the reception: a series dedicated to laura and eric's wedding

after the fan-fare of the ceremony and cocktail hour (i was taking pics with the family and bride and groom, so i didn't capture this fun!), we sat down for our bbq dinner - YUM.  laura has always wanted a backyard bbq wedding, and with a little more frills than that usually suggests, that's exactly what she had.  kinders (a bbq joint around the bay) catered their super yummy chicken and tri-tip, salad, beans, and sides.  we had wine on the table, fresh lemonade, water, and kegs at the bar.  the food was perfect.  the weather was perfect.  and the long tables?  couldn't have been better for socializing and taking in the scenes.

mr.&mrs.eric giacobazzi

a private table

bbq time!
since when don't i take pictures of food?!?!

interaction galore!

this is a repeat, but i love it!

 and ah, to the rest of the evening.  laura wanted a dessert 'pot-luck', but that's kind of risky and hard to pull off for over 150 guests, so we made and bought the variety she was looking for.  we had cupcakes and brownies and pies and cakes and cannolis and candy on the tables.  a perfect wedding for anyone with a sweet-tooth!

dessert table

the mr&mrs also had a cake to cut

and nicely feed eachother!

 and then....because it isn't an event in the winter/early spring at our house without them...dad busted out the fireworks!

gazing at the display

smiling for the photographer (of the professional variety!)

not too shabby, huh?

 and then it was time for the first dance as husband and wife!

love this!
pete and i danced under the same lights :)
it makes me a little teary, too, dev.

david popped in the ipod with pre-chosen songs, and dancing ensued.  we all had a blast celebrating laura and eric's first day of their marriage.  LOVE THEM!

the day-of: a series dedicated to laura and eric's wedding

day of!  even though the engagement-to-wedding was a whirl-wind and super fast, it seemed as though this day would never come!  and at the same time, it came all-too-quickly!

in the morning, we grabbed coffee and doughnuts and went to my parents' house to finalize the set up.  i mainly worked on getting the poms up in the trees and finishing the dessert table.  i'm not sure what else we did, but we were there a while - it's always like that, seems like you only have a couple things to do, but they take hours.  and there are always more than a couple things to do!

poms & ceremony site

flowers in mason jars!

burlap, our own plates, own mason jars (why rent?!)
this table reserved for fam

eric+laura and i do m&ms.
candy labels by me

we ran home, where i showered and got ready while i plopped jack in from of a couple curious george shows.  bad mom move, but i needed to keep him occupied.  pete had to run to the mall to pick up jack's suit.  which had been ordered, and delivered, but was nowhere to be found when i tried to pick it up on friday.  they ordered a new one super-fast, and it was in the store by 10:30am, next day!  crazy.  when pete returned, i busted a move up to the event with wet nails and toes.  whew.  on-time!  (laura gets stressed by 'people getting ready' and i couldn't be late because i bossed and bossed and bossed the other girls to be there ON TIME!)

and here we are (here come a ton of pics, sorry):

with future mil

we took a ton of pics with the girls, laura took some by herself and then with my parents, then it was wedding time! we walked down the aisle at 6pm to a perfect temperature, jack was great, and the ceremony was perfect.  i totally had a cry-face during her procession, but i was able to get myself under control for the remainder of the ceremony!  not like her at our wedding:

one of my favorite pics :)

standing for the bride's entrance

laura and my dad.
she entered to 'stand by me'
i cried and cried!

stay tuned for the reception, etc.!

the rehearsal: a series dedicated to laura and eric's wedding

i've been postponing this post for a few reasons:
a. there is no way i can do the evening justice...
b. i'm still so very excited for my sister!  and i'm having a hard time not crying tears of happiness for her and eric everytime i start to think about it...
c. it kind of took me a while to recover from the whirlwind 6 weeks from the announcement to event!
d. i was waiting on professional pics, but i've decided to settle with my own.  besides, there's no reason not to create another post when i get them!

i'm thinking of posting in a series, to be sure everything i want to include is in there.  and to give myself a few posts built up while i'm being visited by my long-lost friend from new-freaking-hampshire and while i participate in and celebrate the marriage of becca and mike.
-rehearsal + eric family
-day of, set up, getting ready, pre-ceremony, ceremony
-reception
-contributions/credits (includes green family designs as previously hinted at): invitations, necklaces, candy labels, sheila's brilliant tablescapes, the dessert bar, sister extraordinare (ME, j/k!), all of PG's handywork

we will start with the beginning, the rehearsal!

pete, jack, and i spent the majority of the day doing some prep work at home (which will be shared in series: contributions).  after a long day (especially after staying up for the royal wedding - yes we have a dvr - no, we didn't record it - yes, we watched from revealing to ceremony, pete and i - yes, i did multi-task - see series at a later date).  anyway, we were very tired, but nothing could keep us down with all the excitement of rehearsing the ceremony, convincing our son to walk down the aisle, and meeting eric's entire family!!

the rehearsal was held at the cermony location, of course, which was my parents' backyard.  laura has always talked of/dreamed about a backyard bar-b-que wedding, and that's exactly what she got (classed up a bit!)!

my fellow bms
angelica, allyn, samantha

the aisle

coordinator (&officiant's wife) with sheila gail

i would like to say that the rehearsing went really well!  carolyn (coordinator) knows her stuff and most of the bridal party had been around the block a time or two (and 3 of the 4 guys and i are married).  the experience lacking on my side was made up for with my bossy-ness.  you know how i can be :).

and my son walked down the aisle.  like the big 3yr old boy he his. (stressed relieved!)

but it was FREEZING.  which kind of freaked me out because the entire evening was planned for outside, with no tent or heating available.  (don't worry, it was like, the warmest night this year for the actual wedding!)

so, on to the rehearsal dinner.  it was hosted by eric's parents' at a local brewery, the blue frog.  yummy food, great beers (one had a hint of banana though, which was super weird.).  what really blew me away, though, was having eric's entire family in one room (he has a TON of relatives).  they were amazing.  his little neices and nephews were so, so well behaved and so very kind to jack (who, btw, was on his VERY BEST behavior EVER - i was like, who is this kid?!?  he was super excited for ant lawa's wedding!).  check them out playing games:

this is unc david (we knew he rocked!)

teaching jack a twisty-hand thing

and the result - unlocked hands!

after the big night, we went home (exhausted) to rest up for the big day!!!

grrr.

dear blogger,

 you stink.  thank you for eating my posts that were scheduled for posting this week.  also, thank you for eating my post about my sis' wedding.  it took a lot to get that going.  and for that, you stink times a million.  keep your mouth to yourself.

hoping you return my work,
jen

my green thumb. kind of.

i don't know why, but i painted my nails and toes green.
it just felt fun at the time.
and i feel like it's as green as my thumb will ever be.
eww.  my thumb is gross.
and, it takes FOREVER to take off green nail polish, FYI.

we planted a garden on saturday!  a veggie/fruit garden complete with the following:

tomatoes
cherry, yellow, roma

corn
baby sweet & regular (?)

squash
also watermelon & pumpkins

strawberries
mint & basil

not so sure we'll produce anything, but am happy we're trying (it's been on my to-do list since we moved here!) -- send your green thumb vibes our way!

cinco de mayo (dinner!)

i didn't catch any pics of the actual dinner on the 5th, but we weren't too thrilled with nugget's carne asada.  ey  (a friend from college who works in the area) came over for dinner on the 6th -- we reenacted the 5th with real carne asada from the mexican meat market.  it was DELISH.  so much better and really made evening.

activity for jack

my frosty - see the frost?

toppings

pete chopping up the carne asada

jack digging the al pastor

jack entertaining ey

summer, summer, summer, summertiiiiimme!!

kind of.  it's a little bit cold now and this weekend wasn't too hot either, buuuuut, before the spring weather whipped us back into khakis and cardigans, we grabbed a little summer and ran with it! in the sprinklers!!!

are you singing this song?  i am!

love this little face all wet :)

i am SO excited for the weather to stay HOT. i totally felt robbed from summertime last year, so i want it extra hot this year!!

easter!! part three. final post.

after an easter celebration complete with quiche, we went to my parents' house for a little egg hunt and dinner...