Our Wedding - October 20th, 2006

We're so thrilled that our wedding is featured in The Knot Magazine Fall 2007/Winter 2008 edition!

The two-page spread titled 'Shades of Autumn' shows just a glimpse into our wedding celebration and all of its unique design ideas. As noted in the article, I designed and handsewed almost every element -- the invitations, programs, ring pillow, handbags for myself and my bridesmaids, table numbers, placecards -- even fabric-tipped guest towels for the bathrooms.

Introducing Merriment Design
I'm pleased to announce that I'm now offering wedding design services through my new alter ego, Merriment Design. Soon I'll be launching the Merriment Design website where I'll show you how you can create your own elements like fabric-tipped bathroom towels. And if you need help just ask. Whether crafting an entire theme or just the table numbers I look forward to helping you create a wedding day that reflects your own personal style.

Until my new site launches please contact me using the online contact form at my handbag website, Carry Handbags. Thanks to all who have contacted me thus far with requests and well wishes!

Thank you for helping make our wedding such a memorable, intimate day with our family and closest friends. We had such a great weekend with you. Here are some photos courtesy of Brett and Kiri.

It's probably no surprise to you that we'd like you to RSVP online. Please log in and let us know if you'll be able to help us celebrate. We hope you can make it!

Per the invitation, you are welcome and encouraged to arrive at 5:00pm for pre-ceremony drinks and mingling with acoustic guitar entertainment. The ceremony begins at 5:30pm. Immediately after the ceremony we'll serve festive drinks and yummy appetizers by The Hearty Boys followed by an autumnal dinner, spirited dancing and other merriment. Be sure to remember to finalize hotel reservations as soon as possible due to the Chicago marathon. Can't wait to see you!

I met Janna Hicks Devylder and John Devylder at Giant Step. I took this picture of them when the three of us were in San Francisco at the 2003 DUX conference. Janna was pregnant with Gus at the time.

Janna and John, married and living in Oak Park, IL, have two boys Gus and Eli. Janna keeps a entertaining blog called Baby Days. Be sure to check out the "Mama?" posting from October 9th and you'll see what I mean.

John is currently getting his masters degree at The Art Institute on a full-ride scholarship. Yep, folks, he's that good. John also runs a letterpress business literally out of his garage. He letterpressed the invitations that I designed as a wedding gift to us. The orange color in particular was a perfect match, and we loved them!

Meet Miss Renee. Renee has a killer...

1. Sense of humor. In addition to her daily wittisims, Renee has taken classes at Second City. She's a stitch, as they say.

2. Sense of style. For Secret Santa last year, Renee leased me her shopping services at the Aurora Mall. Those of you who have seen my ubiquitous yellow hoodie can thank Renee!

3. Sense of timing. Renee's the kind of girl who innately senses when her friends need her. She's very giving and watches out for everyone else. Renee's a super fun lady who is always there when you need her!

Kris and John Kepler will be joining us from Smug Fran..., I mean, San Francisco :) That's Kris in the middle, with twin sister Kelly on the left and husband of just-over-a-year John on the right.

Kris and I met as Giant Step, a common theme lately in our Guest Spotlights. She started off as a freelancer Experience Planner, joined full-time and transferred in April to the San Francisco office so she and John could get back to the West Coast to be near their families.

John was born in Germany and has lived all over. He's a die-hard foodie, an Apple-connoisseur and all-around conversationalist. He also owns TONS of books which the complete opposite of me and Shane so I get a kick looking through his shelves (and shelves and shelves) of titles.

Kris is extremely loyal, compassionate, insightful, and totally available when you need her. She's the type of friend you have no matter where both of you are living at the time. As well as always being up for fun (and for cocktails), Kris is fiercely competitive in athletics, playing Big Ten tennis at Iowa and with me and Debbie Hawickhorst in beach volleyball.


Kris is a California girl at heart, growing up a stone's throw to the beach in Del Mar. When Shane and I were in town for the Kepler's wedding I wondered what it would have been like for me if my parents had stayed in La Jolla where we lived when my dad taught at University of San Diego. Who knows, maybe Kris and I would have met on the tennis court ...where I'm sure she would have promptly trounced me 1-6, 0-6.

Kris, Amy and I had a really fun weekend this summer together hanging in San Francisco with John and Brenda and in Sonoma. It means a lot to me and Shane that the Keplers will be rockin' out at our wedding!

Mark my words, Alex Pruner will someday be famous.

Alex has an admirably strong sense of self ...especially for such a twentysomething youngster. She wears body glitter when she feels like it. Dons heart-shaped glasses just because. Dances up a storm in bowling alleys. Makes friends with Greg Louganis. Alex is infectiously warm and high-energy. I really can't say it any better than her Hoopafreaks profile:

LEXI: "She will never let your spirits down"
This girl is always on. She is joy. And she is good to people. Lexi’s personality has its own gravitational pull. And we’re not talkin’ minor asteroid pull. We mean red giant star gravitational pull. Lexi makes everything spicier. Watch her hoop, but have a glass of water handy. She's definitely a four-alarm woman.

Likes:
Shakin' it up on the dance floor, Russian tea parties (shots included), Parisian travel, nights in Shanghai with lil' M and Big D, Wallace & Grommit

Dislikes:
Injustice

Brian Jones and I worked together at Giant Step starting 2001-ish when he joined as a copywriter. Through three different office buildings and just as many name changes, Brian and I became friends ...and my unofficial grammar professor. While I miss him now that he's over at the 'enemy', it's been fun meeting him for the occasional lunch and gossip session.

Brian is an accomplished music aficionado and in a former life interviewed rock stars for music magazines. Ask him about his wall-to-wall CD collection on IKEA Billy bookshelves.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Hands down. Shane knows how much I love Halloween so this weekend he's taking me *out* of the land of wedding details and flower selection and cutting stacks of ceremony programs (as well as, uh, the coffee table) to treat me to a Saturday trip to the suburbs to pick apples and get some pumpkins.

Here are the ones we carved last year. Guess which one is mine and which one is Shane's?

God, how I miss Jen Harris. She's back in Texas where she belongs, Austin to be exact, and the Lone Star State is lucky to have her.

I met Jen in Chicago at Giant Step in 2000. She was a project manager and I was a user-centered designer. Jen is fun-loving, super organized, wildly creative, crazy efficient ...yes, those attributes usually aren't found in the same person but Jen's got them as you can see. She has a style all her own and can pretty much take on anything she decides to pursue.

One fun night together was when Shane and I visited Jen in San Francisco. Doodeloo!.

Here is a super short history of my family. I am the youngest of four children. I have one brother, Kevin, who is 10 years older than me. I also have two sisters, Krista and Karin, who I think are 8 and 4 years older than me but I honestly often forget what the exact difference is and never have the motivation to calculate it. My parents Larry and Norma, both Indiana natives and Purdue University graduates, got married in 1959.
They lived in East Lansing, Michigan while my dad was getting his PhD at Michigan State, then moved to North Judson, Indiana and then to Terre Haute where they are today. While they've grown deep roots in Indiana, my parents travel a lot, sometimes so much that I can't keep track of where they are. When we were younger they used to take us on summer roadtrips all over the US such as San Francisco...


Colorado...

Florida...

We used to buy stickers in each state and stick them on the side of our station wagon's trailer. This is where my love of travel came from.

My grandparents have long since passed away and I miss them. My grandma Rebecca and grandpa Nelson lived on a farm in Royal Center, Indiana where we'd spend time at holidays and in the summer, going bowling, playing Bunco and croquet, walking to the 'crick', gardening, listening to silly jokes, visiting the county fair, and drawing pictures in the nap of the fuzzy brown chair with our fingers.

My grandma Beulah and grandpa Charles Beymer lived in Montpelier, Indiana. They're pictured here on the right. Grandma Beulah could make a mean chocolate pie *and* kick your butt in Bid Euchre. I have decent sized extended family that still lives in the Montpelier area.


So that's a super short introduction to my family. Please introduce yourself to them at the wedding!

I was in Terre Haute last weekend and got some pictures of me when I was little. This one is one of my favorite that I hadn't seen before. It's my brother Kevin, my sister Krista and me watching TV. I'm 7 months old in this photo. For those of you who know me well, this photo explains a lot :)

Found pictures of the infamous birthday cake that Shane made for me while he still lived in Michigan with Josh.


Shane wanted to make a birthday cake for me and grill dinner. Owning no measuring cups or teaspoons, Shane decided to use a 12 oz. beer bottle and shot glasses to measure out the liquids. All of this (including Josh's singing) was very entertaining to me :)

Found some fun pictures from past vacations. That's me and Shane above in Hawaii, 2002/2003-ish. We hung out in Kauai, our favorite, and Maui.


Didn't Shane look festive? We plan to get tropical again during our honeymoon in Fiji. Bula!

There are a number of wedding guests that I first met at DePauw University. Roughly the size of my high school, DePauw is a small liberal arts school -- about 2,600 students -- in Greencastle, Indiana, population 10,065. As odd as the experience could be at times I am so grateful for the enduring friendships that DePauw made possible. So let me introduce you to a couple of these ladies.


Julie Johnson Hopkins (aka "JJ") lives in Tomball, Texas with her husband Rand and two children, Sienna and Reed. That's me and Julie on the last day of senior year of college, circa May 1994. I used to get to see JJ every couple of years or so when we'd get the gang together but it's been too many years and I'm missing my JJ. JJ is warm and grounded and positive and wonderful.

Emily Mills Hawk is sweet and sassy in the best sense. She and her husband, fellow Tiger (and Terre Hautian!) Rich Hawk, live with their two sons in Indianapolis, Indiana. A death penalty attorney and stay-at-home mom who recently completed Defense-Based Victim Outreach training, Emily and her brood recently moved to their new home on the reservoir and now enjoy easy access to boating and swimming. Here is Emily with the gang at Marvin's at our 10-year college reunion.


I'm finding so many fun pictures. Will post more soon.

Wedding guests are coming from all over the country so I thought it would be fun to start introducing you to each other now. In "Guest Spotlight" I'll periodically introduce guests to keep you (and myself) entertained. Our first Guest Spotlight is Amy Thompson.


This is a picture of me and Amy from this summer but we've known each other since meeting in the second grade at Thornton Elementary School (AKA DeVaney Elementary School) in Terre Haute, Indiana. Amy recalls a story about how we met on the playground jumping rope. We then went to Woodrow Wilson Junior High School for grades 7-9 but split in high school, Amy going to Terre Haute South and me to Terre Haute North. We stayed friends and played tennis every summer in the Terre Haute Junior Tennis Association. Here is a picture of us at cotillion in high school...


That picture cracks me up. Amy is an Indiana University graduate for both undergrad and law school. She's currently living in Manhattan practicing law and writing her second novel. She travels more than any one I know -- including a trip to see me and Shane in Australia -- and knows all the best restaurants in the city. Shane and I are really excited to have Amy at our wedding!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our first guest spotlight. I'll introduce you to more guests soon.

No wedding planning this weekend... we went to Lollapalooza in Grant Park. This year it was three days long, twice as big and thankfully, not 105 degrees like last year. Unfortunately, Krista and I didn't win backstage passes this year but we did slum it at the front of She Wants Revenge. Yes, a bit cheesy but that type of music is like comfort food.

My other favorite performances were The Editors, The Raconteurs, Dresden Dolls, Thievery Corporation and Living Things. Shane's favorite was Wolfmother (Jeff's too). Eric liked The Hold Steady. Some good bands that I missed that I'm listening at home now were Andrew Bird (Heather was right), Lyrics Born (Callin' Out... Hoopafreaks!) and Husky Rescue. I got lazy a couple of times and didn't make the hike to the other side of the park. Check out band soundclips and find your favorites!

The best part of shopping for my wedding dress was the fun I had with my mom and my sisters. On our first day out, we decided to go upscale and downscale to see the range of what's available. No surprise, I realized that fabric quality is a big deal with me and that set the tone for future outings.

Poor Krista then went with me to three additional stores to try to find the right style and fabric. A bargain hunter, I had to check out White Chicago. While nothing clicked their service was superb and I recommend any brides with a softspot for designer dresses check it out.

Next Krista and I found ourselves at Alessandra's in a south-side Chicago Latino neighborhood to track down a specific Demetrios dress I'd seen in a magazine. I quickly learned that just because a store carries a designer, they do not necessarily carry all of their dresses. Again the service was excellent. We had a ball with the poofy dresses and quinceañera accessories and topped the day off at El Barco.

Finally we found the right dress. I have to say I was really glad to be done with it!