Links to the honeymoon pictures!

Link: http://www.ryanandamandametzler.shutterfly.com/

Here is the link to our honeymoon pictures. I am also working on a new blog but its not quite done yet so hopefully by Saturday I will have that all up and running!! Sorry no wedding pictures yet (I am getting anxious too) but the photographer said its taking longer than expected because she took over 1600 pictures when she usually takes 750. Hopefully we will have them next week and I will get them posted for everyone!! Hope all is well with everyone!!

Job Hunt 2

So today was a very good day for the job hunt. I had a phone interview with Spectrum Hospital which I was offered a second interview for tomorrow. Ryan and I were walking into the mall to do some shopping for the honeymoon and I got a call from Holland Hospital. I was offered the position and need to make a decision by Monday!! I need to talk to my managers tomorrow during my interview and I think I owe it to my boss to talk to him about it before I accept the job. Ryan and I are both super excited and it's starting to feel like things are falling in place! Tomorrow is my last day of my internship! I am very excited it has been a very long 21 weeks and I am glad to have it done!

Single Digits!

We have reached single digits until the wedding! I just can't believe the wedding is only 9 days! We are both getting super excited! We do have a lot of projects to get done but after Friday I am done with work until the wedding so I can put all my effort in finishing everything up!

2nd Interview!

I got a call this morning from Holland Hospital! I have a second interview on Monday!! I am very excited!!!

Everyone have a great weekend! I know we will! I will get pictures up when we get home on Monday!

Cake

Two Sunday's ago we went and talk to the cake baker! We had to pick all of our favors and just make sure we are all set with the cake. We are having the following designs:

Now the cakes that we have will not be green! They will be white with either light blue or navy blue trim like the top cake on top of the 3-tier. We needed more cake and she thought that this would be better than sheet cake and it serves as a bigger decoration which I greatly appreciated!

We also got to pick the flavors for all the layers! We had a very good time with this!! We have some many different flavors to choose from and we picked alot of them! We wanted variety! We are having:

Funfetti

Cherry Chip

Banana

Chocolate

White

Marble

Strawberry

Mmm! Cake! I love cake!

Wedding Menu!

I talked to the caterer on Monday! She is cooking for 600 people! I am glad that I just have to show up and eat because that has to be a ton of work!

Here is the menu:
Chicken
Meatballs
Potatoes/Gravy
Buttered Noodles
Sauerkraut and Polish Sausage
Baked Beans
Green Beans
Salad
Cinnamon and White Bread


Ryan and I are very excited about the menu! It's like most of our favorite foods in one sitting!

Job Hunt

My internship is complete next Friday! I am very excited to have this part of my life done! I can't believe that I have been there for 20 weeks already. I learned so much and I have met some amazing people. It is going to be extremely hard for me to walk out that door next Friday.

Now that my internship is ending, I have been on the job hunt. I went to an interview Monday with Holland Hospital. It lasted for 2 hours and the department actually has two job postings right now so I had one interview for both jobs which was nice.

I had a dicussion with my boss today and they have an open position that they are hoping I will fill it. It is company policy that they must interview all applicants that meet requirements and if there is a better candidate then I will not get the job offering so I am hoping no one else will apply! Selfish but hey I worked for free for 21 weeks, a little break would be nice.

I should know within the week if I get a second interview with Holland Hospital so hopefully I get the call back! I will keep everyone updated on how the hunt is going!

Gifts!

Today we went to build-a-bear workshop to make Summer for Mackensie. We had a lot of fun making, we hope that Mackensie has just as much fun playing with her. Ryan and I went back and forth on what animal to get for her but we finally decided on the turtle! Mackensie has a lot of allergies so we were going to get her the asthma approved bear, but it was ugly. So we asked the girl what was the next best one and she said the turtle is made out of the same material so we got the turtle!! We also went to Things Remembered and ordered gifts for our parents. All we have left to get is a gift for Jessica and Mike and we have to go to Toysrus to finish Justin's present. The groomsmen gifts were delivered today and they turned out awesome and the bridesmaids gifts should be here tomorrow. We are starting to really check things off the to-do list and I am startin to feel like we can get everything done!

Rehearsal Dinner Information!

Okay, so the last couple of days we have been working on getting everything ready for the rehearsal dinner. We have to be at the church at 6 and then we are going to be heading to Monitor Lanes for dinner, bowling and just enjoying time together. I am really excited about the rehearsal dinner. We will get to celebrate and relax with closest friends and family.

The Menu:
KFC Chicken
Taco Salad
Chicken Salad
Au Gratin Potatoes
Banana Cream Pie
Dessert (Ryan hasn't chosen what he wants yet)

Tonight Ryan and I designed our invitations and they will be going out in the mail tomorrow! Pictures are below!

Can you think of anything else we need to do for the rehearsal dinner?

Projects!!

Well the wedding is going to be here before we know it and we have many projects to complete! Here are a few pictures of two that I am working on right now! Please let me know what you think!

Bubbles for our grand exit from the church!
Vases for the Bridesmaid Bouquets at the Reception!

What do you think? Cute or not so cute?


I know I said I would blog pictures of our new apartment but we just moved the rest of our stuff from the old apartents and its a mess! I will get them up soon!

Program Drafts!

Here is a draft of our programs! Please review them and we welcome suggestions!!

Wow....

1 Month to go! That is just crazy to me! The time has just flown by since we got engaged! I can't believe the wedding is only a month away and I could not be more excited! We have so much to do, I hope we get it all done.

.....I will post pictures of our new apartment soon. I am sorry life has been so crazy and we are still not completely moved in. We have randomn boxes laying around the apartment. I have my huge internship project due to my boss today and then I get to ship it off to Big Rapids, which I can't wait to get it done. It will be a huge relief!

Yay!

All we have to do is put stamps on the invites and they can finally go out! I am so excited! That was a horrible horrible job! I can't wait to go to the post office and purchase 300 stamps tomorrow! Ugh!! But atleast there done!!

Our Apartment Before Pictures!

We have had a SUPER busy week! We went and signed the lease on our apartment on Monday! It was an exciting day! We then started the painting process which we are still not done with (We ran out of paint, we were about a wall and a half short). We have been working on getting the invitations out because they should have already arrived. I was a little upset at myself for not getting them out sooner but 300 invitations is not an easy task let me tell you. I had to also finish the shower thank-yous and get them ready to go out with wedding invites. Al & Jen brought the trailer on Friday with all of our stuff in it so now we have to finish painting and put everything away! It sounds bad but I am really not excited about this. I am ready for it be done but to actually do it sounds just horrible to me! In between all of our projects this week and work I am lacking in the energy area. I am excited for the Lions/Packers game tomorrow with my whole family! Thats going to be great!! When Ryan and I get the apartment all ready I will post the after pictures! Enjoy your weekend!

Shower Weekend!

Ryan and I had a perfect wedding shower! Thank you to everyone who made it possible! We love you all! We are getting our apartment this week! I will post before and after pictures as soon as I get them! Have a great week! Enjoy the pictures!

Our Wedding Invites!

Here are our wedding invites! Al just finished them last night and is taking them to the printer to get all 325 of the printed! Sorry that all 3 are on a page its how he has to take them to the printer! Let us know what you think!

Weekend Recap!

My weekend began a little earlier than expected! My boss walked into my office at 2:00 o'clock on Thursday and asked me if I wanted Friday off of course I said yes and said I was leaving for the weekend right then. I dropped everything I was doing and left! It was great! I headed home for the weekend but Ryan unfortunately had to work this week so that he could have this next weekend off. Thursday night I went out for my cousin Kevin's 21st Birthday! Oh what good fun!

Friday evening I went golfing with my parents followed by a couple of drinks at North Point (suprise suprise!) in which leaving the bar I got pulled over when driving home my mom, dad and Freather. I have to say that was one of the scariest moments of my life. The cop pulled me over for swerving over the center line. He just wanted to know why that was and I told him that it was just me and that I was not used to the vehicle I was driving which was true. He asked me what my driving record was like and I told him about my speeding ticket when I was 16 and he went back to his car checked my license and came back and asked me to keep the truck in my lane. I have to admit I was talking like a munchkin on crack and I did not breath. My dad thought for sure that I was going to pass out. I only had two drinks in 3 hours so I knew that if they gave me a breathalizer that I would blow something but no way it was enough but I was not thinking at all when he pulled me over. It was not fun let me tell you.

Saturday I spent the day tubing on the rifle river with Sara, Ben, Freather, Jess, Jill, Mike, Jerod, Bryan, Jenna and Brandon. It was lots of fun but a really long trip. We went on a 5 hour trip and it lasted almost 7. Atleast I got some much needed sun! The weather could not have been anymore perfect. I then went to my dad's hunting property to do some camping with the family! Great Fun! Enough said!

Sunday, I drove back to Grand Rapids to see Ryan! Josh moved back in so we went out with him and Kim to celebrate! Kim and I got into some strong drinks and definitley made it an interesting night. This morning we went to breakfast at IHOP and headed to Grand Haven to hang out at the beach. We were definitley not alone for that. We had lots of fun but poor Ryan is burnt to a crisp!

I either forgot my camera or had it and didn't take any pictures for the whole weekend! Oops! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I will post more wedding stuff later this week. Can't wait to see everyone this weekend!!

Ryan's Wedding Band

We need some opinions here! Which one do you like better?

Two Months to Go!!

Yay! Only two months left until the big day! Reality is starting to hit that we only have 2 months to get our butts in gear and finish up the to do lists! We have been getting alot of things done but I am starting to wonder if we will finish everything!

We had pre-marriage counseling on Thursday with Deacon Frank. Everytime we go to see him I am more and more thankful that he is doing our wedding! Our wedding will be the last one that he preforms and Pastor Mike actually changed his vacation days so he can be at our wedding. I was really suprised by this just because Ryan and I were both baptized Catholic and only started attending there church when we got engaged. We have to go back for 3 more sessions before the big day which is definitley going to be a tight squeeze but hopefully we can manage it.

I should have the baskets for shower prizes done tonight! (CROSS YOUR FINGERS) I didn't realize how much work these baskets would be but atleast they are cute and Ryan has been helping out major!!

We went and picked up 40 bags of lifesavers at Meijers yesterday, we had to go to two different stores to get them but hey we saved $1 on each bag so it was definitley worth the time. We didn't plan on having to pay for these at all thanks to coupons but the coupons I bought expire next week and I was getting nervous about them not going on sale next week so meijers had them $0.99 per bag so it equaled out to $0.50 a bag. I have to hide them from Ryan because he keeps eating them, I got home from work today and the apartment smelled like wintergreen!

We started ordering all the stuff for the decorations, we have tons of vases to order so we started to round them up. We found some on ebay for much cheaper even with the shipping costs so hopefully they get here in perfect condition!!

I think that is all I have for now!! If anyone has anything that they can think of that we might forgot to do please let us know!! I am afraid we are going to forget something major! Have a great week!!

Apartment Search!!

After all the drama this week we definitely decided that we are not going to sign a lease with the apartment complex we are at currently. They screwed us once and I am sure they will do it again plus I really did not like the apartment all that much so it just helped make our decision easier. Now the apartment search is on. We are trying to find a place that we both can agree on and I am don't think this is going to be an easy thing and its 100% my fault. We will get in a car after viewing Ryan will like the place and I hate it, I always find at least 5 things wrong with the place. We want to be moved in to the apartment with it all painted by October 1st. That's the goal. As we find apartments that I will actually approve of living there I will post the pictures of the candidates!

Flooding...

Oh goodness it has been a very interesting 72 hours. Wednesday night Ryan and I ran to Target to look at some ideas for shower gifts and while we were going the line in pipe from our guest bathroom started to leak. When we got home it was not leaking that bad so Ryan tried to tighten it like any normal person would and the pipe snapped causing a large amount of water to shoot out of this pipe. We started running around we set up a barrier around the bathroom with all of our clothes trying to keep as much water in the bathroom as possible. We could not find the water shut off and we had no emergency maintenance number to call. By the time we got a hold of a maintenance person like 5 minutes later our guest bathroom was filled with 7 inches of water, our kitchen, laundry room, hallway, master bedroom, guest bedroom, master bathroom, part of our living room and our office area was filled with 3 or 4 inches of water. Its a mess. So our maintenance people came in and fixed the pipe but they said it was way to much water to handle. They must have thought we were exaggerating when we told them we were flooded with atleast 3 inches of water. So we got a hold of HomeSavers and they came and sucked all the water up and put up 8 machines to dry the water up. They told us the first night that it was fine to sleep there and it was 2 am so Ryan and I could easily fall asleep. We woke up and it was 100 degrees in our house and it smelled horrible. We then waited for the office to open to make sure we were not suppose to be doing something. She told us they cover everything and that its just a waiting game but that they would take care of everything. They were wrong! They are paying for our carpets to get cleaned and everything like that buy HomeSavers says we cannot stay in our apartment for probably four days and the apartment complex says that they have no place for us to stay but they could get us a great deal on a hotel room (Not cheap just so you know). THANK GOODNESS HEATHER AND FRED ARE LETTING US STAY WITH THEM! Thanks Freather! We are still fighting with them to give us information and a place to stay but we have not had any luck. Our apartment is 100 degrees and it smells awful. Hopefully we will be back in with clean carpets by Monday. Thats the goal!

Cheers!

Congratulations Mom Metzler on graduating from bartending school! Ryan and I are both SO proud of you! We cannot wait to see you for the shower! Love you and miss you so much!

1 Down 29 to Go!

Ryan and I have been working on getting the shower gifts all ready to go! We have figured out what we want in the gift packages now we just have to put them together! I made one up this evening just to make sure it looks good all put together!

Finished Product!

Life...

Ryan and I have been super busy since he moved to Grand Rapids. We are starting to get used to living together and I am super glad we did this before the wedding. We did struggle at first just he likes his stuff his way and I like my stuff my way and we are trying to get everything to be our way. Ryan and I have not even lived in the same town for 4 out of the 6 years we have been together so this is been an adjustment but its geting better now! Yay! Work is great for me super busy but its great. Ryan's job is going pretty good, the weekend hours are going to take a while to get used to but it will be okay! We are starting to really crack down on wedding plans we have so much to do and not very much time to do it. I really wish I would not have procrastinated but we will live with it. We are heading to Sage Lake this weekend with Freather, Sara & Ben and Jess & Mike! Should be a good time! I have been excited all week!

My Wedding Day Accessories

Earrings
Bracelet

Necklace

Veil

Tiara

What do you think??

3 Months to Go!

Wahoo! Only 3 Months to go before the big day! I am officially giddy and so excited that its hard to contain myself!! YAY! Yay! Yay!!

Shower Gifts!

I am not sure if I have enough gifts for the shower.... heres what I have bought and I am going to put them together in like mini baskets.

I purchased from Bath and Body works:
- 17 Antibacterial Foam Soaps
- 4 Body Sprays
- 4 Body Gels
- 4 Wallflowers

Also my Grandma Finn is making towels that loop around like your stove handle so they stay in place. I know with my family they are always a huge hit in the white elephant auction each year at Christmas. I am not exactly sure how many she is making total but I have seen around 20 or so and I know she is still working on them!

I know I have to work on a little kids gift. I figured I would make some of the body sprays and gels for the young adults but I need a couple gifts for kids 10 and under. Any suggestions?

Do I need more prizes?! Also any ideas on games? My mom and I were drawing a blank on them! The only one I know we are playing for sure is give a present win a present. You use a kitchen timer and when we are opening presents you set the timer for a certain amount of time and whoseever present I am holding up at that time wins a prize! It was ahuge hit at my friend Jessica's shower. I was also going to do a bingo if we could not think of any other games. I have seen two different versions one that was all the items that Ryan and I put on the Registries and when I open them they cross them off! Its keeps people entertained during the opening of the presents. Also I have seen Bingo where its all about the couple, bridal party etc! Let me know your thoughts and ideas!!

Double Digits!

We have finally hit double digits! Only 99 days until our wedding day! I am so excited but just a little nervous about everything I have to do in the next 98 days!! Yay!!!

Registries!

Ryan and I thought when we started registering that it would be fun! We were so wrong. It was so much work and we always just left the stores exhausted and annoyed. We decided to register at Kohl's and Target plus our bedding is at Bed Bath and Beyond. We decide not to put Bed Bath and Beyond on our shower invitations though because all we registered for there was our comoforter, sheets and bed skirt. So we didn't want people to go there and expect a whole registry when its only 3 things! We started working on them about 3 weeks ago and we have gone back a couple of times to finish them. The second time we were at Target they did not combine the new registry with the old one so we had to call corporate to get them combined and then yesterday we were at Kohls and everything we registered for and took off would not download so we had to redo it all. We were not happy! Last night when we got home we sat down and made an excel spreadsheet of everything we registered for and classified it by the room to see what we are missing. Please check out our registries and see if you can spot anything missing!!! Thanks we really appreciate it!!

http://www.kohls.com/upgrade/gift_registry/kohlsgrw_bridal_landing.jsp

http://www.target.com/registry/wedding/portal

Engagement Pictures

Our photographer emailed me today and are pictures are available. I am not sure exactly why she uploaded them to Walmart but I am guessing they are the cheapest to print. What I am going to do is get the CD of them and then I will get them printed myself. If you would like some please let me know and I will get them to you as soon as I get the CD!! I hope you enjoy! Please leave comments on which ones we should order the more opinions the better!!!

http://photos.walmart.com/shareethumbnailshare/AlbumID=30122752/p=173171216310630424/l=10619167/g=3480855/albumcount=1/pns/share/p=173171216310630424/l=10619167/g=3480855/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/action=_xffurlnotdefined

Shower Invites!

These will be coming to a door near you soon!!

Let me know what you think!!!

Reception Cards

This is the wording I have for the reception cards...not sure if I really like it but its what I got so far. Please advise!

To help us celebrate,

please join us for the Reception

at five o'clock in the evening
Buffet served at five thirty
Dancing to follow

Kawkawlin Township Hall

1836 E. Parish Road

Invitation Wording!

Ryan & I are working on getting invitations ready to go out to the printer. We are in between two invitations so once Ryan picks which one he likes better I will be ordering those. I just want to have time to address all the invitations and also I am adding a ribbon to all of them so I would like to have sometime to complete that and not feel rushed on it. Here is the wording! What does everyone think. I am sure it is a standard thing but who knows these days.

Mr. & Mrs. Frederick Dore Jr.
and
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Metzler Sr.
request the honour of your presence
at the ceremony and celebration
with the marriage of their children
Amanda Lee
and
Ryan Charles
on Saturday, the twenty-fifth of October
Two thousand and eight
at one o'clock in the afternoon
Trinity Episcopal Church
815 N. Grant Street
Bay City, Michigan

I feel.....

Relieved!!!

Ryan and I went and got our engagement pictures done yesterday in Lansing. This was the first time we actually met face to face with our photographer and I have to admit I was a little nervous about it! SHE IS NORMAL! She is actually a teacher and she does this on the side! Her pictures that I have seen our beautiful and I like her alot!!! She was great! She did what we wanted and guided Ry & I through everything which is extremely important for us. We are not very good with things like how should we stand and such. We should be getting the pictures back around July 26th! I will have them up as soon as I get them for your viewing pleasure!!!!

Ry's New Car!!!

As some of you know, Ryan bought a new car today! I have not seen the exact one he has bought but here are the pictures from the dealership!!

4 Months to go!

Only four months to go until the wedding! We have so much to do before the big day but we are getting so excited!!

Wedding Weekend!

Ryan and I worked our tails off on wedding stuff this weekend but it does not seem like we got much done at all. Friday night we started registering at Kohls. Then Saturday, we went and looked at tuxes, picked up my dress, checked on the bridesmaid dresses, had pre-marriage counseling, and we registered at Target!

Today I have been very anti-work so I have been designing our programs and rehearsal dinner invitations. I want to make everything myself to make it more personal and to save a little bit of money. I am trying to get started so I am not making 250 programs a week before the wedding. As soon as I get a few designs tried out I will get pictures up here for everyone's opinions

I was a little disappointed in registering. I guess I thought it would be lots of fun but by the end of it, we were just annoyed with it. We decided next time we do it we are going to place everything in a cart that way we can remember exactly what we did register for and it makes it alot easier to match things up. *Please check out our registries! We are missing lots of stuff and we definitley need to add more to these lists.

On a good note Ryan and I got our pre-marriage counseling survey results back on Saturday. Deacon Frank said we have scored the best on this exam than anyone ever! He thought maybe we cheated but after six years Ryan and I know each other quite well. It just made me smile!

Life is amazing in everyway....

I have to admit this week has been extremely challenging for me. After leaving work on Monday to head to Holland I was definitley not expecting to walk into what I did. I just can't believe I handled the situation as if nothing was wrong. I did break down one time but the only person that seen it was Ryan and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that I had not seen him for 10 days. I have always been worried about making the wrong decision about my career choice and many people have told me that I should go into business. Ryan turned to me on Tuesday and said that I was meant to work in healthcare and I finally felt that I did make the right decision. I am just so glad Grandpa Metzler is getting back to himself and I hope the recovery stays on track now. Have you ever heard the country song "I Saw God Today?" That is the only way I can explain what happened in Holland Hospital this week.



As for the wedding, I have not done much of anything. Ryan has picked out our tuxes but I have yet to look at them and I would just like to do that before we start having the guys get measured. The bridesmaid dresses will be in the next couple of weeks. But I need to make an appointment to get our engagement pictures done with the photographer, we also have to register and we have pre-marriage counseling this weekend! I am hoping to get to Unique Bridal to see my dress!! I can't remember exactly what beading it has on it so I can start to pick out my accessories!



Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The Dress has Arrived!!!

I just got a call from Unique Bridal and my dress has arrived!! I cannot wait to go see it!! Now I have to pick all the accessories to go with it! I will be posting pictures because I am going to need all the help I can get!! I am so excited!!!

Ryan is moving to GR!!!!

Ryan got a job at AT&T in GRAND RAPIDS!!!! He will start training in Farmington Hills on July 7th. He will be there for a week, then training in Grand Rapids for a week and then back to Farmington Hills for another week but then he will be in Grand Rapids for good!!! I am so excited! I love Grand Rapids and the only thing that I dislike about it is that Ryan isn't here! It feels like our lives are FINALLY coming together!!! Yay Ryan!

6 Years!!

I cannot believe that we have been together for six years now. I guess it is true time flies by when you are having fun! To these past six years and to many more! Happy 6 Year Anniversary Ryan! Thanks for being you everyday! I love you!!

What a day!

Here is a link to how I spent my day!!

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=92943

MUSIC!

We were supposed to meet with Deacon Frank on Saturday but he missed placed his palm pilot so he forgot about our appointment so we got out of a month of Pre-Marriage Counseling!!! This is nice because it was gorgeous out and we got in a quick nine holes!

Last time Deacon Frank asked us to pick out our music for the ceremony so we did that last Friday night because we procrastinated! We have all the music picked out for the ceremony but does anyone have any suggestions for before the ceremony starts. We asked a good family friend to sing at the wedding but we just don't know what we want her to sing! We REALLY REALLY need help! PLEASE HELP US!!

This is what we have so far! I included youtube clips because the songs will actually be played on a pipe organ except for the unity candle song. The pipe organ gives the songs a little different ring.

Here is the list:

Bridesmaid Entrance: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yN4AGVq1XG0&feature=related
Bride’s Entrance: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KlYJH4hBUYc
Unity Candle: http://www.tcartermusic.com/music/unity/listen-unity.html *My good friend Marianne is going to be playing this song on the piano for us she is also a bridesmaid and that is why she is not playing the whole wedding but I love this song and it would not work on the pipe organ! *
Recessional: http://youtube.com/watch?v=EfsTXzAgp6c

What does everyone think?? PLEASE SUGGESTIONS!!!!!

Reception Lights!

This is how I want to do the lights for the reception room. Ryan thinks we can do it but when we go and get the layout of the building we are going to have to look into it some more. I think it would add to the room. I am really not in love with the way the hall looks so I am trying to find any way possible to make it better!! Do you think it would be worth the man power?

Unity Candle

Here is what our unity candle will look like and we are having a wreath of hydrangeas around it with two crystal candlestick holders for our set. Pretty?!