Show us your wedding party!

I am super excited to show you all my wedding party and flowers along with Kelly at Kelly's Korner! Let's get started! My MOH was my partner in crime and roommate of 3 years at the time, Lacey. This girl helped me make crucial decisions. She also listened to way more wedding babble than any person should ever have to endure! We were roommates, and I'm sure I had wedding brain.These two lovely ladies are my C(K)rystals. I must be drawn to the name! Krystal (on the left) is my bff from college. We were pretty much inseparable from the first day we met. Crystal (on the right) has been my best friend since middle school. We have been through a lot together. I love her like a sister and can't imagine what I would do without her!

Here is me, my mother, and my junior bridesmaids. These lovely ladies are my sisters. It is amazing to see how much they have all grown since this picture a little over a year ago... wow, I feel OLD!Here is a picture of all the girls. The only bridesmaid I couldn't find a picture of me with on my computer is Tiffany, my SIL (sis-in-love). I like to think that her and I are a lot alike, in that we are both hil-ari-ous! Seriously, she is very funny and I am blessed to call her my sis!
These little doll babies are my second cousins, Amelie and Kaylyn. Are they not the cutest? They were great flower girls!I'll just post one picture of the boys. From left to right: Aaron, my brother, Billy, cousin of groom, Cooper, nephew of groom, Billy the groom, Cade, nephew of groom, Jerry, best man and cousin of groom and Chris, brother in law of groom. Great group of good looking men right there!Ok, I lied. Two pictures of the boys. How could you pass up a picture of Cade and Cooper? They were great ring bearers.Here is the whole wedding party.


I searched, but I don't seem to have and pictures that show the flowers really well. We didn't have any flower arrangements at the church, so the ones we are holding are the only ones to show so far! Next Friday when we show receptions (I think) I will be able to show more flowers... if there are pictures of them! ha Our wedding was one of the happiest days of my life, and I think it shows in our pictures! I hope you enjoyed them :)

Show us your life Friday

Since the home tours are finished, Kelly has changed to 'Show Us Your Life' Fridays. This week is wedding dresses and I'm happy to say that I had one! I'm not happy to say that a year later it is still hanging in the garment bag that the ladies at the bridal store said to only keep it in for 3 months. What can I say? I'm a procrastinator! I do check on it now and then, and it still looks okay.
The dress is by Casablanca Bridal and I bought it from Wedding Wonderland in Lexington, KY. If you're looking for a reasonably priced dress I highly recommend Casablanca Bridal. Their dresses are all pretty much gorgeous! Without further ado...Here is Lacey, my MOH, helping me into the dress.Here's the front of the dress. I loved the ruching on this dress. I wanted something simple, and this dress just felt like the one! I feel like it really worked for me and our day.
Here is the back of the dress. It is bustled at this point. Oh, and the hubby is in this picture too! :)

My dress was only the 5th dress I tried on. I probably tried on 50 after this one, but I kept comparing them all to this dress. The first time I tried it on I was torn between this one and another one that was just over the top. I finally decided I didn't want over the top and fell in love with this dress.

Virtual vacay

No, I'm not in Ft Lauderdale. This is a picture message I received from the hubby one day this week while I was working OT. I was sitting at my desk, slaving away and he was taking a stroll on the beach!! Before you freak, he didn't abandon me for a bachelor vacation. He has been traveling this week for work. Being the lucky dog that he is, he has been traveling in Florida about 20 miles from the primo spot where this picture was taken! He felt he should send me a message because he knows how much I love the beach. He really wasn't trying to rub it in, but it sure felt that way when I was in my 10th hour of work that particular day! Anyway, my hubby returns home today and I'm pretty excited! I sure have missed that crazy guy :)

Love is in the air

This weekend was crazy busy with wedded bliss. It started on Saturday with my cousin, Brittany's wedding. I was guest book attendant, in all my smiling, "Hello, how are you? Would you like to sign the guest book?" glory! Their wedding was seriously the most entertaining wedding ever. The bride and groom had microphones on, and they wrote their own vows. Brittany sang a surprise song, which brought nearly everyone to tears, including herself and her hubby-to-be. I wish I had a video to link to so everybody could see how excited these two really were. When they were announced husband and wife I'm pretty sure I remember Brittany jumping up and down. It truly was a beautiful wedding! I wish them all the best in their new life! Oh, and by the way, Brittany and I were born the same day although she is a few hours older. She won't hesitate to point that out either!


Saturday was spent getting ready for the wedding shower Alex (Cindy Crawford) and I threw for Lacey and John. Sunday was the big day, and it was a blast! We didn't have as many turn out as we originally thought, but we had a good group (but way too much food)! This party may be a little different than you might think. First off, it was in a field that had just been bush hogged the day before. There were even a few piles of random materials piled up nearby. Second, and most important there was paintball! We played bride's team vs groom's team. The bride's team was mostly girls, and we put up a good fight! I will say someone brought their own paintball gun, and it hurt exponentially more than the rented paintball guns. That person will remain nameless for their protection! haha


All the girls were very nervous about playing paintball for the first time. We spent about half an hour waiting on Paintball Dave. The whole time we were freaking out about whether it would hurt, whether we would be any good, and whether we would even be able to shoot the gun for fear of being shot ourselves!


Here is 'team bride.' I made sashes to designate teams, since we were mostly all amateur paintballers. Lacey's says "bridezilla," Alex's says "Britney Spears," Afton's says "Hurricane," Tory (Lacey's friend from work) says "Captain Chaos," mine says "sharp shooter," and Brittany's says "Sarah Palin." I had a good laugh making all those at 1am Sunday morning!







The picture to the right is 'team groom.' Please notice John's tuxedo hat! I don't exactly remember the names of all these boys, but some of their sashes say Buzz Lightyear (Bubba), K-Fed (to go with Britney Spears), Colonel Sanders, Soulja Boy, Flava Flav, and John's says Groomzilla of course!

This is Afton, Brittany and Lacey with their paintball gear. Pumped and ready to go!

Everybody getting ready to go paintball.
This is us right after coming off the paintball field. We were paint splattered and hot! (Also we were pumped up because we won the last game thanks to a sneak attack from Bridezilla!)

After paintball we joined the non-paintballers and had a cookout complete with burgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, fruit salad, mac-n-cheese and cake! Here is my attempt at a paintball wedding cake :)

I hope you all had a wonderfully busy weekend as great as mine. Today at work I was exhausted, but it was well worth it to celebrate John and Lacey's upcoming wedding! PS. Ladies, now it's time to start getting excited about the Bachelorette weekend! (Sept 11-13th) Don't say I didn't give you advanced notice:)

Show us where you live Friday

Today is Friday, and you know what that means! It's time for show us where you live Friday's with Kelly at Kelly's Korner! This week is foyers/entryways. I'll just go ahead and tell you, I just posted a picture of my entryway in the previous blog post. I won't post it again, but I do have some pictures of outside that you may like! They fit the foyers/entryways blog because they are of the front and back porches :) Just bear with me here!

This is the walkway to the front door. BORING! I know.

Here is the front porch (the part that makes this blog qualify for show us where you live) :)

This is the side of the house. I worked really hard planting those flowers as bulbs, mulching and watering. As you can see there are no blooms yet. The flowers don't appreciate my work evidently! There is one that is starting to bloom and I am way too excited about it! I check it everyday. haha

Final picture. This is the back patio. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to keep that hanging basket to the left of the doors alive! I think it dies and comes back to life once a week! The one on the right is incredibly easy though. Do we ever sit on the Adirondack chair or at the bistro table? No! Billy can't stand to be hot so we are inside dwellers. I make it outside every week for a few hours, but not near as much as I'd like!




So that's my revised tour of the entryways/foyers. If you really did want to see a picture of my entryway, you should look at my previous blog post. Not that it is anything to blog about, but I thought you should have the option! :) This post completes the tour of the Duncan home. I left off Billy's comic book room because who wants to see that, right? As well as our master bath. I actually really like our master bath, but for some reason I just didn't get a picture on here. I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

The Duncan home

Our past few days in a nut-shell: 4th of July weekend we went to cookouts at our families' homes and watched fireworks from our back patio. On Monday Billy's back left tire had a blow-out. He was shaken up, but everything worked out fine. Billy's sister Tiffany was in a bad wreck. We thanked God that no one was hurt! She was majorly shaken up, much more than Billy with his flat tire! Other than those events, we've been working and hanging out at the house with Laney!


Speaking of the house, I finally took some updated pictures AND I uploaded them on my computer. I know. The stars have aligned and you bloggers now get a tour of my home. It's not even Kelly's show us where you live Friday! Lucky you! :)

Welcome to our home!
This is the view from the front door. Straight ahead is the kitchen.
Our kitchen is red and I am just in love! The island was made by Billy's uncle. We are borrowing it from Billy's mom, Vicky. It looks perfect in there. The sign above the stove says: Cherish life's simple pleasures. The small one right above the stove says: I kiss better than I cook ;)
This is the view from standing near the island in the previous picture. We found the painting at Kirkland's just a few months ago. I had been searching for something to go on this wall, and finally found something I was happy with! The room down the stairs is the family room where we spend most of our time.
BIG couch and BIG TV. Worth every penny! The chest behind the couch was a wedding gift from my father. We store blankets in there. Trust me, if you visit you'll need one! ha
Here is my lovely piano in the nook beside the stairs in the family room. Come over and I'll play you a tune while you lounge under a blankie!

Here is the bathroom off the family room. Billy, myself and Billy's mom installed the vanity ourselves!
This is our workout room that is decorated UK and TN. My side is the UK and Billy is the TN. Notice the valance made by the one and only Vicky Duncan :) Rachel, I know you love at least half of this room!

This is the view of the top of the stairs. The door to the right is our master bedroom. I won't post pics of that since I did on a previous post. To the left are the other two bedrooms.
Here is Laney lounging in the guest bedroom.
This is the bathroom at the top of the stairs. It's the same color as the one downstairs, which I would like to change! Billy isn't so fond of the idea... we'll see.
Last but not least is our beautiful dining room. It's so pretty I'm afraid to eat in there! The floor was recently installed by Billy's uncle. We got the table and chairs at Ashley Furniture and the curtains from Pier 1. I love everything about this room!

Well folks, that's all for now. I took pictures outside of my flowers, but I'll save that for another post! This one is getting a little lengthy. I hope you all enjoyed your virtual tour of the Duncan home. Head on over and I'll give you a real tour. Maybe I'll even fix some margaritas!

Kings Island and naps

So here it is, 9:15pm, dark outside... on a FRIDAY. A show us where you live Friday of yards/garages. I don't have a garage, and now my yard is cloaked in darkness! I do have a basement, but who wants to see that? Anyway, I missed show us where you live Friday and I'm bummed! The reason I missed it is because I have been napping :) Yesterday Billy and I went to Kings Island along with my Auntie and sister, Morgan. We also ran into my mom and sisters, Leah and Kayla who also ventured to the park that day! Small world! We were in the park from 10am-10pm and rode the. whole. time. It did not rain one time, although we saw it coming down very hard from the top of a coaster. I'm pretty sure the temperature never reached 80, and I did not sunburn in the slightest! Now, it was a little crowded, but with weather like that the lines did not seem that bad.




All this Kings Island talk brings me to my next topic: the new coaster, Diamondback. It. Was. A-MAZ-ING! The seats are designed so each rider feels like they are on the edge. There is also not a lot else obstructing your view. You sit in a high back chair and a bar thing closes over your lap. Basically it feels like you could fall out. Oh, and I didn't mention that your feet don't reach the floor! You feel weightless if you can get to that point past the sheer terror! ha Here is a picture of the seats:
The first drop of this coaster is crazy scary. Not to mention the ride up to this drop. I believe it was 215 feet or something like that. It made all the other coasters there seem like kiddie rides! Here's the drop:
At the end of the coaster it sprays up water at the back of the coaster. We even rode in the very back on one of our three trips and did not get wet. It does create a mist on the walkways around the ride, which I'm sure will be much appreciated on those super hot days! Here is a picture of the spray:
Pretty cool, huh? We were quite impressed! I urge everybody to go ride this ride. We rode it three times and I would have ridden it again, but it was time for the rides to shut down when we got off!




Today I took Laney to the vet for her one year shots. We were supposed to meet Crystal, Jordan and the little one on the way at a Red's game, but we were just way too tired! We will definitely go up there for a game soon though. We were bummed that we didn't feel like going. We even watched some of the game on TV (which I never do!) We did make it out of the house to walk around the flea market at the Fair and Expo Center, but we both napped afterwards :)




Well bloggers, since I have been napping I now have energy to get into something! Tomorrow is filled with cook-outs and 4th of July celebrating. I hope you all have a happy 4th!