Help our Friends!

I don't know if I've ever talked about our friend Deb before-- Cory and I met Deb several years ago when we were working in Columbus, Ga. Our station hired her to be one of the anchors for our fledgling Fox newscast.

Deborah is awesome-- Smart, sassy, stylish. You know, a lot like me... Only much, much cooler. She found out a few years ago that she had breast cancer, and really started re-evaluating things. When she left our station, she moved to Amsterdam to work at a mission for recovering prostitutes. Seriously. How cool is that?

Anyway, Deb started dating Craig shortly after she finished her treatments-- and even though they lived a few hundred miles apart, something really clicked. We met him once, and Cory and I both thought he was great. Deb recently moved to Arkansas to be with Craig, and about six months ago, I got an email from her saying that they were engaged!



If anyone in this world deserves an awesome wedding, it's Deb. And now she and Craig are finalists for a Charleston wedding giveaway, and need your vote!

Click here to vote for Deb and Craig!

You can vote once per day. I know that most of you don't know either of these people, but it literally only takes about a minute of your time-- so if you have a free moment, please vote for our friends.

Happy Honeymooning!

In the last week, I've had two friends get engaged. Not to each other, in case you're curious.

Our former co-worker Hayley got engaged to her beau, Nate, and my good friend, former speechie, and annual Oscar contest coordinator, Amy is marrying her man-friend Jeff.

The funny thing is that both happy couples were at our wedding. In fact, I'm pretty sure that they were the only two unmarried couples at our wedding. And in both cases, it was the first time we'd met the future grooms.

How cool is that? Of course, Cory and I would like to take complete responsibility for their successful relationships. By the way, our one-year anniversary is coming up in less than three weeks. No, we don't have any big plans. I can't take time off at work yet, so we'll just be our boring married selves.

At Aimee's Request...

I haven't uploaded many of the "official" wedding pictures to the computer... it's a long process which involves scanning each photo individually and I don't have the energy to do it. Maybe someday.

However, I have gotten around to uploading a few snapshots that people gave me, and I also had the pictures from our disposable cameras put onto photo discs... so I've uploaded some of those.














(I also keep hoping that certain relatives of ours will email us the pictures that they took... but so far, no luck with that... Hint, Hint...)

Anyway, there are really only a few "formal" pictures in the computer so far, these are the majority of them.


I was kind of bummed out that our photographer didn't take any pictures of the wedding venue itself. (Once again, maybe some people who had cameras there can help us out!) The courtyard at The Veranda is so cute, and even though we didn't decorate it with flowers, I thought it looked great!


We haven't uploaded any pictures from our dinner cruise on the Caloosahatchee River yet. To be honest, most of the photos are of us dancing or us posing on various parts of the riverboat. Once again, we're hoping that other people can help us fill in the blanks.


After our dinner cruise, we headed over to a little reception hall downtown. We didn't have our photographer come there (it would have cost extra to hire him for a couple more hours and it didn't really seem worthwile). We had disposable cameras on the tables and we got our money's worth out of them.

(A husband, a beer, and a big chocolate chip cookie: What more could a girl need?)

No, you're not seeing things. Yes, that's a feather boa. And yes, those are Mardi Gras beads around Cory's neck. We were going for a whole New Orleans feel.

That's all so far... when I get around to uploading a few more pictures, I'll try to post them.

Back in the Swing

It's been exactly one month since our wedding, and I feel like my life is finally starting to get back to normal. Honestly, it's been so long since my life was "normal" that I'm not sure I'll recognize it when I get there. For the last six months, I've spent every day I've had off from work either house-hunting, mortgage-hunting, moving, renovating, or planning a wedding. And while we still have plenty of renovating and unpacking to do, the only wedding stuff we have left are the thank-you notes, which we're slowly managing to plod through (though in retrospect, it would have been nice to mail them all out before the postage increase).

Today, as a symbol of my return to quasi-normalcy, I got my wedding fingernails removed.
I admit, it was nice having long nails for a couple of days-- But then I returned to work and I couldn't type. And when you work at a job that has very strict, non-flexible deadlines, that isn't a good thing.

Originally, I planned to just polish my own nails for the wedding. In fact, I'd purchased a nice little french manicure set so that I could make them look pretty. But then I nearly chopped one of my fingers off on Friday the 13th (the day before the wedding), and I thought that some artificial nails would be a little more attractive than a giant band-aid.

If you look closely at our wedding pictures, you can see the discoloration under my freaky deformed left index fingernail. I'm happy to report that I didn't develop any kind of weird flesh-eating disease by getting an artificial nail on that finger. At least, I haven't developed any symptoms yet. I'll keep you posted...

Fourteen Days...

...Until free, delicious ice cream. (Eleven days until the wedding... at which there will be no ice cream).

Oh, Happy Day.

I'm almost looking forward to Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day more than I'm looking forward to the wedding.

Almost.

By the way, while you're at the Ben and Jerry's website, check out the cutest anti-cloning message you'll ever see.

Blogging Blues

Sorry about the slow going with the blog (again). I've been a little more faithful to Jeckyll & Bride lately, since this $%@&*! wedding is taking over my life.

Here comes the Bridezilla...

Another bridal dilemma solved over at Jeckyll & Bride!

Marriage...

Wow. If you think your husband is an idiot, you simply must read on.

For mature adults only-- a "marriage contract" written by some asshat in Iowa. I'd write more about it, but I don't even know where to begin.

Wedding Alert!

Cory and I have set a date. Sort of.

Tomorrow is Another Day

Ok... I've stopped feeling sorry for myself (the bag of White Fudge Chunky Chips Ahoy is helping immensely). Things, I'm sure, will get worse as the day progresses.

Don't think Cory's getting off scot-free. He's been sent to Missouri with an assignment. Since this will be one of the last weddings either of us go to before our own wedding, I've told him to take mental notes on everything, decide what he likes and doesn't like, and return with suggestions and ideas for our own wedding.

I also armed him with a camera, so there'd better be lots of pictures when he returns.

Wedding Dilemma #1

My "altar" ego is having a dilemma next door on Jekyll and Bride. Help!

The Return of Bridezilla

By the way, my wedding obsession rages on. I found myself at the outdoor mall with nothing better to do yesterday, so I went to Party City and wandered the aisles of wedding-related crap. And I do mean "crap." Most of it was the type of stuff you'd see in a wedding at the fairground (and yes, I've been to weddings at the fairgrounds. It's the nicest place in Kirksville to have your reception. I've also been to a rodeo, a demolition derby and an REO Speedwagon concert there).

I also spent some of my Barnes And Noble gift card (from Cory's mom) on yet another Bridal magazine. This time, it was InStyle Weddings, and I justified it because I love Law & Order, and Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU was on the cover.

On the Other Hand...

I may be an insane, wedding-obsessed nutcase, but at least I don't have to go back to work until Sunday.

"What?" You say, stunned. "I thought the Sportslady never got days off."

Ahhh, so true, my friend, so true. However, the sportslady had to sacrifice a week of vacation, plus her Christmas and New Year's "holidays," plus her usual two-days-off-a-week in order to cover the Sugar Bowl. So Sportslady's taking a little time off.

And don't ask why the Sportslady is speaking in third person. The Sportslady just felt like it.

So, the good news is that I get three days off this week. The bad news? I'll be spending Friday and Saturday nursing Cory back to health after he has four wisdom teeth removed. Ah, at least we'll be spending time together. That's two days more than we get in most months.

Uh-Oh...

Despite my earlier assertion to the contrary, I'm turning into a Bridezilla. For God's Sake, we probably won't get married for two more years, and I'm already obsessing about the tiniest wedding details.

Last night, we were at Walgreen's on our dinner break, and I couldn't walk down the magazine aisle without looking at bridal magazines. Tonight, I broke down and bought one (Elegant Bride, if you're curious. And I know you probably aren't).

I'm hoping this is just a phase, like the one I went through a couple of years ago. Please, let this just be a phase.

Thank You...

For all your kind words and well-wishes. It's amazing the people you hear from when they hear that you've gotten engaged. If I'd have known all the nice things that people would say, I'd have gotten engaged a couple of dozen times! Ha!

Seriously, though.. I don't think I've been hugged this many times in one week. One of our co-workers, a generally gruff older guy, gave Cory a big hug in the middle of the newsroom when he found out. Another co-worker gave us a really sweet card, and she's someone that I rarely even talk to.

So thanks, everyone. And now I have a favor to ask... please, please, please, don't ask us when the wedding is. We don't know. We're just trying to enjoy this "engaged" thing, and are hoping that we might get to take a day off together sometime in the next year.

And I promise... I won't talk about getting married non-stop on this blog. Just let me get it out of my system for the next couple of days, and I promise I won't turn into "Bridezilla."

Not yet, anyway.

"Welcome To The Rock"
(all apologies to Sean Connery)


After spending about an hour online, fruitlessly trying to find a picture of a ring that even slightly resembles mine, I gave up and just took a picture of my own ring instead.

Yeah, yeah... I know... you can't see much detail in this picture. Give me a break. I'm a professional video photographer... not a professional still photographer (though I do know enough about photo editing to airbrush a few wrinkles on my face and smudge out that ugly mole on my left hand).

Cory did a good job, though he says he was really worried that I wouldn't like it. He remembered that I don't like round diamonds, and that I love princess cut (square) diamonds. All of the stones are princess cut (don't ask me how big the center stone is... I have no idea), set in white gold. I think the white gold is what worried him the most.

I told him that it could look like dog poop and I'd still love it... however, it doesn't look like dog poop. It's gorgeous, and it's exactly what I would have picked out for myself.

By Popular Demand

Ok, now that I've been back from New Orleans for a day, had time to catch up on sleep (sort of), and spend a day away from work (kind of), I actually have a little time to tell the story. The abbreviated version has been on Cory's blog for days.

For those of you who didn't already know, I spent a little over a week in New Orleans, covering the Auburn Tigers, reporting live every day, and producing/reporting/anchoring a one-hour pre-game special that aired on our station. Fun, right? Not so much. About 90% of the time, it seriously sucked. I worked a couple of 18 hour days, when I got up, immediately started working, and only paused to take a shower and for room service. One day, I didn't even leave the hotel until 4pm, and that was to do my live shots from across the street. Then I went back to the hotel and didn't leave again until 4pm the next day.

But I digress. Jan (my mom) was still visiting from Michigan when I left, so Jan and Cory followed us down to New Orleans. I really didn't get to see much of either of them. The first night we were in town, the six of us (including Elizabeth, David and Eric from work) went down to Bourbon Street for dinner. We ate at the Cajun Cabin, a touristy, but very fun place. There was a Zydeco band playing (Mitch Cormier and the Can't Hardly Playboys), and we all took a turn up front playing with the band.

The next day, we worked until about 6pm, then headed out for dinner at the Gordon Biersch Brewery (if there's one in your town, I highly recommend it).

The day after that was New Year's Eve. We stopped in at the media party at the Top of the Dome lounge (Which was actually at the top of the Hyatt, the media hotel), then Jan and Cory and I tried to meet up with some friends for dinner. Problem was, we never found them. So we ended up at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro for dinner, then headed back to the hotel. From there, we caught the bus to the French Quarter, then headed towards Jackson Square for the big New Year's Eve festivities.

It's at this point, I should probably tell you how horrible I looked. My feet were killing me from two days of wearing heels (probably only the seventh or eighth time all year I'd worn heels), but the only comfy shoes I'd bought were brown. So I was wearing brown loafers, black pants, a red shirt, and a black leather jacket. Now, I'm no fashion plate, but I know better than to wear brown with black. sigh. To make matters worse, it was raining. Actually, it was drizzling, and foggy, and humid, so I really wasn't looking my best. Of course, everyone else probably looked like drowned rats, too.

At some point, we stopped in a corner store, and Jan bought some champagne and a couple of plastic cups. If you've never been to New Orleans, it's here that I need to mention that there are very lax open-container laws there. People roam the streets with giant plastic cups of daiquiris and "hurricanes" that they buy at roadside stands. On New Year's Eve, everyone has a cup of something in their hands. So we poured our Champagne into cups and continued our trek down Decatur Street.

We ended up at near the corner of Decatur and Toulouse, about a block away from Jackson Square. It was the closest we could get and still see the ball drop. By this point, it was about 11:45 and it had stopped raining. Everyone was caught up in the festivities, probably because they were all half in the bag. A woman standing near us was wearing a white feather boa with little sparkles and sequins in it, and I jokingly said to Cory, "Hey, when we get married, I want to wear a sparkly white feather boa."

We drank our champagne, jockeyed for position with the other 100,000 people standing in the street, and waited for the ball to drop from the top of the old JAX brewery building.

Midnight came, we shouted "Happy New Year," and hugged and kissed. I was worried about our PDA. Then, Cory leaned in and said, "remember what you said about the lady with the feather boa?"

"Yeah," I answered. Come on, how could I forget? It had only been fifteen minutes!

"Will you marry me?" He asked.

"Of course." I said nonchalantly. I didn't think anything of it. We've always talked about getting married.

Then Cory got down on one knee (yes, in the puke and urine-soaked streets of New Orleans he actually got down on one knee), and pulled a ring out of his pocket. I was floored. I don't know what I did. I think I just stared at him, with my mouth gaping open, as he asked me again if I would marry him. I noticed people around us pointing, and saying "awwwwww" as they he kneeled in front of me.

Cory held the ring out, and I'd never seen anything so shiny or beautiful in my entire life. He slipped the ring on my finger (almost a perfect fit), and we hugged and kissed, and of course, I said "yes." People around us mouthed "congratulations" and gave us the thumbs-up sign as the crowd started to disperse.


Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to bring my camera, so we had to memorize the spot where we were standing. On one side of the street, the entrance to the Jackson Brewery building. On the other side of the street, a souvenir shop called "Gator Country." If you look at the picture on the right, we were standing just about where the horse's front hoof is planted on the pavement.

After that, we headed over to Bourbon Street, which (no surprise) was so packed that we could barely breathe. I swear, it took about ten minutes to walk a block because of the throngs of people. At one point, I stood under a balcony, pointed at my ring, and shouted "I got engaged!" and some girl chucked some beads at me.

I told Cory later that the crowds on Bourbon Street didn't bother me. I felt like I was floating all night.

The next morning, we had brunch, and then Jan and Cory had to leave to go back to C-Town. So, we got engaged, and then Cory left town. David and Eric joked later that it was Cory's backup plan; In case I said "no," he could get out of town quickly.

As if I would have said "no."

Wedding Tips

When the bride shows up crying at the reception, claiming that she "feels fat," there may be a good reason.

Like, for example, a towering display of saturated fat disguised as a wedding cake.

Nothin' says class like Hostess snack cakes at the most important day of your life.

Wedd-sites

My recent wedding obsession has led me to some fun websites. www.uglydress.com is one of my favorites at the moment. It's mostly photos of ugly bridesmaid's dresses, though there's a few ugly wedding gowns and other accessories. This pair of shoes is a personal favorite of mine.

Gettin' Hitched in the Country

I promised a few days ago that I'd talk a little about small-town weddings. I've been to a few of them after living in Kirksville for the better part of a decade. As a city girl, I've also been to more than my share of big-city (or at least big-suburb) weddings.

Small-town weddings are kind of difficult to grasp when you're used to the massive productions that I grew up attending. Most of the weddings I've been to in Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago were pretty large affairs- about 250 guests (at least), and a dinner reception. Small-town weddings are, of course, smaller, and much less formal. It's not unusual to see someone wearing a polo shirt to a small-town wedding... and it's not unheard-of to see a few guests wearing jeans (usually black jeans) and a tee-shirt.

The bridal party is also usually pretty small. I think I've seen a maximum of two bridesmaids at the small-town weddings I've been to. Compare that with a college friend of mine (who'll remain nameless to protect her anonimity), who had eight (yes, eight) bridesmaids.

The reception is a completely different affair as well. I've always grown up with the city-girl notion that a reception is kind of like a prom with an open bar. You buy a new dress, eat a huge meal, gossip with friends, dance a lot, and get hammered. In the country, the reception pretty much optional. All of the small-town weddings I've been to have had a reception but every time, the reception has been at the church (or wherever the wedding was held). Two of them were real casual: deli-trays and punch. The other was even more casual: Pizza and beer. Two of them didn't even have music.

Now, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with having a casual wedding... I just don't want to have one that way. I want a big-ass party, with big-ass dresses and a big-ass meal and a big-ass open bar. I can't help it... I'm a city girl at heart.