Archive for September, 2011
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Wrzeszczynski
Although it has been suggested by nearly every one of our guests, Steve will not be changing his last name to Blumer. Amanda has also rejected the idea of a hyphenated last name.
This means, at some point, you’re going to have to learn how to properly pronounce and spell Wrzeszczynski. The name may be intimidating, but it is quite easy once you learn the tricks.
Spelling
Wrzeszczynski is best learned in four steps.
1. It begins with a ‘Wr’ and right away you hit your first ‘z’ There are 3 of them.
2. This is the easy part. It’s just an ‘es’
3. Here’s where it gets a bit tricky. Constantly remind yourself that there are 3 z’s and you already used up one of them. You need the rest of them at this point. Toss a ‘c’ in between to arrive at ‘zcz’
4. If you managed to make it through the last step, you’re home free. Just tack on a ‘yn’ then the Polish ‘ski’ and you’re set!
Pronunciation
It’s pronounced: Ra-zin-ski. Wrzeszczynski! Don’t you see it?
We are more than aware that you can eliminate about half of the letters and still arrive at the same pronunciation. But that wouldn’t be as much fun now would it?
One last thing, all guests will be tested on the spelling of our last name upon arrival at the reception hall. Spell it wrong and you ain’t eating.
Bride & Groom
I grew up north of Pittsburgh in Wexford with my Mom and Dad, and my two sisters, Alli and Alex. I enjoyed playing softball, playing flute and piano, taking acting lessons, and spending time with family and friends.
Penn State seemed like the perfect choice for college. It was close enough to come home (about 3 hours) if I needed or wanted to, but far enough away to feel like I was on my own. I knew a ton of people from high school, but there were also enough students to meet a lot of new friends too (like Steve!) Although I didn’t know much about college football at the time, I was told that Penn State had a well known football program. I grew up going to Steelers football games with my dad at Three Rivers Stadium and then at Heinz field, so I had plenty of great football memories. I soon learned that attending a Penn State football game at Beaver Stadium is unlike any other experience you could have; Steve and I have season football tickets and still go back up to State College for Penn State football every chance we can get! I graduated from Penn State in May 2008 with a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering.
I now live back near Pittsburgh with Steve, but east of the city this time, in Monroeville. I work as a Mechanical Engineer for Bechtel. I love to travel to see the world, learn about other cultures, and push myself to try new things outside of my comfort zone (like skydiving in Austin, Texas, and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef). Steve and I have a lot of the same interests, and we’re nearly inseparable. He is the nicest, most caring person I know, and I feel like the luckiest person in the world to honestly say that next August I will be marrying my best friend.
I grew up outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County with 2 sisters, Angela and Natalie, a step-sister, Heather, and 1 brother, Bill. My mom’s sanity was tested daily with two sons, especially when one (Bill) could be convinced to do most anything. Somehow, we made it out of our childhoods.
I only applied at one college during high school and that was Penn State. Thankfully, I was accepted and it was there I met Amanda. I graduated and decided to build a business of my own. I now run my own Internet Marketing business from home. I help people connect with the information they’re searching for online.
I enjoy photography and traveling (if you were to ask Amanda she’d say I was sheltered before I met her.) I just like to visit new places and capture experiences to share with everyone I know. Above all it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing, all I need is Amanda by my side. Getting married means she’ll be there forever and I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Details
The Ceremony
St John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
920 Perry Highway
Pittsburgh, PA 15229-1130
(412) 364-6626
Website
Map and Directions
The Reception
Pittsburgh’s Grand Hall at The Priory
614 Pressley Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
(412) 206-6847
Website
Map and Directions
Wedding Party
The Proposal
I woke up on Thursday, May 26th reluctant to go to work. It was my last day of work before a four day holiday weekend, but I had to get through one more day. When I left for work I woke Steve up to kiss him goodbye for the day, just like any other ordinary work day. I went out into our parking lot, got into my car, turned it on, looked up at the dashboard… and became suddenly confused. There was a Birthday card, a big yellow daisey, and a stack of other cards wrapped up in a ribbon.
Steve set up the car and snapped this picture when I got up to shower.
Puzzled, I opened and read the Birthday card (we already celebrated my birthday a week ago!) to find out that Steve had called me off work for the day. Instead I was going on a Pittsburgh scavenger hunt! I didn’t know if this was just a practical joke to make me even later for work than I already was so my first reaction was to call Steve to see if this was serious. He confirmed it was and told me that each card in the stack had a time written on the front. I couldn’t open them until that time. He also told me that he had made me a playlist on my ipod, and that I should turn up the tunes for my day of driving.
My first two thoughts were “this is way better than going to work!” and “if I’m not going to work why didn’t he let me sleep in?!”
Time to open the first card, which told me to drive home to Wexford. I had the pleasure of sitting in rush hour traffic through the Squirrel Hill tunnel. But I was still kind of in shock about not going to work and I was rockin out to my playlist so I couldn’t complain! Once I finally got home I went inside where Dad was busy making a delicious breakfast for him, Alli, Alex, and I.
(While Amanda was having fun running around town, I spent most of my time between hyperventilating and stressing out.)
Next stop was to get mani/pedis with Alli and Alex followed by meeting Mom downtown at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for lunch.
The next card had an address that I wasn’t familiar with in Shadyside. Good thing my GPS knew where I was going! Once I parked the next card told me to go inside and tell them that I had an appointment for an hour long massage at the spa!!
Relaxed and happy, I opened the next card which had a much more familiar address. Our apartment in Monroeville! Once I came home Steve had a pile of presents for me! I kept telling him that we already exchanged Birthday presents (Steve was May 5th and I was May 20th) but he said not to worry about it.
First present (wrapped in a giant box) was two citypass ticket booklets for Chicago. Steve told me they were good for a year, so now that we had them we would have to book a trip! We LOVE to travel to new cities and countries!
2nd present (another giant box) was a print out of a tripadvisor.com review of a hotel in Chicago. He said that he thought this hotel looked nice for whenever we ended up going to Chicago.
3rd present was a printout of plane tickets… from Pittsburgh to Chicago… in a couple hours! I was soooooooooo excited! I had been wanting to plan a vacation, and this was the perfect surprise for a long weekend! We sat there for a minute talking about the flight we’d be getting on in a couple of hours before I remembered seeing a 4th box. I asked Steve what had happened to this box (planned misdirection) and he handed it to me.
I opened the wrapping on the 4th box which was a shoebox. I’m always happy to get new shoes, but when I read the card it said to give Steve the box. I gave it to him. He opened it, pulled out the ring box, got down on one knee, and proposed! You can guess what happened from there. I said ‘yes’, started balling, and grabbed Steve in a big bear hug. He yelled at me for not even looking at the ring that he put so much effort into picking out, but I was still crying and couldn’t see through the tears except to see that it was a really shiny blur!
After Amanda put on the ring we had about a half hour to frantically finish packing (Steve had packed most of our stuff already) and to try to call Steve’s family since they didn’t know yet. We drove back to Wexford to see the whole Blumer family as a newly engaged couple, then Dad drove us to the airport and we were off!
Chicago was the perfect way to celebrate our engagement and just enjoy exploring a new city together before the craziness that is wedding planning began!
Here are some of our favorite pictures from Chicago…
