October 18th, you’ve heard that date a lot and so have we, but now it’s gone.  The wedding was great.  All that planning and stressing and list making before hand, it was all worth it.  There was hardly anything to worry about that Saturday.  We setup quick and every question had an answer.  The biggest unknowns were the weather and the gnats, but both of them cleared up in the late afternoon.  Hallelujah!

We had the ceremony facing the beach, with a column archway wrapped in garland and red roses.  Daniel rode a bike into the ceremony and Lori was chauffeured to the lawn by her Uncle Ray in his nice black car.  It was great and came together flawlessly!

Hopefully there were constant surprises for everyone that attended, we didn’t want people to go to a wedding they’ve been to already.  The favors were personalized fortune cookies wrapped in favor boxes by weaving wrapping paper.  The cake was layered with ocean waves and stars and topped with a skeleton bride and groom to show our eternal commitment to each other.  The centerpieces were silver sticks (hand spray painted) in fish bowls filled with glass rocks with blue lights illuminating them from underneath.

And let’s not forget the dancing.  Holy wow!  We never thought we would have EVERYONE on the dance floor, but we did and it was amazing!  Thank you to everyone for celebrating with us like that.   Thank you to everyone that wasn’t able to come but wished us well.  Thank you to the random people we’ve met that wish us a happy marriage.  Thank you all!

The photographer has been swamped with weddings recently, but she says since we are awesome and she loves us and the pictures she took of the wedding, they’ll be up and ready for viewing/purchase within 2-3 weeks.   We’ll let you know how to view them when she lets us know.  For now you can check out her blog to see a few teaser pictures.

[update – picture added] 

We got back from our honeymoon cruise on Saturday, went to dinner with Adam, and just tried to calm down.  Lori worked yesterday and I was busy trying to get the house clean (didn’t happen), and then we got tattoos.  No pictures yet, but here’s a description.  Mine (Daniel) is our wedding cake topper, bride and groom skeletons, and Lori’s is two tree trunks that intertwine to become one blooming tree.

Since it’s Lori’s birthday today we probably won’t have any photos up tonight, but we’ll definitely have some pictures and commentary about our boat experiences tomorrow.  Since we haven’t updated here in a month, we just wanted everyone to know we’re not dead, the boat did not (but felt like it would) tip over, and we weren’t kidnapped and forced to braid hair in the Bahamas.

We also proved that this marriage will last forever.  Being trapped in a small room, on a boat in the great wide ocean, spending every waking and sleeping moment together (except for bathroom breaks), with nowhere to run to or escape, neither of us jumped off to get away from the other.  It was great.  We are awesome and in love!  Forever!

Holy guacamole, only 1 month until the big day.  That’s crazy.

The cake topper came in yesterday and it looks awesome!  We’re almost done with the music arrangement, and we have someone to be designated DJ.  Both of our grand entrances are planned, Lori just needs to decide on her music.  Now we just have to get the table decorations figured out and we’re golden.  Hopefully.

For most weddings, all the ones I’ve been to anyways, the bride gets to make a big entrance where everybody looks at her and she feels super special and it’s great.  But the groom is just there.  You turn to talk to the person next to you and when you look back up front there he is.  He’s just there.  No big puff of smoke or music or anything, he comes from behind a door or gets out of a chair next to the stage while everyone is talking.  Lame.

Maybe there are other guys who’ve had their entraces, but I haven’t seen them.  And I want one.  I refuse to just walk up there un-announced and be a side note.  You can’t have a wedding without a groom, so here’s Daniel.  No.  It’s going to be HERE’S DANIEL!  I’m entering with a jetpack!  Or maybe a parachute like when Uncle Jesse got married on Full House.  Anyone else have a great idea?

Saturday we had our first wedding shower, thrown by Connie (my mom). It was great. A lot of people were there that I haven’t seen in a long time, and most Lori was meeting for the first time. Come to think of it, most of the ladies there had changed my diaper at some point in time, and therefore seen my bootie. How odd.

To everyone that came out we would like to say thank you. It’s a great feeling to have so many people, even those we don’t see as often as we should, supporting us.  We are truly blessed.

And I would like to add an apology to everyone that had to listen to me ramble like a little kid. I didn’t know I was supposed to make a speech. Good tidings was the first thing that popped in my head. Sorry.  I’ll have a speech planned out for the next one so I don’t look like such a goober.

Here’s a look at Lori as a little baby with big attitude, style, and flare. This picture also doubles as a look into the future. We’ll be cruisin’ the beach in style, her with her awesome array of wigs, and me with an ever expanding assortment of bow-ties and long black socks. Being old is going to be awesome!

Last Saturday we had engagement photos taken by our friend Catherine. They turned out amazing! It was hot as blazes, but we made it through and had a good time. Check out the pictures here. Lori is flippin hot!

This is Lori actually writing a post!

What can I say about Panama City except that I’m totally obsessed with it and nothing could ever change that, even if they burned the city to the ground. Granted, there would be nothing to do, but hey they accomplished that when they tore Miracle Strip down and broke my heart into a million pieces….shattering my childhood memories of log rides and haunted houses forever!

Anyway we met my parents down there on a rainy Tuesday night. (But not before stopping at multiple walmarts looking for the Evil Dead movies) As soon as we arrived we sat on the balcony and listened to the ocean. We would have looked at the ocean too, but it was midnight. Daniel slept on the floor once, an air mattress once, and one night he gathered all of the couch cushions and make himself a giant bed on the floor. Neither of these ideas seemed to feel any better than the other. Poor Daniel!

In our short time there we accomplished lots of things, including beaching, swimming, eating, and surviving a grueling maze with blinding white walls and long pathways that lead to eventual dead ends. We came out alive, ate a snowcone, watched a small worm get stepped on by a girl who never noticed, changed our seating arrangements because it was grossing me out, and then we met up with the rest of the gang at Angelos. That evening we listening to the beachy vocals of Accoustix, the greastest and drunkest men to hit the Gulf since forever. People were drinking and dancing to Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, and the Doobie Brothers. I wore my polka dot dress and I should have danced the night away but I was not drunk. And I cant dance.

I am a sucker for the ocean. Sure, it was full of seaweed this time and it felt like swimming in snot, but thats totally OKAY because I can overlook things like giant seaweed pulling me underwater and drowning me. Daniel did not get in. He thought it was disgusting. I agree. But I am not a wus. Daniel and Chase built an awesome sandcastle town. They later destroyed it and its many inhabitants. The pool was awesome.

The day everyone else departed for home, me and Daniel stayed a little longer. We ate at my favorite diner EVER! (It wasnt amazing this time but it’s still my favorite.) We sat in the sand and watched the waves crash for a while. I couldnt help but feel sad that I cant spend all of my days HERE, by the ocean. It steals my heart every time and I cannot bear to leave it behind. I finally raised myself out of the sand and me and Daniel checked out the new shopping mall. It’s pretty nice…very colorful. I found a ton of clothes at JCPenney. Before long we were hungry again and of course I decided on Italian. We found the best Italian ever… Sweet Basil. Then we were off back to the ATL. Leaving home for my other home. Daniel had to keep telling me we were going on VACATION to ATLANTA now. That helped!
Well thats it for this vacation, but there will be more because I am a spoiled, vacation-loving girl who loves freedom from work and a good beach breeze through my hair.

Oh to be there now. With my KITTEN! I AM GETTING A KITTEN! But that will be the next blog!

From last Friday until yesterday, we were on vacation in Tybee Island with the whole family (Daniel’s side). There were 22 of us all sharing a house together. It got loud. It was fun though. There was plenty of room, plenty of sun, and there was a pool. We flew kites, cooked eggplant, walked on the beach, played cards with our cousins and ended up winning four dollars!

There were several days we got off the island, going to Jekyll on one and into Savannah on another. Connie convinced us to go on a ghost trolley tour, but we didn’t see anything. Maybe it was because it wasn’t very dark, or maybe the ghosts were tired from scaring all the tourists the night before, or maybe we smelled bad. When we got off the trolley they started shooting off fireworks across the river, they are always pretty over the boats in the river. And then we found a karaoke bar, we sang pretty loud at our table but couldn’t muster up the courage to sing on stage.

There are pictures up on the pictures page from the trip. Connie looks possessed, Adam looks Vogue, Daniel looks crazy, Lori looks stunning, the house looks big.

I’ve been wanting to make sushi for a while now, but Lori has always been apprehensive. Usually I’d mention it and she’d reluctantly say yes, then five minutes later forget and suggest something else. And I’m fine with that because I know she doesn’t like it. But last night I finally got to make it. Perseverance.

While Lori was at work I made a ginger garlic marinade for the tofu strips and let that sit in the fridge for a few hours. When Lori got home we cooked the tofu, allowing it to absorb the extra sauce, and threw in the carrots and cucumber strips to soften them up a bit.

It was a lot of fun. Even though we couldn’t find a bamboo rolling mat, the rolls came together nice and relatively easy. Getting Lori to like sushi on the other hand, is not so easy. She tried it, but couldn’t stomach it. She had Wendy’s instead.   There are more pictures here.