Bachelor & Bachelorette

So Paul made it back from his Vegas bachelor party alive and well. He and some of the groomsmen, Tyler White, Leo Boman and Patrick Cropsey left last Thursday and just got back into Lincoln yesterday. Paul tells me there were no tigers or Mike Tyson involved in the weekend.

I told him to take a picture in front of a wedding chapel because maybe it would be the one that my mom and dad got married at!

I had my bachelorette party a couple weeks ago here in Lincoln - we ate dinner at Buzzard Billy's in the haymarket (one of my faves) and then went out on the town on O St. I got some pretty *interesting* gifts from everybody, but this was a funny moment when my mom gave me a really nice silk robe that matches my wedding color perfectly! She whipped out her swatch she had in her purse to prove it! Best momzilla moment ever :) (it's ok, she calls herself that).

Thanks Sarah Barg for taking this picture and so many more great ones that night!

Wow - 5 days to go . . . I can't stop smiling.

The Countdown Continues

So I just feel like I should post something today because it's April 21 - one month away from our big day. I've learned through this wedding planning process that it's a good idea to just sit back and not think or stress about it for a night, so last night Paul and I did just that. We went on a nice jog and I baked a cake - it was great. We even got to talking about how someday we really want to get a dog . . . and we kind of started obsessing over this little guy . . .

Someday . . . :) Ok - back to wedding planning!

April Showers Bring May Weddings!

My bridal shower was yesterday! It was great to see everybody and we definitely had a fun time playing games and having some good food at Lazlo's.

These lovely ladies are the ones who made it all happen - from left to right - my sister Lauren Leapley, my grandma GG, me, my mom Julie Leapley, and my sister Rachel Leapley.

Here are all of my bridesmaids & maids of honor: here I'm wearing the super cute apron that Courtney Fricke (pictured far left) gave to me at the shower. 

A bridal shower definitely calls for some fabulous shoes!

 A highlight among the gifts were some very unique m&m's that my great friend Sarah Barg gave me. They even had a picture of Paul & I on them!!

Our Folks

Allison here . . .
We want to say thanks to our wonderful parents who have been a huge help in guiding us through our lives and this wedding planning madness!

Mom - Thanks for spending countless hours roaming all over Omaha and doing things like going to 4 Hobby Lobbys in a row just to get the right color ribbon with me. I am truly blessed to have a mom like you who is always there for me and helps me with anything I need. It's been so much fun spending this extra time with you wedding planning!

Dad - Not only have you had to put up with 4 women (5 if you count cookie, haha) in one house, you've managed to not go crazy with all of us constantly talking about dresses, centerpieces and the like for the past 6 months! You are truly a saint. But really, the day Paul and I get married will be just as I always imagined and better - all because of you!

JoAnne - I am so glad somebody knows what they're doing when it comes to wedding planning (not me, that's for sure, hah). There are all of these details I really have gotten a handle on because of you - you really know your wedding stuff! You've been so supportive through this process, and it really shows how much you love us! I feel so lucky to have a great relationship with my future mother-in-law :)

Will - Again - truly a saint to be putting up with all the girly stuff that comes with a wedding. I can't wait to see what the rehearsal dinner has in store for us . . . sounds like you have something up your sleeve :)

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Meant to be

I think this means we were meant to be from the very start!

aruba, JAMAICA, oooo I wanna take ya...

We got a nice little official reminder in the mail last week that not only are we getting married, but oh yeah, two days later we're going to JAMAICA! Can't wait for the beach . . .

A little lightheaded

Here's another wedding project in progress. Time will tell how well this one turns out . . .

Before:

After: 

Had to get this.

Check out this awesome tote bag I got in the mail today from weddingchicks.com. LOVE IT!

Valentine's Day!

Best future husband of the year award goes to.......Paul! These were delivered while I was at work on Monday.

I wanted to make Paul laugh this Valentine's day...so I made some goofy labels for our homemade beer bottles and put them in the fridge when he wasn't looking. We started making this beer about a month ago and it's been sitting in the closet ever since then, so I think he completely forgot about it till he saw the bottles in the fridge! Def a Valentine's day to remember!

Wedding on the brain...

Ali here . . . we went to HyVee for some much needed grocery shopping earlier tonight - not to mention I was so craving their chinese food for din. They're having some kind of special promotion called "pizza palooza" and this is all I could see in my head when looking at the store display of pizza boxes . . . can you say "obsess much?"

There was also some kind of wine tasting event going on, but luckily there was one table open for us to sit at for dinner. The place is usually dead, but there were people all around us drinking wine, and they even had those spit buckets! It was a bit weird to be sitting in the middle of this group of winos while eating our greasy fried chinese food. Even weirder yet, here's what was in my fortune cookie - gotta love it when these are so spot on!

A HyVee employee walked by as I was snapping a pic of this, and he said, "If you take a picture of your fortune, it won't come true!" 

I just said, "Well, mine's already true!"

A Registry Gold Mine

Paul and I decided yesterday that we might just have to register at one more place - the Salvation Army! Look at these fancy appliances they have! hahahaha.

The Great American Burger Machine.....

A (sortof) brand new citrus juicer!! from 1989.

We could use this mixer as a weapon....i guess....

And we saved the best for last.

Snowboarding in space..on VHS...yeah!

We're legal!

We made a little trip to the courthouse last night.

One step closer - hooray!

Reality Check

Wow - 4 months to go. We still have so much to do! Yikes...(cue sarcasm) - thaaaanks theknot.com for reminding me that I need to get my beeeehind in gear. 

Nostalgia

Allison here . . .

Here are a couple of really precious photos .... both sets of photos are of my grandparents on their wedding days - first up are Grandma Geri and Grandpa Sid (my mom's parents). I spent many of my young years tearing up their house in Gretna...

 

And here are my Grandma Lois and Grandpa Popo (Neil) - (my dad's parents, they live in Onawa, IA). I called him Popo when I was little and I guess it just stuck :)




The crazy thing is it made me think . . . someday I'll be showing my wedding pictures to MY grandkids. Crazy to think about . . .

So far . . . so good . . .

Hello – this is Allison, bride-to-be! So, this is my first entry. I’ve never kept a blog about anything, so we’ll see how this goes. I guess my thought was, why not blog about my wedding? It’s all I think/talk about anyway! This will be the perfect outlet for me to share anything wedding related, and really anything else that’s going on in our lives right now. And I look forward to posting lots and lots of fun photos...so stay tuned!

First, I have to share with you the coolest hanger I’ve ever seen. I got this in the mail last week from etsy.com.

So this brings up an interesting point – my name is going to be “Allison Bennett.” That has a nice ring to it, eh? I definitely need to start practicing my signature.

I leave you for now with a photo that describes my life right now – let’s just say it’s an organized mess (here I’m preparing our save the dates).