necessary premature celebration

Since we are leaving the country soon, and I don't forsee the air force allowing me to ship a frozen layer of cake, I went ahead and started thawing out our wedding cake today. I realize it's a "one year anniversary" tradition, but in our case, 5 months and some change is going to have to do.










It held up better than i'd expected - I vacuum packed it, so it's got some weird dents and creases, but I figured that would be the best way to keep it from becoming freezer burned. I was really happy with how well the flowers held up!









They still look pretty fabulous!!!



I'm really hoping it's still somewhat edible - but if it tastes half as good as it did on our big day, I'll be happy!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

trashed.

we met up with our wedding photographer a few days ago to do some additional pictures and to do my "trash the dress" shoot - in all honesty, trashing my dress is something i've gone back and forth on, and have had many reservations about (most of the reservations revolved around my mother murdering me for destroying my wedding gown) but i'm super glad that i went through with it (and mom actually seems okay with it as well!) - this was, hands down, the most fun i've ever had getting my picture taken, and i only wish that every bride i know had the ability to give herself (and her groom) the opportunity to just let loose like this - my wedding day was so hectic and stressful that i don't even think that if i'd HAD the time or opportunity to shoot something like these that i'd been in the right frame of mind - if you're getting married soon, i urge you to do this after your wedding - once the stress is gone and you can really just let it all go. i love ALL the pictures that were taken on my wedding day, but these just make my heart want to explode. in a good way, of course.

....it also helps to have an incredible photographer, so if you're in the market for one of those, you HAVE to call Kevin Barre. i can't emphasize his badassedness (he's so bad ass, that i just created the word badassedness for him) enough. not only is HE awesome, but now he's got Heidi who helps to style the shoots, and she is A-MA-ZING! we shot these on tuesday, and he's a busy guy, so i didn't expect to see any of them for a while, so when i woke up thursday morning to find them on facebook, it felt like christmas....picture if you will me, lying in bed next to my sleeping husband, checking facebook and trying to muffle my squeals every time i clicked on a picture of us. that totally happened, y'all.

Kevin posted 36 images from that day on facebook - i'm gonna post just a few here, and if you want to see them all, you can see them HERE at his blog.....


DISCLAIMER: before any of you who just saw me with shoulder length hair asks...NO, the hair you are about to see is not really all MY hair - the role of "really awesome hair" in the following images was played by euronext clip-in human hair extensions. Mrs. Melinda Wilson at Hair Happenings (who also did my hair on our wedding day) worked some magic and did an incredible job getting these things in my hair and making it look beyond fabulous! I highly recommend them AND her!!!!

okay, you can look at them now....

these two are some of my favorites of us EVER....these were taken on the staircase inside my grandparents' house - i feel like if my grandmother were alive, these are the ones she'd have blown up to gargantuan proportions, all picturesaurus rex, and hung up in the most frequented room in her house. no, actually, she'd build them their OWN room. that would be SO mary jo.

taken in front of my grandparents' house - so cute, it makes puppies seem ugly

taken in the gazebo - the place that i was originally supposed to get married - i think this is SO fun!

our wedding shoes. this picture makes me smile

love, love, love this, and it seems to be a favorite amongst friends as well - i've gotten a lot of comments on this one in particular

they told us they wanted us to run across the field. i remember thinking "run? i don't do that..." - but i was willing to do anything they asked of me - it looks like i'm running, but really, gene is just pulling me, and i'm praying i don't fall. regardless, i love this picture, and love them for coming up with the idea!

this is how i "trashed" my dress - in my parents' pond in front of their house - the water was FREEZING, and there were catfish popping up all over the place - i expected the water to be chilly, but it was seriously take-the-breath-out-of-you cold - once we got a little acclimated, it got easier, and honestly, it was SO much fun. never EVER thought i'd be in pond water rolling around in mud in a wedding gown, but now i can't imagine NOT doing it.

we had SO much fun, and, for the record, my dress is clean, alive (as alive as a dress can be, anyway) and well at my parents' house - mom took a chance (what more could have possibly happened to it, right?), tossed in the washer on the gentle cycle, and to everyones surprise it came out looking like new (if anyone from Woolite is reading this, i'll totally do a commercial for a small fee, and maybe a large supply of your product).....i guess you can take the dress out of the wedding, but you can't take the wedding out of the dress.....


much love and thanks to our incredible photographer, Kevin Barre (and to Heidi!) for these incredible pictures, and for such a FUN day! (and for making our "what pictures should we order" decisions MUCH harder! ha!)

Ceremony.

Social Butterflies - the amazing ladies responsible for our beautiful and unique ceremony-recently blogged about what they did for our big day! These are the most incredible, understanding, creative women in the biz, and they were ABSOLUTELY the fairy godmothers of my wedding day (especially Addie, who kept everything and everyone under control, and the day running smoothly) go check out their blog to see some pics of the ceremony site (lots of other fun, creative things to see and read, too!)and if you're in the market for a wedding or event planner, give these fabulous ladies a call!
Click here to read their blog....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

this makes me laugh.

while uploading all the ones of the morning of the wedding, i had to sift through some of the wedding pictures mrs. nellie took as well - here's one i just had to share because it makes me laugh - kind of a ceremony sneak peek - i like to call this photo "I was able to memorize Ozymandias and The Day is Done, but i couldn't memorize my own wedding vows"

the morning of...

i've been married for almost 2 months, and have only posted one picture of the entire day, mostly due to my own laziness.  i just recently got the proofs from our wedding photographer (AMAZING! i seriously could not be happier with the result - i can't emphasize enough (to anyone who may be reading this that is getting married) the importance of hiring a good photographer), and there are so many of them that i don't know if i'll ever get to look at each image individually, and i definitely know it's going to be nearly impossible to pick my "favorites" -

i figured before any pictures of the actual wedding itself made it on here that i should at least give a little glimpse into how crazy the hours leading up to it were (crazy is an understatement. i feel like someone slipped me a roofie, because i hardly remember anything that happened from the hours of 10 a.m. until i was actually saying my vows).  these were  shot the morning of the day of our wedding while we were all getting ready in the suite - they were taken by a family friend (the wonderful nellie hopper!), and she captured some really cute moments - i'm glad she was there to do so, cause none of the rest of us in that suite were in the right frame of mind to even operate a camera (and if someone had handed me one at the time, i probably would have thrown it at someone)....so without further delay, i present to you, my wedding day....

the view from my suite, also known as "the nicest, biggest, most ridiculous hotel room i ever have or ever will stay in," but we will just call it the "bridal suite" for short...

my matrons of honor, "the kims," without which i would have never made it through the day. I'm pretty sure it was right about this time was taken that it started raining outside....the looks on their faces are a mixture of "maybe she won't notice" and "oh shit, she's going to flip out" - my reaction was...well....maybe not as epic as one would expect, but i did sort of freak (luckily, the rain moved out quickly, but having the weather channel send "severe thunderstorm" and "flash flood" warnings on my phone every 5 minutes didn't help the situation...the texts might as well have said "MOTHER NATURE HATES YOU, AND THE BITCH IS GONNA FLOOD THE BROOKS MUSEUM AND RUIN YOUR DAY!")

my grandfather, who was smart enough to stick his head in the door, survey the situation, and run away as quickly as he could, unscathed.

the next two are of mom and lesa, our fabulous Trish McEvoy makeup artist. she made everyone look incredible, and i'm so glad we found her!

hey, look! there's my dad's back! the look on my mom's face says "isn't there something else very important that you should be doing right now?" - and there probably was....

this is me, getting my hair done by mrs. melinda - she did everyone's hair, and she was an angel for doing so! fun fact: she gave me my very first hair cut, and until i moved away from home to go to college, she is who did my hair - i couldn't think of anything more fitting than for her to be the one doing my hair on my big day.

the dude in the picture is wes, the best man.  you have probably caught on that he brought me these flowers, which were from my soon-to-be husband. later, gene would remark at how silly it probably was for him to send me flowers since, well, we were leaving the country the next day and obviously i couldn't take them with me, but i was ecstatic to get them.  while this picture was being taken, wes was telling me about my wedding gift (which, if you've read some of my previous posts, you've seen the finished product of), and why it wasn't actually there that day....

....and here it is, ladies and gentlemen - the first of many appearances of CRY FACE.   it made more than its fair share of appearances on my wedding day, and believe me, i wasn't happy about it, but there wasn't much i could do. people always warn you that you will be uber emotional on your wedding day, but i didn't believe them.....now i do...i seriously would burst into tears at the drop of a hat, totally compromising my wedding photos...stupid cry face. 

of course, when cry face comes around, someone has to deal with the aftermath.  so glad that lesa was still there to fix it!  the other gal in this picture is my brother's girlfriend austin.  she had her own disaster that day, but i was preoccupied and missed it - apparently she had gone somewhere to have her hair done, and ended up with some strange faux hawk or something....at some point i heard the door of the suite open, followed by the sound of people gasping and a girl crying - the next time i saw austin, her hair looked great (thanks to mrs. nellie!), so i totally missed what the fuss was all about...it's like the loch ness monster of hair disasters - i've heard tale of what others saw, but i don't have any actual first hand proof.....she ended up looking fabulous though, so everything worked out fine.

putting in my veil - this, coupled with the putting in of that damn headband was probably the most stressful part of getting ready - for some reason there was this one tiny part of my hair that just wouldn't cooperate - mrs. melinda finally got it though, and thank goodness she did, cause i'm too OCD about my hair for words (ask my wedding photographer - he and i made a deal at the rehearsal dinner that i wasn't allowed to touch my hair at all at the wedding, or he could cut pieces off my dress)

good to go! 

oh, wait - whats going on with THAT hair.......

the beautiful flowers that gene sent me - true story: my mom tried her hardest to keep them alive until we got home from the honeymoon....

coming soon: pictures of the actual wedding (featuring MORE CRYFACE!)

programs

i don't know if i've ever talked about my programs here, and i know i've never posted pictures of them, and i've been asked about them multiple times, so i thought i would share these little pieces of fabulousness.

i knew i wanted something different, but didn't quite know what - my first instinct was to print the program on fans (cause, well, i got married outside and it was about a million degrees...), but then the ladies at Molly's Paperie presented this idea to me, and i was sold. we just gave them some info, and they came up with this super cute design (i also stole these pictures from their facebook page, since i neglected to take any of my own, and currently don't have one on hand!) i've gotten quite a few compliments on them, and they were definitely one of my favorite things at the wedding. they were like nothing i'd never seen before, and i thought they were a perfect way to give everyone who may not have been familiar with the members of our wedding party a little introduction to who they are and what they mean to us....

the programs were trifold - on the outside was the general info about the ceremony, the info about who was who in the wedding party, music, etc.....





then you open it up and find the fun stuff! a word search, true and false, matching, and general trivia about us and our wedding party....





one of my absolute favorite parts? "65% chance that the bride will end up in a hoodie before the night is over" - mostly because i very nearly did, and, more than once, said out loud "can i put on my pajamas yet?!?!"




honestly, my favorite part of the whole wedding process was picking out all things paper - the invitations, the save the dates, my thank you notes...and then the programs! loved everything about these, and love the girls at Molly's Paperie for creating such a perfect and unique program for our big day!

35 years ago....

my parent's 35th anniversary was just a couple of days ago - i have to say that honestly, they have been THE most incredible role models for me when it comes to showing what it means to be a family. i could gush for days about these two, but i'll spare you.....

i thought long and hard about what to give them as a thank you gift for everything they did for our wedding - what i ended up doing was taking their wedding album (which my grandparents had stored in a cabinet in their house), which was literally falling apart, and had the pictures turned into a photobook - i had all the color converted to black and white, because i just liked the feel of it better (and the pics had aged poorly, so the color quality was baaaaaad), but the ones i'm including here are in their original color form - just thought that it would be fitting to share some pics of THEIR big day where i've been blabbing about mine for the last year and a half or so - after all, my wedding wouldn't have been possible without theirs...these are just a few snippets of the album, but these are some of my faves!

my mom, shortly before walking down the aisle

my mom and my PR (my amazing grandfather)

my grandparents (my mom's parents) with her before the ceremony - for some reason i LOVE my grandmothers dress. chartreuse and fabulous!

my mom with both of my grandmothers (mary jo on the left, vivian on the right)

my parents with my dad's parents - check the GIGANTOSAURUS BOW TIES.....

these next two are some of my favorite pictures, because they are examples of pretty much doing anything for someone you love - see, my dad's grooms cake was made of chocolate, cause, well, that's the traditional thing to do - not really funny, huh? well, what if i told you that my dad is allergic to chocolate? think of that fact as you look at my parents' faces in these pictures, and try to imagine the dialogue they might have running through their heads - in the first one, the panic between them is subtle - you can see that their arms that are behind them are like, gripping each other and my mom has this look on her face like "we just have to get this picture".....but i especially love the second one where my dad looks like he's inching out of the frame, about to run away from the cake, and my mom looks like a woman who just had a flash forward in her mind of spending her honeymoon night cleaning up vomit and rushing her new husband to the E.R.....

my parents are totally cute.







way to go, mom and dad. congrats on 3.5 successful decades!!!!

My wedding gift

My wedding gift finally came in last week! It's a pop art style portrait of our pets! Gene told me about it on our wedding day, but he wanted me to have the final say on the design, so he had me look at a few (six when it all was said and done) different proofs and designs, and a few weeks ago I finally picked one! It came in las Friday, and I absolutely love it! It's a quirky, untraditional take on a wedding gift, but there's nothing I would have rather been given! My dogs mean the world to me, and this little piece of art featuring them is something I'll cherish forever!

Here's a shot of the entire picture-it's 1ft. By 3ft.....on canvas

Detailed shot of Lucy, my pretty pretty pink princess! I love her color combo!

Luke! Our "big brown boy" is now big and blue (and representin' with his MSU collar!)!!! The fact that the freckles on his nose are kind of highlighted here makes me smile!

And last, but not least, my littlest furry "pair of pants," Oliver. Looking so handsome! Choosing his color/background color was the most difficult to me, and while the pink/purple might have been the least "manly" choice, I think he pulls it off nicely!

Love my new piece of "art" and love my thoughtful hubby!

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

check this out:

our invitations - which we found with the help of the fabulous girls at Molly's Paperie- made it onto the blog of the company that designed them (Wiley Valentine)! they featured our save the dates a few months ago as well, but i never remembered to post a link to them! pretty neat, huh?!??!! click HERE to see them!

giving thanks

i'm a stickler for etiquette. it's something that i inherited from my grandmother and mother. I try really hard to follow the rules set by the pros on the subject, like ms. emily post, but there are times when i slide a bit...Now that the wedding is over, I've been devoting a ridiculous amount of time to writing thank you notes. Ideally, i like to get my notes out as quickly as possible, but in the exciting and hectic few months leading up to the wedding, my schedule, combined with the fact that i live 2 hours from my parents (where most of my gifts were sent), i have fallen terribly behind. (seriously. some of them that should have gone out two months ago are still being written today). In the case of a wedding, i think people tend to be more accepting when they get a "late" thank you note, so while i'm internally spazzing out about my tardiness, i think that the rule of "better late than never" definitely applies here.

Part of my problem lies in the fact that i take so damn long to write ONE note. i go through an entire, lengthy process. i think about the gift, i imagine what i can or have used it for, i think of all the bonuses to the item, etc, i try to include some witty anecdote, etc...and then, before i ever even put pen to paper, i type out exactly what the note will say on my computer. i proofread the note at least 3 times, and usually i make changes. THEN, i pull out a card and write down what i've typed out. when all is said and done, I've usually written enough to fill up the front AND back of a notecard. I timed the process a few times when i was writing them earlier today, and writing ONE note typically takes me, on average, 12 minutes.

some of you who are former brides, or who frequently write than you notes may think "why in the world are you taking 12 minutes to write each thank you note" and for me, the answer is simple.

someone had to get into a car, drive to a store, find your registry, and then made a thoughtful choice about what to send you for a wedding gift. I dare say that the entire process took them much longer than 12 minutes. don't you think their effort, time, thoughtfulness, etc. deserves a bit more than a sub-par, 3 sentence long blurb of thanks?

i've sent a crapload of wedding gifts, baby gifts, etc. in my day, and i've gotten quite a few thank-you notes as a result. want to hear a secret? i keep them ALL. every single thank you note i've ever gotten. I use them as a guidelines for what to do, and what NOT to do, and as the wedding gifts started showing up, i started looking at these old notes more an more frequently. while some of them were great, MOST of them were bad. my favorite was the one that said:

"Dear Charlee, Thank you so much for the wedding gift. We really appreciate it."

really? that's all i get?

i wondered at the time why this bride even bothered buying the obviously pricey personalized notes that she did...i mean, she could have just gotten some of those fill-in-the-blank thank you notes that they have designed for kids to send out for birthday gifts, and saved herself a ton of cash....really, what was the point?

that particular thank-you note rubbed me the wrong way for many reasons. first, because it was quite possibly the most thoughtless, lame-ass excuse for a thank-you note that's ever been written, and second, because that particular gift had been a pain in the ass for me to even get to the bride and groom. I remember that it was something they had mentioned many times that they really wanted, so they registered for it at one of the "big box" chain stores. it wasn't something that was available online, so i had to physically drive to the store to pick it up....with my luck, the first of these chains i went to didn't have it, and neither did the second, so by the time i'd actually found the gift, i'd been to three different stores. THEN, i had to wrap it, pack it, and ship it to the bride and groom..none of which i minded, because i love both of these people, and wanted them to have the gift, but, while i'm not tooting my own horn here, i think i can honestly say that i went through an awful lot of trouble for a thank-you note that was so.......lame.

notes like that one stick with me in my mind, so when i sit down to write one, i try to do it with the same thoughtfulness that people used when selecting a gift for us. i realize that writing thank you notes is exhausting, boring and time consuming, but when a person sends you, for example, a stainless steel cuisinart toaster, then you should recognize that you know exactly what it is that they sent you. you should also tell them how great it looks in your kitchen, or how much it complements your other new appliances, and mention that it's already getting plenty of use in the morning's at your house, or how you and your new husband have toast and coffee together every morning before work. then tell them how happy you were that they were able to make it to the wedding, or, if they couldn't be there, how much they were missed. say that you hope to see them soon, or something else of that nature.

how hard is that? it's not....at ALL. so i don't understand why there are so many shitty thank-you notes going out in the world.

and then there's this new "modern" way of thinking where it's somehow acceptable to thank people via email (it's fine to thank someone this way for some things, but most definitely NOT a wedding gift) or (gasp!) to not send a thank-you note AT ALL. a couple of years ago, a family friend's daughter got married. My parents and grandparents sent gifts, and a couple of months after the wedding, were having a conversation about the wedding with the bride's parents, who mentioned to them how horrified they were that their daughter had announced to them that she had no intention of writing thank-you notes.

WHO DOES THAT?
apparently, she's not the only one - there's a whole group of people in the world who think that thank-you notes are outdated or some such nonsense.....you've got to be KIDDING me.

so while some of my notes are a bit...late, at least i'm sending them at all, and i think as people get them, they will really get the feeling while reading them that their gifts were appreciated and loved, and that all the trouble they went to was recognized.


as for all you crappy thank-you note writers, and non-writers.....didn't your mamas teach you better?

the condensed (who am i kidding? Nothing about this version is "condensed")version of events.

so we are about three weeks into this whole marriage thing, and honestly, nothing really feels that much different. Of course, i have a new piece of jewelry, and i've had to stop myself from calling gene my "fiance" at least 50 times, but aside from that, it's pretty much back to business as usual.

I haven't made a big giant post about the wedding and the details for a few reasons....for one, I'm too lazy to transfer any pictures onto my computer from my phone/camera/disc of a million pictures that a family friend took, and i've also been pretty busy trying to get back to being used to working and getting our apartment back into a tolerable, livable condition. I'm not even able to muster up the energy right now to do a detailed entry about the wedding, so (for now), i'm just gonna give you the cliffs notes version.....

the rehearsal dinner was way more fun and way more fabulous than i ever could have imagined it to be. it was everything i wanted - relaxed, fun, open - gene and i threw out the first pitch at the game (gene actually did the throwing, i just stood there looking weird), and then hung out in one of the party suites at autozone park and had a blast with our friends and family. lots of good food, booze, and baseball - what more could you ask for? plus, the redbirds actually won that night!

the wedding day was hectic and stressful - all the things people warn you about - and of course, i ran late all day long. i went into a near panic attack when it started raining as i was having my makeup done, and then i was told that the area we were in was under a flash flood warning....our ceremony was outside, and with the rain came the "how do you want us to proceed?" phone calls from our coordinator - i remember thinking that it was like a punch line to some awful joke....raining on a weatherman's wedding day.....anyway, mom and i had dad and gene check out the weather, and after being assured by both of them that the rain would be over with long before the actual ceremony started, decided that since we would be paying for all the flowers, chairs, etc. if we used them or not, that we would go ahead and proceed as planned. turns out that dad and gene were right, and it was totally dry outside by the time i walked down the aisle.

the biggest hitch that day was my floral designer.

When the planning started, i was very excited about her. nobody else that we hired for the wedding had ever heard of her or worked with her (which, in hindsight should have been a gigantic, waving red flag), but I thought she did beautiful work, and seemed very professional when we met, so i felt confident that she would be awesome. that being said, the closer the wedding got, the less professional she became, and the more issues we had with her. nothing ever stayed exactly the same from one conversation to the next, and if you asked her for detailed descriptions of anything, she would give you a half-assed, smart mouthed answer. i became increasingly uncomfortable with how reluctant she was to give us details, and quickly became irritated with the attitude she often gave to my mother in conversation and in email. she once said something that implied that our asking so many questions about details was somehow compromising her artistic integrity, and i almost lost my shit. i realize that as a "designer," you have the last say in how something looks, but if you are being paid a ridiculous amount of money to perform a service, i think the people paying you have a right to know exactly what it is that they are paying for....

anyway, the flowers that were at the ceremony/reception were beautifully arranged, but none of it was exactly what was agreed upon, described, or paid for. my bouquets didn't arrive until i was already an hour and a half into taking pictures (perhaps this doesn't seem like a big deal, but to me, a bride's bouquet is as much a part of her outfit as her veil or her shoes, and without it, i just didn't feel completely like a bride), and when they did arrive, there were issues - for one, you would think that she would have rushed the bouquets to me along with the guys boutonnières personally, with some sort of apology or explanation as to why she really put a damper on my wedding pictures, but instead, my bridesmaids had to physically go get their bouquets and flowers for the guys from her. Some assistant brought me my bouquet, and when it was first handed to me, water trickled down the front of my dress - this sort of irritated me, but it wasn't the end of the world - then i look down, and the ivory flowers in my bouquet were already on their last legs - the tips of them were already turning brown, as were all of the boutonnières for the guys, and every white or ivory flower in every other bouquet. one of the bridesmaids bouquets came without the grey satin handle, and when this was pointed out to the designer (by one of the bridesmaids), she insisted that the bridesmaid had lost it or misplaced it, when in reality, she had been the one who had forgotten to put it on the bouquet at all. When i'd first arrived at the museum to get ready for pictures, my two matrons of honor immediately told me about the "flower situation" - apparently the designer had just left to go pick up the bouquets, which hadn't even been completed, just a few minutes before i arrived at the venue. the designers claim was that the "rain put her behind schedule" because she had to wait until it cleared off to complete the floral stuff outside. my thoughts on that? if you know it's going to rain for a while, rendering you unable to complete anything outside, and you have other tasks that can be completed, like, say, THE BRIDES BOUQUET, then how about instead of sitting on your ass in the museum waiting on the rain to pass, you get into your vehicle, drive on over to wherever you do your business, and complete the things that you should have completed already? i fully expected, at some point, to hear an "i'm really sorry" about the issues that went on, but i never did. i passed her in the hallway a few times before the ceremony while we were doing pictures, and she never said a single word to me. from what i was told, she gave everyone she did speak to nothing but attitude, so i'm actually glad she didn't approach me.

I didn't get all bridezilla and go off about anything, because once we got to that point in the day, all i could think about was getting down the aisle. yes, my flowers were turning brown, and there are going to be some pictures where only half of the groomsmen have their flowers pinned on, but what good would getting worked up about it then have done me? none. it wasn't going to change the outcome, so i just decided that i'd take the punches as they came and roll with it. and that's exactly what i did. now that it's over, and i've had some distance, I've thought about complaining directly to her, or writing an email, but what's the point? it won't accomplish anything, and it's not like i get a "wedding do-over," so i'd just be wasting my time...but i'd still like to know where these "pink and green parrot tulips" we paid for are, because they certainly weren't at MY wedding.....anyway, enough about that.

the wedding was perfect, but in the moments prior to it starting, i was an emotional wreck. i sort of expected to be a little emotional, but not nearly as emotional as i was.....i stood there in the foyer of the museum, waiting to be told that i could go outside and start the ceremony, and these waves of different feelings just started to come over me. i felt excited and nervous, anxious and scared....and i was somehow simultaneously feeling the absence and presence of my grandmother at the same time (that probably doesn't make much sense, but that's the only way i know how to describe it - it killed me that she wasn't there, and yet, she was everywhere). i nearly hyperventilated before i walked down the aisle, and then cried through the entire ceremony. the aisle was probably the longest aisle EVER, but it was so unique and special - i can't wait until i have some pictures that show exactly what was going on there - it was basically a big spiral of chairs with an altar in the middle, so on my way to the altar, i literally walked past every guest....it made for a pretty long walk, but it was also very intimate and special. gene and i wrote our own vows - his were more sweet and funny, and mine were more serious. I should have probably gone with my instincts and gone with "funny," but i still deeply meant every word i said, so i have no regrets.

after the ceremony, everyone went in to the reception, and gene and i were taken to a private room with plates of food set up for us, so we could just spend a few minutes together, and actually eat. thank goodness we did that, because i don't think we stopped long enough during the entire reception to have been able to eat - i didn't even have an entire drink until almost 11:00 that night, because every time i picked one up, i'd have to go dance, or cut the cake, or throw my bouquet.....

i don't honestly even remember half of who was there. when we looked at the guest book, i probably said "i didn't see them!" a dozen times. I feel bad that i didn't get to talk to everyone who was there, but i suppose that's how most weddings go. people aren't kidding when they tell you that it flies by, and that it's all a blur, and that you won't remember half of what happened.

i remember quite a few things - a few of the highlight reel that runs through my brain at some point every day: every toast that was made (they all made me cry!), dancing with my dad, the first time i saw gene that day in the holly court, my mom and dad dancing together at the end of the night, the feeling of scooping confetti out of my dress, how lucky i felt to have my two best friends by my side as i married the love of my life.....

but there are plenty of things i missed or that i completely don't remember, and that's okay too - that's what pictures are for, right??? the important thing - the one that matters most of all - is that we did what we went there to do. i married my best friend, and we promised our lives to each other, and we did it all surrounded by people who love us and mean the world to us. it was an incredibly special day, and even with the little hitches, it was absolutely perfect.

i've had wedding withdrawal since almost the instant it was over. it was weird to realize the next day that the world no longer revolved around planning a wedding. i've sort of been at a loss, and kind of sad about it. i can't stop looking at bridal magazines - which is a horrible thing to do after your wedding, because i've found that you see things and go "i should have done THAT," even though when you saw it in the magazine before the wedding, you didn't even like it at all - so i tried to throw all of mine away, but couldn't bring myself to do it. i decide instead to give them to a friend who is getting married, so at least they will be in good hands, and not in some trash heap somewhere. i have taken all the magazines and books out of my apartment and put them into a box in my car to give to my friend, that way i can't sit around and look at them, and long to plan another wedding. i'll admit that i kept ONE magazine (the most recent issue of the knot, which is my favorite of all the magazines i ever purchased), and two of the books - one is an emily post etiquette book, and the other is just about floral arrangements....i figured these were safe, because neither are strictly all about weddings....

it helps with the withdrawals that i get to play bride one more time for my actual bridal portraits. we decided to do them after the wedding so that i wouldn't have to worry about screwing my dress up prior to the wedding (i'm so clumsy that if i'd done them before the wedding, i would surely have ended up completely destroying my dress, no matter how careful i was), and also so that i can get a few shots with my dogs in them. anyway, it's kind of exciting that i get to put that dress on one more time...

so this was supposed to be a short, condensed version of events, but as you can see, i went off on my little typical rants, and things got, uh...lengthy. hopefully i'll throw some pictures up here soon.


someday maybe i'll even have the energy to talk about the honeymoon......


are you laughing at the title of this entry now? nothing about this is condensed.....

Photographic proof

This will probably be one of my favorite wedding pictures we have. I love it because we had no clue anyone was even taking our picture, so it's completely genuine. Even though you can't really see our faces, I just feel like we are radiating happiness....it was one of those "we did it!" moments.....just HAD to share it.

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License to wed

Things just got more official....

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five more days

so the serious wedding countdown has started.

five days. FIIIIIVE DAAAAAYS.

holy crap.

it seems like i should still have 6 months left, but obviously i don't.....when i was a kid, and a big event was coming up, i can remember it feeling like days crept by...with this wedding, the last few days have been the total opposite - in fact, i've felt a few times as if there aren't enough hours in the days, and even though i'm getting quite a bit accomplished, i still have a long list if stuff to do before friday....oh, and my face decided that THIS week is the week that i'll develop adult acne. WTF?!?!?!

i don't even really have the energy to say anything witty or to write a lengthy blog. i'm overcome with a different wave of emotion every 10 minutes, and i'm just sort of exhuasted from it all. it's weird to be so excited and looking forward to something, yet at the same time you just can't wait until it's all over and done so that life can go back to normal. it's like loving something so much that you hate it. it's weird.

tomorrow is a big day - we are going to get our marriage license. guess i should get some sleep.

A work of art

Wedding gift from my parents!

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One more week....

It's freaking me out how close it's getting to the wedding...all of a sudden it feels like I JUST started planning....still SO much to do and not nearly enough time!

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curiouser and curiouser....

the past few days have been an emotional roller coaster for me to say the least. as if the stress of getting married and starting a life isn't enough, i've had the added stress of having to absorb the news that we will be moving what, to me, is halfway across the universe in just a handful of months.....but i don't want to talk about that right now.

right now, i need to go back a week, and talk about my fabulous bridal shower that my dear, sweet matrons of honor threw for me - everything about it was so adorable, and they worked so hard, and i love them to death for it!

it had an alice in wonderland theme, and this is yet another time in my life that i wish i'd remembered my camera (you would think by now i would carry around in my gigantic purse - i mean, i have dental floss in there, but no camera...), but i'm lucky because Kim Phillips' husband just so happens to be a pretty great photographer, and was there to capture all the cuteness of the party!

for the sake of the blog, i'll just share a few pictures i got on my phone.....i apologize in advance for their less than stellar quality....but it's a phone, ya know.....i like visuals....

Kim Killingsworth made everyone cupcake favors to take home! the stickers on the boxes have a picture of a tea party scene from alice in wonderland on them!!!

the tea pot where people could leave me words of marriage advice!

adorable decorations on the front porch of the pillow-thompson house where the shower was held.

some of the delicious food! and there was LOTS of it!!! lots of sweets, which are my absolute favorite things to eat in the world! my favorite HAD to be the sugar cookies...YUM!

the mad hatter had apparently been there at some point, but sadly, i missed him.....he left his hat behind though!

TEAPOTS! so freaking cute!!!! and they were EVERYWHERE!

my pictures don't do anything justice....one of the things i wish i'd gotten a picture of were the two different kinds of punch - one that made you shrink, and one that made you grow! ha! i got such a kick out of that...as well as a wicked sugar high...there was a little teapot with notecards for people to write me marriage advice on, and i loved going through and reading what people wrote.

and they even made me a guestbook out of this:

so cute, huh? i told you they were creative!!

anyway, i had such a fun time, and it was a really perfect afternoon! i love my dear friends - "the kims" - for doing something so special for me, and feel so lucky that they will both be there to stand next to me on my wedding day!