Category Archives: wedding

paper

  By Kevin | January 21, 2012 - 10:16 pm | married life, wedding
Leave a comment

Tomorrow, Meg and I will have been married for one year.  We started to celebrate today by presenting each other with presents made of paper.

The names of some anniversaries provide guidance for appropriate or traditional gifts for the spouses to give each other; if there is a party these can be brought by the guests or influence the theme or decoration. These gifts vary in different countries, but some years have well-established connections now common to most nations: 5th Wooden, 10th Tin, 15th Crystal, 20th China, 25th Silver, 35thPearl, 40th Ruby, 50th Golden, 60th Diamond. The tradition may have originated in medieval Germany where, if a married couple lived to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their wedding, the wife was presented by her friends and neighbours with a silver wreath to congratulate them for the good fortune that had prolonged the lives of the couple for so many years. On celebration of the 50th, the wife received a wreath of gold. Over time the number of symbols expanded and the German tradition came to assign gifts that had direct connections with each stage of married life. The symbols have changed over time.(via wikipedia)

Meg and I decided to go with the traditional gifts making this year’s gift paper (and we additionally decided that we would create them ourselves) They are shown below.

 

finally

  By Kevin | August 14, 2011 - 8:36 am | wedding
Leave a comment

Ok so I’m not sure what excuse I have to just be getting the wedding photos up online, but if you think of a good one, please let me know.

The photos in the slideshow (click HERE for the FULLSCREEN version) below were taken by our good friend Louisa (and her assistant Jess) – Louisa works for Rivets and Roses Photography.

Please contact Meg or myself if you see a photo you’d like to have (we have the ability to do that and we don’t need to bother Louisa – or we may already have plans to send you one soon anyway)

inspiration dump

  By Kevin | March 2, 2011 - 9:53 pm | wedding
Leave a comment

Everyday I input lots of information into my brain.  Most days I think it might be too much.  Thus sometimes it’s nice to get rid of some.  Now that the wedding is over, I can “release” the following online wedding inspiration sites from my daily radar.

As I said above, perhaps I try and input a little too much at once.  What can I say, I like being informed.

sacrament

  By Meg | February 17, 2011 - 9:28 pm | married life, wedding
Leave a comment

Augustine of Hippo defined sacrament as a visible sign of an invisible reality. Kevin and I were excited to have a wedding ceremony and receive the sacrament of marriage. When Father Joseph spoke at our wedding, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he had read My Sweetest Find and Meg’s Single Step.  I also appreciated that he acknowledged the preparation work we had done. He just sent us a copy of his homily. This is the conclusion of what he said:

Margaret and Kevin, I assure you
that if you take one step at a time,
if you keep your final destination before you,
if you follow God’s map
of the great commandment of love,
and trust that you will never travel alone,
your marriage will be blessed
beyond anything you can imagine.

we’re back

  By Kevin | February 4, 2011 - 12:16 pm | home, married life, wedding
Leave a comment

After 8 full days in Spain (4 in Barcelona, 1 in Bilbao, and 3 in Madrid) and two full days in transit,

Meg captures me taking pictures on top of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia in Barcelona

Meg and I are back in the US and back to what most people would call our “normal” lives.  Meg went back to work yesterday and I returned today.  We’ve been trying to catch up with things (unwrap presents, put away decoration supplies, lots of laundry, starting to integrate our heretofore mostly individual lives, and generally being very, very happy spending most of our time together.)

I bet many of you might have been curious, about the future of this blog.  (Will it end after the wedding?  How long will it stay? . . .) Well the intention when we started this blog was to have a shared space where we keep all the people we care about updated on our lives and other fun things – so we intend to keep it for a long time.  (It will occasionally be “renovated” to reflect our current situation – the first one will probably be soon) We both have multiple online outlets to express our continued individuality (we’ll probably post info about those someday if you aren’t informed,) but this space will be our FAMILY space. I’m feeling a posting burst coming on as well, so stay tuned.

Before I go, I have a favor to ask.  If you attended the wedding and took any pictures at all, can you please share them with Meg and I (in their full resolution) so we can have a even deeper appreciation of the wonderful day you all shared with us.  We’d really appreciate it.  Just send Meg or me an email and we’ll let you know how to get them to us. (oh and we’ll have Spain photos up soon too.)

we did it.

  By Kevin | January 23, 2011 - 8:22 am | married life, wedding
Leave a comment

Thank you all so much to everyone who attended, and sent us well wishes.  It was a beautiful day (luckily we only had to be out in the cold for a short time.) and the love and support from all our family and friends made it that much warmer.  We hope everyone had a great time and we look forward to seeing you all in the future, either at our (new) home or at yours.  Take care, we’ll write more when we return from Spain.

We’re off to (what for us will be considered warm at 50 degree weather)  Spain for the honeymoon.  4 Days in Barcelona / 3 days in Madrid / 1 day in Bilbao

I’d write more, but we have to pack and get to the airport so we don’t miss our flight.

less than a week

  By Kevin | January 18, 2011 - 11:58 am | wedding
Leave a comment

So by this time next week, Meg and I will be somewhere in Barcelona, Spain.  We are very excited and anxious to have some time to relax and enjoy each other’s company without any more worries about the wedding.  Like trying to make sure that all the people who support us will be able to make it in what appears to be cold weather (but hopefully no snow)

I thought I’d put some last minute helpful hints for our guests here in the blog.  (so I know at least some of you will be better prepared for the event this weekend)

If you’re attending the rehearsal on Friday night, click here for more added information.

Getting to the Church:  From St. Cloud  - Take Hwy 75 (Division St.) west into St. Joseph / Turn Left at College Ave N.  (County Road #2 ) / The church parking lot is at the corner of College Ave and Minnesota St. (on your left.)

Getting to the Reception: Follow the map shown below to get from the Church to the Gorecki Center.

Other tidbits:  Mulled wine and Apple Cider will be served with Hors D’oeuvres to help take off the chill walking from the parking lot to the Reception/ The coat room is upstairs/ Dinner will be at approximately 4:45 / Feel free to take as many pictures as you like in the Travelling Photo Booth.  A copy will be yours to keep and Meg and I will get an album with everyone’s photos.

two weeks left?

  By Kevin | January 9, 2011 - 9:31 pm | wedding
Leave a comment

OMG!  There’s only two weeks left?!?

Yup, there are only two weeks left.  Which means we’re in final prep mode.

  • We’re waiting for lots of RSVP’s – Please send it in.
  • We’ve met (or communicated) with the following people – Our priest / Our Cantor / Our Accompanist / Catering – Rehearsal Dinner / Catering – Reception / Photo Booth Operators / Florist / Photographer / DJ / Musical Guest (Yes there is a DJ & a musical guest — We aim to entertain [in addition to getting married])
  • I’ve cut up foam and books for decorations.
  • Meg and friends have folded lots of paper flowers.
  • We’ve worked on table decorations and table place-cards.
  • We’ve talked about lighting and bachelor/ette parties.  (not at the same time.)
  • We’ve talked about housing and transportation for out of town relatives.
  • We’ve worked on clearing out my apartment in St. Cloud (taking things to the dumpster / goodwill / or Maple Grove)
  • And we’ve worked to enjoy the little  downtime we’ve had doing things like watching Easy A from our couch

I’m looking forward to the following things (post wedding.)

  • Not having to look at any more wedding blogs for design ideas
  • Flying first class to Europe (thanks, Steven.)
  • Enjoying over a week in Spain walking around reading Rick Steve’s books to Meg and smiling all the time.
  • AND being married to my best friend and love.

Take care everyone, hope to see you in two weeks, Kevin

why are you getting married in January? in Minnesota?

  By Meg | December 20, 2010 - 7:05 pm | wedding
Leave a comment

The question we seem to be fielding a lot these days is: why?
Why St. Joseph? Why January?

I promise you, dear guest, it was not to deter you from attending the wedding.

The answer is a combination of conditions including the church’s blessing. (Remember our manifesto? Having a a spiritual day with a Catholic ceremony was our first criterion.)

We chose to get married in St. Joseph because Kevin has been a member of the church, a lector, and we know our priest. Also the Benedictine community of CSBSJU has been an important part of our courtship. I think I can speak for both Kevin and myself when I say we identify with Benedictine values of hospitality, justice, peace, moderation and respect for others.

Patience is still a virtue I pray for regularly. So when all was said and done, the earliest we could marry was January. We seized the opportunity. We’ve been engaged for over a year and Kevin and I are altar-bound.

Regardless of your faith tradition, we appreciate that many of you are keeping the faith about the weather. We can’t say there won’t be snow or rain or ice or sunshine or warm temperatures on January 22nd, but there will be a wedding.

We hope you’ll join us.