A week away

After a whirlwind four months of planning a wedding and reception Jeff and I were pumped to have some time away...just the two of us!! 

We flew to Florida the Monday after our wedding! We stayed in Daytona Beach. Here is the view from our hotel room! 

It was so neat that cars could drive on the beach! You had to watch out if you were out walking on the beach :)

Our first meal in Florida was at one of Jeff's favorite restaurants Five Guys. It is a fast food type restaurant with excellent burgers!

Our first day we spent exploring EPCOT. We rode rides and had great food! Our lunch reservation was in Italy. We had excellent pizza for lunch. We even got a free crumb cake dessert!

We spent the whole day at EPCOT and ended the day with a late dinner in Japan. We really enjoyed our meal which was a hibachi grill type meal. 

In EPCOT we also discovered one of our new favorite desserts...Cannoli. I always loved the line from "You've Got Mail" where Tom Hanks talks about the Godfather line "Leave the gun...take the cannoli"...now we know why they took the cannoli! It was so AMAZING!

We spent time the next day at Universal Studios! I loved the roller coasters! On Thursday we just relaxed in Daytona Beach. It was too chilly to get in the water but we enjoyed listening to the ocean. We drove down the coast to visit the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse. Here is the view of the stairway up to the top of the lighthouse.

On Friday we visited NASA. It was so awesome!! Here we are on the bus tour!!

 

It was sad to fly home on Saturday but we had an awesome week! I was thankful for a week away together!! 

One fun surprise is what we found when we got home. Jeff's sister and her family and my friend Chelsey had left us a surprise! ISU streamers and posters everywhere in our sun room!! It was a fun surprise!!!

Our Wedding!!

The Day We Became One

December 21, 2013 is a day that will always have a special place in my heart. I had dreamed of this day for years. It was so surreal to have something I had longed for years actually happen. In some ways it was exactly like I had imagined. In other ways it was something completely different but wonderful!!

 

The day began at 7 AM for me. I met up with the other ladies in the wedding party to get our hair done! I was so happy with my hair style that day!

 We headed to the church and got dressed!! I didn't feel too nervous but I was getting SO excited to see Jeff! I don't have any pictures of the wedding ceremony yet but I will share them in the future!! The surprise of the ceremony was that I sang a song to Jeff before I walked down the aisle. I got kind of emotional and decided to only sing the first verse. Here is the original recording of the song. It is called "The One He Kept For Me." The words really fit how I felt about Jeff!

After the wedding we took family pictures and then Jeff and I went to downtown Panora to take some pictures! It was so special to have a few minutes alone before the reception! I just couldn't get over the fact that we were husband and wife!!!

When we got to the reception we did our first dance to the song "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith (one of Jeff's favorites).  I also danced with my dad. We did a two-step dance to the big band song "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller.

After our dances we cut our cake. Jeff's mom made our cake and did a wonderful job!! It was so yummy and looked beautiful!!!

Then it was time to eat!!! Our meal was delicious! My sister and Jeff's brother gave really sweet and funny toasts. We had so much fun talking with all our guests! We are so thankful for everyone that could be there with us and everyone that was praying for us that day!! 

It truly was a day I will never forget!!

One Week

It is SO hard to believe that it is ONE week until our wedding!! I have been so busy with preparations that I haven't had a moment to blog. Here are some updates:

1. Engagement Announcement - This past week our engagement announcement ran in the Guthrie Center Times and in the Madrid paper. I thought it turned out great!!



2. Alicia moved to Madrid!

On Thanksgiving night Jeff and I started moving boxes up to OUR house. Jeff was kind enough to spend his last month as an unmarried man living with his mom and dad. This gave me a chance to get settled. He is a gentleman...just another reason I love him!! The transition went really well once I found my necessities buried in all my boxes. I am SO looking forward to living with Jeff!!

3. Alicia joined a gym in Madrid!!

After doing Farrells this summer and early fall I realized I am really a happier person when I am working out. Jeff's sister introduced me to a morning exercise class that I have attended three times and really like it! It is fun to meet some new people from Madrid too!

4. We celebrated my dad's 70th birthday!!

We had an AWESOME birthday party for my dad last Saturday. We had dinner at Okoboji Grill and then shared a red velvet birthday cake I brought! Evie had organized the coolest birthday gift for him. She asked friends and family to send her memories of dad. She put them into 70 envelopes! He loved it!!

5. Emotions

I can almost guess that this week will be a whirlwind of emotions! I am trying to balance my last four days of school work, preparing for the wedding, getting myself all dolled up and thinking about what I need to pack for our honeymoon. Luckily we don't leave until Monday so I may worry about that after the wedding!! I am just praying for God to fill me with the peace that passes all understanding. That in the midst of a stressful time I can feel joyful and thankful for this amazing time in my life!!

6. A few wedding sneak peeks..

We will be having a hot chocolate bar at our reception!!

We will be having JENGA blocks for our guest book!!

Our ring bearer's sign!

Recipe #1 - Little Cheddar Meatloaves

At our last shower Jeff and I received a handwritten recipe from each guest at the shower! I am SO excited to try every single one. It is my goal by our 1st Anniversary to have tried each recipe! So here we go!! The first recipe is called Little Cheddar Meatloaves. It was given to us by Jeff's Aunt Sandy. 

Here is a picture of the first step: combine milk, egg, onion, oatmeal, salt and shredded cheddar.

Step 2: I mixed in one # of ground beef and placed the meat mixture my new loaf pan!

3. I combined ketchup, mustard and brown sugar and then spooned them over the top.

4. I put the loaves in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. I served my mini loaves with baked potatoes. They were scrumptious!!! I highly recommend this recipe!! It will be in the Williams Dinner Rotation!!

My Madrid Kitchen Shower

Last Saturday I was given a truly wonderful shower by four lovely ladies from Madrid and Boone. The shower was thrown by Jen (Jeff's sister), Jennifer (Jeff's sister-in-law), Kris (Jeff's cousin) and Courtney (a friend of ours from church). It was a kitchen theme and each guest received a kitchen themed invitation and a recipe card that looked like this.

 My gift from the hostesses was a matching recipe box that ADORE!!

The shower was held at the Corn Crib outside of Madrid. It is an old corn crib that has been renovated to hold events! It is so beautiful!

We had so many wonderful new friends from church at the shower. Some of Jeff's family traveled to be at the shower too!  The food was so yummy! It was a brunch with quiche, pastries, muffins and scones!!

After we ate our meal I opened presents. Jen and Jenn were my helpers, along with my nieces and nephew! Nolan stood up there most of the time. He had one little fall but recovered quickly. I loved having my mom and sister there too!!

 Each guest shared why they had given me that specific recipe! I can't wait to try them all!! Thank you to everyone who made this a beautiful shower! I loved it!!!

Invitations

Here is a picture of our BEAUTIFUL wedding invitations! When Jeff and I picked them out we fell in love with the lower case lettering for our names. We also loved the teal background with the swirly design and ivory lettering. We also wanted some sort of icon with the W and M in it. Jennifer, Jeff's sister-in-law, did an awesome job designing them!! Jeff's brother, Ken, and Jennifer run Wilcox Printing and they printed them for us! Check them out if you are needing invitations printed! They did a great job!!

Here is a picture of the invitations I took on my phone. You can see that the teal is actually more blue than the first picture shows!

We also included our response card with the invitation. We chose the RSVP card to be the opposite color scheme with an ivory background and teal swirls. Jennifer also had the idea to put our W M icon in the upper left corner on the response card! SO cute!!

The responses have been starting to pile into my parent's mailbox. They are really enjoying keeping track of accepts and regrets. I look forward to my daily phone call where I find out who can come. Jeff and I knew that having a wedding around Christmas would make it hard for people to come. We are just thankful for those who can make it. We are also praying for good weather!!

Shower at the Lake

Last Saturday my Aunt Melodee, cousin Amanda, and cousin Lisa threw me a beautiful beach theme bridal shower!! Here we are! (Left to Right: Lisa, me, Amanda, and Melodee)

The shower was at Lake Panorama at my Aunt Melodee's condo. It was decorated SO cute!

The shower started with gift opening and a game "How well do you know the bride?" Each person at the shower was asked a question about me and they had to see if they knew the answer. Questions were like "Alicia's favorite color", "What Alicia loves about Jeff", etc.  We got SO many nice gifts!! Here I am hugging my Aunt Donna! To her left is my Aunt Marlene. It meant so much that they made the drive to Panora for the shower!!

It was a wonderful day!! I am so thankful for great family!! Just one more...my sweet nephew Nolan  has been such a trooper coming to all these girlie events!! He deserves a shout out!!