Just in time for Halloween...

Wedding Favorites

Karl and I were so lucky to have a wonderful wedding with lots of friends and family here to celebrate with us. In the months and days leading to the big day, we had lots to do! Some of the preparations were more fun than others... Here are two of my favorite memories of preparing for our wedding:



My two dear friends, Caitrin and Amanda, were attendants (bridesmaids/maids of honor/whatever). On the morning of the wedding, the three of us went to the Farmer's Market downtown and bought several bouquets of beautiful flowers. We brought them back to my house and made all three of our bouquets for the ceremony. They turned out beautifully, and it was so much fun to do together!










At the Farmer's Market, Caitrin, Amanda and I also bought a bunch of gorgeous sunflowers. These were for the flower girls-- all seven of them! Originally, we weren't going to have any flower girls, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that we had to have flower girls. I was never personally a flower girl, though I always wanted to be one! What job could possibly be more glamorous? Ultimately, I didn't want to deprive any girl attending our wedding of what could possibly be her only chance ever to be flower girl, so I invited all of them to do it! We ended up with seven gorgeous girls, each carrying a sunflower. They did a great job! As a token of thanks, I gave each girl a gift bag. Putting these together was probably my number one favorite part of wedding preparations. Each bag contained a flowery picture frame, a pink Lip Smackers lip gloss, a bottle of sparkly nail polish, a Tinkerbell pen, a small package of Teddy Grahams, and a package of Hershey Kisses. To top it off, I spelled out each girl's name with fun alphabet stickers on the gift tags. There's no way the girls enjoyed opening the bags as much as I enjoyed putting them together!

My husband is the best ever!

Karl is totally the sweetest husband in the world. Last Friday we went camping at Devil's Lake. While I was still in my sleeping bag in the morning, Karl got up and made Swedish pancakes (from scratch!) over the fire.

After going for a hike, we stopped at the apple orchard and then headed to my mom's house in Prairie du Sac. She had made a beautiful lunch to celebrate Karl's birthday (which was September 23rd). I'm not sure this picture does it justice... the chicken was cooked with big sprigs of rosemary from her garden. So gourmet.

I took advantage of my mom's huge kitchen by making pumpkin cookies (with my friend Andi's tried and true recipe). Karl and I drove back to Madison just in time to go to the Badger game... yay! The team didn't do very well, but the band and the cheerleaders were fantastic.

Our One Week-a-Versary

We celebrated the one-week-of-marriage milestone at Kate and Jeremy's annual Oktoberfest! We camped out and visited our favorite local hot spot, Dot's Tavern. Karl always looks forward to playing bumper pool at Dot's.

Wedding Weekend Miracles

Well, our whole wedding was a miracle, really, but a few things happened over the course of the weekend that really were amazing...

WWM #1: My brother Elsworth saw the capybaras at the zoo swimming and playing together in the water, then climbing back onto dry land. This goes into the "miracle" category because most people (including myself) have never been lucky enough to see a capybara in the water or interacting with another furry friend.

WWM #2: Caitrin, Amanda, and I went to pick up the Community Car on the day of the wedding, to drive it out to the place where we were getting our hair done. I had rented a convertible, and it was a super nice day, and I thought to myself, "I wish I could put the top down! Too bad I didn't bring a ponytail holder, though; I don't want a huge tangle of hair." And just as we were approaching the car, there was a ponytail holder on the ground! Miraculous! Don't worry, I didn't use it-- Caitrin and Amanda wouldn't let me. Amanda luckily had an extra one. In the photo below, you can actually see the ponytail holder...