Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was at our place. Eleven people in our tiny little suite! My Grandma brought the Turkey, stuffing and gravy, Momma-in-law made carrot cake and pumpkin cheesecake (a.k.a.thebestthingever), Mom brought salad, beer and wine, and I made mashed potatoes, crispy sage potatoes, cinnamon spice carrots and saucy apple cake. (Cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie (as if we needed 4 desserts) were provided by Safeway!) Recipes to come...

 Andrew and his momma

 My sister Victoria

 The Newlyweds

 Supertable

 Our post-dessert jam session (Andrew's brother Jon on Indian Accordion)

Table

Embarassing poseface

OM NOM (via)

The aftermath of too much food and wine...

Mom's Wedding Part II

Now that you have seen the lovely wedding day 1 it is time to turn our attention to wedding day 2. Wedding day 2 was an open house on August 6th, the day after the official wedding day and the day before Andrew and I left for Europe. It was a busy time. The open house had guests from the night before plus a more extended group of friends, family and coworkers. There was lots of food, drinks, gifts and it gave everyone a better chance to get to know eachother and to just chat and relax. However, as fun as it was we all learned that throwing a big party the day after throwing a huge party is not the greatest idea. We were all exhausted and would probably not go the two night event route again. Anyways, on to the photos!

 om noms

 Jack and Bailie

 Gifts Galore

 Looking into the living room from the entrance-way

 Patio people

 The newlyweds in their kitchen

Yes, that's me and a blurry Boba Fett...I'll explain someday.

We hung the dress off the loft railing above the living room for a unique decoration.

Coming next...Europe Part I: The South of France! 

Mom's Wedding Part I

I feel a need to break down our incredibly exciting August into more detail than one post as it was...incredibly exciting. To start lets cover my mom's wedding, day 1....

Who: My mom Mary Lou and her then fiance Eric, the family, some friends.

What: Their wedding

When: August 5th 2011

Where: Mom and Eric's place (amenity building)

Wedding Day 1

Let's start with the dresses!

My mom's dress is from the Blue by Enzoani 2011 collection, it's called Danbury.
My dress is BCBG, I think it has been discontinued as it was on sale about 75%.
My sister's dress is a Venus bridesmaid's dress style #1277

On to the decor!

There were over 50 rented white cane-back chairs, three big rented palm trees, tons of tea lights, white potted flowers, white linens and a patio set outside that came straight from their patio at home. It was classy and just a little bit old Hollywood glam which went perfectly with her dress and hair.

The food...

Food, tables and linens were provided by Marilyn Pearson's Cuisine and Company. They were fun and professional and the food was healthy, organic and delicious. They even set up a barbeque station on the playground outside.

Music

 You have got to love my sister in this one, plus it's a good shot of my dress :)

 Sufficiently embarassing shot of my mom and her new sister-in-law

Andrew and I (we hadn't slow-danced since our own wedding!)

Music was provided by my laptop and a hastily assembled playlist on repeat which no one seemed to mind. Some dancing was impressive (Eric and his sister's swing dancing was admirable) and some was just embarassing (My sister and I dance fighting? No one wants to see that...)

Two things you may notice about the video:  1. Yes that's the caterers getting down, we're just that fun. 2. I am not in the video, no way anyone needs to have easy access to that footage.

The photography was done by a talented friend of the groom and videography (not the dancing video though) was done by Andrew's dad Mark with the help of his lovely wife and assistant Eileen.

Coming up: a Wedding Day 2 post!

My sister is finally 13...

I mean 19, she's actually 19, but she'll be a preteen in my mind forever. We celebrated with really good pizza, a mini pub crawl and late night waffles...

Andrew and Levi in deep discussions.

Sisters

Pizzasogood.

 Our lonely table as we left...

 Sally and Victoria

 Victoria and Levi

 Free Birthday Waffle!

 Waffle!

 We're moose.