The Wiseman Honeymoon Suite

Ross is so awesome! When we discussed our honeymoon and where we would stay on our wedding night I asked him to book a honeymoon suite. He said hotels don't have honeymoon suites, I said yes they do! I kept reminding him to request a honeymoon suite when booking our room....he just looked at me with a half-annoyed look :) He finally said he'd take care of it and that was that!

We stayed at the Doubletree Hotel in Springfield on our wedding night and much to my surprise and excitement we did stay in a honeymoon suite, The Wiseman Honeymoon Suite! Ross asked one of our friends who is a graphic designer to design a "honeymoon suite" sign to put on our hotel door. Daryl put something together, Ross printed it out and asked the hotel to put it on the door for us before we arrived - all without me knowing. This was such a fun surprise!

And on a side note, the room we stayed in was #1017 - how fun that on our wedding day on April 17 we stayed in room #17!

Honeymoon Pictures

The resort we stayed at on our honeymoon offered a complimentary professional photo session to all guests so Ross and I decided to take them up on the offer. The session lasted about an hour and the photographer took us all around the resort - at some pretty locations by the entry, the pool and of course, the ocean. We had a good time taking the pictures and the time of day was perfect - a little before sunset which made for a beautiful backdrop and good coloring. It was a bit windy that day, as you can see by my hair in some of the pictures, but I think it just adds to it!

The photographer took 75 pictures that we looked through and chose the ones we liked best to purchase. There were about ten total we liked but decided to go with these four, as you see the beach!

My Groom

Ross' uncle took this picture during our wedding. It was when he was waiting for me to walk down the aisle to be given away - he said his heart was about to pound out of his chest at this point! I think this is a great picture of Ross. He is such a good-looking, wonderful man! I am blessed beyond measure to be married to him. He has made me so happy and is so patient and kind to me and is everything I ever wanted and everything I never knew I needed in a husband. I love him!

Married!!!!

Ross and I are now married!! We had an absolutely amazingly, perfect wedding day! Everything went off without any glitches and it was just the best day ever. The weather was perfect - perfect temperature with a few clouds, making perfect conditions for outside photography. Oh it was such a perfect day...a fairy tale, really :)

I plan to blog about the days leading up to our wedding, the rehearsal, the wedding, the honeymoon and everything else in between. Check back later this week for more updates!

Tying Up Loose Ends

Today starts my wedding vacation from work! I am off the rest of this week and all of next week for our honeymoon, then back on April 26. I will so much enjoy this vacation!

I have a few loose ends to tie up for our wedding, nothing big really. Today my mom and I are going to deliver some of my decorations to Highland Springs for our reception and meet with the coordinator out there to go over my decoration needs. I'll probably start packing for our honeymoon, too! I never start packing for a vacation three days out but this one is a little more than just a vacation - it's my honeymoon! I definitely do not want to leave anything behind!

I really don't have much planned for Thursday. The only thing on the agenda right now is a pedicure at 4:30 with Natalie and Pam, dinner with Ross and his parents and then picking up Ross' best man from the airport later that night. I hope to move some of my clothes and personal items to Ross' house, too, to be ready for go for when we get back from our honeymoon.

Friday I think I'll get a manicure with my mom and sister and then it's off to pick up my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses and deliver them to the church. I'll need to set up our guest book table at the church but that's about it. I'm not having any flowers or decor like that in the sanctuary; just using very tall pillar candles that I have rented. The rental company will deliver, set up and take down the candles, so nothing to worry about there. 6pm brings the rehearsal, 7:30 the dinner and then home for the last time to sleep in my bed alone!

I am so excited to be marrying Ross. He is absolutely wonderful!

Bachelorette Party!!

Saturday, April 10, I got together with my girlfriends for my bachelorette party and personal shower. We had many stops during our night with the first one being Portrait Innovations, a portrait studio that offers very good deals on photo packages. We were there for about 45 minutes taking lots of different poses and just having fun.

After that we headed to O'Hana's Japanese Steakhouse for dinner. This is by far one of my favorite places to eat. I love this type of food!


After dinner we started a scavenger hunt. Our first stop was Walgreen's where I had to purchase a pack of condoms and while checking out ask the cashier if I could return them if they didn't fit...so glad the cashier was a woman!

The next stop was at the Campbell 16 movie theater where I had to serenade our group with "Going To The Chapel". This wasn't so bad as there weren't very many people in the lobby at the time we were there and the girls sang with me, which really helped!

The final stop on our scavenger hunt was Andy's Frozen Custard....where lots of people were. Christina gave me three ring pops and I had to find three men to propose to. Luckily all three were easy going and played along with the game.

We ended the evening at Pam's house for yummy snacks, very fun games and of course, presents! I am so thankful for all my friends and the time and energy they put into planning into everything. I am so very blessed and it was such a great way to kick off our wedding week!

5 Days To Go!!!

Bling, Bling!

I love my engagement ring! Ross did such a good job picking it out! I can't wait to put my wedding ring with it.

Our Last Date As Single People

Last night Ross took me on a date - our last date as single people! He picked me up at 6pm and of course greeted me at the door with flowers. He is so good to me! We went to dinner at Houlihan's and then went to the park where we got engaged. We walked around there a couple of times and then back to my house to watch a movie. We had such a nice time together. We talked about our wedding, our dating experience, our life together...such a nice night with such a wonderful man!

Ross and I will continue going on dates once we're married but it will be so different then! We will leave our house together instead of him picking me up. We'll go home together and neither of us will have to leave at the end of the night...which will be nice :). There are so many things that will change once married but I do so welcome those changes!

I love Ross!

Next Friday At This Time....

...will be the day before my wedding day!!

Time certainly does fly by. I remember thinking at the beginning of January how busy the spring would be as we had something planned almost every weekend leading up to our wedding. Now all of our busy weekends are over and I'm down to where I can say "this is the last Sunday I'll be single, this is the last time we'll hang out at my house as single people, this is the last time we'll go to church as single people" and all those other silly things we do. But get this: in 8 days I'll wake up to my wedding day!

I have felt nervous all week. Not a bad nervous, but a good nervous. And if my nerves/excitement are starting this early I have no clue how I'll get through our wedding weekend. (Good thing my dad is a pharmacist, maybe he can slip me some valium...hahah!) I've been going through all the last minute details left to take care of and really there's not that much left. I think I just need to wrap my mind around everything and feel like I have a game plan and I'll be good to go. I'll work next Monday and Tuesday and then off from work starting on Wednesday, April 14. And really, there's not much to do next week, at least that's what I'm thinking now!

I guess this post is just kind of ramblings, nothing too important. I think I'll go now and practice writing my new name - Libby Wiseman!

Mints Anyone?

Every Monday night I meet with my girlfriends, Pam, Natalie and Angela, for a bible study. It's a very loose study - we don't really follow anything, just get together and chat about our lives, usually read a few verses or a devotion and then pray. It's a nice time to hang out together and pray for each other.

This past Monday night we met at my house and made wedding mints during bible study! These are the cream cheese mints typically served at weddings and htey are really pretty easy ot make. You just mix powdered sugar, cream cheese and a little mint flavoring into a dough, roll a little bit into a ball, dip in sugar and place in the candy mold. Then you just pop it out onto wax paper and you have a mint. We made about 120 or so and then made up some more dough. I ran out of powdered sugar and the dough was too wet so I'll need to get more powdered sugar to finish this batch.

The mints turned out so good and will be great when served at our wedding. Thanks for your help girls!

Arkansas Weekend

March 26-28 Ross and I headed down to Arkansas for a weekend away with my parents and my sister and her family. We stayed at a very nice cabin about 45 minutes southwest of Harrison, Arkansas. My parents have been there a few times before by themselves and we went as a family in 2008. This was a weekend birthday celebration for my mom, dad and brother-in-law whose birthdays are 3/15, 3/31 and 4/16. We usually celebrate mom and dad's birthdays together and this year Nathan's birthday falls on the day before our wedding so that day is out for celebrating for him!

Ross and I got there around 8:30 Friday night and we all just hung out for the evening. Saturday we slept in a bit, had breakfast and then went on a family hike. We hiked about a 3-mile trail that was fairly easy for the most part. The boys had fun throwing rocks in a stream along the trail and then walking around a waterfall at the end of the trail. The day started off a bit chilly but warmed up and made for great hiking weather.

After the hike we headed back to the cabin for lunch and relaxing. It started raining in the afternoon so we stayed in for naps and watching basketball. Mom, Stephanie and I worked on some wedding plans and Ross and I worked on shower thank yous. We had a good steak dinner and then watched a movie.

Sunday we got up, had breakfast and headed back to Springfield. All in all it was a nice get away!

Marriage License!

Ross and I both had Good Friday off from work so we made it a working wedding day. Ross came over to pick me up around 10am and we went to Gailey's for breakfast. Gailey's is a breakfast cafe in downtown SPringfield that we both really like.

After breakfast we headed up to the courthouse to purchcase our marriage license! It was quite an easy process. We had to sign a form and take an oath stating we are not related and that was that! Now all we need to do is have it signed on April 17!

Candy Bags

About once a month my girlfriends and I get together for girl's night - no kids, no husbands or boyfriends - just the girls hanging out and having fun. On March 17 we got together at Christina's house and they helped me put together the party favors for our wedding reception.

It was a 4-step process to put the bags together and I thought it would take a long time to do the 200+ bags I needed. Ross and I had worked on some of the bags prior to girl's night so we had a little bit of a start on it.

Seven of us girls started working on the bags at about 7:45 that night and were done with about 210 bags by 8:45! I was so surprised and very pleased that it went so fast and we got them all done. We had a very good assembly line going and had a great time chatting with each other during the process. I love my girls!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you! For Easter Sunday Ross and I went to church and our friends, Natalie and Adam came with us. We met at Ross' house, went to church together and then back to Ross' for lunch. We made grilled chicken and steaks, homemade mac and cheese, salad and rolls. It was such a pretty, sunny day, just a beautiful spring day!

We did take time for pictures before lunch! This brought back memories of growing up and taking family pictures after church on Easter Sunday.

I love Easter. I love the meaning of it all and just thinking about what Jesus did for us. It is exciting to me, the fact that Jesus rose on the third day. He overcame death and the grave! Thank you Jesus!


I gave Ross and Easter basket with black cherry soda, Reece's peanut butter eggs, and travel supplies for our upcoming honeymoon!!