Updates (Continued):
07/31/2009
- The Countdown - We're getting really excited, only 8 days left. The final numbers have been turned in and most plans are in
place. We've finalized the food for the rehearsal dinner and reception. About all that is left is finalizing
the slideshow and then short meetings with the photographer and DJ. Which are 2 of the things that I'm most
excited about. I love photography and music and I think we have 2 great people lined up. Our photographer is
Colleen Dustin and the DJ is Ben Oliver from Complete Music. I think I've mentioned them before, but we've heard
great reviews and can't wait to see their work.
- Family is going to start coming to town next Wednesday and Thursday. Then most of our friends are coming on
Friday for the rehearsal and I assume everyone else will show up on Sunday. It is going to be a great time.
I finally got confirmation from my last groomsman that all of his plans are in place and he'll be here. I
wasn't really worried, I knew he'd come through.
07/10/2009
- We've gotten some great compliments on the website. I really appreciate it, I haven't spent a ton of time,
but I like to keep people informed on our activities, if they want to be. I'm still planning on doing some
really fun stuff, but I'll just need to dedicate some more time to it sometime. One of my ideas is to get
everyone to share their own photos with us, then have a video/picture slideshow with everyones shots. It
can't hurt to have more memories. I'm also wanting to share some of our music and slidshows from the
reception. I've even encorporated Twitter, but I don't know how many people care about that. Please feel
free to use the guestbook. Not many people have shared on there. I might go through and update the nice
things people have said on their RSVP's some day too. As part of creating the website I put code to track
how many visits we get and where people visit from. I was surprised to see that in the last year, people
from 32 states have visited, making a total of 650 visits to the site and 3,150 pages viewed. WOW, that's awesome!
- Headed back to Indianola for, I believe, my 4th wedding of the summer. I'm an usher for this one, it'll
be my first time doing that and I'm really looking forward to having a good time. Bart & Amy are good
friends of ours and Bart is going to be in our wedding, so it'll be nice to celebrate with them.
07/04/2009
- Iowa bachelor party, I had practiced the weekend before with some of my Omaha friends and Amy's
family at my Omaha bachelor party, but this weekend we got a few of my friends together, went golfing,
then had a good time in downtown Des Moines. Golf was fun, my team lost by a couple strokes, but I
was suprised with how good of golfers we had. I got a chance to see some old friends and everyone was
looking forward to coming to the wedding.
07/03/2009
- Had my Family Bachelor Party at the Iowa Cubs. It was a wet one, we heard that Josh Hamilton was
playing against the Iowa Cubs, so we wanted to get there early to see him hit batting practice. We
ended up sitting in the rain for 2 hours and getting stuck with 4 extra tickets I couldn't sell. Oh
well, the few of us that braved it had a good time. Tanner was too shy to ask for a ball and we got
cold and left before the fireworks, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
06/23/2009
- We picked up a little gift for the ushers today. They're nice and will help them save some money.
That's it, no other hints. :)
06/23/2009
- Met with Pastor Thomas to finalize some details on the wedding. We went over the format
and order of events. We also double checked a draft of the programs.
06/22/2009
- Announcement appeared in the Newton Daily News. I guess they zoomed in the picture a little
bit, but I haven't seen it yet. Again, I'll post it soon.
06/21/2009
- The announcement appeared in the Des Moines Register. It was kind of funny, our
announcement is right next to one of my friends. I picked up a free copy with gas from Kum 'N
Go, but haven't gotten it scanned it yet. I'll do that soon. The Des Moines Register is also going to send us
a few copies, which is kinda cool.
06/18/2009
- We got our marriage license today. It was kinda funny, after signing a couple places, the
girl asked us to raise our right hands and swear to agree to the paper or something. It caught
me off gaurd, but we kinda smiled at each other and said we agreed. She acted like she loves
that part of her job. Another couple waiting as we were leaving made sure to tell us
congratulations. I'd scan a copy of the certificate and put it on here, but I wouldn't want
someone to edit out my name and steal my wife :)
- I also made a few updates to the page today adding a couple details about our honeymoon and
then a couple new links under the engagement page with info about Gage and announcements going
in the paper. The Omaha announcement ran a couple weeks ago. Keep your eye out for the one in
the Des Moines Register this Sunday. Newton's should be coming anytime.
06/15/2009
- It's hard to believe it was a year ago today that we got engaged. Fathers Day was a week
earlier last year and I asked her after a Sunday College World Series game. Be sure to check out
the story if you haven't already. There's also a link to the video on the side and a few of our
engagement pictures.
Click here.
06/08/2009
- We got our rings!!! It was fun, a little less nerve wrecking than the first time I went
to Zales and talked to Shirley. It was fun, we both picked out ones that we liked. Amy's
is getting ordered and mine needs resized. Mine's pretty basic, but I really like it. Amy's
matches the smaller diamonds that are in her band and she's pretty happy, too.
- 2 months until the big day. The college world series starts this weekend, which means that
it was almost a year ago we got engaged. Pretty crazy, time flies when you're having fun.
Amy bought some stuff over the weekend, we got the wedding invites and RSVP cards all printed
out, and we started addressing envelopes. Tonight we're planning on looking at rings.
06/05/2009
- I started printing the rest of the invitations today, it is going smoothly now. It only
took me the first 100 to get it figured out, which is about 75% of them. They look nice
though. Amy sent in the announcements to the Des Moines Register and to the Newton Daily
News. The DM Register one should be in by June 21, so stock up. As for the NDN one, we're
hoping it gets in by the end of July. We asked them to do it by the end of June, but my
parents mentioned that one of my friends engagement announcement was just in the paper and
they got married last summer. So I hope it goes in soon.
06/04/2009
- I added a link to our guestbook. I'd been studying code for a month or 2 trying to figure
out how to develop my own custom guestbook, then today it came to me. Why not just use a
comment system like I use for my blog. So I created a new one and went back and added all
of the nice things that people have said on our facebook profiles, or sent to us over email.
So if you sent us something I have hopefully recreated it on the guestbook page. You'll
notice they are back dated. I hope that nobody minds that I copied them, I didn't put last
names on them, just in case. Also feel free to add a comment now for future viewers to read.
If I accidently overlooked something you sent one of us, I'm sorry.
06/03/2009
- Today I added a slideshow
of some of the engagement pictures to the Engagement link
I also moved the video to a link on the left, that you can only see after you go to the
engagement link. Can you believe that video has had over 5,200 views on YouTube? That
includes the people that have watched on this site, so probably 1,000 of them are Bruce,
but that's still a lot. I didn't mean to only pick on Bruce, I can take credit for a
lot of them. I often check on the comments and see the statistics on who looks at it.
Interestingly, most of the viewers right now are males around my age. I guess guys that
are gettting ready to propose, or trying to see if theirs was better than mine :). I'm
sure that doesn't include the age or sex of everyone that views the video, because not
everyone logs into YouTube, but still interesting. Speaking of checking stats on views
of my webpage. Google Analytics tells me how people got to our wedding site. Whether
it was from a link, directly typing the address in, or if they found it in a Google
Search. So I'd like to point out that Gerrett, I can tell you are Googling your name and
found the site, thanks for the visit.
05/31/2009
- I started to put in some details
on how we know people involved in the wedding party. Amy and I will be adding more
details as time goes along. I noticed when reading other wedding sites, it was fun to
read what was written about me, so I figured you guys would enjoy the same. Most of it
is just fun facts or stories, but I enjoyed writting them so I hope you enjoy reading them.
I also moved the reception info to another page, so the directions and important stuff, don't
get lost in the story telling.
05/31/2009
- Amy had another shower so my family made it to town. I took my dad to get our tux
measurements done. It was the second time for me, but this is after our P90X workouts
and 5 mile run. I had lost 2 inches around my chest and overarm. Then 1 inch on my
neck and an inch or 2 on my waist, I forget what it was before. My dad is a few
inches shorter than me, but his outseam was longer than mine, so they just decided to
make mine longer to match his, I guess I'll have to hike my pants up another half inch
now. My dad mentioned it was the first time that he had EVER been measured for a tux.
I can't wait to see him in it. As a side note, he was also practicing the tootsie roll
and lawnmower for the reception. We got a chance to go golfing and eat some fish with
Bruce, Nancy, Amy, my mom and sister.
05/29/2009
- Amy and I have attended 2 weddings so far this spring and have gotten invites to a
couple others. I wanted to be sure to post the links to their sites. They are both
really nice. Here is the link to
Carl & Kristin's
then also a link to
Bart & Amy's.
You'll notice there's a mention of my name in Bart & Amy's. I'm an usher for them.
After those 4 weddings, we're also expecting to go to atleast 1 other before ours.
All of these weddings have given us some great ideas and a chance to practice our
dancing skills before ours, not to mention fill up our weekends with enough showers,
bachelor/bachelorette parties, & weddings to keep us busy every weekend until football
season.
05/21/2009
- Warning was sent out to guys to get their tux measurments in before Amy gets after them.
I'm kinda kidding, they do need to get tux measurments to me before June 5th,
but Amy probably won't hurt them... too bad. I need to do the same.
We're also hoping to look at wedding bands in the near future.
Also don't worry, wedding invitations have not gone out yet.
05/17/2009
- More scanning for wedding slideshow. We're trying to archive all of
our pictures, so we've scanned over 1000 pictures. If you're wondering,
you won't have to sit through 1000 pictures of us at the wedding reception even
though I'm some of you would love to see how cute I was as a kid for that long.
05/03/2009
- The first announcement is going to go into the Omaha World Herald. It's kinda cool, they
create you a profile on their page that can be used to get information out about your wedding.
We've been using this, but I put a little info out there incase there's somebody that we know
that would look there before finding this page. Another cool thing is they integrated a
guestbook. I've been working on that here, but haven't gotten it to work like I'd like, so
when/if I get it going I'll probably just transfer over any comments. I'd also like to bring in
all the great comments we received when we announced our engagement. Here's a sneak peak at the
Omaha.com annoucment. They don't think it's active yet, and you should be
able to search for it after Sunday, but since I think I'm kind of a hacker, I figured out what
our link would be and it worked. By the way, annoucements for the Newton Daily News and DesMoines
Register are on the way, I'll mention it when I get an update.
05/02/2009
- Amy had a shower with my family in Newton. I think they had a good time getting to hangout without
me around. I guess they had a lot of laughs during some game that dares you to do goofy stuff.
04/27/2009
- Designed and printed the first invitation. I think we're going to frame it :P Actually that's
probably not a bad idea. We think the invitations look pretty nice and it's always fun to be able
to do something like that by yourself and then have them turn out nice. Since Amy's satisfied and
we don't have to send them to a designer or printer, we now have a little time to get them out.
04/17/2009
- I finally got up the guts to ask a friend of ours to sing at the wedding. I'm so excited about
this, it's kind of like announcing a concert coming to town or something, but we got Tyler Hughes
to perform at our wedding. Tyler is a good friend of mine from work, he was great at introducing
me to people and the gym at work when I started. Since then we've gotten to know his family well
through church and sporting events. His wife Rebecca is quite the softball player, and I know their
children will be quite talented in whatever they choose to do. You'll see what I mean when you
hear this kid sing. I think we've picked out a great song and we're working on another one. We're
all pretty excited about it. So even though his name has been on the website for a little bit,
we finally got a confirmation that he's going to sing and we couldn't be happier. Tyler wouldn't
want me to mention this, but we got this awesome thank you note from him, like 2 days after I asked
him and flowered him with gifts to get in the mood (video of live performances of the song, I can't
mention it yet, it's a surprise).
04/01/2009
- We noticed a new hotel that went up right across the street from the reception hall, and gave
them a call. It turns out that they will block us off rooms for$99 instead of $109. So I added
that block to the wedding link. I also left the other hotel info there incase you needed to cancel
or incase the 1st hotel gets booked. The agreement we sign, just garentees us that they will save
10 rooms until early July. Then they open those extra rooms to the public. We can use more than
10 rooms if they are available and we're not required to use 10 rooms. So it's a pretty good
deal for us. I hope nobody had to change plans.
03/21/2009
- Registered at Target. It went a little smoother this time. We almost went overboard, but it
was fun. We found a lot more stuff that we liked and we felt was more affordable. We're starting
to think we don't need the Amazon list. Amy also cleaned up the Younkers list a little to
make sure there weren't any duplicates. Somehow a Nintendo DS ended up on the list at Target.
To be honest, I'm not sure how it got added, we didn't even go through that aisle. The registry
catalog that Target sends you actually had a XBOX 360 in it that I circled, but Amy quickly
nixed that idea. Not that I was serious about it. I wanted to scan a couple fun things, but we
didn't come across anything that fit.
03/07/2009
- We registered at Younkers and boy was that fun. This was our first stop on our list of places
to register for gifts. Neither one of us want to have people buying us expensive stuff. I
don't know if I should say it, but we actually have a lot of stuff. I've lived on my own for
atleast 6 years and have acquired plenty of junk. Then we just bought a house together in
December of 2007, so we've had everything we needed to get by, but it'll be nice to have some
of our own stuff instead of hand-me-downs. So anyways, we had so much trouble pickign out
stuff for ourselves. We didn't want the nicest(most-expensive) stuff, but we also wanted to
enough stuff to fill a list, so it started out pretty slow but we finally, put a decent list
together. I think Target will go much smoother. Then we're debating on using Amazon, but I
don't want to flood the options. And anymore you can shop online and have stuff shipped,
which is why I was considering Amazon in the first place.
03/07/2009
- I tried on my Tux. We ordered my tux and the other colors we were considering for a customer
approval. They don't size it exactly, but it was nice to try everything on and make sure it
looked good together. They didn't actually get in the "pink" vests that I wanted to see, so
we just looked at examples of the material. I guess I'm not wearing it, so it looks good to me. :)
Speaking of tuxes, guys need to get their measurments to us by June 1, 2009 at the latest. I'm
you'll hear from Amy Me if you don't have them done before then.
03/03/2009
- The gift registry sites have been added to the website, although we haven't actually
added anything to the lists yet. It kinda makes me wonder who has been doing all the planning.
I'm only kidding, she has basically done everything and just given me a couple little jobs that
I've had some fun with. To see the gift registries page that will eventually be added to the
links on the left click here.
02/23/2009
- RSVP page is now working. I have not added the link to the left yet, but it will be
available soon. If you are ready to RSVP even though you haven't received an invite yet, then
click here.
02/21/2009
- Ordered a tux and vests to try on of the various colors we are planning on using for
the wedding. Not to ruin any surprises, but black, ivory, & watermelon were the decisions.
And guess who is not going to be wearing pink (watermelon)?
02/21/2009
- Attended Couples Retreat at the Church. We found out we are both introverted, which
I'm sure was a big surprise to all of you. It was interesting and we got a chance to meet a
few other couples that are also getting married at the church before the end of the year.
02/19/2009
- We're getting closer and closer to decisions on the wedding & reception music. I'm
excited for that part. I think it will turn out really well.
02/16/2009
- We finally got the chance to make some needed updates to the site. Amy even helped
out with some content. There are a few design changes and then some key changes to the
wedding link for anyone interested in more details about the big day.
02/08/2009
- 6 months till the big day. Amy started counting down the weeks.
01/26/2009
- We decided on a DJ and got confirmation that he was available. Ben Oliver from Complete Music.
Amy gave me the privilege of working on this decision and she actually agreed with my choice.
I'm only kidding, she isn't that hard to please and I was glad to take 1 more thing off her shoulders.
1/24/2009
- We picked out flowers from Mulhall's. We also completed our table decorations
compliments to their help.
I've been working on the slideshow for the wedding. It's been fun to go through both
of our old pictures scanning them into the computer. The tough part will be narrowing them down
to our favorites. I've also been sorting through music for the wedding and reception. I'm
pretty confident in my choice for the wedding, but it hasn't been finalized yet. There's still
a lot of choosing to do for 1st dances. It was a unanimous decision to ax the Chicken Dance,
sorry if you were only coming for that.
Colors and bridesmaid dresses were finalized. She and a couple of the bridesmaids
decided to go with Watermelon for a color and get dresses from David's bridal.
12/12/2008-12/21/2008
- We went to Jamaica with a couple friends that are in the wedding. It was
nice to get away from the weather. It also helped us to narrow down ideas for a honeymoon.
12/08/2008
- Amy's Dress came in. Amy, her mom, & her dad got the chance to take a look.
It still needs a couple minor alterations, but she's very excited about it.
(T minus 8 months, as I was reminded by Amy). It's crazy to think it was almost 6 months
ago that we got engaged.
11/27/2008
- We designed, edited (with the help of family), & printed the "Save The Dates"
on our own. They turned out pretty well. We hoping to hand some more out on or before Christmas.
11/24/2008
- I made a couple changes to the website design. I'm still working on it regularily
to make it prettier, but it's starting to get a little better. As for future plans,
I'm planning on putting up some of the engagement pictures and save the dates.
10/14/2008
- We got the engagement pictures back already, we really like them.
We are still in the process of looking through them and deciding which ones we
like the most. We have gotten nice compliments from everyone that has seen
them, so far.
10/12/2008
- Engagement pictures taken by Susie Jasman by the Heartland of
America Park, the lake by Con-Agra where we got engaged.
10/08/2008
- Photographer, DJ, & transportation planned. We have also
blocked off a group of hotels rooms. We are also looking forward to our
engagement pictures.
08/23/2008
- Amy picked out and ordered her wedding dress. She hasn't decided
on a color yet, but we still have time.
08/08/2008
- I updated the "How We Met" section... kinda. I'm waiting for
Amy's version. I may update more later. We are also picking up Gage
today. With all the toys, doggie snacks, & phone calls we've been getting
from family members you'd think we were having a kid, but we're pretty excited.
Today is also you 1 year warning for the wedding.
08/05/2008
- Wedding date is set for August 8, 2009 @ St. Matthew Evangelical Luthern Church,
the reception will follow at the Scott Conference Center on the campus of the
University of Nebraska-Omaha.
08/04/2008
- We finally have picked out a dog to go along with the engagement
proposal. We are planning on picking it up on our pre 1 year anniversary
of the wedding (08/08/08). We have decided to name the nearly 2 year old
golden retriever Gage, short for en"Gage"ment. Gage,
formerly Gus, was rescued by the Golden Retriever Rescue In Nebraska (GRRIN). Pictures and details to
come, but trust me we're excited.
07/30/2008
- We did our taste testing for the reception at the Scott Conference
Center. I thought this would be a smaller portion
of each entre, but instead we had full plates of ham, chicken parmesan, roast
beef, & garlic herb chicken, complimented by au gratin, twice baked, roasted
baby, & mashed potatoes. Then we had vegetable sides of cinnamon carrots,
spring vegetables, almond green beans, & steamed broccoli.
07/02/2008
- Meeting with Pastor Thomas to get information about church and
preparation materials for the wedding to be held at St. Matthew Evangelical
Luthern Church in Omaha, NE
06/20/2008
- Video added to "The Engagement"
06/20/2008
- Contact Email created (AmyandNolanWedding(at)oneniner(dot)com)
06/18/2008
- Web page started.
06/16/2008
- Blog entry writen
06/15/2008
- Proposal - Story on "The Engagement"
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