Wedding Set Up

We did a lot of set up for the wedding - The smartest thing we did was start on Thursday morning - it made for a much less stressful day prior to the wedding. I knew that it would take a lot of help from friends and family, but i was humbled by all the time and effort that others put into our wedding day. A special thanks to our family, friends and bridal party for making this day happen.

The wedding set up was quite extensive, especially at the reception hall. It started out with a trailor and two car loads full of supplies and decorations.

Then came the unloading of the car - here are the bridesmaid bags being taken upstairs

here we are with several bridesmaids, groomsmen, father of the bride - the topic of discussion: lighting!!

 

putting curtains onto rods - yes, mom made curtains for the windows!

hanging the curtains

Nolan and Kevin

I designed the programs and we put them together

here is the finished product - hand stamped and ribbon bound

taking a much needed break -  dad and the musicians

mom, begging me to let her do something i didn't like. Probably trying to convince me the pew bows were a good idea...

so as to not be confused by who sits where...

More to come, but probably not for a few days - we are off to a short honeymoon trip tomorrow followed by an open house/reception in my home town, Arthur IL on Saturday

Family Fun

I am now Mrs. Choy. The cards are still Schrock, the identification is still Schrock, the bank thinks i'm a Schrock, but really, I'm a Choy! This has been an amazing week, starting off with meeting Tom's immidiate family and then introducing them to some of my extended family. We all had a wonderful time and I was informed by more than one aunt that I am luck and blessed in my in-laws. I agree!!

There are wedding pictures on facebook and there will be more here, but this blog will focus on our families and the pre wedding family introduction... Jo & JD offered to host dinner for Tom's family when they came to Nappanee from Indianapolis on Wednesday - we had a wonderful time!

Introducing Tom's Parents to my Parents and Grandma

The Bachlor Beard became a Gotee - Dad and Tom had a bonding moment

Hahahaaa... We love to laugh!

Congradulating Randy on this Baseball talents

Showing off Aunt Jo's garden

Teaching Michelle to pick strawberry's

I think they got confused - we're the newlyweds!!

Dispite my threats of bodily harm to any groomsman who breaks a bone or has a visable bruise...

The ladies

Psst... "Dori, I put a fake turtle by your mom... do you think she'll scream?"

She screamed :)

Aunt Jo with Joe & Lena

PA trip

Last weekend Tom and i joined my mother in a trip to Guys Mill, PA to spend some time with Marie, Brandon, Patrick, Kipp, Stuart and Christopher. They boys have agreed to be our wedding musicians, and we are pretty excited about that. At this point we do not plan to have any "canned" (pre recorded) music. We are also having very little in the way of vocals, which is different than we had originally planned. I am finding that a lot of things about planning a wedding change and adjust as we go :)

We left on Friday evening, drove 6 hours (much longer with stops along the way!) and arrived in Guys Mill after 3 am. I had the privilege of sleeping on the top bunk, something I have not done since college.

Marie makes Apple Pie for Spoiled Tom

Tom repaid the favor by making Fried Rice

Christopher, Kipp & Stuart

Mom is making a table cloth for the guest book table

Stuart's hand

Brandon plays a little music

The ladies having some coffee

Note that my mom is still working on that tablecloth

Also note the leftover fried rice on the table :)

Stuart is an excellent pianist

Roadside Art in Meadeville

We had a great time in PA and it was great to spend some quality time with Marie and her family. She is a very special aunt! I haven't got to spend a lot of time with "the boys" over the last few years, its great to see them grow into young men. (I'm proud to call them family) 

The Dinner That Wasn't

This weeks goal is to try and use some of the food from our freezer - no need to purchase food when there is yummy stuff in the freezer waiting to be turned into dinner. SO... Monday was chicken ravioli with pesto sauce thanks to Tom. (very tastey) Tuesday was my turn. I decided on Crab Cakes with a sauce i concocted out of plain yogert, dijion mustard, white wine and dill. All leftovers or things we just had on hand. I added some butter, reisling, garlic and old bay seasoning to the frozen soup and preheated the oven. While the oven was heating I put some cloths away and watched some TV, thinking my timing was excellent as Tom was on his way over for dinner. *sniff* *sniff* What is that smell? The oven doesn't usually smell... I looked at the oven and realized there was smoke in my kitchen. But why?? Maybe I accidently turned on a burner and melted something? That seems to be where the smoke is coming from, the back of the stove. Nope, nothing. Stove is off, nothing is melting, flaming or otherwise burning.Theres nothing in the oven. Or is there? I opened the oven door and smoke billowed out. Just a word of wisdom - it is good practice to remove things like pans with drippings from the oven prior to preheating the oven. It was nasty smelling and the kitchen was cloudy. At this point I decided I could either get angry or I could see the humor. So, chuckling, I called Tom and sugested that maybe he would like to take his lovely wife to be out for dinner :)

We decided to try a sushi place just down the street -

Soft Shell Crab Roll

Taco Mexicano Roll

SOOO GOOOD

Eel

Always a favorite, but this was extra good

I was a little disappointed about dinner, but I did manage to make Tuesday's dinner tonight (Wednesday) and it worked out ok. The dijion sauce turned out really well. And since sushi is proabably my favorite food ever, I can't complain that I had to wait a day to serve my meal.

~Dori~

Meet Joe the Beagle

Tom and I decided that our house, yard and hearts are big enough to include a dog. We decided to adopt a 12 and a half year old Beagle named Joe. We thought about changing his name, but decided that at 12 + years he should probably be allowed to keep his name. Joe has been a wonderful addition to our family. He is well behaved, never makes messes or jumps on people or furniture. Initally we thought that his old joints would not let him climb stairs and gave him trouble getting out of the car. It seems though that hes a bit of a manipulater as he can't get out of the car when we want to leave him at home BUT is perfectly capable of going up and down stairs if he wants something or someone. We are very glad that Joe is a part of our family.

New Years

I would love to tell you all that I am so excited to blog about New Years, and I am. But in reality what i am doing is procrastinating the days goal of painting the downstairs bathroom and hallway to the garage. There’s just so many tiny corners!! I've been off most of the week, so on Monday I painted the upstairs bathroom. Its a pretty blue color that coordinates well with my warm brown Longaberger baskets (shhhh... don't tell Tom that i actually took my baskets into Lowes with me and stood there making sure our paint selection was the best color to coordinate with my baskets. I also wouldn't mention that the paint people were highly amused by my baskets. He'll role his eyes at me and probably shake his head too!) Tuesday was my first day at my new job and after lots of paperwork and a chat with my new boss I have decided that i think this job will be ok. That said, i actually have a cubical. A cubical!! I’ve always had an office (even if it was a shared one) or worked out of my car. I’m an office drone! Actually I’m not, I’ll be spending a lot of time out of the office doing visits with participants (that’s what my new clients are called, “participants”). Anyway, enough random speak of paint, baskets and new jobs…




Tom and I were able to spend a long weekend with my parents in Arthur over new years. Mom and I did a lot of wedding planning, a lot of revamping things we thought were set in stone. Over Christmas the topic of wedding came up at Grandma’s house and it was nice to hear other perspectives and ideas. We are very much a talking, discussing, planning family. Many big life events/decissions (or little ones) are brought to family and discussed or reviewed. This often takes place at grandma's kitchen table late in the evening. That said, the unspoken rule is, after you have been given a fair opportunity to share your thoughts, you are expected to not come back days or weeks later with a new view or thought you didn't share earlier :) The discussing is not open forever! So over New Years we took some of those ideas and re considered a few things about the wedding.

On New Years day Tom consented to be the chef and we had our 2nd annuel post Christmas fried rice dinner at Glen and Sue's. It all started last year when dad gave Uncle Glen a sample of Tom's fried rice. Later that weekend we decided to make fried rice for Glen, Sue, Todd and Shelby. That became a much larger group by the time it was all said and done - and a tradition appears to have developed. This year Brian came over to the house to have a fried rice lesson. Tom thinks nothing of making fried rice, but because we did not grow up with the ingrediants or style of cooking its a bit of a novelty. Plus, its really good!!

the cooking lesson begins

chicken fried rice - Tom says he never used chicken in fried rice before we specifically requested it last year. This year he marinated the chicken in some Tom Style concoction - it was really tasty

My Personal Chef  ;)

We had so much rice, we put it into crockpots - 3 really big ones

By the time it was done, we had 56 cups of cooked rice (before the meat and veggies were added)

There were leftovers, but not as many as you might think

Shrimp fried rice

I always think the eggs look like the difficult part

Our menu turned out to be quite eclectic - there was plenty of fried rice - chicken, shrimp and cabbage bacon (my favorite!) There was also apple and pecan pie with dad's homemade ice cream. Yummi!

~Dori~