A visit to the wedding site

Last Friday, JM, Mom, Dad and I went over to the Monon Center to meet with the coordinator and take a look at the grounds. Everything was a blur when we went there originally and decided to have our wedding there, so I wanted to take another look and get an idea of what we need to order and decorate. Turns out they have made some major purchases that I am THRILLED about! They bought white wooden folding chairs for the outdoor reception (which we don't have to rent!). They also are buying a shuttle so the bridal party doesn't have to walk all the way over to the ceremony site...it's not that far, but it will be when I'm dragging a train behind me! Now they're thinking of buying...ok, I can't think of the word for it, but it's that rectangle thing that the bride, groom and officiant stand underneath. Kind of like this...

Although there won't be an ocean behind us :-) (BTW, this is Courtney, one of my bridesmaids, and her husband, Ben's, wedding in Naples last November).

I'm very happy with all that the Monon Center is doing. They actually haven't had any weddings there yet and they're bringing in a wedding coordinator from the Ritz Charles so they have all of these ideas. Yay!!! Here are some pictures of the site.

These are of the banquet halls where the reception will be. They had it walled off for an event that night. This side has the stage. We'll also have all the balcony area that you can see outside.

The wall that you see to the right of this picture below will be open leading into the other rooms.

This is the other side of the banquet hall.

And the kitchen area where the food will be set up.

If the weather is poor (which it BETTER NOT be!!!), the wedding ceremony will be held inside on this breezeway. The doors at the end of this hallway will be shut and the furniture will be removed.

This bridge will serve as the background to the wedding ceremony outside. That's JM and Dad up there ahead of us.

Closer picture of the bridge and Dad videotaping for Greg.

This is looking out from the bridge. Everything's flooded right now so it's not a great view...but if you can tell there's a small hill on the right. They are going to build a walkway up to the top of the hill and that's where the ceremony will be held.

I should be hearing from the Monon Center sometime this week with their final decision on the catering (it should still be the Ritz Charles). I'll also get to speak with the girl who is going to be coordinating the weddings and get some ideas from her.

My cupcake attempt

I decided to try my hand making cupcakes today from a recipe in my Kraft Foods Magazine. They turned out soooo good. Good enough I'm including pictures and the recipe!





Lemon-Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Prep time: 10 min Total time: 1 hour 34 minutes (includes cooling)



1 pkg (2-layer size) white cake mix

1 pkg (4-serving size) Jell-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

1 cup water

4 egg whites (I used the egg-beater whites)

2 Tbsp oil

1 pkg (16 oz) powdered sugar

1 pkg (8 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened (I used the reduced fat)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

2 Tbsp lemon juice

gratings from 1 lemon peel



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick). Beat on medium-speed 2 minutes. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined 2 1/2 inch muffin cups.



Bake 21-24 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.



Meanwhile, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter, 1 tsp grated lemon peel and juice with electric mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes and garnish with additional grated lemon peel.

Do you see what I see???

Why, I believe it's my first sign of spring!!!

I was walking Kodi today when I noticed these buds of flowers popping up from the ground outside of our apartment. (Yes, I know, Kodi needs his St. Patty's Day bandana taken off).

We walked by another building that must get more sunlight than we do because their buds were making some more progress than ours.

Anyone living here in Indiana will know that this was quite the sight for sore eyes today. With all this rain and dreary days, SAD has been hitting me a little harder than usual. It was so uplifting to see...And last but not least, we walked back to the creek (Big Eagle Creek) to see how high it was. Not only is it high...but it's ROARING! Well, as much as a creek can roar :-)