Wedding Photos

We've been married an entire weekend now. We wonder when it begins to set in.

I've put photos from our wedding on our new Flickr account, which you can visit at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bksandrow/

We're Married!

We did it! We're officially married!!! It was sweet, simple, and more than we could've ever asked for. We're so thrilled to finally be husband and wife. We want to thank everyone for all the love and support they've given us. Stay tuned for posts that will now deal with our lives as newlyweds. We're ready to face the rest of our lives together.

With love,

Ben & Kristin Sandrowitz

Married November 6, 2009

PS - We'll post more photos from today in the next few days for everyone to see.

November 6, 2009

Thanks to everyone who've shown support our decision. It was definitely a tough one to make, and I've had a particularly hard time swallowing it. I still have to keep reminding myself this is for the best everytime I start to get upset over it. I'm getting a little choked up just writing about it. Hey, I'm a girl, it's not easy to give up your dream wedding!

We're getting married on November 6th, in just a little over 2 weeks! As sad as I am about cancelling our big wedding, I'm thrilled to be marrying Ben, regardless of how it's done. The Clerk of Court we're getting married at happens to be right across the street from our favorite coffee lounge, so we'll be going over there afterwards to have coffee and lunch with whoever would like to join in the celebration.

It's not set in stone, but we are thinking about having our "formal" wedding next November around our 1st anniversary. Possibly Thanksgiving weekend. We'll see, because it's just an idea for now.

I'll be going to USF next semester to start working on my Bachelor's in Social Work. It's crazy to think I finally know what I want to do the rest of my life and that the end of undergrad is in the not-too-distant future. It's probably a blessing though that it's taking me longer than the traditional 4 years out of high school to complete college, since a lot of the college graduates in my generation have become "boomerangers". Hopefully when I'm done, getting a job is going to be an easier task.

The trip to Cleveland was a nice change in weather for the weekend. I did not want to go back to a humid 92 degrees! Adrienne and Nick's wedding was beautiful as well. Congratulations to you both! :)

Our next trip to areas not so hot and humid will be Thanksgiving in Virginia with Ben's family. I love cold weather. I can't stress that enough.

I'll end this post now before it gets too long. I have to start dinner.

Kristin

Big Announcement

We've decided to postpone our wedding. We are still getting married, and actually getting married sooner than our original wedding date. It's just with this economy and our current job situation, it's important for us to have as much financial comfort as possible at the start of our marriage. For us, this means sacrificing the money we would be spending on our wedding. We will have a ceremony and reception for our family and friends at a later date when we are in a better place financially.
We don't have a date for our marriage, but it'll probably be November, and it'll just be a low-key affair with a couple people at city hall.

Our decision also means we'll be able to get our own apartment back in St. Petersburg, which we will be moving into next week.

We want to thank you all for your love and support, and we hope you'll understand our decision.

- Kristin & Ben

Busy, busy, busy...

We've got our photographer! She's an awesome lady who offered a really sweet package. It includes an engagement photo session. We'll be taking pictures at a park and out at the beach on September 26th (more 26's!).

Invitations will be going out as soon as this week.

We've got a busy month-and-a-half ahead of us. Rosh Hashanah is September 19th-20th, and Yom Kippur is September 28th. We start moving into our new house the beginning of October. We'll be flying to Cleveland, Ohio on October 9th for Ben's cousin Adrienne's wedding on the 10th, and flying back home on the 11th. Midterms on the 15th. My mom and Aunt Pam are throwing me a bridal shower on the 18th. And, my maid of honor's due date is the 29th. I'm sure there are other things we have to do that I can't remember at the top of my head.

Photographers, Vows, & Invitations

Like Ben said in the last post, we lost our photographer (looong story). It was a really stressful snag because we're only 4 months out from our wedding that occurs the day after Christmas, so how in the world were we gonna find someone available and in our budget? Luckily, we have found a few photographers who are available with amazing portfolios and under $1000. So, we'll make a final decision this week about who to go with, we just want to meet with all of them and figure out who we'd like to go with.

We're meeting with our officiant this Saturday up in Orlando, so we've been working on what we'll be doing in the ceremony. We're making it our own while adding some tradition to it as well. We've been working on vow writing, and actually found vows that fit perfectly for us. We just did a little editing to our liking, but they're there! Aside from us and our officiant, it'll be kept secret until our wedding day. It's exciting to know what we'll be saying to each other on the day!

I was planning on completely designing and making the invitations myself, but I found an invitation kit that I absolutely fell in love with. I did like the idea of being creative, but it'll make things easier on me now that school has started and I've gotten busier. For weddings during the holiday season, invitations are suppose to go out 3 months in advance, so I plan to have them all mailed out before September 26th. So, I'll begin working on those and start sending them out within a month from now.

We're getting closer!!

-Kristin

wedding update

Ben's finally writing a post on here. My thumb is fine enough and I had another job interview for teaching today. But, I really just want to write on the wedding. Things are going okay just not perfect. We were worried for a few weeks because we couldn't reach our officiant but it's okay now. We're meeting with him on the 29th in Orlando to discuss issues. Now, the new problem is that we lost our photographer yesterday and have to now hire someone. I didn't realize just how freaking expensive photographers could be. To get the photos done properly will cost, it seems, over $1000. We've contacted a few already to see what we can find and like. Also, our house is almost done and we have a walk through mid-September. I think October is going to be fun now. First weekend- move-in; second weekend- my cousin Adrienne's wedding in Cleveland; third weekend- the bridal shower.

Baby Brendan & Ben's Black Thumb

My MOH, best friend, and "adopted" sister, Sarah, is expecting her first child, a boy to be named Brendan, on October 29, 2009.  I am absolutely excited, because this will be like gaining a nephew to me!  I've known Sarah 18 years, and we've gone through so much together and now we are both about to have big events happen in our lives.  I can't wait to be there!

Sarah recently moved up to Gainesville.  I decided this past weekend to go and see her.  So, Friday night, I decided to go on a shopping spree for the baby.  I bought a ton of cute clothes, a baby sling, a bouncer, some pacifiers, a good quality bottle, and industrial size boxes of diapers and baby wipes.  All for $109.  Gotta love Wal-Mart!

Ben and I drove up Saturday morning, and stayed the night.  We enjoyed some good southern hospitality, courtesy of Sarah's grandmother, who is like a surrogate grandma to me.  We went to the movies and saw "Julie & Julia"...didn't like it at all.  There were tons of older folk there who were constantly laughing, and we didn't understand what was so funny.  Everyone we've talked to about the movie says that it's because we've never watched the real Julia Child, so we wouldn't have understood the humor.  I'm happy with my modern-day chefs on television, because Julia Child seemed to be really uptight and unappreciative of her fans.

That night, Ben managed to slam his thumb in Sarah's car door, causing it to turn black under the nail.  I can empathize greatly.  I had a real huge one in my thumb last year as well, and they are absolutely painful.  The night we got back from Gainesville, we ended up going and having a hole burned into the nail to relieve the pressure from the hematoma.  It looks so much better now, but I'm pretty certain the nail is gonna fall off.  Looks like we'll be strategically covering that thumb in our wedding pictures!  For now, I'm on his butt reminding him to periodically put ice on it and soak it in Epsom salt.

I have a job interview tomorrow night!  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

We're both registered for the fall semester.  We're both taking 2 classes.  I decided to go part time because I felt it was really important for me to work full time to help support our new little family.  Ben will be substitute teaching on a daily basis up in Pinellas County until he's able to find a full-time teaching job.  He's also only 4 classes away from receiving his Master's in Social Studies Education for USF.  I am hoping to transfer to USF in the Spring to begin working on my core courses to get my Bachelor's in Social Work.  It's been taking me so long in school because it's been difficult for me to settle on a major, but I've discovered multiple possibilities with a degree in social work that I love to pursue as a career, so I've FINALLY found my calling!  Well, I believe my biggest calling is to be a mother, but that's a whole other story!

 

July Update

I figured it was probably time for an update, but there's really not much to update on!  All the big wedding details are pretty much taken care of, so it's just a matter of going along and get all the small stuff together the next 5 months until the big day is here!

There will be so much more posting as bigger things start happening, and as we draw closer to December 26th.  We have two big trips coming up (Ben's cousin's wedding in Ohio in October & traveling for Thanksgiving), my MOH will be giving birth to a baby boy around Halloween, and we'll both be going back to school this fall and, with a bit of luck, landing jobs soon.  Gotta love this economy....NOT!

I know I have a bridal shower coming up, but since it's my mom's brainstorm, I don't know much about it other than it's probably going to be Labor Day weekend.   As soon as she gets back from vacation with my dad, I'm giving her a list of addresses of all the women I want to invite.  It should be fun.  No, there will be no straws shaped like specific male body parts.  I realize bridal showers are mostly about novelty gifts and embarrassing me with suggestive stuff, but I draw the line at the straws!

Looks like I update more than I expected!

No worries, this blog will get nice and used.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll get Ben to write here!

Much love,

Kristin

Update

Besides school and being on the job hunt, not much has been up with us. We've gotten a lot of the major wedding planning all done with, and all that's left pretty much is smaller details that don't need to be taken care of until we get closer to the big day. We're getting to it, aren't we? 6 months!

We're getting ready to move out of our apartment in St. Petersburg and down to my parents' home in Bradenton until our house is finished in October. I'm going to miss living back in my hometown, but I can't wait for our house to be done so we can turn it into our home! It also makes me think about the future and what kind of places we'll live in after we've outgrown our starter home, it's all really exciting.

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on us. Hope everyone is well!

Ben's 28th Birthday

Ben's 28th birthday was yesterday! This past weekend to celebrate, we decided to go down to Miami and see the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Florida Marlins game. Ben is a HUGE Rays fan! I'd never been to Dolphin Stadium (now Land Shark Stadium) before, and I'd grown up on cheering for the Miami Dolphins, so that was cool to see. I think the Dolphins may be why one of my favorite colors is teal. Funny thing was, there were a ton of Rays fans! We also got our section to do the Tampa Bay chant, and it was just too funny that we took over the Marlins territory. Rays won 10-3!

We stayed Saturday night at Don Shula's hotel. They have memory foam mattresses! They are just soooo nice to sink into after a long day of driving and a baseball game. Sunday we went down to South Beach and visited a museum and the Holocaust Memorial, and then headed back home. It was a short, but awesome road trip to celebrate Ben's last birthday as a single man.

By the way, Happy Memorial Day!

Ceremony Site & The Number 26

On Saturday, we officially booked our ceremony site. We will be getting married at Mixon Fruit Farms on December 26th at 10:00am. Early wedding!!! The place has a gazebo with gorgeous flowers all over the place, and a pond with a waterfall behind it. It'll be gorgeous! You can check out the place at www.mixonevents.com.

I've noticed recently that the number 26 appears in a lot of strange coincidences.

-We're getting married on December 26th.
-Mixon Fruit Farms is on 26th Avenue East.
-My married name (Kristin Elizabeth Sandrowitz) has 26 letters.
-My mother and paternal grandmother are born on June 26th.
-I have a cousin born on September 26th.
-I have a cousin born on January 26th.
-Thanksgiving this year falls on November 26th, a day to remember what you're thankful for.
-We have a wedding party of 6, the 2 of us + the 6 of them.

It's meant to be. :)

Flowers

Orchids, orchids, and more orchids!  I love orchids, my favorite are the green cymbidiums.  Since light green is one of our colors, they're perfect!  So, this is what we've decided on for flowers.  

BRIDE'S BOUQUET: green cymbidium orchids, white roses, and hypercium berries

BRIDESMAIDS' BOUQUETS: white cymbidium orchids

GROOM'S BOUTONNIERE: green cymbidium orchids

GROOMSMENS' BOUTONNIERES: white cymbidium orchid

Colors & Wedding Party

For those interested in knowing, our wedding colors are light green & sky blue.

WEDDING PARTY

Maid of Honor: Sarah Tyler
Bridesmaids: Jennifer Frey & Kera Phillips

Best Man: Brigham Robst
Groomsmen: John Lawson & TBD

Flowergirl/s: TBD
Ring Bearer/s: TBD

My girls have sky blue dresses, all a different style. My MOH's dress is long and the other two are knee length.

That is all for now. I actually have a ton of stuff I could post here, I just have to sort through it so I can group everything together so it's easy to find in the archives.

Wedding Registries

We are registered at the following places:

Bed, Bath, & Beyond
Target
Macy's

Forgive me for not posting links, I haven't gotten the hang of Blogger yet and it's rules regarding HTML. I'll come back and change it when I do.

Introduction Post

Hi everyone! Welcome to our blog! We decided to start this blog as a way to keep in touch and keep everyone updated on how the wedding planning is coming along. After our wedding, we'll use this as our blog to keep everyone updated on what's going on with our lives as newlyweds, and as we progress to different stages in our marriage.

Our wedding is December 26, 2009 in Bradenton, Florida. We're planning on having the ceremony & reception at two different locations (we're still waiting to confirm our ceremony site). They are not far from each other, but you will need a car. So, if you are an out-of-town guest, make sure you know how you plan to get around, and ask us if you need assistance. Invitations will be going out around mid-late October, and we'll include addresses and directions for you.

We love you all and can't wait to see you at our wedding!

Kristin & Ben