My Heart is Full

My heart is full of happy!

My sweet friends Jasmine and Derek are getting married today! I am so glad Jasmine is letting my help with the wedding and I am praying that it's everything her and Derek want it to be.

I have stocked up on kleenex's because I know there will be tears! Jasmine just has the sweetest, most gentle spirit of anyone I've ever met...it's very obvious that she and Derek absolutely adore each other.

It's going to be a great wedding!

AND yesterday....3 weeks early...my friends Kevin and Kim welcomed their new baby girl into the world!
Palmer Isabella is absolutely beautiful! Her little face is just so precious and she has such pretty dark blue eyes.
We were able to see her through the nursery glass and she was just stretching and making faces...so cute!

If it crosses your mind to pray for this new family...they have a lot to deal with as far as adoption paperwork and rules.
The amount of red tape and money it's taking for these great Christian people who want to be parents so bad amazes me, but I guess in the end it's to protect everyone involved.

And, I'll say it once more: the baby is so friggin cute! I can't wait to see her in the Johnny Cash onsie Mike and I bought her!!

And I asked my sweet husband if he felt a little tickle wherever men should feel a tickle telling them to have a baby when he saw Kev and Kim's little bundle of joy.

He said no, and my baby-carrying parts were silent too...so...yeah...I'll just borrow Palmer and give her to Kevin when she poops.

I woke up at 4:30 this morning. Ugh. Now, I'm off to meet Jasmine and help her decorate for her outdoor/barn wedding before it gets too hot.

No pictures, please...I don't sweat well.

The Hangover

Married!!

Aside from the beginning of the ceremony getting completely screwed up, my wedding was better than I could have ever expected.

It was amazing spending time with my friends Hannah, (who made my hair absolutely beautiful. OMG I looooved my hair!) Sabra, (who was so much help it's not even funny and now my mom wants to adopt her) Allison, (who helped me decorate and kept me from being too mean to Mike while we decorated) Jasmine, Shannon, and Heather kept me laughing and calm!

I also loved spending time with Mike's friends and with people from work I don't get to see often enough. Our wedding was exactly what I wanted it to be...an amazing rock n roll party with all of our favorite people.

And now it's over. I cried when Mike read me the vows he wrote last night...but I've cried 4 or 5 times today! I had SO much fun last night, I felt so loved, and honestly, proud that we pulled it off. I was overwhelmed that so many of our friends pitched in to help, even though we didn't give anyone a title of "bridesmaid" or "groomsdude."

Anyway, I really feel sad that this night we worked so hard to make happen is just a memory. It was over too fast.

I'll feel better tomorrow...when we leave for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I am just having a kid-after-Christmas moment. I really and truly am looking forward to spending my life with Mike.

Now that we aren't practicing our first dance and I'm not stalking wedding websites like a crazy lady, I will hopefully get back to blogging more!

I will share how thrilled I am that I heard the best thing any of our guests could have said so many times: "I love the music!" We worked so hard on the playlist and it made my WEEK that people enjoyed it! (There was, like, 6 hours of music that didn't even get played!)

I feel the tears coming again, so I'm going to watch TV on the couch with my...husband!!!

--Carrie Anne Schroeder Winchel

Heard it in a Love Song...

So happy to report progress on the wedding front.

We are writing our own ceremony, and after a few waaaaay to cheesy attempts, I think we've got a short ceremony that is different, fun, rock 'n roll and "us." Oh, and multimedia...and hopefully hilarious.

The only thing left to do for that is I want to come up with some great things for us to promise during the ring exchange. By great I mean funny, and maybe slightly inappropriate.

I am also working on our play list today, which we are doing ourselves with our own music. We are hiring a DJ to monitor, play and operate things. I am SO glad we can make our own play list. I feel bad because a lot of the music Mike likes wouldn't really work for a wedding situation...at all. (he's aware of this and not offended.)

Anyway, I used to work for a wedding DJ company and I know they basically use the same music for any wedding and I don't want that. At all. Ugh.

So I have pretty much perfected the pre-ceremony tracks...to set the mood. We know what will be playing during the ceremony; and my dinner play list...a.k.a "ambiance for an elegant meal" a.k.a. "let's watch while the bride tries not to spill spaghetti or wine on herself" needs some more songs, and I plan on raiding my mom's pretty solid music collection this week for those.

The main list, "Dance Play List" will be tricky, but I can do it:

I have to figure out how to flow...and flow back again between: outlaw/underground county, '80's hair rock, '90's hard rock and pop, classic rock, regular country, love songs...deep breath* Oh, and I an desperately trying to find a way to work in the Stephen Colbert/Jimmy Fallon/Taylor Hicks version of Rebecca Black's "Friday." I would love a flash mob choreographed dance.

It'll work. I just hope people have FUN. I hope people aren't "too cool" to dance and get crazy with us. That's what I want more than anything.

Okay, I'm done. Thanks for reading. Occasionally I feel the need to vomit out all of my ideas so my head doesn't explode...which is why a decoration post is probably coming soon.

Garland made out of Bud Light cans that happen to be my Wedding Royal Blue? Maaaaybe!

WEDDING UPDATE: What No Bride-to-be Wants to Hear

"It doesn't fit."

Whhhhaaaaat?

Yep, that's what the adorable little alterations gal at Davids Bridal told me Saturday at my fitting.

Here is my dress. Keep in mind I'm not a waify wedding dress model who's being paid to look angelic and virginal and full of wonder.

Anyway...I bought the dress a year ago, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But, yeah, the zipper only went about halfway up my back, and I spent all my boob job money on the honeymoon, so that's not the problem.

My mom said it's probably because I have been working out and spending lots of time with p90X Tony, so I am just more muscly.

Muscly and brawny. Like Xena: Warrior Princess.

BUT my story does have a happy ending. The lady in charge of my alterations suggested we make my dress have a corset back!

So that makes my dress a) one of a kind and b) sexier.

And you lucky people will get to look at something like this:





I kid...

I'm hoping for something more like that.

Here's to drinking a Guinness at 10 am on St. Patrick's Day!

Cakes and Catering and Venue...Oh My!

I drug Mike to a wedding show Sunday. I think he enjoyed it more than I did...I got a little defensive when people assumed I wanted to spend 2 months worth of paychecks so I could have a certain type of chair at my reception...

I don't remember what they're called...but apparently there's a hot, new chair trend happening in the wedding world.

So anyway, I had to be reminded to not snap at people, "We're having a small wedding!" "We're on a budget!" "Do I look like I want to spend $2500 on photography?!?"

"They're just doing their job...just nod and smile and move along," Mike says.

When I first met him 3 years ago, I thought he was scary. Now he's the little angel on my shoulder. A very handsome and manly angel.

Anyway-sies...Sunday was productive. We tasted the most delicious cake ever...ever! It probably means that we may have a more traditional looking cake. The electric guitar confection may have to wait until Mike's 30th birthday or something.

Ugh. I'll turn 30 before he will.

Celebrations By Sonja is definitely who we want to make our cake. They use buttercream icing, no fondant, and real fruit filling. The one we sampled had strawberries! Since we are such food network geeks, I figure our cake has to taste out of this world. I hope we can find some way to make it our own and rock 'n roll.

I thought I wanted to have our short and simple ceremony and fun and loud reception/dinner at the Springfield Brewing Company. After the wedding show and seeing how these venues that usually host weddings want to accommodate the bride, I'm looking elsewhere. From talking to the BrewCo, I think I might be an afterthought to them.

So, we are going to go look at the Santa Maria Lounge at the Knights of Columbus Diamond Room. It's really affordable on a Friday. I talked to the caterer there. She's from Simply Delicious. Trying to decide what kind of food to serve will be hard! I think the spinach artichoke dip with the manicotti and a salad sounds good.

And $4 a bottle champagne.

I want to leave all this wedding talk with something fun. I have some really cute pictures of my puppy, Cash, sitting on the couch with the remote control in his paw, but haven't uploaded them yet.

So I'll encourage you to check out this blog my friend Heather showed me...speaking of cakes! Hilarious.

Loves!
The future Mrs. Winchel

April Fools Day, the Perfect Day to Begin a Blog

Good Morning, everyone...well, it's morning to me! I'm starting this blog because I think it will be fun to meet new people, network, share ideas, and keep me motivated to lead the somewhat exciting, rock n roll life I aspire to live here in good ole Springfield, Missouri.

98% of the ideas floating around in my head right now are...dum dum da dum...wedding ideas! I'm hoping to meet other brides, future and former, to go with me on this journey that will end on May 20th, 2011 when I marry the man of my dreams.

I've found some great sites for non-traditional brides (that's me!) and have some ideas of my own to treat our friends and families to the best party/celebration of love and music and food ever and am excited to have a place to share it all!

Plus, I plan on, you know, having a life while planning my wedding. (WHAT!?!) Coming up: Carrie and Mike attend a wine tasting class and get new tattoos, shopping trip to Branson (yee haw), 48 Hour Film Festival, engagement photo shoot, Rock Star Mayhem tour this summer...oh, and baked potatoes for dinner tonight.