Post Wedding Day Brunch

Our wedding day was of course a very special day for Zac and I but it was also one of the most fun days as well. From start to finish we had a blast. We were both pretty worried that due to the amount of pictures we needed to participate in as well as the planned activities (cake cutting, bouquet and garter tosses, etc.) that we would feel pulled in all directions. We were thankful that although we needed to be in certain places at certain times we also had PLENTY of time to mingle with our guests, get our dance on and have an all around great evening. By the time we left at the end of the night we were exhausted.

The following morning we left our hotel and headed back to our house where our bridal party and families had stayed and were already setting everything up for our Cinco de Mayo post wedding day brunch. We seriously couldn't have been more grateful for all of their hard work and support. We're sure they were all pretty tired from the day before, too. Thankfully all of the decor was up and ready from our fiesta themed rehearsal dinner two nights prior. Still, there was a lot to do to get food and drinks ready for our guests. Zac's parents together with his siblings and their spouses were getting food together when we arrived. Along with muffins, bagels, and other traditional breakfast foods that Zac's dad picked up, the menu consisted of left overs from both our rehearsal and wedding dinners. It all came together to create a pretty yummy Cinco de Mayo brunch buffet. Of course it was all topped off with a full bar with beer, margaritas, champagne, and other beverages.

 By 10:00am our guests were starting to arrive. The music was going, the margarita glasses were full, and everyone was having a great time.

A few of our guests filled us in on their night after the wedding was over. It turns out that most of my coworker buddies had quite a fun after party and some of them were MIA from the brunch because they were just getting to sleep. These two strong ladies were not only wide awake but they were ready for more.

These ladies weren't the only ones getting down. Zac still had some party left in him, too!

A highlight of the day for me was visiting with this little man. This is Tyler. 

Zac's cousin Scott and his wife Amy (both in our bridal party) announced in September that they were expecting an addition to their family . (Read about it here.) They were blessed with this little guy on Sunday April 15, 2012. The girls and I were coming back from my bachelorette party in San Diego (which I'll be sure to fill you all in on later) when we got the call that Amy was in labor. By the time we go back into town Tyler had been born. I couldn't be happier to share a birthday with this adorable little guy. Just look at all that hair. Such a handsome little man!

We were so happy that the cantina was complete in time for our fiesta. The sign that Zac's parents created for the space was perfect.

The cantina gave us plenty of extra seating space for guests and everyone really seemed to enjoy hanging over by the pond.

The day was a success. We loved the additional opportunity to hang out with everyone after the wedding and continue the celebration. A lot of the special people in our lives live out of town so the time with them was pretty special as we don't often get the chance to see them. We appreciate all of them being there for thar amazing weekend!

The next adventure? Our honeymoon! Just two days later Zac and I were on a plane to Maui for a much needed ten day getaway. Can you tell that we were ready for the vacation?!

Gender Reveal

If you had a chance to peek at all of our weekly update photos in yesterday's post, you probably noticed that it was on week 21 that we announced to our family and friends that we were expecting a boy. A boy who we have named Zane Asher Chapman. We've had the names Zane and Asher planned for years though the original combination was Asher Zane. We switched the combination as Zane became our favorite over the ever popular Asher. After we decided to make the switch we discovered that our son's initials would be Z.A.C. How perfect is that?! Funny enough my husband, Zac's initials are also Z.A.C. We thought it was a great way of passing on his name without having a Zac Jr.  

Zac and I were anxious to find out what whether our little bean would be a he or a she. We were also excited to see how much our little baby had grown. Our first ultrasound was in September. At six weeks our little bean looked like...well...a bean. We weren't scheduled to have another ultrasound until week twenty so we had plenty of time for our excitement to build. Our appointment was scheduled for December 31st and when we saw this beautiful little profile image appear on the screen we knew we couldn't have asked for a better way to end 2012.

Always eager to throw a party, Zac and I decided that we would make the reveal of our baby's gender a big deal. Since we had announced our good news at twelve weeks, we had eight weeks of friends and family asking us if we knew what we were having yet. We knew they would all be just as excited to hear the news as we were so we whipped up this gender reveal party invitation and got to work on creating a fun night for everyone.

Since we were throwing the party at our home, the decorating began a few days before the party. Days before we even knew the gender ourselves, pink and blue could be seen everywhere. In our family room we decorated the mantel with streamers and ribbon. We've had names picked out for either gender for years. All of our boy names begin with 'Z' and all of our girl names begin with 'C' which is why we displayed the giant carboard letters from our wedding above the fireplace.

After we found out the gender we added a clothesline to the mantel from which we hung the 3D ultrasound pictures. Below the letter 'C' we hung an adorable newborn floral dress and below the 'Z' hung the cutest little necktie. We also decided to display the baby Toms I used to announce our new addition to Zac at our Mommy and Daddy to be breakfast.

In the kitchen, mason jar cups were decorated with blue ribbon and pink glittery stir sticks. We had a bunch of gray striped straws left over from our wedding that completed the drink display. In addition to cold beverages like lemonade, iced tea, and an assortment of specialty sodas that we picked up from BevMo!, we also had coffee and hot chocolate stations. (After all, it was the beginning of January.) We picked up a few pizzas from California Pizza Kitchen in case people wanted a little something to eat, but the majority of our spread was dessert. A sweets table was filled with cookies, strawberry shortcake kabobs, cakepops, brownies, fruit, and chocolate candies.

We set up a small table near our front door with a small chalkboard for voting. Most of the night the votes were tied up. Every time someone came to vote for girl another person wasn't far behind with a boy vote. In the small jars in front of the sign were blue and pink ribbons that my mom had put together. Once you placed your vote you could take a ribbon pin to wear for the night to share your vote with others. We also decided to set out a hashtag sign for all of those who wished to share photos on Instagram so that we could have an easier time finding them later. (Our hashtag was #lilbabychapman.)

Throughout my pregnancy, Zac and I were keeping track of old wives tales to see if we could predict the gender of our little one. As you can see from the chalkboard display below, most of the signs pointed to girl. They couldn't have been more wrong.

I worked on a few banners for the party made from burlap and glitter cardstock letters. I love the way those two elements look together. The glitter really stands out next to the burlap.

The first was a banner that said "Sweet Baby" and was displayed in front of the dessert table in our dining room. We covered the dining room window with streamers and tissue paper pom poms which we thought made a beautiful backdrop for the main stage of the event.

The other banner said "Boy or Girl" and was hung along with a few pendant banners in an oversized frame that Zac created. We hung it over our couch in our main living room. We really wanted people to feel free to mingle from room to room on our entire downstairs level.

We had looked online at several different ways to make the big reveal (releasing balloons, giving everyone individual cupcakes with colored frosting inside, a pinata filled with colored tissue paper and candy) and in the end thought that cutting one giant cake was the way to go. While I was at work Zac baked the reveal cake. He used food coloring to color the vanilla cake inside then covered it with frosting and an even number of blue and pink mini dollops. On top of the cake he placed a small pink and blue paper banner that I had created a few days prior.

Once everyone had arrived we made sure to get a picture of the two teams before making the big announcement.

Here is team blue:

And team pink:

Since Zac and I already knew the gender of our little one, we thought that it would be fun to let the grandmas cut the cake. It was even more fun to watch because they had each voted differently. My mom was on team pink and Zac's mom was on team blue.

The reactions were priceless as they cut the corner to reveal six layers of blue cake inside.

Isn't that such a pretty cake inside. My husband does good work!

Zac and I were so happy to share the news that we were expecting a son. Though we only had to keep the secret for two days it was killing us not to say Zane's name or even say "he". We found ourselves avoiding people as much as possible as not to make a slip.

Once the reveal was made, I grabbed the ultrasound pictures to show everyone. When the ultrasound technician had finished taking measurements and said that she was going to show us the gender we didn't have to wait long to tell. It became quite clear that we were expecting a little he.

Team Blue was giddy with excitement!

In Town Bachelorette Party

Friday night was my in town bachelorette party. The girls and I hit up Club Habanos for a laid back, casual night of drinking and dancing. I had an absolute blast!

A few of us met up at Samantha's place to get ready before heading out to Habanos.

I rode with my girl Danielle, who couldn't resist getting a "car pic" of us on our way.

So many of my wonderful girls came out that night to share a drink and get a little crazy on the dance floor. It was so sweet to see new faces show up at our table. A big thank you to everyone who was able to make it out!

Miss Samantha had a fantastic time!

I was excited to see that another soon to be bride, Holly, (part of team Bridey) was able to come out. She's going to be a Mrs. in less than a week!!!!

My friend Victoria from work was thrilled to have a night out. Mama just had baby number three only 4 weeks ago! (She looks fantastic doesn't she?!) My poor little size A's were a wee bit envious of her new found double D's. :P

Tiana and I have been friends since November of 2003 when I got hired at Applebee's. When I saw her come in the door at Habanos on Friday, I knew it was going to be a good night. Everyone has one of those friends in their life who are so fun, so sweet, and with whom you can be yourself around. With Tiana it doesn't matter how much time has gone by since the last time we've seen each other, we just fall right back into place. I love this girl and she's stuck with me for life!

Miss Leena! I love when I get to hang out with Leena. She's one of the greatest friendships I've had come out of working my current job.

Our table was full of drinks all night long and everyone was having a good time.

Being the bride and wearing a veil all night will certainly get you some attention and shots kept showing up at our table. My girl Tiana was all about the BJ shots. All the whipped cream and no hands....

...well, what can I say? It was a good night!

Thanks again to all of you wonderful ladies who came out and made Friday night so much fun! I love you all.



Our Engagement Dinner

Back in February, I got an email from Sarah (Zac's sister and my maid of honor) saying that she wanted to put together a little dinner for Zac and I to celebrate our engagement. She wanted to know who we wanted to invite so that she could start getting her plans in order. It was so sweet of her and we were very excited to get together with everyone and enjoy a special night of celebration.

After thanking Sarah for the offer we sent her a list of people that we wanted to include in the event. We decided to keep it small, only inviting our immediate families and their significant others, grandparents, and the bridal party. It wasn't that we wanted to exclude anyone, it was just that the event could so easily snowball into a large party rather than a quaint dinner. We wanted to avoid taking advantage of Sarah's generosity and having a preview of the wedding reception unfold on the patio of the restaurant. Plus, as everyone lives in different cities and have all been busy with their own things, we thought that keeping the dinner small would give us a great opportunity to catch up with close family and friends.

It was decided that the dinner would take place the weekend of my graduation. The families would already be in town for the graduation ceremony and the girls would certainly be in town for the dress shopping adventure. It seemed to be a perfect time to plan the dinner, rather than asking everyone to make a second trip out at another time. (It definitely made for a fun filled weekend.) We chose to have the dinner on the patio at Daily Grill (which will most likely be the site of our rehearsal dinner as well). Zac and I just love the atmosphere of the restuarant, the food is fantastic, and as an added bonus it is right down the street from our house. So Sarah ran with these details and put together a spectacular dinner celebration...all from a state away.

Two months after the first emails were exchanged regarding the dinner, Zac and I received this invitation in the mail. Miss Sarah had created the invitation all on her own. The yellow flowers were hand drawn. Sarah had emailed us about a dozen different designs that she had come up with for the invitation and asked us to pick our favorite. We couldn't believe how much work she was putting into this dinner. I mean seriously, how sweet is it of her to create the stationary for the invitations?!

Sarah's creation! *Excuse the little blurred box by Sarah's name.

It was not part of her design, I just thought that she would appreciate it if

we blocked her phone number from being spread all over the internet.*

So on Friday May 20th, just hours after saying yes to the perfect dress, it was time to head over to Daily Grill for the dinner. Zac's family had been staying at our house the whole week and while we were getting ready Zac and I noticed that the house got more and more quiet as people left to head over to the restaurant early. When Zac and I arrived to the restaurant we saw all the hard work that went into this dinner. The tables were decorated with vases of flowers (yellow and white daisies that looked so beautiful we think we may have to use the idea for our centerpieces at the wedding), candles, and mini yellow and white tissue paper pom poms. The girls had baked and decorated cupcakes (red velvet and lemon) that were on display by the table, and Sarah had bottles of champagne chilling in ice buckets. To go along with the champagne, my mom had added the ribbon and flowers that she used on the wedding bells to the stems of champagne flutes and wine glasses that she put on the table for each guest. It looked beautiful and we were (still are) so amazed by the work that everyone did to make this dinner special.

Amanda putting the final touches on the table.

After hugging everyone and taking a bunch of pictures, we all settled into our seats and Sarah opened the night with a few words. Her speech included words of thank you to everyone who came out that evening to celebrate...

...when she started talking about the relationship that Zac and I have and how she views the two of us together, the waterworks started and they were hard to turn off. It was such a sweet speech and I quickly transformed from a laughing and smiling Teeny to this hot mess:

Sarah is of course Zac's sister, but over the last 6 years she's become a sister to me, too. No one has to remind me how lucky I am. Not only did I land myself an amazing, sweet, charming, wonderful man, but I also got an incredibly special sister in law out of the deal, too.

The night went off without a hitch. Sarah provided the group with a variety of delicious appetizers, the champagne was flowing, and there was never a quiet moment as everyone was happily mingling.

So enough babbling on about the night, I think these photos do a better job and expressing the good time we all had.

Me with my parents after Zac and I arrived at the restaurant.

 

Zac of course always captures the most flattering

pictures of Amanda and I before we are ready.

Being about 6'' (give or take a FOOT) shorter than Amanda,

it is no surprise that my whole body fits in this shot

while Amanda's head grazes the top of it.

The future in laws.

Zac's parents (Mark and Tammie) are on the left.

My parents (Roxanne and Abe) are on the right.

Mark and Tammie with their first grandbaby, Grayson.

Tammie is such a happy grandma.

We were happy that Zac's friend (and groomsman) Ryan was able

to make it. The night ended with the two of them rehashing some

 of their adventures and deciding that it was time to add at least

one more adventure to their list.

We were excited to see that Zac's Chapman grandparents

(his dad's parents) were able to make it to the dinner.

You might remember that we took our engagement photos

at their house just a few weeks ago. *Once we choose our three

favorites from that session I'll happily post those for all to see.*

My girls! I don't know what I would do without them!!

A more accurate representation!

My brother Michael. Easily the most generous,

selfless person I know.

Everyone enjoying the dinner/party.

Later, this will be known as 'Exhibit A'.

One big happy family....minus about 8 people. :P

Zac and I feel so lucky to have these amazing people in our lives. We had so much fun catching up with everyone and enjoying such wonderful company.

Thank you!