The Bachelor Party... Part II

AKA “Teddy got Mugged”.

All is well in Joeyville. All of the guys made it back alive- yes, even Teddy. Still awaiting photos from Mike Lupton, picture-taker extraordinaire. The guys arrived back to our place around 2:00 yesterday afternoon. Joey was actually the most chipper looking of the lot. After they said their goodbyes, Joey settled into his favorite chair with his favorite dog and began to fill in the blanks.

Friday morning they put him in his own truck, and blindfolded him. Teddy turned on the truck and realized there was no gas and the truck needed oil. [editor’s note: if they had TOLD me they were taking his truck maybe I would’ve clued them in to the fact that the truck needs a S-load of gas and an oil change.] $100 later, they were on their way. They headed to McDonalds for lunch and handed still blindfolded Joey a HUGE bottle of Gentlemen Jack- which he managed to slug Tumbles with later because he was trying to put it in the backseat and was still blindfolded.

Funny anecdote: apparently no sooner had they crossed over the bridge into Jersey than blindfolded Joey says, “What is that smell?! It smells like Jersey.” And everyone tried not to laugh.

They stopped and all got out of the car and asked Joey where he thought he was. His answer? “What’s our tee time?”. They were all taken aback and asked how he knew this, “Judging by the sounds of golf carts and people teeing off, I’m guessing we’re at a golf course.” Good one.

After being bro-iced one too many times, Joey and his now posse of quite a few (there were about 13 guys total) headed to Atlantic City, NJ. Friday night was completely crazy, and there were many details lost here. I guess I’m pretty glad about that because do I really want to know everything? The answer is no.

Saturday it was more gambling and drinking. Joey was feeling a little rough (can’t drink em like we used to!) but was a good sport about everything. There WAS an attempt at a strip club however it was BYOB and the B store was closed. So it was back to the casinos.

Funny anecdote 2: Not sure which night this was, but as they were all waiting in line for a cab, Zach/Brian (I forget who it was, but hey they are interchangeable) disappeared and returned with a limo. The guys all thanked the driver profusely, who told them he could normally fit 8-10 big dudes, or 12 asians.

Again, many details of the night were lost (or intentionally omitted… either way, I don’t want to know). Early Sunday morning, Teddy was walking in the ghetto of AC that separated the hotel from the boardwalk, wearing white pants and a white shirt, talking on his iphone to his girlfriend, when BAM. He was hit on the head with a mini-baseball bat, aka a Cracker Whacker… in an attempt to rob him. He threw his $60 on the ground and took off running. The thugs chased him for 2 blocks or so before he got away. He’s left with a sore jaw, $-60, and a great story.

Like I said before, everyone returned home safely and I am anxiously awaiting some photographs to add to the Events tab on this site. So keep a look out!

Thanks to all the guys who attended and kept Joey safe.

Next up, MY bachelorette party…. In 2 weeks :)

41 Days to go!

Love,
Sarah

The Bachelor Party... Part I

It all started with a car alarm.

Friday morning. 4:45am. I’m sound asleep when I’m awakened to 5 little beeps. I can’t figure out if it was a dream or not, but I look at Joey and he’s awake too. “I’m not sure if it was a dream but your keychain is bee-“ “I know.” He gets up and looks out the window. Sure enough, there is Peyton’s truck, Peyton, and 3 other guys snooping around the outside of Joey’s truck. They don’t realize that Joey’s car alarm keychain beeps a warning if someone gets too close. So we decide to mess with them. Peeking out the closed curtains, we set off the car alarm. The guys jump straight into the air and dash into the woods. We’re laughing hysterically until Doc catches wind that there are people outside our window and starts barking. Peyton, Teddy, Tumbles and Joe come into the apartment and Doc goes nuts. Luckily he knows all of them and calms down quickly. We say a quick goodbye and the boys drive off… in Joey’s truck.

Doc and I go back to sleep (read: attempt to). 25 minutes later Doc is barking again. Peeking out the keyhole I see Warner and Lupton outside my door. Me: “They already left!” Warner: “I know, we’re here to get some stuff!” [holds up a cute little list on notebook paper]. He and Lupton come in, but Doc doesn’t know Lupton and refuses his entry, plus he’s wearing a baseball cap so that immediately makes things 10 times worse. Lupton waits outside. We gather Joey’s golf clubs, a nice outfit, and some polo shirts. I ask if I should be expecting any more visitors. Warner says no, and the guys disappear into the darkness.

Checking Facebook, I see that they stopped at a McDonalds and are playing golf somewhere in NJ. Peyton’s status of “VEGAS” is a total lie, and at the end of the day, I get a pix message from a ridiculously awesome looking hotel room in Atlantic City.

This brings us to today. Doc and I spent the night at A Love’s with Jax. We watched “The Hangover” and laughed at the possibility that these exact antics could be going on at that very moment.

This morning at 6:30 my phone rang. It’s Joey! He says he’s the only one left awake. Not surprised. My fiancé can party with the best of them. Plus all the guys apparently stayed up all night on Thursday preparing for the weekend. Good news: he’s up 200 and still alive. Bad news? There’s still another night to go…

Part II Coming your way soon!

Housekeeping!

I wanted to make a few housekeeping notes about the site. For one, I really shouldn’t be allowed to touch it but when I got the new pictures I got REALLY excited about adding them to the site and thus screwed a few things up. Like for instance, my bio is now gone. It has gone away without leave and it didn’t tell me where it went. I now have to go back through my e-mail and find it and/or re-write it. So sorry. Also, you may have noticed that the guest counter went back to zero. That would be my fault as well, since I was so pumped about getting the new pic up on the home page that I accidentally got rid of our super fabulous over 1100 visitor counter. Boo. Basically anything that is screwy about the site you can just chalk it up to my incompetence. You can also e-mail us at thegishwedding@gmail.com and tell me about any errors or problems that still exist with the site. I’d really appreciate it, that way I can fix them. Because as much as I like stalking myself and pretending I’m seeing the site for the first time (you don’t do that?) I still might miss something!

In other news, Joey’s bachelor party is THIS WEEKEND!!!! Neither of us have any clue where he is going/what he is doing. So expect a post about that as soon as I know and another post as soon as he’s home safe. Check out the “Events” section for photos because I’ve put one of his pals up to the task of ensuring there is at least ONE picture taken for the website.

I think that’s it for now. 45 dayssss!!!

Love,
Sarah

Tea Party!

After another long weekend- where by the way, we passed the 50 day mark!!!- I finally have some time to write about my Bridal Tea which took place on August 14th in Pennsylvania. It was hosted by a family that has been in my life since before the womb- my parents’ very close friends, the Vesseys.

The Tea Party theme was something I picked out when I was 7 years old. No, really! My 8th Birthday Party was a Tea Party and all my friends brought their dolls and we drank tea catered by A Taste of Britain and we dressed our dolls in outfits matching our own. Fast forward to my engagement… I always thought a tea party bridal shower would be so fun! So I mentioned this to my Mom. And here we are!

The invitation said that hats and gloves were optional… but not for me! I completed my entire outfit almost a month beforehand and even modeled it for bridesmaid Kendayl who swore she was going to steal my dress (you can borrow it Kens!). Here I am with my Mom, who is wearing a “Mother of the Bride” hat with a peacock feather stuck in it, courtesy of my Aunt Patti… AKA The Queen of Hearts….

The color theme for this shower was matching our wedding colors… so, if you haven’t picked up on this already- purple with a splash of orange. My Mom also incorporated the color of her dress into the nametags. It was small and probably can’t be seen from this photo… oh well, another surprise!

Another cool thing about the way this shower was done is that there was a lot of family history hidden around the house. For example, my Mom wore the necklace she was given as a member of my Great Aunt’s wedding party when she was 9 years old. She also found a towel cake that my late Great Grandmom Helen had made for my Mom’s bridal shower! How COOL?!!?

Finally, around the dessert table (which included the cake made by my lovely sister and MOH Laura) were two marriage certificates. One was my Grandmother’s parents from the 1920’s, and one was THEIR parents’, from the 1900s. Awesome. (And totally more beautiful than the ugly blue and white one that Joey and I just got…)

Here is an up close and personal picture of the gorgeous cake. Laura worked really hard on it (there was A LOT of cake in the kitchen when we arrived…) and it came out great!

The tea party was a huge success and I was so lucky to have been blessed with so many friends, family, and gifts. The last thing that I will leave you with is that if you’ve ever seen Alice in Wonderland, you know that you can’t have a tea party without…..

The White Rabbit, Alice, and The Queen of Hearts…

Only 48 days to go!! Things are getting very crazy so I apologize in advance if I’m not able to get updates out as soon as I want to!

Love,
Sarah

Wacky Weekend

OK I realize I have been severely slacking on the blogs. Life has been a little nuts lately and last weekend was wedding-central, like it is every time we go up to PA for a weekend. Since all of our vendors are there, we have to do all our appointments on the weekends when we are at home… this leads to some extremely busy weekends!

First things first. Our photos came back from our wedding photographers, John and Kimberly Sanderson. They did an amazing job and you can see some of their work around the site, and on the newest photo album tab. We have received so many compliments on the pictures but really the credit goes to the photographers themselves. I cannot wait to see our wedding pictures!

So last weekend. Um.. where do I start. I guess I’ll start at 10:30pm on Thursday when Joey got off work and we packed Doc into the suburban and headed out of town. Fast forward 3.5 hours to find me driving the suburban, Doc lucky to be alive, and Joey eating a Wawa hoagie. That’s how our weekend started.

Friday morning we woke up bright and early, and left Doc with my Mom while we went to get our MARRIAGE LICENSE! Wooohoo! It’s so funny how you learn things about someone you thought you already knew… like that time he announced he plays golf. Or that time when we went to get our marriage license and he knew EVERYTHING about what you can/can’t take into the courthouse. Um.. is there something you aren’t telling me? Anyway, the marriage license process was easy and fun. Yes, fun. We giggled when they asked us if we were related or if we were insane. Mature? Not us! After about 5 minutes we walked out there with this little piece of paper that once signed, binds us for life!

After returning to our illegally parked car, we headed off to Exton to meet with our pastry chef who is designing the cake for our wedding. We tasted 5 different flavors of cake and mousse icing, and they were all delicious. I think we are going to go with the raspberry mousse… trust me it’s delicious.

We also discussed the design/look of the cake. That, my friends, will have to be a surprise!

It was only lunch time, but we had already gotten so much done! We went back to my parents where Joey got to relax and hang out with Doc and Dakota for the rest of the day. Laura (my sis and MOH) and I had to get back into the car and go to my very first DRESS FITTING!!!!! Maria, the woman who is doing my alterations, is so wonderful. Bridesmaid Steph recommended her to me (Thank you!). My dress actually fit really well! Other than the bustle and a little in on the bust area (yes, IN), I didn’t need any other alterations. It was really fun to finally be able to put on the dress I’m going to be wearing on my wedding day!

After the dress fitting, it was time to relax and have fun. My Mom and Laura went to the Vessey’s to prepare for my AMAZING Tea Party and Joey and I decided to meet up with my brother, Alex and his girlfriend, Corinne, at the local bowling alley.

Craziness ensued.

Saturday I was treated to the most lovely tea party and bridal shower by my Pennsylvania friends and family. It is really hard having two families in two very different states, and the only option to allow relatives that can’t travel was to have two. It was really lovely, and I’m going to do a separate post about it so I can share lots of pictures.

Joey’s Mom came up for the shower on Saturday (so nice of her!) and she drove Joey back home afterwards. So I was stuck with our naughty child for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday my cousin, Jaime, and I went to meet with our DJs and we had a great visit. I know our party is going to be so much fun!! With a few surprises, naturally. After the meeting was over, we packed up the suburban, I clipped Doc into his carseat (calm down, it’s a harness with a loop for the seatbelt), and we headed back to VA in the pouring rain and terrible traffic.

Whew. After lugging all our loot up the stairs into our apartment, it was starting to look like we had just moved in. We got so many wonderful gifts and I am so thankful for each and every one! Now to unpack them……

52 <- almost to 50! Days to go!
Love, Sarah

2 MONTHS TO GO!

I remember when I wrote my 6 month update… now we’re down to 2 and I feel ready…. Sort of.

Most everything is planned, now I just need to execute. There are only a few little details left to be done. This weekend, I’m heading up to PA to attend my Bridal Tea… SO EXCITED ABOUT THAT. Stay tuned for pictures on both my Blog and Events tab! I am also having my first dress fitting, cake tasting, and meeting with the DJ. OH and we’re getting this little unimportant thing called a MARRIAGE LICENSE. There really is no turning back! ;)

What else is left to do? Well, we need to finish our arts and crafts, the wedding program, order the favors, wrap our gifts, make all our final payments (ugh), and enjoy our last 2 months as single people! Joey’s bachelor party is at the end of this month (no clue where they are going so don’t even ask) and my bachelorette is at the beginning of September at the beach. From then on, I’m sure it will be a whirlwind of weddingness that won’t stop until October 11th!

I am so excited to become Sarah Gish… in 2 months exactly from today!!!

Love,
Sarah

Me vs. The Mail

Just wanted to announce really quick that I mailed the invitations this morning, so there is no turning back now!!! Bridesmaid Kendayl helped me address the envelopes last week, and over the weekend I stuffed, stamped, and sealed all of them and brought a humongous brown shopping bag full into the post office this morning. Crystal City post office… probably not my #1 fan today.

Anyhoo that’s all I have to say for now. I’ll be back tomorrow with our 2 MONTH update! (OMG!)

62 days to go!
Love,
Sarah

Survey Says...

-How long did you date before you got engaged?
About 2.5 years.

-Did you get the ring you wanted?
Yes, we picked it out together.

-Was the proposal a complete surprise?
I knew it was coming but did NOT see it coming that weekend at all. Especially when I thought he was at work all day!

-Do you wish you had a bigger/smaller diamond? If so How big or small?
Nope, my diamond is perfect <3

-Did you cry when he proposed?
No, I was way too shocked to cry!

-Was the proposal romantic or creative?
It was short and sweet. Perfect for the two of us. I told him I’d kill him if he proposed to me in front of other people or on the jumbotron at a large sporting event…

-Where do you want to go for your honeymoon?
We wanted to go to Disney World, but since we’ve been there *ahem* a few times already we decided to go for a loooong cruise!

-Are you buying his wedding band for him?
We bought our wedding bands together.

-Have you gone over your original wedding budget?
Earmuffs, Mom! -Most definitely.

-What day of the year will your wedding be?
Sunday October 10, 2010

-What kind of weather?
Perfect fall weather- high 60s/low 70s and sunny! PRAY FOR SUN!!!

-Inside or outside?
Outside :-)

-Church/justice of the peace/other?
Presbyterian

-How many people will be there?
150-ish

-Time of day?
4pm

-Any kind of theme?
Purple. With a splash of Orange. And splash of Disney… ;)

-How many bridesmaids? Who would they be?
6
My sister (MOH)
Steph (Highschool BFF)
Kendayl (College Pal)
Shirin (College Pal)
Amanda (College Pal)
Gage (Post College Pal)

-What kind of cake/what will it look like?
Not sure yet…. Round, lots of tiers, maybe fondant, maybe not!

-Where will you have the reception?
The hotel where the ceremony is taking place.

-What kind of dress will you have/color/material?
My fiancé could be reading this… you can never be too sure!

-What kind of flowers in your bouquet?
White ones.

-Kind of engagement ring?
white gold tiffany band with solitaire diamond

-Kind of wedding bands?
white gold, mine has diamonds, Joey’s does not.

-How will you wear your hair?
Out of my face... I've got some dancing to do!

-Who will be important to be there?
Our family and some friends. Wish we could invite EVERYBODY!

-Will the reception be big or small?
Big-ish. More like medium size.

-What will the groom wear?
Tuxedo

-How long on Honeymoon?
12 days :-P

-What will you do?
Cruise, relax, consume adult beverages, etc.

-Will it be modest or costly?
We splurged a bit….

-How old will you and the groom be?
I will be 26 and he’ll be 25. I like ‘em young!

-How long will you be engaged before you get married?
10 months

-Live together before or wait till married?
Live together

-Take a long time to plan the wedding or will it be simple?
I’m having a BLAST!!!!

-Will you do it yourself or with family or hire someone to plan the wedding?
Planning myself but taking lots of advice!

-Will you write your own vows or use something pre-made?
Pre-made.

The end.

67 Days to go!
Love,
Sarah

Love in Bloom

Oh my goodness… it’s AUGUST! The wedding is 2 months and 8 days away and things are slowly coming together! On Saturday, my beautiful bridesmaids and Mother-in-law to be threw the most gorgeous, classy bridal shower for me and my Virginia friends and soon-to-be relatives. (All the pictures are borrowed from my Mom.) I received SO many thoughtful and generous gifts. Joey and I are so very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!

The theme was “Love in Bloom” and there were flowers EVERYWHERE. It was so gorgeous.

I even got my own parking spot!

Bridesmaid Gage made the cake!

There was tons of food!

THANK YOU GIRLS FOR A WONDERFUL SHOWER!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who was able to come to help celebrate!!!

69 days to go!
Love,
Sarah