Website Update

So I always thought that wedding websites were a little tacky, but it turns out that they are a really easy way to give your guests lots of information without having to print it on the invitation. I've been lazy about updating ours but since I sent out all of our invitations on Wednesday morning with the URL printed on them, I figured I needed to go ahead and finish it. I cannot wait for everyone to get their invites, I really hope you like them! While you're waiting though, feel free to check out our site:

http://www.mywedding.com/keithanddana

Beach Day

Yesterday I had my very first authentic Jersey Shore experience! Aly and I celebrated being finished with our first year of graduate school by spending the day lounging in the sun and it definitely made me miss the days of living 5 minutes from the ocean.

Aly picked me up in the morning and we started our drive down to the shore. We made our first stop in Wildwood, which is your typically touristy Jersey Shore beach. We got in some GREAT people watching while we were there on the boardwalk and had to stop ourselves from getting airbrushed t-shirts haha

Here is Aly with some fake palm trees. These things were EVERYWHERE... and with blue tops. Sooooo strange.

Here's me on the boardwalk... please note the old women in moomoos on motorized scooters to the left. I'm telling you.. lots of great people watching haha

As expected the water was FREEZING, we didnt go in past our ankles, but here is some proof that we actually felt it haha

After getting our fill of guidos we hopped back in the car and drove a few miles further down to Cape May which is the much classier and non-tourist beach area. It was so beautiful there! Such a quaint little beach town and I can't wait to go back. Don't worry Florida, you're still my favorite (mostly because your water is SOOO much warmer haha) but I almost forgot I was in New Jersey for a moment there. Here is the Cape May light house.

This clearly un centered photograph comes courtesy of the self timer. We had an awesome day, but now Aly and I are both home with pretty ouchy sunburns, boo.

After beach time we walked around Cape May for a little bit and devoured some amazing hamburgers before making our way back to Philadelphia. I still wish that the beach was closer, but this has definitely given me some home that my summer will not be completely void of sun and sand :)

Postsecret

This secret obviously caught my eye this week. Although I'm sure that it was meant to be a little bit silly, this truly is my greatest fear. Keith Richards, love of my life... I would be lost without you!


[so what if it's not the same Keith :)]

Phillies Fun

I've been a little blog absent the past couple of days because between a few hours of work and days off with Keith I have been putting all my free time into making our wedding invitations. I showed you guys a sneak peak on Saturday but the real deal will be in the mailbox tomorrow morning and on their way to your homes this week! I'm very proud of myself for getting them all finished in just a couple of days, especially because I know if I had dragged it out much longer I would have started to resent the things. I'm very happy with the results and just hope that I didn't make too many mistakes with the addressing (there are WAY too many rules ugh) Hope that you all like them! There is no turning back! I just want to thank the amazing Cheryl for designing the stamps for me, and giving me the design idea for the RSVP cards... she really is the best. I also want to thank my wonderful fiance for being such a great envelope licker (my least favorite part bleckkkk)

In other news Keith and I drove out to our friends Aly and Dan's house last Friday night for some BBQ and beers on ice. I LOVE going to their house because Dan and Aly are kitten foster parents and always have the cutest little baby cats running around. I usually want to steal them all :) I always forget to take pictures when we're over there, but we had a really relaxing fun night. I'm glad that it is summer and I look forward to more evenings on their back porch grilling up yummy dinners.

While we were over there Dan invited Keith to join them Saturday night at the Phillies game. Keith of course was overjoyed at the offered and tried every possible way to get out of work but it just wasn't going to work out :( I had no plans so I stepped up as 5th alternate and accompanied Dan and Aly to the game. I'm definitely not the most enthusiastic baseball fan in my family but I love excuses to yell and scream in public haha We definitely had a great time even though the Phillies played pretty terribly. I can now add Citizens Bank Park to the list of baseball fields I've been to in my day. Thank you Dan and Aly!!

Here is Dan and Aly out front of the park. Even though the weatherman said it would rain, it turned out to be a pretty incredible night.

Here is the Liberty Bell that rings whenever the Phillies get a run... unfortunately they did not make that happen on Saturday night, so I'll have to save that for my next Phils experience. There was a really cool view of the Philadelphia skyline though haha

Aly must have been excited to check out the bullpen

Yay for sunshine!

Lastly, here is the Phanatic dressed up as Lady Gaga.

Good times!

Sneak peak

Just a little something I was working on today. Get ready for some
mail this week!

Shoes

I've been searching for the perfect pair of shoes for our wedding and I finally saw this image online today, I LOVE THESE SHOES! They would be the perfect flat and comfy sandals, only problem is I can't find them anywhere :( I know just from the file title that they're from JCrew, but it must have been a few seasons ago. So for those of you who shop for shoes online, keep this image in your head and PLEASE let me know if you find anything like this!! Essentially my dress is long enough that you wouldn't see my shoes, but these are definitely cute enough to wear over and over again haha

A happy splurge

Keith and I have been on a sort of diet this past month. Nothing intense, we've just been watching what we eat more carefully, making sure we don't go overboard on calories everyday and exercising a lot more. So far so good, he's lost about 8 pounds and I've lost about 5. We both feel really great, which is really all that matters. We've been pretty strict about watching our food and watching how much money we spend and I think it was making us both a little crazy so Keith decided since he was off yesterday that we should go on a dinner date. When he mentioned going out for food all I could think about was how much I wanted a monster turkey burger and greasy fries with a coke to top it off so we made the easy decision to head back to Sketch and make sure we weren't exaggerating its awesomeness haha Turns out everything was just as great as it was the first time we visited, and I can't WAIT to head back when my favorite aunt visits next month :)

Since we knew that we were going to be in the part of town that our friend Molly lives, we gave her a call to see if she wanted to join. I hadn't seen her since classes ended and it was great to catch up; I did feel a little bad though because I didn't warn her that Keith and I hadn't eaten junk food in a month and we were definitely tearing our food up like mad dogs haha

Here's Molly. She tried to be healthier than us by choosing fruit soda instead of Coke.. but turns out she mistakenly grabbed grapefruit flavor... grosssssssssss


They make all their own sauces at Sketch, and our favorite by far (and only one we've really tried) is the aioli. Between the fries, burgers, and fries we stole from Molly, we polished off like 6 of these sauce cups. We're sauce people :)

Also! The picture I drew when we were there on Keith's birthday was hanging up! (he couldn't find the one he drew.. mine's better, no big deal haha)

We dropped off Molly at her apartment and I insisted that Keith meet her very... voluptuous cat Hedy. She's just a LITTLE bigger than Theo ;)

In the spirit of splurging I just had to have a chipwich for dessert. Simple pleasures. Yummmm!

Father daughter dance

Dad and I talked on the phone this afternoon and decided on the song for our father daughter dance at the wedding. It was pretty much a given, but I just wanted to confirm with him. Listening to it just now definitely made me tear up a bit. Get the waterproof mascara and eyeliner ready because our wedding is going to be full of happy tears :)

Wedding Update

Things have been going really well with wedding planning since I've been done with school. Don't quote me on this in August when I turn into a bridezilla, but it doesn't really look like there is TOO much that needs to be done, which is great because I love avoiding stressful situations. Here is what we've accomplished so far:

1. Honeymoon is booked thanks to Keith's wonderful mother. (do we HAVE to wait until August?)

2. We went last night and picked out wedding bands! They were a lot more reasonably priced that we had expected which was quite a relief.

3. After a few days worth of department store shopping we've decided what we want Keith and the groomsmen to wear, now we just have to find it in a reasonable price.

4. We made all our decorating decisions, and now I just need to get started on making each thing.

5. We planned out the entire ceremony, including songs and have also made the schedule for the reception events.

6. I have finalized the guest lists for the wedding, both wedding showers, the rehearsal dinner and the bachelor/bachelorette parties.

7. Made a detailed expense list of all of the things that still need to be purchased or paid for as well as documented everything that we've spent so far.

8. We've put together a list of songs that we want the band at the ceremony to play, as well as started a list for the DJ.

9. I'm currently emailing pictures of cakes that I like to my friend Jen who will be making ours.

10. We've begun making a list for our photographer Chris of all the shots that we want to get, just to make sure we don't forget any combination of people.

I think mostly what is left is making and sending out the invites, and finalizing the catering. We also need to make a list of when people are getting to town so that we can get as many people from the airport as possible, as well as making sure they get hotel arrangements.

Anyway, like I said things are going really well. I feel like we're in a good place with our planning and I don't feel like my life has been consumed yet haha

Interesting fact

Something that I felt was interesting to note: While watching re-runs of The Office I noticed that Kelly was wearing the exact same dress that I wore to Ryan and Chelsey's wedding. My dress is famous haha

Nashville Wedding

The reason why I have been so negligent of this blog is because last weekend Keith and I were in Nashville to see our good friends Ryan and Chelsey get married. I took over 200 pictures during our trip somehow so here is a little bit of a recap for you. Overall we had an AMAZING time and got to see so many of our friends that we hardly ever get to see. We definitely missed them all more than we realized, and can't wait to see them at our wedding in August!

Here we are on the way to the airport, so happy just to get out of town.

Having some frozen yogurt with Trent

Pre-bachlorette party dinner with Angela and Cheryl

I was the designated driver for the ladies at the bachlorette party, which was a pretty fun task. Here is Chelsey with the mom from Elf/Stepbrothers. That was our famous person siting for the evening haha

Dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly

THE MOST AMAZING BLOWDRYER EVER! I used this at Trent's house on Friday morning and now I want one so that I can always blowdry my hair in the dark haha

Lots of fake mustaches this weekend


The boys rehearsing

Me and Keith G. Having another Keith around all weekend made things confusing, they usually just stuck together and jointly responded to questions haha

Bobby and Angela. They're having a baby so soon!

Keith took this artsy picture of Sam and Keith G

Ryan's nephews were firing spitballs at Sam during the rehearsal dinner, so this was the shield that he made for protection

Whenever the guys get together there is always lots of fake wrestling that happens in the hotel rooms. This wedding was no exception. During all of that my camera somehow went missing, and when it was finally found Keith and I took this photo in celebration haha

Before the wedding we all went to the park to enjoy the nice weather and play some frisbee

Here's Steve and his dog Penny, he rescued her after the flood

Tytus and Jamie at the wedding

Cheryl and Kelly

They're married!!!

Hanging outside after the ceremony with Steve

Ryan and Lindsay

The beautiful bride and the bouquet that I helped make

I really liked this photo of Andrew and Cheryl

and then more mustaches haha


Here is just one photo from the dancing at the reception. There were others but I think you catch the drift.. we were all sweaty and exhausted when we were done, meaning everyone had a blast on the dance floor haha

SOOOOOO glad to see all of our friends. They're pretty awesome people, and you should be jealous of the fun we have when we're together. Keith and I were really inspired to get the ball rolling on our own wedding, and already have accomplished a lot of planning in the past two days. So ready for it to be August!!!

Belated Mothers Day

Yes yes yes, I know that Mother's Day was on Sunday and that today is Wednesday... but after our weekend trip to Nashville I've had a little trouble catching up with my regular life. I figured that the phrase "better late than never would apply here", and that is why I wanted to share some photos of our amazing mothers:


This was the first year that I was away from my mom on Mother's Day, and I guess that the day had to come eventually. That of course didn't make it any easier. It made me think back to all the dance recitals that I made her sit through and how every year on Mother's Day she very patiently helped me put on fake eyelashes and glitter even though she would have probably much rather sit by the pool haha

I cannot thank each of these ladies enough for how supportive they have been of Keith and I now that we've moved miles away from them. We love you so much moms!! Glad that you had wonderful Mother's Days even though we couldn't be there to celebrate them with you!