Menorca Circa. 1999

If all goes well with my husband’s visa he should be home in two weeks! We want to take a nice vacation to celebrate and are trying to decide where we want to go.

Ger was going through old family photos and came across these amazing ones from a trip to Menorca. Looks like my kind of place!

images via The Power Family Collection

Well hello there Monday. It’s nice to see you again. I have only one day of work this week then it is off to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my family. This holiday week will be filled with lots of good food, shopping, photography experiments and time visiting friends and family.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I feel that it offers the best food spread…turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie and more. I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving in many years so as you can imagine, I’m over the moon. Ger is finishing up his music mixes for the 10 hour car ride and I am getting us all packed and ready.  In 24 hours we’ll be well on our way. Say hi if you see us! Is anyone else excited to be driving home for the holidays?

Well hello there Monday. It’s nice to see you again.

I have only one day of work this week then it is off to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my family.

This holiday week will be filled with lots of good food, shopping, photography experiments and time visiting friends and family. 

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I feel that it offers the best food spread…turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pie and more. I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving in many years so as you can imagine, I’m over the moon.

Ger is finishing up his music mixes for the 10 hour car ride and I am getting us all packed and ready.  In 24 hours we’ll be well on our way. Say hi if you see us!

Is anyone else excited to be driving home for the holidays?

(Source: ninestoriesss)

(day before the wedding) quealy’s & pints!

After my father totaled our car (more on that later) we all were in need of a couple pints! The celebrations began at Quealy’s located in the central square of Dungarvan. This bistro-style pub was the perfect place for our rehearsal dinner.

We gathered our closest family and friends for a night out before the big day. It was a chance for both of our families to come together and get to know each other better. Being a family across two countries, it’s very rare to have everyone together at once and important for us to make it special when it does happen.

Much of the conversation revolved around wedding day preparations, catching up with old friends and quite frankly, who needed their next pint.

Although wedding day stresses were on our minds, we had a brilliant time and so excited for what was about to happen the next day.

photographs via personal collection

How did you celebrate the day before your wedding? Did it involve “international” families coming together like it did for us?

hang on little tomato

via it’s mary ruffle 

Oh boy, where do I start?  It’s been a bit of a rocky road for me the last couple of weeks.

We found out earlier this month that my mother-in-law who is struggling with ovarian cancer isn’t doing well and that things do not look good. There was no debate, we took the first flight out to Ireland and didn’t look back. Our days were spent at the hospital trying to be as comforting as we could.  As you can imagine, it wasn’t easy. It never is.

Here we are two months before the wedding and there is a good chance that she won’t be there. So many thoughts flooded my mind. How do I show my support? Will my husband be able to enjoy our wedding day without his mom? What is the right thing to do? Should we continue with the wedding or cancel everything? It has been incredibly overwhelming. 

Isabel did make it very clear to us to continue on with the wedding. If only it were that easy. 

From afar I am providing loving support to my husband, Isabel and his family.  

Next week…The power of immigration and why my husband can’t come home for six months.

via personal collection

Our Wedding: Family Love

The best part of our wedding in Pennsylvania was having my family there.

Knowing only a handful will be able to travel over to Ireland for our traditional wedding, it made me feel great that they were able to be apart everything.

We didn’t need dancing or music, just good conversation and great company.

Combining the holiday season and our wedding made sense to us.  Many family and friends were in town and able to stay an extra day so they were able to attend.

The best part of the day by far was sharing the day with my family and our friends.  Nothing else seemed to matter at that point.  We were there, they were there and we were all together.

all images are from my personal collection

This week is all about our reception decor!

The best part about getting married around the holidays is the instantaneous decor. Everything is just so beautiful with the beautiful twinkly lights, fresh pine and glowing bulbs.

Since we were busy moving and preparing all the details for our wedding in Ireland, my mom really took charge in putting everything together for us.  She did such a wonderful job!

I was against favors of any kind so instead, we printed off our engagement photos for guests to take.  This went over really well and everyone loved the idea.

The place cards were just so cool.  They were made out of different types of scrapbooking paper [completely inexpensive yet a big impact!]  We were able to coordinate designs with menu options so the servers would know which entree to serve.

I loved the collection of our old family photos. This was a great conversation piece and meant a lot to us.  We included both of our families. It’s sweet to think that one day we’ll be part of that collection.

Our centerpieces consisted of gold chargers, pillar candles and gold and cream Christmas bulbs and fresh pine.  They were so easy to put together.  I am a huge advocate of candles at weddings.  The best part however was the fresh pine that my dad hand cut the morning of our wedding.

Lastly, my beloved cake! I’m a cake girl, that’s for sure.  More importantly, I’m a “Hermitage Bakery” girl.  Hermitage Bakery is a local bakery with the absolute best cake.  I was a little sad at first when I thought I wouldn’t be able to have Hermitage Bakery cake at my wedding but when we decided to have a reception in Pennsylvania, they were first on our list to call. We used the cake topper that both my mom and grandmother used at their wedding.

When you step back and look at everything, you see that it’s just “stuff.”  But when you really look at it, you see the family connections (my dad picking the pine, my grandmother offering her cake topper, my mom making the place cards…) Those are the moments that “stuff” turns into special somethings.  It gives it meaning.

Next week, more about cake and our family!

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