April Haynes and Joseph Wunderlick

Deb and Ralph Do Dallas ’10

April // February 18th, 2010 // 5 Comments »

We recently celebrated one of the biggest events of the year…the fifth annual “Deb and Ralph Do Dallas for Dental”.  Every January, April’s step dad, Ralph, attends a dental convention in Dallas, and in recent years, you never know who might decide to make the trip with him and Deb (April’s mom).

The weekend before the big event, April’s sister, Brooke, decided to come, and a few days later, her aunt Tracey and cousin Erin decided they would drive up from Katy on Friday.  On Wednesday night, we picked up Ralph at Love Field and had dinner at Chip’s Hamburgers before taking him to his hotel.  After Deb arrived on Thursday evening, we had our traditional dinner at Al Biernat’s in Uptown with her cousin, Chuck, who lives in Dallas.  On Friday, April left school at noon so she and her mom could spend an afternoon running wedding errands.  They met with the florist, A Stylish Soiree, and had a great time choosing the flowers for the ceremony.  The remainder of the afternoon was spent buying out Pottery Barn and World Market.

Friday evening, Brooke arrived into Love Field and after picking her up, we met Joe’s family, April’s parents and Tracey and Erin at Celebration, our favorite Dallas restaurant and date spot.   After a wonderful dinner, we headed back to the apartment for a slumber party (minus Deb and Ralph).

Saturday morning, Deb picked up breakfast and came over for a visit before we ventured out for the day.  First on the agenda was a quick lunch with Ralph at Sonny Bryan’s downtown.  After lunch, we all piled into the suburban and headed back to the Park Cities area.  We gave the family a tour of all of the wedding venues – the church, hotel, rehearsal dinner and reception sites.  We then stopped by Sprinkles for dessert before making our way over the The Container Store and our last stop… NorthPark!  After only one hour of shopping, Deb left Nordstrom with the perfect MOB dress.  She absolutely loves it and will look stunning!

Saturday night, we met cousin Chuck at La Duni in Uptown for quite possibly the most fantastic meal of the weekend.  We had yet another great dinner with excellent food, drinks and entertaining conversation.  If you have never been to La Duni, we highly recommend going for the Tres Leches.  TO DIE FOR!

We ended the weekend with our traditional Sunday brunch at Breadwinner’s before the family headed back south.  We were sad to see them go, but exhausted from four days of nonstop food and fun!  Already counting down the days to the 2011 dental convention…

8 Christmases

April // February 9th, 2010 // 3 Comments »

When Joe first created our website, we vowed to blog regularly throughout our engagement.  Several months later, after failing to carry through on this, we promised again to start blogging regularly.  Well…that was two months ago, and we are just now getting around to our Holiday Blog!  Life has been so hectic these past few months that the days and weeks  just seem to fly by.  Enough with the excuses…here is a recap of our whirlwind holidays!

Christmas break for April began on Friday, December 18th.  That evening, we headed to Katy for the first round of family Christmases.   The Hagemeiers gathered on Saturday and, as usual, there was plenty of entertainment.  After a delicious meal, we watched The Hangover…because that is what every family should watch together during the holidays.

On Sunday, we met April’s friend, Kelly, and her husband, Brian, for lunch at one of the girls’ favorite restaurants – Chuy’s!  After a little shopping in H-town, we headed to Livingston for Christmas #2 with the Haynes Family.  We had yet another delicious meal before making the late-night trip back to Dallas because Joe had to work the next morning.   April spent the next few days doing some last-minute Christmas shopping and gift wrapping while Joe worked.

Christmas Eve brought a rare “White Christmas” for Dallas.   The day started off pretty miserable with a cold rain, but shortly after lunch, it changed over to snow and within an hour it was not just snow, but BLOWING SNOW.  We spent the afternoon finishing up our gift wrapping while listening to Christmas music and watching the snow fall.  The snow was beautiful, but it was much prettier to look at than to have to drive in.  By the time we left for mass, it had started to accumulate and the roads were getting icy.  The wind was blowing about 40mph and it felt like a full-blown blizzard.   After mass, we gathered with Joe’s family at the Einspaniers for perhaps the most eventful of our 8 Christmases.  Joe’s family takes the $20 gift exchange VERY seriously, and it got pretty intense.   We managed to make it out with two pretty awesome gifts…a toaster oven and a set of “gourmet” steak knives.  When we got home that night, we couldn’t wait until the next morning to open gifts, so we decided to open one gift each at midnight.  April got Joe the one item on the wedding registry that he actually got excited about…a faux sheepskin throw from Pottery Barn, and he was completely surprised!

After opening the rest of our gifts on Christmas morning, we packed up the car and headed to Joe’s parents’ house for breakfast.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground, so we played in it and took pictures.  We left for Livingston late that morning and although April wasn’t too happy about spending three and half hours in the car on Christmas Day, we passed the time quickly by taking the newlywed quiz that Joe’s Aunt Laurie gave us the night before.  Unfortunately, we didn’t do so well, but the wedding is still on…as of now.

The day after Christmas, we took our engagement pictures in Livingston.  We still have not seen them, but are sure they turned out great!  On Sunday, April’s sister, Brooke (the Maid of Honor), came back to Dallas to spend a few days with us.  The girls spent the next few days hanging out, shopping and doing “girl stuff”.  On Wednesday, they went to the bridal salon to check out bridesmaid dresses again, and after the consultant informed April that the dresses needed to be ordered asap, they were able to choose the PERFECT dress!  Brooke left on Wednesday and we were sad to see her go.

On New Year’s Eve, we had dinner at Mi Cocina with our friends Dan and Kaitlyn, and somehow managed to stay up to ring in the new year.  The next day, we went to Midlothian to April’s cousin, Lauren’s (Matron of Honor) house for lunch with her family.  That evening, we had a date to Studio Movie Grill to see It’s Complicated.  Saturday night we had dinner at Joe’s parents’ before going to see Up in the Air.  We spent Sunday just being lazy.  Unfortunately, even lazy days seem to fly by recently, but it was the perfect end to a wonderful holiday season!

We are really looking forward to our first married Christmas next year.  That will be here pretty soon, considering we are already six weeks into 2010.   So far, this year has been great, and it’s only going to get better!

Pick Our Honeymoon Destination

Joe // January 5th, 2010 // 7 Comments »

Okay…you can’t really pick our honeymoon destination. April wants it to be a surprise and Joe needs your help picking it. The only requirements are somewhere nice in the Caribbean and an all inclusive resort. Please help a brother out by taking part in the below poll and leaving a comment! I am currently growing my hair out to look like the guy in the picture…

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Quick Website Update

Joe // December 28th, 2009 // No Comments »

While we have been rather busy with work and other events, we were finally able to publish our Wedding Party page, as well as our Registry page. We also were able to take some great videos this holiday season and will be sure to write posts regarding the occasions shortly. Until then, be sure to join our e-mail list and follow OurLifestream on the right side of the homepage below the pictures.

And a special congratulations to Amanda Wiggins and Andrew Haynes (both in our wedding party) who became engaged on Christmas Eve!

Life…or something like it…

April // December 1st, 2009 // 3 Comments »

When we started our wedding website, we vowed to blog regularly to keep everyone updated on our wedding plans.  Then life happened and here we are, three months post-engagement with only three blog posts!  We have been very busy in the past few months with traveling, wedding-related events and other exciting things.  So, we wanted to take the time to bring everyone up to speed on what has been going on in our lives since the engagement.

In mid-September, a few weeks after our engagement, we met with our marital counselor, Bill, at Christ the King Catholic Church where we will be married.  We really like him and are looking forward to marriage preparation. Joe left the following Monday for a week-long trip to South Bend, Indiana, to work at his company’s office on the Notre Dame campus.  April flew to Chicago on Friday and drove to South Bend to meet Joe.  We were able to spend time with old friends, enjoying an evening out with dinner at The Vine on Friday night, followed by drinks and dancing at The Linebacker.  On Saturday, we tailgated for several hours before going to the Notre Dame v. Michigan State game, our first Notre Dame football game.  On Sunday, we headed back to Chicago and had lunch with Joe’s cousin, Sarah, who is a junior at Northwestern University.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown before our evening flight back to Dallas.  This trip to South Bend/Chicago was much more enjoyable than our first in the summer of 2008, when April’s luggage was lost…a story I’m sure everyone has heard by now!

October was another eventful month.  The first weekend of the month was the wedding dress shopping extravaganza (see previous post).  The second weekend, we went to the State Fair with our engaged friends Dan and Kaitlyn.  Apparently Oprah heard we were going to be there and came down to tape segments for her show, so that was quite exciting!  The weekend of October 17th, our good friends Tricia, Holly, Jill and Kelsey hosted an engagement happy hour for us at Blue Mesa, and April’s friends Beth and Rachel came from Livingston to attend the party on Friday evening.  On Saturday, the girls enjoyed the day touring the area where all of the wedding festivities will take place.  When April took them to Park City Club to show them the reception site, there just so happened to be an Open House for wedding receptions and they were able to taste some of the food that will be served at the reception, as well as enjoy a champagne toast.  The last weekend of the month, we traveled to St. Louis with Joe’s parents for his sister’s “Oktoberfest”.  She and her now-husband hosted a great pre-wedding party at the brewery where he works.  We had a great weekend sightseeing and enjoying the city.  St. Louis is gorgeous in the fall!

November was another crazy month.  The first weekend of the month, we traveled to Livingston for Aunt Karla’s 50th Birthday/Costume Party.  We made a great Sarah Palin and Obama, and had a fantastic time.  The following weekend we finally found time for a little rest and relaxation (not much, but a little), and spent Sunday afternoon registering at Pottery Barn.  This is, by far, April’s favorite of the three registries and the first one Joe has gotten somewhat excited about.  I’m sure once we start receiving gifts to furnish our home, he will understand the importance of wedding registries!  Thanksgiving Break finally came last week and although April had the entire week off from school and Joe only worked Monday and Tuesday, we managed to stay busy the entire week between Thanksgiving celebrations and Joe’s sister’s wedding.  Thursday, we had a wonderful lunch at Joe’s aunt and uncle’s house in North Dallas, followed by a game of dodgeball with the Wunderlick family.  That evening, we went to another aunt and uncle’s house to watch the Longhorns beat the Aggies.  Friday night was the wedding rehearsal and dinner at Ball’s Hamburgers, which was the perfect location and a lot of fun.  Saturday, we joined Julie and Drew and their friends for a game of Whirly Ball.  The wedding was that evening, and the wedding and reception were an absolute blast and got us very excited about our own wedding.  We both have families that really know how to party (Joe’s especially!), so we are really looking forward to our big day!

In addition to our busy weekends and holidays, we have both had some very exciting career-related changes.   Joe’s freelance website business, WunderCreative, has really taken off in the last few months, so he has been busy working on websites.  As if this isn’t exciting enough, he received a promotion at work the last week of October and is now a marketing manager.  That same week, April was offered a long-term sub position at her favorite school in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD and began teaching 6th grade social studies on November 2nd.  Teaching “full-time” has been a big adjustment, but she is absolutely loving it.  She will be in this position until the regular teacher returns from maternity leave in mid-February, and is certain that other exciting teaching opportunities are in store for her.  She is also continuing to work part-time at Ann Taylor LOFT, as well as tutor at The Tutoring Place.  Needless to say, with five jobs between the two of us, we don’t find a lot of free time!

So as you can see, we have been going non-stop since August 29th and don’t forsee slowing down any time soon, but we promise to regularly post from now on so we can keep everyone informed about our exciting life and the progress of our wedding plans as the big day approaches.  We have no doubt that June 26th will be here faster than we can imagine!