week of the wedding. May 29-June 4

This blog is waaaaaay over due, so, here it is; our wedding blog(s)! I would like to say "by popular demand" but we haven't had any request or anyone jumping up and down for this blog. Lucky for you, despite the lack of enthusiasm, I am going to dedicate an ENTIRE 2 blogs to our wedding. ;-)

Okay, the truth is; most (if not all) of you have seen hundreds of photos from our wedding, therefore a blog about it may seem a little redundant. That being said, I'm going to write one anyways, just for the sake of writing one! :-D Perhaps when our little future nuggets (children) get older, they will appreciate my efforts. Besides, if I don't jot this down now, years from now I will not remember all of these wonderful details. I mean, aside from our wedding, video, pictures, all the little keepsakes that I've packed away, I wanted one more thing to commemorate our *special day*.

For those of you who are "over" the whole Scott and Sabrina wedding, spare me this blog (and the next) because I am not. :-P <-yes, that's a smiley sticking it's tongue out. One week prior to our wedding; May 29, 2010, I flew up to Ohio to take care of all of the last minute wedding details. Scott's parents; Sir Billington and Connie, picked me up from Akron, OH airport. I stayed with them the first night and hung out with them at the cottage the following day.

I thoroughly enjoyed my spending quality time with my then future in laws. I assisted (a little) Sir Billington with his incredible garden; he told me about his favorite hoe (haha) and I felt honored to be in his company. I've heard many stories from Scott about his summers at the cottage and I've also reaped the benefits of all of Bills hard work 2 summers prior.-Scott and I drove to Ohio and stayed at the cottage for a couple of days and the garden was in full bloom; we ate very well. I also picked strawberries with my then future mother in law- they had a huge row of strawberry patches.

After being out in the garden, I reconnected with all of our wedding details. For those of you who do not know, Scott and I had a very long engagement; 610 days to be exact-that's 1 year, 8 months, 2 days. During our long engagement, I frequently visited the post office with large boxes addressed to Ohio. I sent all of our wedding things up there, even my dress. There were some boxes there filled with stuff that I had not seen in over 9 months. There were also a couple of boxes of things I ordered online and shipped directly to there. YAY! wedding!

My maid of honor, Andrea, met me in Ohio the following day. I'm very thankful that I was able to spend quality time with my then future in laws and I am as equally thankful for Andrea-words cannot express the gratitude I have for her.

Here are some photos from the week of our wedding.

Andrea and I at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sandusky, Oh
In the back of this picture is an empty bottle of wine. The lovely Mrs. Connie bought that for Andrea and I and we drank it all while assembling wedding favors:
over 100 of these take out boxes were made. They have costume made fortune cookies in them

4 days before the wedding, Emily, (another one of my bridesmaids) flew in from Texas. We picked her up in Detriot and decided to make a detour to 2 famous hot dog joints.

American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island

I think this is when Andrea said "You're my favorite bride ever" referring to the fact that most brides are trying to lose any weight they possibly can days before their wedding, and here I am feasting on Coneies or is it coneys(?).

That same day, Scott and my brother Derek also came in from Texas, but they drove instead. I wish I had a picture of them but I didn't capture that moment. :-/

The following morning Andrea, Scott, and I headed to Huron County Courthouse, Norwalk, OH and got married! -well, our marriage license.

It was fairly early, our facial expressions look intense but we were just tired.

Once everyone started coming in for the wedding, the pace of things went from steady to uncontrollablly fast! Regardless if we were ready or not, the wedding was just days away!

Friday was our rehearsal and the stopping point for any last minute projects. Everyone that was in our bridal party arrived either via plane or car. Our rehearsal took place at St. Paul Catholic Church, Norwalk, OH and our rehearsal dinner was a casual dinner hosted by Mrs. Connie, at the family cottage in Huron, OH.

She did a lovely job putting together the table setting. She also made homemade cloth placemats a day before, annnd her and Bill made a couple of homemade strawberry pies (strawberries were from the their strawberry patch).

My Aunt Dawn and Uncle Doug gave this shirt to Scott

My BEAUTIFUL ribbon bouquet made from all of
the ribbons from showers. Made by Andrea (of course)

The beautiful Andrea

I LOVED my $150 BCBG shoes that I got at the end of last summer
for $25 but they played a big part in me later falling down the stairs

That's just me crying...nothing new...especially that weekend

Andrea and Gina

Most of the groomsmen and their girlfriends

left to right; Natalie, Greg, Emily, Wes, Holly, Kristen, Mike, Brandon,
Doug, Justin, Kyle, and Scott. I was inside hanging out with the parents and
Carly and Andrea were keeping me company.

My baby sister Gina, 17; my older sister Millie, 32;
ME, and my niece Anna, 3 months old

ha, Carly, Andrea, and I all had a little sippy from
my pink "Mrs. Young" Flask

Our groomsmen all got stainless steel grill sets,
argyle socks, and a beer bottle opener.
Our bridesmaids received; pearl earrings, necklace, and bracelet;
sheep eye mask; a big ring key chain; make up bags;
loofahs (they're super nice ones); lotion;
all inside a large silk tote. I think that's all?

Carly and Andrea being silly

I of course, being the clumsy person that I am, fell down the stairs.
I've fallen down our stairs a handful of times, but this particular fall, was worse than my usual "trip" (if you will) down the stairs.

Being the sweetheart that Scott is, he agreed to let us exchange the wedding presents we got each other a day early. -That was something I initially wanted to do from the get go, but Scott wanted to be traditional and exchange gifts on wedding day. Being as that I fell down the stairs, he wanted to cheer me up- and it worked! :-)

Scott opened his gift(s) first. Being the sentimental person that I am, "standard" groom's gifts such as, watches, cuff links, cologne, and things of that nature, weren't suiting for what I wanted to give Scott. Instead of going the standard route, I of course had to be complex/original. I did a sequeance of gifts that were presented to him in 3 different boxes labeled; past, present, future. Each box contained a quote and gifts that pertained the label.

The first box Scott opened was "Past". The past box contained 2 gifts and one of my favorite quotes:

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning,
but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
-Maria Robinson

Past box

1st gift was my lucky $2 bill framed. I also included a sweet note that explained the gift.

I've had that $2 bill in my wallet for over 10 yrs and in my note I explained to Scott that marrying him made me the luckiest women therefore I no longer needed my $2 bill.

The 2nd gift in the Past box was concert tickets to Dave Matthew's Band (DMB).

I of course wrote a note to explain that gift as well. According to Scott, DMB was deemed his "bad luck"concert. Supposedly, as legend has it, if Scott ever took a g/f to a DMB concert, they would eventually break up. Scott also considers the the month of September to be a bad luck month. lol Long story short, I got him concert tickets to DMB that play on September 11, 2010 -coincidentally a very bad luck day for the nation. My note basically stated that there wasn't anything we couldn't do together/overcome.

The next box he opened was labeled "Present".

This box also contained a quote and gifts that all pertained to wedding day; the "standard" groom's gift box. It included: boxers that I labeled "Mr. Bina", cufflinks, a white paisley tie and handkerchief, and argyle socks.

Mr. Bina boxers! 1/1

me watching Scott open his gifts.

White paisley tie and handkerchief

The last gift Scott opened was the "Future"' box and it contained a quote and gifts pertaining to the future.

The 1st gift was a Colt McCoy jersey.

For those of you who do not know, Colt McCoy is the newly drafted QB for the Cleveland Browns. Colt McCoy was the QB for University of Texas and I told Scott that hopefully the new jersey would help allow him to be a Browns fan in TX. The jersey also represents the QB for the year we got married. Lastly it replaces the Brady Quinn jersey that I gave him for our 1 year anniversary. lol

His last gift was a shirt that I designed for him.

Scott's "staple" shirt that all of his close friends know him for having/loving is his "Vote for George Wilson" shirt that he got a thrift store. I essentially tried (with success) to recreate his favorite shirt by making this one only inclusive to myself! lol It's not replacing his shirt, but more so a humorous representation (and addition) of a new chapter/shirt.

Following Scott's gift opening was his present to me. :-) He also wrote me a beautiful 1 1/2 page letter. It was written on handmade paper, about half the size of a legal document. It was really sweet and brought tears to my eyes-well, just to my eyes, but I didn't cry. I was on the verge of tears and then I heard Scott's mom say "She's going to cry" and that just made me look up and laugh.

I was excited to see what Scott got me-if you couldn't tell.

here's more proof of my excitement.

gorgeous necklace Scott designed for me.

it's a pearl/diamond pendant.

These pictures honestly do not do the necklace justice, but they're sadly all I have.
There's 2 diamonds aligned with a pearl just beneath them, and then tiny diamonds that swirl around them.

Aye, this has become quite possibly the longest blog I've every written- Perhaps this is the reason why it's taking me this long to post it. Stay tuned for our wedding blog and following that blog will be blogs about us, our house, and your (being whoever reads these) favorite subject; Porkchop and Penelope.

We've moved!!!-our blog that is! :-D

Yes, it is true, we moved our blog to another blog host. Luckily, we were able to relocate all of our existing entries while maintaining their original post date and time. Why did we move our blogs? -Our Live account wasn't allowing people to comment on our blogs unless they had a Microsoft Live account. That being said, we've relocated to another host which allows anyone to leave their mark on our page. Comment away!

No, it hasn't taken us 7 months to pack up our old blogs and unpack them here (that only took 1 evening); it's just taken us 7 months to update our blog. Not that we haven't had any exciting news to share with you (yes, "you" audience of 5...maybe less now that we've moved) we've been busy with; work, school, wedding planning, and doggies-yes that's plural.

In January we expanded our happy family of 3 and got a New puppy (YAY!), Penelope Cakes Young. We thought Porkchop would like to have a his own dog but when he refused to take her on walks and potty train her, we realized that a 8 week old puppy was (is) a lot of work. When you get one 5 months before your out of state wedding, you're silly or an over achiever. -We will let you be the judge on that one.

There she is below (8wks old), our little Penelopoopers loving on her big brother. Yes, we decided to go with another Westie. When you have an awesome dog like Porkchop, you have high hopes. We are safe to say that Porkchop was false advertisement! They have the same tendencies but very different personalities. Penelope is VERY hyper (yes, she's a puppy-we are well aware), super cuddly and malleable. Kind of a weird word to use to describe a dog but we can literally fold her leg under while she's laying and she doesn't flinch. OR if you pick her up she will lay anyway you place her. CRAZY! -We know!!

I have been working on training Ms. Penelope but all she knows thus far is how to sit and lay down. Oh, we of course have a video! Our first Penelope edition! ooooooh ahhhhhh lol

and here's a video of Penelope playing Fetch with Scott

Aside from spending 2 months on potty training Ms. Poopers, we've had a couple of pre-wedding celebrations. We flew to Ohio mid March and did all things wedding; cake tasting, food tasting, met with the priest, engagement pictures and my mother-in-law threw us a lovely couples shower all within 2 days! My mother also flew to Ohio and met Scott's family for the first time.

Prior to our couples shower we took engagement pictures at the family cottage; which is right off of Lake Erie. Our wedding photographer met us there and spent a couple of hours capturing us in a couple of different outfits. It was freezing (according to me) but despite the cold weather it was a lot of fun. On the right is one of several pictures we took.

We also had a wonderful shower thanks to Scott's parents, and all of our friends and family who traveled to be there with us.

In April we celebrated Natalie and Gregory DeCuir's wedding. They got married April 24th. Natalie and Greg had a beautiful wedding at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in downtown Fort Worth. Their theme was "It's a bird it's a plane.." Playing off Greg's occupation as a pilot and their decor of peacock feathers. Scott and I had a blast. Here are a few pictures from their day.

In May we celebrated our Bachelor(ette) parties on the same day-not together. Scott's friends flew down from Ohio and stayed for along weekend. My friend *Carly* also flew in from Ohio and secretly planed/organized my entire Bachelorette party-which was amazing!

Scott celebrated his bachelor party for that entire weekend. Part of his festivities included visiting several "classy" restaurants in Texas; ex., Twink Peaks, and Bone Daddies. Establishments similar to Hooters but according to the guys they're "better".

The guys did lunch at Twin Peaks-which is where the wait staff's (girls) uniform consists of a tiny flannel top, short khaki shorts, and mountain boots. The guys came back home several hours after lunch wanting to share pictures with me. I honestly am not the type of girl who wants to see what her future husband is doing at his bachelor party (this case bachelor weekend). But after Carly gave it the look over and laughed, which deemed it "okay" I decided to and had a good laugh as well. Apparently at Twin Peaks the guys were all talked into trying on the girls flannel top on for a free shot and a photo op. The photo below was one I actually took off of Twin Peak's facebook page. lol

This is the 4 that agreed to try on the tops! lol

My bachelorette party was an all day affair, rather than an entire weekend. Prior to the festivities I had my final dress fitting. The day was planned by Carly and I was along for a super fun ride. We had lunch at Joe T. Garcia's, which consisted of yummy mexican food and Margaritas. Later we headed to downtown Fort Worth and checked into a large suite at Sheraton. At the hotel we had mimosas, played games, and I got spoiled with lots of amazing gifts; 1 of them being a huge box from my maid of honor (who couldn't make it down from Portland) Andrea. Carly made dinner reservations at Piranha Killer Sushi (it was the first time I'd ever been there and it was Super yummy-I ordered the "Marry Me Roll" :-D ) and we had a fun girls night out in down town Fort Worth.

That was a fun weekend for the both of us. After our parties our wedding was a couple of weeks away. I ended up flying to Ohio May 29th and my maid of honor Andrea flew in the following day. I would loooove to blog about our wedding because it was also a huge event that took place during my blog absence BUT due to the overload of info in this blog I will save the wedding part for another blog-perhaps one that is titled "Our Wedding".

While blogging Porkchop came up and decided to lay next to me. I just so happened to capture the picture with my laptop. Thought I'd share. Love this little guy!!

yup, that's Mr. PC resting his head on my arm.