Congrats Master Michael!

Mike has graduated from the University of Minnesota-Carlson School of Management with a Master's Degree in Finance! Congratulations Mike! Now we are one step closer to finalizing all of the major changes that we have jam-packed into a one-month time span.

Next up: Katrina resigns from job, we get married, honeymoon, relocate to Milwaukee, Mike starts working at Robert W. Baird, Katrina applies to school and starts working at: TBD

June 13 will be here before we know it! Three weeks and counting until our big day!

One month and counting...

30 days from now we will be celebrating in post-nuptial bliss!

Planning a wedding at a remote Wisconsin location has certainly turned out to be, well, interesting. After receiving numerous questions of why in the world we are getting married in the far northeast forests of Wisconsin, we have begun to ask ourselves similar questions. A large portion of our wedding details were found far from Florence! At the same time, we have had such a fun time planning a unique, creative and personally meaningful weekend that we are sure we be will be setting the stage for a great time for everyone involved! (and most important, Grandma and Grandpa Tippett will be able to join us, when no other location would have been accessible for them)

We may have bitten off more than we can chew with all of the 'do it yourself' projects we have planned, but planning a budget wedding has forced us to be resourceful and we have such wonderful responses from all of our friends and family who have been able to offer their support for us.

The photo above is from a photographer we found on craigslist who offered to do 'engagement photos' free of charge for us, while she is trying to build her photography portfolio. She got some great shots, and fortunately, neither of us were hurt during the production of these photos!

Done: Caterer. Portable potties. Wine selection. Beer selection (yay for Spotted Cow!). Mr. Nichols is ordained. Rings ordered. Live music confirmed. Dress altered. Homestead farm is on the map. Photographer is paid. Dance floor/tent/electric generator booked. Online RSVP is a success.

Procrastination list: Tux not altered. Bartenders not found. Cake not decided upon. Flowers not selected. Play list still in progress. Centerpieces still waiting to be discovered. Vows not written. Honeymoon not planned. Travel visas not obtained... Oh no, this list seems to keep going and going!

We are so excited to experience our wedding and share it with all of you! We better get back to planning - see you in one month!

At the Copacabana!

We're going to Rio!

After contemplating several wonderful destinations, we have finally decided upon Brazil as our honeymoon destination! We'll be spending two weeks traveling around Brazil, flying into Rio de Jeneiro and ending up in Buzios, a romantic fishing village up the coast (as the Lonely Planet tells us).

Now that we have our honeymoon booked, we can hopefully refocus on the important wedding details, such as renting some nice bathrooms and figuring out the marriage license, but honeymoon details are so much fun!

On Wisconsin

We are officially moving to Milwaukee!

I don't really have any pictures that coordinate with this posting, so here is a silly picture of us last summer in Madison and Janice and Kris' wedding at the MMoCA.

So in an attempt to pack as many 'life changing events' (as my good friend Sarah Pease says) into our lives at one time, we will now add 'moving' near the top of the list.

Mike has officially accepted a position at Baird Financial in Milwaukee. He'll be finishing his MBA at the University of Minnesota in May! Yay! So now we just have to figure out the logistics of a wedding and a move all in the same month...is anyone volunteering to pack our belongings?

This is exciting news, as Mike will now enter back into the work world and now it is Katrina's chance to return to the books! We are looking forward to getting a little closer to family and friends (although moving away from other great friends) and hopefully, maybe just a little warmer than ridiculously cold Minneapolis?

June 13, 2009

We have set the date! We'll be getting married on Saturday, June 13, 2009 in the far northern forests of Florence, Wisconsin. Coincidentally, the day will be even more special as it marks Trina and Jerry Fluur's 34th wedding anniversary!

Details are slowly being nailed down, but we seem to have the big things under way at the very least. Our married friends support the 'no stress' approach, so we are trying to abide by that as closely as possible!

It is going to be a great weekend with our closest family and friends, hopefully some beautiful weather and some great tasting smores! We are planning the weekend around the theme of a wedding picnic, so you may even find yourself in a cutthroat game of bocce ball or pegs and barrels!

Happy New Year everyone! And warmest wishes for a loving 2009.

~Mike and Katrina

October 10, 2008

We are thrilled to announce our engagement!

It started out as many other walks had - Aapl tugging away
at her leash as she walked us around Lake Calhoun. Normally, we would turn back
half way around Calhoun so her teeny feet would not get too tired. But this day was so beautiful - the evening setting in at the perfect temperature, people were running, biking and roller blading around the lake, enjoying the wonderful evening, and one of the last nice days of Autumn. We agreed to keep walking.

We came to the beach on the far end of the lake and turned off the path to get closer to the water. This is the point of no return for me. My plan was coming together. I reached over and pulled Katrina to me and started my unplanned speech. After a few compliments turned into a full few minutes, Katrina asked me why I was saying these weird things. That was my cue. I started digging in my pocket, past my keys and some dog treats, and found what I was looking for (apparently she saw this sly attempt). I grabbed her hand as I knelt down with ring in hand and asked her to marry me! I'm pretty sure she thought I was joking even though she responded with an enthusiastic yes. After some hugs and kisses and a few tears, I reached into the near by bushes and pulled out a previously hidden bag with a bottle of champaign and glasses. We sat and drank that fine bottle of bubbly for well over an hour as we watched the moon come up, and talked about our exciting future together.

We have included several pictures from our weekend celebration. Neither of us had our cameras, so we kept our fingers crossed with the old disposable 35mm. Mike had already been planning a weekend getaway (which hopefully would be a celebratory weekend) with a little cabin on the shore of Lake Superior, north of Two Harbors. The weekend was perfect, and the Autumn colors were at their spectacular peak. We spent the rest of the weekend just to two of us, and of course, little Aapl!

Of mention, is the dinner we enjoyed Saturday night. When you dine in Beaver Bay, MN, a town of 175 people, one can only imagine the experience. After our order was misplaced, we then enjoyed the slowest service west of Wisconsin and a torrential down-pour - and ended up with a car stuck in a foot of sloppy mud that had originally started out as our parking spot.

Fortunately, we met a Minnesota stranger who went out of his way to drive to the Holiday station and in the end, he towed us out. We were able to laugh about it - after all, how could we not laugh at the fact that here we are on the first full day of our engagement, and we are knee deep in mud with a hillbilly yelling 'Oh Yah! You ain't never getten outta that swamp toonight!' We offered him an invite to the wedding, but he decided to give us our first wedding present instead - a finely crafted industrial strength yellow tow strap!

Each of you are so meaningful to us and we look forward to sharing many more moments with each other and with you!

Mike, Katrina & Aapl

aapl discovers the summer fun!

aapl has had such a jolly time meeting her cousins abby and lucy, and visiting the lake with sydney! she sure does love the water. run aapl run!