Erin Akin Carroll

awesomely bad!

Jun242008

This is sure to cause me future embarrassment!

Here are the New Rules:
Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 5 songs you are embarrassed to admit to others that you like and tell why.
Tag 7 random people at the end of post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I’m a music junkie and love anything that I can sing to, bop along to, dance to, cry to, laugh to, you get it. I like it all– as long as I can understand the words and it actually has a melody. I sing in the car and dance in the living room, much to my dog’s dismay.

1. “We Are the World” by USA for Africa– This one is an old family favorite. My parents recorded an MTV countdown for me when I was little and “We Are the World” was one of the videos. I love the song and actually called in and won a radio contest where you had to name the voices on “We Are the World” as they came into the song. And I mean, we really are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving. Ha!

2. “We Built This City” by Starship– Post-Jefferson Airplane, post-Jefferson Starship. Grace Slick was a thing of the past. Ouch. This song always came on the radio in the morning when we were living in Baton Rouge and it always makes me happy.

3. “Make Me Lose Control” by Eric Carmen– Another childhood favorite that never seems to get on my nerves. I am going to embarrass my brother by letting you all know that this was his favorite song.

4. “I Want it That Way” by Backstreet Boys– I was an *NSYNC fan in high school and the early days of college, but I love singing along to this song.

5. “I Would Do Anything For Love” by MeatLoaf– Wow. I’m so sorry to even put this on here. I made a CD of cheesy songs for Todd and me to listen to on our way to Gainesville in 2006 and put this song on there. We both LOVE singing along. It’s probably the worst.

I think everyone may have already done this, but if you haven’t and want to post it on your blog and let me know so I can make fun of you later!

reunited and it feels so good

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Jun202008

In the month that we’ve been back from our honeymoon, I have been out of town for one week without Todd and he was gone this week without me. My hubby returned from his trip today and I was so happy to see him!

We’re headed to St. Augustine for my cousin’s wedding tomorrow. We’ll pick my brother up at the airport and my brother’s coming back with us to Columbia for a couple of weeks to visit us and his Columbia friends.

The photo is one of my favorites from the wedding. We saw each other before the ceremony and took every single posed picture before the ceremony. I asked Kelly to be there when Todd and I saw each other for the first time so she could get that very special moment on film for us.

pretty maids all in a row

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Jun162008

I love my bridesmaids. They were happy, supportive, cheerful, and making me laugh more than ever! Kelly got some great shots of us with the Toss umbrellas I gave them. I’ve threatened Todd that I’ll be putting this group shot above the mantle. Sorry, honey.

small touches, big impact

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Jun132008

I really wanted all of our guests to feel like they left knowing who we are and a little about what we like. I tried to convey this with the music, the readings, the menu, the flowers and decor, and anything I could think of. Here are a few of my favorite parts of the day.

– No unity candle. After talking about other weddings with my family and Todd, we all discovered that we’ve never been a fan of the unity candle. There’s a lot of room for error and it’s always seemed a little awkward to me– at least I’d feel awkward doing it. So we decided to bring the family into it in a different way. I actually got this idea from my friend, Hillary’s wedding. Our parents pre-recorded messages to us. My mom and Todd’s mom recorded messages to me while my dad and Todd’s dad recorded messages to Todd. When the minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married?”, my dad replied, “I do” and my mom and Todd’s mom came to stand next to us. Todd’s dad stepped down next to us from his Best Man position and our parents were on either side of us. As soon as they got there, my mom’s voice came over the system and said, “Dear Erin…” All four of our parents recorded the sweetest, most meaningful messages to us about love, faith, and marriage. Our music coordinator was playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (one of my favorites) very softly on the piano while all of the recordings were played. It’s definitely one of my most favorite memories from the day. I knew they’d recorded the messages and I was so excited to hear what they had to say.

– The ceremony music. The prelude music included “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Nessun Dorma,” “And So it Goes,” and lots of other love songs that I love. We exited the church to “Oh Happy Day” with a big gospel sound. My cousins and two close family friends sang “Shine on Us” and “The Prayer.” It meant so much to have special people and special songs. We couldn’t help but cry, but it was beautiful.

– The pies. We chose not to have a groom’s cake, but had groom’s pies instead. We had white chocolate banana cream pies from Soby’s displayed on scales of justice (Todd’s an attorney). Then the big pies were surrounded by miniature 3 inch pies. Someone said they ate 7 of the mini-pies! The white chocolate banana cream pies are Todd’s absolute favorite and I have to say I love them, too. You can see the shadow of the scales of justice in this picture.

– The cake. I love plain white wedding cake with almond filling. So yummy. We had a white cake, but had pale pink butter cream icing with gold ribbon. I wanted one surprise layer of red velvet cake to remind people that Southerners know how to do food!

– The food. I wanted some fancy food, but I really wanted comfort food for everyone. With the drinks and all the dancing I knew they’d need lots of yummy comfort food. In honor of South Carolina, we had a shrimp and grits station. In honor of my Louisiana roots, we had a crawfish etouffee station. We had a carving station with pork tenderloin, but I insisted that it have a side of French fries– my favorite late night snack. So we did sweet potato fries in little cones. This was the perfect dance floor snack. We had yummy cheeses, mushrooms, chicken salad tartlets, and more Southern fun!

— okay, there’s more, but this post is so long right now that I think I need to post the rest later. And next time there will be pictures.

«Previous Page