Our Big Day

Here's a glimpse into the super fun event that was Our Big Day! These are some of the pictures taken on my camera. I have more from my mom and brother-in-law, but those will have to wait for now.

I was blessed with a really wonderful personal bridal shower on Thursday evening and here are the fun friends that were able to join in the celebration. One of the best parts of it all? The planners specifically didn't plan any of the typical "bridal shower games" because they knew that what I would most especially like was time to just visit with all these fun friends that I don't get to see very often! It was a wonderful way to start off the wedding weekend!
Fun Fergus Friends, back together again! Carrie, Christine, me, and Laura.

It was so fun to have Christine and Carrie help me all throughout the wedding day as my personal attendants. We realized that the three of us have now gone full circle in blessing one another in this way on our wedding days. Here they are steaming my dress that had traveled all the way from Appleton to Fergus.

Brent and I chose to have StromStudio take our professional wedding photographs. We had a great time with Eric and Susanne all day and truly had a fun time during the photo session. First we went out to a few places for pictures of just Brent and I, and Carrie and Christine came along to help and also snap a few shots from my camera. It was so fun! I'm looking forward to seeing the professional shots and will share those with you once we get them.

(Here's the one picture all day that shows that yes, I did wear flip flops the entire day and was totally comfortable in them and SO thankful that I wasn't wearing flimsy high-heels since no one could see my shoes anyway! My skirt was blessedly big enough!!)

My handsome groom

Our wedding party joined us for some group shots. I am so happy with how the pictures look, seeing the fun red dresses that my bridesmaids wore, along with the fun, bright, and cheery flowers. Brent had three groomsmen, and then we each asked our brother-in-laws to be ushers along with my cousins Sara and Tami (the women in black dresses). Brent's nephew was our ring-bearer and my goddaughter was our flower girl.

Me and my girls

I love my ring! Brent gave me a beautiful diamond and I love how it stands out and sparkles. It's already been a month (how is that possible????) and I keep finding myself staring at it often! I'm also really happy with how our flowers turned out. I knew I wanted yellow roses and red gerbera daisies so I had those in my bouquet along with red roses and also a few calla lilies and some fun berries. The bridesmaids had yellow and red roses with the berries. I'm hoping to show you a better picture once I get my hands on one.

I was also really happy with how the sanctuary looked. There was a funeral at church on Friday morning and a piano concert on Friday evening so we weren't able to decorate until late on Friday night. It honestly wasn't stressful for me because I knew just what I wanted to do and that I wanted to keep it all fairly simple. I had found some really fun yellow pots and planted geraniums in them and added a few candles. I'll find a better close-up picture and show you later (or I think you can check the link to Candis' blog and see some pictures there).

What post could be complete without a picture of this guy? David was our honorary ring-bearer and from the very beginning, I knew that all I wanted was for him to be in a family picture. I had been a wedding coordinator long enough to know that there's no way you can count on a two-year-old to do something. So, I completely went into the day knowing that it didn't matter one way or another if he walked down the aisle or not, was in any other pictures or not, or really had any involvement whatsoever. He was in the family picture, he was not in any other picture, I think he walked down the aisle and then went directly to the nursery. After the ceremony we all went back to a side room to wait until the guests were ushered out and here's the shot I couldn't resist taking! What a hilarious cutie-pie!! He loves that puppy, and it appears he loves watching Veggie Tales as well!

And finally, a sweet smile to finish the post. I love this amazing girl! She's such a sweetheart, and it was so fun to have her involved on Our Big Day. I love when she answers the phone when I call, or wraps her arms around me in a hug, but especially when she gives me this shy, sweet grin!

There you have it, a glimpse into Our Big Day. I'm looking forward to seeing our professional pictures, or any other fun pictures that you might have to share with us. (feel free to email or send them!)

Wedding Sneak-Peak

Here are just a few wedding pictures to preview! We haven't gotten our professional pictures back yet, so while we're waiting, I've been going through some of the pictures I've gotten from my mom or brother-in-law, etc. I am working on a few posts of all sorts of fun details, but as you can imagine, there are quite a few pictures to sort through!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few of the pictures that others snapped on my own camera. I see I uploaded them in reverse order and need to shut down my computer so I can get to work, but here's a little preview of what our BEAUTIFUL wedding day looked like!

More to come later!

And a Post-script: will you pray for us? It's been pretty busy since we've returned from our honeymoon and there are many things going on which require some decision-making. Will you pray for wisdom? I'll share more as I'm able, but Brent and I would appreciate the Lord's guidance and we've been asking Him for wisdom. Thank you for joining us in that request!

The Upside of the Day

Brent and I decided to come to the Twin Cities this weekend. Here's how it went:
The upside of the day was at the end of it, when we went to ColdStone Creamery with my parents and Little David and his dad (Julie was working). It seems as though Grandpa thought that all little boys should learn about puddles. I think he caught on okay!

We're Back!

We're back at the Lakehouse! We arrived back today after finishing our wonderful honeymoon.

Just where did we go? Well, if you've been following my blog for any length of time, you've heard me talk about my favorite place in the country. I've gotten to visit or live all over the place, and love all sorts of scenery, but I do have one favorite place. My wonderful husband (well, fiance at the time back in February) made arrangements for us to go there, and a few other beautiful spots as well.

As I'm sure you can guess, I have many pictures, but here are just a few for you to use as hints until I get the others all organized. Some of you might recognize a location instantly and others might need to do a little research!

I can't wait to read your guesses, and remember, there's more than one location!!

(And, if you're on Facebook, our photographers posted some lovely wedding preview shots. I can hardly wait to see the rest!)

Where's Waldo?

I mean, "Where's Kari and Brent?"

On our honeymoon, of course! As some of you know, we decided not to tell anyone where we were going on our honeymoon until we got back (but yes, we did let our parents know). Since then, we decided that it might be fun to give a few hints and then read what the comments are. Some of you might not have any idea, and others might guess right away!

Here are just a couple of hints, so first of all guess what each picture is, and then see if you can guess where we are now!



At one point I thought I might blog a bit more, but let's be honest.... it's our honeymoon! See ya later!

[and of course I'll be posting pictures sometime of our wedding -which turned out to be a beautiful, fun and perfect day!]

The Wedding Day

It's here! It's finally here! A day I've been waiting for... for a really long time! I am so excited to become Brent's wife in just a few hours!

I thought I'd just post quick to ask you to pray. Please pray for us as we begin our married life. Please pray for all the details of the day. Please pray that I remember all of what happens, because I've been told it will go by quickly and I'd like to remember everything! Most of all, please pray the Lord's blessing on the start of this new adventure together.

Toes and Fruit and Fireworks

This is my last night in Appleton for a few days, and I'm happy to report that everything is pretty much done for the wedding! There are just a few little notes I'd like to write to people, but all the other "stuff" is done and even packed into the car! My eyelids are ready to close, so I'm praying for a good night's sleep tonight so that I can be refreshed when we leave here in the morning.

Brent is spending the evening with some buddies, at what is my guess of a pretty tame bachelor's party! We've had his daughter, M, with us since Sunday, so tonight she and I grabbed some dinner, did some shopping and picture taking...

and got our toes looking cute for the wedding! Fergus Falls, here comes some fun feet! :)

We've had a great few days together, and it's been wonderful to have this time here in Appleton before the true busy-ness of the week starts. It's been so nice to have the projects all finished up, and M helped finish the last one! If you're at our wedding, you can thank her for the wonderful ribbon-tying she did on our programs!

Backtracking a few days, I had to work the night of July 3rd, so when I woke up on the Fourth, Brent had come over to work on a few things. We talked about eating something and settled in on an omelet and also some fruit. I tackled the omelet and asked Brent to do the fruit. When I turned around, here's what I saw!

I knew I was marrying a wonderful man, but really? This is too much. How can I be so lucky? Here's a picture of table set for that meal, and after I snapped the shot I realized I needed to dig out a couple of our red Fiestaware pieces we've started to receive, so I did just that and we've enjoyed eating on them! And they fit in so perfectly with our red dining room! More pictures to come later, once we actually have some time to unpack a few boxes...

Later on our Fourth of July celebration happened at our pastor's house with his family and a few other friends. Their son, B, hosted a magnificent fireworks show, that I've heard is an annual tradition. What fun! GREAT JOB, B!!

We trust you each had a wonderful day celebrating our country, and remembering those that have fought to keep our freedoms!

Full of Blessings in Fergus Falls

[The pictures for this post were uploaded shortly after the fun day, but there is so much I've been wanting to say, it's taken a while to finish. At this point, though, I thought I would just publish the post and trust that you know the huge level of thankfulness I wish to convey!]

I was blessed with a beautiful bridal shower in Fergus Falls! It was such a lovely day, filled with fun people, delicious food, thoughtful gifts, and lots of blessings. I have been so blessed to call Bethel my home church, and while I haven't lived in Fergus for two years now, it will always feel like that. It's been so fun to start attending our Lutheran Brethren church in Appleton, and I know we will continue to grow in the fun friendships we've started there, but it was also so fun to be back in Fergus and feel so loved and missed.

THANK YOU to each of you who were able to come to the shower, THANK YOU to those of you who sent gifts, THANK YOU to the wonderful friends who helped host it. I felt so incredibly blessed and returned to Brent on cloud nine!

These dear little friends helped distribute all the gifts.
Here are the wonderful friends who helped organize everything.
O and A also helped greet people or offer punch.
My mom was able to be there, and a wonderful added bonus is that our annual national church convention was going on, so there were other fun family and friends in town for the day. At first I started getting nervous that it would be too big of a conflict, but it ended up being a wonderful bonus to have so many out of town friends there! As some people have said, I'm a "national" woman, and it was so fun to have this become a "national" shower! Here you see a familiar face to this blog, especially from my time living in Seattle in 2007, my mom's cousin June! It was so fun to have her there for my shower and she's able to come back for the wedding as well!
Some of my dear Fergus friends who were able to come.
Opening a lovely gift. Brent and I feel SOOOO blessed as we look around our house now!
My friend, Mandy, and her dear little guy (who has the best hair!).
Christine helped with organizing everything, and she asked me a few multiple-choice questions so that I could answer them and introduce a little about Brent to everyone there. I'm not at home at the moment to tell you what some of the questions were, but I will say that Brent laughed loudly at a few of them when I shared them with him later on!
Candis gave a little history of specific wedding traditions and then tied in a spiritual aspect to them. This was especially fun thinking back on ALL the MANY wedding conversations we've had together over the years! On a side note, I am so incredibly blessed that she agreed to be our wedding coordinator, since I really have been talking about weddings with her for years! I know that any one of a hundred things that could surprise us on our wedding day will go just fine, as Candis will handle it exactly how I would want!
One of my dearest friends and bridesmaids, Jenn, and her girls helped stock our cupboards by reading a fun poem that included many things like "pledging" our love to each other, having a "fantastic" "life" filled with "joy" and so on and so on, and gave commercial items of the same name for us to enjoy! Rumor has it that her husband, Ryan, who I have known since I was 15, especially liked helping write the poem! :)
WHAT A FUN SURPRISE! My team-leader from my trip to Africa last fall happened to be in town for the church convention and was able to stop by the shower! Trisch shares my love for Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and has loved following my love story with my very own Mr. Darcy. She has prayed for us, asked how things are going, and is even able to make a trip out for the wedding! It was the first time I had seen her since Brent and I have been engaged and it brought tears to my eyes seeing the tears in her eyes when she saw me filled with joy. She's an amazing woman that I am so blessed to call my friend!
My mom's cousin, Ginny, (in the pink) and some of her dear friends who are some of my dear friends as well!
Some of the beautiful red and yellow decorations (yes, I've been hinting at our wedding colors by the background theme on my blog!). The yellow pot is even A's flower girl "basket"!
OH MY WORD! My dear friend, Carrie, who was so disappointed to have to miss the wedding but so excited to be in town for my shower, made me a beautiful gift! She is a fellow quilter, who has made more wonderful gifts for people than maybe anyone else I know. She also is a kindred spirit with my love of fabrics, and also with dishes! She completely understands my love of a 1950's style kitchen as well! Well, she faithfully follows this blog so when she read about The Lakehouse, she knew just what to do. She quilted this wonderful picnic blanket, complete with waterproof backing so it can sit on the grass. Then she filled a picnic basket with wonderful vintage tableware so that Brent and I can enjoy a picnic out on our dock or lawn! How incredibly thoughtful! I LOVE this gift!
[I need to say here, that one of the wonderful, amazing things about this shower is that there were so many wonderful gifts like Carrie's! People have been so incredibly generous, it's been quite overwhelming! And shower's at Bethel are so fun because a bride knows she'll get many lovely things from her gift registries, and she'll also get many lovely gifts that have been picked out or made just for her! I love knowing that Sally was praying for me and Brent as she crocheted a gorgeous doily, and Brent's already enjoyed the homemade jam/jelly that Vonnie is known to bless a bride with and there are just so many other lovely gifts I'm actually sitting her with tears in my eyes thinking of the HUGE blessing you all are to me!]

Here we are as the shower is winding down, and you can see that June helped me prepare for the wedding rehearsal by making a "ribbon bouquet" to carry that night.
Her husband, Joel, is one of my favorite people and he even stopped by to say hi. Thanks for your bravery, Joel... coming to a ladies shower! :)
After the guests left, my mom and I were able to enjoy some time with Jenn and Barb while we cleaned up and ate dinner as well. It took a bit of time to pack all the gifts up because there were so many we were blessed with!
As you can see, this is a post full of blessings! I know I was told that my final gift of the day is that I don't need to write thank you notes for each individual gift, but THANK YOU again and again for the wonderful shower of blessings I received!