one year

I just can't even believe it has been one year since I married my best friend and seven years since we first started dating.  Our wedding day was by far the best day of my life (so cliche', but it so was) and I am so thankful to have Matt as my husband. He makes me a better person and we are learning and growing every day.  I am so proud of him and love him more than I ever thought was possible.

Rewind one year and we were at Riehle Plaza saying our vows, sharing moments with friends and family, and dancing the night away.  I love reliving the memories through our awesome pictures and our hilarious wedding videos.  I can vividly remember seeing each other for the first time, walking down the aisle to his smiling face, my dad telling me not to cry because then he would start, kissing as husband and wife, and then celebrating all night long.  I hope I never forget how it all felt.  Link here to see my post from the wedding
( 9.18.10 ).

 

Happy Anniversary Matthew! I love you :)

-6 months-

6 months ago today we were doing this...

lots of this...

and this...

and this...

and tons of this...

I couldn't be happier.  

Love you :)

2010 Recap...Welcome 2011!

2010 has definitely been the best year of our lives filled with so many amazing memories.  I knew it would be exciting, but I had no idea just how much we could pack into one year.  In a compact version, here is  a glimpse into what we had going on the past 12 months...

We started out 2010 by going on a vacation to Jamaica!  It was my graduation gift from Matt and we decided to go over my Winter break since we would be so busy after graduation.  We were so right!  Matt had told me my first year of nursing school that when I graduated he would take me anywhere I wanted to go.  Jamaica was paradise!

We spent the year planning our wedding :).  We had an engagement party and I found my beautiful dress in January.  Each month had big milestones for me to check off our list. It was difficult to plan the wedding while trying to finish up my senior year at Purdue.  The work really paid off because our wedding was the best day of our lives and it was more than I ever imagined it would be.

I finished up my nursing degree at Purdue with some of my fabulous friends that moved away after we graduated :(.  Abby moved to San Diego to be a Navy nurse, Amy moved to Nashville to pursue her degree for Family Nurse Practitioner, and Kylie moved to Indy (yay! close to me!) to work at Riley.  In the midst of finishing school I was looking for a job, applying for jobs, interviewing for jobs, and trying to decide what my future in nursing would hold.  Did we want to stay in Lafayette? Did I want to do NICU? Did we want to uproot and move to Indy?  I was offered two NICU positions at two different hospitals in Indy and gladly accepted my RN position on days at St. Vincent Women's in March.  Best decision I ever made! I LOVE my job.

We spent a couple months searching for a place to live in Indy since we decided to move here and not have me drive from Lafayette anymore.  We were nervous at first, but we are really loving Indy and can see it being our place to call home.

I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from Purdue in May and passed my NCLEX in June. I am a real Registered Nurse!  I'll always remember the first piece of paper I signed at work as J.Barrett, RN (later to be J. Dunn, RN which I was so excited to be signing!)




I married my best friend and became Mrs. Dunn on September 18th, the anniversary of our 6th year together!  Our wedding day was absolutely amazing.  We were surrounded by the love of our family and friends and I was able to soak up every little aspect of our special day.  I'm so lucky to call this guy my husband.

We welcomed Jax, the Boston Terrier, into our family in October.  We had always wanted a dog, and one random Sunday we decided we wanted to go get him.  We looked up a breeder on the internet and 2 hours later, we were in northern Indiana picking out our puppy!  I can't imagine not having him around.  He brings us so much happiness and laughter.

We took a belated honeymoon the beginning of November back to Jamaica.  We went to the same Sandals resort we went at the beginning of the year.  It was great get-away and a much needed relaxing vacation after the stress of the wedding and everything else we had done the past year.  We braved hurricane-turned-tropical storm Tomas and had a fantastic vacation, mon!

I am looking forward to 2011, a little because it won't be as jam-packed and a little because there are so many things to look forward to...

-I am excited to become more proficient in the NICU...I get level 3 and 4 trained (the highest level in NICU)  in February and March and then I will be fully trained to take on a baby at the highest acuity.  Scary, but so exciting to be functioning at the same level as my mentors.

-Visiting friends.  San Diego, Nashville, and Georgia are calling our names :).

-Seeing where life takes us.  Will we still be in Indy next summer when our lease is up?  Will we buy a house? Who knows! That's the fun part!

-NOT looking forward to DMB not touring in 2011...guess we will have to find another concert to hold us over until 2012 when they return :).

-Spending more time with Matt in the summers since he will be home more than last summer with his job change.

-Welcoming a friend's new baby into the world next June...congrats to the Hills!! :) 

Tonight, we are ringing in the new year together at home since I work tomorrow on New Year's Day.  Happy New Year to all of you!!

9.18.10

It has already been 2 months since I became Mrs. Dunn! We got our wedding photos in the mail this week so now I can finally post about our amazing wedding day and have pictures to go along with it! 

We chose our wedding date of September 18th because this is the date we celebrate every year as our "anniversary".  We don't exactly know when we became "boyfriend/girlfriend", so we use the 18th as our date since it was our first kiss!  When Matt proposed last November, I knew we had to make it work to have our wedding on 9/18.  It even fell on a Saturday in 2010 so it couldn't have been more perfect.  On our wedding day, we had been together for 6 years! High school sweethearts through and through :).

Engaged 11/20 at Monument Circle

If you know me at all, you know my phone is my life.  Well, not my life and I guess not just my phone...my calendar in my phone.  I use it for everything and I would feel so lost without it.  Here is what it said that day...

Our wedding and reception were outside under tents at Riehle Plaza in downtown Lafayette.  It was absolutely perfect.  It was so cool to see the plaza transformed into our wedding venue.

The day started at the salon with my girls where we got our hair done. My cousin brought us some McDonald's egg mcmuffins and mimosas...quite the combo :). I also went to Merle Norman to get my makeup done. I am not the best at doing my makeup so I thought I'd let a professional take care of it on my wedding day.

 Here are a few shots of the details...

My awesome dress

There was actually a flower that looked very similar to this that was on the top left of my dress.  We ended up taking it off the dress, making it into a hairpiece, and that is what I wore in my hair!

Only fitting to have a CityBus in a picture...we did have our wedding at the train/bus depot  :)

GO COLTS!

LOVED my shoes and flowers! I love green :)

The beautiful rings

I had some bridal shots taken before the wedding and my handsome groom did as well :).

I love how my flowers pop against the white of the dress and veil :)

My favorite! He is just so handsome :)

Matt and I decided to do a "first look", which means that we saw each other before the ceremony.  It was just the two of us (and the incognito photographers) alone; no one was able to see us together, and it was so amazing. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of seeing each other before because it makes walking down the aisle "not as special" or it's "superstitious", (and I thought this way too at first), but it was actually the best thing we chose to do.  I felt like we had that half hour before to just relax and spend some one-on-one time together before the craziness of the wedding.  We also got to take our time for our pictures and didn't have to hurry to make it to the reception.  I still got butterflies and got emotional walking down the aisle to my husband, and Matt says he still felt that rush of me walking down the aisle. I felt that seeing each other before made it that much more exciting to walk down the aisle, and much less nerve-wrecking.  I am SO SO SO happy we chose to do this and I would recommend it to anyone who is considering it!

Walking out of the elevator with Matt having his back turned

:)

This was so cool :)

Here are just a few of my favorites of the two of us...

My beautiful bridesmaids

And the handsome groomsmen

The whole party

Our ceremony was beautiful.  It was short, sweet, and to the point.  We actually got a lot of compliments on the ceremony itself.  Maybe I should take up a living in writing wedding ceremonies...nursing as a side job. We had a sand ceremony instead of a unity candle and I used sand from Lake Michigan's beach where I grew up.  All the sand on the tables with the table numbers were Lake Michigan sand as well.  I still vividly remember our ceremony ( I know its only been 2 months, but everyone told me it would be a blur and I wouldn't remember) and I loved every second of it.

 I love how Matt and I didn't take our eyes off one another the entire time; I love how my dad whispered to me as I wiped my eye not to cry because it would make him cry and there were too many people watching :) ; I love how our niece and nephew were so adorable walking down the aisle and behaved so well standing through the whole ceremony; I love how our moms went up to our sand and put their own in together; I love how I could see tears in my bridesmaids eyes and I loved their huge hugs after the ceremony was over; I loved seeing the smiles on all the groomsmen's' faces and their cheers afterwards; and I love that all of our closest friends and family were right there to celebrate the day with us.

After the ceremony, it started to sprinkle rain.  It rained for about 10 minutes while the bridal party waited under an awning to go take our pictures.  The bar was the only thing not under a tent and from where we were standing I could see the bartenders still serving through the rain, no umbrellas, and their white shirts getting soaking wet.  What troopers! After the rain was done, a double rainbow popped up.  How perfect! Kind of like someone was saying "thanks for tolerating that little bit of rain on your wedding day...now here's a little token of my appreciation-a rainbow!"

Here is our yummy and pretty cake...

Loved our red velvet cake!

He looks so mischievous here, but he behaved himself with the cake :)

Our reception was a blast! I was worried I'd be too busy talking to dance at my own wedding, but it ended up being a perfect balance.  I was able to talk to just about everyone, plus dance my heart out to Lady Gaga and sing my lungs out to Piano Man with everyone else out on the dance floor.  That was definitely the best night of my life and we are so glad we were able to share it with the people we love :)