Public THANK-YOUS

Boy do I have a lot of people to thank with regards to wedding things.  Don't worry, I will eventually get around to sending real thank-you cards but I was hoping to get personalized ones with our picture on them and we are just getting our pictures back.  So in the mean time, here's a thank you to everyone who helped with anything!  I have felt so loved the past few month and am so grateful for two families that will look out for me.

First, thank you to my parents.  Basically they gave me life so I could actually grow up and get married.  That's like the biggest thing ever!  But in seriousness, thank you for helping me pay for everything with the wedding and for letting my dreams come true.  Thanks for the behind the scenes work you did while I was at school, for finding addresses and organizing them, for getting the food together, for helping my friends find flights to Ohio, for supporting me in whatever I do, for loving who I chose to love.

Thank you to my grandparents who came from North Carolina.  Especially to my grandpa who was the one who sealed us.

Thank you to my extended family from Wisconsin, North Carolina and South Carolina for making the trip to Ohio to support me.  Special thanks to Uncle Ronny for being a diligent videographer and filming all of our special moments, to Uncle Harry for taking pictures at the photobooth and the reception, to Aunt Wanda and Grandma Koch for gathering weeds and flowers to use in the decorations and to Grandma Koch for sewing us a quilt, in our colors, for everyone at the reception to sign.

Thank you to the Smith family for working in their yard all summer to prepare it for the reception.  I know I can't even comprehend how much work went into it but I appreciate it all.  The yard was beautiful and the flowers matched perfectly.  Thank you for letting your house be a gathering place for decorations and miscellaneous wedding items.

THANK YOU to the Smith sisters for all of their hard work.  Thank you for throwing a bridal shower and making it beyond cute.  Thank you for your COUNTLESS hours helping and creating decorations.  For thinking of cute things to add, for making my ideas better, for purchasing supplies.  I seriously would not have been able to do a tenth of that without your help.  Thanks for working on stuff even when I was overwhelmed with how much there was to work on.  Thanks for loving me enough to want the reception to look as best it could.  Thank you for the honeymoon clothes that I love and wear all the time (ask Nathaniel).  Special thanks to Jennifer for heading up the cupcake team and making and decorating GORGEOUS cupcakes that not only looked fantastic, but tasted even better.

Thank you to all the Smith family for coming from Georgia, North Carolina, Utah and Arizona to be with us.  It was great to get to know everyone better and feel your energy.

Thank you to my college roommates who came from Utah and Washington to support me on my wedding day.  It was a blessing to have you all there.

Thank you to my very first best friend, Heather, for coming with her mother from Wisconsin.

Thank you to my AMAZINGLY talented photographer, Tessa Berg, from Starling Studio in Columbus for capturing our family, friends and the day as well as getting some stunning shots of the two of us.  If anyone is in need of a photographer for anything, she is highly recommended. (www.starling-studio.com)

Thank you to my friend Allison, for photographing the reception in Lima.  I am excited to see how those turn out and love what I have already seen.

Thank you to Kristen Topham for making a delicious and beautiful wedding cake for us.  It's just what I pictured and fit in perfectly with the rest of the reception.

Thank you to Blanca Aleman for whipping up her authentic Mexican salsa's for our salsa bar.

Thank you to the Ayers and Schades for letting my friends stay in your home while they were in Ohio.  It was a blessing to have them so close to me and not in a hotel 20 minutes on the other side of town.

Thank you to those who helped set up and take down decorations for us at the reception.

Thank you to those who came to the reception and supported our new marriage.  Your presence made us feel loved and special on our special day.  Thank you for the gifts you brought.  They have filled our home and we honestly use everything we got, all the time!  Thank you to those who gave us gifts of money and gift cards.  That money helped us get pots and pans for our kitchen, buy a mattress, get our stuff out to Idaho and pay for some of our rent.  Without your kind gifts, we would be either homeless, or living in a very empty home.

I am sure I'm forgetting people on here and I apologize for that.  Please know that everything everyone did was a huge blessing.  I probably don't even know all the sacrifices people made for me and I never will.  But I know you will be blessed because you have brought joy into my life.