Making a list

So Team Moran took to the Willowbrook Mall sometime around mid December to get a picture taken with Santa. It was a 2 hour long line and like 50 dollars for the picture.

WOW!

Feeling as they both were pretty sure they were on the nice list, they opted out of the Santa idea. Instead they had someone take a picture with Chuck's phone and used that picture as the card.

Here we see Tara in a test shot, ensuring the spacing is right.

The word of the day is....

So shortly after the wedding our happy couple went with some other friends to what could only be described as a once in a life time experience. Team Moran got tickets to see Pee-Wee Herman, who was was putting on a live stage show for the first time in a million yeas!

Needless to say, this was the event to go to if you were people of the right age. Personally I think Pee-Wee is pretty timeless. Here were some of the pictures taken on that FUN day.

10/09/10 Wedding post show

We got married and it was super fun!

I think everyone had a good time. My aunt Alice Moran said, "It was
the wedding of the century." For the record aunt Alice is not actually 100 years old, so she might have been exaggerating.

We got married!

Police story: "Are you doin' something wicked?" "No siree, Jack, we're just givin' tickets"

Nothing is stopping this machine.

Practice makes perfect

I suppose the rehearsal dinner was the moment that made me realize we were really getting married in 6 days. The rehearsal was at the Madison in the Conservatory there and it went just fine. Everyone familiarized themselves with the surroundings and in the lobby they were serving some apple cider and cookies.

After finishing at the Madison we soon left and literally made a left out of the parking lot and headed down the street to lovely Madison, New Jersey to visit the Garlic Rose for the rehearsal dinner.

The pride of Finland: A quick behind the scenes look!

Some pictures of my father and I making mock versions of the escort cards.


Those are Fiskar scissors. They are made of metal forged by the gods, with precision blades so sharp they have lasted most of my life time.

Hazy memories of velour and eye shadow

I woke up in a hotel room bed and the patio door was open, but the curtain was pulled closed so the daylight wouldn't come in. I opened my eyes and walked straight out through the curtained door, on to the patio to look around. It was bright and sunny out. I looked out at the covered pool and realized this was not the hotel room I began my evening in. I quickly took a picture to know what it looks like to be confused and hung over in a hotel room. I believe I slept with my glasses on.

John Madden and Van Halen: Seating chart success

Sit down Waldo! Tara with her excellent organizational skills was able to whip up a seating chart in no time flat.


Here is one of the early John Madden inspired floor maps we used.


Here we can see Tara using a yellow highlighter.


Here is a picture of David Lee Roth in a classroom obviously on the Hot For Teacher video shoot. I believe that is Waldo sitting in the front row with his glasses off. David Lee Roth is awesome.

Choose your own adventure: The Wedding License!

So in order to get married you need a wedding license. In order to get said license, you need to have certain forms of identification. One of the more critical pieces of identification that is needed is the Social Security card. Something, I Charles Moran, have been unable to locate.

Thus begins Fridays' adventure in bureaucracy. We had a plan and we were going to stick to it, no matter what the cost. We had an appointment at 11:00 at the Montclair municipal building to meet with a nice lady who will issue us a marriage license.

Rise and shine. First part of any adventure is to pick up a side kick and to eat breakfast with them. Lisa Ann was to be that sidekick. She enjoys breakfast and also has a keen sense for bureaucracy. She also will be the witness for us when we get the license.

So breakfast.


Breakfast is always exciting, and fun as you can see from the looks on our faces. Then it was time for the Scooby Gang to take a "quick trip" to the Social Security office in Montclair. I will admit it is my own ignorance thinking that this would only take about ten minutes to do.

I was dropped off in front of the Social Security office about 10 am. I had hopes and dreams that this might be a painless process. I suggested to the girls that they go and browse some of the stores nearby while I dealt with the replacement of my Social Security card.

Around 10:45 am, I called Tara and told her that we might be running late. She contacted the lady at the Montclair municipal building and they told us they could extend our appointment to 11:30am. Plenty of time, right?

Wrong, I didn't leave until about 11:45am. Thankfully I had the documents I needed but we missed the window of opportunity to get the license. Tara at this point had disbanded the Scooby Gang, and dropped Lisa off. She also respectfully told the lady at Montclair municipal building that we were going to miss our appointment and would have to reschedule.


This event prompted me to post on Facebook, "Wedding License Fail." This garnered some of the internets attention.



What to do! I had taken the day off of work to be responsible and get these things done, and now I will have to reschedule and with everyone involved to make it work again. Oh well, Lisa said she had a nice breakfast and Tara and I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond. There was nothing we could do.

Then it happened, Tara's phone rang and our adventure was back on. We had a 1:30pm appointment with the wedding license department at Montclair municipal building. The Scooby Gang was back on the case.

So at 1:25pm we pulled into the parking lot of the municipal building, met up with Lisa and went inside.


Here I am explaining to the nice the lady that if Tara and I were related prior to being married that it would be weird, and probably kind of sad.



Lisa was the the witness to the event. To which I asked the municipal office worker if Tara and I were now in fact married. She told me we are not.



Then Tara paid the 28 dollars to make it official.


Then I tired to escape through a ladder to the roof of the building.


Truth be told, it was a fun day and everything worked out fine, thanks special shout out to Lisa for being a sport!

Like Christmas in August!

I don't know very much about bridal showers and how they work, however I do know my role. Much like Jason Statham, my role was one of a transporter. I brought the packages back to the apartment, and some back to her parents house. There were several car loads of stuff. People were very generous, I thank you all very much.


This is just the stuff we brought back home.



This rolling pin was covered in money!



This is me behind a Brita water filter.



This is a knife block that is shaped like a well ventilated person. That is the head in the picture.



Here is some of the new plates and a cupcake! Eat me!



And finally, we now have loads of wine! Drink Me!

Post Wedding Fun

HONEYMOON IS BOOKED!!!

Chuck and I were never quite sure what we were going to do for a honeymoon. It hinged on quite a few factors - money, my job situation for the fall, and the wheres and when. Also, neither of us are "beach people", so your typical (albeit beautiful and fun) honeymoon to an island isn't really in the cards for us. We have a plan to get an AWESOME honeymoon (we're keeping that under wraps for the time being.....but if luck is on our side, we may have a second honeymoon. teehee), but in the meantime, we were trying to figure out what we should do, if our original plan doesn't pan out. At first we thought we would maybe go away next summer, and just do something small and somewhat nearby for our "mini-moon" the few days after the wedding. So whenever someone asked, "Where are you going for your honeymoon?" I never had an answer, just, "Uh.....I think we're going to go away next summer when we have more money". BOR-RING!!!!!!!!!!
Then one night Chuck said that he wanted to "GO AWAY go away" after the wedding. Not just hop in the car and drive a couple of hours to some cheesy hotel in PA where we would sit in a champagne glass shaped jacuzzi. I wholeheartedly agreed. I wanted to celebrate our marriage as newlyweds, and REALLY celebrate.
It got me thinking.....our cousins Russ and Heather went to Florida for their "mini-moon" after they got married......Florida is nice in the fall.....there are TONS of things I like to do in Florida......let's see if I can work this angle. So a few nights ago, it went down like this...(note - this may not be a word for word transcript.......)

Me - Chuuuuuuuuuck.....we should really GO AWAY go away after the wedding.

Chuck - Bad ass.

Me - Ya know.....Russ and Heather went to Florida.....it would be nice to go somewhere a little bit warmer than here....

Chuck - Yeah! We'd take a plane! That's totally GOING AWAY going away!

Me - Yes!! Exactly! So.......uh.............how......would......you......feel.....about........going.....to..........*weak whisper of a voice* Disney World? (then I shrunk into myself, afraid of what he might say)

Chuck - TOTALLY!! How much does it cost?

Me - Whaaaaaaaaa??????? YOU want to go to Disney???

Chuck - Baby - I would TOTALLY go to Disney with you! I'd LOVE to go with you - you're a Disney expert! Who else would I go with? DISNEY! ALL DAY!!!!

Me - Wow!!!! AWESOME!!!! *type type type type as I immediately begin to price packages before he can back out* :0)

And here we are - a few days later, honeymoon booked!! Now, I had every intention of making this a mini-moon - 4 days - a quick in and out. But anyone who knows Disney knows that's not possible. If you take into consideration your flights in and out, you can lose almost 2 days. So our mini-moon has turned into a full fledged honeymoon - 7 days/6 nights. And it is worth every penny!

We're staying at The Boardwalk, a resort I have yet to stay in.




I already booked us two dinner reservations....One at The Boma at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. This restaurant reminds me of my stay in Kenya, and they have the most FANTASTIC buffet with TONS of vegetarian options!! <3



And the other is at Citricos - a Mediterranean inspired restaurant based out of The Grand Floridian resort. This will be our "romantic honeymoon dinner" :0)



We're also lucky because, while we're there, we can take part in Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, although Sugar Ray (my FAVORITE band in the whole wide world) is performing there the week BEFORE we come :0( We do have Air Supply and Sister Hazel to look forward to though :0) (I'm not entirely kidding here....)

So my answer to "where are going on your honeymoon?" has gone from, "uh......" to "DISNEY WORLD!!!!" We are both super excited and can't wait to keep you posted about our antics there!!!

***insert Tara and Chuck in between Mickey & Minnie***



.

Uptown Saturday Night, or Once More Before We Go

So it was the late Summer of 2010 and Tara and Chuck were going to a wedding, not their own.

Chuck and Tara start talking about music that should be played at the wedding.

"There is this awesome new song, we should totally have it played at the wedding," said Chuck.

"Oh yeah, what song is that?" Asked Tara.

"It's called 'Fuck You' by Cee Lo Green!" Chuck declared.

"Despite the catchiness of the song, we will not have that song, or the 'Shots' song played at our wedding." Tara responded.

"What about 'Run', by Ghostface featuring Jadakiss? You know I love that jam" pleaded Chuck.

"Why would you want a song about a home invasion gone wrong played at our wedding?" Tara asked in exasperation.

"It is an awesome song, but you make a valid point," conceded Chuck.

These were some of the pictures that we took while at that wedding. These are the last pictures of Chuck and Tara as single people.

Sometimes Chuck wears a tan hat.

Sometimes Chuck points at stuff that isn't there.

Sometimes Chuck looks silly.

Thumbs up at Nikki and Kevin's wedding!

omigod!!! Tara LOVES surprises!!!!!!!!

Saturday, August 21, 2010.

I thought this was going to be a typical third Saturday in August, meaning I'd be going to Eva Marie's birthday party. Eva is the daughter of Melissa, my best friend/MOH. She was born on my birthday 3 years ago, so it's not unusual for Melissa to throw her a party just over halfway through the month. Melissa emailed me a couple of months ago to let me know about the party so I could take off from work, and a couple weeks before we got the invite. So I got some cute gifts, packed my bathing suit and towel, and off Chuck and I went. We arrived just after 1pm, and found Marta, Melissa's niece on her phone in the front yard. Marta and I started chatting and walked into the backyard. As we turn the corner, the first people I see are Heather and MaryKate, two friends I made on my trip to Kenya. (Here they are with me).



As I scan the crowd, I see my Aunt Ginny, Lisa & Katy, cousin Amie, Stacy, Ali and Laurie. It suddenly occurs to me that I am NOT at Eva's party - all these people are there for ME!!!! Melissa and the crowd yell, "SURPRISE!!!!" and boy oh boy was I SURPRISED!!!!!!!!!! Before I could even begin to digest what is happening, another surprise shows up. From around the corner comes Dana, my oldest friend/bridesmaid/former Floridian/recent Denver transplant. Then it was like a scene from a movie; I dropped my bags and ran into Dana's arms (see photo......) Tears of joy made their way into the picture and I began to make the rounds.


All I kept saying was, "MELISSA! You let ALL these people come to your house!!!!!!"



Not only was the shower a surprise, but it was an ALICE IN WONDERLAND themed shower!!! I am OBSESSED with Alice, and was blown away by everything that my girls and my mom did for me. EVERY detail was perfect - from the Eat Me/Drink Me tags on the straws and toothpicks, to the centerpieces made of red roses, to the Drink Me tags (made by my cousin Jennifer) that were put on the wishing well wine bottles, to the bookmark favors (made by Toni). My mom got Alice plush toys and a framed Alice photo to put on the bridal party table, making it complete. I couldn't have asked for a better party. I felt so loved, and it made me realize how well my mom and my girls know me.


We played some bridal party games (which was fun and not cheesy or boring) - What was Tara wearing? How well does Tara know Chuck, Toilet Paper Bride and a 50/50.
Here we are grading the What was Tara wearing papers, and two Toilet Paper Bride contestants (Lisa was the winner!!)


Toni was a huge help when it came to gift opening and kept it moving like a well oiled machine, while Beth kept track of who gave me what. Dana made 2 INSANELY awesome mix cds with help from the other girls. Lea made the ribbon/bow hat - what shower is complete without that???


Jennifer made AWESOME cupcakes, complete with Eat Me wafers, and my mom got me custom made Alice red velvet cupcakes from a vegan bakery that I love - Sweet Avenue Bakeshop.

This was seriously one of the happiest days of my life. I couldn't have planned this any better if I had done it myself. I cannot thank all the people involved enough. :0

Here are some pictures from the rest of the day!

A pretty cool quilt!


My mom and Chuck :0)
Dana, Me and the two Melissa's PLHS Class of '95!!!!! We had A LOT of fun back then. SO glad we're all still friends!!!!

Hot Topic circa 2004....... Cat, Stacy and Hot Mary!!

Ali and I will be on The Amazing Race one of these days.......

My Aunt Cindy, Laurie and Andrew (he was waiting for Chuck to arrive to take him away!!)

Terry and Kelly - two of my favorite mamas to be!!!

My parents, Chuck and I.


Me and my girls!!!!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Lea, Cat, Dana, Melissa, Toni, Mara and Beth.

One more of me and my mama!!!