This page is under drastic construction!!
check out our invites that CRAIG picked out!!!!!!
Our Ceremony took place at Noon at St. Cecilia Catholic Church
Our reception hall was at The Cincinnati Museum Center, or better known
as Union Terminal to Cincinnatians. You can click on the picture to go to their homepage!
Our photographer was John Howard of Loveland, Ohio (513) 683-2501
Our DJ was Ken Wilson of Soundwave, Cincinnati, Ohio (513) 752-JOCK
The tuxedos were provided by Russell Tuxedos
My dress was purchased from Bridal and Formal in Reading, Ohio and my veil from Special Occasions, Amelia, Ohio.
The bridesmaids (I have 7) are wearing a Loralie floral print (hunter green with peach roses and other assortments of flowers)from Wendy's Bridal Shop in Montgomery. (Be careful if your bridesmaid are MAILING in their payments...)
Our florist was an event designer for the Musuem Center. She is also in charge of decorating the Museum for the reception.
Our caterer was from the Museuem Center, whom is extremely expensive and unwilling to negotiate whatsoever. (This is a major dissatisfier so far)
Our vidoegrapher was All American Video Production and their number is (513) 522-5700
Our limo was Cincinnati Limo. You can visit their website at Cincinnati Limo
My Summary
Well I worked ten hours a day up until the two days before the wedding.
I was supposed to work on Aug 1 the day before, but another a friend on
a different 'team' at work let me work her Wednesday and took my Friday
so that i would have both thursday and friday off. (my schedule is wierd
i know...sun, mon, tue, fri 8am - 7pm anyway) Our matron of honor and
best man are married and their anniversary was thursday and boy did they
sacrifice it to help us!! I don't know what we would have done without
both of them... I really don't remember much of Thursday to be honest, I
know we were all running around unpacking our new apartment in case any
of the out of town relatives stopped in (99% of the guest are from
wayyyy out of town ie were in Cincinnati, their in Chicago, Las Vegas,
Seattle Japan Taiwan etc..)
Friday was complete chaos. Kim and I ran over to get the roses for the
cake took them to the bakery, and went shopping for other misc items,
such as an outfit to wear for the party after the reception at my
parents house etc..it turned out that Kim and I were doing this and Ron
and Craig were out to get the tuxes and get Craig's haircut. I felt like
we were running all day but it was really only a couple of hours. Then
Ron and Kim took me to get my nails done and Craig and my dad went to
get the kegs of beer for the party at my parents house. By this time
our and my parents phones are RINGING OFF THE HOOK because every one
wants directions to whereever or they just want to let us know they made
it to their hotel and to town. The day at this point seemed to be
flying and in all actuality it was..before i knew it Ron and Kim were
leaving to go to their hotel to change clothes for the rehersal and
craig and i were on the way to our reception hall to drop off the
seating arrangements, napkins, etc... After we dropped off this stuff we
were on the way to the church. Rehersal is were we met up with a lot of
the family as a lot of them were groomsmen and they brought their
familys and all three sets of parents. We had a rather LARGE rehersal
group (ie 45 to 50 is my guess). Rehersal went very fast and very quick.
Which was the only 'real' downfall of the whole thing because it left us
and our bridal party somewhat confused the next day, but we all managed
fine in the end, i am just saying it could have been run more
effectively and efficiently. The dinner was great. We got to see alot
of the relatives from out of town, hand out our gifts etc. We had it at
a little Chinese resturant just a mile or so from the church. It went
over pretty well, only know of a few who really didnt like what we had
chosen. After the rehersal is were Craig and I split. Since so many of
his brothers are out of town he had his party that night...i was
supposedly only to have a short shower at the hotel with some of the
family and a few friends. Most of Craigs sisters wanted to have all the
children there and so it was a real simple shower with mainly gifts and
stuff like that. Then when we were leaving, Jeanne, Kim, and Brooke
convinced me to stop at a local bar and have 'okay just one' drink....we
ended up drinking three or four..i don't drink beer, so i drank mainly
whisky sours so three or four was plenty for me...we watched a UGLLLLY
looking transvestite (spelling???). It was very very awful...He/She
could have done a much better job with themself...So then Jeanne took me
home at ohhh about 3 am the night before (mind you our wedding starts at
NOON and pictures are at 9am SHARP so i was telling everyone at the
time)..So to say the least I was very tired and didnt have ANY problems
sleeping...Next thing i know mom and dad are running around like crazy
with my grandma too and I hear my dad calling Craig teasing him and
making sure he got up cause no one stayed at the apartmetn with him that
night...Jeanne owns a very nice hair salon here in town and was going to
pick up Carrie (a bm) and Kim and them come to my parents house. Well,
they were a bit late she had told me NOT to put anything in my
hair...but i had plannned on leaving for the church at 8:15 and it was
almost 8 and i put this gunk of a spritz in it to make it curlier and
hold...jeanne had the worst time fixing my hair and i felt bad.. She
said i had put basically Rubber in my hair.But she still mananged to do
an AWESOME job with it and done my makeup really great too. so soon as
she was done my dad, mom, grandma, and i jumped in my dads bmw and
headed for the church leaving jeanne to do carrie and kims hair at their
house. I got there at oh about nine oclock when the photographer was
ready to go and i wasnt even dressed...I saw my best friend who he and
his wife had flown in from Seattle the night before all dressed in his
Navy attire and had to stop and give hugs and thank yous then i ran off
to get dressed yelling hello to everyone i passed saying im sorry im
sooooo late!! Great to see you, etc.. I got dressed in what seemed like
record time and finally got to see myself in a mirror. Jeanne had done
such a great job that i didnt believe it was me in the mirror...We then
went out and done the pictures. They were alll outside because our
church had mass at 10:00 that morning so we have most outside and some
on the alter that we took right after the wedding. So we took about an
hour and a half of pictures then went back inside. It seemed like a
long wait but i bet it was only like a half hour or so. Next thing i
know we are all walking down the hall to line up at the back of the
church and Carrie and Chris are walking down the aisle. Then Esther and
John, then Jeremy and Amy, then Michelle and Chuck, and then Kim and
Ron. I didnt really see any of the prossional as i was back out of the
way i just saw the groups leaving. Jeanne at this point was going to
throw my train on the aisle as i started and I remember looking back at
her with a freaky look and she said 'dont look at me!! :-)' Then I saw
my dad tell Chas and Stephanie it was their turn, they were sooooo cute
that morning and weren't a bit afraid. I kept asking steph if she was
ready and she would just shake her head yes and blush and smile. Then
the organist changed songs and i stood at the end of the isle with my
dad a second and looked at him and said 'dont forget to lift my veil' he
said "WHAT??" being serious!! I said lift my veil and kiss my cheek and
we walked out. I saw a good friend of mine from work, also named Craig,
first and that helped me to relax, then Dave my boss and other members
of my team at work, then a few other people but my 90 feet aisle that I
was worried about taking SSSOOOOOOOOOOOO long to walk lasted about two
seconds. The only thing forgotten was Chas' pillow, but how much does a
7 year old boy want to really carry a white pillow anyway...I saw Craig
smile and we walked up and sat down on the alter and the deacon talked
for a bit and we said our vows. then we started to exchange the rings.
This is were both craig and i giggle. Neither of us realized that the
first part of the exchange of rings says "Sheri take this ring as a sign
of my love and FIDELITY" ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH Craig
giggled when HE said it, I make an AWFUL face when I say it and it is
alllll on video. You see FIDELITY Investments is MY
EMPLOYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I about DIED.....it is
really funny now......We lit the unity candle and it was all over about
oh two or three minutes after it started. (But on the video it last
about oh 45-50 minutes!!) All three of our readers done a great job.
Each one was one of Craigs very religious sisters and only one was
really crying and that was only because she looked at Craig. (who is the
youngest besides carrie in the family of 10).
The deacon announced us as Mr & Mrs Edmondson-Wood which was an
announcment that 99.99% of the people DID NOT expect. And we started
back down the aisle. I was flying supposedly because Craig had to tell
me to slow down for the photographer to take pictures.
The receiving line we done at the church and was nice and short and let
us catch our breath a bit and say hello and thank you and stuff...
then we and Kim and Ron got in the limo and went 'ahhhhh' and drank the
champaign. The ride to the Union Terminal (or cincinnati museum center
as it is now 'formally' called) was short but relieving. my feet were
killing me!! and I was wearing ballet slippers..the poor girls were
wearing heals!!
When we got to the terminal we got out of the limo and most of the
people were clapping and stuff. The union terminal is indeed a museum
and is public and open that day so there were strangers wandering
around, but our reception was back off to the side and in private rooms
but you have to walk through this huge rotunda thing to get to them and
everyone was staring and stuff..we sent the guest all on in and our DJ
who works for my dad as an engineer line person or something comes over
and says did you remember your entrance song? We totally forgot to bring
him the cd we have of Little Texas singing Kiss the Girl...urghhhhhhh so
we tell him to use whatever he wanted (it was the theme the Chicago
Bulls use which turned out great!) He makes the announcements of each
member of the bridal party and also announces us. it was rather nice
actually. then at 3:00 we all ate. the sit down dinner turned out nice,
we had peach gladyolas on the tables and ivory linens it was really
pretty...The dinner was actually really good, from what i really
remember...then we TRIED to cut our cheesecake!! We sliced it fine, but
it wouldn't come out!!!!!! AT ALL. When we finally cut and cut and tried
it came out like a smashed gooshy looking peice, you can hear craig on
the video go OH NICE!! but it worked (we played when im 64 for the song)
we had previously decided not to smush!! and craig teased me by
pretending to feed me and then taking it away three or four times and
then we put it in our months nicely...then i get his cheesecake fill
finger on the tip of my nose!! and he got alittle of what was left on my
finger on his cheek but it was fun. After that we had our first dance,
Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. Then my dad and I, butterfly
kisses..he kept asking me how much longer?? cause we didnt cut any of it
out or anything which we should have done!!! Then we invited the guest
for a electric slide which someone had to have requested becuase it was
on the only plya if requested list along with ABSOLUTELY NO macrena and
ymca only if requested. so i forget what else was played but then we
done the dollar dance which was great! I mean the 56 bucks was nice but
i really enjoyed dancing with all the guys and getting to say hello and
chat for a minute or so. I had to apologize to my friend Rodney who is
married to Lisa and has a brother named Randy because we had Randy
married to Lisa and Rodney listed by himself on the sheet...but he just
laughed and thought it was funny....and the guys were all really great.
One of craigs neices is getting married in feb. and her fiance even came
up who i had not met previously and said you dont know me but im bubba,
his real name is Eric but everyone in Chicago calls him bubba he is a
really great guy. After that dance we threw the bouquet and Craigs
sister caught it and then the garter was caught by Eric, or bubba.
Craigs sister was a bit miffed because her neices fiance had to put the
garter on her but hey she robbed another girl badly for getting to the
bouquet and after all is was just a gag...
the recpetion hall has a little balcony overlooking the dance floor so
ron kim craig and i walked up there with the photograpeher who was great
and then the dj said okay craig and sheri want a pic of everyone here so
lets all gather on the dance floor...everyone went out there!!! then dj
said wave hello!!! so everyone starts waving hello ( by the way this is
all a PLANNED gag on the guest that dj and photographer are in on ) so
the kenny the dj says to his assistant on the mic hit the music and here
it is the CHICKEN DANCE!!! So the whole group is on the dance floor for
a picture supposedly and waving to us and to get a good pic and we throw
them into the chicken dance!!! it was sooooooooooooooooo funny!!!!!!!!!
The next song is YMCA and craig and i decide to stay on the balcony..my
best friend went out on the dance floor and did this dance...remember he
is in full NAVY uniform to be our guestbook/welcomer to the wedding!!!
The rest of the guest loved it....so then we go back down and have
another dance to Hero i forget by who kenny picked it...and everything
was over for most of the guest at 6:00. It was great, It went FAST!!!!
But it was worth the money by far!! So then everyone splits so are
going home and others who know about the party at my dads are headed to
the hotel to change and then over there. Craig and I and my best friend
and his wife head over ot our apartment to change clothes to. so it was
nice to see him and his wife away from the crowd since we only see them
about once a year. After that it all pretty much settled down. we went
to my parents house opened the gifts and sat around talking most of the
night with everyone. When that runs down at about 2 am or so we head to
the hotel (where some other of our good friends are staying as well)
were they tell craig and I that they don't have our room because we had
to be there before 6:00 to get it...craig and i do some yelling and they
find a double room. We go to the room and are asleep two minutes
later!! Sunday was a day to relax and pack for Europe. We said goodby
to ron and kim with much thanks!! and they drove home about an hour
away. It was a relief for it to be over...
BUT!!!!
then we are on the way to the airport monday night and on the plane to
both of our first experience outside the us or canada. And boy do we
have alot to figure out ahead of us. We landed at Charles D'Gualle in
Paris about 8.5 hours later and have to drive in the plane for seemed
like enternity and then take a tram and them get our luggage and figure
out which bus was going where...not speaking a word of french...it was
interesting in a country that we found was not willing to speak english
at all. it rained the three days were in paris...we were ready to go to
london, and neither of us ever care to see france again. So we think yea
at least they speak ENGLISH...but that didn't help the attitude or
personal space issues. We didn't like London either, and we really
didn't expect to not like it there because a friend of ours is from
Manchester and we got a different picture from what we actually
experienced. We were glad to be on our way to Amsterdam with the same
feelings of London as France. But this is were the honeymoon turns
great. Amsterdam was wonderful!! The shopping was great!!! We had
bought craig a plain gold band and had a .25 carat diamond added to it
in Amsterdam for under 400.00 and it is a top grade. Craig sneezed on
the street an older lady walked over and gave him a kleenx!!!!!!!!! My
dads boss has a son and daughter in law that live there so we met and
had dinner with them one night and talked about home and their
experiences overseas as well and it was nice. but I got soooooooo sick
that night. we think it was from the boat we took from london to
amsterdam across the channel cause it was vastly overpacked with people
so when we got our car and stared our drive toward kortrijk, belgium i
threw the whole way across belgium!!! And then craig gets it too, and it
lasted about two days or so and then you really dont feel all that
great....but it is all now something to just remember!! Kortrijk is not
a tourist town in the least and we only knew about it because my dad
does so much business there at a local company. He was the one who
acutally confirmed our reservation two weeks before we were there cause
he was there. Then we went to brussles a few days later and checked in
ath the hotel. When we went to dinner in the hotel about two hours later
i got a club sandwich (dont read if you just ate!!!!) which i ate maybe
two bits then opened up to eat with a fork because it was falling apart.
the first bite i went to take something fell off the fork...and wiggled
and i screamed very very very very very loudly...i had almost ate an
earthworm! come to the manager of the holiday inn who we tell to go find
out what is going on cause he saw me in tears on the way back to the
room to get out of there. we wait over an hour for him to show up to
basically apologize and tell us what was going on and he never shows up
so we decide to leave..we go downstairs and they are all confused as to
why we are chekcing out when we had only been there three hours or so
and they go get the same manager. craig ask him why he never came up and
he said he had a large hotel to run and that his pager had went off.
well, this PISSED ME OFF. I said excuse me but the only priority you
should have had at this point is if someone in your hotel was dying! He
said well, you just have to understand business practices (big big
mistake on his part), He said he ran a large hotel that demanded his
time and I had just had a small problem. I went balistic. I was yelling
so loud in the lobby that half the hotel may have heard me. I said I
have two different bachelor degrees in business and am almost done with
my masters don't tell me I just 'have to understand business practices'
because your business practices are flat out wrong. And we told them to
call the next hotel and make sure they had a room that we were going on
to Koblenz. They made sure and we left. It was a five hour drive to
Koblenz Germany but was pretty and fun and we really didn't mind the
extra additional drive time that we hadn't expected for another day or
two. Koblenz was georgous and everyone was so friendly. from there we
went down the rhine river to Weisbaden for two days to then took a train
to frankfurt and flew home..and boy was that an experience for me!! I
don't fly often only four times now. Im not afraid of it just havnt done
much. Craig flys Cessnas (two seater little things) for working towards
a pilots liscense. This delta md11 left frankfurt straight UP. I mean
his climb was i be 75 degrees. My head was on the ceiling!! but other
than that it was a much waited for flight home!! It was great to walk
through customs seeing all the vistors being ask when they were leaving
and have them get to us and see our passports and say welcome HOME!!
this trip definatley made Lee Greenwoods God Bless the USA all that more
special!!!!!!!!!! We were so happy to be coming home that I wore my
Cincinnati Reds jersey and he wore his St Louis Cardinals jersey home.
It was a wonderfully exhausting 16 days.....One of which showed us that
holland and belgium and germany are return visits but definately not
france or london.
and two days after our flight lands??? Im back at work!!!!!! Craig had
three days to rest....and a week later for me??? Marketing 901 and
Finance 901!!! GRAD school started back up again!!!
Now the wonderful search for better jobs and land to buy!!!!!!
Well if you all are stll reading thanks!!!!!!!
