Wedding dress shopping

This past weekend my mom and sister visited for wedding dress shopping. The good news is I found a dress! But I had to try on about 20 until I found the one. When I came out in the last dress both my mom and sister started crying so I knew that was the one!

For those of us who hate shopping it is a pain staking awkward process. The sales ladies tend to be very strongly opinionated and suggest what they think you'll like and then are in the dressing room with you (while your practically naked) helping you into all these dresses. Which again if your not a shopper leads to a LOT of awkward moments.

Here are a few I tired on: (none of these are my dress)

On the Road Again

At 4am this morning my alarm went off and I had to get my butt out of bed and showered to get to the airport on time to catch our flight to Portland, Oregon. Once on the plane I thought it would be easy sailing pass out, hop on our connecting flight and off we go, not so much.... Our plane took forever to leave Boston and just keep driving around the tarmac. Which meant we were going to miss our connecting flight since we only had a 30 min layover. Luckily upon arriving they were nice enough to hold the plane for us so we made it!! On the 2nd leg of the flight from Chicago to Portland we passed over Mt Hood.

You can barley see it there in the wayyy background.  :)

We landed in Portland with no major catastrophes which was good and I had one thing on my mind doughnuts!!! In Portland there is this well know doughnut shop called VooDoo donuts, I've seen it on the food channel many many times and knew I had to go.

They are know for there crazy flavor doughnuts, so of course John and I had a hard time deciding what flavors to pick.

We ended up with a maple bacon, old dirty bastard (which is chocolate with oreo cookie and peanut butter drizzle), double bubble ( I claimed the gum) and captin crunch. And of course we had to split 2 right away. ;)

I took a much better picture of John then he took of me, go figure! After doughnut eating we headed back to the car to make the 1.5 hr drive to Gearhart (a small beach town) where the wedding is being held.

We arrived around 2:30pm and got ourselves all checked in then made a run to the local store from some breakfast items and snacks since we have a kitchen in our condo. After unpacking and getting settled we headed down for a walk on the beach, my favorite!!!

I tried to be romantic and write Michele loves John in the sand with my big toe (because nothing says love like your big toe) and then I got a charlie horse in my foot, only me. But I completed the task at hand.

Now we are relaxing in the condo with some snacks and a glass of wine waiting for Cart to show up. (he's staying with us). Then we'll head to dinner with all of John's friends who came for the wedding.

Lacey & Chris's wedding

My roomie in college is getting married!! The wedding is in Asbury Park, NJ which is near where both Lacey and Chris are from. We arrived an hour early to check in and change into our wedding attire, then headed off to the wedding! The wedding was at 2:30pm in a beautiful small chapel located in state park. The bride looked amazing!

The reception wasn't until 5pm so John and I decided to take our time heading back to the hotel and I wanted to grab my flip flops to change into later so I didn't have to wear heels all night. The reception was located in a bar on the boardwalk right along the beach! It was a beautiful view of the ocean. Once we arrived they there was a open bar and a cheese and ham table, we hit that up right away! 

Next the bride and groom were announced and the first dance.

This was then followed by catching up with old college friends and dancing. There was no dinner served, if I would have known this I would have eaten a lot more appetizers!!

my handsome date

Erin & Brendon's wedding

Today is the day that Erin and Brendon renew their vows! Brendon is a fraternity brother of John's who also lives in the Boston area and his wife Erin and I have become friends over the time John and I have been dating. I can not say enough about them they are such a cute couple and even though they have had a hard last year they have always remained upbeat and in the best of spirits! They deserve to celebrate their happiness with great friends and family!
The ceremony was held in the Catholic church in Weymouth. During the first ceremony Brendon's sister fainted during the wedding and everyone thought it was Erin! This time we were all hoping that their was no fainting ;) during the vows the priest made a joke referring to it. The ceremony was about 15 minutes, short and sweet after wards we headed to the reception!

The reception was held at a beautiful golf course, the cocktail hour has the best orderves! There was a cheese table, truffle fries (which were delicious), mini risotto cheese balls, chicken skewers, and pear and blue cheese crostini's.

The doors then opened into a beautiful room with floor to ceiling windows and beautifully set tables. Dinner was served pretty quickly when we sat down, I assume so we could get to the good part of dancing. :)

we sat at table 10

Timmy, Phil and I

We started with an amazing salad, I am not sure what type of dressing was on it but it was good!

For the entree I ordered the pork and John the beef so that way we could share. :) Both were amazingly delicious but unfortunately I stuffed my self on appetizers so I wasn't to hungry when dinner came around.

pork wrapped in bacon

John's steak

After dinner the dancing began, now I am a horrible dancer and I normally don't dance unless I had a few drinks because of this reason. Needless to say I was a dancing machine by the end of the evening. ;)
Dessert was ice cream pops on a stick! Amazing only I didn't get to try them for the above reason.
The evening concluded with an after party back in the hotel room with all of the brothers and girlfriends. I was a great wedding and I wish Brendon and Erin all the happiness in the world!!

John & Caroline's wedding

Saturday night we John and I were invited to John's friends wedding in Salem. We carpooled with Steven and Hillary they were so nice to give us a ride! They picked us up an hour before the wedding we were thinking the ceremony was also in Salem where the reception was held. To our surprise it was only a 10 minute drive from our apartment's. Needless to say we arrived 45 minutes early at the church so Hillary and I decided to get pedicures while the boys headed next door for a drink. :)

Once at the wedding the church was beautiful and the bride and groom looked amazing! After the ceremony we hopped in the car and drove to Salem for the reception it was beautiful! They had cute little lanterns for the name tags, and each of the tables were named after a towns in MA complete with old pictures of the towns.

 

The first course was a lobster bisque which came in these cup little cups and it was delicious, I had huge chunks of lobster in mine, and since John doesn't like seafood I was lucky to get to eat his. Next was a garden salad with I am assuming what was the house dressing. It was your typical salad with lettuce, tomato, carrots, goat cheese and nuts. (Both of which I forgot to take a picture of :( )

Next we were served sherbet to cleanse our palates, we were all trying to decided what flavor it was, the best we could guess was pink lemonade?   

 

The main course was a choice between chicken and pork with a side of veggies and either rice or squash. John and I each choose a different dish to share so we could both enjoy both dishes. They were both really good, but I think the pork was better, it had a sweet fruity glaze on top. 

Last but not least, always the best part of any meal was dessert! The wedding cake was amazing it was orange flavored with a vanilla ice cream ball that had the same sherbet in the middle.

After eating there was dancing long into the evening, everyone had a great time! Thank you again to Hillary and Steven for driving us!