Bouquet Beast

I seriously LOVE, LOVE, LOVE weddings. (Thank goodness, I’ve been to almost 30!) One of my most favorite parts of the reception is the bouquet (I think third behind the first dance and the father/daughter dance)- and the valiant attempts to catch it So far, I’ve been successful six times. Yes, folks. Six times. Now a frequent comment is my height advantage. However, I chalk it up to skill and strategy. There are two bouquets I didn’t catch that I’m still a litle upset about – mainly because it came down to skill, and I didn’t utitilize my skills and abilities appropriately to ensure victory (sorry Lyndsey and Lindsay). From now on though, I can guarantee you I will use my God-given talents and some strategy to try to ensure more bouquet catching victories (although, let’s be honest, Lord knows I don’t wanna be single forever and I’m hoping I’m getting to the end of my bouquet-catching career). Thanks to a friend’s suggestion, I decided to document the victories thus far:

Heather and Kilika (win #1)

This picture was found in an old scrapbook; apparently nobody else was too interested in catching the bouquet so there wasn’t much of a challenge.

Becky and Drew (win #2)

Now this clearly isn’t the bouquet photo…I actually can’t find one at the moment, but I thought I’d show you the handsome couple nonetheless (they now have a little one on the way!!). This was a funny bouquet catch though because the DJ kept calling me to the dance floor, but I was down by the beach and didn’t hear it. I came up just in time to literally have the bouquet come right to me (height did have an advantage in this one!)

Ginny and Kingsley (Win #3)

Hilarious time!! This brought out some serious competitiveness with my former teammate being another one of the contenders. This led to full on box outs, elbow swings, and ultimately a fight to the ground! The photographer told me afterwards she had never witnessed such a sight!

Liz and Matt (Win #4)

Now this one needs the video to fully capture what went on here…the DJ decided to count to three for the throw, but my cousin threw it on ‘two’ which confused all of us. So, you see us standing there, her throwing it, us still standing there waiting for the count of three….we finally realize it’s been thrown and I leap – similar to a gazelle or deer climbing up rocks – around the girls standing in my way and recover the bouquet from behind the chair on the ground for a sweet victory!

Monica and Terry (win #5)

I feel like this was a pretty easy victory for me, as there weren’t that many single ladies here. I do always love catching the bouquets because it adds another special bond between me and the bride to talk about in times to come (which is why I’m still bitter about Lindsay and Lyndsey’s weddings )

Jenn and Jonathon (win #6)

My most recent victory! This one made me feel slightly old as I realized most of my fellow contenders were in braces. Now, granted, it was in Texas where people tend to get married a little younger so most people our age are on their third or fourth child by now!! Anyways, this was sweet because Jennifer was my roommate freshman year of college!

So, there you have it folks. A full collection of my bouquet catchings!! There are two weddings in the next couple months that I hope allow me to add to my collection I’ll keep you posted (literally)…

Weekend Happenings!

So, this weekend was quite special indeed! It began Friday evening with a house by myself (an EXTREMELY rare occassion here at Casa Schneple…and I’m sitting by my lonesome again right now!!)…so I enjoyed a relaxing evening of reading, soaking in the tub, enjoying candles (I really have an obsession with candles and I’m quite disappointed I rarely remember to light them), and just enjoying solitude. At about 11pm, I headed to Mission Bay because my dear friend Kristen decided to come in town for a weekend away. We stayed up late chit chatting and then headed to bed.
I woke up quite early Saturday to head to a training for work up in San Marcos where I was rewarded with a t-shirt, a Starbucks gift card, AND a American Express gift card!! Plus, free breakfast and lunch. No complaints from this happy camper! Straight afterwards, I headed up to Dana Point where I met up with my mom and Jim to spend a few hours wandering around. We walked (a lot!), talked, laughed, climbed out on the rocks that we used to frequent over 20 years ago (who knew?!), and enjoyed an overall lovely time.

About 6, I drove back down to San Diego where I met up again with Kristen and we enjoyed a lovely evening it! It begain with a dinner consisting of spring mix salad, sliced strawberries, pine nuts, and some salmon complimented by a glass of wine. For dessert you ask? Hot out of the oven chocolate chip cookie icecream sandwiches (well, the cookies were hot out of the oven). Not soon after, Jen D. met up with us as well and we headed to the jacuzzi where we talked it up with ourselves and this poor guy Rick who was just trying to enjoy some alone time. The three of us staying up and talked, laughed, shared, etc. At some point after midnight, we headed to bed.

Unfortunately, we were awakened (is that the correct tense?! Yes, this is coming from the English major) earlier than anticipated by the marathon right outside the window – it was crazy: we were at mile 20 and at 8am (read: an hour and a half after starting time), the first group ran by! Despite valiant attempts to go back to sleep, it just wasn’t going to happen. So we got up to enjoy our coffee and chai teas respectively with a light breakfast (yogurt, bananas, and cereal). YUM! About 9:45, we all headed to church. Kristen and I enjoyed a lovely service at Park Chapel and then headed home with high hopes of grabbing stuff to go hiking before meeting friends for brunch. Well, about an hour later and 3.7 miles from original location (see how our morning started and realize there was MAJOR marathon traffic), we opted to turn around and just head straight to brunch instead! I was very proud of how Kristen handled the traffic; we all know she’s not the greatest fan!
So, about noon we met up with Heather and Stacey (down from OC), their friend Chantell (who Kristen knew from coaching and who had prank called me the night before), another friend Kate (who I met several years ago and now her and her hubby live down here in SD). We had a great time at Park House Eatery (or something like that) in University Heights. Had a lovely waitress named Blanca who kept the mimosas coming and the guests happy! The food was DELISH and the company amazing! LOTS of laughs and stories told over the course of brunch.

Late afternoon, we headed back to Mission Bay to tidy up and gather our things. It was an absolutely lovely weekend that was made complete by a few hours of preparation for the week and ended by giving J-Jax a massage to enjoy a little bit of time together. It’s crazy how you can live together and still not have much time to connect. Makes me realize the importance of being intentional in a marriage relationship (come on, Lord- bring him to me! I’m ready!…that’s another story though). So, yes, a sweet weekend with friends and family! Full of joy and laughter. I wouldn’t have it any other way! Thank you, Lord for the people you’ve placed in my life!