Wedding woes, change of plans…

It appears that throwing a huge, offensively expensive and outrageous party for our nuptials, and the novelty that it was, has worn off for lack of any real good reason to do it. I mean a party is certainly in order, but spending a small fortune to get 200+ guests nice and liquored up for a few hours and shove food down their throats seems a bit… hmmm… what’s the word… exorbitant, and almost wanton. I mean, we might as well be in Vegas for five hours and the same things could probably occur for a much less hefty price tag. Don’t get me wrong, i think that a party is definitely in order and i will be the first one to pop open a champagne bottle, i just think that we are loosing focus of what we really want to achieve here.We want to get married, not throw the best party Columbus has ever seen. If we could do both without loosing our minds along the way, that would be great. Seeing things as they are, we have chosen an alternate route to the alter – a much cheaper yet, in its own way, much more personal and perhaps beautiful arrangement for our big day. We were thinking of Marco Beach Ocean Resort for a beach side ceremony and reception following on the veranda. Simple, elegant, uncomplicated. We are by no means big planners. I can’t even organize my own sock drawer. I think an easy packaged ceremony bodes well for us, and the destination provides us with a trimmed down guest list. The C-bus wedding was getting really hard with all the vendors, appointments, meetings, and the like – this is just easier. We fly there, we get married. Simple. More info on our wedding website! 

Killers rain or shine…

Well, the Killers finally came to town in a long awaited event that basically blew our minds. Only problem is that it rained pretty hard throughout the evening. This seriously impeded our picture taking and/or video recording but the audience was pumped and they gave such a charged performance that it was almost a sin to take the time to shoot any footage of the show because you had to peel your eyes away from the performance for seconds at a time.

Brandon flowers might be my idol now…or at least my ideal model for mens shopping…what  is up with three piece suits???

It was the end of the summer and the show to see. Awesome. We even ran into our wedding band front-man. We asked him if he was mad at us…old habits die hard i guess…sorry shucking bubba…

here are some videos – sorry about the quality…it was raining you know.

and another…the encore i think…

What a GREAT 4th of July!!!

Mr. Parks’ California family came out to visit us this past week, and we couldn’t have asked for a better time! His sister (my new sister!) stayed with us, and his parents stayed down the road at a little boutique hotel called The Lofts. This was the first time they had been to Columbus (aside from his sister, Bridget, who braved the cold in December and stayed with us this past winter!), and I think that they had a great time. We got to hang out with my family a lot, and everyone hit it off – it made me wish that Mr. Parks’ family would relocate to Ohio and hang out with us a whole lot more! I never would have guessed that I would be so lucky as to have these wonderful people come into my life and become new additions to my family! We can’t wait to spend the weekend in good old Ottawa, Illinois, hanging out with dozens and dozens of Diederichs for the family reunion! I can’t believe how wonderful being engaged and getting married is – when it’s the right person; your best friend, it just feels like everyone you know is celebrating with you. I could not be any happier!!! Anyway, I just wanted to write a little blog to say thank you to my future in-laws, for being so loving and fun and friendly and easy! I think we could all have a good time wherever we are. I love you all!

Fourth of July on the terrace…

Not the best shots, but nonetheless they are fireworks dammit.