Robyn & Chris 01.23.10 Part II

August 30th, 2010 @ 8:58 am | 0 comments

After fro­lic­king through the for­mals we hea­ded to the Burke Volun­teer Fire & Res­cue Firehall for the recep­tion. One of the first things I saw when I got to the recep­tion was this: A keg and goblet of Guin­ness. If I hadn’t been madly in love with these two before, that would have firmly pla­ced me in their court. A goblet of Guin­ness? YUM!

Chris & Robyn love each other with every inch of them­sel­ves. It’s ins­pi­ring and overwhel­ming to watch.

It was time for the toasts and they had a spe­cial bottle of sparkly just for them. Until Chris didn’t know how to open it and broke off to top. What do you see Chris?? ;) 

Some crea­tive uncor­king and success!

Once they’d figu­red out how to get into the booze it was time for the speeches. Sarah’s sis­ters & Chris’ brother both did won­der­ful jobs of toas­ting.. and roas­ting.. their siblings. 

Much to their cha­grin perhaps… ;) 

Yay parents! 

Taking his wife — and his Guin­ness for a swing

Thank you. Here’s your knife.

Sword.

Wha­te­ver. 

I love this photo. A lot.

I’m not sure how far she thought she had to throw the bou­quet but I love the con­cen­tra­tion on the left, and the posing on the right! 

Aw.. how sweet. 

Heh, or not so much ;) 

There’s only one guy even pre­ten­ding to get it. The guy in the pur­ple swea­ter is just dan­cing. :-D

And then. Well. And then the hila­rity ensued. It was good Robyn didn’t have a veil with all these other head­dress options avai­la­ble for her. 

Get it? He’s got top guns?

1million points to whoe­ver can guess this song.

Glas­ses are overrated! 

One of the last songs of the eve­ning. This is NOT the YMCA.. I step­ped out of the room for a moment and when I came back they were sin­ging about pira­tes and eyes and boo­ties… and hilarity. 

Party till your shoes fall apart! 

And as a shout out to my ‘superhu­man­po­wers’ it turns out that the sore throat and run-​down-​ed-​ness I thought was just stress & exci­te­ment of an all alone trip tur­ned out to be a hella­ciouis case of strep and a fever of 102. But that wasn’t to worry about and dis­co­ver until I was home and Robyn & Chris were well on their way to hap­pily ever after!

I’m pretty sure that words will never truly be able to desc­ribe the awe­so­me­ness that was this adventure. Thank you Robyn & Chris for such an oppor­tu­nity! Let’s hope it’s not another 13 years before we get together again!

Oh my lord, Melissa!! These are ama­zing.…!! You caught so many aspects of this day that I thought were unpal­pa­ble… you are won­der­ful! I would like to post something on your web­site, if that’s alright! :)
Thank you again, you really made that day so spe­cial.… and allo­wed me to relive it again when I went through those pic­tu­res.” ~ Robyn

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Robyn & Chris 01.23.10 Part I

August 29th, 2010 @ 7:04 am | 0 comments

It was wed­ding time! I hea­ded to Robyn’s room. 

The girls’ flo­wers — the pea­cock theme was amazing. 

And inte­gra­ted into every pos­si­ble place they could. Check out the fabu­lou­sity of those tights! All the ladies had them. 

Cloaks & dres­ses. Being January in DC and outside Robyn & Chris ensu­red that the gang would be ready to brave any weather.

Her mum hel­ped get her ready with care and precision.

After the dress was laced it was time to help Robyn get in her shoes. Well - — her foot­wear. AYKM!? HeckYES! 

Robyn does something top­sec­ret in NV. Ok, maybe it’s not top­sec­ret but I can’t remem­ber exactly. I know she flies jets though! After the last of the final touches we hea­ded to the Amphitheater.

I don’t know if you remem­ber all the snow that DC got this past winter. Well, luc­kily, that star­ted pretty much the day AFTER I left. The day of the wed­ding was unsea­so­nably warm and sheer per­fec­tion for an out­door after­noon wedding! 

Robyn’s sis­ters & the OMG so cute flo­wer girls.

Her dad wal­ked her down the stair­way and Chris met her at the bot­tom and wal­ked her the rest of the way to the stage. Look at their look! 

Chris’ parents & Robyn’s parents. They make me cry — so proud of their chil­dren! (and right­fully so!!) 

The Mason Dis­trict Park Amphithea­ter. Wow. 

The cere­mony was full of ama­zing sto­ries of the two of them. Having never met Chris and really only kno­wing Robyn casually it took no time at all for me to feel like I’d known these two fore­ver and to be com­ple­tely enve­lo­ped in the world that is their friends & family.

Done! I think Chris’ smile is going to leap right off his face! :) 

I can’t look at this without laugh-​crying. The ado­ra­ble red head had been sure she would help the sweet blonde. She thought she was right next to her and when she tur­ned to find her stum­bling a few steps back she was so concerned! 

Bird­seed in a park is a won­der­ful idea!

Until you rea­lize that the peo­ple you invi­ted to your wed­ding are ruth­less and chuc­king it at you full force! ;)

Maybe it was because I got to spend so much time with this group but I could not get enough of their inte­rac­tions and loving. 

Chris those are great boots — but — I think they’re sort of outshi­ned by the green bling platforms! 

I have to say that the advan­tage to being so behind in my blogs is get­ting to relive this over again all this time later. It still feels like yes­ter­day! And wait til you see the recep­tion — I wish we could do it all over again tomorrow!!

…to be continued… 

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Destination: Funville 01.22.10

August 28th, 2010 @ 2:02 pm | 1 comment

aka Spring­field, VA.

Social net­wor­king is the stran­gest thing. 

In 1998 I took my first plane trip ever to Syra­cuse, NY to visit a friend at SU. I sta­yed with him in his ‘frat house’. There I met Robyn. She was viva­cious and fabu­lous and she taught me how to drink Cider­Jack (like a champ). We sta­yed in touch via email & AIM for a little while but as with most things the con­tact dwindled.

Some­time about 5 years ago, when mys­pace was still cool, I thought I’d search her. With a very uni­que last name I was sure I’d found her and we exchan­ged OMG’s.

Mys­pace was never my favo­rite. It was too hard to do/​see/​be. Then came face­book. We frien­ded. She announ­ced she was enga­ged. I jokingly pim­ped myself out. Novem­ber 2009, I get a mes­sage, asking if I was serious and would I tra­vel to the DC area to shoot her wed­ding. In January?!

y.e.s.

So after my whirl­wind second half of 2009 I caught my breath, pac­ked my bags, and boar­ded a fight to this des­ti­na­tion wed­ding. Only I would have a des­ti­na­tion wed­ding in DC in January. I didn’t care, I was SO exci­ted. It was also the first time ever I’d taken a trip com­ple­tely alone. (yes, I was 31. sheesh)

I made it in one piece! Flight, Lug­gage, Metro, Shuttle, Hotel, Rehear­sal! (Des­ti­na­tion wed­ding fact: If the tra­vel plans inc­lude me arri­ved and sett­led by the time of your rehearsal/​dinner — I’m there & shoo­ting as a bonus!)

The wed­ding was taking place at the Mason Dis­trict Park Amphithea­ter and after a somewhat … loud & glee­ful reu­nion in the hotel lobby we hea­ded off. 

The boys

The pro­ces­sion 

The girls. 

The din­ner. Which was at a chi­nese res­tau­rant which had the best ever ‘beef candy’ I’ve ever had. Ever. I have no idea what it was but I still want it at least twice a month. 

Argh! Delinquent blog­ger stri­kes again. I know that I took this pic­ture on the left with pur­pose, there was a story. But.. uh… Bueller? 

The bride and groom. I think this is the for bet­ter or worse before and after. HAHA ;)

By the time I left I was SO exci­ted for the wed­ding. This small sam­pling of their loved ones & friends and family was so ama­zing — I could only ima­gine what the next day had to bring!

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Christmas 2009

August 27th, 2010 @ 10:18 am | 0 comments

Yay! I made it to Christ­mas. At least, that’s how it felt. Every sin­gle event that hap­pe­ned in 2009 was fan­tas­tic and won­der­ful but I have to tell you with ALL of it I was just han­ging on til the break bet­ween Christ­mas and New Years to finally start breathing for a second!

Christ­mas Eve, as is tra­di­tion we went to my parents to have a gtg w/​cou­sin Beana & her family.

Ben­ja­min was full of Christ­mas spi­rit while Nichole was just won­de­ring what yum­mi­ness the tins were full of.

Killian & Avery (Dear Killian, I’m pretty sure it was you, not your sister)

I will fore­ver and always love this pic­ture on the left. Note to self, make a print of this pic­ture to actually hang in your house. 

The last Lego advent before bed! (and my ghastly dining room walls which I just rec­ti­fied last month! yahoo!!) 

Christ­mas Morning! 

Then it was back to my parents for more family & mimosas.

And gift bags big­ger than small children!

Nothing says Merry Christ­mas like a bloody fin­ger trick.

After a whirl­wind day… a whirl­wind year! It was ama­zing to cele­brate our first Christ­mas in our new house and our first ever real tree! 

And with that, there are only 116 days left til Christ­mas 2010!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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2009 a highlight reel

August 26th, 2010 @ 9:25 am | 0 comments

In the midst of it all — there were a few moments of fun here and there too! Some of these are phone pho­tos — I’m so thank­ful for FB for the ease of event chro­nic­ling! (oh my, I just made a public proc­li­ma­tion of thanks to facebook…)

In March, our friend Alli­son & I plan­ned and exe­cu­ted (really really well) a 6 course wine din­ner. We could not have done it without the fabu­lous exper­tise of our friend Annie and it was a hugely suc­cess­ful sur­prise 31st birth­day for Nichole.

In June my baby tur­ned 9 and ate at least as many ribs at the Rock n’ Rib fest. My nephew tur­ned 2! (um, I think I left my camera at home that day..)

In July I tur­ned 31. I was now offi­cially ‘in my 30’s’

In Sep­tem­ber, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! (and moved and pac­ked and all that fun stuff)

My mom and dad tur­ned 50 in fall and threw a HUGE bash in the back­yard with a pig roast cate­red by my brother, a tent & a live band! (That’s daddy in the far back right cor­ner on gui­tar) Happy Birth­days mommy & daddy!

We found a few minu­tes to go to the Deer­field fair (our favo­rite by far!) … He looks taller than me in this photo. That is not the case. Yet.

In Octo­ber Nichole’s mum & step­dad came out from NM to visit our neck of the woods. We star­ted with the House of Blues Sun­day Brunch.

And ven­tu­red into the great north for some color and adventure.

We spent Thanks­gi­ving at Allison’s with her family (and pro­bably more wine than people… )

In early Decem­ber we went off to the Fes­ti­val of Trees for the first time — it was really cute! I enjo­yed all the dif­fe­rent sce­nes and crea­ti­ve­ness! That tree is alllllll tiny paper cut-​outs. That boy is mine, but he’s quite lovely so I like to take pic­tu­res of him.

Mid Decem­ber mar­ked Reed’s 2nd birth­day! I can’t believe how fast it all goes. He had this ADORABLE cake from Chrissy’s Cakes and blew out the cand­les when no one was loo­king. HAHA.

2 1/​2 year old nephew Killian & 6 month old niece Avery!

Lexi & Reed’s friend Abby

One more post for Christ­mas, but I think that’s most of the key points of 2009! Glad to have caught up the blog through the new year .. now let’s get 2010 caught up before it’s 2011!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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Vegas baby. Vegas. (circa 05.09)

August 25th, 2010 @ 9:45 am | 0 comments

Ok.. so now that I’ve caught up in the pipe­line through 2009 I’m going to take a few minu­tes and share some of the adven­tu­res I had for the fun of it all too!

Vegas. We went to Vegas for Nichole’s step-dad’s bow­ling tour­na­ment. Let me put this out there. I’ve never wan­ted to go to Vegas. The thought of it gave me a panic attack. I thought there would be nothing to focus on and that it would be TFH. (toooooo frea­king hot).

So there was bowling…

And Terry came in 2nd on the team and … you know, not last … in the tournament. 

The Shark Reef was pretty cool…

Madame Tous­sads was inte­res­ting.. though it seems a por­tion of my pho­tos aren’t as… family friendly as I’d like to appear to be so I’ll leave you with some Hugh & Johnny ;)

But Vegas, baby? Vegas?! I’m in love. We sta­yed at the Fabu­lous Las Vegas Hil­ton (can you hear my echo-​ee announ­cer voice!?)

And I didn’t exactly focus — but I found so much to hap­pily dis­tract myself with — the colors and sha­pes and tex­tu­res and archi­tec­ture?! OMG.

I mean seriously — this is the inside of the women’s room bath­room stall at the shark reef. 

From the Bella­gio to the cons­truc­tion zones everything was something to see. 

(the beer.. LOVE sin city) 

The cho­co­late foun­tain that was big­ger than my living room… 

The food!

Vla­di­mir & Terry! 

And the LIONS. Holy crap I loved them.

It was just .. fun. Good Ama­zing Family & Fun. We saw Cir­que zoo­ma­nity & love. We wal­ked and mono­rai­led and laughed and had second break­fast of rum. It was hot, but more than that it was fun.

I never expec­ted to like it, let alone MISS it! I’m so ready to go back!

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Katie & Jed 12.11.09

August 24th, 2010 @ 12:30 pm | 0 comments

After mee­ting Katie & Jed at Kate & Mar­cus’ wed­ding in 07.08 and then taking their enga­ge­ment pho­tos on a super chilly day in 11.08, I KNEW that 12.11.09 was going to be an abso­lu­tely fan­tas­ti­cal time! 

I arri­ved at Bed­ford Village Inn as hair and makeup was finishing up with Katie’s mum.

And Katie was get­ting into her dress. I love the hands making their appea­rance in the left hand photo.

Once the dress was in the right place it was time for the veil!

And some s.e.x.y. red shoes. HELLO Christmas! 

It was just about time and Katie’s dad came in to check on her. Just look at them — and her mom & brother in the back­ground. Such an ena­mo­red family! 

Katie was BRAVE and humo­red my idea of hea­ding out on the bal­cony in the pitch black of the windy Decem­ber night. I don’t know — I’m think it was worth it. 

Then it was time. Oh Jed. I heart you. Not like Katie does though — wow-​eeee! :) 

Something about the two of them and the fee­ling of their wed­ding was just so clas­sic. I found myself loving so many of their pho­tos in black & white. 

Short & Sweet, but to the point. 

Christ­mas­time is magi­cal. Christ­mas­time wed­ding at BVI is like a Martha Ste­wart Decem­ber issue came to life. uh.maze.ing.

From the details in the bou­quet to the orna­ment place cards everything was perfection.

They dan­ced very lovely parent dan­ces, but my most favo­rite part was when Katie’s parents took the dance floor and dan­ced like it was their first dance. Katie and Jed watched them with love and awe (and perhaps making some men­tal notes ;) ) 

Then the props came out and the party got down! 

Flash For­ward! I caught Kate & Mar­cus during a slow dance and I knew it loo­ked fami­liar! I love that even without seeing their faces you can tell how in love they are. And, um, how much they are in love with the little one to be — Kate was 5 months preg­nant in this photo! (And I get to meet their CA-​UTE! baby this fall!)

But enough about Kate & Mar­cus — this is after all Katie & Jed’s wed­ding! And here they are one last time surroun­ded by friends and family cele­bra­ting them. As it should be!

Thank you thank you guys. More than you know.

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren 

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