The Engagement Party (Thanksgiving Weekend Continued!)

Part of the reason we planned to have the engagement party on Thanksgiving weekend was due to the fact it would be easier for my parents to come on an extended weekend with the holiday. Most people come out of their food coma and black friday shopping excursions by Saturday, so that night seemed like a perfect time to throw a little party.

Truth be told, we originally tossed around the idea of reserving a room at a restaurant, but we decided having it at Kristen's parents would give us more room to roam, socialize, (watch college football), drink beer and be more free.

Danielle [as usual] was a big help with the invites.  She put together an e-vite and we were able to gather most of the attendance via email, which is always easy (there's no way I could have functioned as an adult in the 70's - 80's before the internet existed).  Kristen's Mom took care of the food with Buck's catering.  They've used them several other times and the food is solid as well as the service being reliable. They also make a mean finger sandwich.  I generally end up eating somewhere in the range of 28 - 35 of them in one setting.

My parents were staying with Kristen and I, so I went ahead and drove them over to the party where Kristen was already getting ready in her sister's old room.  When I arrived, my parents mingled with Kristen's family and I went upstairs to check on her.  She was diligently pressing letters onto t-shirts for her soon-to-be bridesmaids that she planned on surprising at the party.  I wanted to help with this, but it takes me an hour to hang up a painting straight, so I think ironing letters onto a t-shirt without messing them up would have been a bit much to ask.  Plus, there was a cooler full of beer downstairs so I digressed.

The party turned out to have a nice attendance even though due to the holiday, we missed a lot of people who were understandably out of town. On the other hand, Thanksgiving weekend also meant a lot of people from out of the area were in town. For example, we were happy some of Kristen's good friends from high school could made it. Tiffany was able to be there from L.A, and Nicole and her boyfriend Chad were able to come up from Ft. Lauderdale (when typing these things, I get anxiety about forgetting our out-of-towners, but I think I covered everyone.  If you're reading this and I forgot you, make it known and embarass me in the comment section--I deserve it).

In addition to my immediate family coming into town, my Mother's Brother (Eric) and his family came down from Jacksonville which was awesome.  I have 2 little cousins Hailey and Kenneth who we don't get to see too often.  Kenneth especially made a big splash whenever he decided to run out of the bathroom with his pants around his ankles about 10 minutes after they arrived.  It definitely provided a good laugh!

One of the first things I noticed once I got settled in was our awesome cake.  Right out of an episode of "Cake Boss," our good friend Katie and one of her family friends Karen helped tailor a cake just for us based off of our engagement story!  Karen is a freelance cake decorator and she's got some serious talent.  From what I could tell, Katie also makes a pretty formidable fondont artist.   She helped make all the little decorations and also helped us select the flavor.  She recommended a cookies n' cream filling which turned out to be amazing.  The cake was definitely the hit of the party!

As you all know, I proposed on the beach using a fishing pole, so all of this is nicely tied into the cake.  Thanks Katie & Karen!

It wasn't long into the party that all the guys found the 60 inch big screen in Kristen's Dad's man cave to watch the Florida/Florida State football game.  My brother is a huge gators fan as well as our friends Mike and Chad.  On the other side my best friend Shawn is a huge FL State fan so there was some interesting banter taking place downstairs after a few drinks.

Away from that, most everyone else congregated in the kitchen and outside patio area.  As the shindig continued, we started to reach the point of a couple of official moments.  The first of my recollection was the cake cutting.  We removed the top portion of the cake and proceeded to cut and hand out.



This was also the weekend that I decided to bring back the "all american" look, as Katie likes to call it.
 

I realize this is something the couples do at the actual wedding, but I just had to smear some cake in her face.  She of course got me back seconds later. 



After the cake cutting, we also moved into a few speeches.  The first was where Kristen thanked everyone for coming out. Then she surprised everyone by giving the girls a surprise goodie bag. The bag was her way of asking the girls to be in her bridal party, and contained the aforementioned t-shirt's she was crafting upstairs before the party.

"Will you be my...." (on the paper heart) "Bridesmaid" and "Maid of Honor" (on the shirts).

There's "Krissy's Crew" minus one (Kristen Broda couldn't join us for the weekend, so Kristen mailed her the surprise package).  Kristen did a great job with these shirts and the presentation.  My presentation was slightly different.  I basically asked my guys one by one over the phone and in person while out drinking (spaced out weeks apart) kind of like this......"so, uh....you wanna be in my wedding?"  Not quite the presentation, but I think t-shirts like this might have resulted in a revoked man card.

Once the shirts were handed out, I did a quick speech of my own just thanking everyone for coming and expressing my excitement about our families joining and just looking forward to the future.

This moment also spawned one of the more memorable for me when my father decided to say a few words.  He told a quick story about his discontent with me not returning home to Pensacola after graduating from UCF and how he didn't really understand why.  He proceeded to tell everyone that after meeting Kristen for the first time years ago, he knows exactly why I stayed down here all this time and it was to eventually meet her.  Obviously, if I would have left, there's a chance that I wouldn't be writing this blog right now.  For me, this validates why I chose to stick around and work for defunct minor league sports teams making $25k a year.  This story kind of choked up everyone in the room and was very moving. 

The party was a definite success and turned out to be everything I expected and a little more.  If you're reading this, thank you to everyone that attended and was kind enough to bring gifts and celebrate with us!  And of course a special thanks to Kristen's Mom and Dad for graciously hosting the party. Here's a few more pictures from the evening...



My Parents with Kristen and I

Bonding Dads!

Left to Right:  Laura, Katie, Kristen (and her fancy Betsy Johnson dress), Nicole and Tiffany

 - Smitty





Finding "The Dress"

Okay, so few things you probably should know before I start this post:

1.) I can be the most indecisive person ever. I have to feel like I've explored every option possible before narrowing things down to at least 2-3 choices, then it takes me a little under an eternity to make a final decision.

Quick disclaimer: This mindset was not the case with the groom. :-) Gary is the one thing in all of this planning that I've been 100% sure about! LOL

But the idea of having to find "the dress" on a time limit without a clue of what I wanted....SCARY. Some of this stems from the fact that I really can see the beauty in everything, and don't really have one specific "style." What to do? Classy, trendy, romantic, vintage? I like it all!

2.) I am a self-proclaimed reality show junkie. I watch everything under the sun from MTV shows, HGTV, makeover shows, and of course wedding shows! One of my favorite being "Say Yes to the Dress." This is the one thing I did that can kinda count as pre-engagement wedding homework because other than that, I really hadn't put much thought into what I pictured for the big day. I just thought I would figure it all out when the time came. However, after watching the show and countless brides find their dream gowns, I knew I wanted an experience like that, and the specific silhouettes I was drawn to.

Moving on....

Since Cindy (Gary's Mom) was in town for Thanksgiving, I thought this would be perfect to at least explore gowns for the first time. I was really excited that she was able to join us, and I made appointments at two local salons on Black Friday...hey, couldn't hurt if we found a great deal too! In all honesty, I thought it would be fun to just go look and get ideas, but knowing me and my indecisiveness I probably wouldn't find "it" yet. Since I've been going to New York a lot lately for work, it only made sense in my head that I'd probably go to Kleinfeld (the salon featured on the TV show I mentioned earlier), get my purchase there, and maybe even be on the show? Duh! Haha.

B~L~A~C~K    F~R~I~D~A~Y

We headed out early Friday to our first stop. The gang was comprised of my Mom, my sisters Danielle & Lauren, and Cindy! Yay!

The first salon was just ehh. They had some pretty gowns that I tried on, but I had to share their one mirror with another bride and annoyingly take turns, plus the saleswoman kept putting weird things on me that were not cute and seemed dated. I still don't know what that sparkly sheer glove/arm thing was.

No biggie though, round two. I had high hopes for this second salon as I heard many good things about them. The salon is called Solutions Bridal, and they have two locations (Gainesville, and their newest in Orlando). I found myself immersed in a variety of designer gowns, and they definitely had much better choices in my opinion.

Let me just tell you that the ENTIRE crew there is amazing. My stylist, Megan, was especially awesome. Very friendly, knowledgeable, assuring, and it felt like we'd known her for years.

My stylist Megan is the brunette in the bottom middle. Had to pay her tribute!

As soon as we walked in, they offered my party glasses of wine and comfy seats on their stylish decor. I walked straight to a specific dress that caught my eye, and it ended up being one Megan had already pulled for me---it was just waiting for me to try it on.

I tried on about 4 dresses before that dress. They were all pretty, and starting to confuse me. Then I tried on the last dress, the one that caught my eye. It was beautiful, but still not sure if it was "the one." It was only when I accidentally caught my reflection from a distance walking back to the dressing room that my heart skipped a beat. I felt and looked like a bride! Megan said she saw the look on my face in that moment and she knew our journey had ended. She recommended we step outside so I could see everything in natural lighting. After I was "jacked" up with the wedding works & accessories, I stepped outside. It felt amazing to get oohs and ahhs from random people in the parking lot (I still wonder if they hire those people), and at that point I starting taking it into serious consideration.

Could it be that easy? I couldn't have tried on more than 8 wedding dresses total in my entire wedding dress experience, which really all took place that same day. I needed to sit on it for awhile, so we went to lunch next door to digest everything. After a reassuring phone call with Gary, I realized I should just jump in and embrace it. If I didn't, I risked missing out on the dress, a great Black Friday deal, trying on a thousand more dresses, and confusing the heck outta myself!

We went back to Solutions, I put the dress I "said yes" to on again, and everyone in the room celebrated as Megan popped open a bottle of champagne! All in all, this was a great experience. The same bridal feeling I was looking for in my wishful thoughts of Kleinfeld, but even better since I was able to share it with loved ones.

Getting the dress that day surprised myself and everyone around me, but I am extremely glad I took the plunge. I've fallen even more in love with it now that I've gone back about 4 or 5 times since to retry it on for fun (I'm telling you, the team there is soooo patient!). Wish I could post a pic here, but you'll just have to wait and see! ;-)

<3,

Krissy

Thanksgiving-Smiths and Barnharts Unite!

We were super excited for Thanksgiving. Not only do we love holidays, but this was extra special as Gary's Mom, Dad, and brother Grant were able to join us in Orlando all the way from Pensacola. Not only that, but this marked the first official unity of the Smiths and Barnharts!

We all gathered at my parent's place and definitely had a full house: Mom Barnhart, Dad Barnhart, my sisters Lauren & Danielle, their boyfriends Evan and Chris, Gary, Myself, Mom Smith, Dad Smith, Grant, and Pikachu (the pup of the house). My mom cooked a wonderfully delicious, GIANT feast (as she always does!) ranging from traditional Thanksgiving foods to Mediterranean (I'm half Arabic, he's quarter Greek). It was a great evening of food, drinks, story-telling, and enjoyment of getting to know the new additions to our families.

I couldn't have asked for anything better, and I look forward to many more Thanksgivings like this!

Stay Tuned for the next stop.....Black Friday and searching for "the dress!"

XOXO

Krissy

Kristen's Surprise 26th Birthday Party

I remember last year or maybe even the year before, Kristen mentioning that she had never had a surprise birthday party.  She had no idea that I remembered this going into last November.

If you ever plan to do a surprise birthday party for someone, just be prepared -- it's going to be nerve wrecking and stressful leading all the way up to the moment.  You constantly think someone is going to blow the surprise and you literally have to tip toe with every move you make for weeks.

For this birthday, I also wanted to make sure we went somewhere different than the typical downtown bars we hit up every weekend -- luckily a brand new piano bar called "The Baby Grands" had literally just opened weeks prior. Also, Kristen had no idea this place existed...even better!

Danielle once again was a huge help as she always is.  She offered up her place as a meeting spot for everyone to pop the surprise and she and Kristen's mom also hooked up a cake and some food for the party.  The plan was to go by to Danielle's to "pick her up" and just head to a bar downtown for some drinks. 

Now the sneaky part about all of this is I let Kristen know that we were taking her somewhere cool, but that it was a surprise.   So if there's any surprise element involved, she would think it was ONLY where we were going, not that Danielle's apartment would be packed full of people when we go to pick her up.  To add another layer of surprise, we also had her little sister Lauren come up from Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend to be at Danielle's place when we did the surprise.  It was a well crafted 3-layer surprise.

Well the first thing that happened on the big day was Kristen's mom accidentally blew Lauren's cover.  Casually chatting with Kristen on the phone, she mentioned she was "cleaning up the house getting ready for Lauren." Something told me deep down that this might happen because too many people were involved.  I played this off like it was "the other surprise" we had in store for her and it was no biggie.  Her mom felt really bad and it was an honest accident that we all ended up laughing about, but not all was lost....  Luckily Kristen still had no idea of the other 20 people that would be over at Danielle's when we arrived.

We got over to the parking lot and I told Kristen that I had to use Danielle's restroom, then asked if she could go upstairs with me...here's how this exchange went:

Me:   Hey, I actually need to use her bathroom real quick, you mind going up with me?
Kristen:   Uhh...well I'm doing my make-up, can't you just go up by yourself?
Me:   Well I feel kind of weird, you can't just come up for a sec?
Kristen:   Well I'm not done, I really don't want to, just go up, it'll be fine.
Me:   OK......

10 seconds pass

Me:  Uhh wow...actually, hey I just got a text from Danielle, she says she needs you to come up and look at her outfit

(I totally made this up on the fly)

Kristen:  OK well let's run up there real quick.

At this point she had only finished half of her make-up.  I didn't take this into account, but I couldnt really say anything because it would sound suspicious, so I just let it ride.

We got up the steps, opened the door and Kristen was greeted with a room full of people and a deafening "SURPRISE!!" 

She then spins around and automatically smacks me twice and shouts "you didn't let me finish my make up!!"  I simply laughed and was like "I'm sorry, it's not like I could say anything...." 

Here's a pic a few seconds after she came into the room (and I was able to shove her through the door).

We knocked back a few birthday cake shots (one of her favorites), had some wine and the house party portions was a definite success.

After we rounded everyone up, we then headed to the Baby Grands.  Again, Kristen didn't know where we were going, so when we came up to the bar she had no idea where we were at.  Soon after she learned it was a new piano bar, she became super excited.  We also had another 10-15 people show up to the bar who couldn't make it to Danielle's so we had a great group and the party really kicked into high gear.

Everyone ended up getting especially sauced because of a brief altercation I had with the bar management.  I paid a hefty fee to get an area reserved at the bar.  Everyone at the party also pitched in to help pay for it which was super awesome.  When we arrived, there was hardly any special arrangement set up.   We had a few high tops off to the side and our waitress was nowhere to be found for the first 10 minutes.  When she did come by she was kind of rude about everything and the whole thing seemed like a scam.  I could have just as easily had everyone show up without reserving anything and paying any fee.  This sent me into a tail spin so I sent a pretty nasty message over my blackberry to the person I arranged the party with...not really knowing she would actually read it at that point in time. 

About 10 minutes later I was approached by the bar manager and the bar owner.  They proceeded to tell me that our party was taken care of with the tab and to basically knock ourselves out.

From there, we all took full advantage of the situation.  Here's a few more pictures from bar...


They let us sit on the piano during a song....they probably preferred it only be Kristen, but I crashed the stage too.



This one always cracks me up.  When she hopped off the piano she spilled a little bit of drink on her dress and I tried my best to console her....just look at that face haha!

All in all, the whole night was a smashing success.  Everyone that came out was awesome and we all had a great time.  

Now the only question is, how do I top that next year???

- Smitty