely Graze by Bach
Air in F by Handel
Arioso by Bach
Air on the G String by Bach

Seating of the Families
Largo from Xerxes by Handel

Bridesmaids Processional
Hymne by Vangelis

Bride's Processional
Trumpet Voluntary by Clarke

Recessional
Hornpipe from Water Music by Handel

Postlude
La Rejouissance by Handel
Aria by Handel

Who knew I liked Handel so much?? What do you think??

*Note: this is not our actual musicians playing, just samples of the songs from around the 'net!

Showered with Love...again!

I had my third and final shower this past weekend. I can't believe they are all FINISHED! This one was thrown by my mom's friends and included all the ladies I've known since I was a little girl plus my close friends. It was a brunch shower because everyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE ME SOME BREAKFAST! The food was fantastic and we had so much fun hanging out, telling stories and laughing together! Not to mention we got a ton of great stuff again!!

The beautiful floral centerpiece!

I seem to be really excited about this butter dish...it's so cute!

Showing off our place settings

My Grandma gave me the good ole dutch cookbook...guess that means I have to cook now

Me and my lovely girls....Court drove all the way from Chicago!

And last but not least, the hostesses of the shower (plus my mom).
Thanks ladies it was perfect!!

Rosowski Shower

Our second shower was this past weekend, this time on the Rosowski side of the family. It was great to see some of Gary's family that we don't see very often and also to meet some of his moms friends that will also be attending the wedding! Mary Jane (Gary's mom) did a lovely job with everything...check out those tablescapes!

She also put together a bunch of prize baskets. These two happen to be a "Gary" themed and a "Kate" themed basket. Gary's very fittingly included Oberon and mine of course included LOTS of chocolate!! YUM!

Mary Jane also surprised us with a photo on our cake! She took our photo from our engagement announcement online and had it put on the cake!

It was a little creepy for those who got parts of the picture...here is me about to dig into Gary's face :)

Although it was primarily a shower for just the ladies, Gary, his dad, his brother and his buddy Brad showed up for lunch. It was nice to have him there since I didn't know a lot of the people!

I was also very thankful to have my mom and sister drive all the way from Zeeland the morning of the shower only to turn around and drive right home afterward! Thanks ladies!

I had a great time and we received a ton of great gifts. I'm so appreciative of everyone who made it out to help us celebrate! Everything is starting to feel very real now, I can't believe we've had two showers already!!! YIKES!

All put together!

Gary got our new grill all put together and set up on our back porch! Time for some grillin'!!

Invitations!

Since most people should have received their invitations by now, I thought I would post a few pics! These babies were definitely a labor of love! They basically started out as 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper and through lots of printing, cutting, corner rounding and gluing...they became our invitations!!

All the components stacked up, ready to be assembled!
(I blurred any personal information for blogging purposes)

The outer envelope and the pocket-fold all closed up

The "guts"!

All the paper that I used is Stardream Metallic - in Ruby, Mars, and Copper. I shopped around for the best prices and ultimately purchased the envelopes and paper from Envelopemall.com and the pocket-folds from CardsandPockets.com. I would definitely recommend either site if you're looking to purchase any supplies! Also a tip: when printing on Stardream paper, you must have a laser jet printer otherwise your ink will smear!!

I was extremely pleased with the way they turned out and I think everyone else likes them as well! Now, onto the next project!

Grill Time for Gary!

We had our first shower last weekend!  I can't believe it's already time to be having showers!  Eek!  On my side of the family we do showers a little differently.  Instead of the traditional ladies shower, we have a couples shower in honor the of the groom!  Usually it is a "tool time" shower where the groom receives -obviously - tools.  But since Gary isn't really the handy man type, we decided to do "grill time"!

The entire Karsten family as well as the long lost Dokter family (it's been YEARS since I've seen them!  Way too long...) got together at my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Kit's house.  They have a perfect house for entertaining and even more perfect for a grilling theme being out in the country!

Look at all that yummy stuff!  Straight from the garden!

We had great food and great fellowship.  Aunt Sandy also always has some sort of activity too!  Since it had been a while since the whole family was together, we did a mixer so that you got to mingle with everyone.  I found out many interesting things about my family members!

Here we are revealing the correct answers!

Keeping with the grilling theme, we were also presented with a gorgeous new Char-Broil grill!  I can't wait to start cooking up some steaks with this baby....well, Gary can't wait...I don't even know how to work a grill!

Gary and I had a wonderful time....a BIG thank you to my aunts - Sandy, Dawn and Laurel - for making it all possible!!  We love you guys!

The bride and groom :)