Tag Archives: weddings

Wedding Recap: The Tailgate Party

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Our wedding tailgate was the brainchild of my mother-in-law and one of the most fun parts of our wedding weekend! Many of our guests were going to be coming from out of town and a majority of them wouldn’t know each other yet, so instead of a traditional rehearsal dinner we invited all of our guests from near and far to join us on Friday night for some tailgating fun!

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Ian and I are pretty laid back and not super formal, so this was right up our alley. It also allowed us to incorporate our love for Syracuse sports. Given that Syracuse in October could bring anything from 70-degree weather to snow storms, we decided to hold it inside a ballroom at The Craftsman Inn where most of our guests were staying.

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The decorations were a surprise to us until we walked in after the rehearsal, and boy did it look phenomenal. The room was decorated with Syracuse orange and blue, old Syracuse team posters and memorabilia and pictures showcasing my love of running and Ian’s love of coaching. Completing the room were some fun games – little mini basketball games on each table along with custom-made Syracuse corn hole boards courtesy of Ian’s brother.

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The menu was full of my favorites – burgers, hot dogs, mac and cheese (a house special and my absolute favorite), sausage sandwiches, a house salad and a whole lot of booze! Everything was delicious!

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We showed up with the wedding party and family half an hour before things officially kicked off so we could share some thank you gifts with them for all the awesome things they did to make the weekend so special for us. About 90 percent of our guests showed up both nights! It took a lot of pressure off making time to circulate and say hello to everyone at the reception since we had so much time to chat with friends and family on Friday night too.

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I really loved how it brought everyone together as well. One of my favorite parts of the night was looking around at the tables and seeing a group playing some sort of drinking game (that I may have gotten involved with later!) that included family of both mine and Ian’s, friends of mine from DC, friends I went to high school with along with friends Ian met in college and in Minnesota. Such a great group of people and so much fun!!

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As the party came to an end and many prepared to head over to the local bar, my brother and sister-in-law came over to collect me and make sure I got home at a decent time! While I was way too excited to sleep before the big day, I’m sure it was for the best that I didn’t join the others at the bar that night! More on the big day coming soon!

 

Warp Speed

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Ever since Memorial Day Weekend, I feel like I’ve been living in warp speed. There’s been a lot going on to say the least, but all good things, so I’m okay with that! Ian and I started apartment hunting that weekend and ended up loving the first place we looked at. We went back there shortly after our tour to put a hold on the unit we wanted and filled out some paper work to put things in motion to sign a lease. We move in tomorrow night and I cannot wait! I’ll have more on the new place in a later post.

The following week we had an open house at our current junior one-bedroom condo, which I own, in hopes to find a renter. Everything seemed to fall into place as we had a lease signed shortly after. Then our crazy month of travel started. First we drove up north to his brother’s wedding in the Thousand Islands, which was a great weekend. We made that trek in a ZipVan so we could bring a whole bunch of furniture back down to bring to our new place since we’re renting the current place out furnished. Needless to say, it’s been a little cramped since then.

Less than a week later I headed off to Montreal for five days for a work trip, came home for two days and just like that we were back on the road to Hoboken. My brother and his fiance live there so it’s always fun to visit. We also made it into Manhattan for a 30th birthday celebration for one of my good friends from grad school. They rented out a back bar at Bourbon Street Bar & Grille in Manhattan and we had a blast. She’s a big Harry Potter fan, and while I have to admit I’ve never read the books or seen the movies, this cake was still pretty amazing!

Harry Potter Cake

Harry Potter Cake

I’m about six weeks in to working with a running coach and am really feeling good about the progress I’m making. I’m running a local 5k tonight and hoping the 90+ degree temps don’t thwart my attempt at a PR. I feel like I have a great base built to lead into Marine Corps Marathon training – hard to believe it’s that time already!

During all of this craziness I also got an exciting job offer and I start my new gig on July 8. Learning about all things biotech for the last year and a half has been a great learning experience, but I’m really excited about this new opportunity. More to come on that!

After the big move tomorrow night (it’s hard to say big move and not giggle – we’re moving less than a mile from our current place!), we head to Portland, Oregon. I’m spending the first couple days at FitBloggin’13 – sooo excited! – and then we’re going to stay and check out the city for a couple days. It should be a great trip! It’s already been quite a month…maybe in July I’ll have a minute to rest!

Weekend Fun In Alex Bay

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Ian and I headed north last weekend to celebrate his brother’s wedding in Alexandria Bay. It’s about 90 miles north of Syracuse and just south of Canada. His family has a camp nearby so I’ve been there a few times over the past couple years and it’s an incredibly beautiful area.

View from Ian's Camp

View from Ian’s Camp

The fun kicked off Friday night with a cocktail hour and delicious dinner at the Clipper Inn in Clayton for the bridal party and out of town guests. Colin, the groom and Ian’s younger brother, is a naval architect and a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy so the weekend was themed in a nautical fashion. I particularly loved the place-cards for our seats at dinner that night.

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Name cards at our seats for the rehearsal dinner – yellow flags indicated the meal we chose and I thought the life savers were a great touch!

The party continued back at the Riveredge Resort with another cocktail reception for the rest of the wedding guests that had gotten into town already. This was pretty convenient since we were also staying there. It was a nice hotel right on the water. The cocktail reception was a blast. The wedding ceremony took place at Boldt Castle and was a beautiful ceremony!

Brittany, the bride, walked down a tower out of a fairy tale and the ceremony was underway.

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When asking Ian for the rings – his one official best man duty – the officiant jokingly asked him if he’d remembered the rings. I had to hold in a laugh because this could have turned out very differently. Shortly after Ian left the hotel to board the ferry over to the island for the ceremony, I stumbled upon two blue ring boxes still in our hotel room. These can’t possibly still have the rings in them I thought, but yes, there they were. I called Ian in a panic but didn’t catch him before he’d left. Fortunately I was able to get there well ahead of the start of the ceremony to hand the rings off to Ian! Assist to me! As Ian keeps saying – they weren’t lost, they were in an unexpected location.

The reception at the Opera House back in Clayton was another great night of dinner, drinks and dancing. It was such a great weekend and so much fun to get to spend time with both of our families throughout the weekend!