A blast from the past.....

It's 9 years ago today that Bob and I got married. When we moved to Tennessee, Bob had created a website to help stay in touch with our families. I had typed up all the wedding weekend events and added to that website. Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me transfer the pictures. :( So, here is the recap of our wedding as written in 2000. Warning, it's long!!


Our Wedding
While, I'm sure I have a much different version of our wedding day than Bob does, here is how our weekend went.ThursdayA very eventful day for us. It started with moving all of the decorations and supplies to the church and Community Center. Bob tried on and picked up his tux, unknowing that my dress was hanging up in the same room. At Midnight we went to pick up our friends Thom and Jenny at the airport. It was great to see them. They flew in from Washington.
Friday
Busy, busy..... Keah, Bev, JR, & Tiffany arrived at my parent's house about 11am. Keah needed to practice with the piano at the church. Keah and I went to have my nails done and to pick up my dress and veil. We dropped of the dress and veil at the church and went back to Thom & Jenny's hotel. Jenny also needed to practice in the church. While at the hotel, we ran into my Uncle Donald from Florida. The rehearsal was scheduled for 7pm Friday night. I'm happy to report everyone was on time. Even Troy. :) The rehearsal lasted until about 8:30 and then we headed to Colby's Grill for a fabulous dinner buffet. During dinner Bob and I handed out gifts for everyone who helped us. We also gave everyone gag gifts. The gag gifts were a great hit. We had been working on them for a long, long time. We were glad to see everyone enjoyed them. After dinner, because of a scheduling problem with the Center, we went to decorate the church and hall. While the majority of our ceremony was formal decor, our reception had more of a fall harvest feel. During the week, I had packaged everything for each table into a separate bag. Even though I had given my layout to the center, we still had to rearrange tables. After the tables were set up properly, everything else went very quickly. Our centerpieces were made of fall leave runners, gourds, pumpkins, indian corn, and candles. Sprinkled on each table were confetti hearts in red and gold. While we were decorating, Troy set up his DJ equipment with the help of Alan. Around the DJ booth, we placed corn stalks and carved pumpkins. The carved pumpkins said "Bob & Jen", "10-16-99", and one had a heart. Marie and Randy did an outstanding job with them. (I wish we could have those carved pumpkins every year.) We also had corn stalks and uncarved pumpkins by the entrance to the Center. We didn't do many decorations in the church. The church we were married in was completed in January 1999. It's beautiful and we wanted to let the natural beauty be seen. The only thing we did was place pew bows of white toole and red roses down the middle aisle. We finished decorating just after midnight.Sara, Amy, and Denise had spent the night with me. Amy, Sara and I kept Denise up laughing and yelling across the apartment.
Saturday
The Big Day!!!!We woke up at 8am. Sara, Jenny, and Samantha had scheduled hair appointments at 9am.At 8:30 the doorbell rang, Bob had sent me Roses. (isn't he sweet.) It had been Amy's job to keep me at the apartment until they arrived. While the woman had their hair and make-up done, the men all met for breakfast at Country Kitchen. The girls then met at the church at 10:30 for any final touch-ups and to dress. My mom had forgotten Sam's slip and had to run back home. Rebecca brought us donuts, juice, and a perfect emergency kit. While we were getting ready, Denise had gone to May's Floral to pick up the Rose arrangement for the alter, to honor our deceased family members. At 11:30 our photographer, Tom Yarrington, arrived. He did a fabulous job. We can't thank him enough. Tom started with mine and the girls pictures. In the mean time, the men arrived at the church at 11:45. Their pictures were scheduled at 12:15. At 1pm we had scheduled a half an hour of pre-taped music to start. Everyone had quite the time of keeping me entertained when the music started. Periodically, I would yell out "Funny Story" and someone would have to tell me something to keep me from crying. I wanted to walk out and see what was going on when the prelude music started but, Denise and Rebecca wouldn't let me. :( Our Ceremony is basically a blurr to me. Bob escorted our mothers and or grandmothers down the aisle. After he escorted our mothers down, each of them went to light one of the tapers by our unity candle. My cousin, Keah, played the piano. My friend, Jenny, sang the mass parts and "The Our Father", Bob sang "I Do, Cherish You", and my dad wrote and sang a song with my mom entitled "Two Hearts". Bob's aunts Cheryl and Adelyne, and my aunt and uncle, Bev and Donald, read for us. My firend, Michelle, handed out programs before the ceremony. And, Mikki lit the candles at the alter for us. We have a wonderful picture of Mikki crying as I walked down the aisle. The ceremony lasted about an hour. Our receiving line was immediately following the ceremony. But, it was cut a tiny bit short due to the fact that we had to be out of the church by 3:30. (Saturday mass is a 4pm) We hurried to do the group pictures and the shots with just Bob and me. Since we hadn't seen each other before the ceremony, we had tons of pictures left to do. We left the church shortly after 3:30 to go the Rod 'n Gun park. The park where Bob proposed to me. Bob and I rode with Glenn and Adelyne. The girls, driven by Amy, took my car. Troy and Mike rode together and brought beer down to the park. A much needed beer. The girls got a little lost but, made it ok. We were very blessed to have the sun come out during the day. Our photographer had wanted a cloudy day for pictures in the church. Rebecca came to the park with us to help with pictures. Denise stayed at the center to make sure everything was just right. They did a great job of fixing and picking up everything while we were taking pictures. After pictures, we went back to the church. Glenn and Adelyne went back to the hotel for a few minutes. And; Troy, Mike, Amy, Sara, Bob, and I went to a local Altoona bar. I always said I wanted to go bar hopping during my wedding day.When we arrived back at the Center, Tom had us cut the cake immediately. Our cake was perfect. The backdrop had ivy and colored fall leaves. The cake was marble with butter cream frosting. My favorite part was the fountain.Dinner was at 6pm. And, it was wonderful. We had chicken, ham, little red potatoes, and corn (for Sam, it's her favorite) We would only kiss during dinner if someone would sing a song to us. The song had to have the word "love" in it. Bob and I had spent a lot of time making cookies for each of the tables. I'm happy to say they were a hit. We also spent a lot of time personalizing things for our wedding. Our wedding party, parents, and friends were given decorated champaign glasses. ( I love my glue gun.) We decorated our guest book, cake topper, and cake knives. I would decorate anything just to use my hot glue gun again. :) After dinner, we raised our glasses for toasts from Troy, Jenny, Amy, my Dad, Bob and Myself. With the tables being cleared, the girls and I went out to the bathroom where a couple of Bob's younger cousins still had some songs to sing to me. They were so cute. I told them I would kiss Bob later for them.Troy played music for us during the dinner and things were in full swing shortly after 8. Our first dance was to Lonestar's "Amazed". The second dance was for all couples to Tim and Faith's "It's Your Love". Bob and his mom and my dad and I danced to Billy Dean's "If There Hadn't Been You". The grand march was at 10pm. I can't remember what song was playing. Thom and Jenny had to leave after the grand march. Jenny's parents, Jim and Carol, drove them back to Antigo where they were having Jenny's baby shower the next day. The bouquet toss looked like it was rigged. I wanted Mikki to get the bouquet. (She had unoffically gotten an engagement ring earlier in the day. Their day is October 6, 2001) Well, Mikki caught the bouquet and Bob's cousin Ricky caught the garter. We have great pictures of Mikki shoving Bob's cousin out of the way.The dance ended just after midnight. We had to take all of the gifts back to our apartment for the gift opening the next day. Amy and Denise loaded Amy's truck, while Sara took the corn stalks in her truck. With everything unloaded we said goodnight to everyone. Bob and I took a few minutes to talk about the day and open some cards. Despite all of our jokes about Bob passing out first, we were so exhausted, I fell asleep first. The week with only 4-5 hours of sleep a night finally caught up with me.
Sunday
Just when you think all of the excitement is over..............We woke up at 9am. It felt good to sleep in. I went over to my parents to pick up some things for my mom. My grandparents followed me back to our apartment. The gift opening was at 11:30. Bob and I were shocked at how many guests we had. We were also very blessed with how generous our families and friends were. I had decorated our apartment for Halloween and we used the carved pumpkins and corn stalks as decorations also. My mom and grandma had made tons of food including grandma's famous punch. They made barbecue and relish trays. I don't think food ever tasted so good. We had plenty of cake left over for dessert along with the brownies and Rice Crispy bars Sam and I had made. After the gift opening, Dad, Bob and Donald watched the Packer game while Mom, Cindy, and I went back to the center to clean up any remaining items. Mom and I let the balloons go but, I kept some for my scrap book which still isn't done. Cindy was a God send with cleaning and wrapping up the cake. We couldn't have done it without her. When the game was done, we sat with Don and Cindy for awhile to talk. It was nice spending some time with them. After Don and Cindy left, Bob and I finished packing for our Honeymoon in Las Vegas (kind of sounds like a movie doesn't it? and then went to sleep.