Our Wedding Photographer

The very first thing Kirsten and I decided on after we got engaged (after the venue of course) was our photographer. Anybody that knows Kirsten knows she loves photography. Finding a great photographer was a must for us to have a great wedding. Luckily it didn't take us long to find one the perfect photographer...photographers.

Yup, we have two of them. We met with Jennifer and Jeff from f7 photography back in March. We scheduled a 1 1/2 hour meeting with them but ended up staying past 3 hours before we knew we were late to meet friends. That was a sign these were the right photographers. Back in August we shot our engagement photos with them. The photos turned out great. Here is my favorite one :-).

We found a wedding cake!!!

One of the more difficult task during the wedding planning process was deciding on a cake. We've been to several cake places and only liked two of them. The first, which I can't remember the name, was very good but just too damn expensive. The second one we finally decided on after visiting twice Celebrity Cakes in Tacoma, WA was the winner. Their cake was simply amazing and a little much cheaper than the first place. This is the last major thing to get planned and boy am I stoked to finally find a place we liked. I was actually getting sick of cake tastings.

*Not the actual cake maker.

Wedding Location & Hotel

Just wanted to share with everyone where I wedding is located along with the hotel. The wedding will be held at Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia, WA. Also note that since this is a golf course, proper attire is required, meaning no denim (jeans) allowed.

Secondly the hotel we are staying at is called Ramada Inn (was Ameritel Inn) in Olympia. We have about 60 rooms reserved for those of you that would like to stay. More details will be coming in your invitations.

Building a Washer & Dryer Stand

Today I finally finished my washer/dryer stand that Kirsten wanted. We bought front loading LG washer & dryer that have optional pedestals. However, they cost $200 each. We really wanted them elevated a little so I decided to build a stand. I bought all the wood from Home Depot and luckily got them to cut it to size for free. Unfortunately I measured incorrectly and had to cut an additional 2 inches off everything. On the good side I finally got to use all my power tools again that I haven't used in 2+ years living in an apartment. I went right to down cutting 2x6's and plywood on Monday. Thursday I finally got back to the house to finish the project as was able to get it all put together relatively level :-).

Next was to put on the vinyl 12"x12" flooring. I originally planned to prime and paint the stand but due to time constraints I had to move to vinyl flooring. Bright and early Thursday I went to Home Depot (like the 10th time this week) to pick up the flooring. Luckily I remember from HGTV that you can buy self adhesive vinyl blocks. And the best part is that they are cheap, like $.29 each. I bought a whole box for little less than $14. Applying them to the stand was pretty easy on the top where the washer and dryer are, but the front is a completely different story. I had to keep putting them on and holding them there to later come back and find out the fell off. As of today I still don¡¦t have them on well. I will have to go back and put new ones on and put something there to hold them in place for a little bit.

About an hour after I finished Best Buy was there to deliver the appliances. The stand worked out perfectly when they started both up (no wobbling)! Now on to the next home project.

We bought a house!!!

Many of you already know but Kirsten and I bought a house and Friday (2/15) we got the keys. So everything is now official. It was a very exciting and stressful time, but we made it through. For those of you that don't know we bought a 4 bedroom, 2.25 bathroom house in Duvall, WA. It is a very nice house on .33 acres.

As soon as we got the keys we bought a new washer, dryer and fridge (all LG) then went straight to the house. Once we got to the house we did a quick tour with Amy (Kirsten's good friend) and then started right to work. We had to prep for our paint party the next day. We got there a little after 9pm and left at 12:30am. We had all the rooms pretty much prep'd.

Saturday morning we headed to the house and started painting. We had a few folks over helping which was nice as it would have taken us forever to finish. Luckily with our friends we were all done by Sunday afternoon.

Next up is to build a stand for the washer & dryer.

Redmond Five's first win!

Last night the Redmond Five beat Boxwave Tidalwave 61-38. It was our first win in the Redmond Rec Men's Basketball League. It only took us 1 1/5 seasons. Congrats Team!

The MVP of the game was Jeff Armstrong who had at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.