Cardinals vs Braves

We ventured down to St.Louis on Sunday for an Atlanta Braves (Nathan's team) vs St.Louis Cardinals (Amber's team) game for my birthday. We went with a small group including Nathan's cousin Brock and his girlfriend Cassie and met my friend Ali there, who's from St.Louis. We had a great time! Our seats were a little unusual. We ended up in the wheelchair seating, which ended up being really nice. We had space to move our chairs around and there was a steady breeze the whole game. The Cardinals ended up losing and the Braves had their sweep. Better luck next time! This picture below is the view from our seats!

Getting out of yard work

On Sunday evening we decided to rip out some bushes and weeds in the front yard. Nathan made sure I wore gloves and tennis shoes to avoid poison ivy. Well, I'm just not meant to work in the yard I guess because I ended up getting poison ivy so bad on my arms and legs that by Wednesday night Nate talked me into going to urgent care and getting a shot. I'm not a fan of doctors or needles so this was a big deal. After the shot I was told I never have to pull weeds again! I wish I didn't have to go through three days of extreme itching to win that battle! :)

New Harmony

We visited New Harmony today to be corny and celebrate our engagement day. We had a snack picnic by the lake and watched turtles for awhile, which was very relaxing. After our picnic we rented old school bicycles and rode around town. We finally saw the roofless church and the labyrinth. Since the weather was so nice we took the bikes on a random trail and ended up at the Wabash river.

The weather was amazing. It was nice to be able and spend some time with just each other! We had a lot of fun just riding around town and being "tourists". :)

1 month and 5k

It's a sure sign we are settling into married life when the highlight of our Friday night was going to Bed Bath and Beyond and picking out curtains for the living room. It's been a month today and things are going great. We couldn't be happier! :)

Nathan survived band camp and is gearing up to start competitions. He's really excited about the show this year. I'm sure they will be fantastic like always.

On Saturday I ran my first 5K. I did a lot better than I thought, finishing in 30 minutes. I'm almost half way through my half marathon training....I hope I survive!

wedding pictures

The wedding pictures are now up and ready to view. Lvonne Bennette was our photographer and we think she did an amazing job!

www.weddingsbylvonne.com

Back home

We would like to thank all of our amazing friends and family for helping to make our wedding and reception absolutely perfect, a day we will never forget.

We survived our first out of country vacation! The honeymoon like the wedding was just perfect! We got a complementary upgrade when we arrived at the Sandals resort. We got a room with room service and our own private pool! We had the best time! It was nice to turn our cell phones off (even though it drove Nate crazy after awhile) and just focus on starting our new relationship together.

We did learn a few things about the people and island of Antigua:

1. the people there don't drive on the right or left side of the road but down the middle until a car comes and they swirve violently to the left to miss the on coming cars

2. there are no snakes, poisious spiders or monkeys on the island

3. the only two fast food resturants they have are KFC and Subway

4. there are only 87,000 people on the island

5. everyone drives really nice cars!

So far we have had the perfect marriage, nothing but sunshine and rainbows. I'm sure we'll hit rocky spots just like everyone does but Team Embrey has been officially formed and is here to stay!

Mr. & Mrs. Nathan Embrey

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Nathan celebrated his 26th birthday today! We started celebrating by going to get our marriage certificate this morning, then Nathan had lunch with his good friend Nick. For dinner my parents and sister came over for dinner.

The wedding has crept up on us and is only eleven days away! There is still a lot to do, but it's mainly small things. We are both starting to get really excited. I think we are really excited about the honeymoon, we are both really ready for a vacation!

oh a little bit of everything

We haven't made a post lately due to a million things going on. We have completed and sent out the invitations though and have started receiving response cards back. Mostly we have been working on the little things. We didn't realize how much stuff there was still left to do! Nathan's newest task is putting together a backdrop for the cake and wedding party table. Trying to put together two very different ideas and opinions is proving a little difficult. No worries though, we'll get it figured out. 

We had our bachelor and bachelorette party's a couple weeks ago. We both had a lot of fun. We are both the grateful to have such great friends and family! 

Nathan's friend, Nick, was able to snag free tickets to two Cardinal's games. So we went to St.Louis over the weekend to watch the games and see my friend Ali. It was nice to get away from the stress of wedding planning even just for a day :) 

More engagment pictures

Last week we had another set of engagment pictures. I really wanted outdoor pictures back in October but it was raining the day of our session so our photographer agreed to do another session for us. And since Nathan loves getting his picture taken so much we took her up on the offer! Some of them look really goofy. It was really, really windy that day and was about to rain any moment. Check out the link... http://www.weddingsbylvonne.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?action=viewphotos&eventid=26475&categories=no&keywords2=no&eventgroup=

We also got all the invitations sent out this week! It's getting closer!!

Flowers & Couples Shower

My friend Courtney came over tonight and helped put together my flowers and the bridesmaids flowers. It went a lot smoother than we expected and we were able to get them all wrapped. I just have to go back and tie knots in them tomorrow. Just one more thing to check off the list!

We had our couples shower Saturday which was a lot fun! Andy made two specialty drinks for us. Everyone had a great time. Thank you to everyone who came. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family! 

NashVegas

This past weekend the bridesmaids (excluding my sister because she is not yet 21) took me down to Nashville, TN to have a pre-bachellorette party since three out of the five girls will be out of the country for the real bachellorette party. Dena will be in South Africa for her social work trip, Cari L. will be studying chimps in north Africa and Carrie Reineke will be taking a class in Germany. They have all promised to be back in plenty of time for the wedding. :)

We had a lot of fun. It was definitely our weekend. Carrie booked an awesome hotel and we didn't have to wait in lines anywhere. The girls gave me a sash and a boa to wear which I was way to excited for!

Tuxedos & more

After work tonight Nathan and I met to look at tuxes. We went in with a general idea of what we wanted. Nathan was pretty easy going until I suggested fuscia vest and well that did not go over well! Nathan will be wearing a white vest with a white tie and everyone else will have a grey vest and black and white tie. We priced them at Bridal Warehouse but knowing us we are going to do a little searching for better prices before make a final decision.

We have started to put together the favors that will be placed on the tables at the reception. This is a huge task! The printers (office depot) were not able to cut the labels since they are on clear label paper so I am going back by hand and cutting out each sticker and putting them on the mini paper bag. FUN FUN since there are only 500 of them!

I have taken the advice of a co-worker of mine and we are doing something different with the rose petals for after the wedding. We are just putting them in a basket and letting people take a couple on their way out instead of separating and bagging 500 of them. Nate absolutely loved this idea...he hated every second of putting the first 25 together. I think I will take them apart so he doesn't get too upset. :)

Overall we feel like we are making real progress! Now if Michael's will only get our paper in so I can finish our invitations we will sitting pretty!

Passorts & Invitations

Are passports have finally come in! They have all the correct information and the pictures aren't too horrible so we are set for Antigua!

A week or so ago I went with Carrie, Lindsey and Sara to look for fabric for the table runners. Lindsey and Sara are going to help with the runners since I have no idea how to use a sewing machine! We found some black satin material now I just have to figure out how to get enough of it ordered and in time.

I also realized after spending an hour or so folding vellum pochette wraps for the invitations that I was not going to be able and do 165 on my own so I called in Bridesmaid Adrienne for some help. She was very willing to take it slow and make sure each fold was exactly on the line....I already owe her for dealing with me!

In the midst of all the wedding planning Adam Christopher Rudolph decided to join the rest of us on March 19. He was born at 7:19pm measuring 19inches long...I think his favorite number will probably 19 :)

Over all March has been a fantastic month for the future Embrey's. We've got a lot of wedding stuff accomplished and are looking forward to our last couple months of being engaged!

New Job!

I have finally landed a full time job! It's back in the banking industry I go. As of Monday, March 2 I will be employed by First Federal Savings Bank. I will a general teller for now, which is fine with me. Full time jobs in my field are extremely hard to find in the Evansville area right now, so I'm just taking what I can get.

These beautiful roses were delivered to me on Friday at work as Nathan's way of kicking off the perfect Valentine's weekend! Saturday morning we got up early and started a perfect Valentine's Day. We got our passport pictures, lunch with my parents, registered for gifts, church and a movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic, which is just like the book. It was fantastic! I think Nathan liked it too.)

Nathan had fun using the gun at Bed Bath & Beyond. Although I think he wished it took less than THREE hours to use! :)

Another breakthrough in wedding planning happened this weekend. We have decided on a cake person! Everyone we had looked at was completely out of our price range so the two of us sat down and put our thinking caps on and came up with another option, that is almost half the price everyone else was quoting us!! We are already solving problems together! :) 

Big Week for Planning

Wedding plans and decisions have been running wild this past week. We have picked up our printed invitations, now we just have to get and make the vellum wraps that go around them. Over the weekend we bought JoAnn's out of fuscia ribbon for all our wedding projects. We were also able to find our unity and mothers candles. We both wanted something simple and just so happened so see the same one at the same time so we knew the one we found was meant for us! Plus we agreed on it simultaneously so we had to get it!

There has been a small snag in planning. We met with Father last night and he put a huge damper on the after ceremony celebration. He told us we can not throw anything as we walk out of the church! This is still under negotiation so we will see if we have to change our plans.

My Mom, Dena and Carrie Reineke went to SuperBride Sunday and found some great new ideas. Some which Nathan thinks are a little excessive but you'll have that sometimes. It was a lot of fun. We tried different cake vendors and have narrowed it down to three places we are looking at for the cake. I have the design, now I just need someone to make it! :)

-Some non wedding news: We survived the winter snow storm. Our backyard looks like a tornado went through then dumped snow on top of it. The only damage we had was on the front of the house. A branch came down and tore about five pieces of siding. Nothing that Nathan can't fix.

Invitations

After much contemplation we have decided on wording for the invitations. Nathan is relieved not to have to look through more books, websites and invitations we've received. We are getting a sample invitation printed tomorrow so if all goes well we will be able and check another major thing off our list, which is still too long!

FLOWERS!

I recieved a letter in the mail yesterday saying our flowers were in and ready to be picked up with a side note saying bring a truck. The pictures below will help you understand! We are not sure were we are going to store all the flowers we might just have to look at them everytime we go to the living room for the next 6 months....I don't have a problem with that :) I'm just glad to have one major item checked off the list!

We also found the paper for our invitations. Now we just have to decide or agree on the wording for them. :)

Here we come 2009!

We have started 2009 off with a bang! We've finalized more things for the wedding including the drastic choice to order over 500 stems of flowers :) We've been checking wedding bands which is proving easier for Nathan than me. I have finally found the perfect dress for the bridesmaids and a printer willing to print our invitations on black paper with white ink (there are only a couple places in Evansville that will do this, we were fortunate enough to find datamail from Sara B.)