A Fairy Tale Wedding in Texas

Our last wedding of the year took place in the great state of Texas on a late October weekend.  It was a true fairy tale wedding complete with a castle on the cake and a Beauty and the Beast choreographed first dance!

We were just happy to make it into town given the flooding and general weather craziness that delayed our arrival by several hours.  We spent the morning of the wedding catching up on the sleep we missed in the process, but were so excited to discover all the goodies in our welcome bag!  I loved the Texas theme - so fun!

The wedding took place in a lovely chapel in a downtown church.  I loved the intimate setting and the gorgeous stained glass window serving as a backdrop!  It was the perfect place for the start of their fairy tale day!

The reception was held in a ballroom at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas.  We had fun chatting with friends - both old and new - throughout the cocktail hour.  Dan Rather kindly posed for photos with many guests...and when Chris expressed interest in taking a photo with him I certainly wasn't going to refuse.

As the night continued, we saw an adorable video slide show before enjoying a delicious meal.  We were entertained by a fun and exciting father-daughter first dance - remix style.  Spent some time in the photo booth attempting to capture exactly the right shot.  And were treated to slices of both vanilla and chocolate cake - double yum!!  

It was a great night of fun with wonderful friends!  I can't believe all of the "old girlfriends" bunch are now members of the "new wives" society!  May the fun continue for years to come...

Andrea :)

Our 1st Anniversary!

We decided to go the traditional route for our 1st Anniversary.  We exchanged gifts with a paper theme, ate cake while we watched our full length wedding video, and took some fun photos in the city we've called home for the past year - Long Island City.

It was a great day to reflect on our wedding and bask in the excitement and happiness it brought.  We found ourselves commenting throughout the day that it didn't seem like it had been a whole year since that special day!  I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun!

For the past year, on the 18th of each month we took a photo together.  I framed them as a way for us to look back over our first year together.  Each month, I also presented Christopher with a card and either Twizzlers or Baked by Melissa cupcakes depending on the month.  Immediately following our wedding ceremony, Chris and I spent a few minutes together in the bridal suite letting it all soak in before exiting to cheering family and friends.  We were both starving and began devouring the closest snack - Twizzlers!  It was fun to relive that each month.  We ordered only-available-in-NYC cupcakes to be shipped to Kentucky for a late-night snack at our wedding so every few months I switched things up and gave him a package of those instead.  I remember how delicious they tasted at the end of our wedding night as well!  Yum!

We didn't exactly eat a thawed out top layer of our wedding cake.  Too many logistics would have been involved in that operation since we wed in a state hundreds of miles from where we live.  But we did order a small cake to commemorate the day.  Our California Adventure last month served as our main anniversary celebration so we kept October 18 fairly low key.  It was nice to just relax and spend some quality time together though. We did share the short version of our wedding video with family and friends for the first time that day.  If you want to check it out, click here!

At the end of the day, our first anniversary was just another day.  Another day with my best friend.  We can't wait to see what year number two brings our way!

Andrea :)

#MarriedMaitlands - TWELVE months!

It has been so much fun to track each of the months of our first year of marriage!  I'm not planning to continue the monthly updates in the same fashion going forward, but I still want to capture dates nights.  It has been nice to reflect on all the fun and exciting parts of each month!  Our first married year sure did go quickly!!

Date Nights

-Rooftop Kabob Grill Out

-Ichabod's in Union Square

-Golovkin vs Lemieux at the Garden

Movies/Shows

What's the Worst That Could Happen?
My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Loser
My Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 0.5 out of 5 stars

All the President's Men
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

No Country for Old Men
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 Dumb and Dumber To
My Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Foxcatcher
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Traveled

-Finished our One Year Anniversary Trip to California.
We saw San Francisco from Coit Tower and had fun on the cable cars, visited Muir Woods and did some wine tasting, and caught a Raiders game.

-Made our way to Albany for a wedding and some apple picking.

Notable Events

-Took One Year Anniversary Photos - can't wait to share more of them!!

-Watched our wedding video and ate yummy cake on our first wedding anniversary! 

 
Andrea :)

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY!!!!

It has been a whole year since we stood at the alter saying our vows and promising each other forever in front of all our family and friends on our wedding day!!  I've shared all the details and tons of pictures with you this past year, but saved our awesome wedding day video for today!  Enjoy taking a peek into the fabulous beginning of the #MarriedMaitlands!

Andrea :)

#MarriedMaitlands - ELEVEN months!

Fall is here!  And we celebrated by vacationing all over California.  Our month was jam packed with fun before we left for our west coast adventure, but we survived it all and had a great (early) anniversary trip together.  If you just can't wait to see some of the awesome photos from our adventure, check out my instagram (@alhadventures or #maitlandsgowest)!

Date Nights

-Sweet Fleakend at LIC Food & Flea

-LIC Brewery Tour
(Read all about it here.)

-Saturday Night Live: The Exhibition

Movies/Shows

Whorl Inside A Loop
(Review here.)
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 6 out of 5 stars
(Phenomenal doesn't even scratch the surface on this one!)

Amazing Grace!
(Review here.)
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Great White Hype
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Chris' Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Traveled

-Spent a weekend in Albany for an Old Hollywood themed wedding.

-Began our One Year Anniversary Trip to California.
We visited the zoo in San Diego, watched the Chargers pull out a victory, hiked to the Hollywood Sign, caught the 49ers for some MNF, spent time in Monterey, drove the beautiful Hwy 1 on a mission to catch Bixby Bridge by sunset, walked the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco, and toured Alcatraz.

Notable Events

-Chris started his new job!!!  We celebrated his first day at Water's Edge!

-Hosted Mom and Dad over Labor Day Weekend.
We explored Long Island City, watched baseball and ate ice cream, visited the 9/11 museum, and saw The Lion King on broadway!

Andrea :)

Find Your Soulmate

Everyone's looking for love. Somewhere in our heart, we all hope Mr. or Ms. Right is just around the corner.
The problem is where to look...online-dating, nightclubs, at work, at church, or maybe the grocery store. Everyone has a different opinion as to how you might get lucky. While most people believe in the concept of "Soul Mate" they don't know how to begin their search.