May16

The Next Chapter

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Well college is officially behind us which makes the wedding the next significant event on our calendars. Sure we’re booked every weekend save one between now and then, but the wedding is definitely the next life-changing event. The plan is to post pictures from graduation once I get some. I didn’t end up with a single picture of Chris and I on my camera. Boo. So I’m working on that. In the meantime feel free to bask in the nearness of the wedding with me.



May5

So close I can taste it

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By that I’m referring, of course, to the date when I can finally mail our wedding invitations. They’ve been a labor of love, but also of burning hatred. My advice that I’d like to throw out into the world is this: don’t attempt to do your own wedding invitations unless you really really understand what you’re getting yourself into. More specific advice is this:

Use spray adhesive. I was hesitant. Surely it will make a huge mess, right? So instead I went the sticker route. I was really pleased with the results until I happened to realize how much it was costing me to keep buying refills for the sticker maker. In the eleventh hour I realized that I didn’t have the time to wait for the refills to come in so I went to Michael’s in search of an alternative. The stuff I got (Scotch Spray Mount Repositionable Adhesive) was $14 and with a 40% off coupon came out under $10. Each sticker cartridge had cost $14 and I used 9 of them to get through the first third. Ouch. This one bottle carried me through the last two-thirds. Yikes. Not only that but the results were better, it was less labor intensive, and all you have to do to prevent a mess is lay down a little newspaper. I’m a believer.
The invitations aren’t really done, but my golly they’re close. I ran out of materials so I’ll have to make a run tomorrow morning and hopefully have them in the mail by tomorrow afternoon, Friday at the latest. I love how they turned out but I can’t wait to be rid of them!

Apr18

A place to live!

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Chris and I have an apartment! There was a mini-saga associated with this, nothing too intense. We went back and forth for a long time about what size we wanted, finally decided to go with the smallest to hopefully minimize the time spent renting, put in an application and deposit on the one we wanted, missed the one we wanted but waited on another identical one for a week, and finally got a third identical one different from either of the 2 we wanted today. Whew.
It really feels like things are starting to fall into place. We have 75 days until the wedding, less than a month until graduation, and job prospects are looking good on my end. It’s exciting to really know exactly where we’ll be starting our life together!

I’m fairly certain this is the size we ended up with. 535 square feet. This space will probably be a lot more awkward with our furniture since we’ll be bringing in our full dining room table. The hope is that we’ll still have space for a love seat.
There are 2 options for floor plans and I’m not sure which we’ve gotten, the only really difference seems to be the arrangement of the washer/dryer though. (Also, the washer/dryer fills me with great excitement. My apartment now has them on-premises but not having to use quarters or go outside still sounds awesome!
Apr17

April Showers

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In addition to our wedding this summer I’m also looking forward to my Maid-of-Honor’s 3 weeks before ours. This Saturday amid tornadoes we hosted a bridal shower for her at my parent’s house. I don’t have a lot of experience with bridal showers so this was kind of a shot in the dark for me but I was very pleased with how it turned out.

The guest-of-honor is the one in the red dress. The crock pot has some meatballs in sauce we’d just discovered the day before: chili sauce, grape jelly, and lemon juice. It was delicious.

All the bridesmaids brought some food to share and we ended up with way more than enough. My beloved baby cakes made an appearance but hardly anyone ate them.
Some decorative balls that I made to match her color scheme.
My first ever shot at pipe decorating a cake. Half way through decorating it looked awful and there was more icing on me and the floor then on the cake, I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out so well.
I didn’t get any pictures of the living room’s decoration or of the drinks table which looked very nice. We had almost 30 people there amid a huge storm and everything went smoothly. I’m calling it a success!

Mar24

100 days…

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Haven’t been good about keeping up with this but things have definitely been happening and they’re only going to keep happening for the next 100 days.

Just in the last couple weeks I’ve started on invitations, seen the first (almost) completed
bridesmaid dress and had it fitted, and booked a pianist for the ceremony. We also updated the wedding website to make it a little prettier. Things are coming along!
Oh and just today I picked up some more invitation supplies and also snagged a bird cage on sale at TJ Maxx. The plan is to spray paint it white and use it for cards at the wedding. Like so:

Source

Jan17

Honeymoon Plans!

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We have officially booked our honeymoon and are very excited about it! We’ll be spending 2 nights each at 3 very dreamy locations!


We’re (I’m) especially excited for the spa at the Homestead!
The plan is to mosey from place to place every 2 days taking the Blue Ridge Parkway and some other scenic roads. Since the Homestead is a resort we’ll be staying on premises while we’re there, the Hotel Roanoke has a fancy smancy restaurant we’ll probably eat at one night, which leaves one night each in Christiansburg and Roanoke to find some place else to eat. Then we’ll wrap up the honeymoon with a nice dinner out in Raleigh the night we return! Should be a great time!
Jan3

Flowers

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So now that 2011 is underway I need to look into some things I have been neglecting. According to my weddingwire check list I have 7 things off my to-do list that are officially “over-do.”

So the first order of business seems to be finding a florist. In order to do that I need to first decide exactly what I want as far as flowers are concerned, then I can set about meeting with
florists. So here is my list in order of priority:
1) I need a bouquet.
I’m not super picky about this but I’m leaning towards bouquets of just one flower. I think Lily of the Valley bouquets are very beautiful and so are Calla Lilies.

2) I need boutonnieres and corsages for the parents and grand-parents of the Bride and Groom.
Chris has opted out of wearing a boutonniere and so he and his groomsmen will wear pocket squares. That leaves us with 6 women and 5 men who needs flowers.
I especially like this top boutonniere but it is orchids so I suspect that I will go in a different direction because of cost.
3) I need flowers for the flower girls.
I haven’t talked to the church yet about scattering flower petals on the aisle so it’s possible the flower girls will just be carrying flowers. Regardless that one thing I really want them each to have are flower garlands for their hair. My favorite of the group is the last one but I also really like this first one, I would want the accent flowers changed to something yellow but I just love those big daisies!

4) I need flowers for my bridesmaids, decorations for the church, and decorations for the reception hall.
These may seem to be of strangely low importance but there’s a reason for that.
For the bridesmaids I want each of the to carry a single yellow rose. I think that will be beautiful and dramatic against their silver dresses and yellow shoes. So the reason this is of low importance is that if push comes to shove I can pick up 6 roses at the grocery store on the way to the church.
The church is decorated in red with all the walls being wooden. As such I don’t want any yellow flowers in the space and I don’t think lots of white flowers would work especially well either. What I do think would be beautiful is greenery. So I will be exploring my options for potted trees, potted grass, ivy, etc. with which to decorate the church. I probably won’t go through a florist for this one which is why it’s of low priority.
The reception hall will be decorated with lemons, ivy, and candles so once again I won’t be using a florist for this.
Here’s an example of a single yellow flower against the bridesmaid dresses. The light is bad and it isn’t a rose but you can get an idea of the effect.
So now that I seem to know pretty much what I want I need to find a couple florists to actually sit down and talk to about these things. Then from there I just need to book the ceremony musicians, invitations, and cake to be caught up on my to-do list. Whew.
Dec31

2011

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For a long time I knew 2011 would be the year I graduated college. Now I know it to be the year that we will get married, start jobs (even if mine is at McDonalds, still waiting on one!), start our home together, and live independent post-grad lives. I’m beyond excited for the year to come but it seems a little surreal to enter into the year when so much will happen.

Chris and I have been a couple for 3 New Years, but this will be our 2nd spent on opposite sides of the Atlantic. I’m not superstitious but I wish we were starting out the year together. Instead of pouting though, I’ve just chosen to realize that this is the year in which we will start all our years together, and be happy with that.
Happy New Year!

Dec3

Struggling over details that don't need to be decided for months…

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I’ve found that certain aspects of wedding planning are more fun than others, tiny details can be consuming, and surprising things can cause dissent.

Chris for the most part begs to be left out of the wedding planning, but occasionally I’ll make my mind up about something, let him know, and then find out that he’s passionately against whatever I’ve selected.
One of the things I’ve always wanted as my processional song is the theme from Beauty and the Beast. I think I’ll always think it’s the most beautiful piano song ever, but as the time draws near I find it a little too cruel to have Chris referred to as a beast on his wedding day. I really think if not for the title it would be a perfect wedding processional though.
So my second choice is a classic much loved by many many brides. Pachelbel’s Canon in D is second in internet searches to Wagner’s Bridal Chorus, but in my experience is the number 1 go to processional song. I think it’s completely beautiful and it makes me want to cry a little every time I hear it. To me it’s pretty much perfect. Well, Chris hates it. HATES it. Since he plays the viola he has apparently played this song one too many times.
So what does he suggest? Prelude in C is nice and exactly the sort of thing I think we should play during the seating of the guests or maybe even the seating of the parents and grand-parents. For the bridal procession, however, I think it’s a little boring. Canon in D swells so nicely so everyone knows exactly when the bride is going to walk in, Prelude in C just doesn’t do that.
I certainly don’t want the music that announces me at my wedding to make Chris want to roll his eyes, but we’ve heard all the typical processional choices and can’t agree on one! We don’t have the option to stray too much from tradition as our church does not allow pop, secular, or pre-recorded music. What a to-do.
At least I know for sure what song I want for the recessional! It’s dynamic enough to last through the recession of the entire bridal party, the families, and the guests and it makes me really happy! I’m a little concerned that it may raise red flags as to the afore-mentioned pop/secular music category but I’m hoping it won’t be a problem.
Nov11

On Hitting the Thrifting Jackpot and Being Conceited

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A couple of weekends ago I convinced 2 of my bridesmaids to go to the Roanoke flea market with me to expand my thrift store radius. (You can really only visit the thrift stores in a small town so often.) After going through the entire flea market we had pretty much despaired. Everything was priced as “antiques” and mere candle holders were going for $5-6. As the other girls were looking at some records I wandered down a side path I was pretty sure I had taken before and came upon a nice old lady stocking an entire bookshelf of glass knick-nacks. I asked her about the prices and at $0.50 a piece it was exactly what I was looking for! I ended up with almost everything shown in the below picture plus two crystal vases for centerpieces all for $25! Both the lady selling and I came out very happy from that transaction.

But we weren’t done! We had just enough time to hit up a nearby Goodwill and that proved to be awesome too! I filled in the rest of the picture shown above and scored some nice vases for centerpieces. The kicker here though was this beautiful jar shown below. It’s just screaming to be filled with hershey kisses and put smack dab in the middle of a candy bar! It also came with… fake lemons! If I were looking for fake lemons I would never have found them, but here they were! Just asking to be kept on display and used to judge how a vase will hold up as a centerpiece!So that’s how I hit the thrifting-jackpot. So how am I conceited you ask? Well one of the things on my wedding thrift store “to-hunt” list is lots and lots of picture frames. This one below was originally silver with blue trim and a hideous painting of a house in it. At first I thought I’d just ignore the blue trim but today I decided that it just wouldn’t work for the wedding and needed to be put to use right away. So I painted it black (with acrylic paint + nail polish) and inserted my favorite from our engagement pictures.
So that’s not so bad right? Well then I went on to create a shrine…

There is one picture of just Chris up there, perhaps cancelled out by the full length mirror also displayed in this picture. I apparently have some deep seated urge to constantly be looking at myself. But embracing this I do plan to do lots of framing after the wedding.* I really like having lots of pictures around and it’s not something we had much at my house growing up. We had pictures for sure, but not pictures of each family member lining the stair case or anything like that. With this discovery that I can paint frames I plan to use many of the excess frames I collect for the wedding to display Chris and I’s wedding pictures and gradually change out most of them for future-baby pictures. I have visions of bright red frames with black and white pictures in them. We’ll see how that turns out!
*”After the wedding” is something I say a lot these days, along with “after graduation.”