The Bridesmaids Four

Maid of Honor, Bre Anna Ryan (Sovereign after June 11!) – Bre Anna is the youngest of our family. I remember reading to her as a wee little tot. I remember her sobbing at my high school graduation. But now she is an adult and is ready to get married herself. Both Bre Anna and her future husband, Justin, are Iowa State fans so I think we have many years of tailgating to come. Go State! Bre Anna is also Carter’s (my youngest son) godmother and a great aunt to both boys. It is great that sisters can grow up to be such great friends.

Janelle Halverson – Better known as Nell. I have been trying to think of when I first met Nell and I am not really sure when that was. We did serve on the Laura Ingalls Wilder board together for a while and we are now in book club together. And we are work neighbors! Sometimes a trip out to get a pop from the machine can take 20 minutes! Regardless of how Nell and I initially met it has been an easy friendship and natural friendship. She makes a good taxi from time to time too. P.S. we should make a point to pose for a more flattering picture!

Amy Courtney – Amy is married to my brother Kory. They have two beautiful children. Amy is one of the most outgoing fun people I know. She is so full of life and laughter. Amy has an infectious laugh and she never laughs alone. I am the godmother to their oldest son Sawyer. She has taken time out of her day to make sure I am ok with things get hectic. I am a lucky girl to have a sister in law that I consider such a good friend.

Carri Dahl – My sister Carri and I are pretty close in age. She is just 10 months younger than me. When we were kids she always looked forward to her birthday in April so that she would be the same age as me. I recall a few arguments about that back in the day. Now that we are both in our thirties I don’t think she rubs her birthdays in my face anymore! I am a godmother to her oldest daughter Madelynn who is one of the cutest curly haired kids I know!

I am so fortunate to have these ladies and Thing One and Thing Two as a part of my life. No matter what goes on one of these ladies will have my back or at least have a shoulder for me.

Making Progress

I should have added a recent story about myself with Thing One and Thing Two. While shopping not too long ago I found the big bag of peanut butter M&M’s. I had to buy it because it seems you can never find the big bag of those! So I have (eeerrr had) them on my desk so I had a lot of visitors. While Emily, Thing Two, was in my office helping me with something I asked her how she eats her M&M’s. Personally, I like to sort them by color and eat them in order of quantity. Emily eats her in order of color. Blue is gross in her opinion so she eats those first. Meanwhile Nikki, Thing One, is in her office shaking her head at us saying “oh my god” over and over again. Just another day at work! And yet another one of my retentive tendencies I have made public…

Today, I took one of our engagement pictures down to the Perfect Edge to be framedfor Chad’s office. The picture is to the right. If you have not had the experience of working with the crew at the Perfect Edge you should. Alone, I would be totally overwhelmed by all the colors, textures, frames, matting, etc. But after a few brief moments of examining the picture Anja presents the perfect solution and I walk out a happy girl. The project should be ready by April 1^st. I plan to give this to Chad in honor of our anniversary. Our dating anniversary that is – since it will be the last one of those we celebrate!

I believe I have mentioned my search for burlap here previously. Well, I have succeeded in finding it. Pinter’s Garden’s & Pumpkins can get natural colored burlap for me in various sizes. Once we figure out how many tables we will have I will get it ordered. We are also getting out wedding cake from Pinter’s so it will be nice to take care of both things with them. Burlap, check.

Shoes for the girls and I have also been secured. I must admit I was getting pretty discouraged while shoe shopping. I was in the market for flats since I am naturally a bit taller than Chad but found these with a very small heal on them. I was actually initially looking for a pair of Pumas. Really who is going to see my shoes anyway so I might as well be comfortable right?! If I was going to wear Pumas I wanted them to either be brown/green (wedding colors) or red/yellow (Iowa State colors). As luck would have it Thing Two found these cute polka-dot shoes in the clearance section. The photo shows my shoe on my right foot and the bridesmaids shoes on my left. Whew, shoes done, check.

Next, I’ll introduce you to the bridesmaids! Six months from today we will be getting married!

The Dress

I must admit that the day we went dress shopping I was just not really feeling it. I have no justification for this other than I may have just been feeling pressure to find the right dress. I wanted a simple dress. Nothing fuffy or over the top. And of course it has to be comfortable and affordable.

And you must know that I had a picture of two dresses that I liked in my wedding binder along with a picture of the bridesmaid dresses I wanted. All filed under "clothing."

I had already found the bridesmaids dresses online. If you have not looked at formal dresses online you should check it out sometime! When you find a dress style you can look at it in different colors until you find the perfect one. And as they say once I found it I knew. Bridal Productions has many links off their site to designers they carry so you can shop before shopping! http://www.bridalproductions.com/

As for my dress, I tried on seven and went with number two. My mom feels I need a veil and I don’t want one. The reviews are mixed on that decision but I am sticking to my guns there. This dress was a very close second. Even now when I look at the pictures I wonder if I made the right decision but then I think of how I felt in the other dress and know I made the right decision. Ignore the headpiece thing in the picture - it is not included!

Before leaving my mom got her outfit planned for both our wedding and my sisters, Chad’s mom got a dress, and most of the bridesmaids got their measurements done. The staff at Bridal Productions was fabulous. They were very helpful and courteous despite how busy they were on that Saturday morning. It was a great experience.

Bridal Productions also carries tuxes but we have decided to get those through Amundson’s so we can share the love so to speak! The dresses are forest green and the tuxes will be chocolate brown. Should be a great combo.