Update

Drew said we needed an update.  We're still here in Bismarck, though we did move houses this year.  I am still working as a solo practitioner lawyer (though I have had several different jobs before I went back to that), and Drew works for the State.  And our precious family has increased from the 2 cats to add a princess of a golden retriever and two wonderful, smart and fantastic kids.  Life is good.

We're in a magazine!

Cake Craft & Decoration Monthly Magazine emailed me that our wedding cake will be in their June 2009 magazine!!

Magazine website

We Won!

http://www.lovetripper.com/readers/
March 31st entry....we won their fountain of dreams contest! I know it's cheesy but our prize is a wall fountain of our choice from their sponsor.

The wedding video

Here's the last post we'll do. Hot off the presses is our wedding video in the lower resolution format so forgive that everything is fuzzy and pixalated, but I can't upload the good file as its too big. If you'd like to see the video as its meant to be, feel free to come on over to see the high resolution version ;)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8508671733485145251

More kilt pictures

Any of these work for the full kilt picture? I also uploaded the previous post pictures in high resolution so they should be easier to see.

The knees....

Per AJ's request, these are pretty much the best ones I have of his knees so they will have to do:

A few of our favorites....

See how relaxed and happy Drew is prior to the ceremony....

So maybe he was a bit nervous at the start of the ceremony but he made it to....

The kiss.
I love this one of Drew....
And Drew's favorite part of the day, steering the boat:

Pictures!!!!

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/cherishphotography/8013035

This is the edited version so only 40 pics instead of the 502 she took! She did a great job of taking candid pictures and we only felt we had to "pose" for the registry signing ones and one that she said she missed so we had to redo what we had just done. Hopefully when we get the video and convert it, we can get some of that on here too. Can't wait to see what a great job she did on the video!!

And see she can catch Drew smiling....even a few smiling before the ceremony!

Picture of Drew smiling...

Ok AJ....just to prove he was happy right after the ceremony and not thinking of jumping ship, here's a picture with Drew, my Mum and I while we were signing the marriage schedule...see he's smiling....

Pictures

The one requested by all:

Right after the wedding:


The wedding supper at Mustard Seed:

We will post more pictures when we get the ones from the actual photographer but these will have to do for now.

Only pictures I have...

We were not very good at taking pictures on our own camera so I don't have a good picture of Drew in his kilt so you'll have to wait until I get the photographer's pictures in the mail or this weekend when I pick up Mom & Cheryl's in Fargo.

Rosslyn Chapel:


Drew's kilt and knees...not sure how he took this:


And the box of wedding stuff we sent from Inverness just arrived via UPS and pieces of both wedding cakes made it for us to enjoy next year...here's one of part of the sugar plaque that Coylum Cakes made on the shortbread cake...everyone was raving at what a great artist they must be:

Drew after the wedding while we were eating at Mustard Seed:


Mustard Seed (after the cake topper verison of Drew got dropped!):
Dornoch Castle Hotel...these pictures do not do it justice but see the dead critters on the walls so Drew could feel at home:
And I can find Elvis anywhere, even in Amsterdam on our honeymoon:

The details

Sorry but the Ramada's internet went down. The weather was beautiful for the wedding, though a bit chilly. We didn't get to dock at Urquhart but the photographer did a great job of taking pictures with the Castle ruins in the background. Everyone was super nice and the venodrs were all amazing. The pics will be great but we have no way to download them until we get home (and I don't think we have a single wedding pic on our camera so it might be a bit). The Dornoch Castle Hotel is fantasic and they even had champagne waiting for us upon our arrival to toast our new marriage. Drew liked all the surprises and they came off fairly well, except that Cheryl dropped Drew (or at least the cake topper version of him) at the Mustard Seed so his hand and leg were glued back on with cake frosting...poor guy is falling apart. Drew didn't jump overboard, run for a coke or otherwise bolt in any form. I think he was just waiting to get thru the ceremony so he could take over steering the ship, which he enjoyed immensely. The scenery was gorgeous on the Loch and the Great Glen...I hope to see it on the video coverage as I was locked in a cupboard in the bottom of the ship so Drew wouldn't see me! Now if I can just get Drew to stop saying "Aye" all the time, all would be well! Thanks for all the well wishes everyone!! We'll keep you posted!

We're hitched

We made it!

Everyone and everything made it to Inverness safely, save for some luggage that Northwest Airlines decided tto play with for ice hockey but no wedding items were damaged in that suitcase. We enjoyed Rosslyn Chapel and the Rosslyn Castle ruins this morning and the beautiful drive up to the Highlands. I am getting adjusted to driving on the wrong side of the road and Drew is getting used to me driving too (though he would rather I not drive). We did get the promised River Ness view room in the Ramada. The Highland Houseof Frase (the web cam of Inverness not Loch Ness that listed below)is right across the River from our room. Tomorrow will be superbusy as well as Tuesday, so I likely will not get to update until after the wedding. Perhaps Drew can write the next entry in this blog after the wedding when he gets to read your well wishes here for the first time.

On our way....

The taxi is almost here...got everything into 3 checked backs, Drew's backpack and the dress/kilt/his jacket all rolled up (don't ask me how he managed to talk me into doing this). The next time I'll be able to post will be Sunday night, if I'm lucky. If we can't, everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!!!

A week left to go...

Thanks everyone for keeping the blog secret from Drew and for some of you for testing him even! Keeping all the details secret from him is killing me, plus he's not making it any easier! He actually told me he was changing out of his kilt right after the wedding. I told him fine but Mom, Cheryl and I are staying in our wedding clothes. He doesn't know about the wedding cake at the Mustard Seed Restaurant and that we'll likely have the typical cutting the wedding cake pictures taken there. So if he's in jeans for those pictures, you'll know why.

I forgot to add one detail..where we're staying in Amsterdam those 3 days before we fly home:

http://www.amstelbotel.nl/?doc_uid=857cdb9a78e6853d7a340e91df67d59e&language=uk&

Drew thought it was cool. We really have no set plans for Amsterdam except to the see the Anne Frank house and go on a canal tour.

A week to go and just a few days until we leave on Friday! I am obsessing with the weather for the wedding since it's the only detail I can't confirm and reconfirm...good news...looks like a high of 52 F in Inverness that day with light winds from the West, partly cloudy skies according to uk.weather.com! Of course when they shake the magic 8 ball tomorrow, that all might change.

Getting ready

Believe it or not, we are completely ready for the wedding. In fact both of us wish it was 2 weeks from now because we're tired of waiting for the day. I just got Aunt Lou's wrap back from the dry cleaner and that is the last item we were waiting to receive. Drew said last night that he is just ready for all the planning and waiting to be done and the day to be here already! I hope he continues to feel that way as the 2 weeks count down too. :)

Registry issue

We have been asked by many people where we are registered. We have a house full of things so we really don't need anything. Drew and I discussed that it would be best if you would give to someone who really needs a gift instead of us.

If you really need further dissuading, here are the 2 registries Drew suggested:

www.scheels.com (they didn't put the duck boat and guns on there, and if you think I'm joking, you don't know Drew)
www.nwa.com/GR/ (registry ID # 071104092756115)


We expected since we were running away to get married that no gifts would be coming from anyone.

Weather

I just got off the phone with the captain...love that accent. So he confirmed we will be greeted onto the boat with a bit of shortbread, coffee, tea or soft drink. We'll have the sail down to the Castle and the wedding ceremony. If the wind is not from the North, then we can dock at Urquhart Castle but if it is, I am out of luck. Then we have lunch on the way back. So I looked up the weather forecast for November 6 thru the 15th, and it doesn't look hopeful: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/he/he_forecast_weather.html

Let's hope they are wrong or at least that the wind is from the South and not the North...I'll take a bit of fog but NO rain!!!!

Whisked away to Scotland....

I have included a link to pretty much every detail of the wedding. I know most of you don't care to look at any of the detail links but some do. I thought this would be the easiest way to let you pick and choose. The one link that is most interesting is this one: http://www.camvista.com/scotland/highlands/lochness.php

That is the webcam for Urquhart Castle. You just might see our sailboat in the Loch around 8am CST on Tuesday November 20, 2007 or see us walking around the grounds later.

Another cool webcam is of Inverness...not sure if you'll see us or not but it's still a nice view of the Castle. http://www.highlandhouseoffraser.com/

I really do feel bad that we couldn't include more of our family and friends in the wedding, but this is the next best thing. As we're in Scotland, I will try to post progress (or if Drew bolts for a coke as his friends have warned me....trust me I will update this blog accordingly). If not updated while there, I will post a full report when we return Monday November 26, 2007.

After the Wedding

I am hoping to be able to go into Urquhart Castle to take some pictures so the web cam listed on the previous post so we may be walking around about 8:30am CST on November 19th.

Our wedding "cake" (surprise for Drew): http://www.coylumcakes.co.uk/
Actually it is a large round shortbread with a sugar plaque with the sailing boat, our names and date of wedding, and a monogram of our initials on the individual shortbread biscuits. This is in reference to our cute little story on our drive to the Twin Cities to meet up with Drew's nephew and his girlfriend last Spring.

We have a sail back to Dochgarroch and then we'll hop in the car for the drive back to Inverness. I have reservations for The Mustard Seed Restaurant: http://www.themustardseedrestaurant.co.uk/
Again another surprise for Drew. He insists on calling our cat Ginger "Mustard Seed" so I thought this would be fun.

And even though Drew said he doesn't like cake, we were watching a show that had a Scottish Wedding with a kilt wearing groom wedding cake topper. He asked me if we were having a topper, to which I said no because you said you don't like cake. Well I found the topper:
Scottish-Tartan-Kilt-Wedding-Cake-Top-Topper

And I ordered a cake (Pg 78-79 if it just opens to the first page of the e-catologue...it's the ivory medium sponge cake with the raspberry jam and buttercream):
www.marksandspencer.com

And we're staying at the Ramada in Inverness:
http://www.ramadajarvis.co.uk/

One last surprise for Drew is we are staying the next day at Dornoch Castle Hotel about 45 minutes North of Inverness...in the Old Courtroom of course!
http://www.dornochcastlehotel.com/

People of the Wedding

The most important one would be our captain of the Eala Bhan boat to get us safely where we need to be: http://www.highlandvoyages.co.uk

Rev. Archie Black is a retired Church of Scotland minister from the Ness Bank Church.

Our character of a piper: http://www.spudthepiper.co.uk

The photographer: http://www.photographyscotland.co.uk

The videographer (click on the first picture on this page where there is a play button...it is a demo of their weddings and the first song is quite appropriate, "I will run away" by The Corrs...sounds Celtic or Scottish to me): http://www.photographyscotland.co.uk/40081/info.php?p=4&pno=0

My hairdresser (what a name of a place): http://www.headgardenerhair.com/

My makeup lady (again quite the name): http://www.beauty-liciousuk.co.uk/

Florist (Drew doesn't know details): http://www.stephen-seedhouse.co.uk/
And the flowers are a loose hand-tied bouquet of white phalaenopsis (with yellow centres) orchids, ivory roses, pale lemon spray rose, yellow/white tulips with soft ruskus throughout tied with ivory ribbon and secured with pearl pins, ivory rose with dark ivy for Drew and a couple of ivory spray rosebuds for the back of my hair.

And of course we will be there, my Mom Linda Steger and our family friend Cheryl Watkins.

If you would like to watch the wedding (sort of since the web cam keeps moving and won't be doing up close ones), here's the link: http://www.camvista.com/scotland/highlands/lochness.php
It should be about 8am US Central Time on Tuesday November 20, 2007!

All the details thus far

I thought this would be a great way to let all of our friends and family who cannot attend our wedding in Scotland to participate from afar. So I'll start with the details of our attire.

Wedding dress: http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridal_gowns_detail.jsp?stid=1223&prodgroup=127 In light gold

Headband: http://www.davidsbridal.com/accessory_detail.jsp?stid=2760&prodgroup=146 I will wear my hair back, curled and he wants little flowers in my hair so I will do cream tiny flowers down the back in the curls.

Garter (shhh...Drew doesn't know about this): http://www.davidsbridal.com/accessory_detail.jsp?stid=2896&prodgroup=190

Sam & Libby Light One Flat Shoes (but I got a way better deal than that on them from Herberger's): http://www.shoemall.com/keycode.cmd?dest=catalog/product.jsp?style=142497&KeyCode=SMJQ987style=615878&GCID=C16122x010&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=142497GLD085M

I am wearing my Mom's pearls with pearl earrings, a blue stone ring my Grandpa Goffe brought back from WWII to Grandma Goffe, a crystal bracelet from my Grandma Johnnie, my something old is a hankerchief that Drew's Mom gave me, and a pearl ring borrowed from Drew's Mom. I also have a fur wrap that belonged to my Great Aunt Lou (she lived in Key West at the time of Hemingway), an ivory scarf that Mom brought home for me from Europe and a long wrap in Drew's tartan, all of these in case I get cold!!


And Drew's dress ;)

Kilt: http://www.stillwaterkilts.com/ Once a marine, always a marine

Marine Kilt Belt Buckle : http://stores.channeladvisor.com/Stillwater-Kilts/Items/SWK-KBB-USMCP?

Jacket: http://www.jhiggins.net/sf_proddetail.asp?sf_p_ID=WSTB7LBF3M6L5CP4S1G6MBIN9D

Ghille Brogues: http://www.jhiggins.net/sf_proddetail.asp?sf_p_ID=SO6GOCTV4520GEK2K2PP8MH8OH

Masonic sgian dubh: http://www.tartanweb.com/shop/masonic_themes/sgian_dubh_masonic.html