Chelsea and Joey get married! Part 3: Video!

I took a couple videos at the wedding. The first one is of little Lexi, Joey's sister's daughter, doing a little dance. She is so adorable and was a great flower girl! Sorry most of it was filmed vertically...I'm not the best at video stuff :/

Chelsea and Joey get married! Part 2

Luke and I's morning started out fairly early, but with a good nights rest, we were ready for the beautiful January day! We found a GREAT breakfast restaurant called Marvalous Muffins. The muffins, breakfast sandwiches and doughnuts are all made by scratch and the prices were second to none. I had a fat free cranberry and orange muffin...and I could swear there had to be fat in it to taste that good. We can't wait to go back asap!

Chelsea and her mom and grandmother came to pick me up around 9 a.m. to head over to the hairdressers. They did a fantastic job with everyone's hair! It was a great time getting some girl-time in and getting to know the bridal party and families a little more.

Chelsea gets her makeup done

Luke and Joey spent their morning driving in a 2010 red Camero and picking up the tuxes. I don't think he could have imagined a better way to spend a Saturday morning :)

We all met back at the hotel Joey and Chelsea were staying at and had a delicious lunch and got dressed. Then it was photo time! We took photos at the hotel and then over at the Wedding Bowl and at the reception site, The Darlington House. Joey and Chelsea did a GREAT job picking the venues! Everything was gorgeous.

The groomsmen took some great photos with fake mustaches and cigars. Luke's mustache looks almost natural!

After photos, it was wedding time. The weather was perfect, minus the wind. My dang nose decided to run as I made my bridesmaid walk down the aisle. Score one for me. :/ The wedding was definitely Joey and Chelsea...from the readings to the vows. It was them in every way possible. And yes, I cried. I saw Chelsea's grandmother, Mimi, cry and couldn't help it!

After the wedding we made our way to the Darlington House to partaaay! Great friends, great food, great drinks and a little dancing music made for a great night.

Luke and I with the newlyweds!

Wish this photo was better focused, but I just love Chelsea's smile in this photo...they are soo happy!

The photographer caught us! ***
Photo by Amanda Fales Photography

After the party, we got to send the couple off in style with sparklers as they headed into the Camero. Such a great wedding!

We left the next morning (after our second stop to Marvelous Muffins, of course) and got back to our favorite feline, Hamilton. We had such a great time and can't wait to see Joey and Chelsea again real soon! :)

***To see more (waaay better) photos of the wedding, go to Amanda Fales Photography or their blog

Chelsea and Joey get married!

We were so happy to be a part of two of our favorite people's wedding: Chelsea and Joey. I met Chelsea when I moved out to Phoenix for our new gigs at the Arizona Republic. We experienced the Phoenix summer together, all while sleeping on our air mattresses. Our Midwest upbringing didn't prepare us for the heat, but sharing experiences with Chelsea made the summer even more fun and enjoyable! Luke met Joey at the Republic, as well. Together, they created some great sports pages and Joey sky-rocketed into his own business: 5M Sports. If you get a chance, check it out. And if you have any reason to use his expertise-DO IT! He is rawesome.

They moved to Chicago in the spring of 2009 when Joey got a new gig at Chicago Tribune Interactive. Chelsea works at a newspaper in Northwest Indiana covering transportation.

Joey proposed to Chelsea on a trip to San Diego at Point Loma. They loved the trip so much, that they wanted their family and friends to come out there for their amazing wedding. What a great idea it was! Everyone had such a great time...what isn't to love about celebrating two people's love for each other in one of the greatest cities in America?

Luke and I's adventure to the ocean began early on Friday, January 29. This was also Luke's 30th birthday! He was so excited to be in San Diego on his birthday and to see Joey and Chelsea. We have made a couple trips to San Diego before, and every time we pass by billboards around the small town of Dateland advertising "Date Shakes." Since we had a little time to spare, we figured we would stop off and see if it was worth all the hype. It wasn't :( We were so disappointed. It was waaay too gritty and didn't have a good taste to it. It was like a protein shake.

This photo was taken before I took my first sip. :)

We got to town around 11:30 a.m. and stopped by Old Town. We met our cousins, Toni (my cousin on my mom's side) and Doug (Luke's cousin on his dad's side) at our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, Cafe Coyote. They make homemade tortillas and have great margaritas. It was so nice to catch up with our cousins, and a few weeks after our visit, Toni got engaged! So much love lately! :)

Luke wanted his photo taken in front of the wagon. It was his birthday, so I couldn't tell him no. :)

After lunch, Doug and Toni had to head back to work and we made our way to the hotel. We stayed at the Best Western on Shelter Island. Our room faced a harbor and it was wonderful waking up to the sound of the water and birds.

The view from our room on Shelter Island, San Diego.

After we checked in, we unpacked and got ready for rehearsal. The wedding was to take place at the Wedding Bowl, a flat area along a cliff in La Jolla. By far, the best place to have a wedding.

Chelsea practices walking down the aisle!

The most-gorgeous sunset at the Wedding Bowl.

After rehearsal, we had dinner at a pizza place back over by our hotel. The pizza was amazing and Luke found out that Chelsea's maid of honor, Alycyn, was also celebrating a birthday that day. So we all sang happy birthday to them and got to see some childhood photos of Joey and Chelsea while we enjoyed some delicious tiramisu.

After dinner, it was time for bed. We had a lot of partying to do the next day!

Luke's Birthday Dinner

A week before Luke's birthday, we celebrated by eating his favorite kind of food: Mexican. We were heading to San Diego the day of his birthday for our very good friends, Joey and Chelsea's wedding (post to come soon...with video!).

My employer's Christmas party was at this hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant called Los Olivos, and after that party, I knew Luke would love to give it a try...and boy did he love it! Los Olivos is one of the oldest restaurants in Old Town Scottsdale. Our waitress has been working there since she was a little girl (she looked well into her 60s when we visited) and her sister has been making the homemade tortillas since she was a little girl, as well. She has the tortilla making down because it was by far the best (and biggest!) tortilla I have ever had. We had a ton of food on the table, and only had a small box left to take home. We cannot wait to go back soon and eat some more delicious tortillas and salsa.

Luke gives Los Olivos the thumbs-up

The homemade tortillas are huge!!

Make-it-yourself-date

About a month ago, Luke and I spent a Saturday night at Fudruckers and Yogurtland. The similarity between the two places? We assembled the food ourselves. While it is nice having people make the food and prepare it for you at other restaurants, it was a good change of pace to decide exactly how we wanted our food to look and taste. We loved Yogurtland so much, we have made it almost a weekly occurrence. :)

Here's some of our creations:

Luke decides what he wants on his veggie burger at Fudruckers.

A cheeseburger, just how I like it (Little mustard, 3 pickles and LOTS of ketchup!!)

Yogurtland's yogurt machines. They usually have about 10-12 different flavors every day (and you can have as many free samples as you would like!)

I pick out some not-so-healthy toppings.

Luke went the healthier route with strawberries, Captain Crunch, granola, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I, on the other hand, went with Oreos, chocolate chip cookie dough, sprinkles and caramel.

Happy Valentines Day!

Sorry for the hiatus. I will be getting back in the swing of things, as far as this blogging is concerned :D Look here soon for a TON of updates.

In the meantime, we wanted to wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day!! We hope your day is full of love and laughter!

We celebrated last night by eating at the restaurant we went to on our first date, back in June of 2007. Monti's in Tempe is one of the oldest restaurants in town, and it has some of the best seafood around. Luke even surprised me with a bouquet of flowers in the middle of dinner! Romantic points to him!