A Great Wedding

Matt and I spent most of this past weekend up in Seattle for my friend's wedding. In case you were wondering, I had a lot of fun. In addition to getting to celebrate one of my best friends marrying a really great guy, I got to see friends from college I haven't seen for a while.

I loved pretty much everything about my friend's wedding. She was an absolutely beautiful bride. The ceremony was a combination of a traditional Lutheran service and personal touches (mostly through music); the pastor's homily included a few personal touches as well.

The reception was at a nearby Sons of Norway hall, which is pretty much awesome in itself. In addition to that, they had Kransekake, a traditional Norwegian cake, plus strawberry shortcake. Before dessert, though, we were given the chance to eat our fill of delicious appetizers, pizza, a pasta dish and chicken.

All three toasts were great. I especially liked how her sisters tag-teamed it, and how a friend from college used pictures to make her toast even better.

Another fun part of the reception was a photo booth they had set up, complete with ridiculous costumes for guests to wear. What a fun idea! One of my favorite accouterments was the bicycle helmet we spray-painted gold back in college when we dressed up for the midnight premiere of Star Wars Episode III.

And then there was the dancing. This wedding would not have been complete without a fair share of dancing, and it did not disappoint. In addition to the standard couples dances and the mixture of crowd favorites and slow songs, there were a few songs that required specific dance moves; I love how everyone joined in. On those specific songs, the entire dance floor was mirroring each other: scooping up salmon, jumping in the line, etc.

All in all, a great wedding.

Why I Love the Movie Tombstone

Okay, Tombstone is an enjoyable movie. A fun story, good characters, great acting (disclaimer: it is violent)... That’s not why I love it, though. Two years ago my husband and I departed for our honeymoon and, upon arrival, found out the place we were staying had a TV/DVD player! Sadly we didn’t know this before we left, so we didn’t bring any movies with us, and the only movie there was Tombstone. We must have watched it something like 5 times over the next several days. Needless to say, Tombstone is good memories now. I’m actually really excited to watch it tonight as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary!


On that note, I can’t believe we’ve already been married for 2 years! It’s strange because being married and living together is normal life now, but at the same time, it seems like just yesterday we were dating, planning a wedding, etc.


We’re also coming up on a year in our current city (well, in another month or so). As we only lived in California for about 8 months after the wedding, and then were in Bremerton for just 6 months, this is the longest we’ve stayed in one place since we got married, too. Fortunately the plan is to stay here for a while. As willing as I am to move when it’s necessary, it really is a hassle...


Anyway, a couple of additional recent highlights include:


Pulling out the Christmas music. I personally think some Christmas music could be listened to year-round. Jesus probably wasn’t born in December anyway, and why not celebrate his birth all year? Regardless, the day after Halloween I created a Pandora station to start listening to Christmas tunes and have been enjoying it immensely. 


Rewatching Harry Potter. To prepare for the premiere of The Deathly Hallows, Part 1 we’ve been rewatching the past movies. We’re on track to have all of them rewatched by Wednesday night so we can go to the midnight premiere on Thursday. I’m so excited!


Getting way for a couple of days at a friend’s beach house. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

 

On that note, my break is over and I need to get back to work!