adios amigos!

hello dear friends and readers!

i just wanted to let you all know that i'll be taking a brief hiatus from the blog. i'll be traveling to the dominican republic tomorrow to begin an internship, and will return on july 25. as many of you know, i traveled there two summers ago, and it's a place very near and dear to my heart. i'll miss sharing my thoughts and ideas with you all, but kevin will be around to maintain the blog and of course, fiancé friday!

until july, besos!

-hollyanne

Introducing...the bridesmaids!

first of all, we hope you like the new layout of the blog! it's still in revising mode - we're trying to learn a little HTML so we can make it even better and more personalized, but...we get impatient and don't like keeping the blog off-line for too long. plus, i'm exhausted from trying to figure out how to add that third column for literally the last four days. FAIL.

anyways, i thought i'd take today to introduce the six lovely ladies that i am honored to have as my bridesmaids. each of them are so special to me and i can't wait to share such a special time in my life with these amazing women.

jolie hoppe - middle school friend
i am ecstatic to have jolie as my maid of honor :)

jolie and i met on cinco de mayo 2000 when i was her "host" at a visit to our middle school when we were in 7th grade. she came there to school in 8th grade and we have been the bestest of friends ever since. we've been through just about everything together - the good, the bad, the really really bad, and the absolutely amazing (traveling to paris with our moms in 2004, trips to costco and sam's club just for the samples, eating peanut butter and nutella straight from the jar on manyyy occasions, and so much more). jolie is in med school at touro university in vallejo, CA, and i have no doubt that she'll do amazing things with her life! i consider jolie like a second sister and i can't wait to have her standing beside me on the big day!

hannah fricke - sister
hannah is my only (but favorite) little sister, and even though we're almost nine years apart, we're getting closer everyday. hannah will be entering high school next year (eek!) as is one of the most multitalented fourteen-and-a-half-year-olds i know - she's involved with dance, choir, yearbook, running club, etc etc etc. sometimes i still think of her as my baby sister (she always will be) and i can't believe she's all grown up now! she is one of my very best friends, and i am so excited to have a sister to share this exciting time with. plus, she's great at arts and crafts, so maybe i can talk her into making some pretty wedding decorations!

ashly moore - college friend
i met ashly during my first days at creighton (we lived on the same floor) and we've pretty much been attached at the hip ever since. we even joined the same sorority at creighton and attended many a date party together and...single. ashly is my go-to person for advice, a sushi (or really any kind of food) date, a good laugh, and a good beer. ashly just moved out to LA last year for a masters program at usc in occupational therapy, and will make an amazing OT someday very soon.
california is happy to have inherited ashly for a little while, and i'm so happy to have standing by my side. ashly has an absolutely ridiculous sense of humor and will be the comedic relief of the wedding party : (if it was up to her, i'm pretty sure the reception theme would be burritos + mojitos!)

ruth gyllenhammer - friend from preschool 
ruth and i go back, wayyy back...to calvary baptist preschool, to be exact. after a brief, sad absence from each other's lives (read: elementary school), we were reunited when we attended the same middle school! ruth and i share a love for cupcakes, stationery, and bailey's in our coffee :) we've shared many memories together throughout the years, from beach bonfires to serving on student council together to mixing wine in our cranberry juice (slightly underage) when staying at my parents' timeshare. i was elated to be a part of ruth's wedding last summer to david, and am so excited to now have her be a part of mine.

nikki elsasser - college friend
nikki was my freshman year roommate at creighton and now a longtime friend. i'm not sure how we would have survived that first year without each other :) i'm fairly certain that it was because of our excessive mutual awkwardness that we became such fabulous friends and learned to survive "real life" together through late night talks, stalking creighton basketball players (cough...dane watts), and saturday morning breakfasts in the dining hall. nikki is about to finish up her doctoral degree in occupational therapy at creighton this december. i'm so happy to have her in our wedding!

meghan kimani - sister of the groom 
meghan is kevin's older sister and lives in springfield, missouri with her husband, working as a special education teacher. not only do i get to marry her amazing brother, but i inherit another sister in the process. although we've only met a few times, i am so excited to get to know her better and to have her as a part of our special day. sadly, i don't have any pictures of the two of us (yet!), but here's a great one of she and kevin at last thanksgiving's 5k turkey trot - how cute are they?! :)



so there they are, the six lovely ladies that i can't wait to have stand beside me on our wedding day and everything that comes after it! on a more superficial note, more to come soon about their dresses and accessories, but here's a sneak preview: the dresses were $19.99 at target!

Fiancé Friday #9 - Open Letter to Martha Stewart

Hello Blog-o-sphere!

Today, I thought I would take a moment to write an open letter to Martha Stewart...

Dear Martha,

May I call you Martha, or do you prefer Ms. Stewart? Or perhaps you prefer Prisoner #55170-054. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I'll just stick with Martha. Anyhow, I digress...

You may be wondering why an engaged young man like myself is writing an open letter to you. Well, I've got few bones to pick with you. And, yes, they revolve around weddings. First things first, let's chat about your magazine. Now, I love my fiancee more than anything. However, when the latest edition of Martha Stewart Weddings comes out, we have to immediately go and get it. We then go through it, looking for new and more ideas for our wedding.

Thanks to you and your magazine, Martha, I spent an entire evening this week making bunting. Now, until this week, I always thought bunting was something that a batter did in baseball in order to advance a runner on base. So, naturally, when my fiancee began to discuss bunting, I thought we might be going to a baseball game, my favorite past-time. You, Martha, can imagine my surprise when bunting turned out to be an all-evening arts and crafts project. Not an ounce of baseball was involved.

I'd also like to take a moment to discuss your supposed "authority" on weddings. Now, Martha, according to Wikipedia (Yes, I use Wikipedia, and if I ever teach students, I will allow them to use Wikipedia as well), you were married in 1961. Martha, I don't know if you know this, but that was a while ago. You haven't planned a wedding in almost 50 years. Martha, come on. A lot has changed since then. Far be it for me to criticize your style or designs, I just would like to see what exactly gives you this authority over modern-day weddings.

So, Martha, that's what I have to say to you right now. Feel free to respond to me at any point. I'm anxiously waiting for your response.

Peace, Love, and Bunting,

Kevin

place cards + assigned seating

hello all!

my apologies for the lack of posting later, but we've been incredibly busy: in the last few weeks, kevin and i have finished up countless papers and tests, kevin graduated with his masters degree!!, kevin's parents + his aunt and uncle + my parents and sister all came to tucson to visit, and i moved out of my apartment. all of this while trying to enjoy our last few weeks together in tucson before i say adios for the summer and head to the dominican republic.

anyways, enough about our busy lives. today's post is about place cards and assigned seating. it's one of the topics that my dear fiancé and i have debated against each other since november. i like place cards. and assigned seating. perhaps it's my obsessive need for order and to be prepared, but as a wedding guest, i like going to a wedding and knowing where i'm supposed to sit. i trust the bride and groom to be intentional about where each guest sits, and i look forward to sitting near both people i already know and people i haven't yet met. kevin, on the other hand, wants people to sit at whichever table they want. i'm not necessarily opposed to this idea.

okay, so, a little confession: one of the reasons why i'm so into assigned seating is because i love the idea of designing and making my own place cards. it's not really so much about the assigned seating; it's just that i like arts and crafts, and want to add those personal touches to our wedding whenever i can. kevin blames martha stewart for giving me all these ideas that i would have never had otherwise (see the upcoming Fiance Friday post for more on his sentiments).

what do you all think? as a guest, how do you feel about assigned seating?

until then, some cute place card ideas: