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Finding Danielle

>> Saturday, February 4, 2012 – DC, Wedding

Disclaimer: I know I neglected the blog last year. I have said to many of you that I treated wedding planning like my work "to do" list. Unfortunately that didn't include documenting some of the funny moments from planning... and at times it didn't even include sending newsy emails to friends about life. I realized this when I was catching up with Cooley (soon to be Bruggie) and Sauce (via email) a few weeks ago. So I hope you'll indulge me with a few retroactive posts about some of our planning during 2011. This post goes out to my many close friends who are busy planning their weddings! I can't wait to celebrate you all.

One of the more fun events in planning the wedding was finding the dress. In talking to friends and reading articles, I know wasn't the only bride out there who didn't really grow up planning every detail of the day, so I didn't have much of an idea of what I wanted to wear. I did have a budget in mind though, so I started scoping out upcoming sample sales in the DC area online in November and December. One particular dress caught my eye. It was an Ulla-Maija dress featured online as part of the preview of the January sample sale at Hitched in Georgetown. I emailed some of my DC girls to find out if anyone else (three of us were engaged at the time!) wanted to brave the crowd on a Thursday afternoon to scope out the steals. Four of them awesomely agreed to join.

I took off a few hours early from work to meet my girls to go stake out a good place in line. I am kicking myself now that I don't have any pictures of the five of us psyching ourselves up with Prosecco at the cafe next door to the shop before the doors opened at 5. We created a strategy. Julie had a "connection" inside the shop and I had written down two dresses. Number one on the list was the Ulla-Maija dress I'd spotted two months before - style name Danielle. It seemed like the instant the doors flew open Julie's curls disappeared and we had the dresses in-hand. You were only permitted to take two dresses into the room with you, and there were so many ladies there you had to share dressing rooms. I put Danielle on but I just wasn't sure. She seemed to be just what I was looking for, but it was the first wedding dress I'd ever worn. I looked at Julie and she said something along the lines of "Girl, just give it a few minutes." Just then the shop owner poked her head into the room and said "Does anyone in here have the Danielle dress? We've got two people who want to try it on." Well, this had just become a competition. Perfect.

I think my face in the picture above is caption enough.

Photo Credits: Dana Mittelman

I hemmed, hawed, called my Mom. The dresses were all final sale and non-returnable. I tried on one or two other dresses. Fretted. Sweated. Decided. I was pulling the trigger.

Thus began Danielle's official induction into the DC friend group. It was especially fun to go out to dinner after the big sample sale. I loved the banter; "Do you guys think Danielle is going to be upset we left her in the car?"; "Do you think Danielle is going to be happy living with you in your apartment?"

My Mom was able to join me for my first fitting in July, so she was able to catch a sneak peak of Danielle. I'll admit I was so anxious to see her approving smile. (Anyone whose Mom has a patented expression or phrase when they don't like something knows what I'm talking about!) I owe my DC girls for being so helpful throughout the whole process - including accompanying me to dress fittings number 2 and 3 at Parkway in October.

Photo Credit: Amy Kirchheimer

You're All I Need To Get By

>> Monday, January 16, 2012 – DC, Family, Villanova

What a year. As I get older, I know I'll look back and 2011 will be a pivotal year in my life! My parents moved to South Carolina after almost 30 years in Michigan. My sister and my brother-in-law had a beautiful baby girl, and as her godmother I'm biased, but I think Eila is the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.

And not least of all... I was blessed with the chance to marry Ryan, my curly haired better half.

Photo Credit: Rory Siefer

After a year of planning, our wedding day was a blur. As you plan, you do everything you can to make everything perfect, but it's the little things you can't anticipate that always throw you for a loop. Weddings are a perfectionist's dream/nightmare! We had a busy year filled with joyous weddings of some of our closest friends. It wasn't until September - less than two months before 11-5-11 - that I realized I needed to slow down and appreciate everything. I'm glad I did. We had a beautiful day surrounded by the people we love.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Barger Photography

People have asked me what my favorite part of the day was. Without a doubt, it was the ceremony. In the days leading up to the wedding, I was nervous about things like walking down the aisle, and exchanging our vows in front of 145 people. The nerves I had up until the minutes before the wedding dissolved when my Dad and I walked down the aisle.

Photo Credit: Chris Plentus

As Ryan and I we were sitting side-by-side at St. Thomas of Villanova Church, he whispered in my ear "This is surreal!" It was. The most important part of the day was right in front of me, I was relaxed, and my nerves were gone. It helped that Father Peter had us laughing at every turn, especially when he told us not to chitchat up at the altar with him. Our feelings about his wonderful homily can't be put into words.

Photo Credit: Chris Plentus

Photo Credit: Rebecca Barger Photography

During all of the planning, could I have anticipated that we would need to cut the lace under my dress with a scissor the morning of the wedding so that I wouldn't trip over my dress? No... but I have an awesome picture of Mo taking shears to my dress. Did I still trip once or twice? Yes... a vast improvement from the dozen or so times it would've happened otherwise. Looking back would I have changed certain things? Of course. The title of this blog post isn't the song we went with for our first dance - it was one of the final two. When I look back, though, I somehow hear this one playing in my head. I came away from 2011 with so many things, but the most important of all is that I walked away with the only person I need to get by.

The Kitchen at Birch & Barley

>> Wednesday, December 15, 2010 – DC, Out on the Town

I know it's been awhile since I've posted photos - things have been very busy, as they always are around the holidays. I went to Birch & Barley here in DC (http://www.birchandbarley.com/) last week for dinner with a few of my girls and sat right at the table at the Kitchen Bar. I snapped a few photos of then kitchen staff at work with my DroidX:

October in Photos

>> Sunday, November 7, 2010 – DC, Michigan

Engaged!

>> Sunday, October 3, 2010 – DC, Villanova

On Friday 10-1-10, Ryan asked me to attend a work event with him in Old Town Alexandria. I was of course, running late as I jumped on the Trolley from the Metro. When I met Ryan at the corner of Royal St. - fully thinking we were going to a Hartford event - he walked me through a park behind The Carlyle House and proposed! Here are a few photos from what are surely some of the most memorable moments of our lives... the engagement evening, topped off with an amazing dinner at Restaurant Eve.

Blackberries are in season... and other things

>> Thursday, September 16, 2010 – DC

This summer Ryan, Reeny, Dan and I went up to Butler's Orchard in Germantown Maryland to do some "U-Pick"-ing. Fun, cheap, and you get to go home with a week's worth of berries. It reminded me of being young and picking strawberries/eating as many as I picked. It started out with Blackberries, but things quickly escalated from there.

Dan snapped this fantastic shot:

Here's an example of Reeny/Dan/My Buckets:

Ryan was a bit more "selective":

we moved onto blueberries... end of season but still enough to make some killer muffins:

we even picked potatoes:

ryan and his pitchfork were all in:

cleaning the catch:

the reward of a day's work:

Sixth & I

>> Friday, July 30, 2010 – DC, Out on the Town

A friend from work recently invited me to a Mat Kearney concert at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. I'd never seen him before (he's talented! was fantastic live); or been to that venue. It was such a unique place for a show. Here's a view from the balcony. We were almost behind the speakers, but I found the view was kind of like seeing the kitchen of a restaurant. You got a cool sense of how they were easing into the show, could see the instruments closely, etc. I'd love to go back there again sometime.

Night Moves

>> Sunday, July 18, 2010 – DC, Out on the Town

Over Memorial Day weekend we took a ride around the monuments at night - gorgeous! Just wanted to posted a few.

washington monument at night - with traffic

jefferson monument and tidal basin - at night

capitol building peeking

washington monument - with tourists (as always) - at night

kites and cherry blossoms

>> Monday, April 19, 2010 – DC

After helping Ryan apartment hunt a few weeks ago, we took a walk down to the national mall to check out the cherry blossoms. It was Saturday March 27th, which, as the first day of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, was technically a week before the cherry blossoms were at their "peak" this year, but they were still beautiful.... and we had a chance to check out the kite festival.

Kite Festival

Cherry Blossoms (my first experience!)

one funny thing about walking around during the cherry blossom festival is that you walk by groups of people on the way to mall who are examining and taking pictures of every tree and plant that is in bloom and looks like it may somehow be related to the cherry blossoms. i found it funny, anyway.