We're alive...really, I swear.

So it's been a while since my last post, and honestly I've been having difficulty getting motivated to start back up again. But at the request of a few people (Kristie to keep her entertained at work, Ange I assume for the same reason!) I will attempt to start writing again.

Before we get into the actual wedding events, I want to go back and post about a few projects that I did that I wanted to keep secret until the wedding. So let's talk about out of town bags.

Out of town bags (or OOT bags) are usually left in the hotel rooms of guests that travel from out of town to attend the wedding. We decided early on that we wanted to do a Detroit theme for our OOT bags. And luckily Detroit has a number of things that were perfect for the bags:

1. Faygo Soda - 2 bottles
2. Better Made Potato Chips - BBQ and Regular
3. Germack Peanuts - Lions, Tigers and Red Wings packages!
4. Sanders chocolates - 2 per bag

I was so excited when we found the Germack peanuts in the Detroit sport teams. They were even more perfect that way!

All the bags lined up and ready to go!

We also included a note thanking everyone for making the trip and a short paragraph on each item inside the bag:

Welcome to Detroit!

We want to thank all of you for joining us on our special day! We are very blessed to have each of you in our lives and we are so happy that you are here to help celebrate with us! It is an honor to have you here in Detroit…the city we fell in love….and the city we begin our journey as husband and wife! Please enjoy a taste of Detroit!

With Love - Gary and Kate

Faygo Soda
Fiegenson Brothers Bottleworks, or Faygo, was founded in Detroit in 1907 by Russian bakers Ben and Perry Fiegenson. The original flavors of grape, strawberry and fruit punch were based on their own recipes for cake frosting.

Better Made Potato Chips
When the Cross and Peter’s Company was founded in 1930 by Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano, their main goal was to make a better potato chip, hence the brand name Better Made.

Sander’s Chocolates
Sanders was founded in 1875 by Fred Sanders and began as a single retail shop in downtown Detroit. Sanders candies, dessert toppings and other items can now be found in stores nationwide.

Germack Nuts
The Germack Pistachio Company got its start when Frank Germack Sr. moved to Detroit and established the company in 1924. Today, it is still located in Detroit’s Historic Eastern Market and is still owned by the Germack family.

And there you have it! Of course it looked a lot prettier in fancy fonts and on our colored paper but you get the idea. I was pleased with the way everything came together and I think all of our out of town guests enjoyed them as well!

And We're Married!

It was over in a flash and it still doesn't really seem real. Thank you to all of our friends and family who traveled from near and far to celebrate with us. It was definitely the best day of my life. The pics from friends and family are starting to come in but for now I will leave you with one I took of our rings on my bouquet. Full recaps to come after the HONEYMOON!

The Letter R

In just three days, I will change my last name. I will no longer be KK, K Squared, Double K...instead, my new last initial will be R. The nice thing about the letter R is that it is so close to K that when I screw up signing my new last name, I can easily change that K - that I will inevitably write for the first three months- into an R.




Mom mom gave this to us when we got engaged. I just love it. (I also took this picture with my fancy new DSLR camera! I love that too!!)

If the Shoe DOESN'T Fit...

If you read my sister's blog, you saw her post about shoes yesterday. I decided that I would post about MY shoes. If you remember, I already posted about my shoes early on in the wedding planning process. However, things have changed since then.

I loved my Nina shoes that I bought, but when I took my dress home, the color just wasn't right. So sadly, I returned them. I did however find another pair that I liked even better (at DSW no less!) and they were the perfect color to match my dress. I am usually in between sizes when it comes to shoes so I went with the smaller size after having visions of me slipping out of them and falling flat on my face half way down the aisle. They weren't uncomfortably small, but they definitely weren't going anywhere either.

Fast forward a few months to my second dress fitting. This was the first time I had worn the shoes for any length of time. I realized they weren't quite as comfortable as I thought they were. I bought some gel inserts to hopefully make them a bit better. The only problem is, with the inserts, my already snug fitting shoes were now a little TOO snug. The solution to my problem? Break them in a bit...so here is how I've been wearing my shoes around the house for the last few weeks:

It's working, they fit much better. But I think I'll leave the socks at home on the actual wedding day.

One Step Closer...

Although all of the preparations for the wedding aren't finished yet, we are one step closer! We are now legally allowed to marry in the state of Michigan! Gary and I picked up our marriage license yesterday morning. Northville has a satellite office so we didn't have to go downtown and mess with the county building. It was really quite simple, we applied on Tuesday and picked it up on Thursday! Of course I had to get a photo...Gary wasn't too happy about it...

Weather Watch

And it begins. Today marks 10 days out from the wedding...which means our wedding date is now within the 10 day weather forecast! I know being 10 days out, it's not entirely accurate but you better believe that I'll be checking it every day! We're not looking too bad so far...I would love it to be a little warmer with with no rain currently in the forecast, I'm a happy girl!

The Problem with Cake

The problem with cake is that every flavor is good. Our baker, Gwen, has so many delicious flavors on her "menu" that Gary and I ended up having her bake us about six little cakes before we decided on our flavors. We're getting down to the wire now so we went last night for our last tasting and to finalize the design. So what did we end up with?

White Amaretto cake with Raspberry Cream filling

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Cream filling

Apple Spice cake with Cream Cheese filling

And as for design, I only pulled one inspiration photo the entire 6 months that I've been scouring wedding magazines and blogs. And so here it is:

I liked it because it was simple and classic. Our ribbon will be red instead of orange and the flowers on top will be whatever our florist comes up with!