GRADUATION CAP & GOWN

Caitlin picked up her cap, gown for graduation!  Feeling more real as these monumental moments are crossed off the calendar!

MARCH 24, 2011- LAST UNDERGRAD CLASS!

Today marked a monumental moment in Caitlin's college work towards her Nursing degree.....It was the last day of her undergraduate course work.  No more essays!  No more late night hours studying (that is until the BIG nursing test for licensure after graduation)! No more classes!

So what's next?  Caitlin starts her preceptor work in an emergency room setting for 5 weeks....then GRADUATION!  YAY!

NURSING HONORS

 In an earlier post, I blogged about how Caitlin was in a photo shoot for an ad campaign.  Here's one of the ads she is in.  She is on the left.  :-)

 Caitlin was inducted into the National Honor Society of Nursing for her GPA.  She will wear these honor cords at graduation!  WE ARE SOOOO PROUD OF HER!

Here's Caitlin with one of her former roommates, Morgan.  Morgan will be a bridesmaid in the wedding.  :-)

THE FOLLOWING LETTER WILL BE IN THE WEDDING INVITATIONS:

Dear Family and Friends,

Many changes have happened in our lives since the Save the Date cards were mailed out a few months ago! Joe's National Guard unit will be deploying to Afghanistan in late August for 12 months. Because of this news, the wedding plans have been moved to a new date. The only date available with all of the wedding vendors is August 20, 2011.

This new date does not give us much time to enjoy our marriage before Joe is deployed. Therefore, we decided to have a private exchange of wedding vows on 3/13/11. Because you have shared in our lives, by friendship and love, we hope to celebrate our marriage on August 20, 2011 with all of you.

Due to possible unexpected changes in deployment dates, please follow us on our wedding blog at http://dasonfamily.blogspot.com/ which we will continue to keep updated for our family and friends. If Joe deploys before August 20, 2011, a celebration of marriage will take place upon his return from Afghanistan.

With all our love,
Joe and Caitlin

3/13/11- INTRODUCING MR. & MRS.

MARRIAGE LICENSE!

Caitlin and Joey have made a huge decision......they got their marriage license today and will be meeting with their pastor this weekend to discuss a small wedding ceremony in the next couple of days.  Nothing fancy at this time and only with close family...... but they want to have some married time together before Joey leaves.

We are still planning the big wedding ceremony and reception for August 20, 2011 so Caitlin can have her dream wedding that she has been wanting since she was a little girl.  

MORE PLANS

We are extremely lucky to be able to change all the wedding stuff to August 20, 2011 without losing a booked event such as the caterer, photographer, reception hall, DJ, cake and so on......LUCK, LUCK, LUCK......even better, the caterer (where most of the wedding expense lies....) is willing to work with us if the groom happens to get deployed before August 20th.......even if it means that the big wedding is postponed until he is back from deployment in a year.  If this worst case scenario happens, Caitlin and Joey will have a quick exchange of vows before he leaves and will celebrate BIG time with the dream wedding when he returns!

Meantime, we are planning full force for the August 20th date.  This week, Caitlin is on Spring Break.  Making the best of the day, Caitlin and Joey went ring shopping to pick out Joey's ring.  Next, the kids registered at Kohls, Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Soon we need to think about the invitations.  A special letter from Caitlin and Joey will explain the situation and ask guests to follow this blog for updates.....especially if a last minute change or cancellation happens.

One thing I do know, by the deployment date, these two will be married with or without a big celebration before he leaves.

AUGUST 20, 2011

After a whirlwind of a day trying to figure out a new date for the wedding, before Joey deploys on August 22 the only date that works is......August 20th.  This means we need a back up plan if his deployment is sooner rather than later.  What is the backup plan you ask?  A last minute church booking and reception in the church hall......We are bound and determined to give our little girl her fairy tale wedding that she has dreamed of......even if that dream is altered to fit the situation at hand.....we will make it work one way or another!

CHANGE IN PLANS=OMG!

Joey and Caitlin shared that he is being deployed (National Guard) in August!!!!  OMG that means the wedding can not be in September as planned.  July is the only safe month to plan the wedding since he will be home between boot camp and deployment.  Originally he was only planning on serving his one weekend a month rotation, but after he signed up, he found out that his unit is scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan. So now the big planning begins....hopefully it is not tooooo late and we can switch the caterer, church, reception, photographer and DJ to a date in July.  It will take some coordinating, but well worth the effort......looking on the bright side.....Caitlin and Joey will get to be Mr. and Mrs. earlier than expected!

JUNIOR BRIDESMAID DRESS!

This is the junior bridesmaid's dress in latte color!  Caitlin has three junior bridesmaids in the wedding.  Adriana,  Jessica and Julia! They will be sooooo beautiful in this!

IN 7 MONTHS.....

In 7 months this cute couple will be Mr. and Mrs.!!!!

FLOWER GIRL DRESS!

Here's a picture of Nevaeh's dress.  She will make a cute flower girl!!!  Best of all, we are buying it online from  www.flowergirldressforless.com  and it is only $42.50!  I can't make it for that price!  YAY!!!!

LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL

In an earlier post, I wrote about how Caitlin is in many of the high school and college advertising materials.  Here's a poster of her hanging in the local high school!

HAIR SALON BOOKED!

The hair salon is booked!  The hair styling will be $45.00 per person.  Plus Caitlin gets 2 or 3 free practice stylings before the wedding date!  Good thing, because she is really picky about how her hair looks!  (She gets this honestly from me!).....It will be a morning captured by the photographer! 

VALENTINES DAY 2011!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

2 MORE NURSING CLASSES AND PRECEPTORSHIP!

Wow!  Caitlin is down to two classes and her preceptorship for nursing!  She has an emergency room placement that will last for 5 weeks.  It is a reality now that the placement has been finalized, nursing picture, fingerprints and background check are taking place!  May and Graduation will be here before you know it!

IMPORTANT DATE!

TODAY IS IMPORTANT FOR TWO REASONS.....First of all, the wedding is in exactly 8 months from today!  Secondly, Caitlin registered for her last quarter of Nursing classes!  YAY!!!!  May/Graduation will be here before we know it!  I know you are reading this Caitlin.....Hope you know how proud we are of you! 

BRIDESMAIDS' DRESSES PICKED OUT!!!

 Caitlin tried on her dress again!  BEAUTIFUL!

The bridal party met this evening and picked out their dresses!  The girls are all measured and soon will be buying this long dress.  The above picture is the dress but the color will match our eggplant/plum.....Good thing we had a color swatch from the chair bows, because the dress color that matches is actually grape!  After the fitting, we all went out to eat dinner.

HUGE JOB DONE!

Thanks to Caitlin, we finished the last 8 centerpieces today!  30 of them in all!!!!  I even had time to organize and clean the basement to store them in over the next 8 1/2 months!  :-) 
 
Here's a picture of the basket that will hold the bird seed bags, which will be passed out to guests after the wedding to throw at the bride and groom.  The two jars will be added to the treat table at the reception. And....the low flat tray will hold the wedding programs.  All of these items can be used in Caitlin and Joey's house after the wedding.  :-)

The next wedding update probably won't be for some time......It's back to Nursing school for Caitlin, and back to work for me.  The next long stretch of time should be over Spring Break in late March.  Stay tuned!

SAVE THE DATE CARDS

 

Caitlin, Grandma Betty, Vickie and I worked on Save The Date cards.  It was quite an accomplishment to narrow down the wedding list to a manageable number.  We hand wrote 160 addresses, with the hopes of keeping the reception at around (no more than) 300 guests!  In doing so, a decision was made to hold an Open House for the families of the Church that Joey and Caitlin attend (Possibly the weekend after their wedding).   If we invited them all, the reception would be upwards to 500 plus!  YIKES!

 Here's Caitlin getting ready to pick the stamps to embellish the cards and envelopes we ordered online from Shutterfly.

 

Front of the envelope, which she put a corner stamp on to jazz it up!

 

The back of the envelope couldn't go untouched!  Isn't this a pretty stamp?  I bet she uses this one for the invitations, also!

And of course, she couldn't let the free white space go untouched .....Adding this little scroll to the card tied it all together!  10 hours and 160 cards later.....They are ready to be mailed!  YAY!

Lasting Impressions

 Today Grandma Betty, Aunt Sue, Caitlin and I went to Lasting Impressions to set the table with the stuff we've made and rented for the reception.  This first picture shows an organza chair bow, tableware and flower arrangements.  All of our eggplant/plum colors match!  Yea....since we've purchased some and rented some....The eggplant is a tough color to match!

 Here's another view....In this picture, you can see the gold table number holder and the menu easel near the candles.

 We are still deciding how to do the napkin....on the plate, under the plate, beside the plate or in the glass as shown here.  I think Caitlin needs to look at some pictures on the web and find a design that she absolutely loves and go with it!

Here's another view of the menu and table number holders.

Tomorrow is another day full of wedding things to check off of our list.  We will spend the majority of the day working on the save the date cards.  Grandma Betty wants to hand write all the addresses....She says it is tacky to stick a label on it........If I had my way, we would be sticking a label on it!.......This time, Grandma wins!

BRUISED HANDS!

I had time to make 2 more centerpieces.  Could have made 3 of them but the palm of my hand feel bruised from cutting all the stems!.......But worth the aches and pains......Caitlin and Joey will have a beautiful reception!  Less than 9 months till the wedding!

ON CHRISTMAS BREAK--WORKING ON WEDDING STUFF!

 

We made 5 more flower arrangements (centerpieces) for the tables at the reception! (10 more to go!).....We took a break and decided to start the bride's bouquet.  This picture shows the start.....flowers were placed on a 5 inch round ball.  Caitlin wants the round look with stems showing........ 

 And......Here's the finished bride's bouquet!  The hardest part was cutting the stems.....Our hands were tired after making 5 centerpieces, so Joey helped out with the cutting!  Thanks Joey!....By the way, Caitlin made this bouquet....pretty talented girl, isn't she?!

 Caitlin chose this set for the Unity Candle ......Most likely, we will make some type of flower arrangement to add to the table where this candle set will be placed.....tying in the eggplant/plum, copper and ivory colors together.

 

I forgot to post this from our last shopping expedition!  It is a 16 x 24 picture frame with the letter T for the kids' married name.  This frame will be displayed on an easel as the guests first enter the reception hall....near a table where the name cards and seating arrangements will be located.  There are four spaces for their engagement pictures.....which can later be replaced with wedding pictures and hung in their home!

CHRISTMAS 2010

2ND ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DINNER!

2nd annual Christmas dinner out with Caitlin and Joey's family!

MORE WEDDING SHOPPING!

 Grandma Bettty is buying these table menu holders for the reception.  They will look beautiful with plum menu cards on them!

 

 We found these programs at Michael's Craft Store for half price (about 45 cents per program)!  Woot!

Caitlin found this set at Hobby Lobby....The 40% discount coupons sure did come in handy on a few of these items (Thanks to Grandma Betty)!!!

CHRISTMAS COOKIES 2010

 

This year, we had a special helper making the Christmas cookies!

REMEMBER THESE FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS?

Caitlin and I made eight of these today!  15 done in all......15 more to go! 

Aunt Caitlin and Nevaeh have a special relationship!

SWEET FACES!

Aunt Caitlin and Nevaeh......Such beautiful sweet faces with sweet personalities to match!