Wedding Recap: Rehearsal Dinner

Hi y'all! This is the first of my wedding recaps. This one focuses on the rehearsal Friday night.

This is the Villa, where we held the ceremony, and where everyone stayed (all 48 of us!) for the weeekend. We started the rehearsal around 6, when we hoped to hold the ceremony the next day. Jake and I really wanted to be outdoors. In Colorado, gorgeous views abound and we wanted to celebrate where we currently live.

Dad, Karl and I waiting for our cues in our mafia sunglasses. Can you tell I got my mother's height?


Once we got the music figured out (played by my uncle), we started.

Karl and Mom

Jake and his mom

Dad and I and my high heels negotiating the tiny steps

This is when we worried none of the guests would be able to actually see the ceremony due to sunlight. But it's so pretty!

The rehearsal went well. We ironed out some kinks and got through the readings and blessings (more on those later).

After the rehearsal, it was time to eat! Jake's parents spent the afternoon prepping for it. Jake's dad is an avid fisherman and known for his fried fish. We asked Jake's parents if they would do a fish fry for us.

All hands in the kitchen! We had enough fried fish to feed three times as many people. Delicious!

I hope to post more wedding recaps this week. Be on the lookout for "The Cake(s)," "The Ceremony," "The Reception," and "Odds and Ends." You don't want to miss the cake!

Worst Blogger Ever

Life has been extra crazy recently. We bought a house, moved in, painted, recarpeted, went to Vegas for my bachelorette party, and are getting married in 10 days!

I am surprisingly not losing my mind. People keep asking me how stressed out I am.

I am in love with this kitchen. I just got a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer as a wedding gift and I'm in love. I've made meringues and key lime pie.There is much more clutter happening right now. :) Turns out wedding gifts come with about a million boxes.

Two of my bridesmaids and I spent a weekend in Vegas. They planned entire incredible trip.


Let's just say these boys were involved.


Nice. I promise it won't be too long before I post again!

You want how big a check?

I do have a good excuse for not posting recently, I swear.

Jake and I bought a house!!! Well, we're under contract for one, at least. We started house hunting about three weeks ago, with the idea we'd start slow and not rush into anything. After seeing about 20 houses, we found one we really like.

It's in a fun neighborhood right outside of downtown. The house was built in 1895 and was totally redone. One of our favorite things is the gorgeous open kitchen. We made the offer on Saturday, only to find out that there were two other competing bids. Wah wah. But, thanks to our having already lined up the loan application, we won with our second bid! :) We had to pull lots of paperwork and financial info. Now we're trying to get out of leases early, setting up inspections, and, oh, yeah, planning a wedding.

On that front, we got our officiant officially signed up. And, I figured out the wedding band conundrum. My engagement ring was designed by Jake and none of the ready made wedding bands I was looking at worked. After some googling, I found a jeweler in Denver with a strong background in custom design. As soon as I met the guy, I felt comfortable. He looked at my ring and immediately said, "there is one premade band to try, but I think you'll want custom." Much better than the other stores that kept showing me super shiny bands that clashed. The band is going to match the design of my engagement ring, which meant I had to leave my ring behind for the jeweler to sketch and make a wax mold. My left hand feels naked! Oh well, I'll have it back in a few weeks. :)

Arches!

Jake started a new job this week and had a few days off after the old job ended. We decided to head out of town. We ended up at Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.


Here's our campsite


Gorgeous sunset


The Double Arch

Day 2 = 10 miles of hiking in the desert. Hardcore for me and I got a bit dehydrated. Whoops.

Landscape Arch is over 60 feet wide and only 6 feet thick at its thinnest point. In 1991, a huge chunk fell off, narrowly missing tourists.


Partition Arch - can you spot me?


The rock just wears away, which creates a lot of honeycombing. Eventually, new arches or fins will form. That's one thing I really liked about the park - it's not like it will all be gone in 100 years. Even if the current famous arches fall (one of them, the Wall Arch, completely collapses overnight five years ago), new ones are forming all the time. Jake wished for his climbing gear.

What a ham.


The Delicate Arch - this is when the wind started to really pick up. I'm standing like that so I don't get blown off the side.

The Delicate Arch through another arch.



Second night had crazy winds (gusting over 30mph). This wouldn't normally be too big a deal, unless you are sleeping in a tent on very fine sand. We both ended up covered in a layer of sand as the night progressed. I maybe slept 4 hours in total. There was sand in my ears and embedded in my hair.

We decided not to try and cook over an open flame and headed into Moab for breakfast. We started discussing the possibility of cutting our trip short from 5 days to 2.5. We headed into Canyonlands National Park and cruised through there, but the wind didn't die down and the weather got colder and rainier. Around noon, we decided to head on back to Denver. Sad, but we still got in 2 great days of camping, hiking, and marveling at nature.



Here's a bonus shot from my cousins wedding the weekend before camping. :)

100!

Silly life, getting in the way of blogging. :) Things have been busy over here. The past ten days have included: Jake's birthday, going to a musical, dinner at friends, celebrating Jake getting a new job, ski tailgating, caterer tasting, and poker night. So, while there is lots to talk about, I want to talk about something else - my 100th post!

That's right, I someone made it to 100 posts, even though I post so sporadically. My goal for April is to post ten times. :)

Oh,wedding update: the caterer tasting went really well. I like the company we are working with and feel excited about our food choices. Our plan is to do passed appetizers, then a buffet dinner. The buffet will include salad, bread, sides, and a fish dish. There will also be a carving station for the meat eaters. I need to pick linens now. There are so many small items to think about!

Did I mention the invitations arrived? My mom and aunt have beautiful calligraphy and offered to address the invitations. Mostly, I think they were afraid of my handwriting. Who knew addressing invitations was so detailed? Do I want formal or informal? Are friends Mr. and Mrs. John Smith or John and Sarah Smith? I decided friends our age should be John and Sarah Smith, while family adults are Mr. and Mrs. John Smith. Invites won't go out for a while, but it's so nice to have them done!!

Cake Balls Disaster

Today I had an epic baking fail. I decided to make Jessica's Cake Truffles, also called Cake Balls. I've seen different versions all across the blog world and wanted to make them. I decided the combination of St. Patrick's Day and Jake's birthday would be a good time.

First up, bake a cake. I used a red velvet cake mix. No problems. I baked it last night to get a start on the whole process (and it is a long process). Then you mix in the frosting and put it in the fridge for at least two hours. No problem, except the kitchen looked like a murder scene with all the red smears. Then you have to roll the balls. TWSS.

Then came dipping in chocolate. This was the major fail. The recipe said it would make about 40 cake ball - I got over 60. It said I needed 6 oz of chocolate, I started with almost ten. Once it melts, you gently roll the balls in the chocolate and place them on a parchment. The chocolate seems really thick. I was using around .5 oz per ball. After struggling through 4 balls, I thought to myself, "why not make a ganache instead of just melted chocolate?" I have made ganaches before with no problem. Today, I got this.


That doesn't look delicious at all! Lame. I threw that out and grabbed the last bag of chocolate. I started again. An entire bag of chocolate covered 10 more balls. Obviously I need more practice with the chocolate enrobing.*


I have 45 balls of cake/frosting left. Any suggestions what I can do with them? I sure as hell am not enrobing any more. To make matters worse, they aren't even that good. Jake tried one and was like "eh. I'd rather have the real cake." I will not be making these labor-intensive balls again. Sad face.

*It's the actual technical term.

Ski challenge and results

Skiing Sunday started off fun enough. I decided to challenge myself and do some harder blacks than I normally would (steep with bumps and trees). It was slow going and I accidentally went backwards for a bit, but I made it down in one piece.

That got me feeling pretty confident, so later in the day, I decided to go fast down Starfire (very steep bits). I made it down fine the first time, but had a bit of trouble the second time. By trouble, I mean I completely wiped out. My skis flew off and I tumbled head over heels. At one point, I remember thinking "grab the ski." This happened as the ski was flying towards me. I did catch it, with my face. Luckily, besides that bop, I was uninjured. Jake was right behind me and grabbed my other ski. My hero!

Last night though, most of me ached. My face feels twingey when I make a long face, yawn or smile too hard. (I took a picture, but you can't really see the mark.) My shins ached and the top of my back was very sore. I think the shin ache was from not stretching enough after skiing and then doing my long driving commute yesterday. I sat on the couch with a heating pad for an hour or so and that helped. This morning, I feel fine. :)

Moral of the the story: skiing fast is fine, as long as there is a heating pad waiting for you at home.