Pro Pics

I received the link from our photographer to see ALL the pics she took of our wedding.  It took me about an hour to look at them all because of the sheer volume of pictures.  Well, that and I couldn't stop crying so I had to keep pausing the slideshow.  One word.....BEAUTIFUL!!

I can't wait to get the disc from her so I can start posting my favs. 

Warning:  I have a lot of favs!!

18 Days of Marriage

(I'm taking a small break in my wedding recaps while I patiently wait for our professional pictures to arrive.)

We've officially been married for 18 days.  In these 2-1/2 weeks as husband and wife I've learned a few things.

• Marriage is WAY better than I ever hoped and dreamed it would be.  The fact that every day you wake up and choose to love this person 'till death do us part' is an unbelievable feeling.

• Marriage is about growing together as much as it is about growing as an individual

• Marriage is about compromise.  I knew when I married Don that he would always be late, he's got a "truckers mouth" and he whole-heartedly believes that ketchup makes any food taste better.   I, on the other hand, will always arrive early, I will not touch raw meat, and I'm a sucker for bad reality television.  You find ways to make each others quirks work instead of trying to change each other into who you want them to be.  We knew who we married and love each other anyways.

• Getting a surprise text in the middle of the day from your husband is lovely.  It's great to know that someone is thinking about you, especially when it's your other half.

• And lastly....If you are a bride who chose to take your husband's name, it will take longer than 18 days before you get used to the change.  I see my new name show up on emails, mail, etc. and for a brief second I still wonder who this person is!

Wedding Recap - Rehearsal Dinner

As I stated in my first wedding recap, I loved the rehearsal dinner just as much as I loved the actual wedding.  I don't know if I've ever been so happy or smiled so much. 

The rehearsal dinner was a casual affair.  My fiance (errrr....husband) bought all the men Detroit Tiger shirts to wear and we served ballpark foods.  We had hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, pretzels, cheese and crackers and cookies.

The rehearsal itself went off without a hitch so we quickly headed straight for the food/drinks.  I can still hear all the laughter emulating throughout the tent from our family and friends.  I will never forget the moment that I stepped back and "took it all in".  I've never been in one place with so much love in the air.

Don and I smiled the night away as we drank, talked and toasted with our loved ones.

Everyone knows that the Rehearsal Dinner is where the real party starts....so here are some pictures from ours

Leaving the hotel heading to Rehearsal

Holding my "leaf" bouquet since we forgot to use the bouquet we made at the bridal shower

Matron of Honor - my sister Rachel with her "leaf" bouquet

Mom and Dad practicing the walk down the aisle

Dad shaking Don's hand and cracking a joke of some sort, I'm sure!

Nephew and Brother in Law cooking the food

Bridal Party

Bride & Groom

Detroit Tigers

It was a perfect, warm summer evening.  I had a great time and I know that all of our family and friends did too!

Happy Birthday Will

Happy "8th" Birthday to my nephew Will.  I love you!!

Wedding Recap #1

It's so funny because I've been following wedding blogs for almost 2 years now and after each bride got married I read their posts explaining how difficult they found it to start their wedding recaps.  I never quite understood why they were having a problem.  Start with the beginning and move forward...seemed pretty simple at the time.

And yet, here I am 13 days after my wedding and I don't have a clue how to begin putting into words the sheer magnitude of what took place and how I felt (and still feel).  So my apologies if my wedding recaps seem a little scattered, out of order, and filled with a ton of pictures.  I will also apologize right now for the sheer amount of posts that will soon follow.  There are SO many things I want to talk about (and so many pictures to post).

So, as I patiently wait for our professional pictures to come back, I will start with the days leading up to the wedding and will then move onto our rehearsal.

Our wedding took place outdoors at my mom and step dad's house so I spent nearly every waking hour in the weeks leading up to the wedding working in their yard.  And when I wasn't spreading mulch or laying down flooring under the tents I was finishing centerpieces and the other gazillion little details that needed to be done.

Besides all the "physical" work and the sore muscles I encountered, I would honestly say that the most difficult part of the entire process was when I finally had to open myself up to the idea that I needed help from family and friends in order to pull off this shindig.    It was terrifying planning this huge party by myself, but for some reason in my mind I found it "more" terrifying to have to ask for help in doing it.  And to my surprise, the moments in the days before the wedding where I recognized and accepted this as a necessity, will remain some of the most important and most memorable moments of the whole wedding process.

On the Friday before the wedding, my family, wedding party and close friends pulled together as a team.  We had people hanging paper lanterns, stringing lights, ironing the linens, setting up centerpieces, folding napkins, putting final touches on our photo wall, pulling weeds and blowing leaves, and so much more!  It was such beautiful chaos and it brings tears just thinking about it.

Centerpieces waiting to be distributed

200+ Paper lanterns

Brother in Law working on the photo wall

Grandma ironing the table linens

Best Friend Kevin blowing leaves off the "wedding aisle"

Bride to be with Mother in Law hanging Lanterns

As soon as everyone arrived and we started setting up and I could really see things coming together, it was as if someone waved a magic wand over me and all the pre-wedding anxiety was gone.  I absolutely, without a doubt, loved this day just as much as my actual wedding day.  Totally AMAZING!!!

New Look

My "free" background that I was using for this blog was going to expire after tomorrow, so today I tried messing around with other backgrounds.  After the first 15 minutes I had so royally screwed up my page that I was almost ready to delete the whole blog.  But, I couldn't figure out how to back it up first so that option failed.

Somehow I have gotten it back to "semi" normal, but there are still a few things I can't figure out.

• How do I change the font color of my Post Titles?  When I had the damask background my Titles were in Red, but now they are sort of an orange color and I don't know how to change it.
• How do I change the color of my HTML links?  It used to be that if I clicked on a link in a post or if I clicked on one of the 'blogs I follow" it would turn red to let me know what I had already looked at it.  Now they are turning like a grey color and I can't even see it.

I've tried googling these things for answers, but I can't even follow the instructions given.  I'm being instructed to click on my "dashboard" and then click on "layout" but I don't even have a button called "layout".  This is all so ridiculous!!

Ugh....I hate technology!  I'm surprised I've actually been able to figure out half the things I do on this blog!!

I'm Back...

Oh blog...how I've missed you!! So much has happened since my last post.

I spent 2 very busy weeks preparing my parents house for my wedding/rehearsal, I got married, went on my honeymoon and now trying to survive being back to reality.

I have many posts to come, but first I need to catch up at the office! Today is my first day back since July 6.

Mulch, Mulch and More Mulch

We've had to make some necessary changes to our wedding location (my parents house) over the last week due to the weather. It has rained more in the past 3 weeks than I remember getting all last summer combined. And as a result of the rain, the area where the reception is being held continues to flood causing major problems.

Instead of worrying about adding landscaping that is going to wash away or blow away in the next storm we just decided to have mulch brought in. My fiance is good friends with a family who owns their own mill and they produce and color the mulch to your specifications. We had them come over and measure how much mulch we would need to order and when he said 30 yards I had no idea what that meant.

I had no idea until the truck pulled up this morning and I saw him unloading this.....

I'm not even sure the pictures do it justice....let's just say THAT'S A LOT OF MULCH!!

Mama Needs.....

Yesterday I had a minor meltdown over the wedding and all the details that are falling apart....So, to get me in a better mood I decided to do some internet shopping. Of course, I can't afford to buy ANYTHING right now, but you better believe after the wedding I'm treating myself to a shopping spree!

etsy

Victoria Secret

Forever 21

And last, but not least....Mama needs a new pair of shoes!!

Old Navy

I'm living in RSVP Hell........

Okay, so before I start ranting I want to remind myself that our guests still have 10 more days until the RSVP's are due........BUT, COME ON PEOPLE!!

I have heard (and read) horror stories about the RSVP's but I swore that would not happen to me.....WRONG!!!

So far I have guests adding dates to their invite that was specifically noted for just ONE PERSON, guests adding their children even though the invite states "adult only", guests only reserving a seat for one person when we know that the "couple" is attending...and the list goes on and on!

And don't even get me started on the guests who have not returned the RSVP but have told us they are coming. If you are planning on coming and have confirmed to us either in person or on the phone then PLEASE.....MAIL BACK YOUR RSVP!!!! It's not that hard.....It is already addressed and stamped! It only requires you walking to your mailbox, dropping it in, and pulling up the red flag on your mailbox for the postman to pick it up!!!

I'm living in RSVP hell........

Failure turned Success

I'm 37 days away from the wedding and it seems like everything that "can" go wrong, IS!!

In the past week we had to "let go" of our current pastor and find someone else, the hotel that we are using to block rooms is not being cooperative and has changed the pricing on me (dramatically), my DIY bouquets for the bridal party were a complete failure and I failed to make the final payment to our photographer by the due date because I have somehow LOST our contract and didn't know it was due!

I'm emotionally drained. I have never wanted to give up on something so badly as I do this wedding! Why didn't we go to the courthouse or elope?

But, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.....

Our new officiant is so totally cool. She understands our "vision" and hasn't tried to push us to do something we are uncomfortable with. Not to mention that she has such a great personality. She is funny and a bit of a wise-ass just like my fiance! What a perfect fit!

Yes, the hotel has raised their prices but they are at least working with me on other areas. Originally, as most hotels do, I had to block rooms and whatever rooms were not used I was responsible for payment. They are now letting me block rooms and whatever rooms are not booked they will just open back up to the public a couple weeks before the wedding and I will not be responsible for the cost. The downside is still the fact that I have to make sure my guests book their rooms in the next couple weeks as the blocked rooms are only good up until a certain date.

After giving up on the idea that I would make all the bouquets, I finally broke down and went to a florist. I'm in L-O-V-E with the bridesmaid bouquets that we picked out.

Inspiration picture:

And here is the inspiration picture for my bouquet:

And lastly, I spoke to our photographer yesterday and explained how sorry I was about missing the payment and she was totally cool. A check went in the mail and all is right with the world again!

Now if only I could make some progress on our rehearsal dinner.......

Whirlwind...

The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind...so much personal stuff going on with my family and also fiance's family! Not to mention we are 45 days away from the wedding so we have switched our minds into another gear entirely.

In the past 2 weeks I have had my makeup trial, my hair trial, and tonight is my final dress fitting!! Talk about being pampered :)

My makeup trial went great! I'm not sure I thought I could be that beautiful...amazing what a few good products will do for a person! Fiance even loved it. The first words out of his mouth were "Holy Cow! You look 10 years younger!" At first I took that as a compliment, but the more I think about it, I wonder: Do I really look that bad to begin with?...LOL

Here is a pic of the makeup trial many hours afterwards and also taken with my iPhone so not the best quality. (Note: I had already removed my lipstick and taken the false eyelashes off)

My hair trial was next and to be honest...I had literally no idea how this was going to turn out. Granted, I love love love the girl doing my hair (love ya Morgan) and have full confidence in her, but my hair really isn't that cooperative and due to the nature of my haircut, my options are limited. But, as usual, Morgan is amazing and she was able to make me look gorgeous! We are opting out of using my headpiece and I didn't have my veil with me, but this is the general idea of what we are going for (just imagine the veil clipped into the back of my head)

(Note: the picture taken of me from the front angle did not turn out so you only get my sides and the back view)

My dress fitting is in a couple hours and I'm more than excited. I can't wait to have the dress on again. And this time to have it actually fit me! Well, lets hope it fits me...I've gained a few lbs the past couple weeks so I'm praying the dress will zip up!

Early Birthday Present

Tomorrow is my birthday so I took it upon myself to buy me a birthday present. I recently redecorated our living room/dining room and I've been looking for something to finish up our hallway and maybe add a little modern twist to the walls. My decor is very modern anyway, but it just felt like it was missing something.

As I was searching Etsy this weekend I came upon the most wonderful vinyl wall graphics. I purchased the following:

Half Tree with Birds by byrdiegraphics. This is going to look perfect in my hallway. I ordered it in black to put against my grey walls.


Flying Birds by Glass House Couture. I got these in yellow as my living room is grey walls and white furniture with yellow accents. Not sure exactly what I'm doing with these, but I couldn't pass them up.

I spent literally forever looking at all the vinyl wall decals. I could decorate the entire house....I think I have found my new addiction.

Have any of you used anything like this before and if so, how did you like them?

Facebook in Real Life

Saw this video today and it made me crack up laughing. Thought I would share it with the rest of you. It's a reminder how annoying facebook can really be!!

Wellies

It's been raining since about 4am which makes me want to run out and buy some wellies.

Rockport

Marc Jacobs

Kamik

Burberry

Kate Spade

Source

Thunder....Lightening

It's storming here today....I wish I could have stayed in bed and listened to it a little bit longer.

Bridal Shower Pics

Bridal shower pics can be seen here

You Go Girl...

This post from Cupcake Wedding absolutely 100% says everything about our wedding. She just puts it in better words than I ever could.

Table Numbers....Check!

You wouldn't think that something as simple as table numbers could stress a bride out. Well, think again! Over the course of our engagement I have had so many ideas on what I could do for our table numbers. I was recently going through my "inspiration" folder and I couldn't believe how many pictures I had saved. At one point in the planning process did I really spend this much time looking at table numbers??

I apologize for not knowing the source of all these pictures. I saved them before I started blogging

It started out with the idea of taking pictures of our favorite places around town and then printing them with table numbers on them. It didn't take long for us to realize that our favorite places just aren't that great looking! When you take a photo of them they seem very "blahhh" and that's just not the look we were going for

Inspiration:

I then thought it would be a great idea to use our engagement pictures, but that idea fell flat when the weather wouldn't cooperate and our e-pics kept getting delayed. Oh, mother nature how you love to mess with me.

Inspiration:

An idea that really stuck with me for quite some time was using luminary table numbers. I found them on Etsy but I just didn't want to commit to ordering, because I wasn't totally sold on whether this is what I wanted. (ahhh....I know myself so well)

Inspiration:


My most favorite idea was finding a way to incorporate our pets (2 cats and dog). I fell in love with the idea after seeing it here. I even went as far as buying the numbers. But if you know us and know our pets, this turned into an impossible task. We have a jack russell dog who is not calm enough to even sit still for one second to take a picture, let alone trying to add some numbers to the photo. He thought they were toys and it simply wasn't working. I was convinced if I got my cats while they were sleepy this would be simple....WRONG! I guess they call cats "curious" for a reason.

Inspiration:

So after 17 months of wedding planning I finally finished my table numbers. I simply used the wood numbers that I purchased when we tried using the pets and I painted them red! Done and Done!!!

I tied them to our dog run out in the back yard using fishing line and painted them using glossy red spray paint. (Please don't look at the condition of our lawn/dirt....our backyard is so pathetic)

Was there anything in particular that you obsessed over? Maybe it was table numbers like me :)

Marriage Equality

I read this on Facebook today and had to post it here:


So, Larry King is getting his 8th divorce, and Elizabeth Taylor is possibly getting married for a 9th time. Jesse James and Tiger Woods are, well... you know... Even Newt Gingrich is on his 3rd marriage. Yet the idea of same-sex marriage is what is going to destroy the institution of marriage? REALLY?!?