Mark & Jen's Cincinnati Wedding

Honeymoon to Cozumel

2006-12-26T20:44:00.000-05:00

The honeymoon was unbelievable! We were gone from 12/11/06 - 12/18/06. Our destination was the island of Cozumel, in Mexico. It's in the Caribbean Sea just off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Our resort was the Cozumel Palace, an all-inclusive resort recently rebuilt after Hurricane Wilma wiped it out.

Click for commented photo gallery!

About the photos, I'm not sure why "Chocolate Jello" is the first picture. The rest are in order. Also make sure you click the "page 2" link at the top to see the second page.

Married!

2006-12-26T20:40:00.000-05:00

Here is one picture from our wedding. We will put more on here once we get the professional ones back.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful our wedding day was, thanks to all of you.

One week away!

2006-11-03T09:53:00.000-05:00

First, I should note how generous people have been in their gift giving over the past couple of weeks. I am astonished. We're received innumerable shower and wedding presents, all very, very nice. Thank you all very much.

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. First, the lease for our new apartment started on November 1, so we've moved a whole lot of stuff over here. But right now it's pretty messy, so we won't post pictures until we get everything put away and set up. One thing is for sure, I don't ever want to move again. This is going to be a great place for Jen and I. It's pretty sweet.

Then, of course, there are all of the wedding plans. Things seem to be coming along just fine. You will find out soon enough.

Also, I have been to the tanning bed twice in an effort to not be Pale E. McPale in these pictures that I will be looking at for the rest of my life. I plan to go twice more before the 10th, so there's no guarantee I won't be bright red for the wedding. That was be pretty awful to be sunburned in your wedding pictures. Or, I guess that would be, light bulb burned. Either way, I do have to be careful about that

Pictures of the wedding party people

2006-10-10T11:27:00.000-04:00

Okay after some photoshop cropping and resizing, here's what I've got:

Danielle, Adam, Javan, Tim, Barry

Jen, Justin, Ben, Mark, Angie, Grace

Kara, Jenna, Amanda, Michelle

Okay, fine, that's not really Amanda and Michelle. I don't have a good picture of the two of them. I have a picture of them in their Christmas pajamas that I could post but I'm pretty sure they would be upset about that. So next time I see them both I will get a good picture and post it.

The Wedding Party

2006-09-21T16:30:00.000-04:00

Wedding Party

I have recently realized that Mark and I have been terribly rude and have neglected to introduce our wedding party on the blog. So here goes.

Boys:
Adam Sickmiller--Best Man. Adam is Mark’s little brother; actually I think he is taller so I should probably say younger, has just returned from the Peace Corp and has been answering all of our questions with much delight. His very cool wife (who Mark reminds me constantly let Adam register for video games when they got married) is still in Macedonia but will be returning in time for our wedding.
Javan Kline--Groomsman. Javan and Mark have been friends since they were in diapers. They spent a lot of time bonding over games of homerun derby in the back yard. (Trust me I have seen video.) Now Javan is a tax attorney in Akron, OH.
Tim Burke a.k.a. Burkeman--Groomsman. Tim is Mark’s other best friend…the fashionable one. I have decided that any man who buys a seersucker suit in 2006 and can pull it off deserves that title. Tim is currently living in Tampa, FL where he is working towards his Ph.D. and teaching.
Barry Spurlock--Groomsman. Our final groomsman, Barry, is another very good friend of Mark’s from Napoleon. He and Mark share a passion for music and can sit and play guitar together for hours and hours and hours. Currently Barry lives in Lakewood, OH with his fabulous wife Molly, does computer stuff for Progressive, and is a landlord.
Ben Armbruster--Ring Bearer. Ben is Mark’s 5-year-old nephew and this will be his second time being a ring bearer. We asked him if he remembered being in Adam and Danielle’s wedding and he said, yes. We asked him what he remembered and he said that he had a very important job to carry the pillow.

Girls:
Michelle Mueller--Maid of Honor #1. Michelle is my first younger sister, and was the first to follow me around everywhere. We spent a lot of time playing barbies together. Michelle has a long term boyfriend, Billy, who has been mentioned on this blog before. She recently graduated from OU and is now looking for her first job.
Amanda Mueller--Maid of Honor #2. Mandy is the baby sister and because of this took some abuse in order to play with Michelle and me growing up. Lets just say she was tied up with jump ropes and put in a large toy chest on more than one occasion for the game “how long does it take Mandy to get out.” Mandy is now a Senior at BG and doesn’t fit in the toy chest.
Jenna Wasz--Bridesmaid. Mark and I have known Jenna since college and I have gotten to know Jenna really well in the past few years. Jenna is the only person to have ever seen my epiglottis. Recently (like in May) Jenna married our friend Greg. She is a speech therapist at Drake Hospital…a clue to the epiglottis thing.
Kara Uhl--Bridesmaid. I first met Kara in a high school journalism class, however, I got to know her much better in college. She is the kindest most genuine person I know. Kara is an excellent journalist. She has been married for almost two years to our good friend Andy.
Grace Armbruster--Flower Girl. Grace is Mark’s 3-year-old niece. This will be her wedding debut.

Readers:
Mark Armbruster--He is Mark’s brother-in-law and the father of Ben and Grace.
Danielle Sickmiller--Adam’s wife and Mark’s sister-in-law.
Justin Wise--My best friend, but we decided that the purple dress wasn’t his color.

Our Newlywed Apartment

2006-09-07T09:57:00.000-04:00

For a few reasons, Jen and I have decided it would be best for us to rent a place for the next couple of years. So, we looked at a couple of places and settled on one on Oregon Street in Mt. Adams. It's about two miles from Jen's school, and less than a mile from where I work. Neither of us wanted to spend our lives in the car.

I don't have any pictures of the apartment itself yet, but here is our view.

The apartment has one bedroom, an exposed brick wall (to practice tennis), a nice kitchen with a dishwasher, a cool cutout/bar thing between the kitchen and dining room, and a balcony overlooking the city.

I'm very excited about the dishwasher as I haven't had one for the past 10 months and I really miss it. Also, the floors in the unit are currently carpeted, but the landlord agreed to rip up the carpet and refinish the wood floors before we move in.

Our lease starts November 1 and we'll probably be able to move in late October. We're really excited about our first place together!

Going Postal

2006-08-22T16:39:00.000-04:00

After spending 14 HOURS on Saturday cutting, stuffing, and addressing invitations Mark and I can very happily say we are done. As of 4:06pm today (Tuesday) the invitations were put into the mail. Well almost all of them. We are still seeking out a few addresses. Those of you (Burkem) whom we are waiting on to supply us with information have now been added to the wedding hit list. (UPDATE: Burkem has now been removed from the wedding hit list -Mark)

I NEVER realized how much time and effort went into addressing and stuffing invitations. I will never view those envelopes the same way again. Oh, and licking all of them was not fun either. I still have a swollen taste bud. Perhaps I have bug eggs in there getting ready to hatch...if you are not familiar with that urban legend that was probably a very weird statement.

Now we will be excitedly checking the mailbox in eager anticipation of the reply cards. Please don't toss those aside, we really do want them back. If we don't get them we will have to make harassing phone calls to find out if you are coming.

Tasty Tasting

2006-08-18T09:37:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, I met Jen and her parents at the Hilton Netherland so we could have our dinner tasting. We have the dubious honor of selecting what YOU want to eat on the night of our wedding.

In all honesty, absolutely everything we tasted was awesome. Various steaks, chickens, salads, rice dishes, vegetables. Everything that comes out of that kitchen is excellent.

The tasting works like this. The four of us sit at a nice table with our event coordinator, who works for the Hilton. Here is a sample formal place setting I found on Google for some reason.

Click for larger diagram

Anyway, we sat there and discussed various wedding plans as the really nice server Jackie brought us a bunch of dishes, exactly as they will be served to all of you. She also kept our water glasses very full. Then we talked about the dishes and what we liked best.

While not totally for sure, it appears you'll be served a really cool salad (we really like it because it's very good and we've never seen anything like it. it's going to be a surprise) plus a duet of filet mignon and chicken, with some really fantastic sauce and a couple of other bonus surprises. I have to leave some anticipation for you.

Certainly it will be an enjoyable first dinner for us as a married couple and we're really excited to share it will you. Then there's cake... plus a bonus surprise.

Gift registries are finalized!

2006-07-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

It seems to me that according to all of the wedding etiquette guidelines, the words "gift registry" are to be treated very carefully. In fact, most do not recommend even putting the registry information on the wedding invitation.

So, because we're "not allowed" to put this information on the invitation, we've posted it here specifically for you, savvy web user. We presume that since you know how to use the web (aka get any information you want about anything) that you won't be terribly offended by this.

In all honesty, the online gift registry system is really cool and convenient. And it's fun for us because along the way, we can see what our amazingly kind guests have decided to provide for us as Jen and I start our lives together!

So here they are:

Jen and Mark's Macy's gift registry

Jen and Mark's Target gift registry

Did we register for a craft table?

2006-07-17T11:46:00.000-04:00

Mark and I decided a few months ago that we would make our own wedding invitations rather than purchase them from a vendor. So, we designed our invitations. I thought developing the design and perfecting the wording would be the most challenging part. I was mistaken. I spent more time looking at paper and envelopes than I care to admit. Then, after we finished the design, we attempted a test print only to discover that my parents’ printer is not compatible with Mark’s Mac. It liked to shove everything into the right bottom corner of the page. So, we decided to buy a printer. (It is an awesome compact, little, square laser jet something or other that prints 22 pages per minute and can be tucked away out of sight.)

The printer arrived in only three short days and we set out once again to run test prints. It worked so much better. After much measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again we finally had everything spaced, aligned, grouped, and sized properly. Time to print and we are home free. Wrong. Mark, my mom, and I spent a couple of hours putting invitations together last night. We now have 13 done. A much longer, slower process than I would have anticipated. It is worth it though. We are both very proud of what we have created and we are excited to send them to all of our family and friends.

Two camping trips

2006-06-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

Jen and I took two camping trips in the last two weekends.

The first (comments marked "1:") was to Morgan's in Oregonia, OH, where we first canoed with Javan and Megan.

The second (comments marked "2:") was at Pokagon, north of Angola, IN, where we camped with Mark, Angie, Ben and Grace. Both trips were a blast!

CLICK FOR COMMENTED PHOTO GALLERY!

Tuxedo

2006-06-15T22:57:00.000-04:00

Jen and I went to look at tuxedo rental places tonight. Actually, we only went to one place, Men's Wearhouse. It's really a good thing it's not spelled "Men's Warehouse" because one of two things would happen: single women would swarm it, or women would not be allowed inside. Because it would be all tools and plumbing equipment.

Anyway, we looked at some options and found some things we liked. While that's a rather vague statement, we actually feel that we have a pretty good sense of what we want. We did not order anything.

Men's Wearhouse is a good idea because the people renting tuxedos are coming from all over the place... Florida (burkeman), northwest Ohio (Dad, Ben), northeast Ohio (javan, barry) and, um, Macedonia? (adam)

There probably is a Men's Wearhouse next to the Macedonia McDonald's. Actually, it's not a big deal because Adam will be back in the U.S. by the time he would need to be fitted.

So, tuxedo rental, a good time. it's a good thing I'm not buying one, because my apartment is far too small to store such an item.

Sweet Honeymoon

2006-05-15T18:57:00.000-04:00

As if registering for gifts wasn't enough fun, we've now booked our honeymoon!

After much research, Jen and I decided upon the Cozumel Palace in Cozumel, Mexico. It's a tiny little island right off of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Click on the above link to take a photo tour and stuff, or just take our word for it: it's beautiful and awesome.

Palace Resorts, of which there are several in the Carribean, are reknowned for quality. We emailed with a few people from TripAdvisor.com and every review we received was wonderful (not the case with the other destinations we researched).

The rooms are glorious and romantic, which all have a jacuzzi and amazing view of the blue, blue water.

Much of the Cozumel Palace is brand new. In October 2005, Hurricane Wilma destroyed a large portion of it, as you can see in the picture below:

So we're flying out of Cincinnati on December 11th... a month and a day after our wedding. Jen will be in school during our wedding so we're waiting until she's on her winter break to take our trip.

I have never been to the Caribbean and have never snorkeled or any of that tropical stuff, so it will be pretty awesome. We're very excited.

I would also really love to jet ski, so we'll find a place to do that.

The Cozumel Palace is "all inclusive," so our expense pays for all of our meals and drinks and everything. There are several restaurants and the food is supposed to be quite good. And there's a liquor dispenser in each room. That should be interesting.

How awesome will it be to leave chilly Ohio in December with my new wife!

Wedding Registries

2006-05-09T12:03:00.000-04:00

Let me first start by saying that creating a wedding registry is one of the most fun things that Mark and I have gotten to do together thus far in the wedding planning process. We decided to register at Macy’s and Target. Basically we got to walk around and pick out everything we could dream of having for our home when we get married. Our lists include everything from the most practical wooden spoons to a sewing machine (mark’s favorite) and a silver wine holder and wine coaster (my favorites).

I will admit that I was really nervous going into this gift registry thing, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that Mark and I have very similar tastes in home items. In the few instances when we did not agree we very easily came to a compromise. For example: I loved these green and ivory dishes that have a little green leaf on the side of the salad/dessert plate and coffee mug. Mark loved these black stone dishes that had shiny multi-colored squares around the rim. I said that while the black dishes were cool I could not spend the next 10-15 years of my life with black dishes. So we got the green and cream dishes.

I told Mark I was very proud of how well we compromised. He said, “That is not a compromise, you got your way.” He did get to pick out the silverware though since he has serious issues with how heavy, thick, thin, round, or square, silverware should feel in his hand. His choice wasn’t my absolute favorite but apparently it is the most comfortable, so he won. And it is nice and would have made it into my top three.

For those of you preparing to create a registry heed this warning: Beware of the over zealous sales girl who wants to live vicariously through your registry. Other than her, and I am sure she exists everywhere, most people are very pleasant and love engaged couples!

The lovely sewing machine

The silver wine holder

The "compromise" plates

Rings! (and a really bad joke)

2006-04-25T23:04:00.000-04:00

Mark, Jen and this peculiar telephone all have something in common.

We're all waiting for a ring.

I hope you didn't lose your lunch on that one.

Anyway, yes, Jen and I selected our wedding rings on Friday night!

Jen's is really sparkly and simple, matching her engagement ring very very well. She knew right away when she saw it that she found it to be perfect.

On the other hand, my selection took considerably more time. I looked at every men's ring in the store before selecting mine. I really like it, it's a more contemporary design unlike any I've seen before.

They'll be here in a few weeks, at which point they will be securely locked up. I was thinking of freezing them in respective ice cubes and storing them in my freezer. That would be very secure.

We got them at Roger's Jewelers in Kenwood, a store where we've had really good experiences in the past. I suppose you'll get to see the rings at the wedding!

It’s Official

2006-04-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

Mark was baptized, confirmed, and took his first communion on Saturday and I was confirmed. It was very exciting and much more emotional then I expected. Mark's dad and step mom came down from Napoleon and Javan and Megan were there as well. My parents came to the ceremony along with my grandma and aunt and uncle. Everyone was really excited for us and it meant a lot to us that these people came to celebrate with us.

I have to tell you about Mark's baptism though b/c there was a humorous aspect to it along with the emotional. For the baptism there was a small pool on the alter of the church (maybe a 1/2 foot deep.) For the baptism the person was to stand in the pool and the priest was to poor water over the head of the individual baptizing them in the name of the Father (pour water), Son (pour water), and Holy Spirit (pour water.) There were 5 people being baptized and Mark was last. Well, by the time Mark was up the priest was really into pouring the water. The first people just got about a 1/2 cup on each pour and were wet but not soaked. However, when Mark got up there the priest was pouring pitchers full with each pour. Needless to say Mark was really really wet. Thankfully he had a change of clothes.

Our parents met for the first time over the weekend as well. I have to admit I was pretty nervous but it couldn’t have gone any better!! We all had a blast which makes me all the more excited for the wedding…if that is even possible.

Opening Day 2006

2006-04-03T19:46:00.000-04:00

Opening Day 2006 included the following sightings/meetings (in chronological order):

-Bob Huggins
-Luke Ellwood & friends (from OU)
-Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory
-Nick Lachey (who apparently attempted to enter a club area but was denied)
-President George HW Bush
-Adam Dunn bobbling/dropping several balls

Here are pictures:

CLICK FOR COMMENTED PHOTO GALLERY

In the end, the Reds lost by like 2341 runs.

After the game Jen and I went to a downtown pub called ZA where we warmed up.

Then we went back to my apartment and tried to write a blog entry together which took about three times as long as if one of us had written it on our own.

March home to St. Patrick

2006-03-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

Hey! Two events...

Two weekends ago, Jen and I went up to NW Ohio to visit with Dad and Roberta on Friday night and then with Angie, Mark, Ben and Grace on Saturday.

We had an excellent time and I wish we could spend more time there.

Here's a picture of Jen, Mark, Grace and Ben:

Also, more recently, Jen bought us both t shirts for St. Patrick's day. We wore them at work friday and then went out with some friends on friday night.. thanks to Marty and Angel for having us over. I learned, that night, that if you squeeze an egg, it will indeed break. With force.

This was in my apartment before we left for the night:

Just Because...

2006-03-08T13:29:00.000-05:00

I have good news to share. My cousin Laura was just engaged on Thursday March 2 to this great guy Joe. My mom actually introduced Laura to Joe a year ago while Laura was staying with our family. Laura had to work at a client facility in Middletown and stayed with my family to cut her commute way down. Joe plays soccer with my mom and she has been looking for a way to make him a part of our family. It was a convenient time to bring two awesome people together. So many weddings!!

I found out about the engagement on Friday when I was driving with my friend Amy from Vail to Denver to pick up our pal Jess from the airport. Yes I did write Vail. I just returned from an awesome weekend skiing in Vail, CO. Aside from being without Mark for 5 days it was a perfect trip. Colorado is so beautiful you wouldn’t even believe it.

Click for live pictures of vail

Oh, and women in Vail have found a way to make ski clothes look beautiful and classy while I look like a giant swooshy cotton person. I would say it is a mystery as to how the women do it but I also was able to stop in some of the shops and ooh and aah over the $1000 ski outfits.

I did have one ski accident though. Sunday I was skiing along admiring the beautiful sky and trees when all of a sudden I was on my back sliding down the side of the mountain. I went about one hundred yards down when my foot/ski caught a tree trunk and I came to a halt. The back of my ski and boot was wedged into the 2 ½’ – 3’ deep snow keeping me from moving. A very kind gentleman skier stood on the mountain above me yelling for help. Finally two ski patrol guys showed up. One climbed down and dug my foot and ski out and then pulled me up. We then hiked through VERY deep snow. Aside from my pride being destroyed I was fine. I skied away feeling like a total dork and found my friends who were baffled as to where I had been for so long. I filled them in and we headed out to ski up to an awesome outdoor grilling area on the top of the mountain (about 11,300 feet high.) Beautiful.

Now it is time to get back to the wedding planning. I did find bridesmaids dresses but I’ll fill you in on that later!!

Opening Day and a Dee Jay

2006-02-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

Just got the tickets today! The Reds are playing the Cubs on April 3rd for the first home game of the season, and we'll be there. No clue if we'll actually have seats, as the best we could get were standing room only tickets. They've already tripled in value but neither of us has ever been to an Opening Day game, so we're holding out! There's a big parade and I hope they throw candy. Or burritos.

On Saturday, Jen and I decided on a DJ for our reception. He's the owner of Maize Music, a small business DJ service with grand total of five employees. (Four DJs, including the owner, plus the owner's wife who apparently helps out too.)

The owner, who will be DJing our reception, is Mr. Maize. He's a native of Jamaica who married a woman from the states and now they live in Cincinnati. He does about 15 gigs a year at the Hall of Mirrors and is a preferred vendor of theirs who frequently works with our planner there. An excellent pick.

He seemed adamently opposed to rap and pop music even before Jen and I expressed our opinion. We're going to stick to a classic sound.

Hiatus

2006-02-23T11:33:00.000-05:00

Just to clear things up Mark and I are still planning to be married November 10. I know some of you may have been unsure since we haven’t posted anything in almost a month. We have been very distracted by condo hunting and we have neglected the wedding planning. That is why I am dubbing this weekend “Wedding Planning Weekend.” Mark doesn’t like that catchy little title but it stands until he comes up with something better. Hopefully after this weekend we will have lots of stuff to write about and post on this blog.

In the meantime let me tell you about our condo search. We really want to live in the city or very near to it. We are currently looking downtown and around Eden Park/Walnut Hills. We figure we are young and this is our chance to really experience city life as a young married couple.

Our realtor is a very nice lady named Trina. We found her after making an appointment to look at a condo complex that is currently being renovated. We basically looked a gutted building but it was really neat. The building was built by the governor I believe in the 20s. It was where the wealthiest people lived. Each unit has maids-quarters in the basement and in the 20s people would just ring for their maid and she would run upstairs to assist them. That room will now be extra storage for the unit. This condo will be pretty small though so we aren’t really sure yet that it is what we are looking for.

Tonight we are going to look at another condo that I think is quite a bit larger. We’ll let you know more about that later.

Photographer chosen

2006-01-25T22:50:00.000-05:00

Today Jen sent in the contract and a deposit for our photographer, Mr. Maslov mentioned in a previous post. He's awesome and we're really looking forward to working with him. So that's taken care of!

In other marriage related news, Jen and I have been looking at condos. We've actually only looked at one but we have another appointment for a different one on Sunday. We're hoping to buy property in the city, in a pedestrian friendly area and near a park.

We have a lot of time to look and we won't buy anything until the end of summer, if at all. We might instead spend the money on Fruity Pebbles and complicated shoes.

Cincinnati History Museum

2006-01-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Jen and I had a great date and trip to the Cincinnati History Museum on Saturday. I took my trusty ol' camera and snapped some photos --

CLICK FOR COMMENTED PHOTO GALLERY

The museum was awesome, expansive and quite educational. We were there for a couple of hours and then went and had dinner at the Mt. Adams Bar and Grill, one of our new favorite hangouts, which serves the best meal deal in Cincinnati. A Turkey burger with the fixings plus chips for $3.75. Beautiful!

Pre-Cana

2006-01-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

Mark and I met with our priest, Father Ed, last night to discuss Pre-Cana. It is a catholic practice that prepares couples for marriage. We answered 168 + questions regarding our feelings and our significant others feelings on topics such as money, children, religion, etc. We find out the results in two weeks. Hopefully we don’t fail!! No in all seriousness there is no passing or failing, according to Father Ed it just determines topics we should discuss prior to marriage.

Father Ed also has a black and white cat, Bootsie. It was funny to hear our priest calling Bootsie! Bootsie! Its time to go to bed Bootsie.

Maslov photography

2006-01-10T22:19:00.000-05:00

Jen and I took a drive to the outskirts tonight to meet with a photographer, the first one we've considered after doing some research online.

His name is Guennadi Maslov, he works out of his home in Amelia and is a first generation immigrant from Russia. He moved to the Cincy area in 1994.

Click here to see his website with some samples.

By 'works out of his home', I mean he's basically turned his home into either a studio or an art photo gallery. The entire basement is a studio/office and the rest of the house seemed to be a shrine to his work, which he showed us.

He teaches photography and has had many photos published in various outlets.

We really really liked him, feeling he was professional, personable, hard working and extremely talented. His prices are also very reasonable, citing low overhead because of his home office.

He's had experience shooting in both St. Francis DeSales and the Hall of Mirrors, and loves both venues.

It was an excellent experience and while we haven't signed anything, we hope you all get to meet Guennadi at some point!

Holiday pictures

2006-01-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

The holidays were awesome, and a year from now we'll be married and possibly on our honeymoon! We were thinking of going to the north pole. Actually, probably not.

CLICK FOR COMMENTED PHOTO GALLERY

Also I have New Year's Eve pictures posted at my livejournal, click here to visit (opens in new window).

T'was a Merry Christmas

2005-12-28T13:32:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! We didn’t get to see all of the family we would have liked to have seen but we had a wonderful holiday. As planned we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with my family. That resulted in the usual gift giving bonanza. At about noon we left and headed up to Napoleon to spend Christmas with Mark’s family. I don’t know if many of you have had the opportunity to spend Christmas with very little kids but there is nothing like it. Adults just do NOT get excited the way little kids do. Ben (4) and Grace (3) were busting with excitement and by the end of the night had just completely worn themselves out.

I was busting with excitement too when I got my gift from Mark. Rudi Johnson, the Bengal’s running back, is my favorite player. He has such a great work ethic and just dedicates himself so much to what he does. So, because of my love for Rudi Mark got me an autographed picture of him. It says, “To Jen. Rudi Johnson. Who Dey!” and has a big squiggle underline. My parents gave me a Rudi Johnson jersey so you can bet I will be sporting that on Sunday.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I am looking forward to a great New Year. It starts with a party at Bar Louie (all you can eat and drink) and ends with a wedding and honeymoon. And I am sure there will be a whole bunch of fun times in the middle. This will be a fantastic year!! Mark and I can’t wait to spend it with all of you.

Merry Christmas and A Happy Archive

2005-12-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

First, merry Christmas from me and Jen. On Christmas eve we'll be eating dinner with Jen's parents and then attending mass at 8 p.m. at Jen and I's parish, St. Francis DeSales.

On Christmas, we'll spend the morning at Jen's parents' and then drive up to Napoleon to spend the evening with the Sickmiller and Armbrusters!

We're very excited for the holidays and such.

Also, in case you're new to the blog, take note of the archive links in the left column. You'll notice, the posts come to an end at the bottom of the page. But there are more! You just have to go back and find them in October, November, etc... There you'll find the stories of the engagement and that.

Pictures of the new place

2005-12-19T16:47:00.000-05:00

I have pictures from post-move, along with some awards I've assigned for moving day:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sickdogg/

Minus the Wedding Details

2005-12-19T14:45:00.000-05:00

I assume that the handfuls of people that frequent this blog are interested in finding out information about our wedding. If that is the case then this post probably will frustrate you since it has nothing to do with our wedding.

This past weekend Mark moved into his new apartment, and I of course helped out. I expected this move to take 5 to 6 hours to complete. We were moving Mark from his 650 square foot apartment to the new apartment that is maybe 500 square feet. It is very cute but very small so I figured this would be an easy move. Plus Mark was purging all sorts of useless stuff. Those of you who know Mark realize that he is a PACK RAT. He has three giant crates of wires. His cats had more stuff to move to the new apartment than most freshmen in college would move into a dorm.

In reality the move started at 10:00 AM on Saturday and we did not finish until almost 11:00 PM Saturday night.

Now for the best part of this story. After moving all day we had a dresser that didn’t fit anywhere. We didn’t have a vehicle that could carry it anywhere either. So we decided that the best way to dispose of this dresser was to carry it down the street and leave it on the side of the road. Right across the street from where we left the dresser was a large, green “No Littering” sign.

Last night on Mark’s way home he noticed that his dresser had been replaced on the side of the road with a similar looking dresser, only it was in a little worse condition.

We are waiting to see how many dresser trades will happen before the city picks up the dresser and disposes of it.

If you are lucky Mark will post pictures of his new apartment.

counter and awesome post (that i can't make)

2005-12-13T22:40:00.000-05:00

I added a hit counter to the left navigation area. it counts all hits, not just unique visitors, so if you keep hitting refresh, the counter continues to grow. just like the... oh, wait, nothing grows in cincinnati right now. ohio's good for nothin' in the winter.

I also have a really really cool post to make, but i can't until after christmas. it will be explained then.

A Blushing Mark

2005-12-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

I thought I would weigh in on the church topic with a funny story about our first Catholic Church experience. Before heading to church Mark asked me to go over all or the rituals and customs of the Catholic Church. I told him not to worry and to just follow along with what everyone else was doing.

Everything went very smoothly until we came to the point in the mass when everyone is supposed to great their neighbor with a sign of peace. The man sitting in front of us extended his hand to Mark, who gripped it firmly and said a very enthusiastic “Hi!” For those of you who have never attended Catholic Church it is custom to say “Peace be with You.”

I think this left Mark a little embarrased. Other than that church went very smoothly. We will be going back this Sunday.

Our church future

2005-12-05T23:07:00.000-05:00

While both Christian, Jen and I come from different backgrounds in terms of churches.

She, and several generations of her family, grew up in the Catholic church.

I grew up in several versions of churches, including a non-denominational "Church of God" and two protestant/evangelical churches -- a Methodist church and a Nazarene church.

Jen and I have both had our to and fros in terms of our church feelings, which are much different than our God and Jesus beliefs, which have remained positively constant. We've just, at times, questioned the motives of some churches.

Clearly, this all plays into our wedding plans in a big way. Here's that sequence:

When first planning our wedding, we considered having the ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors, perhaps with a priest-for-hire type of person marrying us.

After discussing the issue again on Saturday, 12/3/05, and looking up some of these laughable priest-for-hire types, we concluded we'd take a look at the bigger picture.

That involves our lives as a married couple living in the society of the United States with (gasp!) children!

We came to this seemingly obvious conclusion:

We believe in God and we want to raise our family in the church.

We started on Sunday by attending mass at the Catholic church a few blocks from me, St. Francis DeSales at the corner of Woodburn and Madison.

It had been a while (several) years since I had attended a Catholic mass, and I really got a lot from it. I enjoyed it.

Where will this lead? We'll keep you informed.

Tiny tiny ring is now tiny tinier

2005-11-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday Jen and I took her tiny, tiny ring back to the shop where I bought it in order to take care of a sizing issue.

The ring, while it barely fit over the knuckle, was spinning on her finger. The diamond would end up on the side or bottom, presumably making the ring look more like a silver band than a diamond ring.

Because silver bands are considerably less valuable and have nothing to do with wedding engagements, we opted to have something done about it.

So, the shop put two little round metal pegs, each about 3 mm tall, on the inside of the bottom of band, the part that touches the underside of her finger (whew, that was quite a wordy description).

I went to pick the ring up today and they also cleaned it, which made a remarkable difference in sparkliness.

But the point is, now the ring fits much better and there are two little ball pegs on it. And it looks like an engagment ring again.

It has arrived!!

2005-11-17T13:23:00.000-05:00

The big day has arrived. Okay, not quite "the big day" but a big day. My dress is here!! It is hanging in my dad’s closet in all of its wedding glory. Oh, I love it. I have now had it for exactly one week and I have worn it three times. I had to try it on the day it arrived. Then I had to try it on the next day for Mandy (my sister.) Then I had to try it on because the slip and the bra arrived. Michelle comes home this weekend so I will get to try it on again. The best part--It fits perfectly so I don't think I will have to do any alterations!!

BIG NEWS! Date and location!

2005-11-08T22:44:00.000-05:00

The contract is signed and delivered -- it's a done deal, so now we can blog it!

Mark and Jen's wedding will be --->

Date: Friday, November 10th, 2006

Location: Netherland Plaza's Hall of Mirrors, downtown Cincinnati (5th and Race)

Here's a picture we snapped over the weekend while spying on the setup for someone else's celebration.

Click for a larger image

So... we've set the time and place... what else is there?

I bought a Dress

2005-11-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

I took a Thursday off work so that my mom and I could go out and look at dresses so that I could figure out what style of dresses I like and what looks good on me. Everyone gave us tips to prepare for the long grueling process. Pack snacks, call ahead… We did neither of these things.
We drove down to the bridal district in Cincinnati, went into one store, gathered up a bunch of dresses, and started trying them on. The first one was nice, the second one was awful, and the third one was perfect. (I felt like Goldilocks.) Seriously, though, after the third dress I knew I had found “the dress.” It is perfect. So, with my mom crying and me teary-eyed we decided to go ahead and buy it. So now I have a dress.
We also have a location, but until I put the signed contract in the lady’s hands I am not going to write about the location and jinx anything.

The Purple People Bride

2005-11-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

As you may know, the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Ohio River to link Cincinnati and Newport, KY, is called the Purple People Bridge.

But today, in a Channel 9 newsletter that goes out to several hundred people, I called it the Purple People Bride.

Wedding on the brain.

Today Jen told me her idea for what color our bedroom should be -- she's thinking about that already! (Of course, she's right -- when we register, the color of the sheets and whatnot should be decided)

The current colors are chocolate, white and and "grassy green" (her term -- i offered the adjectives "lime" "kelly" and "hunter." she says it's none of those.)

Sounds good to me! Actually, it sounds a little like an Andes mint.

We're engaged... now what?

2005-10-26T21:24:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how quickly you go from "let's celebrate our engagement!" to "let's plan our wedding!" The transition time is about four hours!
It's also amazing how many people asked us, immediately upon hearing the news of our engagement, asked if we had set a date yet. We were clueless how to answer that question at first.

The first thing you have to decide is a roundabout time. You know, like, a month.

At first we thought it would be great to have the wedding before Jen starts school in September. But after realizing how difficult it would be for my dear brother Adam to come home from his Macedonian Peace Corps service a month early, we opted for a date after he gets home in early September.

So, we went from a summer wedding mindset to a fall wedding mindset, which is quite a difference. I actually prefer a fall wedding because there are fewer fall weddings than summer weddings, which means lower demand for all of the consumer items associated with weddings.

We also opted for another rarity -- having the wedding on a Friday night. This is for a few reasons:

1 - Jen and I get to spend the whole weekend together post-wedding (we won't go on the honeymoon until she gets a school break)
2 - More availability of venues
3 - The wedding won't take up our guests entire weekends (haha)
4 - Cheaper (on average a few thousands bucks compared with Saturday)

Right now, we're looking at Friday, November 10th, 2006. More about the venues forthcoming.

How it Happened II

2005-10-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, so here's the previously mentioned car (2005 Mustang convertible, red leather interior, V8, 0-60 mph NOW).

Sadly, the backdrop for this picture isn't the prettiest. It's my garage. Ick.

If given more time with this car, we probably would have ended up in a lot of trouble with the law.

We are quite happy.

So yes, here is the Mt. Adams balcony that I decorated with pictures and candles and so forth. I took off work at like 12:30 p.m. and had to spend about 6 hours dilly-dallying around before I "got home from work" at 6:30. I was so excited I nearly jumped out into the city on several occasions.

While Jen says she was making things difficult for me, I felt like she was making things pretty easy. She could have been much harder on me about some things... but she trusted me!

The closest I came to blowing the whole surprise was in the car on the way to "Jeff Ruby's" from my apartment. I had on my black pants that only have one pocket (because the other pocket has a hole) and so I had to put the ring, my wallet and my phone all in that one pocket.

While driving, everything nearly fell out of my pocket and into the area between the seats. I had to keep pushing everything back in there as discreetly as possible.

The Celestial was fantastic -- and I broke a 4.5 year beef fast for that steak! It was only the second filet mignon I've ever had and it was awesome. The first didn't really count though -- it was a leftover that I microwaved! Oh and this doesn't mean I eat beef now.

The jazz club area was pretty neat -- they gave us some free champagne and congratulated us on our achievement.

The night was incredibly special in so many different ways. The best was just seeing how happy and smiling my dear Jen was!

How It Happened

2005-10-26T09:54:00.000-04:00

Mark had asked me earlier in the week if we could go out for a nice dinner at Jeff Ruby’s on Friday (Sept. 30). I protested and said that we probably should not go out and spend a lot of money since we had so much going on that month. (We like to go out to nice dinners so I didn’t think it was weird that he was asking.) He said okay and then suggested that we at least go to Jeff Ruby’s for drinks and appetizers and still get dressed up for a night out. I figured I could still wear jeans since we were only going to the bar. Mark told me that he called and they said people didn’t wear jeans even to their bar. I was not making it easy for Mark to have me dressed up.

Friday came and Mark called and told me that his land lord had an apartment available in Mt. Adams and he wanted to go look at it. I again objected, saying that it was more expensive and I didn’t understand why he would want to pay more in rent. (I am not usually cheap but I guess that week I was focused on saving money.) Mark asked me if we could just stop by and look so I agreed.

We drove up to Mt. Adams and started looking for the apartment. I was calling out the addresses as we looked for the apartment. Mark was also searching, and I was the one to “find” the apartment when we got into the building. We walked inside and I immediately started checking out the apartment. I walked through the living room and kitchen while Mark went out on the balcony. He called me out to look at the view. I pushed aside the shades and walked onto the balcony, amazed at the great view overlooking the city. I was so mesmerized that I didn’t even notice the 100s of tiny tea candles covering the balcony. But in my defense, the candles were not lit because the wind kept blowing them out.

I finally looked down and noticed a bottle of champagne and two wine glasses sitting in a heart formed by candles. Now you are probably thinking that this is when I figured out what was going on. But no. I thought we were going to be intruding on someone’s special night and I turned to tell Mark that we needed to leave. When I turned I saw that Mark was down on one knee. That is when it FINALLY all hit me, leaving me speechless. I have no idea what Mark said to me. I know he was talking, but I don’t know what he said and he can’t remember either. After probably 10 seconds mark stood up because I was standing there not moving or talking and said, “say something.” Then I started jumping around screaming yes yes yes.

We sat on the balcony and drank champagne. We toasted to our future. We hugged a lot.

As if I needed anything else Mark told me he had few more surprises so we needed to get going. We walked out and Mark pointed at a 2005 black mustang convertible and said, “We should take that.” I laughed and said, “Yeah right.” The car went beep beep as Mark pushed the keyless entry button. We jumped in and Mark started the car and counting crows was playing in the CD player. We drove for around for a little while before pulling into the Celestial.

When we walked in everyone knew who we were and was offering congratulations and shaking Mark’s hand. I felt like we were celebrities. The host led us to a table next to a window overlooking the river and the city. I don’t know for certain but I would bet it was the best view in the whole restaurant. On the table were roses that Mark had waiting for me. We ordered red wine and eventually the best Filet Mignon I have ever had. Even Mark ate steak that night. After dinner we were invited by the manager into the Celestials Jazz bar for Champagne.

When we left we drove around some more in the Mustang and called my parents and sisters to tell them about everything. After that mark tested out the power of the car for a little while but I will let him tell you about that.

The purpose of this blog

2005-10-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

Mark & Jen are engaged to be married as of 9/30/05!

This blog will be an account of the wedding planning progress... that is, if we continually remember to update it.

Which we will, even though we got a bit of a late jump. We're going to retro-post some stuff, including pictures from the engagement and our hunt for wedding locations.

Check back for more soon.